Do you need qualifications or wisdom to get a job?
Do you need qualifications or wisdom to lead people in an organization?
Or do you need both qualification and wisdom to get a job and also to lead people in an organization?!
Ironically, you may observe that qualification does not guarantee wisdom, and wisdom does not guarantee qualification.
India’s business tycoon Dhirubhai Ambani did not have the required qualification to get employed even as a Manager of any reputable company but he went on to build a business empire called Reliance which employed managers who were more educationally qualified than Dhirubhai Ambani himself.
Chanda Kochhar is a household name in corporate India, who rose through the ranks to become the head and face of ICICI bank which is one of India’s largest private sector banks. Though she was well qualified for her role and was leading the bank successfully for years, attracted news headlines for all the wrong reasons because of a shocking bank loan misutilization involving her husband and herself.
So what really went wrong in this case, Chanda Kochhar was no doubt well qualified for the role as the head of the organization which she had proved with her performance over the years. But did her qualifications and performance guarantee that she acquired the wisdom to serve the society through her organization by prioritizing people’s interests and not hers?!
Business Tycoons Steve Jobs and Bill Gates also did not have graduate degrees and were college drop-outs but went on to found companies like Apple and Microsoft respectively that provide livelihood to millions of people across the globe directly and indirectly.
So, what is the difference between Chanda Kochhar and the likes of Dhirubhai Ambani, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates?!
In the case of billionaires like Dhirubhai Ambani, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates, they founded companies with the intention to make a difference in people’s lives with high-quality products and services.
In the case of Chanda Kochhar, she needed to have formal educational qualifications and perform at various levels of the corporate hierarchy to prove her worth to lead the organization.
No doubt, Chanda Kochhar had worked towards the interest of the organization’s internal and external customers, and that helped her to get the required attention of the managing body of the organization because of which she was chosen as the head of the organization. But what went wrong in her case after leading the organization successfully for so many years?!
Another interesting case is of Rana Kapoor, the founder of ‘Yes Bank’.
Like many other notable entrepreneurs of India and the world, Rana Kapoor had the deadly combination of both educational qualification and wisdom to become the founder of an organization that expanded its base on the basis of its commitment to its customers.
Even in this case, like Chanda Kochchar, Rana Kapoor gained media attention for all the wrong reasons because of misusing his position in the organization to sanction bank loans that threatened all the stakeholders.
Yet, another example of leadership that faltered when it was supposed to be on a spree of winning hearts and inspiring people.
It is very easy for us to point towards business leaders who faltered at the peak of their professional journey but there are such leaders in every walk of life.
From political leaders to religious and spiritual leaders, there are thousands of examples when these leaders shook the faith of the people who idolized them.
Ironically, the followers or the die-hard fans of the business leaders are the ones who consider criticism as a tool for growth.
Whereas, the die-hard fans of political, religious, and spiritual leaders are the ones who consider criticism as a tool that destroys their faith and existence.
When you write as a critic for a corrupt political, religious, or spiritual leader, somewhere someone will file a legal case against you for defaming their leader.
Business leaders throughout their professional journey encourage their followers to consider feedback and criticism as tools for self-growth, and perhaps this is the reason that whenever a business leader gets arrested there is no possibility of a major violent protest.
Whereas, when a political, religious, or spiritual leader gets arrested, there is always a possibility of violent protests by their followers.
This is because unlike business leaders, political, religious, and spiritual leaders always preach to be superior in comparison to their counterparts. They do not encourage their followers to tolerate criticism and encourage them to retaliate as strongly as possible.
Like business leaders; political, religious, and spiritual leaders also start as hard-working individuals at the beginning of their professional journey. They do their best to make a difference in the lives of the people.
But once they achieve the name and fame, and they have followers who follow them blindly, they get the magic wand which they just need to move around a bit to fulfill any of their personal desires.
When you become a leader and become someone who is trusted and idolized by many, you automatically have so much power that it becomes a magic wand, and this magic wand becomes the biggest testing tool of your life.
If you use this magic wand for the welfare of the people, you can really create wonders for the society, and if you use this magic wand for your self-interest, you can create wonders for your personal life.
As a leader when you use the magic wand to create wonders for your personal life, you somewhere compromise the interest and trust of the people who idolize you.
The wonders that you create for your personal life by using the magic wand are short-lived because going by Newton’s third law, that is, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, the nature of this world is to maintain a balance. So, somehow people will find it out that you broke their trust, and will do everything possible to trouble your personal and professional life.
Ironically, the level of criticism that business leaders face because of some wrongdoing is unparalleled.
Such business leaders lose everything that they have acquired in a moment. Whereas, the political, religious, and spiritual leaders manage to keep their following alive in the masses even after proven charges.
There is no lack of institutions in this world where you get a daunting educational qualification to become a business leader, but there is a daunting lack of institutions in this world where you can learn and practise selfless leadership, and become an inspiring business leader.
Becoming an inspiring business leader does not mean you forego what you deserve and what you aspire for.
To become an inspiring business leader, you need to have a mindset that is hundred percent committed to ‘Customer satisfaction’ and ‘People development’ both in words and action.
You need to be really grounded to give your customers the due place that they deserve as they fund your existence and you also need to be really grounded to give the stakeholders of your organization the rightful place that they deserve as they are the ones who make your products and services worth enough for your customers.
When you run an organization as renowned as ICICI Bank or Yes Bank during its peak days, it is very human to let the self-proclamation and feeling of superiority get infused into your personality but to become an inspiring leader, you need to be grounded every moment.
Because you know that as a leader you have only played your role to direct the efforts and energy in the right direction, and everything happened because of the people who were involved in the process, be it your customers or the stakeholders of your organization.
