Vivekananda A Born Leader By Asim Chaudhuri

 Vivekananda A Born Leader By Asim Chaudhuri was 70 of 2020.

This came as a new thought to me, and why not?

Jack welch the highly acclaimed ex CEO of General Electric defines a leader as:

"someone who can develop a vision of what he or she wants their business, the unit, their activity to do and be somebody who is able to articulate the entire unit what the unit is and gained through a sharing of the discussion -listening and talking - an acceptance of that vision and then relentlessly drive implementation of that vision to a successful conclusion."

Did Vivekananda not do that?

4 criterias of the followers behaviour that defines leadership as per Daniels and Daniels is :

 1 followers deliver discretionary behaviour directed toward the leaders goal 

 2 followers make sacrifices for the leaders cause 

3 followers tend to reinforce the correct others so they also confirm to the leaders teachings and examples and

 4 followers set guidelines for their own personal behaviour based on the perceived estimate of that which the leader would approve or disapprove.

The leadership traits and managerial skills of Vivekanand are having a vision,  bias for action, capacity for empathy, capacity for empowerment, organising power, aligning goals and objectives, developing people , integrity , self confidence,  fairness , propensity for hard work , ability to transform others, communication skill ,wisdom, magnanimity, being impersonal, patience, building loyalty, interpersonal skills, unselfishness, process focus, root cause emphasis, constancy of purpose, sense of humour and foresight. He amazingly managed paradoxes. He could treat commoners and Elite alike he could manage internal conflict and had a good grip over money.  Promptitude was his skill as well. The leader manager who laid down strict rules and at Korum for the Ramakrishna organisation he founded Vivekananda that did not always follow rules in his personal b being a perspective person he had definitely recognised that punctuality order and allegiance were Cardinal virtues.

According to him along with political and social Independence   if one is a slave to his passion and desires one cannot feel pure Joy of real freedom. Also according to him no one was ever taught by another. Each of us has to teach himself. The external teacher office only the suggestion which houses the internal teacher to work to understand things.

To appreciate him fully we have to go beyond the specific traits or skills and look at some of his major thoughts and utterances that are at the core of leadership development and organizational strategy. These are listed below with short summary comments:

1.  Man-making education: education difined;  infinite knowledge in human mind can be access by developing power of concentration 

2. Influence of nature's  three forces how Sattva, Rajas and Tamas influence personality and character.

3. Human capital:  workers are the only real asset in an organisation especially in the present knowledge based economy

4. Personal mastery: how it leads to creating a learning organisation 

5 core competency: blending spiritual and human services in a unique way

Finally in chapter 5 on measuring leaders accomplishment it begins with the quote by Vivekananda:

Take up one Idea. Make that one Idea your life - think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that Idea and just leave every  other idea alone This is the way to success.

Enter appropriately titled book 'measure of a leader' Daniels and Daniels suggest three dimensions of this measurementme:

 1. Did the leader grow the Enterprise ?

2.  Did the leaders enterprise achieve some level of prominence?

3. Did the leader leave a positive legacy?

Success in leadership is not measured in numbers alone. Being a leader brings with it a responsibility to do something of significant that makes families, communities, work organisations, Nations ,the environment and the world a better place than they are today. Not all of these things can be quantified.

Good Motives, sincerity and infinite love can conquer the world. One single soul possessed of these virtues can destroy the dark designs of millions of hypocrites and routes so said Vivekananda.