Skip to content
  • Home
  • Talks
  • Author
Menu

Balu's musings

Stories from the grassroots | Thoughts on development

  • Home
  • Talks
  • Author
Home / Vivekananda and Vedanta / Swami Vivekananda, the leader
Posted inVivekananda and Vedanta

Swami Vivekananda, the leader

Posted By Balu Posted on May 9, 2012
2

This incident took place in 1895. The place was London. Swami Vivekananda was to give a public lecture and he had come to London with Swami Saradananda. When it was time to stand up and speak, Swami Vivekananda suddenly announced that Swami Saradananda would deliver the speech instead of him. Though taken by surprise, Saradananda did an excellent job that day, and thereafter too. Swami Vivekananda had realized that all Saradananda needed was a little push to bolster his self-confidence. This incident in isolation may not say much, but we need to see it from the perspective of the leadership and management style of Swami Vivekananda.

Swamiji was not only an inspirational leader, but was also a very pragmatic one. He not only believed in ‘Servant-based Leadership’ but constantly endeavored to empower all those around him. In dealing with his brother-disciples and followers, he evoked what is today popularly known in the management world as the ‘Pygmalion Effect’. Management expert J. Sterling Livingston describes it as the effect of enabling subordinates to excel in response to the leader’s expectation of them. Swami Vivekananda had a high expectation of his followers and he communicated that to them clearly, thus eliciting a high level of performance. Leaders empower their followers by believing in them, and they rise to greatness as a result. The leaders make themselves larger by enlarging others. The leader constantly aims at moving people around him from dependence to independence to the state of inter-dependence. Swami Vivekananda had chosen ’empower and facilitate’ philosophy over ‘command and control’ long before modern management realized its potential. Trust plays an important part in the process. If the leader does not trust his followers, he will use control instead of empowerment. Swami Vivekananda while exhorting his disciples to the highest levels of work had the fullest trust in them and their abilities. His urge to motivate people around him to aspire for higher levels of performance can be seen from this letter of his to his direct disciple Swami Shuddhananda in 1897. He writes, “…Lastly, you must remember i expect more from my children than from my brethren (his brother disciples). I want each one of my children to be a hundred times greater than i could ever be. Every one of you must be a giant – must, this is my word. Obedience, readiness, and love for the cause – if you have these three, nothing can hold you back.”

This also shows Swamiji’s interpersonal skills and the ability to motivate and develop people. One can even say that Swamiji’s call, “Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached” was nothing but an attempt to empower people en-masse. J Carla Nortcutt had once said, “The goal of many leaders is to get people to think more highly of the leader. The goal of a great leader is to help people to think more highly of themselves.” This is perhaps the best description of Swami Vivekananda, the greatest leader of our times.

Kannada version in Prajavani (17-May-12)

– Balu

Share this post

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Balu

A development activist, public policy advocate, social innovator and leadership trainer

Previous Article (72) Learning to maintain Equanimity
Next Article The challenge of living off alms

Related Posts

Posted inTravelogue Vivekananda and Vedanta

Pilgrimage to Ridgley Manor,USA

A few years ago, Vish a friend who had lived for a long period in the US and had come back to resettle in Mysuru and I were talking about Swami Vivekananda and how his message had inspired me. Our talk drifted to how Swamiji was a tireless worker and how so much was done by him in such a short time. We started talking how the Vedanta Society in New York was established by Swamiji in 1894 even before he set up the Ramakrishna Math in Belur. Vish suddenly asked me if I had visited the Ridgley Manor in

Share this post

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read More about Pilgrimage to Ridgley Manor,USA
Posted By Balu Posted on October 3, 2018
1
Posted inGeneral Musings Travelogue Vivekananda and Vedanta

From here and there…

Many a friend has asked me about my regular visits to the US and about the teaching I do here. One oft repeated question has been, ‘What are the major similarities & differences that you see between the two countries? ‘ And knowing my background, another question usually asked is about my continued commitment to the causes I espouse back home in India and how it relates to my visiting the US? India, as Swami Vivekananda put it is the Punyabhumi (holy land) and the Karmabhumi (land of one’s work) for me. The last 35 years has seen me live

Share this post

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read More about From here and there…
Posted By Balu Posted on September 23, 2018
3
Posted inMusings Vivekananda and Vedanta

Building a resurgent India

“There were many good things in the ancient times, but there were bad things too. The good things are to be retained, but the India that is to be, the future India, must be much greater than ancient India.” – Swami Vivekananda India is now going through a momentous phase of transition. While we race to catch up with a world being connected seamlessly through digital technology, we can find new ideas and new ideologies bombarding us from all sides. It is at times like this that we need to pause and ask ourselves whether we are going in the

Share this post

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
Read More about Building a resurgent India
Posted By Balu Posted on November 16, 2016
1

Popular

  • Samvaad 2018 – a dialogue in search of the spirit of ‘Adivasiyat (tribalism)’
  • Leading sustainability
  • Business of Development
  • Living with Nature, learning from it...
  • Leading Science Spiritually

Follow me

  • RT @WHO_Europe: A healthy diet is one important way to help #beatNCDs. Try to cut down on your sugar intake – WHO recommends no more than… 21 hours ago
  • RT @graamresearch: Opinion and needs of Grassroots should always touch the highest ranks. There should be no translation loss. GRAAM is wor… 1 day ago
  • Spoke to young medicos at the MIMS, Mandya. Called on them to be part of building a 'New India', the India of Swam… twitter.com/i/web/status/1… 2 days ago
Follow @drrbalu

Email Subscription

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Please select facebook feed.

You can also order your copy over  phone. Call GRAAM @ 9686666313, 0821-2415412

Archives

Powered by Thinksonic.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.