Thanks Sangeeth for your message about the successful Young Leadership Program sponsored by Microsoft.

It is pleasing to see LeadCap’s values-in-action in making space and time available to nurture India’s leaders of the future, even if they may not have seen themselves as leaders prior to the camp as your message suggests….

The 21 Microsoft Student partners (some of them, the brightest youngsters that I have ever met), who attended the LeadCap YLP boot camp walked in with a clear focus on technology. However, we would like to believe from their excitement that they walked out with a bigger picture of what they could do with this technological edge  - for their institution, for their society and for their nation. The first day set the basics right - on what is leadership, what is the purpose of YLP and what are the expectations out of them. At the same time, we did face some amount of skepticism on that day- mainly on why the MSPs should add one more thing to their workload, and even on why they should be leaders - when all they should really be focusing is a job.

However, the second day was a magical turn around. The same people who expressed skepticism, came back renewed. Probably, the homework session did them good, helping them internalize learnings. They could suddenly grasp the bigger picture, and why they should be utilizing a part of their energy to nurture more people and for a bigger impact on the nation. They had found most of the answers themselves - on how they would proceed, and in fact addressed some of the critical management problems of intrinsic motivation, accountability etc. They were truly talking the leader’s language - of finding solutions than posing problems. Especially, I am glad with the support that our ‘Leadership Village’ initiative and online action networking platform received. I can already see that a lot of activities are already happening, where they have set up LIVE groups to set goals and charter the progress.

The momentum is on. We are on track. At the same time, this would not have possible with out the help of those who supported us in this journey - Microsoft, Dr.Richard Norris, Dr.Ram Raghavan, Prof.Rajeev Gowda, Suhas Gopinath.

Your program demonstrates the power of small ‘l’ leadership, that is, when individuals take on the responsibility for their own learning, living and life opportunities.  Small ‘l’ leadership is about knowing ourselves as well as possible and this includes being mindful of our own values, strengths and weaknesses and how we like to learn and interact with people etc.  Indeed, it is nigh on impossible to be a capital “L” leader without this commitment and it will be fascinating to track where these young leaders end up and what they do with their lives.   

Another way to look at this is through Maslow’s Hierachy of Needs and the pursuit of self-actualisation as the aspiration for us all with an eye towards transcendence.  There is much to teach the West on these matters from the long and rich Indian traditions too.  Here are some of the characteristics of self actualisation:

• creative, inventive and original;

• keen sense of reality

• see problems in terms of challenges and situations requiring solutions

• need for privacy and comfortable being alone

• reliant on own experiences and judgement

• not susceptible to social pressures

• democratic, fair and non-discriminating

• socially compassionate - possessing humanity 

• accepting others as they are

• comfortable with oneself

• a few close intimate friends rather than many surface relationships

• sense of humour directed at oneself or the human condition, rather than at the expense of others

• spontaneous and natural - true to oneself, rather than being how others want

• excited and interested in everything, even ordinary things

• seek peak experiences that leave a lasting impression

In closing, what are your thoughts on small ‘l’ leadership and the paradox it creates?  The more selfish we are to take the time to know ourselves better the more other-centred we tend to become!!

Guest Blogger
Heather Davis
Centre for Leadership Excellence, Australia

August 2009

When I think about Leadership Village in Waynad, I think about the children there. Have you ever seen children studying in schools posting blogs?…that too they are not telling some stories that they have learned in their text books, they are not reading out any poems that they have read from their library - but they are standing up and speaking “HERE I AM, THIS IS ME“. They show so much courage to speak out. They are not afraid to stand up and speak in front of a large audience. They are not afraid to ‘connect’ with people. Isn’t this a “WOW” thing?

Amongst lot of other learnings from children of Leadership Village at Waynad, I love the ‘connecting’ part. They connect with people. They connect with everybody very easily irrespective of from which country others are from!. They simply connect. Didn’t you see the magic of CONNECTING in the great leaders of the world who have walked away into the pages of history?

Connect to Influence

John C. Maxwell once told, “leadership is influence - nothing more, nothing less”. How will you influence people when you decide to lead? Here is a great lesson from Leaders of Leadership Village - CONNECT. If decision is the first step of leadership, connecting is the first step to influence. When Martil Luther King Jr. delivered the ‘I have a dream’ speech, he connected with thousands of people. Five scores after, another man stood up and said “Yes We Can”. This is the power of connecting - it’s effect transends through generations.

How will you connect?

You connect when you speak to people without prejudice. You connect with people when you keep your ego aside and open your mind for new learning. You connect with people when communicate that you care for them and you are here for them, as a leader. And mind you, connecting is easy. You just take a step to communicate without prejudice - you are connected.

Living Library - connecting without prejudice

When you go through the website http://living-library.org/, you will understand the power of Living Library as a medium of connecting. Connect, Connect, Connect.

Best Wishes for the children at Leadership Village. And we want you to know that you are doing a great job out there. We are hoping that you will continue your inspirational work and reach to the next level very soon. I am sure you will connect to more and more people in India and in the world.

- Mohammad Nibras P. K.
Leadcap, Bangalore.

10-6-2009

Kalpetta - Mubeena reports

• Leadership Village dream run continues..

Today Mr. Kamal , Indiavision reporter visited Anne Frank and they are very much interested to do a story on Living Library the potential tool of Leadership Village. They requested us to inform them when the next Living Library happens. Living Library is not a fast food veriety. it just happens……..

Anne Frank News Service

While it may be said that not all readers are leaders, it is absolutely true that all leaders ARE readers.

LeadCap understands this notion very well and they are calling for donations of leadership and personal development books for their Leadership Village.  If you have spare books or would like to gift books to LeadCap via Rediff (India) or other online stores (check first that they ship to India) please send them to:

Library Appeal,
LeadCap,The Lotus Krest,
Brookefields,
ITPL Road, Bangalore, India 560048

These days leaders are reading (and viewing) via old and new media–books, blogs, youTube etc–but no matter how they are accessing this information, the reasons for reading remain the same.

By reading we are expanding our own knowledge, being exposed to different ways of
thinking and continually testing our assumptions.

Expanding our knowledge base, experiencing different viewpoints and testing our assumptions are all signs of leadership and they can be tested in the workplace by how well leaders:

• hear and acknowledge the ‘other’ point of view;
• see the ‘other’ as people rather than pawns or simply abstractions;
• manage the distance, materially and metaphorically, between themselves and the people and sites affected by their decisions.

In the corporate world there are many examples of executives living and working in gated communities, or otherwise removed by dint of corporate hierarchy or geography, from the people and conditions affected by their decisions. Often, these leaders are also surrounded by people who can only agree, leading to little opportunity for double loop learning or deeply reasoned decision making processes.

Whether our leaders live in gated communities is their business, but if they think, work and take refuge within a ‘gated’ mindset then we all need to be concerned as this is the same ‘close-mindedness’ that contributed to the current global financial crisis.

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Dear all,
I am so glad and proud that we have launched the ‘World’s first leadership village’. I congratulate every one of you, especially our kids Pooja, Mubeena and Sreehitha, supported by many other potential leaders. I want to tell you today that I am deeply proud of you people. At the same time, I also want to assure you that this is just a beginning. Beginning of things larger than life, beginning of something wonderful and most inspiring, not just to us, but to people across the globe and across generations.

Of course, nothing would have been possible with out our own Anil and Laila, who are ‘the’ leaders behind this great venture. Anil, I want to assure you that we would spread out deep and wide, empowering millions of leaders. But for history sake, this would be the first leadership village.

Once again, you have made me proud. And once again. Let us do things bigger.

Sangeeth.Varghese