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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Thank you Sangeeth for inviting me to be a guest blogger at LeadCap.org.  It is clear that we have much in common and share in bold and positive visions for leadership 2.0!  I’m very pleased to now be involved with the important work of LeadCap.   

In his most recent blog at Forbes.com Sangeeth talked about “the magic potion of hard power mixed with soft emotion” and gives examples of what perhaps can best be described as PDHs (public displays of humanity) by American presidents…He received mix reactions to this post but it resonated very much with my own work.  One of the reasons for the mixed emotions is the underlying worldview of the readers.

My comments to Sangeeth’s blog:

I really like this post and it resonates so well with my own work and research too. It seems on balance that people who appreciate that other-centredness, relationships and ’soft’ skills are so important now are the same people who have a worldview that is relevant for the knowledge era. Those who do not are generally deriving their values and worldview from the archaic industrial era.

One of the reasons I’m calling my work and research ‘leadership literacies’ is because I’ve come to realize that language (and in particular metaphors) is an important way to surface people’s underlying (and often unexamined) values. I also think that some translation is needed between the two worldviews, just as much as translation between foreign languages. Your example is a great case in point in that the gestures you have described by these two Presidents could be construed as ‘weak’ or ’strong’ depending on the underlying worldview.

Perhaps this is our role–that of translators between the two worldviews. I am not in favor of oppositional language because I don’t think the planet has the luxury of waiting, we need to be bringing together these worldviews and all be working together on the bigger issues.

I’ve written about oppositional language etc in a paper I’m giving at the Thinking Conference in Malaysia in June. The last para of the conclusion is relevant to your post:

It was also argued that oppositional language and the pitting of one deeply held worldview against another will not lead to resolving the underlying problems of the world or the workplace. Rather, space for conversations to surface underlying assumptions is required in order to find ways of integrating our economic and social systems in every layer of society, including the workplace. Perkins’s language of peace metaphor confirms that that there are always other lenses to view the world through, not just the one that hegemony prefers and privileges.

Since responding to Sangeeth’s blog another example where translation between worldviews may be required was given by Katherine Bell recently in her HBR blog about empathy (see Empathy: not such a soft skill).  Again, depending on your worldview empathy, like many of the ’soft’ skills, may be seen as ‘weak’ to some and ’strong’ to others.

Guest Blogger
Heather Davis
Centre for Leadership Excellence, Australia

May 2009

It was just few weeks back when Sangeeth shared the idea of Leadership Village with everyone in LeadCap Office. I imagining how this would look like, as I’m born and brought up in city of Mumbai; have rarely visited any village in Maharashtra.

I was part of National Social Service and NCC during my graduation days where I simply used to avoid going to such small and not so popular villages. I used to think “Arre yaar wahan jaake kay karenge?” (What will I do going there?), “Humare wahan jaane se unka kya bhala hoga. Hum apna kuch bhala kar na sake unko kya raasta dikhayenge?” (Nothing good will happen to them, even if we go. We haven’t done justice to our selves, how will we guide them?). These thoughts slowly started changing when I started working. In first job in Coca Cola India, I stayed in Sinnar Village in Nasik District of Maharashtra for about two months. That was the time I have seen a village community, how people are proud about their village, how much efforts they put in efforts to bring development in their place. Sinnar, the place known for its grapes and wines started becoming popular for using most advance technology in making wines.

But my greed made me to relocate and this time it was Bangalore the, IT hub of India. I worked with Hewlett Packard before joining LeadCap. During my tenure at HP, I used to go for outings on weekends. I visited places like Karwar, Dharwad, Hassan, Shimoga, Hubli, Dandeli etc. I also visited Waynad way back in 2004. It was a different place then. I’d seen some community riots due to political changes in India and almost for 3-4 days there was strikes happening. However when I was listening to Nibras this morning about the villages in Waynad; I was amazed. What a improvement! Through the pictures he shared with us; I am amazed by the way it has changed. I would also also like to salute to the students of Anne Frank Research who have taken hard steps to make their village a better place.

