My session for mid-career managers on the cusp of growing into first-time leadership roles. In this session, I addressed some core issues around what constitutes leadership. My going in position is that while title, role, position, etc. bring the extrinsic "power" to your ability to lead, what really matters is who you are without any of those trappings? To me, leadership is all about the ability to lead wherever you are.

1. Developing
the Leader
in You!
Dr. Tathagat Varma

2. What is Leadership?
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/leadership-responsibility-not-power
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-leadership
https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/what-is-leadership-a-definition
Leadership is responsibility, not power – Robert Joss, Dean Stanford GSB, 2009,
https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/leadership-responsibility-not-power.
Leadership is a set of mindsets and behaviors that aligns people in a collective direction, enables them to work
together and accomplish shared goals, and helps them adjust to changing environments. – McKinsey, 2024.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-leadership
A social process that enables individuals to work together to achieve results that they could never achieve working
alone…This leadership definition moves beyond a focus on leaders, followers, and shared goals, and instead puts
the emphasis on the shared outcomes of leadership. If all 3 elements – direction, alignment, and commitment — are
present, then we know that leadership is happening. – Center for Creative Leadership,
https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/what-is-leadership-a-definition

3. My Top 10 Learnings…
Attitudes
Beliefs
Mindset
Values
Practices
Calling
Disposition

4. 1. What’s Your Purpose?
“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.”
Robert Byrne

5. 2. What’s Your Belief System?
Meliorism: A belief that world can be made better
by human effort.
George Elliot for a position midway between
pessimism and optimism.

6. 3. What’s Your Mindset?
Human abilities are not fixed, but can be developed
through dedication, effort and learning.
Carol Dweck, Mindset: The new psychology of
success.

7. 4. What Did You Learn Today?
“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn
to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one
cannot fly into flying.”
Friedrich Nietzsche

8. 5. Why Are You Waiting?
Wait
until
told
Ask what
to do
Recomme
nd, then
take
resulting
action
Act, but
advise at
once
And act
on own,
then
routinely
report
Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey? – William Oncken, Jr. and Donald L. Wass, HBR, Nov-Dec 1999

9. 6. Do You Inspire?
“If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the people
to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders.
Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless
sea.”
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry (“The Little Prince”)

10. 7. What Kind Of Leader Are You?
“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve,
to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply
different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual
power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two
extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety
of human nature.
“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other
people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do
those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more
autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least
privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”
– Robert Greenleaf, “The Servant as Leader”, 1970

11. 8. What Do You Need To Lead?
“Formal authority isn’t required. Instead, teams should marshal a
commitment to a shared mission and care about the success and
development of one another. Regardless of a title, position, or
location, the ability to lead without authority is an essential
workplace competency.”
– Keith Ferrazzi, “Leading Without Authority” 2020

12. 9. What’s Your Identity?
“Be yourself; everyone else is already taken"
Oscar Wilde

13. 10. How Do You Help Others Grow?
Write
Teach
Share Build
Solve
Help
Coach Mentor
Voluntee
r
…

14. Recap
MINDSET PROCESS JOURNEY