Modi’s failure: He is managing his time badly, working hard instead of smart

If the Rohith Vemula, Kanhaiya Kumar, and employees’ provident fund (EPF) issues have any message for Narendra Modi, it is a simple one. He is not managing his time and effort well.

How can one say this about a man with awesome 18-hour days? The answer is working hard is not a substitute for working smart. He will achieve better results by working two hours less and using this time to understand the impact of the remaining 16 hours.

The first question he must ask himself during his two-hour introspective session is this: how did I, once seen as a man who could communicate with the masses with such ease, manage to lose control of the public narrative so early in my tenure?

Each of the above controversies (and these are not the only ones) has done Modi’s credibility great damage. The Vemula affair has antagonised at least Dalits, but no effort has been made to undo the damage. The Kanhaiya Kumar arrest - even if it had nothing to do with Modi - has given great ammo to his enemies, even enemies with discredited ideologies like Communism and Socialism. And the EPF issue, one of the most ill-thought-out ideas from babudom, has shaken the middle class like no other. It has shocked them that something so emotional as access to your retirement nest-egg can be threatened so easily. The middle class is Modi’s core constituency, and he has needlessly given them cause to rethink their support.

However, the reason why he could fail politically is not because he may have misjudged the significance of events or made wrong policy choices occasionally - these can happen to anybody and can be remedied easily - but because of his own personality. I can see two serious handicaps which he needs to address urgently - and both relate to his reported strengths.

One is inefficient use of his time as PM - which is a counter-intuitive point to make given that Modi is one of the hardest working PMs ever, with 18-hour workdays being routine for him.

The second one is underutilisation of his communcations skills. Once again, this is counter-intuitive for we have seen no shortage of speeches made by him on important occasions, not to speak of his daily tweetathons.

Consider how Modi used his two strengths before he was elected and after. In the campaign, Modi was energetically addressing the people daily, with a punishing schedule of over 400 rallies less than a year. Towards the end of the campaign he was showing signs of physical strain, but he laboured on. He was giving his enemies hell, and they were running scared.

Now consider how he is faring now. Whether it is the Vemula affair or JNU or EPF, there is no communication from Modi - only whispers on what he may be doing behind the scenes. He speaks only on well-choreogrpahed occasions - on a Yoga Day or a Make in India conference. Which is fine, but a Prime Minister does not have the luxury of talking only on his chosen subjects or appear where he chooses to appear.

Modi is losing the communication edge not because he is no longer seen as the Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher of India, but because he has buried himself in “work” - work that he may have prioritised wrongly. Creating and implementing policy, launching new initiatives, and setting large goals for his ministers may be important, but these are relevant only if they achieve visible results that everyone can see.

I do not disagree with most things he has been doing, nor do I doubt his strong commitment to leave his mark on the polity, but in his 22 months in power, it is his enemies who feel emboldened, and his own party workers who feel discouraged and disempowered. If Modi has not noticed, it is his own party workers who are most disappointed in him. A party that is so despondent cannot enthuse the country.

Worse, when the PM doesn’t communicate, lumpen elements fill the gap - causing his image real damage. A case in point is the reward announced by a party worker for those willing to kill Kanhaiya Kumar, or the guy (thankfully expelled) who wanted to cut off his tongue.

These are danger signals Modi must note. His agenda is being hijacked by lumpen elements precisely because he has given them space by interpreting his role as only working hard - and not communicating and setting the agenda.

There are five things Modi has to be  conscious about, and for this introspection is more important than hard work.

One, he has to devote time and energy almost every day to communicate - and not only through Twitter. This is fine for delivering safe, politically correct homilies, but they are not effective to project the idea of a man in charge and for staying in touch with his people. Twitter is a 140-character bulletin board, especially when politicians use the medium only to state what they want to say and not communicate and engage. Despite his millions of Twitter followers, Modi’s Twitter persona is a near waste of time. His followers are “followers” only to the extent ordinary people get a thrill out of being in touch with famous people - not about effective engagement and two-way communication.

Two, Modi is not expected to be superman or someone who has to be right always. He can make mistakes, and to admit the human tendency to make mistakes is not a weakness. Modi needs to bring out his human persona, and not his superhuman workholism, to the public. When he occasionally apologises for errors, he will be lauded, not criticised. No one in India will hold him respopnsible for occasional goofups or mistakes. They will only find him wanting when he fails to communicate and explain.

A case in point is his alleged promise to bring back black money hoarded abroad that would effectively put Rs 15 lakh in the accounts of all Indians. It is obvious he cannot do this, but his silence on what he intends to do is helping his enemies paint him as one who makes tall promises but does not deliver. Modi needs to speak about this, explain why he may have exaggerated to make a point, but also outline what he is actually doing to bring that money back - however little that may be. People are logical enough to accept that he can’t deliver pie-in-the-sky, but will think the worst if he does not talk about it at all. His enemies will ensure no one forgets about it. So it is important for him to bring it up himself.

Three, he has to be more accessible to his own grassroot workers. He should remember that it was their enthusiasm that left the party with no option but to make him its prime ministerial nominee when powerful vested interests  were plotting to derail him.

Modi should ask himself: if he does not water the roots of his own support base - the party worker - can he ever win 2019?

Four, Modi must be equally accessible to his bureaucrats and his ministers, and his MPs, for engagement with them is the key to his future success. His intimidating workstyle may get babus and ministers to workstations at 9am everyday, but hours spent at work may not deliver as good results as the quality of the effort made during a normal workday. Most babus probably stay long hours pretending to work and impress the boss; they may not be using their hours effectively.

To get them really engaged with their work, Modi must meet them repeatedly and ask them two simple questions every time: what is stopping you from achieving more, and what can I do that will enable you to perform? If these questions are asked repeatedly of babus and ministers, Modi will be effectively creating a new work culture in government that will focus effort towards achieving common goals. The state will become stronger and more effective.

Fifth, and most important. Modi must fearlessly demand feedback on what people see as his strengths and weaknesses that he must avoid. Babus and netas may be afraid of giving this feedback, but if needed, Modi should ask for anonymous feedback in sealed covers so that no one feels intimidated. Modi cannot succeed if he does not play to his strengths or work his way around his weaknesses. And he can know about both only from inviting feedback - genuine feedback.

Modi is wasting his 18 hours of work by being invisible to his party workers,  support base, babus and ministers. His work is not just about running the PMO efficiently, but about talking to his people consistently and courageously. Every hour he spends talking to his support base and the country on important issue will give him better political outcomes than every day he spends in the PMO.

He should take two hours off from his 18-hour workday to ask himself four questions daily.

#1: What have I achieved today?

#2: How much of my time been productive? How much has gone into routine tasks and how much into gamechanging areas?

#3: Who have I empowered today?

#4: What are the issues being flagged by the media and others, and how should I address them?

These ideas are standard in books about managing oneself and not something I have discovered. I recommend two articles by Peter Drucker (Managing Oneself) and another by Clayton Christensen (How Will You Measure You Life?) for Modi’ bookshelf. It will take him less than two hours to read them on his first day of introspection.

The essential questions Modi should ask himself is how he is managing himself, and how he will measure his own success or failure during the five years he has been given by the citizens of India in May 2014. Time is running out. He has only three years and two months left. He has to make them the most productive time of his life.