Management theory and practice has taught us the power of communication skills. Being among the most apparent traits, supervisors and managers were selected primarily on the basis of their ability to put forth ideas and direct subordinates using the right mix of fluent words in the right measure and right quality that will give the desired results. Ideally in English. The need for fluency in English language enhanced in our country in the backdrop of the colonial past; the firm roots of law and technology in that language, and the importance given to it in competitive examinations.

In the corporate world, management trainees had been put through group discussions which resulted, on several occasions, in comic competition to hog the airtime and be noticed by the selectors. Probably led by this tribe, “successful” managers and leaders acquired poetic fluency and loved their own voice and statements over and over at the very hint of a helpless listener. No wonder that every failed organization tended to have mostly noisy performers at best and, at worst, just noise.

It is not as though management theory totally ignored the need and strength of listening which indeed requires an active mind with well structured silence. There is frequent mention of this requirement, albeit, ritualistic. (The song of Simon & Garfunkel was a cry for listening and understanding at the common level.) Listening abilities require the mind to be seeking and the limited words to add fuel to this search – in Buddhist language it is neither “wordiness nor wordlessness”. It would be like a “homam” in search of the truth and the limited words are like butter oil (ghee) that keeps it leap in flames.

The manager who is able to perfect the art of listening would align his thinking actively to seek the mind behind the words coming from the other party. Sometimes, the words match the mind and at others there may be variance. A great listener should be able to understand the mind quicker and better than the words that flow. An advanced and wise listener, in my view, will even be able to relate the entire issue to a larger context and its consequences. Thus, a wise listener not only discovers the asymmetries between words and the mind but their connection with other people, events, interests and welfare at large. He can, by appropriate speech or speechlessness, let wisdom dawn on such a mind by leading the thinking unobtrusively which enable the other party to think than to hear. Such influence over the other mind is indeed the core of power. Power, in many contexts, can be attributed to the might of managing the silence.

Silence has interested philosophers, religious leaders, and ascetics. Silence has led people to nirvana. It is silent reflection that has led to self-discovery, truth and problem solving among great leaders like Gautama Buddha. He was called the “Sakyamuni” for being the silent and saintly one of the Sakya clan. Mahatma Gandhi practiced both silence and fasting to derive power of a different nature. He wrote, “In the attitude of silence the soul finds the path in a clearer light, and what is elusive and deceptive resolves itself into crystal clearness. Our life is a long and arduous quest after Truth“. In the Christian tradition, silence is regarded as the language of Gods.

Silence enables deep reflection and an ability to read messages from even inanimate nature and objects. Noble laureate Herman Hesse in his powerful story “Siddhartha” has the ferryman asking Siddhartha to listen carefully to the river. That the river has taught him and tells him several things. Siddhartha tries but could not hear any thing in the beginning. Eventually, he is able to hear what the river says. It is obvious that the river cannot speak except make decibels out of swirling waters – yet, a message, an idea, a thought, a revelation has probably come through in the process of listening. It is, thus, that objects of art and paintings are able to inspire thought processes without making any noise.

Meditation, which is now being fondly embraced in the US Corporate world in place of coffee breaks, is essentially the art of deriving power from silence. There are, in my view, several ways that silence can actually be eloquent – the silence of acquiescence, the silence of indulgence, the silence of a merciless don, the silence of a non-committal stance etc. We often experience the silence of consideration (the boss who needs to think through the proposal to increase the pension factor), the silence of negation (the silence of a doctor who does not respond if the disease is critical), the silence of affirmation (the love who may not say “yes”).

Lest one truly adopts the position that silence is golden at all times – silence can actually be misused equally well. Thus, in group situations, silence often leads to “group think” that can be disastrous. Silence can give an impression of a consensus that is not there. Members can adopt silence to be able to escape the “omission” which is lighter, if at all, than “commission”. In the suave finance world, silence can be effectively manipulated – it can be interpreted as agreement or disagreement depending on the interest of the other party. Hence, clever people in this world will want to understand the immediate contractual consequences of such silence and be able to protect themselves.

The Britishers’ legacy is hopefully waning away with the depletion of post Independence anglophiles. The bully like supervisor and manager of the Charlie Chaplin`s “Modern Times” era are also becoming inappropriate in the modern world. Communication skills have probably reached a new juncture or phase in which non-communication becomes equally important, if not more. The silence, the pauses, the inflection points, rhythms, its duration and features are all of great importance – for the potential saint, philosopher, corporate leader or even a "cunning" manager.

Communication has to be understood in the shadow of silence. Silence and sound are indeed the Chinese “ying-yan”. In Confucian terms, it is not the spokes which make the wheel – it is also the spaces between the spokes that help make it look like a wheel.

HR managers and management development specialists have only understood the power of communication arising from the past context and cultural demands. They must now research and find ways of teaching silence and its management as an extraordinarily powerful and contemporary skill – focusing on “silence” directly. Not necessarily for enlightenment or nirvana which indeed are personal choices. But for self-development, innovative thinking, empathetic alignment, influencing, scenario building, and problem solving. Are there takers for this hefty challenge that has just not been studied at all?