The Government of India has many schemes for village development. Some of the schemes are improved agricultural practices, watershed development, use of renewable energy, sustainable roads, electricity, potable water supply, education, sanitation etc. But most of these schemes and plans remain on paper only. Thousands of villages today are deprived of basic facilities such as primary health care, education, roads, electricity, water supply as the government machinery is slow and the local representatives lack the assertiveness to get work done. In the same country, there are some villages which became self sufficient because of powerful individuals who took necessary initiatives and made the villages self sustainable. I wish to mention some self sufficient villages in India.

Ralegan Siddhi:

 Anna Hazare –the famous social activist is credited for the prosperity of this village. Ralegan Siddhi is in Parner taluka, distict Ahmednagar, Maharashtra. This village is considered a model of environment conservation.

In 1975 the village was afflicted by drought. Along with the drought came scarcity. To top it all illicit liquor trade spread all over the village. The village tank could not hold water as the embankment dam wall leaked. Work began with the percolation tank construction. Anna Hazare encouraged the villagers to donate their labor to repair the embankment. Once this was fixed, the seven wells below filled with water in the summer for the first time in the history of the village!!

The village’s biggest accomplishment is in its use of non-conventional energy. For example, all the village street lights are lit on separate solar panels.

The villagers carry out programs like tree planting and terracing, to reduce soil erosion. They have dug canals to retain rainwater. For energy, the village uses solar power and biogas (some generated from the community toilets). Windmills are also used for energy. The project is heralded as a sustainable model of a village republic.  Ralegan Siddhi has set an example for other villages demonstrating that it is possible to rebuild natural capital in partnership with the local economy. This village is self sustained, since past 25 years.  The village has water supply year round. Besides this, it has a grain bank, a milk bank, and a school. Poverty is almost eradicated from the village.

Odanthurai:

Odanthurai village is situated 40 kilometers north of Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. It has become famous for its imaginative, environmentally conscious approach for reducing its dependence on energy supplied by Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), a body of the state government. The local panchayat has a diversified energy portfolio; it owns 65 solar-powered streetlights, a biomass gasifier and a 350-KW wind farm.

Mr. R. Shanmugam, who was the panchayat president from 1996 to 2006, points out, Odanthurai used to spend 60 % of its public budget on power. Shanmugam worked out the costs; a small wind farm would cost Rs.2.3 crore. Odanthurai could generate Rs 35 lakh as down-payment for a bank loan. With the government support, the panchayat would need a bank loan of Rs 1.15 crore. The gram panchayat liked the proposal and gave its collective seal of approval. This one-of-its-kind proposal took the district administration by surprise. It was hard to imagine a panchayat could aim to be as entrepreneurial as a private company. The state government sanctioned the project under the Remunerative Enterprises Scheme. Commissioned in 2006, the project became the first ever power project undertaken by a local body in India.

The villagers decided not to rely on TNEB because it is most unreliable energy provider. On average, Odanthrai used to suffer three hours of blackout every day. However, Odanthurai’s 6,500 people nonetheless know that their street lights and electric drinking-water pumps will keep operating. That is even the case in the hamlets of Vinobhaji Nagar and Kalarpudur.

Odanthurai’s panchayat only uses around 50 % of the electric power generated by the windmills and sells the rest to the TNEB. Last year, that deal boosted the local panchayat’s budget by the equivalent of $ 38,000. That’s so motivating!!!

The path to local self-sufficiency, however, was not free of obstacles. But the villager’s grit and patience sorted out the problem

Mawlynnong:

Mawlynnong, a small village in Meghalaya, this village was awarded the prestigious tag of ‘Cleanest Village in Asia’ in 2003 by Discover India Magazine; it is located at about 90 kms from Shillong. According to visitors, you cannot find a single cigarette butt/plastic bag lying around in the village. When we see litter around our homes, offices, roads, monuments, gardens it is so upsetting; we can only observe this helplessly because we can hardly do anything about it.

But, the villagers in Mawlynnong village say that they are used to keeping their houses and surrounding areas spick and span. From the time of their forefathers, they have been trained right from their childhood to keep their surrounding clean and neat. Embor Klamet, a Bread and Breakfast owner and tour guide from Mawlynnong, says that “Kids are given the task of keeping the area around the house clean as soon as they reach Grade 1 or Grade 2 in school; if they don’t do it, they don’t get food.” This place offers some good treks and guided walk to discover the some breathtaking sights. Mawlynnong is home to about 95 families.

