Leadership is one entity which is majorly influenced by a person’s character. It can be taught through experience but not from available literature, opined Management Consultant Pavan Kumar.
Interacting with the employees of Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) during a programme on ‘Leadership Styles’ at Sri Venkateswara Employees Training Academy (SVETA) here on Tuesday, Mr. Kumar spoke on group management, various styles of leadership, effective listening and communication skills.
Citing examples from mythology as well as contemporary history, Mr. Kumar highlighted the traits necessary for an able leader and maintained that effective leadership buoyed by success will reap good dividends for an organisation. “Lord Rama, Ravana and Adolf Hitler were all leaders due to their capacity to attract people. But, the one who is remembered as a true leader is the one who is exemplified for his virtues,” he added.
Mr. Kumar further spoke on other leadership traits like listening and responses to a particular event, interlacing it with examples from his personal experiences, movies and mythological stories.
SVETA Director K.V. Ramakrishna termed the two-day event as a diversified programme as the modules comprised activity-based learning combined with lecture-based method. “The notion of equating politicians with leaders should be done away with. A person managing, even a small group is a leader,” he added.
Earlier, a questionnaire on ‘Know your Leadership Style’, modelled around psychologist Kurt Lewin’s three-types of leadership - Authoritative, Participative and Delegative were conducted for the employees. “A combination of all three types of leadership will be balanced and augur well for an organisation,” opined Dr. Ramakrishna.
A self-evaluation exercise on ‘Effective Interpersonal Communication Skills’ was also held, where employees based on their responses were divided on hands-on, thinker, explorer and free thinker categories. Management Consultant Kamesh, TTD’s Heads of Department, Senior Officers and others took part.
