By SK Nag
The definition of political leadership has changed over the years because there has been a paradigm shift in human aspiration, which led to a change in the definition of a decent standard of living in the post-pandemic era. The traditional power dynamics in politics are also drastically transforming towards more inclusive and forward-thinking leadership approaches. This has resulted in a radical change in people’s expectations of political leadership and governance. This unimaginable shift has shifted our society’s value system and corresponding ecosystem. It has adopted a more fragile perception theory, leading to a volatile, unstable, and fast-changing memory. Social media plays an intervening role in our daily lives, including short-term and long-term decision-making processes.
As the world continues to evolve rapidly and brings new challenges, the role of political leadership has become more crucial. Their political credibility has been changing, too. Traditional leadership models need to be more relevant and sufficient in navigating this century’s complex and interconnected issues. This is where evolutionary political leadership is necessary. The world has started believing entirely story-driven narratives as more salable than stereotype mandates proven fake over many years. Physical touch points in human lives are increasingly losing their relevance due to the advancement of micro-blogging tools propagating truncated stories without full elaboration, getting more influence than earlier. These intangible touchpoints make this world more unpredictable, volatile, and fragile. In such a situation, the traditional leadership theory is redundant and strictly a no-no.
Though ‘Vanderbilting’ (being a common political thief) has been partially acceptable in political game theory for a long time, citizens are continuously willing to accept their leaders who can help them dream big if it is backed by a story that sounds positive and full of possibilities due to cognitive bias even if they are not fully honest. Therefore, the leadership quality demands a sea change approach to stay afloat in the political market, making it a more profound evolutionary attribute. PM’s role in a country of billion people must ensure a political-optimism, business-friendly, non-scrappy visionary manifesting sage wisdom to the world of factfulness where nothing gets in his way. This demands an inspiringly bold leadership character who can be a political market maker by being foolishly reckless at times. Also, optimists and possibilists simultaneously harvest a reasonable sense of optimism without sounding too impractical.
The last common denominator of political success was presuming the world, which was predictable in nature; that has changed now. That predictability has been lost because of information symmetry. The hyper-connected ecosystem has made this world fast-changing with deep penetration of Social media tools. Suppose their leaders are visible in multiple media outlets and can assertively convey the road map of success that echoes citizens’ growth expectations. What more does it take to make it to the post of the country’s CEO? Sometimes, what looks crazy to some might make sense to someone else. No one is crazy, but people make decisions based on their unique perceptions, experiences, and needs. Religion-based politics is putting the parties at an advantage in the political fray, but religion-based mandates do not fully influence the electorate’s decisions. Impulsive reactions due to religion-based speech might stock and dent the minds of citizens momentarily. Still, that dent undoubtedly makes no such colossal impact in promoting favorable conversion in the ballot box or EVM.
Luck & risk are two siblings or doppelgangers. Often, others’ failure is attributed to a lousy strategy, whereas self-failure is conveniently concluded by the sheer inability of luck. So, political success is a natural testbed for strategic mind games and implementation. Fair policy and strategy with required objectivity might bring favorable outcomes if low-hanging political targets are avoided. The economy needs optimism or optimism to manifest growth or optimism bias; therefore, the country’s top leader should have the quality of making pragmatic judgments, decision-making integrity, and sound political engineering skills like a better farmer, good plumber, advanced chemist, or evolutionary leader. So, there will be no tangible economic damage by narratives with fake facts. Unlike science, which is governed by hypotheses, algorithms, and laws, politics is also governed by people with volatile sentiments and fragile behavior.
Leadership, which cannot be evolutionary, should opt for dignified retirement by taking a back seat. No price can bring them success because only straits of guts can change the political chessboard. They may be seen as only imperialistic leaders who need more sense of enough and pursue unending and directionless leadership, trying to promote an imperiling mandate to the country with multi-head structures endangering the growth engine.
So, currently, we need an evolutionary leader who will not allow any tangible economic damage to the country and lead a robust story-driven world with positive narratives & vibes for growth & prosperity with political engineering and market-making, fracking the opposition with no base.
Our next leaders must be those who know how to be better than yesterday on a daily basis without stopping and being complacent; otherwise, the people of India will support and encourage those who embody the principles of evolutionary political leadership.
(Author is Political & Economic Analyst. The views expressed are personal. He can be reached at saibal.iim@gmail.com)
