Three ingredients of Charimsatic leadership and Anna Hazare

Anna Hazare, a grass root activist from a small village flashed suddenly on India's national canvas with his anti-corruption campaign.

In spite of his old age, humble background & simple life style he had huge followers, that too including youths. Clearly his Charisma was in action.


Events that unfolded during his anti-corruption campaign highlights three important ingredients of Charismatic leadership.

1. Integrated Personality: Charismatic leader shows integrated personality. Often the roots of such personality is found in their spiritual practices and simple living. Vivekananda's influence on Anna Hazare and his Gandhian way of living contributed to his charismatic influence.
   
2. Crisis and Public Hope: Chain of high profile corruption scandals in 2010 were not less than any crisis in India . Though Indians are not new to corruption ,still the sheer scale & frequency of these scandals shattered national image.It upset every Indian mind. Anna's call of "anti-corruption" was perfect in time for the crisis. It addressed the need & hope of billions.
3. Radical Solution: Demand of Lokpal bill and its aggressive timeline was absolutely radical in the snail-paced policy world of India. Though the demand is heavily criticized by policy-makers , it fulfilled expectations and hope of followers. This further bridged the link between followers and Charismatic leader.
   

Image Source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ramesh_lalwani/5597837277/

Smile - There are so many reasons ...

Interesting talk by Ron Gutman smile - A curve that straightens cranky things ...

(Speech is supported by strong research findings from range of publications, and worth watching . All the studies that he is referring are available here .).

Changing the sleeping Blog ..

Currently this blog has infrequent updates, And this is about to change.

Basically this blog is a reflective personal journal started as a learning tool. One can see that early topics were scattered all around. Because when I started blogging , I was "exploring" different areas. As time passed , I could narrow down this search to Organization Behavior (OB). Though the blog is titled hr-universe, it is about OB. In practice HR and OB don't have water tight compartments, but still they differ. (Surely in the academic world !).

HR has excellent presence on blogosphere ,but not so for OB. So aim is to connect with these few like minded bloggers. This is also attempt to understand puzzling behaviors at and outside the workplace, There are so many ways to look at behavior that stretches limit of our potential and limits our potential too. It's interesting.

Lastly as I am switching over to academic world from corporate , I guess both will be visible in these learning steps.

Stay tuned !

(Image source : http://www.flickr.com/photos/spursfan_ace/2328879637/ )

How three year old can teach you something ?

The following is the speech I made for my 6-th Project in Toastmasters .

Project was targeted at "Vocal Variety". It wasn't easy to come up with the topic. I toyed with different ideas and then set on following one. I wrote the speech many times, by focusing on start and end. And then ensured that it is sprinkled with "Vocal variety".

Response , smiles, feedback and evaluation told me that I was successful at this project.

3 LESSONS LEARNED ON A NEW JOB.

Good Evening Toastmasters. I got a new job.

It's mission critical , demanding & 24X7 job. But ..it involves a girl. She hugs me, kisses me on cheek & also puts a big hole in my wallet. Yes – she is 3 year old & incidentally my daughter.

I got the job of father , when she was born in Feb-2008.

As I told you this is very demanding job.

I am early morning person & she sleeps very late.

When it is about 10:30 or 11:00 at night, I start pursuing her & she has excuses.

Papa , This pajama doesn't have Mickey mouse on it ? And no anpanman on shirt !

I grab her, Look it is 11:00, (she doesn't understand but still looks at clock), it is dark outside & Baikiman will come. I switch off light ,& put her on bed, and it is silent.....!

but just for 5 minutes !

And she tweets Papa, Chocolate Milk ! (Common sleep time habit in Indians).

I am bit irritated . I wake up , warm a cup of milk – add Complan and give it to her.

She touches her mouth ,sips some & turns away... . No I don't want …

Now I am angry – Drink it ! ,

She sips some ,slips some .Half in , Half out. Half the dress is wet . I am boiling with anger now, & even wish to hit her .

But I breath deeply, cool myself & keep telling myself – oh it is just my little ,cute devil.

I change her dress & again put her on bed by 12:00. And pat her to sleep.

Sleepy cutie, wraps her hands around my neck, & says – papa suki desu ne. (Papa I like you). And I learn my first lesson :

Be patient ,Control your anger & you will be happy with your loved ones at the end of the day.

But a natural doubt will be in your mind. What keeps this 3 year old awake.

It is her two friends – Tom & Jerry, some-times Mickey mouse too.

She watches them intently , with 100% focus, as if she is a statute.

Only sound you will listen : Ha ,Ha , Ha ….

I call her , Aarushi , come for dinner.

She says : I want here , with Tom & Jerry.

Mumma wants to see some TV serial , Aarushi replies with big No!

Please Aarushi , NO.. ,

Please Aarushi ,Again reply is No ,

Please – and you try to switch over ,And a big cry...

So now a days – I too watch Tom-n-Jerry. Believe me I actually enjoy it.

And we both keep laughing. And I learned my second lesson:

Change your hobby as your loved ones & you will have happy moments at the end of the day.

But you know as a adult , we make people around us unhappy. I also loose my temper.

And I know there is no point in arguing with 3 year old ,she is too smart.

So I turn to my wife.

Why can't you make her sleep by 10:30 at-least ?

And gender equality strikes back – But you can do it too !

I try to push my case – But you are Mother !.

What ! She bounces back – did I complained through out the 9 months..

Oh (sigh!) - Ultimate argument , which no man can ever win.

And I learned my third lesson:

If you want a happy life ,respect a motherhood and never argue. That’s lesson for Father.

Toastmasters – Once a girl was asked ,how old is your father. And she replied 5 year old.

Wrong ! No !! right. Person becomes a father – only when a child is born.

One has experience in a job ,only when one starts doing the job.

Toastmasters – that was bonus lesson , Thank you !