1. Fundamentals of
Leadership
Talents
Saturday 31 August, 2013
Daden Venkatasawmy
Rajendra Patil Hunma

2. Today’s Agenda
• Welcome
• Ice-breaker
• Part 1. Change, Leadership and Trust
• Break
• Part 2. Self-awareness as the Keystone
of Leadership
• Questions & Answers, Open discussion

3. Activity
ICE BREAKER

4. Looking at the Future
• How do you see yourself in 15-20 years?
• What would you LIKE your personal and
professional situation to be?
• Will you Change?
• Who will take you there?
…who will lead Your Life?
4

5. Brainstorming
• What do we mean by leadership?
• What is the goal of leadership?
• Do we have a common understanding?
• What names come to mind when we
think of great leadership?

6. What is leadership?
• Leadership is motivating, mobilizing,
directing people to collaboratively
pursue a shared vision that
produces positive transformation
• Leadership is an ethical process, an
activity
• Why ethical?

7. The Goal of Leadership
• The goal of leadership is to mobilise
oneself and/or others to change in a
positive and sustainable manner
• Sustainability will depend on our ability
to grow other leaders
• REAL leaders continue to influence
even in their absence

8. Leadership and status
• Leadership is an activity not a status
• Leadership is exercised at all levels of the
organisation – not just at the top
• Leadership is not to be confused with being
the boss, the head, the manager, the
rector, the minister, the prime minister etc
– These titles only indicate authority/power
• Servant leadership

9. Leadership v/s Authority
• Authority, influence and power are
critical tools
• But they do not define leadership

10. Leader-Follower Dynamic
Good leaders
• Trustworthy
• Honest
• Committed
• Innovative
• Competent
• Courageous
• Takes initiatives
Good followers
• Trustworthy
• Honest
• Committed
• Innovative
• Competent
• Courageous
• Takes initiatives
• Great followers produce great leaders…
• Great leaders produce great followers

11. • Transformational leadership
espouses a relationship between
leaders and followers in which each
transforms the other.
Transformational
Leadership

12. Leaders transform followers,
helping them to become leaders
themselves
Both deeply involved in the dance
of change
Transformational
Leadership

13. • The aim of leadership is to transform
leaders and followers into better, more
self-actualized people
• The process involves leaders and
followers raising one another to higher
levels of motivation and morality
Transformational
Leadership

14. Transformational
v.s
Transactional Leadership
• Transactional leadership involves
power wielders engaged in a politics of
exchange
•more interested in satisfying their
own purposes than in the
aspirations of their followers

15. Looking at the Future
• How do you see Mauritius in 15-20
years?
• What would you LIKE to see ?
• What changes do you wish
• At country level
• In your organisation
• In the way people behave
15

16. Looking at the Future
• Make a list of 8-10 wishes / changes (5
min)
• Random sample of wishes
• Simple Changes?
• How long will it take?
• Who will DO the Changes? 1, 25, 70…?
• Who leads the country’s life?
16

17. “Change will not come if we wait for
some other person or some other
time. We are the ones we've been
waiting for. We are the change that
we seek.”
Barack Obama

18. Leadership is redundant if the goal
is to maintain status quo.
Absence of required change is an
evidence of leadership failure.
–
Leadership for social
change

19. Leadership for social
change
• Sustainable Change is the ultimate
goal of the creative process of
leadership – to make a better society
/ a better world or simply to live a
better life

20. Technical
Problems
• Tire puncture
• Fused bulb
• Bone fracture
• Short-sightedness
Adaptive
Challenges
• Severe heart condition
• Drug addiction
• High crime rate
• Corruption

21. Leadership for social
change
Need to differentiate between
• Technical problems
• Adaptive challenges

22. Leadership for social
change
• Technical problems: solutions are
known to the relevant experts /
authorities
• No specific effort required from
those affected

23. Leadership for social
change
• Adaptive challenges: requiring
collaborative and innovative
approaches, and changes in people’s
priorities, beliefs, lifestyles, learning
AND effective leadership
–With risks of failure / losses

24. Leadership for social
change
• Leadership is a relational and ethical
process of people together attempting
to accomplish positive, sustainable
change
– focus on values and authentic
relationships

25. Citizenship

26. Citizenship
• Citizenship involves working to make
a difference in the civic life of our
communities
• And developing the combination of
knowledge, skills and values and
motivation to make that difference

27. Citizenship
• Citizenship means more than
membership; it implies active
engagement of the individual and the
leadership group in an effort to serve
the community.

