SUBMITTED TO: DR.

STEPHAINE JONES
SUBMITTED BY: RABI NARAYAN SAHOO

MM5
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: ........................................................................................................................... 3
BACKGROUND: ............................................................................................................................. 4
CHANGE AGENT AND RISK TAKER: ................................................................................................. 6
ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERS ......................................................................................................... 8
MINDFULNESS ............................................................................................................................ 12
COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES.................................................................................................. 13
HELLO, ANY LEADER IN THERE? ................................................................................................... 14
PERSONAL ANALYSIS: .................................................................................................................. 14
ANALYSING MYSELF FROM THE 7 TRANSFORMATIONS OF LEADERSHIP: ........................................ 15
TRANSACTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIPS: .......................................................... 15
WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP: ............................................................................................................ 17
SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP: ......................................................................................................... 17
CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY: .................................................................................................... 18
References ................................................................................................................................. 19
INTRODUCTION:

In, India, there is a saying “No one has learned anything from their mother’s womb” to explain that it

says we learn everything after coming to this world and I have added a small extension to it which is

events, environment and the way we perceive things makes us the man we are.

https://www.thevenusproject.com/ in this video Dr. Jacque Fresco explains it much better how

external stimuli shapes our behavior. But again, this is even a complicated topic as spiritual leaders

speak how to generate the stimuli internally to shape ourselves the way we want to. Leadership too

is something we learn after coming to this world. From my childhood I have never tried to come to

the forefront, I was always happy to work behind the curtains. For example, I could have been easily

the captain of the football team or cricket team being the most important player but still, I asked the

person in charge to make the second best the captain. My parents used to take this in a wrong sense

and used to say to me “why don’t you want to lead what’s the problem in coming to the spotlight”.

Everyone has a different road to go now when my friends are striving and validating themselves with

strong and powerful positions in a company I have chosen my path to inner peace which I think is
the most powerful and strong thing to achieve. I have never used so many “I’s” in my life as I have

used in this paper as I believe in the oneness of all and egoism or the feeling of “I am Important”

gives rise to all the internal conflicts and keeps us away from inner peace. But as the assignments ask

me to do this I have to without the feeling of narcissism.

BACKGROUND:

As I mentioned above I have never thought myself as a leader, but I had a fair sense of the trait what

leadership is as I am very curious to my core I used to observe each and everything. I was a high

achiever in academics, in sports anything I laid my hands on. Well in academics I didn’t want to score

high or was that much interested until I was in Class-8th , I just studied hard because my parents

wanted me to and they compared me to other friends of mine for which I felt bad. Till now I have

connected the dots looking backward and I can see that I was very popular in all the schools and

colleges I went to. But I recognized a good character in this pattern I have made friends with

everyone I have never turned down anyone for my friendship which my friends used to do, they

segregated between different classes of people well my thought for that was we can compare cars,

phones but not humans, everyone is special in a different way and we need to respect that. I have

also observed a trait which creates the most problem for me is my shyness and unconfidence that’s

sums up to the reason of my incapability of making good presentations, debates or speeches.

Despite my incapability in social anxiety, I was always chosen as the college captain, to date I could

not figure it out. Then after my 10th class, I went on to a different city to start a new life in a new

school. I do have another big drawback which hampers my stand in interviews “I never ever make

good first impressions” after the person/subject knows me for a while then he/she likes me. In my

first year, my new friends and lecturers thought I was plain stupid/ignorant as a different turn came

into my life, I was wandering with my friends without paying much heed to studies. To quote the

lecturers “I was the first student in the history of the school to score a ZERO in mathematics”. They
called my parents for this news and my parents couldn’t believe it. They thought what friends our

boy is keeping, is he into some bad friendship. Well, this was a new life for me and I “LIVED” it as

much as I can. To watch all this was kind of fun for me. To the sports teacher, I claimed that I have

played state level volleyball and football but my stories of scoring a “ZERO” echoed through the

corridors of the school. Time passed by one year was gone then I had to blow my cover as I knew if I

was going to score mediocre it would get very difficult for me to get into a good college. So again, I

started studying hard, people around me started to notice and bam I scored 2 nd highest in Physics,

