S. Jaishankar: The Diplomat Who Read the Room Before He Read the Terms

    How S. Jaishankar's handling of the 2017 Doklam standoff and his book The India Way reveal Political Awareness in action — understanding power, listening across stakeholders, and finding outcomes both sides can live with.

    S. Jaishankar: The Diplomat Who Read the Room Before He Read the Terms

    S. Jaishankar: The Diplomat Who Read the Room Before He Read the Terms

    In 2017, Indian and Chinese troops stood face to face on a Himalayan plateau called Doklam for seventy-three days, and the world braced for the first real war between the two Asian giants in decades. It didn't happen. One of the quiet reasons it didn't is a diplomat named S. Jaishankar — and the way he resolved that crisis is the clearest lesson in Political Awareness I know.

    In short

    Where this sits on your Winning Kite

    Political Awareness is the seventeenth trait on the EQ — left — side of your Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework). Remember how the kite flies: Success sits at the top, held up by EQ on the left, RQ on the right, and PQ at the base. You don't rise on any one string alone — you rise on balance. Political Awareness is one of the strongest EQ strings you can add, because it turns self-awareness and empathy outward, onto the real structure of power around you. Jaishankar didn't just understand what he felt in that negotiating room. He understood what everyone else in the room needed, and what they could not afford to lose.

    The Diplomat Who Understood the Room

    S. Jaishankar served as India's Foreign Secretary and later as Minister of External Affairs. He is a career diplomat, not a politician who wandered into foreign policy — and that distinction matters, because it means his entire working life has been an exercise in reading power without holding much of it directly. A diplomat cannot order another country to do anything. A diplomat has to persuade, anticipate, and manoeuvre. That is Political Awareness in its purest, highest-stakes form.

    During his tenure, Jaishankar played a central role in several high-profile diplomatic missions. The one that shows his political savvy most vividly is the resolution of the Doklam standoff with China in 2017 — a seventy-three-day military face-off on a plateau at the junction of India, China and Bhutan, triggered when Indian troops stopped a Chinese road-building crew from extending a road through disputed territory. Both nuclear-armed neighbours had troops eyeball to eyeball. Commentators on both sides speculated openly about war. And yet, it ended not with a battle, but with both militaries quietly withdrawing, and both governments finding language that let each side claim it had defended its position.

    That outcome does not happen by accident. It happens because someone in the room understands the underlying power dynamics of global politics well enough to find the one door that both sides can walk through without losing face.

    The Skill Behind the Resolution: Listening Longer Than Anyone Else

    What made Jaishankar effective wasn't aggression or clever wordplay. He had a reputation for being a skilled listener and for taking the time to understand the viewpoints of different stakeholders — not just China's official position, but the domestic pressures on Beijing, the regional anxieties of Bhutan, and the expectations of the Indian public and military simultaneously. That is a demanding, multi-layered kind of listening. You are not just hearing words; you are mapping interests, egos, red lines and face-saving needs, often for three or four parties at once.

    This is exactly the definition of political savvy I teach in workshops: political awareness means understanding how things work in the organisation — who has power, and what the potential challenges and opportunities are. Political savvy means being able to use that knowledge to build relationships, influence decisions, and achieve your goals. Jaishankar had both. He understood the landscape, and he knew how to move within it without triggering an explosion.

    The India Way: His Own Words on Political Savvy

    Jaishankar later wrote a book, The India Way: Strategies for an Uncertain World, where he lays out his philosophy directly. He stresses that understanding the larger forces at play — global power shifts, changing economic dynamics, the interests that sit beneath the stated positions of nations — is crucial for effective negotiation and decision-making. He is, in effect, telling every reader: don't negotiate the surface issue. Negotiate the real one, the one hiding underneath it.

    That's not a diplomat's trick. That's a workplace truth. When two department heads clash over a budget line, the surface issue is money. The real issue is usually territory, recognition, or fear of being seen as weak in front of their own teams. The manager who spots that distinction, the way Jaishankar spots it between nations, is the one who actually resolves the conflict instead of just refereeing it.

    Why This Is Political Awareness, Not Manipulation

    I want to be precise about this, because "political awareness" makes some people uncomfortable — it sounds like office scheming. It isn't. Jaishankar's success in the field of diplomacy demonstrates the value of political savvy in achieving professional success by developing a deep understanding of the political realities in his field, so that he could build effective relationships and achieve real objectives — ultimately contributing to the success of India's foreign policy. Nobody was deceived. Nobody was cornered into a bad deal. The skill was in understanding reality accurately enough that a genuinely good outcome became possible.

    Contrast this with what I see constantly in Indian workplaces: talented people who assume that good work alone will be noticed and rewarded, and who ignore the actual structure of decision-making around them. I've told this story in trainings many times — Ankit, a strong performer, builds an excellent relationship with his local manager Priyanka, who genuinely values him. But Ankit never makes the effort to build a relationship with Brijesh, Priyanka's boss at the corporate office, who is the one who actually decides salary hikes. Ankit isn't dishonest or lazy. He is simply politically unaware. He mapped only one layer of the hierarchy, and his career growth stalled because of it. Jaishankar, by contrast, never mistakes the visible layer of a negotiation for the real one.