You can meet the gentle Khasis, one of Meghalaya’s major tribes, who trace their lineage from the mother; you can see orchids, roses, lilies, birds of paradise, local flowers and even the carnivorous pitcher plants here. The old cobble-stoned routes are replaced with concrete ones; women of the village break the stone, while men pave little pathways leading to a few remaining traditional bamboo houses and the plenteous, sturdier wooden ones.

You will see very few concrete houses in the village. And the villagers plan to keep away from concrete houses. The village headman called ‘Dorbar Shnong’ and the tourists have advised the villagers to stay away from concrete. Tourism, traditional occupation of cultivating betel nut, broomcorn, black pepper, berries, bay leaf and delicious fruits like oranges, lemon, pineapple and the local soshang fruit are some of the occupations of the villages.

Punsari:

This village is located in Gujrat and it will put most metros to shame. This village prides WiFi, CCTVs, AC classrooms and much more. It is funded by the Indian government and the villager’s own funding model. The village has a mini-bus commute system and various other facilities.  Punsari village is barely 100 km from Ahmedabad. You will see closed-circuit cameras; water purifying plants, air-conditioned schools, Wi-Fi, biometric machines – the village has it all. And all of it was done in a matter of eight years, at a cost of a mere Rs. 16 crore.

Young Himanshu Patel who is sarpanch of the village is the man behind the transformation. A graduate from North Gujarat University, Mr Patel had won the panchayat polls in 2006, at the age of 23. Back then, the village didn’t even have proper roads, power or water. The panchayat funds were in deficit. Mr Patel found though plenty money came but its utilization was faulty. Young Himanshu Patel took the right steps and brought in technological changes in the village.

Hiware Bazar:

Is famously known as a village of 60 millionaires!!! It is located in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. This village is situated in draught-prone Ahmednagar district. The village has transformed because of gigantic efforts of Popatrao Pawar. This village is noted for its irrigation system and water conservation program. Poatrao Pawar – the only postgraduate in the village contested for the post of Gram panchayat Sarpanch and won. After winning the elections, he closed the illicit 22 liquor retail outlets in the village. He worked hard to secure bank loans for farmers and started rainwater harvesting, water conservation and management programs, which involved building 52 earthen bunds, percolation tanks, 32 stone bunds and nine check dams. He followed the development plan based on village Ralegan Siddhi, 35 km away, from Hiware Bazar.

By the end of 1990, when the villagers saw prosperity, reverse migration started as families started returning home. In 2012, the village with its 235 families and an overall population of 1,250, had a monthly per capita income Rs 30,000, up from Rs. 830 in 1995, plus today it has 60 families with an annual income of over 10 Lakh rupees.

Dharnai: First fully solar-powered village

Dharnai, a village in Bihar, conquered over 30 years of darkness by developing its own solar-powered system for electricity. It is India’s first village powered entirely by solar electricity. A few days ago, Greenpeace and two other NGOs that work in the area (BASIX and CEED) started building a solar power micro-grid to serve the village, and after a few months of testing, the autonomous 100 kilowatt system officially went online.

The Dharnai grid serves about 450 homes, housing 2,400 residents, as well as roughly 50 businesses, streetlights, water pumps, two schools, health care center, and other public and private ventures. It has a battery to store excess electricity, for use during the night hours. Today, Dharnai is an energy-independent village!! Students no long need to limit their studies to the day time; women no longer limit themselves to stepping out in the day in this village of 2400 residents.

Chappar:

A village that distributes sweets when a girl is born

Chappar village in Haryana has a woman Sarpanch called Neelam.  Haryana is notoriously famous for male domination and the lowest girl ratio of 877 girls to 1000 boys. Neelam became the first woman Sarpanch of Chappar village, she opted for the position because she wanted to see a positive change in the village. Neelam brought in positive changes for girls. Today, the villagers distribute sweets and welcome every newborn girl child. And, after so many years, women of this small village have started living without a ghoonghat (veil).