Chemistry, Maths, and Biology the most difficult subjects in my 12th class. Now again the story

spread like wildfire started with my lecturers calling my parents and apologizing to tag me “Stupid”

the whole time. Suddenly everyone wanted me in their athletics team, football team, volleyball

team. I felt bad, but the college cheered when I broke hands of two guys playing volleyball and

football. I was the super swift shooter of football and to his fate, the goalkeeper (a bully) showed his

palms, his right hand broke instantly, to be clear we play with cheap footballs which are much

heavier than the prescribed ones. Days and nights went by I were tagged a “Hero” because everyone

loves “Slumdog Millionaire” don’t we? People want to see heroes rising from the dust that makes

them think even I will succeed one day. I felt happy to be the inspiration for so many children. The

best day came when I had to choose my athletics team and our lecturers fought over me, I kept

thinking these were the people who kept shaming me in my first year and now they want me so

badly. I kept thinking of people who try so hard in academics and sports but cannot excel, I felt their

agonizing pain. I remember the day I ran for a relay race and 100, 200 meters sprint the whole

college cheered for me despite knowing that I cannot win as there was an International athlete to

who’s against I was sprinting. Even when I came 2nd in the race they kept shouting my name I cannot

describe the feeling in words, the English language fails here, to my best circumstance my sister was

there to witness all this, she was so proud of me at this moment, who used to hide the fact that I

was her brother in the 11th class. Humans are quite selfish in this domain everyone claims to know a

hero, but no one wants to be known as an acquaintance of a loser (no offense). I never tell these
stories to anyone only my closest friends know these events and I feel bad in the sense that I am

trying to pour in my feelings in an assignment for which I will be graded, feels like I am being graded

for my feelings, weird world right?

After that, came my engineering college life which was again a new experience. There came the first

year when ragging was rampant in educational institutions. We were around a thousand students

combining all streams in the first year. Me alone among a thousand souls decided to give a strong

standing against this unfair practice of ragging. I was beaten up by my seniors few times, but I didn’t

stop. After that year the college took a stand to criminalize ragging and file a complaint with the

police in case someone violates. What I have observed coming to The Netherlands, Asians follow

collectivism and Europe and The US are individualists. So, with collectivist societies runs a spine of

groupism. Groups formed in our batch and I was a member of every group. In between 2 nd and 3rd

year I rose to the power of Cultural Secretary in our college and Joint Secretary in our University

which encompasses 100 engineering colleges with a strength of 50,000 students. I used the word

“Power” as in India you will see these positions connected with political groups which are not quite

healthy as it leads to a lot of clashes between groups some even leading to death. I managed great

amounts of funds and I believe I rose to that position as I was friends with some very powerful

people (goons/gangsters). Again, it felt good that so many people know me but somewhere inside I

knew I was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Then I formed a group of people with whom I don’t

need to pretend, and I can be who I am and that lead me to beautiful relationships who became my

best friends.

After my engineering, I joined a company named Power Department of Nagaland. After Kashmir,

Nagaland can be ranked as the second most dangerous place in India let alone Sentinelese Island.

CHANGE AGENT AND RISK-TAKER:

Talking about risks, to me this is a bad and good characteristic of mine at the same time as I rely on

my intuition a lot, I don’t think about the consequences properly. Let me provide this statement a

backup example, I used to work in the Power Department of Nagaland which is a very dangerous

state for foreigners in India because of the revolts and uprisings, there is a fair warning from the

Government of India to visit these places at your own risk but I chose to work for that state as I

wanted to see it myself what problems people face and how they react to it. I faced many life-

threatening situations in Nagaland but managed it properly, got me and myself out of the situation.

One I can remember vividly is a man came and pointed a gun at the blank range to the head of my

friend. We had to convince him that we are trying to develop their state, we are not there to loot

their jobs or destroy their ambiance.

I think I can be a change agent. Why, because I believe more in empathizing than sympathizing, I

want to walk in the person’s shoes to understand them better. Yes, I believe environment and the

series of events build up a person I try to understand which circumstances made him/her the way

they are. I want to bring the change within without any force or pressure and that change will

flourish. In the class, the personality test we took showed me as the people-oriented because I know

if I try and change people the corporation will automatically benefit from employee happiness is

directly proportional to the revenue generated. In Nagaland, I was selected the team leader just 10

days after I joined. Also, to add some of my friends came to me when they had encountered suicidal

thoughts I helped them with utmost care and today they are executives in big companies, but I also

failed once in my high school when one friend used to come to me, but I never knew that he had

suicidal tendencies, he committed suicide and I felt very guilty that I could not help him. I don’t see

myself as a leader rather I try to work behind the curtains from which I can make the connection

with the people concrete.

With the simulations, I took some decisions what I have watched in National Geographic Channel

which my team honored, and I reciprocated. We all worked as a good team and questioning the

decisions made by each of us. As I remember our team scored the best but not due to my efforts but

my teammate’s judgment. I failed to recognize that the clothes can form a stretcher to carry the

injured. But my instant say was let’s go and save our colleague as it can be late when the help

arrives.

