Sunday, February 6, 2011

Responsiveness and good leadership, governance

I woke up very early this morning, unable to sleep. Too many thoughts were battling for attention, and I couldn’t shut them off. With barely 5 hours of sleep, I was still sleepy. But I dragged myself out of bed, not wanting to waste time, and instead decided to start my day. Nice and early. I logged into my mailbox and also typed in a few news sites into my browser to access the latest information about the happenings in Egypt.

A mail in my inbox and what I read and heard on several websites taught me my lesson for the day( or month or year) : Listening and responding to what people say is not just good manners, but also critical for good leadership and governance.
The mail I referred to was from Miles Young, the global CEO of Ogilvy Group, the global communications firm, with over 500 offices across the world, of which I was a part in India. Though I left the agency to move to work , I have been in touch with several people from the old office, as well as a few from across the world. The company prides in being a creative hot shop as well as a flat agency, where ideas flow seamlessly and the best ones rise to be implemented. “We are not in the creative business, but that of talent”, says Mr Young’s statement on the website. And having worked at the agency, I can attest to the integrity of that statement. It is not PR speak. That is the truth as it plays out ( well almost) most of the times in the agency. At least the bench-mark and principle is set. This is a company which “listens” to its employees. And responds to the demands. And this mechanism I believe has brought it to the position that it is in today.

Lets look at what is happening in Egypt today. While hundreds and thousands (possibly millions) crowd the streets of Cairo, protesting the overthrow of a leader who is not listening to the demands of the youth -Middle East Youth initiative estimates that unemployment is at staggering heights in Egypt, at around 19% and youth are not able to reach “adulthood”, meaning having the ability to move out of parents home and start families etc. because of purely economic reasons. The government of Mr Mubarak clearly is not responding to this call, and has failed in all the time that it has been in power ( 30 years is a long time to shape a country in a direction that the leaders want to ). If one were to measure the impact of USA’s financial aid to Egypt over the years, clearly the billions of dollars have not had a significant impact on the outcomes that were intended.

The ability of the government to take feedback, modify policies and reflect the public sentiment is in essence the spirit of democracy. In a liberal political set-up this also points to a healthy situation. In this respect, businesses and responsive governments which are successful are similar. One can also extrapolate this philosophy to leadership style and say that a good leader is one who listens, responds and reasons with the people who he / she governs. A leader who is incapable of doing this is not fit to be in this position, and is replaced, sooner than later. Repression, authoritarianism ( both in a political as well as corporate) scenario may last for a while, but ultimately, both market dynamics as well as political calculations will weed out the “inefficient” leader.

Even from this perspective, Mr Mubarak has failed as a leader.
And Mr Miles, thank you for that email. It not only made my day, but also perhaps taught me an important lesson in leadership today.