Are leaders born or made? Has technology changed leadership style? Business thought leaders provided new insights while deliberating upon the age old issue at the World Innovation Summit for Education. Gauri Rane reports from Doha.
Leaders are born—is an often debated statement. Why is one able to take quick and effective decisions? And why is one despite having the position, falls short of expectations of the senior management?
Globalisation has definitely created several career opportunities. This has also led to the emergence of several added qualities that senior level executives need to keep in mind in order to make effective contribution to their companies. Jerry MacAurthur, senior presidential fellow at New York University says, “Leadership today is something like losing control. A leader needs to somehow magnetize people in his/ her direction to achieve a shared vision.”
This brings us to the question—has there been a shift in leadership skills? And how does a leader get people to follow and help them get empowered so they become great performers on their own?
“There has been a significant shift in the quality of leadership received and in the type of leadership needed to solve complex problems that the world is facing today,” says Eric Glustrom, founder, Educate, an organisation that delivers practical and relevant education to 16-20 year olds in Ugandan schools. Glustrom believes that it has become important to distinguish between complex and simple problems as different problems require different types of leaderships.
“Leadership now-a-days is more network-based, relational, less talk down, and more collaborative fundamentally,” he says, adding that a new mindset has been cultivated thanks to technology. Glustrom is currently working on developing a university model called the Watson University, to accelerate the ideas of student innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs.
Sandeep Aneja, Kaizen Pvt Equity, feels that just because technology has come in the principles of leadership have not changed. “In fact, leadership across time has had the same values and principles, but in the context,” says Aneja, adding that leadership of military army cannot be the same as compared to the leader of a company, versus a leader of a political party, a leader of a society, or a family. He cautions senior level professionals to distinguish between qualities of a manager versus that of a leader. “A manager can decide to be collaborative but a leadership has only one choice, to listen, learn and encourage failure,” he opines.
Ewa Iwaszuk of Earth Fellows and also a 2012 WISE Learner adds, “Being a leader in the 21st century is a courageous task as in our globally local world, we need leaders who can trust and depend on their teams.” According to Iwaszuk a good leader would be someone who facilitates the growth and learning of their teams so that they can best explore their abilities.
21st Century leader must…
Create a workplace where people work out of passion and not out of fear
Create a shared vision so that everyone contributes to achieve shared goals.
Explore capabilities and give freedom to experiment
Give people a sense of growth and achievement
Learn from subordinates
Be brave enough to give up control
Globalisation has definitely created several career opportunities. This has also led to the emergence of several added qualities that senior level executives need to keep in mind in order to make effective contribution to their companies. Jerry MacAurthur, senior presidential fellow at New York University says, “Leadership today is something like losing control. A leader needs to somehow magnetize people in his/ her direction to achieve a shared vision.”
This brings us to the question—has there been a shift in leadership skills? And how does a leader get people to follow and help them get empowered so they become great performers on their own?
“There has been a significant shift in the quality of leadership received and in the type of leadership needed to solve complex problems that the world is facing today,” says Eric Glustrom, founder, Educate, an organisation that delivers practical and relevant education to 16-20 year olds in Ugandan schools. Glustrom believes that it has become important to distinguish between complex and simple problems as different problems require different types of leaderships.
“Leadership now-a-days is more network-based, relational, less talk down, and more collaborative fundamentally,” he says, adding that a new mindset has been cultivated thanks to technology. Glustrom is currently working on developing a university model called the Watson University, to accelerate the ideas of student innovators, leaders and entrepreneurs.
Sandeep Aneja, Kaizen Pvt Equity, feels that just because technology has come in the principles of leadership have not changed. “In fact, leadership across time has had the same values and principles, but in the context,” says Aneja, adding that leadership of military army cannot be the same as compared to the leader of a company, versus a leader of a political party, a leader of a society, or a family. He cautions senior level professionals to distinguish between qualities of a manager versus that of a leader. “A manager can decide to be collaborative but a leadership has only one choice, to listen, learn and encourage failure,” he opines.
Ewa Iwaszuk of Earth Fellows and also a 2012 WISE Learner adds, “Being a leader in the 21st century is a courageous task as in our globally local world, we need leaders who can trust and depend on their teams.” According to Iwaszuk a good leader would be someone who facilitates the growth and learning of their teams so that they can best explore their abilities.
21st Century leader must…
Create a workplace where people work out of passion and not out of fear
Create a shared vision so that everyone contributes to achieve shared goals.