She became an inspiration to all the women. Girls are sent to schools, they are re-initiated for their studies and to become more confident and active in the village matters. Neelam has a dream for her village. Her vision is to make it cleaner, efficient and a lot friendlier to the senior citizens who have to run around for claiming their rights. Neelam has taken up a stand to end patriarchal traditions and give way to capable women for empowering communities

Kokkare Bellur:

This village is 83 km from Bangalore, off the Mysore Highway by around 12 km. It is a village that really loves its local birds. This place is famous for its Spot Billed Pelicans and the Painted Storks that can be sighted here in vast numbers during season time. This scenic village has paddy fields, cattles, water, and lots of exotic birds. The village is in the Maddur Taluka of the Mandya district of Karnataka.

Kokkare is the local name for “Painted Storks” that are very famous in this region, “Bellur” meaning village of jaggery; hence, the village has derived its name from the bird. The village thrives on the bird’s droppings, which are called “guano”, and they are rich in potassium. The villagers use the bird’s droppings as manure for their cultivation. Indeed, the villagers believe that the birds bring in their homes good luck and prosperity. That is the beauty of this place!!

The villagers believe in conservation of the nature. While most other villages consider birds as nuisance because they harm the crops, this village conserves the birds.  The district is full of sugarcane fields and this village in particular is famous for having large colonies of Spot-billed Pelicans and Painted Storks nesting in trees within the village. The villagers treat their winged companions as family and have even created an area for wounded birds to rest and heal. There is so much to learn from these villagers.

Conclusion:

Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a free India was self-governing, self-reliant, self-employed people living in village communities, deriving their right livelihood from the products of their homesteads. Maximum economic and political power including the power to decide what could be imported into or exported from the village and the power of decision making would remain in the hands of the village assemblies.

People have lived for thousands of years in a relative synchronization with their surroundings: living in their villages, weaving homespun clothes, eating homegrown food, using homemade goods; caring for their animals, forests, and lands; celebrating the fertility of the soil with feasts; entertaining themselves with local arts, dance, folk music etc. Villagers have built temples, churches and mosques to nurture their faith. Self sufficient villages will build India’s economy much stronger.

Leadership is something that cannot be ignored in an organization, in government, in educational institutions, in hospitals, in police, in society and in army. Anywhere in world, even in animal kingdom it matters. Leadership is deeply ingrained in the human experience and therefore the study of leadership theory gives us a better understanding of the dynamics of leadership, which in turn makes it easier for us to be better leaders or team players. It’s a glaring fact that people don’t leave organizations, they leave their bosses. Friends, poor behaviors of people in command drive away talent which costs hugely to the organizations.

Leaders come in many shapes and sizes. They present many styles, many levels of experience and many levels of competencies. Some are great, while some are bland, while others are absolutely awful. The great leaders have taken us from a starting point to somewhere better.  Some have leaded us through lapses in judgment and confidence; some have leaded us through the unknown to the known; some have supported us when we were having personal difficulties and turmoil. And, there are also those bland leaders who have done nothing, they were insipid and couched. We hardly remember what they did …

Then there are those awful leaders who instead of giving us, taken away from us everything. They reduced our confidence, our abilities, our performance, our enjoyment everything. These worst leaders highlighted our little mistakes, they ridiculed us, and they are scoundrels. So please try to figure out what is your leadership style.

Though theories seem like an alien concept sometimes, leadership theories cannot be ignored.  It is a primal, natural part of human behavior therefore, it is given academic attention. The first step in the path to studying this field is the understanding of what the theory demand. It runs into the field of social science, psychology, part organizational theory, phylosphy and anthropology. It takes a little emotional awareness, and a little philosophical groundwork. I wish to quote here Chester Bernard’s definition in 1938; he says “Leadership is the ability of a superior to influence the behavior of subordinates and persuade them to follow a particular course of action”. I think this is an apt definition on leadership.

Nelson Mandela’s magnificent autobiographical bestseller, ‘’Long Walk to Freedom’’, is a best example of leadership communication. It’s not surprising, then, that such documents attract so much interest when they are made public. People are naturally curious to know about their leader’s personal life, their making, their philosophy etc. Unfortunately, they can occasionally be disappointed as demonstrated in Bill Clinton’s effusive and generally unrevealing autobiography, ‘My Life’ and that leaders are not free from weaknesses in Mahatma Gandhi’s biography ‘The story of my experiments with truth’. Let me tell you friends, people can see leadership; the good, the bad and the ugly; it is not difficult at all. Biographies transport us to other times and places, they teach us essential lessons, they inspire us and show us what we have in common with the center personality.

