Dr Subbu on Leadership

Leadership is an elusive term. But there are real leaders. It is difficult to read academic treatise on leadership and get enlightened. I seek knowledge on leadership at three places. Reading classics in any literature can give ample knowledge on human life and profound insights on human relationships and leadership. Classics like War and Peace and Anna Karenina of Leo Tolstoy, Brothers Karamazov of Dostoevsky, Don Quixote of Cervantes, The Good Earth of Pearl S. Buck, The old man and the sea by Ernest Hemingway, Animal farm and 1984 by George Orwell, A tale of two cities by Charles Dickens, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and so many others. In Sanskrit, Shakuntala, Kalidasa's works, Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, and many others. One can get leadership lessons from these classics by slowly reading and digesting and reflecting upon them.

The second place one gets to learn art of leadership is biography and auto biography of great leaders. Gandhiji's My experiments with truth and Nelson Mandela's Long walk to freedom stand out. Journalist and writer Walter Issacson has mastered the art of writing powerful and compelling biographies. His books on Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein Benjamin Franklin, Elon Musk, Leonardo da Vinci provide glimpse of personal and professional excellence. Robert Kanigel's book on Srinivas Ramanujam, the man who knew infinity and Sylvia Nasar's book A beautiful mind on John Nash gives awe and empathy for the struggles these extraordinary mathematicians went though. There are so many excellent biographies of people from all fields. One gets the glimpse of leadership and inherent struggle for personifying excellence and achieving higher purpose. The list which I have put out is very selective.

The third place you learn is leaders writing about their decision making and actions which they take. Henry Kissinger has authored a book called Leadership: Six Studies in world Strategy. He has analyzed the historical context and action of six world leaders who transformed their country and the world. Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore who transformed a third world country to the first world in one generation. Konrad Adenauer of post war Germany, Charles De Gaulle of Post war France, Richard Nixon by going to China in 1970s changing the contours of global politics, Anwar Sadat who transformed Egypt and the middle east and Margaret Thatcher who changed Britain and the cold war. Kissinger writes profoundly on the evolution of leadership in the modern world. He writes" Deep literacy supplies the quality Max Weber called the ability to allow realities to impinge on you while maintaining an inner calm and composure.

Intense reading can help leaders cultivate the mental distance from external stimuli and personalities that sustain the sense of proportion. When combined with reflection and training of memory, it also provides a store house of detailed and granular knowledge". In that sense deep literacy defines profound leadership.

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Dr. M. Subramanian
Director – MBA Program
PhD (Finance),FDPM (IIM-A), MBA, MFC
Fin-Tech, Blockchain & Analytics

Visit : www.rlims.ac.in