ENTREPRENEURIAL LEADERS

After my experience in Nagaland, I came back home and started a food truck as I am a foodie.

Motivation, passion, self-belief, hard-work, discipline, monetary management, flexible, efficient

planning foreseeing the future, I believe these characters make an entrepreneur. Yes, they differ

starkly from leaders in a corporate environment and they are bound to act differently. The first point

I want to make is obvious in entrepreneurial ambitions the entrepreneurs own capital is invested if

he/she mismanages the funds he/she will have to go through rough consequences, it will be the

same in intrapreneurial activities too but here the intrapreneur is not losing his own capital rather

the company’s. This small difference drives the motivation of entrepreneurs stronger than those of

intrapreneurs.

In my entrepreneurial experiences, I started the very first international cuisine food truck in my state

after completing my engineering. I was quite enthusiastic about studying the market and I knitted a

plan to check out the opportunities what the local market had for me. So, I with two of my friends

got us a food truck which was a new concept at that time in my city and ours was the first one in the

city with innovative dishes on the menu. I understood many points the hard way but eventually, it

went quite well, we had a very good earning proportionate to our size. At first, we were very

enthusiastic about it but the tedious work wore us out gradually but still, we loved doing it. Now I

respect entrepreneurs because as I see them I know how much hard work they must have done to
reach a place like that. With my little experiment, I understood how the market functions how the

public behave when we suddenly bring to the plate a whole new concept. This is a picture of my

food truck:

Entrepreneurship is

messy as when Tony

Fernandes owner of

AirAsia was to wave

off his maiden flight

then he realized that

he has completely forgotten the in-flight food to be provided so he ran to the nearest supermarket

and reaches just on time and he says Entrepreneurship is messy but rewarding.

But there are quite some complex sides to entrepreneurship like the worst I know is “Focussing on

How you are not focussing” it happens when you come to know that you can have the job done

much faster and then you say to yourself that you are not focussing enough and then you have to

focus on your not focussing to get it to the perfect line.

Another entrepreneur Asim Qureshi says that places with inter-cultural differences churn out the

best ideas as he shares he is a British and when he went to Malaysia he saw a new world with a

different vision at a different angle and he became a powerhouse of ideas. So, he counsels that

anyone who wants to generate a business idea to go on a world cruise trip.

How the mindset of an entrepreneur should be, here is an example:

Imagine a place with HUGE trees.

These trees have abundant fruit on the top.

The problem is that the fruits are up high in the branches.

To reap the rewards, you must climb to grab the fruits.

There are two ways to accomplish this: Tom’s way or Mario’s way.

• Tom is a go-getter. He has amazing skills in climbing trees and knows confidently that every

single day he will eat his rewards.

Mario has a different approach: He

invests time in thinking about how to

gather fruit faster and easier.

• He starts building several

ladders to climb the trees.

• He gets help to reap his

rewards faster while he

continues to think how to make

this even better.

 • He builds faster and easier

tools to accomplish his goal,

making it easier, safer and

more efficient.

Mario doesn't have to climb the

tree to access the fruits day in-and

day out, he has his tools and

helpers doing it for him every

single day.

What’s the difference?

• Tom focused all his efforts on reaching the fruit;

• Mario focused all his efforts on creating something to reach the fruit.

Stop working for money!

Start working on creating what will make you money!

So, this was a wonderful experience for me I learned many things from my personal development

and learned how to manage people. Now the next month I and my friends are going to open a

prawn culture farm and I have some aspirations for the future which I have not decided yet on which

field to dive.

MINDFULNESS

I never say that my life is hard, as for everyone their life is beautiful and a hellhole at the same time.

“Stress” is a word of hypocrisy, the reasoning behind my stating this, is a very simple logic what I

have encountered in my life. We always see people trying to make ends meet some do it stressfully

and some enjoy doing it. I remember a video which MSM showed us in the first weeks of our

absorption, the Spiritual leader said stress cannot solve a problem so “Why Stress”, the stress only

degrades you. Sharing the link of the video with you

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YRjX3A_8cM

We know that people react to stress differently sometimes it creates wonder like inventions of so

many equipment during the second world war due to the government’s pressure but also it makes

some souls commit a suicide. We must understand a great deal how to manage it in a grey zone or in

a fine line as if we cross the line it becomes a suicide and if we stay close it may give us a great

invention. I have never been out of India my home country before in my life and I used to think how

