Listening in leadership
By Dr. Selim Erhan, TLT Editor | TLT From the Editor September 2023
One of the most important attributes of a leader is to be able to listen.
Photo 1. The first president of modern Türkiye, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, listening to a peasant.
Photo 2. A group of countrymen listening to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
It is often said a picture is worth a thousand words. Photo 1 is a great example of this saying. It shows a leader, the first president of modern Türkiye (Turkey), Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, listening to a peasant. It was taken around 1925 during the efforts to revitalize and modernize the country’s agriculture. He was one of the greatest leaders this world has seen, yet he was humble, which allowed him to listen to everyone and listen very carefully. This earned him the undying love of the whole country and respect from friends and enemies alike from around the world. He was able to motivate and activate a country to achieve miraculous results in 15 years, going from absolute zero to a modern, secular industrialized nation.
To be able to do more justice to this picture, I will take you back 100 years to World War I (WWI). The Ottoman Empire had entered the war on the side of Germany in 1914. The Ottoman Empire was, at that time, in no shape to enter a war. The 100-year war with Russia over Crimea had just ended. In addition to the Russian war, the Balkan Wars and North African wars had completely depleted the country’s treasury, industry, agriculture, education and infrastructure to an absolute zero. Although there were significant victories in Gallipoli in 1918, stopping the Allied Navy, where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the commander, at the end of WWI the Ottoman Empire was defeated and partitioned by the Allied armies. England, France, Italy, Russia, the U.S. and Greece occupied 90% of the country with their armies in 1918. Against impossible odds, his genius made it possible to start an independence war and win against all occupying powers. By 1923, the modern Republic of Türkiye was born with the current borders. The sultanate was abolished, democracy was established and sweeping reforms took the country to prosperity. Time, the calendar, clothing, the alphabet and law were changed to harmonize with Europe to speed up trade relations. Women received equal rights, universities were started and flourished and industry came to a point where Türkiye was making planes for Belgium. Friendship with world countries was established, preserving peace became a national motto and the republic became one of the earliest members of what is today called the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
If you put yourself in the shoes of the peasant in Photo 1 talking to a president, a victorious commander and a globally respected leader, would you not be influenced by his attention to your words? Would you not follow his lead? In fact, the whole country did follow him and was richly rewarded for their teamwork. Photo 2 shows that he himself received love and attention from all his countrymen for his efforts to help people under his leadership—in my mind a much better and more valuable compensation than any material compensation can ever bring!
If leaders listen carefully to people around them, I believe they will be able to build a movement that would be supported by all. People are, in general, motivated to learn, develop and do good things. Good leadership only needs to support the people in their companies, teams or wherever they are leaders. I was very impressed by a book I read recently following the same thought pattern. It is called “Why Motivating People Doesn’t Work … and What Does: The New Science of Leading, Energizing, and Engaging” written by Susan Fowler. I believe these examples are not only for politics, military and sports but also valid in the scientific world, in the business world and at the heart of good marketing.
Dr. Selim Erhan is director of business development for Process Oils Inc. in Trout Valley, Ill. You can reach him at serhan@processoilsinc.com.