Leading: Lessons from Literature

What is Leadership? Who is true Leader? Are leaders born or made? What are the qualities that make one human being lead others? These are the question that thinkers and theorists have tried to answer since the beginning of organized human society. Although several theories and models have emerged, few provide satisfactory answers. Addressing these very questions from a fresh perspective, this book abandons convention and provides an alternative approach to understand leadership. It examines leadership from a multi-disciplinary perspective, which combines management science, literature, philosophy, drama, mythology and experiential knowledge from key business leaders. The result is an entirely new perspective on how to look at leadership in the 21st century. In presenting this unique approach, Sampat P Singh addresses some key issues including: How leadership must be understood in a holistic perspective. The much needed change in management education for developing mindsets for leadership. How entrenched mindsets must be deprogrammed for human resource development in organizations. The concept of Enlightened Leadership derived out of ancient Indian texts, modern theory and examples from the world of business. The differences between the roles of a leader and a manager Interspersed with examples and anecdotes and departing from the oft-repeated ways of writing on leadership, this seminal book will be invaluable not just to students and scholars of management and to practising mangers but to everyone who finds the issue of leadership interesting.