beautiful the world must be that too Europe my dream destination. I found a course suitable and

proceeded to join in MSM but little I knew about the course schedule and structure of Europe. The

first few weeks were jovial, and I met with a lot of people learned great new things going to

educational events. I thought this year is going to be fun, but I completely forgot that I come from an

engineering background I don’t know a thing or more about economics, accounting etc. when the

courses came to play I was stressed as the harder I tried I was not completely able to understand the

courses. I thought if it goes this way I won’t be squeezing the most out of this course. But to my
strength, I practice Shambhavi Meditation every day in the past 2 years. It helps me connect to my

inner self and helps me understand why I behave a certain way aligning my thoughts in a coherent

way. I get a clear head and think about what’s going wrong with me and where is the locus of the

problems, also how to solve them. A great pro of meditating is you can recognize the negative

thoughts easily and let them go away without processing them and wasting time. We are human

beings we compare, we are jealous, we seek validation, we seek praise, we expect, I tapped on these

areas and recognized that the negative thoughts generate from these feelings, after that whenever

any of these thoughts came to my mind I had the ability to dissipate it without playing it in a loop in

my head. Now I can easily point out which problem is creating the stress and act upon it directly.

Concluding stress can work wonders for some while can end the life of some, the key is managing

stress.

COMMUNICATION CHALLENGES

As I have mentioned earlier in this report that environment and events make up a man, a person

perceives the world according to his/her vision. So, we must try to understand the standing of a

person why he behaves or communicates, in this case, a certain way. Culture plays a sheer role in

the construct of a person. When I used to work in Nagaland, India I encountered different people

from different states in India, I believe I am an easy-going person at this point came to the problem. I

try to crack some jokes to make the air a little light as we had to face a great deal of fatal encounters

every day. But some jokes did come off as culturally offensive so, some of my team members didn’t

take it well and nice. When I knew about the problem from a colleague I tried to mend my ways and

formed a strong team.

Also, when I joined MSM I used some of my humor but again the same thing happened, it didn’t go

well with my colleagues but now they understand me pretty well. Here in MSM, the first problem we

all faced was the mother tongue effect or you can say the accents of English from different

countries. It took us some time to understand each other’s culture as well as the English they speak.
But again, many times I made the same mistake while making some humor, I used Indian humor in

an International school which came off not good. It took me some time but now I completely

understand which statements can hurt or can be termed offensive.

HELLO, ANY LEADER IN THERE?

I believe I am not a leader as to me that’s a lot of responsibilities to handle and a lot of expectations

to meet, you always must live up to the expectations. I like to live my life in silence without any

limelight on me merging with the crowd. But now I can feel that the world has gotten very

competitive and it is cut throat competition everywhere. I am aiming for a management job so

obviously, I have to find out or make a leader out of me. To my understanding I loved the character

of Liam Neeson in Schindler’s List, I look up to him for my ideal dream of leadership. The role

portrayed was Machiavellianism but in a positive way, he manipulated people to get his things done

which in turn saved the lives of many Jews.

PERSONAL ANALYSIS:

I have done this analysis many times, but I get stuck in many traits which can be termed good and
bad at the same time in a corporate setup.

I will use SWOT analysis to get into the locus and in depth.

STRENGTH:

Communication, Empathy, Sympathy, Intellect, Knowledge, Team player, Brainstorming,

Cooperation, humble, great acceptance of negative feedbacks, visionary, entrepreneurial, patient,
kind, compassionate, thoughtful, understanding, open to new ideas/change.

WEAKNESS:

Unconfident, no or minimal self-love, pessimistic, inferiority complex, self- doubt, haphazard

thought process, always in my comfort zone, too accommodating, sometimes superficial,
commitment issues, not at all competitive, attention deficiency.
OPPORTUNITIES:

The Global MBA (XIMB-MSM) program looks very promising, I learned a lot of things in this program.
An international degree from a developed country is valued a lot in India. Practiced English with my
fellow colleagues which made me better in English, it will help me with my interviews.

THREATS:

Scattered experience domains, too many risks, not enough competitive so I take everything easy.

ANALYSING MYSELF FROM THE 7 TRANSFORMATIONS OF

LEADERSHIP:

As I have mentioned earlier I don’t think myself as a leader, but I tried to analyze myself

benchmarking to the categories and I saw myself as a mix of Strategist and Alchemist. Strategist

because I believe everything is transformable and discussable. I do try to avoid conflicts but also if

some come my way I try to deal with it using my intellect. For an example we were instructed not to

look in the eyes of any NAGA (a resident of Nagaland) to avoid confrontations, we didn’t but

sometimes we cannot avoid confrontations, so we dealt with it strategically discussing the problems

and changing their perceptions. I always dream of becoming an Alchemist leader as I respect

innovators and inventors from my core and from psychological studies we know we respect the

person for the traits which we want to see in ourselves. But we can see it needs an entirely new

vision, a vision unbiased by social constructs, a vision unpolluted by anything forceful and a great

deal of knowledge in the desired field.

