When the Penny Drops: Learning What’s Not Taught

For centuries, we have learned what’s not taught through our own experiences and the stories of others. Even today, only 3 per cent of leadership development occurs due to classroom training and coursework. In fact, for most managers, ‘the penny drops’ only when we are at the end of our careers.

R. Gopalakrishnan, author of the best-selling The Case of the Bonsai Manager, has many stories to tell. With forty-three years’ corporate experience across countries, each story recounted here has taught him a valuable lesson in some intuitive way. Each one is narrated here for you to allow you to reflect and learn for yourself how to improve and develop.

Using the framework of the Tata Management Training Centre (TMTC) and the Center for reative Leadership (CCL), Gopalakrishnan explores: The three worlds of the manager—the inner world, the world of relationships and the world of getting things done; The importance of emotional quotient (EQ) to progress as well as intelligence to get ahead in your career; The deadly personal qualities of bonsai-trapped leaders; The deadly traps for organizations.

When the Penny Drops: Learning What’s Not Taught encourages you to reflect on yourself. It will help you learn by identifying the success mantras embedded in you and releasing the lessons that might be entrapped within yourself.