28. Ubuntu – South African Concept
My humanity is caught up, is
inextricably bound up in yours – a
person is a person through other
persons – one belongs to a
greater whole and is diminished
when others are humiliated or
diminished

29. How do YOU exercise
Citizenship?
• Enumerate Rotaract Activities / Projects
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30. Good v/s Active
Citizenship
• You see a hungry man
• Good citizenship
• …..Give a man a fish
• Active citizenship
• …..Teach him how to fish
• Transactional v/s Transformational
• Technical v/s Adaptive
• Short term v/s Sustainable

31. Active Citizenship
• Sustainable Change should be
preceded by an in-depth
understanding of the underlying
systemic causes
• Focus on root causes of problems
• Focus on building relationships and
collaboration with others (including
the ‘victims’)

32. Active Citizenship
• Not charity and shallow volunteerism
• Charity - risk of creating dependencies
• Charity – annual events
• Are we really solving the problem?

33. How do YOU exercise
Citizenship?
• Enumerate Rotaract Activities / Projects
• Good or Active Citizenship?
• Are we making Sustainable Change?
• Are we Solving the problem?
• Are we collaborating with the victims?
• Essential ingredient for Collaboration...
• TRUST 33

34. Break
34

35. Self-awareness:
the Keystone of Leadership

36. Recap - What is leadership?
• Leadership is motivating, mobilizing,
directing people to collaboratively pursue
a shared vision that produces positive
sustainable transformation or change
• Leadership is value-based process …
an activity
• Exercising leadership v/s exercising
power or authority - titles help but are not
essential

37. Recap -The Goal of Leadership
• The goal of leadership is to mobilize
oneself and/or others to change in a
positive and sustainable manner
• Sustainability will partly depend on the
nature of the change and partly on our
ability to grow other leaders
– on our ability to help others to self-
actualize

38. • At 29, Buddha left family and friends,
and went to the forest to meditate for 6
years
• At 30, Jesus went into in the Wilderness
for 40 days to meditate
• At 40, Prophet Mohammad meditated for
months in a cave on Mount Hira 38
Interesting Patterns

39. Real Leaders
• Not necessarily those at the top of the
hierarchy
• Not necessarily those who are the best /
the most successful in their field
• Not necessarily those who call
themselves leaders
BUT those that exercise leadership

40. Questions
• What makes people collaborate or
‘follow’?
• How does one develop the ability to
influence others to move in a chosen
direction?
People follow you because of who
you are, what you stand for …

41. A leader doesn’t just get the message
across – a leader is the message.
Warren Bennis
Leaders need to work on themselves first
41

42. • Gandhi - frequent jail sentences lasting
months and years
• Martin Luther King – frequent jail
sentences
• Nelson Mandela - 17 years in prison at
Robben Island
42
Interesting Pattern

43. Self-awareness
• Those who exercise leadership often
display a high level of self-awareness
• Self-awareness is not an end point that
can be reached; instead, it is adopting a
way of life that promotes constant learning
about what is most important… it is an
inner journey

44. ACTIVITIES

45. Things I always want to do
1. .
2. .
3. .
Things I never want to do
1. .
2. .
3. .
45

46. Things I always want to BE
1. .
2. .
3. .
Things I never want to BE
1. .
2. .
3. .
46

47. Things that are entirely
indispensable in my life
1. .
2. .
3. .
Things that are entirely
dispensable in my life
1. .
2. .
3. .
47

