On Leadership

Much has been written about leadership, starting with the question of whether it is innate or developed over time. By virtue of working at a firm that requires 'leadership', this question has come to occupy a central place in my life. In recent times, as I have honed the academic aspect of my life even further, I have spent much time thinking about leadership. What does leadership mean, especially for an introverted individual such as me? Is leadership bravado? Is leadership visibility? Is leadership passion?

The answer I came to is that leadership is an idea. Some ideas (such as writing a great thesis) do not require leadership - and that is how it should be! However, to take certain ideas to fruition, one will need to mobilise people around them. That is leadership! I will unabashedly say that I am not a 'natural leader', at least not in the way that the word is commonly used. However, at many points in the past, a particular idea has motivated me enough for me to take a leadership role. One such idea was my idea that a particular organisation I was part of (and influential in) needed to work in a way that was different from status quo. I lead - without ever thinking of it as 'leadership' - a group of peers and juniors to try and bring about that change. I was so consumed by passion for what I was leading towards that this mantle of 'leadership' fell very naturally on me. At other times, and in other organisations, I have been content being a cog (albeit an important one) in the wheel. This is what I have often called my 'model' of leadership, that of leadership by followership. I was inspired by the quote - 'the first follower is more important than the leader.' This aspect of my leadership style has been one of enabling. I do not take center stage, but allow someone else to do that and then back up that person to the hilt.

The point I am making is that, in my experience, leadership is only an outcome of a much larger process of fulfilling an idea. I would feel comfortable knowing that I do not unnecessarily make everything I do a demonstration of leadership. My preference is a 'design-to-value' approach to solving problems. The aim, therefore, is to be great at solving problems - leadership or solitude would be only incidental in this approach.

There is another aspect that I have given a lot more thought to - personal interactions. I believe 'leadership style' is often conflated with how one interacts with people around them. However, I look at these things as completely independent. More so because I try to adopt a holistic and consistent approach while interacting with other people, i.e. treating those 'lower' than oneself in the social hierarchy in the same way as one treats those who are 'higher'. 

Therefore, if one arranges these 'types' in a matrix form, my aim is to move towards the box that implies having a consistent way of dealing with people and a 'design-to-value' approach to leadership.

Change-makers from Uganda

A dramatic moment during my Rhodes scholarship interview makes so much more sense now. Towards the end of the interview that had moved from the Sen-Bhagwati debate to the Food Security Act, the panel asked me "We can see that you've done great things academically. But what have you done for others?" In a moment of minor bravado, I got agitated and said "There has not been a single day in my life when I have not tried to help someone. If my fault is that I have not built a nice NGO around it, then I am at fault and a part of me regrets it. But I refuse to be a one-man show."

My thinking has changed much since then. The bitterness of peers getting ahead in life because they had more to show for "social service" is now gone. Having reached a comfortable position in my career, I feel answerable only to myself and that has allowed me to be free from having to position myself in a certain way. I have now started thinking actively about how I can contribute to the world sustainably and with high impact.

One such way that I found very rewarding was pro-bono consulting. It started off as a stint with the Oxford Microfinance Initiative, consulting for a handicrafts NGO in Cambodia. Later, I found myself busy as a Project Lead for a months-long effort with New Generation Thinkers' Foundation (now Saint Ann Foundation) in Kampala, Uganda. From March to May 2015, I led a team that worked with SAF to define themselves and to think through meaningful changes that they could make to their organisation. At the end of the project, much like regular consulting, we handed them a powerpoint with our key recommendations.

To me, that was obviously not enough. Saint Ann Foundation works in a very difficult environment. The average Ugandan earns almost a third of what an average India does, and India is a very poor country to start with. While working for RSSAF, I also realised that the challenges faced by the NGO sector in Uganda are quite large, with a very massive skill gap and weaker financial linkages, even compared to India. The 'barriers to entry' for new NGOs are immense. This is where something like Saint Ann Foundation comes in. They are a group of young, motivated Ugandans who are doing all they can to bring change in their community. As a privileged member of the global youth community, I believed that it was imperative on my part to help them in any way I could. Therefore, even after the project ended, I have been in touch with SAF and working with them intermittently. SAF has now reached an inflection point - they have acted on most of the recommendations that we gave them, and the biggest barrier they now face is one of capital. Much like other NGOs in Uganda. This could be my, and your, chance to pitch in.

It is difficult for Ugandan NGOs to raise funding internationally due to the large transaction costs. After spending weeks evaluating the cheapest method, SAF and I have summarised some of the methods on this page. It is quite easy, especially on World Remit, and takes only a few minutes. For friends in India and UK, I will be happy to make the transaction on your behalf so that we can reduce transaction costs incurred.

I also completely understand if donating money is not top of agenda for you right now. However, you can still help! Start-up NGOs like SAF face more issues than just financial, and one of them is visibility. SAF is applying to a number of international partnerships (eg. GlobalGiving). It will therefore be great for them to have a large(r) social media presence. Please do like their facebook page, and share this post so that more people globally can hear about them.

At some point in the past, I would think a lot about why a particular organsation, why not others etcetera etcetera. However, I now realise that it is more important to take the first step, even in it is an inaccurate and tentative one, than to think too much before taking that first step. I have found a productive outlet, and hopefully a sustainable one, for the social worker within me. I hope that I can use my social networks to be of some use to these young change-makers from Uganda.