Books on leadership and self fulfilment come in the dozens these days. Especially after the financial crisis there is a lot of advice being provided to CEOs as to how they should run their business. Prakash Iyer, in his most recent book, The Secret of Leadership, has the reader guessing as to what one means by leadership. It is more in the nature of the sublime search for the leadership inside you and how one should react to situations when leading your professional life. It is a sort of self-help book which tells us how we should look at life and carve a niche for ourselves. The word “leader” is hence used in a broader sense and there is a hard attempt to extrapolate all the parables and anecdotes to a quality of a leader defined this way. The stories of Julio Iglesias or the making of KFC are well known today as to how one conquered adversity and flipped the coin towards the success zones. Iyer would call that as being a part of the broad class of leadership.
The book is divided into four parts and has several little stories that last for three-four pages. It starts with “the leader within” and moves over to the “leader’s mindset” and traverses the “leader’s way” before the finale on “leading teams”. Iyer gets endorsements from the likes of Madhukar Kamath, Rahul Dravid and Nitin Paranjpe, which is significant. Let us see some of the lessons that Iyer has got to give the reader in his framework. We need to run our own race and should not worry about the kind of work we get to do as everything is important. The lessons we learn early in life are important and to illustrate this Iyer gives the example of the mother giraffe which keeps kicking her child to be prepared to face reality, which is escaping from the predatory animals. To discover the inner leader in ourselves we need to have what the acronym PHD signifies: passion, hunger and discipline. An interesting analogy drawn for explaining tackling adversity is the “tea bag” test where the tea tastes better after being dipped more in hot water. The mindset of a leader can also be stylised. There has to be the hunger for achievement and therefore, both a final and intermediate goal should exist. Some wise advice is also provided here that our own outlook to life determines how we view people. We need to conquer fear and not look at the missing piece in our life but concentrate on what we see in front of us. This saves a lot of time and energy. Above all, Iyer reasons that we should not listen to people who discourage us and uses the parable of the frogs which climbed the tower. The third section of “the leader’s way” is a continuation of the mindset, with stories from all over. Tendulkar’s uncompromising full sessions at the nets are noteworthy. He says something which most corporate leaders don’t do—reward the staff before the service is provided, where he shows how waiters work better when the tip comes in advance. Leaders go a step ahead in getting the personal touch and his personal experience with Indra Nooyi is mentioned where she remembered the author’s bandaged hand after she meets him months after the incident. There are some idealistic advice given here, like one should do what one loves and not use harsh words as they cannot be withdrawn – not something which is true of most CEOs today who are quite brash and still respected in the media. This is where the book appears to be talking of characteristics which normally do not hold in real day life. On the positive side he draws the experience of Nelson Mandela who invited his jailers for his swearing-in ceremony—something which is really rare in real day life. The final section on leading teams has some interesting insights. Leaders should have faith in every member of the team and not try and assume that they have to cover for everyone. The book is not really one of success stories but more a set of ingredients of what goes into a successful leader, where a leader is not really a CEO or prime minister but anyone who has a zest to succeed; and with the right qualities also lead a team successfully. It is easy to read this book, though at times it appears that more is being drawn from parables connected to the quality of leadership. Call it poetic or author’s licence.
The book is divided into four parts and has several little stories that last for three-four pages. It starts with “the leader within” and moves over to the “leader’s mindset” and traverses the “leader’s way” before the finale on “leading teams”. Iyer gets endorsements from the likes of Madhukar Kamath, Rahul Dravid and Nitin Paranjpe, which is significant. Let us see some of the lessons that Iyer has got to give the reader in his framework. We need to run our own race and should not worry about the kind of work we get to do as everything is important. The lessons we learn early in life are important and to illustrate this Iyer gives the example of the mother giraffe which keeps kicking her child to be prepared to face reality, which is escaping from the predatory animals. To discover the inner leader in ourselves we need to have what the acronym PHD signifies: passion, hunger and discipline. An interesting analogy drawn for explaining tackling adversity is the “tea bag” test where the tea tastes better after being dipped more in hot water. The mindset of a leader can also be stylised. There has to be the hunger for achievement and therefore, both a final and intermediate goal should exist. Some wise advice is also provided here that our own outlook to life determines how we view people. We need to conquer fear and not look at the missing piece in our life but concentrate on what we see in front of us. This saves a lot of time and energy. Above all, Iyer reasons that we should not listen to people who discourage us and uses the parable of the frogs which climbed the tower. The third section of “the leader’s way” is a continuation of the mindset, with stories from all over. Tendulkar’s uncompromising full sessions at the nets are noteworthy. He says something which most corporate leaders don’t do—reward the staff before the service is provided, where he shows how waiters work better when the tip comes in advance. Leaders go a step ahead in getting the personal touch and his personal experience with Indra Nooyi is mentioned where she remembered the author’s bandaged hand after she meets him months after the incident. There are some idealistic advice given here, like one should do what one loves and not use harsh words as they cannot be withdrawn – not something which is true of most CEOs today who are quite brash and still respected in the media. This is where the book appears to be talking of characteristics which normally do not hold in real day life. On the positive side he draws the experience of Nelson Mandela who invited his jailers for his swearing-in ceremony—something which is really rare in real day life. The final section on leading teams has some interesting insights. Leaders should have faith in every member of the team and not try and assume that they have to cover for everyone. The book is not really one of success stories but more a set of ingredients of what goes into a successful leader, where a leader is not really a CEO or prime minister but anyone who has a zest to succeed; and with the right qualities also lead a team successfully. It is easy to read this book, though at times it appears that more is being drawn from parables connected to the quality of leadership. Call it poetic or author’s licence.
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