Walking the talk

Abstract

In almost all the casual conversations amongst us in informal social gatherings we often bring forth certain topics. One is about mounting corruptions and increased indifference to citizen welfare by politicians, public servants and administrators. The other topic is about our inability to align our children’s interests to cherished family values, customs and practices. Sometimes we also talk about a general degradation of educational, religious and business institutions. All these problems have a common thread. It all revolves around leadership or the lack of it. Leadership is an important ingredient in doing right things and rightly. For any entity that involves several people and common purpose and goals to achieve, leadership is inevitable. Viewed from this perspective a family requires leadership and managing the affairs of a temple through a committee involving a set of people also requires leadership. Needless to say, business organizations, public and government institutions and social service organization and religious bodies will all require leadership. Therefore, it is not surprising that there has been a constant interest in understanding the elements of good leadership. Leadership is a powerful enabler that can lead an organization to great heights, fame and a credible position among the stakeholders. On the other hand, if the quality of leadership is bad, the same organization will experience a downward slide leading to its eventual destruction. Therefore, one of the major issues of great interest as well as concern in business organizations is the issue of leadership. Organizations continuously make efforts to understand how great leaders are identified, created and nurtured. The unfolding business crises and scams have exposed the leadership crunch in organizations. The current practice of leadership seems unable to resolve the major issues facing businesses. Not surprisingly, every organization wants to develop good leaders. Newer ideas and leadership theories emerge from time to time...........................