48. 48
The year is 20_ _, I am 90 years old today. I have
known over the last few weeks that my remaining
days on earth are now a countable few.
And yet when I reflect on the years gone by, I
realise that time has flown by faster than I could
ever have imagined, but I have reason to be proud
and contented with how I lived out each day and
each year and each decade, to end up where I am
now…
Defining your ideal life

49. My Best Teacher
• Qualities?
• Actions?
• Impact on me?
• How many of these qualities do I have?

50. Aspirations
• List some unrealized aspirations you
have cherished for some time
• These unrealized aspirations are
potential areas of personal leadership

51. Importance of Self-observation
• Problem: constant ‘busyness’ does not lend itself
to developing self-observation - need to retreat from
doing
• Self-observation - not what should I do next but
– Who am I?
– How would I describe myself?
– What are my values?
– Why am I here?
– Just making a career or also making a difference?
– How would I measure my life?

52. Why Self-awareness?
• Self-awareness is the first step in personal
leadership / personal transformation
• Identify areas of incongruence
Potential personal leadership opportunities
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53. Developing Self-awareness
• Developing self-awareness requires
intentional actions including
1. a practice of reflection
2. openness to feedback
– strength and weaknesses - non defensive
listening without interrupting, ask clarifying
questions – 3600 feedback
3. learning about the self through assessment
4. mindfulness

54. Mindfulness
• Mindfulness focuses on more than simply
understanding our personality
• It is the ability to simultaneously act and
observe our actions in the present moment

55. Mindfulness
• Observation: a tool for self-transformation
• Observation: a tool for self-leadership

56. Research
• Research findings in the field of
neurobiology confirm neuroplasticity – we
can consciously change the way our brain
functions
• The brain changes with mindfulness
• Mindful meditation – ‘work out’ for the brain
• Rewiring of the brain through mindfulness
– repetition, reflection, practice, sustained effort

57. Study: Mind & Body
• Our minds change our bodies
• Do our bodies change our minds?
57

58. 58

59. 59

60. 60
High power postures

61. 61
Low power postures

62. Body & Mind
• By holding high power postures for just two
minutes before entering a high-stress
situation, people can increase their
testosterone by about 20% and decrease
their cortisol by about 25%
• Testosterone: the dominance hormone
• Cortisol: the stress hormone
62

63. Mind & Body
• Our minds change our bodies
• Our bodies change our minds
– and our minds change our behaviour
– and our behaviour changes our outcomes
• Amy Cuddy & al. (Harvard) 63

65. Mindfulness &
Personal Leadership
• How good are we at keeping our promises to
ourselves?
• The mindfulness strengthens the character
and enhances the influence we have on
ourselves – on our ability to achieve
congruence – to walk the talk

66. Mindfulness &
Leadership
• Congruence enhances authenticity, integrity,
credibility, trust, and the influence we have
on others – i.e., on our ability to exercise
effective leadership
• How good are we at keeping our promises to
others?

67. • First Wave - The Agricultural Revolution
or domestication. It started around 8,000
BC - the end of nomadic wanderings
• The Second Wave – Industrialization –
1760 in England – mass production.
Frederick Taylor – scientific management
Why is Leadership
vital today?

68. • The Third Wave - The Information age
–computerization – knowledge /
service economy
– intellect / emotions v/s muscle power
– management AND leadership
– globalization – everything is interlinked –
problems are more complex and
adaptive in nature
Why is Leadership
vital today?

69. Adaptive Leadership
• The gap between what is, and what should be,
is an opportunity for change
an opportunity for leadership
• This kind of change requires “work”

70. The proof … is in the
eating
• Eat the menu or the food
• Read about driving and actually start
driving – initially difficult – conscious effort,
practice, practice, practice – later
effortless …

71. Summary
• Self-awareness as a keystone of leadership
• Self-awareness achieved though mindfulness
practice and other means leads to
– better congruence (keep our promises to ourselves)
– more effective personal leadership
– higher levels of authenticity, credibility and trust
– keep promises to others
– enhanced ability to influence others – i.e. to exercise
leadership …

72. THANK YOU ….

73. www.leadershipnetwork.mu
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