You become an inspiring leader because of your foresight, your ability to see a better future, and your ability to direct all the resources towards that future. And you certainly deserve credit for this ability.
The moment you consider this ability to be superior to that of anyone else, you get into a superiority complex zone and start losing touch with the ground.
Like you, everyone else involved in the process also gave their hundred percent in their capacity to make it a successful journey for your organization.
Your hundred percent is always equal to everyone else’s hundred percent, and can never be greater. Consider this, and you will always be grounded.
The top educational institutions of today’s age give you the best possible knowledge but that does not guarantee an inspiring leader’s mindset that is focused on customer satisfaction and people development both in words and action.
Most of the business leaders of our time from Anand Mahindra to Elon Musk are active on social media and have huge numbers of followers.
These followers keep a track of their role models in every possible way from YouTube to various other publications.
Any falter on the part of these leaders would mean another setback for the people to lose trust in yet one more of their most beloved leaders, and that would lead to a notion that ‘It is okay to be corrupt when you become extraordinarily successful’.
You may observe that this is the notion that is eating our today’s society like a termite.
Since childhood, children are preached by their parents that they can do whatever they want to do when they become very successful; they can relax and can have their fancied life when they become very successful.
So, with this kind of intense preaching, how do you think you can have a mindset that never allows you to let the feeling of superiority get infused in your thoughts and behaviour after you achieve phenomenal success?!
It is time now for business leaders to set examples in every walk of life, as we are in an era that is very transparent in the flow of information.
From school students to employees in an organization, everyone has access to this free-flowing information
More information gives more power to the people.
Students can question and challenge their teachers, and sub-ordinates can question and challenge their managers; this informational and technological age has brought forth the need for a complete overhaul of culture from schools to offices.
You cannot intimidate the students to stick to the theoretical and boring subjects without making them experience their practicality.
Nor you can intimidate the freshers in your office just to go about their work as per your wish and not to question the importance of the assignment.
Business Leaders have a huge and more important role than ever before.
They can wield their influence and upgrade the educational system worldwide by making it more real-scenario oriented, as most of the countries have still the decades-old boring theoretical education system.
Business leaders can wield their power to change the office culture that is mostly ‘Boss is always right’.
After all business organizations have improved the lifestyle of people all over the world, and now it is time for the leaders of these business organizations to change the mindset of people all over the world.
Business leaders can achieve this feat when they themselves set examples in their professional and personal life, and go beyond the boundaries of their organization considering that it is their moral obligation to contribute to the upliftment of the people around them.
Schools, colleges, and universities have a more significant role to play than ever before to form the personality and attitude of their students that ultimately help them in their personal and professional life.
When students start to learn right from their childhood days about real-life scenarios of personal life, and later the real-life scenarios of the profession that they are interested in, there would not be any need for a term such as ‘Fresher’ to call a newcomer who joins your organization.
Internship programmes that are promoted in collaboration with business organizations and educational institutions are more focused on technical skills and do not give much importance to the soft skills that are mandatory for every kind of job.
For example, if you are a software executive, then other than the technical skills that you need for your work, you also need to experience some real-life scenarios as to how you can manage the challenges of a demanding customer.
Without proper soft skills, it is not possible to manage a demanding customer.
Similarly, when a newcomer joins your organization without prior work experience, you cannot just go on to pile workload on him and expect the workload to get the best out of him.
There are many bright newcomers who leave their organizations because of such irrational workloads without even being given an opportunity to prove what they have in them to make a difference to the organization.
This is the reason we discussed earlier that the time has come for a complete overhaul of culture right from the schools to offices.
Business leaders come into the picture when you talk about the economy and employment.
But the time has come that Business leaders need to come into the picture even when you talk about parenting, educational system, personal life, professional life, spirituality, and social work.
Among all types of leaders from Political to Spiritual leaders, it is the Business leaders who are in the best spot to impact people because they are the ones who provide livelihood.
Along with Livelihood, when Business Leaders start to provide the right mindset that is focused on uplifting the lives of others without getting corrupt, many other types of leaders like Political, Religious, and Spiritual Leaders will start to lose their followers.
There is a very thin-line difference between being clever and being wise.
Being clever means that you can be manipulative but it is not so in the case of being wise.
When you are wise you have foresight. You know very well that any action in your self-interest in your role as a leader will always boomerang and land you in trouble that far outweighs the benefits that you receive in return for your self-interest-oriented action.
When you are wise you know very well that all your decisions and actions as a leader need to be team-growth oriented because when the team grows, you automatically grow as a leader.
Wisdom comes from learning and practising values. It is a journey that should ideally start right from your childhood.
But there is always a way when there is a will.
You must have come across one of the famous stories of Indian folklore about a character called ‘Angulimaal’.
Angulimaal was a dacoit and was so dreadful that he used to cut the fingers of his victims and made necklaces with them that he wore every day.
But Angulimaal was never satisfied and did not have any inner peace even after amassing massive wealth.
His quest for inner peace ended when he met a saint, who advised him to quit violence and turn into a saint.
Angulimaal followed the words of the saint and turned into a saint, and eventually achieved inner peace.
Like Angulimaal, anyone can transform his life irrespective of what stage of life he is in.
But a conscious effort to develop people right from their childhood will certainly help human society like never before.
With the kind of complete overhaul of culture from school to the office that we have discussed in this article, it is possible for human society to produce many Chanda Kochhars and Rana Kapoors who would lead their teams with all wisdom and never have to face any question on their integrity and thus can become role models for their followers for their entire lifetime.
If you have liked this article, then feel free to share it and motivate others.
Please visit our website www.frommindtolife.com and subscribe free of cost to join our community.
For free video consultation, please click the below link:
https://calendly.com/partharay/consultation