What one needs to become a.....

I have always believed in the power of effective communication. Even when bpo jobs seemed demeaning, I held true to that thought. Needless to say, after two years in GE, no one ever got away by belittling a call-centre job, before me. In the past year, the excellent course and faculty from MICA, also helped strengthen my belief.

So what do I mean by effective communication? Well, I have no dictionary definition or flowchart diagrams to show you. All I can say is this – The degree of effectiveness of communication is proportional to the degree of its honesty. Does that perhaps sound a tad mathematical to you? Ah, fiddlesticks!

I had a unique opportunity this summer to visit the ‘Sabarmati Ashram’ in Ahmedabad and photograph some letters. These were letters written to as well as by the Mahatma. Several letters were from other leaders of note. It was merely a curiosity experiment and not due to any personal affiliations. I have read speeches and talks of several other well-known leaders from time to time. My conclusion is this - The truly venerated leaders were not just those who were charismatic, but all who were completely and painfully honest. They seldom coloured the truth. Of course, when you were writing to ‘Hitler’ some degree of sanity was called for, I suppose.

There is also a new form of communication. I call it “The diplomatically honest speech” and happened to learn it the painful way – which is, by doing it. Obviously, because I did it, I now realize its necessity and of course it is sour grapes, but that’s beside the point! Jokes apart, the truth can sometimes harm more than help. The decision to present it is definitely always a judgment call. The degree of honesty in your speech is also dependant on your personal ambitions. Letters to your children are meant to have pearls of wisdom and oodles of truth and honesty. They are easy. Public speeches however, are a different ballgame.

How big a leader you can be, depends entirely on how much you can put everything personal, on the back-burner and focus on everything else that remains. You can be a Vajpayee or an Advani. The choice is entirely yours.