Stories from the grassroots | Thoughts on development
My article in today’s Bodhi Vruksha – a supplement in Vijaya Karnataka newspaper that focuses on life, living and spirituality: Bodhi Vruksha 30 Jul 2011
The English version of the article can be found here: Swami Vivekananda and my own journey
– Balu
Leadership has been defined in many ways and is possibly one of the most researched subjects in the world today. Though so much has been said and written, one finds it difficult to have a final word on the subject of leadership. Similarly, a lot has been written and said about Swami Vivekananda. He has been called a monk, a prophet, a social reformer, a nationalist, a philosopher, a yogi, a prolific writer, an orator par excellence, an educationist and so on. But there has been very little analysis or research done on him as a Leader and his leadership qualities are
There is so much talk today about the GDP and the economy not doing well across the political and business spectrum in the country. Discussions about the falling sales of cars, the sluggish real estate sector and Non performing Assets of banks dominate the headlines. If you look at the narrative around the world and not just India, the current economic order is failing and ‘for-profit’ behaviour has taken away everything that can be sustainable. There is an urgent need to metamorphose into a new economic order where we move from a ‘for-profit’ mindset to that of a ‘for-benefit’ one.
Leadership is a process of listening, interpreting what we listen to, and then intervening with the appropriate action. Most people equate intervention and action as the expression of leadership without recognizing that socially productive leadership action can be optimal only when they are based on deep listening that goes beyond its traditional appreciation. Listening, both as an art and science is now well researched and studied and India’s scriptural wisdom is replete with examples of how to listen optimally. As a young physician several decades ago, I was sitting along with a medical student from the USA examining patients in