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It may sound a bit weird, but this is the reality. Some way down the line we have missed the opportunity to develop our humanitarian consciousness to the demands of the times. We have not taught human values in leadership to our generations as it should have been. There is a feeling gaining ground worldwide that we have neglected our humanity for far too long and we need to humanize ourselves to the desired level.
I personally believe that just as we are teaching mathematics, data science, and coding to our young generations, we must also teach humanitarian concepts like kindness, empathy, togetherness, and unity with the same determination and importance. We must teach humanity to our coming generations as a must have skill for progress.
I know this has sounded odd and weird to many of you as I mentioned it earlier. But do you know as to Why it seems like that ? Because to those who already possess values of empathy, love, kindness, and compassion, it may seem unnecessary. You might think it's a natural and intrinsic characteristic for humans, so why should it be taught? Your thinking is not completely wrong on this matter but I feel the situation now has changed, and we need to reconnect with our humanity again. We need to have more compassionate leadership and leadership with empathy more than ever before.
In our relentless and obsessive linear approach to development we have started regarding material progress through science & technology as the panacea for humanity. To a large extent this philosophy of development looks good in theory but we forgot to implement it in practice. The material progress accruing out of science & technology should have been equitably shared amongst all the people of the world. This material development ought to have ended poverty, inequality, wealth gap, developmental lags etc all over the world.
But did it happen ? To be truthful this developmental model has further precipitated the problems to the extent that we have more poverty, inequality and wealth gap than ever before. The philosophy may have been good but its implementation was lopsided and one sided only.
But why did this happen ?
It happened because we did not have enough policy makers, professionals, administrators etc who were trained to be kind, compassionate and empathetic while implementing developmental models. They worked professionally and scientifically without factoring the human face into the developmental model. They lacked ethical leadership development consciousness for their profession.
They manufactured sophisticated weapons through their scientific acumen and sold them for war through their policy and administrative skills. For a moment also they did not think that it was unethical and against the principles of humanity. The final result is that the elites benefitted at the cost of people. Most of these developmental models in reality worked for the corporations rather than for all the people. The immense negative consequences are for all to see on the ground.
We must teach the language of humanity if it isn’t coming naturally to the future scientists, policy makers, administrators, thought leadership etc. There is no shame in it. For example, I may speak my mother tongue naturally because it’s embedded in me. But if I lose touch with that language and start speaking another language, I may need to relearn it. Similarly, I’m not saying human values are not intrinsic to humanity—they are intrinsic—but somehow, we’ve neglected them. Now, they need to be revitalized.
We must start courses on humanity, and they should be part of leadership development programs if we want to scale up. There should be future policymakers training where “leadership with empathy” are trained through the “leadership and emotional intelligence” courses. On a larger scale we should teach “humanity in education” at all levels and especially focus on moral education for leaders. These ameliorating measures though not exhaustive can show great results on the ground.
The ethical leadership development concepts are a great way to see good results. Let us teach it compulsorily at the university level, at the public policy level, so that future leaders develop humanitarian values that translate into impactful leadership actions. This can lead to meaningful results for people who truly need them.
At the risk of repeating myself, this may sound odd, but it is the reality. We must wake up from the slumber. If we neglect our human values further it is quite possible that an AI might force us to be humane, and that would sound ridiculous—but I wouldn’t be surprised at all.
Would you be surprised ?