You ask anyone “what do effective leaders do?” and you’ll hear a sweep of answers. Leaders set strategy; they motivate; they create a mission; they build a culture. But how do they do that? The mystery of what leaders ought to do in order to spark the best performance from their people is their style of leadership. In recent years, you will so many leadership experts, trainers, institutes literally making business, all in pursuit of creating leaders. The world is hungry even today for genuine leaders. There is a dearth of them.

Some of the basic theories will explain all that you want to know about leadership.

The Great Man Theory:  During the 19th century, the Great Man Theory of Leadership was invented and it became very popular. The theory was formulated mainly by analyzing the behaviors of mainly military figures of the time. In the 1800s, authoritative positions were held solely by men and were typically passed on from father to son. Thus, it’s not a fluke that the theory was named “Great Man Theory.” The fact worth noting here is there weren’t any women who were given the chance to rise those days. The famous historian, Thomas Carlyle was deeply involved with this Great Man Theory of Leadership and had even stated that the history of this world was basically the combined biographies of these great men. Mr. Thomas Carlyle believed that effective leaders were a package of ‘Godly’ motivation and the right personality.

Early research on leadership was based on the study of people who were already great leaders. These people were often from the aristocracy, as few from lower classes had the opportunity to lead. This contributed to the notion that leadership had something to do with breeding. Around the mid 19th century, nobody could identify with any scientific certainty, which human characteristic or combination was responsible for identifying great leaders. The Great Man theory assumed that the traits of leadership were inherent. That simply meant that great leaders are born, they are not made. This theory saw great leaders as those who were destined by birth to become a leader. Furthermore, the belief was that great leaders will rise when confronted with the appropriate situation. But, in 1860, Herbert Spencer, an English philosopher disputed the great man theory by affirming that these heroes are simply the product of their times and their actions which results from social conditions. In other words, society was shaping these great men as oppose to them shaping society.

The Trait Leadership Theory: The trait model of leadership is based on the characteristics of many leaders; both successful and unsuccessful and is used to predict leadership efficiency. The resulting lists of traits are then compared to those of potential leaders to assess their probability of success or failure. The trait leadership theory believes that people are either born or are made with certain qualities that allow them to excel in leadership roles. Qualities such as intelligence, sincerity, hard work, responsibility, creativity and other values puts anyone in the shoes of a good leader. Francis Galton was influenced by Thomas Carlyle’s work. He took this idea further. Galton found that leadership was a unique property of extraordinary individuals, and suggested that the traits which leaders possessed were indisputable and could not be developed. Throughout the early 1900s, the study of leadership focused on leadership traits. The trait theory of leadership focused on analyzing mental, physical and social characteristic in order to gain more understanding of what is the characteristic or the combination of characteristics that are common among leaders. In the 1930s the field of Psychometrics was just introduced and it has gained a lot of popularity; personality traits measurement was not so reliable; study samples were of lower rank managers; explanations weren’t offered as to the relation between each characteristic and its impact on leadership. Many studies have analyzed the traits among existing leaders in the hope of uncovering those responsible for ones leadership abilities, but in vain, the only characteristics that were identified among these individuals were those that they were slightly taller and slightly more intelligent. Can you imagine? I wish to mention here that even today after almost two centuries this is one of the best topics for PhD dissertation.

Behavioral theory of Leadership: It assumes that leaders can be made, rather than are born. And, that successful leadership is based in definable, learnable behavior. In reaction to the trait leadership theory, the behavioral theories are offering a new perspective, one that focuses on the behaviors of the leaders as opposed to their mental, physical or social characteristics. Thus, with the evolutions in psychometrics, notably the factor analysis, researchers were able to measure the cause and effects relationship of specific human behaviors from leaders. From this point forward anyone with the right conditioning could have access to the once before cream of the crop naturally gifted leaders. In other words, this theory is based on leaders are made not born. The behavioral theories first divided leaders in two categories. Those that were concerned with the tasks and those concerned with the people. Throughout the literature these are referred to as different names, but the essence are identical.

