1. Are you a leader, born or cultivated or both? How do you characterize your leadership traits based on the leadership profiles presented by Narayana Murthy and Rahul Khosla?

In-born Leadership Traits

Leadership Style, Inspirational Style, Imagination, Self Invention, Self- Organization Style, Convincing power, Moral Commitments I think the my leadership

quality is generated from my inherent characters and the from the learning cultivated throughout my professional

and personal life.Cultivated Leadership

Elements

Proper Behaviour, Setting up goals and purposes, Moral Sensitiveness, People Accountability, Understanding psychological drift of followers, Use of Leadership powers, Teamwork skills, Ethics of change

Personal Leadership Traits based on N.Murthy Leadership Profile

Rewarding Meritocracy, Honesty and Loyalty, Encouraging Participative style of decision making, Having own clear Vision and Goal, Creating a Unified Goal for Followers and Leading them towards it, Offering value to customers, Unity among diversity

Essentially Mr Murthy’s style of leadership is more directed

to Social commitment and Reward Oriented. This in-turn helps to groom up raw Talents

and motivates them to be focused towards a common

goal.

Personal Leadership Traits based on R.Khosla Leadership Profile

Personally inspired for better performance, Result driven by taking Calculated Risk, Clear Communication with all the levels, Ability to spot talent and groom the individual, cultivating Responsible leadership style

Mr Khosla’s style of leadership is Performance

driven, Result is the key factor and Grooming Healthy

competitive spirit for the well being of the Organization.

2. Mindful leaders, says Rahul Khosla (ibid), learn constantly and the richness and diversity of their experience enhances their effectiveness progressively. How will you structure and embellish your leadership traits with experience and exposure of the past?

Leadership Quality Cultivated through Experience

Cultivated through Past Exposure

HonestyImparted through Teachings by Parents, Teachers and proper guidance by Superiors

Realized the importance and weightage of this trait by facing situations of ethical dilemma both in personal and professional lives

Communication

Learnt attributes of responsible behaviour while communicating with others during study life; Learnt the technical features of communication through soft skill development studies.

Practiced effective way of communication in order to relate my views with my office peers and superiors; Self- Learning through Training and feedback from team members and creating a productive work environment depending upon good communication skill.

Commitment

This is the thing which has

driven me in pursuing higher

education by dedicating

myself completely; Factored

by setting up Aims and

working towards achieving

these goals; Have taken so

many leadership roles in

professional life to convince

the superiors and peers to

achieve the unified goal.

Self Learned by leading other peers

through examples in various team

work situations; Delivered quality

responsible work with peak amount

of hard-work and the proper focus.

Confidence

Undertaken challenging tasks

and delivered quality output in

time; Maintained Calmness

and Collected thought

processing under unfavourable

circumstances.

As a Leader of planning team, have

worked towards quality result with

optimistic view and keeping up

Team Morale; During tough

situations, assured team members

that only who work they fail and the

important thing is to learning from

mistake and to focus on the larger

goal

Ability to Delegate

Held various leadership roles

and Captained teams thereby

indulging in situations of team

work where collective efforts

were utmost important;

Imparted Mutual Trust

within Team to inculcate

intrinsic strength

Under team settings, have

understood strengths of team

members and capitalized on them;

Work can be handled more

efficiently by delegating on

strengths, thereby reducing the

efforts behind it.

Intuition

At unknown situation guided

the team through guts and

calculated risk based on past

experiences; Reached out to

various superiors or SBU

heads to get their input.

Inculcated the ability to Trust

myself during tough situations;

Developed good reflex based

decision making through past

exposure

Ability to Inspire

Through Education and past

experiences, have learnt

different facets of inspiring

team members; Honed ability

for people accountability and

democratic methodology of

leadership for collective

involvement

Have developed the ability to

forecast based on past exposures, to

share the vision with my team;

Developed ability to acknowledge

and appreciate quality work

delivered by members and reward

them

Positive Attitude

In order to inculcate Positivity into others my own thinking process has to be in the right frame of mind; Have learnt the art of balancing work and social life in order to better deliver my work

Learnt to maintain the fine balance between productivity and playfulness while working in team settings; Incorporated positive frame of mind while working within a diverse team environment

Creativity Out of Box thinking – on basis of trust on own intuition and abilities, has driven me to nurture my creativity.

Decision making under various types tough situations demands critical thinking abilities which has improved to develop my creativity.

3. What is ethical versus moral versus corporate leadership, and how do you map your life along these three paths? [See Table 9.3].

Dimensions Corporate Leadership

Ethical Leadership

Moral Leadership

Self- Mapping

Nature

Is Multifaceted involving concept, construct, model, paradigm and Exercises influence in the choice of means and ends

Is Multifaceted involving elements of Diversity of Attitudes, Values, Cultures and Exercises Moral influence in the choice of means and ends.

Is Multifaceted involving parameters of Religious beliefs, conscience, virtues, and integrity and Exercises Moral principles and improves communities of humans.

