INSPIRATIONAL LEADERSHIP: Lessons From the Bhagavad Gita

Despite considerable attention, new research and insights, Leadership is an area of great concern for both business organisations, and public institutions. This is evident from the leadership crises situations emanating from time to time. Leadership crises throw two generic challenges to an organisation. At the institutional level, it threatens to tear the moral fabric of the organisation and bring down the morale of the employees. At an individual level it introduces enormous stress, burnout and deprived meaning at the workplace. The search for the right framework for leadership continues. This talk addresses this issue by taking fresh perspectives from Bhagavad Gita.

Using the ideas from Bhagavad Gita, this talk will introduce the notion of “Inspirational Leadership”. The talk will begin by enumerating some of the recent approaches to Leadership and create an opportunity to explore new areas in Leadership. With the ideas from Gita, the talk will focus on the traits of an inspirational leader. An inspirational Leader will be able to see himself/herself much beyond the pushes and pulls of day to day and reporting period tensions and challenges and anchor deeply in “one-self”. This will enable the person to handle life situation originating in both the professional and personal dimensions and focus on leading the team with clarity.