Why the man who lives by the ‘serve to deserve’ principle deserves a chance

To do what’s right than what appears to be right is a deeply spiritual and personal choice that we must all learn to make.  

I don’t write on politics. So this post is not about the political context of the occasion – the upcoming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu.

Raja Krishnamoorthy

This post is about a man who I have known for close to two decades now and who I have great admiration for: Raja Krishnamoorthy. He’s a HR Thought Leader by learning and from experience, he’s an actor by choice and a lover of Life – intuitively inspired by people and nature. He’s now an Independent candidate for the Velachery Assembly Constituency that covers a substantial part of South Chennai including Adyar, Thiruvanmiyur and Besant Nagar. Through this post, I share the Life lessons that I have learnt from Raja and perhaps, through my sharing, you may get an intimate and personal view of who the man is. (Disclosure/Disclaimer: I don’t live in the Velachery Constituency area and Raja is not aware that I am writing this blogpost!)

Raja and I work in the same space – HR, Organizational Transformation, Change Management. Both of us are well-known speakers and are often invited to deliver Talks at various forums. But that’s today. If I am an inspired speaker or a respected professional in the HR and Workplace Happiness (our niche) arena, it is only because Raja has enriched me with his presence and given me the space to grow. I have literally learnt sitting at his feet. Now unless a guru allows such an opportunity how can any shishya ever evolve? So, Raja’s greatest quality is that he’s deeply compassionate. He’s a genuine, self-less giver.

Raja is not someone who wants to impress anyone either with his expressiveness as an actor or his oratorical brilliance. Whatever he says comes from deep within him, from his soul – so it resonates instantaneously with anyone who is seeking and is tuned in. He taught me the value of learning to first ‘serve’ before you say that you ‘deserve’. Until he pointed it out to me, I didn’t quite realize that the word ‘deserve’ would be impossible to spell without ‘serve’ in it. But he urged me to look beyond the spelling and construction of the word. He taught me to understand the opportunity in offering oneself to the Universe, every single time we do something. It may be the work we do, it may the food we make, it may be gardening, it may be tipping someone who’s been helpful, it may be singing or it may be delivering a Talk or taking a picture – whatever you do, offer it as a service. When my wife Vaani and I began a cathartic phase (that we are still enduring) of our Life, this ‘serve to deserve’ principle of Raja’s helped us anchor ourselves. We are still struggling to put our bankrupt business back on track, trying to be successful in a financial and material way, but success (per the worldly sense) is eluding us. So, employing Raja’s principle, we flipped the paradigm and decided to be useful and not just try to be successful. So, we engage with people and communities every single day – even if it is not financially rewarding – and serve by sharing what we have learnt from Life. {I have acknowledged this paradigm shift in detail, and Raja’s role in it, in my Book ‘Fall Like A Rose Petal’ (Westland).} Raja lives by the ‘serve to deserve’ principle, every moment of every single day!

The third, and perhaps most significant, quality about Raja is that he truly fits management guru Noel Tichy’s definition of leadership – he has the ability to see reality and mobilize the appropriate response. So, his leadership skills are not confined by space or time. They are driven by his deep sense of purpose to serve and his unquestionable personal integrity. If he sees something as right he will do it, no matter what. And if he sees something as wrong he will stand up against it. He has the courage – not bravado – to say what he wants to say. I remember, during the 2014 general elections, at a time when there was considerable euphoria over the meteoric rise of the Aam Aadmi Party, he took a principled stand to withdraw from supporting the party’s campaign in Chennai. But he did that by openly writing to Arvind Kejriwal. He didn’t say an extra word and nor did he flirt with other political opportunities. He simply went back to doing what he loves doing – which is living fully, excited about Life, each moment. And there’s a learning here on leadership again – a great leader is one who not only knows what to do and when to do it, but also clearly knows what not to do and why not to do it too!

I believe that within the three qualities of compassion, the willingness to serve and purpose-driven, values-based leadership that Raja has, we, as a people, have an opportunity. There may be the oft-repeated argument that electing one Independent candidate cannot change a well-entrenched and horribly-wrongly-engineered political system. So it may appear to be right to ignore the value that an Independent brings to the table. But engaging with Raja means being part of the change we so desperately seek. It means making that deeply spiritual and personal choice to be the change ourselves. To do what’s right than what appears to be right.