Risk, caution and skepticism: an exchange of views from London to Bangalore

Risk, caution and skepticism: an exchange of views from London to Bangalore

This morning I had the pleasure of engaging with a group of emerging leaders in London and also in Bangalore on a course module on ‘Courage and Caution’.

Working with my group as always is a pleasure, and will continue to be throughout the final day of the course tomorrow and beyond.

Interacting with the Bangalore group was a pleasure personally as I have always found India a fascinating and enchanting country. I went there 10 years ago on my gap year and since then have developed a real passion for the country fuelled by taking modules on India throughout my degree in Social Anthropology (Politics of Identity in South Asia being a true highlight), reading Indian literature (Rohinton Mistry being a favourite) and now working with my colleagues in India and the participant group there.

At the start of the event we shared our quote for the event, a lovely little piece kindly provided by my colleague in Bangalore which was: your life shrinks and expands in proportion to the courage you have.

We spent some time exchanging views on Courage and Caution and I was struck by how our participants saw Courage as a long term ‘drip drip’ affair and not defined by single acts of courage, such as jumping out of a plane. When we started to discuss different elements of courage, in terms of physical vs moral courage, it was interesting to see how for some physical courage was much easier to exercise as it was just a single act potentially with a risk of physical pain, compared to moral courage which is based on your beliefs and values, which are so personal, and so hard to compromise.

There was general agreement that we need a greater culture of risk taking, which has been hindered by the recession, but it needs to be coupled with support from your bosses to be able to make mistakes, to be helped in judging how to play it and trust.

We were very lucky to hear from a gentleman from Bangalore who joined us in London who shared his leadership journey in relation to Courage and Caution, from investment banker to founder of a charity which helps 3000 slum children. He talked of the courage it took him to forego the path that was laid for him being brought up in a middle class life to do an MBA, enter the financial sector and become a millionaire. He made the realisation that he shouldn’t accept the inequality in Indian society, and that he needed to move away from the ‘it can’t be changed, what can I do?’ attitude and said, ‘well actually I can and I will’.

He was truly inspirational with a wonderful blend of humility, self belief and passion, and really did resonate with the group. He went on to discuss many things and it reiterated for me that while the context of his journey is very different to mine, the personal issues and challenges he faced are ones that I have, am and will continue to face.

After our time with our speaker we linked up with the Bangalore International Navigator group via video conference. I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say the were truly buzzing from their time with the UK Prime Minister. They had in depth small group discussions with him and he was very forthcoming by all accounts in discussing Courage and Caution in Leadership and shared with us their perception of him.

They said that he was an authentic and compassionate communicator who really could relate to the audience’s context. This led to general mood of surprise with London participants.

We did then discuss the difference between perceptions being due to many reasons, such as the difference between seeing someone ‘out there’ on the TV, in the media, versus in the flesh, does that affect the way that you receive them, how they can resonate and appeal to you?

It also threw up the question: are we, in the UK, too cynical and quick to judge people and not listen to the content of what they are saying because we’ve already made our mind up? Have our judgments been made and can our minds be changed? We explored what extent cynicism and skepticism borne out of disenchantment with politics and politicians means. Are that we are the harshest of judges, maybe not taking people on their face value and merit?

One of my participants did share with me after the event that he had found the event challenging on a personal level due to him having to reassess how he judges people. He was questioning whether he is too cynical, and if he gives people he has a certain view of a fair shot? A question that I won’t answer for him, but one that I hope he continues to reflect on.

The question was posed by a Bangalore participant: does having a young Prime Minister mean that more young people are getting involved with politics? It’s a fair and logical question to ask. However it was felt generally that this wasn’t the case, but there has been a huge increase in young people being interested in, involved in, and passionate about political issues in the UK.