Johannesburg - South Africa has celebrated 21 years as a democracy, an opportune moment to reflect on the state of our leadership today.
Xenophobia, power outages, lack of service delivery, corruption and crime are, to many South Africans, a bitter indictment of our political leaders, notwithstanding the inherited challenges they face.
Leadership in the private sector, on the other hand, is generally considered more effective and future-thinking, with a results-driven approach at the core of its success. It begs the question, what defines leadership? What are the characteristics of a good leader?
The essence of leadership is what Indian philosopher Swami Parthasarathy (better known as ‘Swamiji’) – as well as his equally renowned daughter Sunandaji – will address when he comes to South Africa to deliver a series of corporate lectures during July and August.
Parthasarathy’s lifetime research, under the auspices of The Vedanta Academy in India which he founded in 1988, has formulated self-management courses for corporations worldwide, and he is author of nine books, including the best-selling The Complete Works of Swami Parthasarathy (2012) and Vedanta Treatise: The Eternities.
Parthasarathy tours South Africa annually, and last year his lectures focused on achieving a work-life balance.
Vedanta is an ancient philosophy of India, dating back several thousand years. “It is a scientific system of principles that govern human life – the digest of great thinkers and philosophers over countless generations,” according to the Vedanta Academy. “Its timeless principles transcend culture, race and religion, making Vedanta universal in its application.”
In his lectures this year, Swamiji will expand on the philosophies about leadership that he covers in his book, Governing Business & Relationships.
“Knowledge always goes with humility,” he writes, explaining that a true leader is devoid of ego but committed to service and sacrifice for his/her organisation.
“A leader’s accent should rest on work and work alone. Just doing what he ought to do, fulfilling his obligatory duty and responsibility. His intellect keeping the mind focused on the present action. Not allowing it to hang on to future results. Not becoming anxious, apprehensive, restless with the thought of success. He thus maintains the strain of work as worship with no concern of the fruit thereof. Such work turns out perfect, productive,” he writes.
At work a leader has also to be “aggressive not passive, dynamic not lackadaisical”, while maintaining mental equanimity and composure, he says. “The problem with modern leaders is that they are unable to combine both. Those that are active and progressive in their profession lack peace and contentment, while the peaceful and contented ones lack dynamism in action… Action and peace seem to elude each other.
“That being so, business people and professionals who claim to be successful suffer from mental fatigue and stress,” Parthasarathy writes. This can be corrected, he says, by exercising a “powerful intellect”.
“In not letting the mind’s impulses and emotions disturb its concentration, the intellect exercises its power to ensure the mind remains focused and the actions reach a set goal,” he says.
Parthasarathy stresses the importance of recognising that “everyone has a distinct role to play in this world”.
“So have you. None is big or small. Important or unimportant. Learn to accept yourself as you are, a part of the whole. Live by it. You will then be free from the menace of complexes (inferiority or superiority),” he says.
In leaders, dispassion is an essential attitude, he adds. “A leader cannot afford to let his actions be driven directly by the passions of the mind without applying the discretion of the intellect …
“A perfect human being is one who has emotion but is not emotional, has passion but is not passionate, has sentiment but is not sentimental. A leader should use the intellect to lead his team with dispassionate passion, with disinterested interest in the conduct of his business,” he writes.
Empathy, however, is critical. “A leader establishes his authority and power more through identification with, feelings for his colleagues rather than his position or status in the company. The natural feeling of empathy for fellow workers brings about a rapport, a spirit of co-operation,” he says.
Parthasarathy has many more wisdoms to share about leadership, and if you’d like to hear them , the details of his lectures are:
JOHANNESBURG
When: July 28, at 6pm, at Summer Place, 69 Melville Road, Johannesburg.
Cost: R30 000 for a table of eight.
When: August 3 at 6pm, at Table Bay Hotel, 6 Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, Breakwater Boulevard
Cost: R24 000 for a table of 10.
To book: Devashni Pillay, call 083 212 3856 or e-mail [email protected]
DURBAN:
When: August 13 at 7.15am, Coastlands Umhlanga, 329 Umhlanga Rocks Drive.
Cost: R15 000 for a table of eight.
To book: Vyasa Dass, 083 212 3856, or e-mail [email protected]
The Star