National Youth Day Special: Management Lessons @ Sw. Vivekananda

 

New Delhi News : Saints vis-a-vis modern-day management- appears to be an oxymoron? Well, it's actually not! Rather, modern day management can derive fantastic leadership sutras from the words of the saints, which are amalgamated with immense wisdom. One of the great architects among the saint-leaders is the youth icon Swami Vivekananda. If one reads the letters of Swami Vivekananda with an eye of fetching managerial sutras, one will be astounded to see his profundity in the management principles. You will be surprised after reading the apt scientific management values given by Swami Vivekananda in the times when the corporate world was in its infant stage. Let's take a look at some of the great, wisdom based Modern Management Principles given by Swami Vivekananda-

 

1.      On 1st October 1897, Swami Vivekananda wrote a letter from Kashmir to Sister Nivedita. The excerpt of the letter is as follows-‘Not everyone is born to lead. The best leader, however, is one who “leads like a baby.” The baby, though apparently depending on everyone, is the king of the household. At least, to my thinking, that is the secret...’The Best Leader = The one who ‘leads like a baby’- this is the management principle as per Swami Vivekananda. Let’s ponder over the depth ingrained in this great leadership principle.

 

BABY IS YOUR PRIORITY: Imagine you have a one or two year old baby at home. Undoubtedly, you will give utmost priority to the baby. But does the baby demand or seek that priority from you? No, you serve the baby because you wish to! Indeed, the most effective leadership style is to generate a self-propelling ambience, wherein one feels like working, instead of harbouring a feeling of compulsion or burden. A leader’s aura, work, values, innocence, and behaviour should be such that an employee himself feels like offering his services and gives him (or the organisation) the needful priority, without any force or the factor of subjugation.

 

BABY MAKES YOU FORGET YOUR TENSIONS: A truly effective leader too is like a baby. His presence makes you feel happy and refreshing, notburdensome and scary. His presence makes you feel stress-free in the sense that he will be there to help you. His presence makes you strong to face the corporate challenges. Well said that ‘Leadership is not about scaring people; rather it’s about building people.’

We need leaders who as per Swami Vivekananda should ‘lead like a baby.’ But in this regard, Swami Vivekananda also says that along with innocence of a child, a leader should be courageous like a lion. He says, “Brave, bold men and women, these are what we want. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas.”

So, this management leadership principle of Swami Vivekananda says- ‘Lead like a baby’ with the ‘courage of a lion’.

 

2.      Another letter that Swami Vivekananda wrote was to Swami Brahmananda from Srinagar on 1st August, 1898, a part of which says-“Any amount of theoretical knowledge one may have but unless one does the thing actually, nothing is learnt... Secondly, if a man's interest in a thing is not roused, he will not work whole-heartedly...”This excerpt reflects upon two main management principles. One is the importance of practical experience.The second principle which Swami Vivekananda mentioned, relates to motivation at work. In modern management, this is popularly known as Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory of Motivation.

 

The principle says that for a successful business two steps are important-

First: Eliminate the de-motivating factors- By accomplishing this, one makes people around neutral. It means that one is eliminating the dissatisfying factors and bringing people to the not-dissatisfied position.

Second: Advance to the satisfying factors- Once the folk is in a neutral state, one must then gaze to insert the areas of happiness to develop motivation and satisfaction. Such things includeaccomplishment, acknowledgment, work-role, responsibility, advancement, and individual complete growth.

In the words of Swami Vivekananda, this management principle can be kept as “Don't look back— (look) forward, (and move with) infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite courage, and infinite patience- then alone can great deeds be accomplished.”