My Basic leadership style belongs to Corporate leadership style. Mainly result driven by utilizing various means. However, at the time of leading team members from diverse communities and nationalities Ethics and Morality also become important dimensions.

Entity of Influence

The leader follows

principles of the

corporate he/she

represents while

making decisions and

exerting influences

on subordinates.

The leader

follows Ethical

principles while

imparting

corporate

decisions on

followers and

subordinates.

The Leader

follows Moral

Principles to

induce and

influence

followership

based on

attitudes,

beliefs,

intentions and

values.

My basic

leadership style

belongs to

Moral

Principles

while taking

Decisions or

Facing

Dilemmas

under corporate

environment.

Style of Leadership

Leadership style

involves ways such

as Incentive,

Rewards, Force, and

Promises to

influence leader

follower relationship.

Leadership style

involves

Impression,

Inspiration,

Incentives, and

Persuasion that

must be Ethical in

motives.

Leadership

style involves

Organization,

Council,

Persuasion, and

Incentives that

must be Moral

in Content.

My leadership

style is

generally

Inspirational,

Reward based

and

Persuasive.

While

addressing

diversity and

variety of

thoughts my

style

incorporates

Ethical and

Moral values.

Scope Of Leadership

Employer/

Employees,

Suppliers/Distributor

Leadership in Ideas,

Technology,

Innovation and

Prosperity.

Encompasses

scope such as

Local/Global,

Supplier/Distribut

or. Ethical

Leadership

however caters to

global

communities Vs

Local, and works

for Global

Sustainability

Encompasses

scope such as

Families/

Communities of

Suppliers and

Distributors.

Leadership in

wisdom,

integrity and

sharing.

My leadership

style is

essentially

Corporate

style. It

incorporates

Corporate

Values,

Sustainability

Principles and

Giving back to

the community.

Prime Motive behind

Control of Follower

behaviour,

popularity,

Following Fair

Trade Principles,

fulfilling rights

Following

Moral Principle

of Trade,

The Prime

motive behind

my leadership

Leadership reputation, wealth,

benefits and loyalty.

and duties, doing

right/just things

Inclusive

growth of the

communities

involved

style is Sense

of following

fair principles,

Deliver

goodwill for

the society and

being Ethically

balanced.

4. Some twenty five years ago, Robert Greenleaf spoke and wrote about servant leadership. How do you understand, apply and verify it in your life up to now?

According to Patterson’s working theory of servant leadership, the definition of servant leadership is as follows:

Servant leaders are those who serve with a focus on the followers, whereby the followers are the primary concern and the organizational concerns are peripheral. The servant leader constructs are virtues, which are defined as the good moral quality in a person, or the general quality of goodness, or moral excellence.

Dimensions of Servant Leadership

Major Philosophy/ Understanding

Mapping to my Life and Verifying the Experiences

Necessity of Leadership

Legitimate absolute power is irrelevant and becomes an Ethical imperative. Leader or Follower is expected to always Listen, Search, Give and Expect.

Whenever I have acted as team leader role, in the absence of the assigned authority, the servant leadership style was followed.

Focus of Leadership

Servant is the first priority and inspired by the desire to Serve. The service must be selfless and involve collective enthusiasm. The nature of relationship is essentially Relational.

Sometimes, when I as a team leader found that one of the team member could not attend the responsibilities given, I have volunteered as much as possible without any expectation only except mutual admiration.

Characteristic of Leadership

Positive, affirmative, inspiring. This kind of leadership is prophetic and driven by inspiration than rationalism. Helps the follower to grow in faith,

During performance review meetings or during any project status review meeting, I always highlighted fruitful performances and unique contributions by

hope, self-esteem and most importantly freedom.

juniors which in turn gives confidence to them and improves mutual understandings also.

Challenges to Leadership

The ethical failure persists as long as the world is occupied by the marginalized and the powerless. People are continually exploited and discriminated. Ethical and Moral Challenges lie in followers responding only to those individuals who are chosen as leaders because they have proven worthy.

While leading team members belonging to diverse communities, at times I had to assign responsibilities based not on skill sets but on their community background. No rational thought process there, just simply discrimination.

Impact of LeadershipSignificance of this leadership is serving a community having a common journey. The leader sets a vision and directs the team members and the community involved towards achieving the common destiny. Thus, Servant leadership can transform Global capitalism, to serve better the whole of humanity.

At the time of taking various management decisions, care is taken such that outcome of the process leaves a positive impact on the immediate community involved. More so, the process is well documented such that in future the process can be enhanced and better utilized for the betterment of the whole community.

5. Leadership is both an art and a science. Delineate the art features of your leadership style as well its science features. What do you see and learn from the past, and how do you plan for effective leadership for the future that is a convex combination of art and science?

Leadership Dimensions Learning from Past Experiences

Requirements for Implementation Plan for

the Future

Communication (Art)Involves the psychology reading of the listener and also the expectation of them.

Need to understand the Body Dialect as effective communication is built with help of it and also fulfils the expectation of the audience.

