Lots of talks about development happen in tea shops of Nepal. Everyone has his ‘right’ way  to develop the nation. It seems everyone knows how politicians should be and the kind of leadership they should adhere to.

     Mahesh Koirala

I would like to discuss about two kinds of political leadership-Transactional and Transformative, though leadership may have different kinds. Transactional leadership focuses on supervision, organization, and performance while Transformational Leadership identifies needed change and has a vision to bring it.

Transactional Political Leadership is responsive, ie. it responds to the present need of people by definition; in reality, to the needs of party’s cadres. In Nepal and in almost everywhere, politicians cater to their own needs. When they seem to do anything for the country, it is actually a transaction. “Give me what I want, I give you unlawfully what you can lawfully get.” is the inner recorder repeatedly playing in them.

Transactional political leaders in Nepal are in politics to exercise power, they are not there to serve. Politics is a business and not service, often the most lucrative one, which can be done without any skills but manipulating people and power, for transactional leaders. These type of leaders are motivated by petty desires, limited within themselves.

Transformative Leadership in Politics can be seen in rarest of times and rarest of people. This political leadership which aims “to transform” is able to visualize future and rise above petty desires. A wise man said political leaders should be such that they should lead people to where they should be, not to where they want to be. This is the quality of Transformative Leadership. Nepal has been facing a drought in this kind of leadership since long; however, few leaders in recent times have shown small signs of this kind of leadership in them.

Transformative leaders envision future and have deep understanding that positive change is the only way to augment economy and power of a country. Western countries were able to see future and transform themselves accordingly. Political history is full of epoch changing events that happened due to forceful action of visionary leaders, who faced fiercest opposition in the process. So, rather than vaguely and superficially talking about politics in tea shops to kill time, it is high time for people to identify transformative leaders and vote for them in coming elections.

This article was written by Mahesh Koirala. For more contact him at maheshkoirala2000@yahoo.com