The Indian Journey

By Karin Broman, Executive MBA Class: 2012-2014

(III) Creative Leadership in India

The second part of the module included leadership matters. My own experiences of leadership is that it is very contextual and that my challenge as a leader is to assess what type of leadership in my management toolbox is suitable in each situation and sometimes what is suitable in order to coach and lead an individual employee. This notion of contextuality was emphasized in this module. As in other leadership programmes, the journey as you as leader make was the focus of attention. Knowing who you are is a vital part of and creates the credibility that you need in your toolbox. I found myself having difficulties with understanding Gautama Buddha´s motives for abandoning his wife and newly born son, to wander off in solitude and celibacy in order to contemplate. The eastern way of a life’s journey included this element and even though it might not have been typical for eastern behavior, I could not accept the idea of abandoning my children. Even for a higher cause. Without going into detail of them all, we spent time learning more about vision, values, clarity, context, conformists vs rebels and more. We then had the task to give each other a presentation which included how we saw ourselves in the light of these areas and to spend focus on defining who we are. An easy topic you would think! Who knows that subject better than me? It turned out to be a very difficult assignment. Reflecting upon this assignment, it was probably a starting exercise to trigger further thinking in a number of these areas for many of us and also, this exercise could not have been pulled up successfully in the beginning of the EMBA programme. Feeling comfortable in the group, feeling trust and supportive attitude from everyone is a must in order to run this kind of exercises. As a participant, I feel grateful for all the personal and private fates shared during this session which I also think helped us bond as a team.

Has India found the key, the answer in how to be happy, how to make your life complete? During the module, we have been offered the possibilities to try yoga five mornings, we listened to live traditional music, visited an art gallery and we were impressed by the sensitivity and spirituality of a female dancer taking us through a number of stories in which she appeared to become one with the story she told through her dancing performance. We also learned more about hindu – or purushata – about gurus and the caste system. When adding all these elements together, spicing it up with the non-violent, friendly and peaceful society, I can’t help but thinking that this people have come to a higher level of understanding of what life is really all about.

As I now am about to embark on my journey returning to Sweden after a very interesting module, looking forward to meet my family again, I have a profound a warm feeling in my heart that I will return to this country to explore more of its various treasures and enjoy the friendliness and peacefulness. And I will explore business potentials in collaboration with companies in India, as this will provide me with additional arguments to return. And I realize that the number of arguments to come here are many, as this country has much more to offer than just untapped business potentials.