    What This Looks Like on an Indian Shop Floor or Office Floor

    You don't need a Himalayan standoff to practise this. I've watched it play out with a friend of mine, Mr. Amar, who runs an infrastructure company, Mrityunjay Infra, bidding for contracts in Maharashtra's power sector. He came from a farming background with zero industry contacts, entering a market run by entrenched contractor lobbies, local politicians and career engineers who weren't eager to let a newcomer in. Amar didn't fight the system publicly or complain about unfairness. He studied it — who actually held influence over which decisions, who could open which doors — and built relationships accordingly. He identified the key players, understood where the real power sat, and worked with patience instead of pressure. That is the same discipline Jaishankar applied at the India–China border, scaled down to a state electricity board tender.

    Or take the training-center example I use often: you propose a workshop to a college's lecturers, they say they'll "check with the HOD," and you never hear back. If you had mapped the real power structure, you'd have known the lecturers and even the HOD were never the actual decision-makers — the principal or owner was. Political awareness would have taken you straight to the person who could say yes, instead of leaving you waiting on people who never had the authority to say it.

    How to Build This Trait, Practically

    What Jaishankar DidHow You Apply It at Work
    Mapped power beyond the obvious title (Beijing's domestic pressures, Bhutan's anxieties)Identify who really influences a decision, not just who signs it
    Listened longer than he spoke, across multiple stakeholdersIn a conflict, ask each side what they fear losing before proposing a fix
    Understood larger economic and power shifts before negotiating specificsUnderstand your company's real priorities before pitching an idea
    Found language that let both sides claim dignity in the outcomeDesign solutions that let both colleagues save face, not just "win"

    Political Awareness sits alongside other EQ traits like empathy and self-awareness in the Winning Kite framework — and it's a discipline I return to often in my corporate leadership workshops, because I've watched it change careers faster than almost any other single skill. Daniel Goleman, whose work first brought emotional intelligence into mainstream management thinking, described social awareness as reading the emotional currents and power relationships in a group — and Jaishankar is as good a living case study of that as any I've found in global affairs.

    The Line I Keep Coming Back To

    Political awareness and savvy are not only essential for diplomats and entrepreneurs, they are essential for every leader and working professional trying to become a star at work. It enables you to navigate complex power dynamics, build relationships, and influence decision-making effectively. When you understand the political landscape of your workplace, you identify key players, anticipate roadblocks, and make informed decisions — and in doing so, you demonstrate exactly the kind of emotional intelligence that gets people promoted, trusted, and remembered.

    Jaishankar didn't win at Doklam by being the loudest voice at the table. He won by understanding, more precisely than anyone else in the room, what every party actually needed to walk away with. That is Political Awareness. And it is learnable — it starts the next time you're in a meeting and choose to ask one more question about who really decides, before you say a word about what you want.

    Want to see how Political Awareness connects to the other 24 traits on the EQ side of the kite, and how RQ and PQ complete the picture? Explore the Winning Kite (KITE Leadership Framework), or bring this training directly to your team through our Signature Programs. For a full list of what we cover in corporate sessions, see All Corporate Training Topics, or simply get in touch.

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    Avinash Chate

    TEDx Speaker · Founder, The Future Corporate · Author of Stars at India Inc.

    Avinash has trained the Indian Army, BRO, RBI, BARC, JSW Steel and 1000+ corporate leaders across India. His work focuses on leadership, emotional intelligence and behavioural training rooted in Indian values and modern business needs.

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Who is S. Jaishankar and why does Avinash Chate use him as an example of Political Awareness?

    S. Jaishankar is India's Minister of External Affairs, a career diplomat and former Foreign Secretary who played a central role in resolving the 2017 Doklam standoff with China. Avinash Chate uses him in Stars at India Inc. as the sharpest real-world illustration of Trait #17, Political Awareness, Savvy and Intelligence — because Jaishankar didn't win at the table through force, he won by understanding power, patience and the other side's real position before he ever proposed a solution.

    What is Political Awareness in the Winning Kite framework?

    Political Awareness is Trait #17 on the EQ (left) side of the Winning Kite. It means understanding how power, hierarchy, culture and social networks actually operate inside an organisation or negotiation — who really decides, who influences the decider, and what each stakeholder genuinely needs — and then using that understanding, ethically, to build relationships and move your goals forward. It is not office manipulation; it is emotional intelligence applied to power.

    What lesson does the Doklam standoff teach working professionals in India?

    Doklam teaches that the person who understands the underlying power dynamics, listens longer than everyone else in the room, and refuses to be rushed into a public loss of face for either side, is the person who finds the exit that both parties can live with. At work, this shows up in stalled projects, cross-department turf wars and vendor negotiations: the resolution rarely comes from who argues loudest, it comes from who has mapped the real interests underneath the positions.

    How can I build Political Awareness like Jaishankar did?

    Start by mapping your workplace: who has formal authority, who has informal influence, and where do their interests overlap or clash with yours. Listen more than you speak in high-stakes conversations. Read the other side's real constraints, not just their stated demand. Build relationships with decision-makers before you need something from them. Avinash Chate covers this in depth in his Signature Leadership Programs and corporate workshops on the Winning Kite framework.

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