Behavioral theory is a big leap from Trait Theory, in that it assumes that leadership capability can be learned, rather than being inherent. This opens the floodgates to leadership development, as opposed to simple psychometric assessment that sorts those with leadership potential from those who will never have the chance. The behavioral theory is relatively easy to develop, as you simply assess both leadership success and the actions of leaders. With a large enough study, you can then correlate statistically significant behaviors with success. You can also identify behaviors which contribute to failure, thus adding a second layer of understanding.

Contingency theory of Leadership: The Contingency Leadership theory argues that there is no single way of leading and that every leadership style should be based on certain situational parameter, which signifies that there are certain people who perform at the maximum level in certain places; but at minimal performance when taken out of their element. This theory also claims there is no best way to organize a corporation, to lead a company, or to make decisions. Instead, the optimal course of action is contingent (dependent) upon the internal and external situation. A contingent leader effectively applies his/her personal style of leadership to the situation. To a certain extent contingency leadership theory is an extension of the trait theory, in the sense that human traits are related to the situation in which the leaders exercise their leadership. It is generally accepted within the contingency theories that leader are more likely to express their leadership when they feel that their followers will be responsive.

Competent lawyers are the courtroom heroes. Law is an integral part of nearly every area of our life – from the environment, trade, education, medicines, entertainment, marriage, childbirth, sports to death. When things go wrong in society we first think of lawyers. Be it a divorce, stealing, bribery, bankruptcy, IP theft, corporate slip-ups; when fundamentals and practicalities begin to crumble, lawyers swoop in like heroes to protect their clients against the offenders. Taking help of lawyer is a simple instantaneous action, born out of necessity. People call lawyers not because they wantto, but because itnecessitates to.

Can a lawyers’ role be narrowly defined as an antidote to conflict? Are they required only to avoid or manage disputes? The common most notion of a lawyer is – the one who is skilled at finding ‘loopholes’ in the system and help his/her client escape from a sticky situation. But this is our narrow-mindedness if we define their role in such tapered frame. And, we cannot deny that to one up the law one must know the law.

Law is the way society regulates its behavior. It creates rules of conduct that are widely understood and gives us parameters for resolving disputes and defining acceptable codes of conduct. Our centralized, state, and local laws regulate everything from how we do business with each other to how we behave in public places, our duties and responsibilities in society, how we keep our surrounding to where we can park our cars. Because law is considered a technical profession not easily comprehended by the untrained, individuals and companies hire professionals-lawyers-to help them realize it and conduct the procedures it defines. The role of lawyers cannot be limited or underrated. Lawyers have enormous power, which they use daily to effect change for their clients. Without law and order we cannot live peacefully in this world. In some or the other way we permanently depend on lawyers.

Law has been one of the popular career choices for youngsters. Those who come from families of lawyers usually opt to study law. Anyone can choose to study law as long as one has the passion for it. There are many areas of specialization in law these days. Maritime Law, Cyber Law, Business Law, Civil Rights Law, Entertainment Law, Environment Law, Immigration Law, Health Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Labor Law, Taxation Law and many more. I listed just few of them. Today for every action and every activity we find a specialized lawyer. Traditionally, students could specialize in either civil or criminal laws.

People who enter this demanding and comprehensive profession do so for many reasons. It is a great paying career and it is a challenging career which requires lot of research and people skills. If you love it make a career in it. To be precise, lawyers can have a broad range of responsibilities depending on the specific area of law they practice. But if you think being a lawyer mainly involves making speeches and grilling witnesses in a courtroom, think again. Even trial lawyers-those who specialize in courtroom litigation spend surprisingly little time before a judge or jury. For every hour in the courtroom, many more are spent doing research, conducting interviews, or writing documents in preparation for proceedings. Many lawyers, in fact, never set foot in court. They work in the back office.

In broad terms, lawyers apply their interpretation of the law (the codified rules of their society) to advise their employer or client on completing transactions in compliance with the law or resolving disputes based on current understanding of the law. At its most basic level, a lawyer’s role is that of a supporter and adviser. Attorneys use specialized knowledge to research and interpret the intent of the law and apply it to whatever circumstances their clients face. It’s an imperfect practice, as the interpretations of the law may vary significantly based on the circumstances of the situation.

