Dialogue on Leadership Development

Vol. 27, No1 , C Manohar Reddy and Vasanthi Srinivasan; March 2015

In our quest for deeper understanding of the leadership development process, and drawing upon our experience as teachers and trainers who have designed and conducted several leadership development programmes, we seek to address some key issues which are critical to the success of leadership development programmes.
The lack of clarity on the concepts of leader development and leadership development, and the lack of distinction between leadership theories and leadership development theories has often led to confusion in the design of leadership development programmes. The focus of leadership theories has been on identifying behavioural traits/ characteristics for effective leadership. Further, the theories seem to assume that if we know what it takes to be an effective leader, we can choose to behave in the most appropriate way for leadership effectiveness. However, we observe a significant gap between the participants’ cognitive learning and what they internalize, in terms of deeper change in their attitudes, feelings, and behaviour.  We believe that methods that focus on bringing changes in doing and being need to be incorporated in the design of programmes. Eastern traditions as enshrined in the Upanishads and the Buddhist and Jain texts too could supplement Western knowledge and methods, and provide insights and methods that can effectively facilitate changes at the level of being and doing. We submit that it is critical for the success of leader(ship) development programmes in the Indian context to synthesize between Western theories and Indian insight and wisdom, particularly with regard to approaches to self-development and transformation.

Programme designers need to examine the relevance of different leadership development approaches and interventions depending on the goals and arrive at a coherent design that is congruent with the assumptions they make regarding the leadership development process.
In conclusion, we reflect upon the insights we have gained, from our respective perspectives – one from a focus largely on role effectiveness of the individual in an organizational context, and the other on personal change within or without a role in an organization.