This presentation has been made to share some salient points written by Mr. Prakash Iyer in his book "The Secret of Leadership".

1. The secret of Leadership
Prakash Iyer
Sharing salient points from the book
Subhasish Saha
3rd May 2014

2. “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially
when you celebrate victory, when nice things occur. You take the front-
line when there is a danger. Then people will appreciate your
leadership.”

3. Learning is best when it is not formal
• Jargons , formal class rooms do not provide learning inputs
• Preaching is the last approach
• We all grew through the moral learning of Panchatrantra, Jataka or
through other bed-time stories.
• In the following few slides, we will talk about such day to day
examples.
• Starting from Tea Bag to Frog, there are great leadership lessons to
learn.

4. Thomas Sullivan, a tea merchant in New York, created the teabag almost by accident. He put some samples of his
tea into exquisite silk bags and sent to friends. One friend, did not bother to pull out the tea from the bag and just
dunked it into hot water. He loved the tea. And an idea was born!

5. What can we learn from a tea bag ?
• What counts is what’s inside the tea bag.
• The real flavour comes through only when the teabag gets
into hot water.
• Good teabags look forward to getting into hot water.
• A teabag must be porous.
• Teabags work, never mind where they are in the cup
• Sometimes, one teabag is just not enough.
• Sometimes, you need to add some sugar and milk as well.
• Someone else holds the string always.
• Eventually, teabags need to make way and get out.

6. Life lessons from a Baby Giraffe
• The birth of a baby giraffe is literally an earth-shaking event.
• Sequence :
• The baby falls from its mother’s womb, some 8 ft above the ground.
• It shrivels up and lies still, too weak to move.
• After initial kissing, the mother kicks the baby giraffe flying up in the air and tumbling
down on the ground…
• It continues till mother is happy to see the baby standing on its own.
• Why ?
• It knows that lions and leopards love giraffe meat, unless the baby quickly learns to
stand and run with the pack, it has no chance of survival.
• Important lesson:
• No matter how hard you fall, always remember to pick yourself up and get back on
your feet. If you are lucky, you might get a mother(mentor) to help you.

7. Bronze medallists
• There was a recent study of Olympic athletes. They found that bronze
medallists were a far happier lot than silver medallists.
• Why ?
• Apparently, while the silver medallists kept thinking about how they missed
the gold, the bronze medallists where thinking, ‘Wow. I made it and now have
something to show for my efforts! ‘ They felt grateful that at least they won
something!
• Lessons :
• Just be the best you can be. Run your own race.

8. Hasil Adkins
• Adkins a musician, played rock and roll, country and the blues. Never won
Grammy, but still he was a hero ?
• You know why?
• He was a one-man band.
• Simultaneously he would sing, play guitar, drums- with his feet.
• That’s not all. He also played the piano and harmonium slung around his neck.
• How did he learn to play so many things together?
• As a kid, he used to listen radio and one afternoon he found that the RJ, after every
song, kept on saying , …. And that was Hank Williams.
• This young boy assumed that this William played all the instruments in the song.
• Lessons:
• We all have beliefs about what we can do and more importantly, what we cannot.
• Don’t‘ allow your belief to become your limitations.

9. This is Good! – An African folk tale
• The story:
• A king’s firend, a cheerful, optimistic person had an habit of saying “This is
good” – irrespective of the situation.
• One day, the king’s thumb got blown off while triggering his gun and his
friend said “This is good”. You know the next. The guy was behind bars.
• In the next hunting trip, tribals caught hold of the kind and wanted to punish
because of animal killing.
• They were very superstitious and noticed that the king had no thumb.
• Rest of the stories… I will tell you now.
• Lessons:
• Try to look for opportunity in difficulty and not difficulty in opportunity.

10. Ricky Ponting and the art of finding the gaps
• Ponting is one of only three cricketers to have scored over 13000 runs
in test cricket. He also has over 70 centuries in test and one-day
internationals.
• Someone once asked him the secret of his ability to score runs in
finding the gaps.
• His answer was revealing. He said , ‘most of the batsman survey the
field before taking strike, and usually the fields get imprinted on his
mind. He can almost see every fielder in his mind’s eye. But in my
head, I don’t see the fielders. I only see the gaps!’
• Lessons:
• Stop focussing on obstacles(fielders) instead focus on opportunities (gaps)
• Next time you see a problem or an obstacle, think the Ponting way!!!

11. The missing goat
• Story:
One lazy Sunday afternoon in a small town near Toronto in Canada, few
school going friends had a crazy idea. They rounded up 3 goats and
painted them with numbers 1,2 and 4 and allowed the goats to go
inside their school campus. Next day as expected there were major
mess.....
Lessons:
Instead of making the most of what we have and focusing on our
strengths like all successful people do, we worry about the missing
piece – our shortcomings.

12. Please read the book for the rest. Thank you.