New 5S System – Qualities of a Transformational Leader

The fundamental fact in everyone’s life is to be successful and lead a Happy life and that is understood as – Winning Competitions, Earning Name, Fame and Money!

The Belief system in this is more aligned towards what is called as deficit mentality, which means, completely focused on comparative and competitive thought process. So, the concentration is on three fundamental elements of life – Time, Quantity and Quality.

We need to accept that our Belief system requires a complete shift moving to a new paradigm which is a sweet amalgamation of Objective Reality and Subjective Reality viz., respecting Humans as Beings and not as utilities.

Using the Objective reality to enable Collaboration and Engagement oriented system is what is required now. This is pivotal to handle and win over the current situation and in the future.

Example: For scaling up the Health care requirements, the National Health Services of UK partnered with Facebook to raise the awareness about the need for donations. This was a major hit that hospitals were able to find the donors through a Facebook page and the nearest donors who had registered would receive a notification. The collaboration between NHS and Facebook also geared at broadening the debate on organ donation and disseminating relevant information. Similar campaigns started in Australia, the Netherlands and the U.S starting a new model and revolution within the Healthcare spectrum. Collaborative effort between a health care Service and a social media company helped in increasing the awareness on Donations which not just helped the hospitals but also helped the needy people who could not afford huge money to buy donors. Truly a Collaborative and an engaging platform! (ref: page 75, 33 case study authored by Teresa Turiera & Susanna Cros in their article Co Business – 50 examples of business Collaboration)

This belief system is about integrating subjective reality with the objectivity for effectively balancing the overall eco-system. This is very useful and much relevant at an organizational level and at a Socio-political level.

Here, Leadership with a transformational mindset is extremely important and crucial. The qualities which define such leadership are the new 5S system. They are – (1) Sensitivity, (2) Social Accountability, (3) Share, Care & Sacrifice, (4) Simplicity and (5) Self-Awareness.

1st S – Sensitivity:

Sensitivity is a nature within Individuals who put their egos aside and care deeply about how others feel. These individuals want others to express their feelings because they know transparency makes life happier for everyone. Sensitive people care about how others feel and would always seek the opinions/feedback from their team before taking any decision. They truly understand and live by the saying “There’s no I in team,” and know that to lead others, one must get on their side. Humility and Collaborative approach are prime for these people. These people have the innate ability to Empathize with others and their situation before taking any decision.

Example – Ratan Tata, Chairman of TATA Sons – “If you want to walk fast, walk alone but if you want to walk far, then walk together.”

2nd S – Social Accountability:

Social accountability refers to the broad range of actions and mechanisms beyond voting that citizens can use to hold the state to account and make it responsive to their needs, as well as actions on the part of government, civil society, media and other societal actors that promote or facilitate these efforts. Social accountability increases transparency and quality of government policy development and implementation processes, and thus becomes the principal method for solving governance issues that hinder improvement of quality of life of citizens. In doing so, the government receives the propositions from their citizens and defines critical issues, explores their root causes and implements possible solutions – defined by World Bank, 2015. Constructive engagement between stakeholders, marked by a spirit of collaboration and not opposition. In social accountability, there is equal emphasis on recognizing and sustaining good practices, and on identifying problem areas for further improvement.

Here, every individual within a society will have to feel responsible and accept accountability for the improvement, development and scalability of processes, practices, amenities for the upliftment of the society. This quality is very important for a person who aspires to be a leader be it at an organizational level or at the Socio-Political Level.

Example: JRD Tata – Former Chairman, TATA Sons – “No success or achievement in material terms is worthwhile unless it serves the needs or interests of the country and its people and is achieved by fair and honest means.”

3rd S – Share, Care and Sacrifice:

Sharing is the act of kindness where you are having something which belongs to you but also offering it to someone else because they might need it too or it’s too much to use just by yourself!

Caring is the emotion of sympathy (in some cases, empathy) which guides you to not only judge a person’s character, but behaviour and possible solutions for any problems that person has. Thus, when you share something, you show your human side (by giving up claims on your personal item), which is based on feelings for another human who may or may not be feeling the same way.

The obvious answer would be that to share is to sacrifice something for the sake of another and to sacrifice for the sake of another is to demonstrate compassion. Which means not expecting anything in return be it in Cash or Kind.

Example: Azim Premji, Chairman, Wipro Limited – “I strongly believe that those of us, who are privileged to have wealth, should contribute significantly to try and create a better world for the millions who are far less privileged.”

4th S – Simplicity:

Simplicity is the state or quality of being uncomplicated. In human lifestyles, simplicity can denote freedom from excessive possessions or distractions, such as having a simple living style.

Simplicity is a virtue that plays an important role in the way we relate to others. Individual who understands and practices this quality tends to respect themselves and others. They accept themselves, and therefore they accept others. These ideas go hand in hand. These people normally do not change their personality or the way they treat people, no matter who they are and where they are. In the same way, the person with simplicity invariably respects and values other’s triumphs. These people feel joy for other’s achievements and share their sadness, this leads to an intrinsic solidarity with other people.

Simplicity is a trait that allows us to understand that we belong to a human community and that we are invariably linked by a common thread: humanity.

Example: Warren Buffet – “Don’t be in a hurry to load yourself with too many things which are essentially not useful to you. If you do that, then at times you will be left with no other option other than to let go the things which you need the most.”

5th S – Self-awareness:

Self-awareness is a comprehensive assessment to have a sharp realization of the potential, skills, and competencies of oneself. For that, we need to look at ourselves objectively and clearly without any bias and prejudice, understand what drives us as an individual. More than just an understanding of “who I am”, Self-awareness talks more about how a person thinks, feels, and acts at the moment, as a realistic picture or as a mirror reflection. It is downright different from how a person wants to be or how he perceives himself to be. More than the perception, the “Actual Person behind the perception, his feelings and emotions” is what needs to be engrossed.

Let’s consider an example: Often when we meet new people or introduce ourselves to a set of people in a meeting / conference or elsewhere, the normal response is “I am <name>, a <profession>, have graduated in <faculty> from <University name>, <Location>” like, “I am Venkatesan, OD Consultant, I hold an MBA in HR from IBS, Hyderabad”. It is strange that we are so much conditioned to give a reply that actually states, “WHAT I AM and WHAT I HAVE” while the question that really needed an answer was “WHO AM I”.

Self-awareness means, not just finding, understanding and being aware of oneself, but having the courage to detach from all objective identities (like designation, title, ego, self-proclaimed status etc.…) and being able to open to a completely new horizon of learning and thriving in a completely new situation/environment.

Example: Stephen Covey – Author, Professional speaker & a Management Consultant – “Self-awareness is our capacity to stand apart from ourselves and examine our thinking, our motives, our history, our scripts, our actions, and our habits and tendencies.”

https://youtu.be/li1ul6ywVmc