Explore capabilities and give freedom to experiment
Give people a sense of growth and achievement
Learn from subordinates
Be brave enough to give up control
Techies quit their hectic corporate life to get into full time teaching in private MBA institutes.
In what is turning out to be a trend, people are quitting their hectic corporate life to get into full time teaching. Thanks to lack of quality teachers and professors, private MBA schools are luring corporates professional to join them as full time professors and not just visiting faculty.
In fact, data available with various private MBA schools show that over 30-40% of their faculty are corporate professionals with 15-20 years of experience.
“I started teaching way back in 1992 when I was still very active in my corporate life. However, it was on and off as I did not have the time to get into full time teaching. I mainly did that to keep myself abreast with the latest development in the academic world,” says TN Swaminathan, professor of marketing and director branding, PR & alumni associations, Great Lakes Institute of Management.
Swaminathan got into full time teaching in 2004. “I was always interested in teaching. There comes a point in your life when monetary aspirations take a backseat. You want to pursue your dreams,” he says.
Unlike government colleges and institutions, private MBA schools do not take into account the research work undertaken by a person in order to qualify as full time faculty. A person need not even have a PhD.
“These schools are more practical in their approach. They are not bothered about your research papers as much as they see your industry experience. At the end of the day that is what matters as only bookish knowledge does not help students in their jobs. They need to be taught what the industry expects,” says Rajeev Paripurnam, dean of Global Institute for Corporate Education (GICE).
Like Swaminathan, Pariprnam also quit his corporate life to get into full time teaching. “Corporate life is nothing short of a rat race. You are fighting for one thing or the other. Since there are so many gaps between what the industry needs and the kind of grads our B-schools churn out, corporates with experience, who get into teaching, act as a bridge,” he says.
“Concepts come alive when you have industry experience. There are many who know only from a conceptual side, but have little practical knowledge. In such cases, it is better to have someone with industry experience,” says Jayanta Sengupta from United World School of Business.
Sengupta has 25 years of experience in the advertising industry.
“When I quit, I was sure I am quitting not only the company but the industry. Teaching gave me the opportunity to give something back to the society.”
However, there are some who feel that teaching is an art; hence one must have the expertise.
“I see many corporate professional who do not have the aptitude needed to be a good teacher, get into teaching. Not everyone is a good teacher. They think that by having the gift of garb, they can get away. Teaching is no child’s play,” says S Rajeshwar, chairperson of admission and professor of information systems, Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA).
In fact, data available with various private MBA schools show that over 30-40% of their faculty are corporate professionals with 15-20 years of experience.
“I started teaching way back in 1992 when I was still very active in my corporate life. However, it was on and off as I did not have the time to get into full time teaching. I mainly did that to keep myself abreast with the latest development in the academic world,” says TN Swaminathan, professor of marketing and director branding, PR & alumni associations, Great Lakes Institute of Management.
Swaminathan got into full time teaching in 2004. “I was always interested in teaching. There comes a point in your life when monetary aspirations take a backseat. You want to pursue your dreams,” he says.
Unlike government colleges and institutions, private MBA schools do not take into account the research work undertaken by a person in order to qualify as full time faculty. A person need not even have a PhD.
“These schools are more practical in their approach. They are not bothered about your research papers as much as they see your industry experience. At the end of the day that is what matters as only bookish knowledge does not help students in their jobs. They need to be taught what the industry expects,” says Rajeev Paripurnam, dean of Global Institute for Corporate Education (GICE).
Like Swaminathan, Pariprnam also quit his corporate life to get into full time teaching. “Corporate life is nothing short of a rat race. You are fighting for one thing or the other. Since there are so many gaps between what the industry needs and the kind of grads our B-schools churn out, corporates with experience, who get into teaching, act as a bridge,” he says.
“Concepts come alive when you have industry experience. There are many who know only from a conceptual side, but have little practical knowledge. In such cases, it is better to have someone with industry experience,” says Jayanta Sengupta from United World School of Business.
Sengupta has 25 years of experience in the advertising industry.
“When I quit, I was sure I am quitting not only the company but the industry. Teaching gave me the opportunity to give something back to the society.”
However, there are some who feel that teaching is an art; hence one must have the expertise.
“I see many corporate professional who do not have the aptitude needed to be a good teacher, get into teaching. Not everyone is a good teacher. They think that by having the gift of garb, they can get away. Teaching is no child’s play,” says S Rajeshwar, chairperson of admission and professor of information systems, Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA).
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