The legal profession can be divided into two major categories: litigation and transactions. Litigation, which concerns both civil and criminal law, is the process of arguing a dispute between two parties. Transactions relate to business and personal matters that usually do not require courtroom argumentation. For example, a lawyer may counsel a client in the transactions of preparing a will, contract, or lease; to help secure venture capital for a new company; or to prepare a patent for a new technology. However, if the will is contested or if the venture capitalists sue the business owner for fraud, that would then require an attorney with litigation skill.

Depending on the type of law they practice, lawyers will spend their time on paperwork; researching, preparing for, or participating in trials and advising clients. They spend hours in law libraries, online databases, and case studies for researching legal precedents. They prepare contracts, to the point note, and other documents, assembling boilerplate paragraphs (it is the sections of code that have to be included in many places with little or no alteration) or writing from scratch. They need a sharp mind, sharp focus and razor-sharp communication skills. Humor and wit is an added advantage as it can lighten the courtroom atmosphere.

They plan and conduct depositions or interviews with witnesses. In complicated cases, these can generate thousands of pages of testimony-all of which have to be read, analyzed, and refined into usable information. They present their evidence-the information they’ve gathered about a case and about the laws relevant to a case-in a court of law, arguing before a judge and/or jury. Alternatively, they may present their research findings to clients, advising them on business or other issues.

If you want to make a splendid career in law, you need to sharpen your analytical ability, attention to detail, logical reasoning, persuasiveness, sound judgment and of course writing ability.  I want to list here one of the most essential element for the career and that is of emotional intelligence. They need to empathies with their clients, they need to respect and honor their colleagues, and most important they need to be good listeners.  Impassive, unemotional and detached lawyers are never in demand. The market does not want a lawyer who is only half a person. They also need to be tech savvy and good in time management.

If you are interested in making a career in law – you can either do a three-year law course after graduation in any discipline or a 5 years’ course after 12th class. In fact, the 3 years’ course is now giving way to the 5 years’ one which is seen as a better option. In most cases, colleges run the 3 years’ course only for those whose main discipline in graduation is something other than law, or working professionals who want to do an LLB as an additional qualification. The five year course is meant for those who want to take up law as a career – be it as a litigator, or any other kind of legal professional. For the five years course the national law entrance exam, CLAT (Combined Law Admission Test) which basically tests the student’s general English, legal aptitude, general awareness, logical skills, etc needs to be cleared.

The LLB course is regulated by the Bar Council of India which sets rules and regulations regarding legal practice in the country. Any specialization is done at masters, M. Phil or PhD stage. A higher degree helps candidates in their career advancement. It is an honorable career.

Our nation needs competent and efficient lawyers for enhanced law and order. People like Mahtma Gandhi, Dr. Amedkar, Lokmanya Tilak, Abraham Lincoln, and Nelson Mandela were some great people who had donned the Lawyer’s coat sometimes in life.

In most football teams the quarterback is the team leader. Why is that? Is there something magic about that position? Does he automatically become the leader – the guy who makes the team play and achieve goals when he is named quarterback by the coach? No, there’s more to it than that. He is named quarterback because he’s already a leader. He’s already the kind of guy the other players like to follow. And if the coach is wrong about making him the quarterback, he probably won’t stay quarterback very long. If he can’t lead the team, he won’t have much value even if he can hit a receiver at 40 yards. Every successful team must have a leader.

“Your actions are so loud, I can’t hear what you’re saying,” observed Ralph Waldo Emerson. Every time a leader sends a message, he or she is providing two mes­sages: one is the content what the leader wants done and the other is the process or style how the leader conveys it. The latter is more important than the former, be­cause it provides the cultural context for the recipients.

In the revolution led by Mandela to transform model of racial division and oppression into an open democracy, he demonstrated that he didn’t shy away from taking up arms, but his real qualities came to the fore when world saw him as an activist — during his 27 years in prison and in the eight years since his release, when he had to negotiate the challenge of turning a myth into a man.

Leaders establish the behavioral realities at the workplace. They establish and embody the real values of the organization and, by extension, its rela­tionships with customers, suppliers, competitors, policy makers, government, and to environmentalists – to all out there. A leader’s canvass has to be large enough to support the details, objectives, methodology, scope and the goals to be achieved. He is required to provide true perspective. He should create a picture of future with lots of colors in it – making it striking for his followers.  Because if the picture of future is absurd no matter how he convinces his subordinates, they will start searching for the truth.

