When Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his maiden Independence day speech from the hallowed ramparts of Red fort, he almost sounded like a broken record. The pundits expected him to make big and bold announcements but almost everything that he said in his speech, he has said before. Be it skill development or focus on manufacturing or effective governance. No big and grand announcements. Modi just repeated the same old stuff and now he has almost started sounding like a parrot. Of course, he used his powerful oratorical skills and made it sound inspirational rather than monotonous. But he was repetitive nevertheless. Would it not have been smarter to make bold new announcements instead ? After all, the entire country has started looking upto him as a leader who will fulfill their aspirations and usher “accche din”. Did he fail as a leader by not making any bold new promises ?
Boiled down to its essence, effective leadership is about having a strong vision and converting that vision into reality through effective execution. The biggest challenge for the leader is to make the leap and cross the huge chasm between vision and reality. In my mind, the leader’s first step in taking that giant leap is to powerfully “communicate the vision” to the people of the organization. Any leader worth his salt has a vision in his head as to how he would like to shape his/her country or organization. But it takes a great leader to effectively and powerfully communicate that vision to the subjects so that they can see the vision as vividly as the leader sees it.
How do you communicate your vision so that every single citizen clearly knows and understands the vision? How did we learn our A B Cs so indelibly in kindergarten that we can recite it even in the middle of our sleep. Our teachers repeated the A B Cs day after day. Similarly, a leader ought to repeat his vision to his subjects at every single opportunity. And what better opportunity than Independence day speech when you have the attention of the entire nation. Of course, repetition needs to be done in a way that is inspiring and receptive to the audience. That is where creativity in communication comes in ( probably a topic for a future post ). Here is a mind blowing example of how something as mundane as potential and kinetic energy in physics can be communicated in an inspiring way :
Successful execution of the vision is the ultimate measure of success but the first successful step is the effective communication of the leader’s vision. I can almost visualize Narendra Modi dressed up as a school teacher with a tablet in one hand and a cane in another. He goes and knocks the door of an anonymous faceless Indian in the middle of the night and quizzes him on the top 3 priorities of the nation. The faceless Indian dutifully replies – Sir, Effective governance, Skill development and focus on manufacturing. Narendra Modi nods his head with the satisfaction of teacher whose student scored a perfect 100. Every CEO ought to take this test once in a while. By checking with the random employee he bumps into in the elevator – what is top of the mind recall is about the company’s vision . But the only thing to remember is that if the employee fails to recall, it is less a failure of the employee and more a failure of the CEO. In certain matters, and most certainly in the matter of communicating vision, the burden of communication rests with the communicator.
Leadership and management is often extremely boring, repetitive and unsexy. Boring because once the vision is laid out, the rest of the work is execution and execution is a grind. It calls for discipline, it calls for repetition, it calls for consistency. No grand new announcements in every speech, no new and shiny toys every Christmas. If your leader make his speeches sexy and exciting by making bold new announcements on every occasion, that should set you thinking. On the other hand, feel blessed if you have a boring, tedious and unsexy leader who sounds like a broken record.
