Rameshwaram to Rashtrapati Bhawan
A long march indeed!
A lad of Rameshwaram
Lord over Rashtrapati Bhawan!
Humbleness in you
Humbled all high and mighty!
A scientist in you set
The nation on motion;
Ignited young minds and set their
Wings on fire!
A musician in you set the
Moghul Garden to blossom!
A statesman in you set the Agenda for
"One land and one billion minds"
Vision -2020!
Leaders of Tomorrow – The Young Minds
Will remember you for ever
Continue your march and Ignite more minds
We are with you, Always!
(on the eve of demitting office by Dr Kalam, 25/07/07)
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Book Review
“Decide to Lead” – A journey to leadership
Leadership is not mystical or mysterious. It is nothing to do with having `charisma’ or other exotic personality traits. It is not the province of chosen few. Consider a simple military analogy: a peacetime army can usually survive with good administration and management up and down the hierarchy, coupled with good leadership concentrated at the very top. A wartime army, however, needs competent leadership at all levels. So, how do we generate more leaders? Here it goes:
The book under review is “Decide to Lead – 8 decisions that can make you a leader” (authored by Sangeeth Varghese, an alumnus of LSE and a founder of LeadCap.org) take the readers through a leadership journey using 4 steps and 8 decisions. The journey starts with `Take the Lead’ by “answering the defining moment”. Every step and decision in this book is demonstrated with a fable and short biography of great leaders. The take out from the fable and real life experience are intertwined with utmost care. That makes the book unputdownable. The author touched upon incident of Mahatma’s life to explain the defining moment. Mahatma was neither born in a family of leaders nor was exemplary in his education. In his own words, he categorized himself as a mediocre student. The job in South Africa was a real blessing and that experience brought total transformation in his life. The moment came when he was reading the collection of essays by John Ruskin of `Unto This Last’ fame. Then whatever happened was all history.
All are not born leaders. The leaders can be made by effective mentoring and it requires nothing but practice. As the author said, fundamentally leadership is like swimming, what is required is practice.
The second decision that can make you a leader is `Buy Low to Sell High’. To explain this decision, the author has adapted a folk tale from Uganda and touched upon the experience of the world’s largest retailer – Sam Walton. A good leader thinks like a good investor. He sees things before others. He buys low and sells high. He undertakes the act of converting something less worthy in the present to something precious in the future. Thus, a leader’s vision is basically a decision to buy low and sell high.
The other decisions viz Embrace high risks to reap higher benefits, Focus sharper to impact greater, sell well to do well, high expectations to gain high performance, Grow to survive and run to win to deliver results. Each of these decisions are very well demonstrated by adapting German Fable, An episode from our own Mahabharata (Arjun’s focus on the eye of the bird), Chinese Tale, Bernard Shaw’s popular play `The Pygmalion’ , A story from the legend Arabian Nights and an Israeli story respectively. Each of these fables is complemented with the incidents happened in the life of great leaders and inventors like Giuseppe Garibaldi, Henry Ford, Emmeline Pankhurst, John F Kennedy, Thomas Alva Edison and Vince Lombardi.
At the end of each decision, the author has interpreted the quotable quotes of renowned personalities in his own style. For instance, “Great visions have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” said Einstein. The author’s take on this is: “Be prepared for opposition”. These steps/quotes enable the readers to continue their journey to leadership, if they practice in real life. In some places, the reader may get a feeling of reading a text book on leadership.
The interesting aspect of this book is simple, easy to understand and linkage of three components viz content of the fable, the experience of great leaders and the theoretical aspect of leadership. As the renowned leadership guru, John P. Kotter, said in his foreword “Don’t just read this book. Do something”. Thus, Let us do something and make India as a nation of leaders – the motto of author’s firm, LeadCap.org
“Decide to Lead” – A journey to leadership
Leadership is not mystical or mysterious. It is nothing to do with having `charisma’ or other exotic personality traits. It is not the province of chosen few. Consider a simple military analogy: a peacetime army can usually survive with good administration and management up and down the hierarchy, coupled with good leadership concentrated at the very top. A wartime army, however, needs competent leadership at all levels. So, how do we generate more leaders? Here it goes:
The book under review is “Decide to Lead – 8 decisions that can make you a leader” (authored by Sangeeth Varghese, an alumnus of LSE and a founder of LeadCap.org) take the readers through a leadership journey using 4 steps and 8 decisions. The journey starts with `Take the Lead’ by “answering the defining moment”. Every step and decision in this book is demonstrated with a fable and short biography of great leaders. The take out from the fable and real life experience are intertwined with utmost care. That makes the book unputdownable. The author touched upon incident of Mahatma’s life to explain the defining moment. Mahatma was neither born in a family of leaders nor was exemplary in his education. In his own words, he categorized himself as a mediocre student. The job in South Africa was a real blessing and that experience brought total transformation in his life. The moment came when he was reading the collection of essays by John Ruskin of `Unto This Last’ fame. Then whatever happened was all history.
All are not born leaders. The leaders can be made by effective mentoring and it requires nothing but practice. As the author said, fundamentally leadership is like swimming, what is required is practice.
The second decision that can make you a leader is `Buy Low to Sell High’. To explain this decision, the author has adapted a folk tale from Uganda and touched upon the experience of the world’s largest retailer – Sam Walton. A good leader thinks like a good investor. He sees things before others. He buys low and sells high. He undertakes the act of converting something less worthy in the present to something precious in the future. Thus, a leader’s vision is basically a decision to buy low and sell high.
The other decisions viz Embrace high risks to reap higher benefits, Focus sharper to impact greater, sell well to do well, high expectations to gain high performance, Grow to survive and run to win to deliver results. Each of these decisions are very well demonstrated by adapting German Fable, An episode from our own Mahabharata (Arjun’s focus on the eye of the bird), Chinese Tale, Bernard Shaw’s popular play `The Pygmalion’ , A story from the legend Arabian Nights and an Israeli story respectively. Each of these fables is complemented with the incidents happened in the life of great leaders and inventors like Giuseppe Garibaldi, Henry Ford, Emmeline Pankhurst, John F Kennedy, Thomas Alva Edison and Vince Lombardi.
At the end of each decision, the author has interpreted the quotable quotes of renowned personalities in his own style. For instance, “Great visions have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” said Einstein. The author’s take on this is: “Be prepared for opposition”. These steps/quotes enable the readers to continue their journey to leadership, if they practice in real life. In some places, the reader may get a feeling of reading a text book on leadership.
The interesting aspect of this book is simple, easy to understand and linkage of three components viz content of the fable, the experience of great leaders and the theoretical aspect of leadership. As the renowned leadership guru, John P. Kotter, said in his foreword “Don’t just read this book. Do something”. Thus, Let us do something and make India as a nation of leaders – the motto of author’s firm, LeadCap.org
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