Persuasiveness (Art)

Involves both intra Team and inter team negotiation skills. One has to address and empathize the degrees of demands of both the client and the service provider in

Need to understand the varying degrees of priorities involved for negotiating pointer. Understanding such a priority is much of an Art

equanimity. and involves Mind reading, Facial gesture recognition and Body language attributes.

Creativity(Art)

Under circumstances where traditional solutions become in applicable, thinking out of the box involves creativity. This creativity in turn involves knowledge and relational aspects across different domains of technology and ideas.

Need to enhance my imagination and objective relational skill sets. As my past experiences has been diverse, relating learning’s from diverse domains and creating solutions for seemingly unsolvable problems is much an Art.

Intuition (Science)

Past experiences have honed my reflexive decision making ability. Moreover, a mindset is created where probable outcomes are already known within that in turn makes the decision making process more efficient.

Need to understand the qualitative and quantitative aspects of decision making processes. This will in turn enhance my intuitive abilities and further my understanding of building effective intuition based on learning from past experiences.

Ability to Delegate (Science)

Essentially involves understanding of Team dynamics and postulate the strengths and weaknesses of team members. Delegating work based on such factors, makes the whole exercise enjoyable and interesting.

Need to better understand and address the diversity among international team settings. Certain cultures and communities have inherent strengths and weaknesses, if known will certainly make the process simpler and efficient.

Ability to Inspire (Art + Science)

People need to feel that they are involved in the decision making process and end results obtained. Hence accountability of people is also involved. More so, ability to forecast a Common vision for the team certainly inspires them for long term results.

Need to understand the deficiencies of the team as a whole. Thus, making the team realize their shortcomings will better prepare them for the shared vision and give them freedom to be creative.

Commitment ( Art + Science)

It comes from practice and past experiences. However, one can benefit from techniques of meditation and focus. Thus, one is better involved with the work and enjoys it thoroughly.

Better understand the nature and scope of work in hand. This will ultimately help in creating a work break down structure and make individual tasks simpler. Thus, enhancing the commitment towards the

final goal.

Honesty ( Art + Science)

It cannot be taught but can be acquired and inherited. People have varying degrees of honesty and this can be well accessed in team environment.

Better understand Team dynamics, so that members with this prominent quality can be suitably rewarded and made as role models for the organization.

Confidence ( Art + Science)

It encompasses all the leadership qualities mentioned. A befitting leader will have proportionate qualities that in turn will mould into supreme confidence.

As I will subsequently fulfil the requirements of all the qualities mentioned above, this will in turn hone my leadership skills. Thus, I will emerge as a Supremely confident individual.

6. According to Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (2010), leaders create meaning, communicate it effectively, and realize it in themselves and their followers. How will you understand, apply and verify this form of leadership in your life up to now, as well as plan for the future? [See Table 9.5].

Leadership Activity Dimensions

Understanding, Application and Verification Based on

Experiences

Implementation Plan for the Future

Creation of a Vision

Leaders make Vision based on Big Ideas which are exciting to the people. The whole creative process of vision development consists of stages like observing, reflecting, writing, speaking. A powerful Vision attracts people to join that organization and motivates them to deliver better resulting growth of the business.

Better effective communication skills, understanding the demnd of the business and the way to relate it with people.

Creation of Mission

Successful leaders build strong organization culture by implementing the Vision into Mission Statement which should address the business, product and he stake holders.

Clearly understand the Vision and the Values of the organization which will in turn help in formulating effective communication strategy with team members and drive them passionately towards a common End result.

Creation of ObjectivesAn organization has Business, Product, Market,

Along with the mentioned goals , sustainability goals

Customer and Profitability goals. An effective leader has to prioritize and pursue all these goals based on what the organization demands.

and ecology goals are also need to be addressed through the implementation plan.

Design of the Organization

Effective leaders Structure their Organization for better Communication, Productivity and Innovation. As the design evolves most organizations have elements of hierarchy, flexible and organic structures.

Better understanding of complexities of various types of organization to learn individual benefits and disadvantages. Apply and track results both in terms of monetary involvement and well being of the community.

Design of Organization Process

Effective leaders carefully choose Inputs/ Drivers for the organizational processes. These inputs are based on Core Values, Duties and Responsibilities and Design and Development policies of the organization. Hence, a framework of Organizational processes are evolved that involve New Product Development, Quality Control methodologies, Product Expansion and Growth and Creativity and Innovation.

Enhance personal skill set for various Organization

process methodologies such as MIS, Variance analysis,

Company budget, CRM compliance etc. Become

Central Planner in order to better guide various

departments and Projects within the organization.

Organizational Performance Measurement

Involves various facets of performance measurement such as Revenue and Growth, Market Share and Capitalization, Return on Quality and Assets, Price/ Earnings Ratio, Order booking, Customer complaint . Effective leader is able to grasp the relevant information and create a yardstick for accessing the Performance of the organization as a whole.

Integrate (inter/intra) Customer review and Feedback mechanisms to various functional units of the Business. This will help in maximising the performance by accessing the Gaps and addressing the weaknesses.