Inspiring Leaders: IVDP's Kulandei Francis

In my recent work trip to Tamil Urdu in Southern India, I had the good fortune of meeting Mr. Kulandei Francis, the founder of Integrated Village Development Project (IVDP) in Krishnagiri district.  It's not very often that one gets to meet inspirational leaders who are truly making a difference in their community, and I felt very lucky to have a chance to be in Mr. Francis' presence.

Mr. Francis is the 2012 winner of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award, and has an amazing life story.  He was the only child in his poor family to have an university degree, and started out as a pastor.  After preaching Christianity for awhile, he decided that preaching is not enough...he wanted to do more!  He eloquently said, "helping hands are holier than praying lips", pulled up his sleeves, and in 1979 started IVDP, a network of self-help women group.  He painstakingly educated the community about issues that will help the community and made available products that will improve their lives (i.e. sanitary napkins, d.light solar lanterns, water purifier...etc.)  Just imagine how a man can start discussing the topic of menstrual cycle and use of sanitary napkins in a community where the topic is taboo and women don't even wear underwear!  THAT is an extreme behavior change and a marketer's ultimate challenge!

His organization is now entirely self-sustaining, and he re-invest any profit back to the community. All the women in his community now uses sanitary napkin, and he has boldly proclaimed that he wants to eradicate kerosene in his district; in fact, he's already 1/3 way there!!!  It's truly amazing what 1 individual, with determination and strategic approach, can achieve.  In the international development space, "scale" is the talk of the town; however, have we underestimated the power of   changes drip by drip, which ultimately change the world?

Can One "Live" on Charisma?

Working with d.light has given me a chance to take a peek through the keyhole into the start up world.  It's a fascinating space with quite a lot of interesting characters!  What really intrigued me though, is this idea of "serial entrepreneurs".  There are so many of them!!  Certainly quite a number of them have accomplished a lot, but I've also observed a large amount who live quite well with investor money and jump from one project to another without really achieving anything substantial.  Their supposed past "success" are often indicated by the size (revenue) of their business, but the thing is, you can have a decent size business while still making a loss (for the investor) or the revenue could be unsustainable, which, in all my past education / training, wouldn't put a business like that in the "success" category.

What is so intriguing to me is that "jumping from job to job" typically is frown upon in the corporate world because it means you are not good at any of the job or has itchy feet (i.e. unreliable)...however, being a serial entrepreneur and "jumping from venture to venture" seems to be something embraced in the start up circle.  If you jump from one job to another int he corporate world, you possibly will get stuck at a level eventually and couldn't move on.  But if you jump from one failed venture to another as an entrepreneur, you're tagged as experienced and get speaking engagements.  Such a drastic contract on how the same behavior is received in 2 different world!

One thing I did notice about serial entrepreneurs is their charisma.  They are usually extremely articulate and powerful public speakers who exude passion and confidence.  They can make a vegetarian believe that going to Fogo de Chao might be a good choice for lunch spot and give Chinese parent hope that their straight C daughter has a chance to become a doctor!

I recall from years back hearing some friends in the investor circle and organizations like Ashoka say that they place strong emphasis on the founders & a bit of a gut sometimes when they choose whom they'll invest in (especially for early stage ventures).  While there is undeniably a correlation between strong leadership and business success, I wonder if there is a risk to potentially put too much emphasis on the founders and let one's "gut" be led astray by a nice pitch?  I mean, I wonder how many investors have mistaken charisma for leadership and end up the unexpected sponsor of someone's hobby / business education for 5 year without getting any returns?  I'd be really curious to get the thoughts of those who are in this space either as an entrepreneur or an investor!! (after all, I've only seen about 1% of this world and it can hardly be representative of what's REALLY going on!)

Either way, developing good charisma seems to be a good investment of time for anyone, serial entrepreneur or not.  Here's some tips on the rules of charisma from the book ‘The Charisma Myth’:
• Be present. Give people your full attention. If your mind wanders, refocus by concentrating on physical sensations, like your breathing.
• Exude power and warmth. Adopt a powerful posture (wide stance, straight back, broad shoulders) and cultivate warmth by focusing on three things you like about the other person.
• Accept introversion. If you’re naturally shy, “warm up” before important interactions – visualise moments when you felt confident, or listen to mood-boosting music.
• Be vulnerable. There’s a fine line between charismatic and intimidating. Encourage a human connection with someone by revealing a weakness or sharing an embarrassing secret.
• It’s all in the voice. Create an air of confidence by speaking in a measured tempo and lowering your intonation at the end of sentences. Increasing the warmth in your voice is even easier: just smile.