Dynamics of Creative Leadership As a HDR profes sional, Can every one of us ask, what I can give to push HDI ranking to re ach top 20 from 134 out of 1 87 countries. I am indeed delighted to attend the Annual National Conference of National HRD Networkat Hyderabad. My greetings to the organizers, participants and distinguished guests. I am happy to know that the theme of the conference is "Energizing for Excellence" which focuses on individual, society, team, organization and the Nation. HRD professional has a big challenge. India is ranked 134 in HDI among 187 countries. How can we improve the HDI ranking to at least top 20 countries. Of course, to reach the higher performance in ranking of HDI, we need innovation, excellence and above all creative leadership in human resource development. Hence, I would like to share a few thoughts on "Dynamics ofCreative Leadership" based on my experience. Excellence is a self-imposed self-directed life-long process Friends, excellence is not by accident. It is a process, where an individual, organization or nation, continuously strives to better oneself. The performance standards are set by themselves, they work on their dreams with focus and are prepared to take calculated risks and do not get deterred by failures as they move towards their dreams. Then they step up their dreams as they tend to reach the original targets. They strive to work to their potential, in the process, they increase their performance thereby multiplying further their potential and this is an unending life cycle phenomenon. They are not in competition with anyone else,
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HDI ranking to reach top 20 from 134 out of 187 countries.
I am indeed delighted to attend the Annual National Conference of National HRD Network
at Hyderabad. My greetings to the organizers, participants and distinguished guests. I am
happy to know that the theme of the conference is "Energizing for Excellence" whichfocuses on individual, society, team, organization and the Nation. HRD professional has a
big challenge. India is ranked 134 in HDI among 187 countries. How can we improve the
HDI ranking to at least top 20 countries. Of course, to reach the higher performance in
ranking of HDI, we need innovation, excellence and above all creative leadership in human
resource development. Hence, I would like to share a few thoughts on "Dynamics of
Creative Leadership" based on my experience.
Excellence is a self-imposed self-directed life-long process
Friends, excellence is not by accident. It is a process, where an individual,
organization or nation, continuously strives to better oneself. The performance
standards are set by themselves, they work on their dreams with focus and are
prepared to take calculated risks and do not get deterred by failures as they move
towards their dreams. Then they step up their dreams as they tend to reach the
original targets. They strive to work to their potential, in the process, they increase
their performance thereby multiplying further their potential and this is anunending life cycle phenomenon. They are not in competition with anyone else,
Akash, Trishul and Nag. In DRDL, at that time, many experienced Scientists were
competing for this task. Many of them were over fifty years of age. To enable the
selection of the most suitable candidate for heading these projects we followed a novel
procedure. I called for a meeting of the Management Council of DRDL and the agenda
for the meeting was to finalize the criteria required for the selection of the Project
Directors. I asked each member of the Management Council to go to the Board andwrite one characteristic, which he considered essential to be a Project Director.
When we discussed all the characteristics together, there was convergence among
members that the following are the most essential characteristics of the Project
Directors: credibility of the person in achieving excellence in one of the technologies or
management is the first essential quality. Secondly, Project Director should be young
enough to design and develop the missile and lead it to production. Thirdly, the selected
candidate should be a person of highest integrity. With this criterion, Scientists of the
age group below 40 became the obvious choice for selection as Project Directors of the
Programme. Simultaneously, I nominated other experienced Senior Scientists as
Technology Directors with the responsibility of developing the technologies required by
the projects. This created a technological link between the Project and Technology
Directors. Project Directors had the sanctioning power, which created a healthy
relationship between the Project Directors and the Technology Directors.
As an anecdote to this, I would like to mention how we decided on the name of the
projects. In a special meeting we invited all the Project Directors and Technology
Directors to decide on the names. We put the criteria that the name should be indicative
of the performance of the missile systems; it should be simple, there should beIndianness about the name and should be familiar to everyone. On this basis the names
Agni, Prithvi, Trishul, Akash and Nag were chosen and today these names have become
household names in many places. People at large, common man and even school
students are aware of these names and know what type of missiles these names indicate.
The message to you friends, the unique selection criteria for managing the leaders large
project is a learning ground for Human Resource Development experts.
2. Agriculture farming centre: My recent experience with farmers of Uttar Pradesh.
Friends, on 22 November 2012, I visited Barabanki district of Uttar Pradesh, where I
interacted with nearly five thousand farmers and villagers of that region. The DistrictMagistrate over there, Mrs Ministhy S., who is from Kerala and her team, has evolved a
multi dimensional rural development plan which covered health, education, agriculture,
sanitation, enterprise and environment. There I specifically heard from four progressive
farming entrepreneurs about how they have achieved high yield in their produce,
namely; Banana, flowers, wheat, mentha and rice. They told me how they have
innovated a new method of seed cultivation through a machine called seed drum. They
also told me that this seed drum was first invented as a prototype in Cochin, Kerala and
was brought from Cochin for ground level testing and implementation by the Barabanki
administration and the farmers. Friends, this is how rural ideas and innovations need to
quickly disseminate to the entire nation and empower the 800 million rural citizen of our
country. The message is how the Innovation of the farmers in seed cultivation has
3. School and college environment - Will-power can defeat any problem.
Friends, recently, an incident which took place in Harali village, Kolhapur District inMaharashtra, where I addressed and interacted with over 2000 of students hailing from
different schools. When I was about to get down from the stage after finishing my lecture
and interaction, a young boy about 18 years of age, held in the arms of his mother cried to
meet me. I called both of them on to the stage. The polio affected boy could not walk, but
he was strong in will power. He told me, "My name is Shailesh and I am from this village
Harali. You told us to have a dream. I am here to tell you my dream. I am a chess player. I
will work very hard and someday I will become a Grand Master". I wished Shailesh all the
best, who has a strong will power and said, ?You will succeed. Definitely, God is with
you.? Dear friends, the message is, "will power can defeat any problem". The environments
of Schools and College will reveal the dreams and pains of the youth. HR leaders should
active participants to learn the dreams of our future leaders and nurture them.