Alfred Sloan was able to take the best of what the theorists could offer. The fact is Sloan had raw guts to revolutionize decentralized bureaucracy, as each General Manager of General Motors was fundamentally bureaucratic. Each Division had a full set of assets and resources, self-directed management principals and practices, designed to meet its unique needs. Each GM could enter into external alliances and business deals. This often saw one division (SBU) in “friendly” competition with other SBUs. Sloan was literally hero worshiped by many as he practiced what he preached. General Motors as a company moved away from vertical integration to a flat organizational model. This gave the world of cars frequently new models with a slogan “building a car for every purse and purpose”. Whilst their competitor Ford was following strict Taylorist systems in building the famous “black cars.” Sloan at General Motors sold cars in all shapes and colors, and occupied leader’s position in the market. This acumen of Sloan kept General Motors in good stead for decades.

No matter what the nature of an organization, no one in it really reads up well or writes or does what he/she means. Each one believes what he/she sees. There is no more powerful shaper of behavior in the organization than the leader of it. In an organization the leader is considered an archetype.

Margaret Thatcher played the catalyst that set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a revolutionary twist to the century’s last two decades and helped mankind end the millennium on a note of hope and confidence. The triumph of capitalism, the almost universal acceptance of the market as indispensable to prosperity, the collapse of Soviet imperialism, the downsizing of the state on nearly every continent and in almost every country in the world – she   played a part in all those transformations, and it is not easy to see how any of this would have occurred without her.

Leadership is not a science. Hence being a leader is an adventure, this because the leader himself   can never be sure whether he/she will reach the goal, he may stumble or fumble. If only he is driven by genuineness, serenity and passion he can achieve goals.

“Think Different.” Mahatma Gandhi, in his younger days a sophisticated and Westernized lawyer, did indeed change his thinking more radically than most people do. Ghanshyam Das Birla, one of the merchant princes who backed him, once said, “He was more modern than I. But he made a conscious decision to go back to the Middle Ages.” This is because he wanted to reach out to the millions of poor, uneducated Indians who would accept a leader who could be related with, associated with and represent them. Gandhi changed not only his external appearance but he had the compassion – he changed internally too.

Some people inherit leadership positions, such as kings, or nobles, or heads of family businesses. Some are elected: chairman, governor, patrol leader. Some are appointed, such as a coach, a city manager, or a den chief. Or they may just happen to be there when a situation arises that demands leadership. When a disaster occurs, masses start searching for a leader.

In 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her bodyguards and hastily Rajiv Gandhi was sworn in as the Prime Minister. Prior to this Rajiv Gandhi had not shown much interest in politics. He attended college at Cambridge, England; married an Italian, Sonia Gandhi; and worked as a pilot for the Indian Airlines. But, once he took charge of the Prime Minister’s post his government encouraged foreign investment, and industry boomed with the loosening of business controls. He sought to increase Indian investments in modern technology. He removed many restrictions on imports; India invested in exports thus encouraging foreign investment. He has a extensive vision, a large imaginative canvass to draw pictures of modern India! As no leader is spared of criticism; Rajiv Gandhi was also criticized that he was indecisive as he changed his cabinet members frequently.

As a young boy, Narendra Damodardas Modi helped his dad serve tea in Gujarat’s Vadnagar railway station. At the age of 63, and as leader of India’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, he is about to serve the world’s largest democracy as prime minister. Modi built his reputation over the years with his Gujrat Model on economic growth, building an efficient business administration and selling the state to the world: in 2009, the Gujarat government hired the US lobbying and public relations firm, APCO Worldwide, to promote this state as an investment destination. Since Modi took control, Gujarat has led the nation in GDP growth and accounts for 16 percent of industrial output. This western state boasts of uninterrupted power supply and the finest road infrastructure in the country. Modi’s biographer, Mukhopadhyay, describes him as charismatic, an “extremely hard working person” a good administrator. Narendra Modi personifies the “rags to riches” story. He is set to become the 14^th Prime Minister of India on 26^th May 2014.

In the end, it’s the leader’s self-discipline, his truthfulness and the excitement and commitment with which he works. A charismatic and genuine leader I always emulated. His clarity in messaging, his actions, his guiding spirit, his affection towards his team mates, his style, his dressing sense, his diction determine his and in turn his organization success.

Friends, good leadership is indeed the need of the hour.