“Leadership Village” is a niche concept and it is first of its kind in the world. It was developed just few weeks back when one of our Leadcapper invited the students of Anne Frank Research center about internet best leaderships sessions (LeadLab). So what is this Leadership village all about:
1. It is a place where people are poised to make a change for betterment or larger cause.
2. It is a place where people are passionate abut leadership. They think leadership is decision.
3. It is a place where students receive active mentoring that will help them to discover latent skills.

It will be a “Leadership Democracy” where every individual will get equal chance to discover their true hidden potential. There is adundence of talent out here. There are people here who want to become fashion designers, air hostess, want to go abroad etc. and I’m sure everyone will be successful. They are really working hard to build this Leadership village. I’m very proud that the world will see this Leadership Democratic place in Wayanad District of Kerala.

Now its time for us to wake up and support them. One can contribute to LeadCap blog by writing about Leadership Village or if you have any ideas you can share with them and also in vacation do visit them. I personally will be sharing couple of project ideas with them when I’m there for inauguration on 30th May.

I’m eager to meet all leaders from Leadership Village.

Vidyadhar Prabhudesai

“Stock markets are falling. Industries are facing turmoil. The job market is in chaos. It’s a great time to start a new enterprise.” So reads a recent newspaper advertisement.

Sramana Mitra, an entrepreneurship and strategy consultant and author of Entrepreneur Journeys, echoes the sentiment. She says she’s fighting the recession by encouraging people to be entrepreneurs. Well, that’s got to be more productive than Paris Hilton vowing to help the economy by shopping as much as possible (as she did a few months ago). But why should a recession be good for start-up leaders?

First, since a recession weeds out weaklings, it’s a time for the stronger to get underway. During a boom, you don’t need as much talent to succeed; the environment helps you along. Even the mediocre do well because the market is flooded with opportunity. A downturn offers particular opportunity for especially smart people willing to work harder. They’re the ones who discover their full potential and find ways to solve the toughest problems.

Second, bad times, just like good times, never last forever. A recession is as much a part of the economic cycle as is a boom. Nevertheless, in tough times people tend to let their emotions and judgment be colored by the uncertainty they feel. They end up behaving as if the world will always remain the way it is right now. But good leaders don’t get stuck that way. They know how to take their eyes off the short term and try to see how things will shape up in the future. And then they don’t just sit there gazing; they go ahead and start the process of building that future.

Third, a recession is a time when you know the environment is hazardous, so you remain cautious and tread slowly. Good leaders and entrepreneurs run their start-ups on the thinnest budgets possible, making sure they remain agile at all times. In the words of Paul Graham, programmer and start-up guru, recession offers you a chance to be the cockroach of the corporate world. The immediate cause of death for a start-up is always running out of money. The cheaper your company is to operate, the harder it will be to kill. A recession forces you to be as thrifty as possible and that helps it thrive even in the worst of times.

Leadership Takeaway: Recession can help you build a recession-proof business. Take advantage.

Sangeeth Varghese is the founder of LeadCap, a leadership organization in India, and is author of Decide to Lead. He can be reached at sangeethv@leadcap.org.

A title or a position can be akin to the Emperor’s Clothes. We can become blinded by our titles; blinded to our impact and effectiveness in our role. We can become unable to see what others around us can see. They can create a hazard to our ability to see ourselves and our motives clearly.

As John P. Kotter observed, management tends to work through formal hierarchy and leadership does not. “In a world that is continually changing, where additional leadership is necessary, more individuals outside one’s chain of command take on added importance, as do intangibles not on the organization chart, intangibles like corporate culture.” The spotlight can not be on titles.

A title can open doors, but our staying power will come from our ability to influence others. The real strength of a leader is the ability to elicit the strength of a group. Our accomplishments are restricted by our ability to lead—influence—others. But how are we doing this—by force of power?

If leadership is about influence then the acid test of leadership must be the following question:

If you were stripped of your title – the politics of leadership, the power to punish and reward people – would they still follow you? Would you still get results from them?

It’s good to ask your self this question periodically and adjust your approach accordingly.