4. Visiting Innovative Industrial Complex - My recent experience at Charanka Solar
Park, Gujarat.
Friends, on 9 November 2012, I visited Gujarat, where I went to the District of Patan
and witnessed the Charanka Solar Park. This Solar Park, which is a part of the state?s
solar power mission, has a capacity of about 214 MWs out of the total 700 MWs of
clean solar power generated in the state. The park has been established as a model PPP
(Public Private Partnership) project with 17 different private partners, each with the
freedom to choose their technology and size and is now the single largest solar park in
g. Every action of the leader should be transparent.
h. Leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity.
For success in all your missions you have to become creative leaders. Creativeleadership means exercising the vision to change the traditional role from the
commander to the coach, manager to mentor, from director to delegator and from one
who demands respect to one who facilitates self-respect. For a prosperous and
developed India, the important thrust will be on the generation of a number of creative
leaders from our educational institution.
Friends, let me discuss with all of you some examples of leadership of different forms.
Certainly, the life of these great human beings will inspire all of you to have an aim in
life, which gives the motivation to acquire knowledge continuously, make you to work
hard and achieve success with perseverance as we evolve into a knowledge society of
the 21st century.
Managing Failure
Friends, when you set upon difficult missions it will bring difficult challenges which
may sometimes produce temporary setbacks. The test of a human being is in
accepting the failure and keep trying until he or she succeeds. Managing failures is a
quality which is the essence of leadership. Let me now tell you an experience in this
regard in my professional life.
When I think of Prof. Satish Dhawan, many incidences come to my mind. I would like to
share with you again, one important incident, which is a valuable lesson to the younger
generation. Friends, some of you know about the first experimental launch of SLV3, for
which I was Project Director. On 10th August 1979, the vehicle took-off beautifully at T-0
and the first stage gave predicted performance. The second stage was initiated, but within a
few seconds, we witnessed the vehicle in a tumbling motion and we lost the flight to the
Bay of Bengal. It was 8 am in the morning. The whole team in spite of all day and night
hard work and sweat for several days, were busy in collecting the data and trying to
establish the reason for the flight failure. Meanwhile, I was called by Prof Satish Dhawan toattend a press conference. Before the press conference, Prof. Satish Dhawan told me that he
was going to handle the situation and I should be present with many of the senior scientists
and technologists. The press conference room was full with media. There was gloom, many
questions were posed, some very powerful, thoughtful and also criticisms. Prof Satish
Dhawan, announced "Friends, today we had the experimental launch of SLV3 to put
ROHINI satellite in the orbit. It was a partial success. It is our first mission of proving
multiple technologies in a launch vehicle. We have proved many technologies in this
launch but still we have to prove some more. We have tumbled but not fallen flat. Above all
I realize my team members have to be given all the technological support for the next
mission to succeed. Subsequently, a failure analysis board established the cause and we
proceeded with the preparation for the second launch.
conferring Nobel Laureate Prof. Norman E Borlaug, a well known agricultural
scientist and a partner in India?s first Green revolution, with Dr. M S Swaminathan
Award, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi on the 15th of March 2005. Prof. Borlaug, at
the age of 91, was in the midst of all the praise showered on him from everybody
gathered there. When his turn came, he got up and highlighted India?s advancement
in the agricultural science and production and said that the political visionary ShriC. Subramaniam and Dr. M S Swaminathan, pioneer in agricultural science were
the prime architects of First Green Revolution in India. Even though Prof Norman
Borlaug was himself a partner in the first green revolution, he did not make a point
on this. He recalled with pride, Dr. Verghese Kurien who ushered White Revolution
in India. Then the surprise came. He turned to scientists sitting in the third row, fifth
row and eighth row of the audience. He identified Dr. Raja Ram, a wheat specialist,
Dr S K Vasal, a maize specialist, Dr. B. R. Barwale, a seed specialist. He said, all
these scientists had contributed for India?s and Asia?s agricultural science. Dr.
Borlaug introduced them to the audience by asking them to stand and ensured that
the audience cheered and greeted the scientists with great enthusiasm. This action of
Dr. Norman Borlaug, I call it as "Scientific Magnanimity". Friends, if we aspire to
achieve great things in life, we need Scientific Magnanimity to focus the young
achievers. It is my experience that great mind and great heart go together. This
Scientific Magnanimity will motivate the scientific community and nurture team
spirit.
Conclusion
Friends, so far I have discussed with you some unique dimensions of creative leadership in
every domain. These creative leadership are born out of the excellence in thinking andcreativity in their action. Because there are certain unique characteristics which shaped the
human development in different forms distinctively with great potential for excellence.
Finally I would like to ask you, what would you like to be remembered for? You have to
evolve yourself and shape your life. You should write it on a page. That page may be a
very important page in the book of human history. And you will be remembered for
creating that one page in the history of the nation ? whether that page is the page of
invention, the page of innovation or the page of discovery or the page of developing and
deploying a vital system and products for the nation. Here, let me recall a profound
saintly message to all of us by Maharishi Patanjali 2500 years ago.
"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your
thoughts break their bounds. Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness
expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents come alive, and you discover yourself to
be a greater person by far than you ever dreamt yourself to be."
My best wishes to all the members of India Cultural Centre and Community Leaders of