TRANSACTIONAL AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIPS:

A transformational leader goes beyond managing day-to-day operations and crafts strategies for

taking his company, department or work team to the next level of performance and success.

Transformational leadership styles focus on team-building, motivation, and collaboration with

employees at different levels of an organization to accomplish change for the better.

Transformational leaders set goals and incentives to push their subordinates to higher performance

levels while providing opportunities for personal and professional growth for each employee. (Small

Business , n.d.)

Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of operations.

Transactional leadership can be described as “keeping the ship afloat.” Transactional leaders use

disciplinary power and an array of incentives to motivate employees to perform at their best. The

term “transactional” refers to the fact that this type of leader essentially motivates subordinates by

exchanging rewards for performance. A transactional leader generally does not look ahead in

strategically guiding an organization to a position of market leadership; instead, these managers are

often concerned with making sure everything flows smoothly today. (Small Business , n.d.)

Fetching from the characters I see myself as a transformational leader. I can remember when I

reached Nagaland to join the company everything was in chaos. In one flat we lived around 12

people which were very congested. Even the senior manager didn’t raise his voice to the higher

management as he was of non-confrontational type. Even when I was in a lower designation to him I

had to start organizing from the scratch. Firstly, I asked him to write a mail to higher authorities and I

helped him write that mail about the worst living conditions of the employees. Within a week we

shifted to a new apartment which contained all the facilities. In those 7 days, the manager made me

the team leader. Then I asked for security to escort us to our field trip which was not granted as the

region is very sensitive and the company did not have the resources in dealing those kinds of

problems. I talked to each one of my team members to know their strengths and weaknesses, most

of them were frightened to work in the red-alert state. I planned out a strategy in which we will be

efficient, and we can also stay close to each other for support in case any problem arises. When I

read the description of transformational leadership I can easily connect to this event as I helped to

transform the complete workstation into a new zone.

WOMEN IN LEADERSHIP:

It is a very sensitive topic to write on as in the class we already faced some disagreements. In India,

there are a lot of feminist movements going on giving women a lot of power which sometimes are

used for good and sometimes bad purposes. The sectors I have worked in have never encountered

women as most were field jobs and industrial. As I remember from a clause, but I cannot provide the

proof of it as I cannot find it anymore, the clause said girls are not allowed to pursue mining

engineering rest any other engineering streams they are free to browse and opt for. The culture is

very twisted to my knowledge my father is educated from a top engineering college, World Ranking

172 called Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) but still, he holds the thought of getting my sister a job

in a desk job like banks or information technology as it will be comfortable for her. The

empowerment of women starts from our homes, in India girls are made to take care of their beauty

and a showcasing educational background so as to fetch a groom of higher income strata. If you

think this statement is vague in some sense please feel free to browse in Indian Matrimony sites, you

will get a fair idea. Nowadays arranged marriage is a bargain consisting of tangible trade-offs which

are saddening. But still, I respect the independent women who without listening to the society

manage to form their own paths which leads to their destiny in leadership. So, with the society

working as a villain in India, women have a long way to go. (IIT, n.d.)

SUSTAINABLE LEADERSHIP:

'Avery and Bergsteiner have identified 23 leadership practices that enable organizations to survive

and thrive in both good and bad economies. This is a book worth reading and using!' - Professor

Dave Ulrich, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and Partner, The RBL Group

Since biblical times, honeybees and locusts have represented creation and destruction. Honeybees

build community and ecosystems; locusts eat green fields bare. Avery and Bergsteiner use these
insects to illustrate two dominant leadership philosophies. Organizational honeybee behavior leads

to more sustainable and more profitable long-term results; locust behavior can bring short-term

profit but ultimately diminishes the organization. (Allen and Unwin, n.d.)

Being a strong sustainability supporter, I strive to become a bee style leader. Actually, these traits

just don’t grow overnight according to my analysis. Someone must achieve sustainability in his/her

daily life to see the bigger picture and achieve the bigger goal, in this case, developing the company

in a sustainable way. Again, I can relate this to Nagaland where there is a water shortage, I had to

urge my manager to run a notice on the conscious usage of water or face the consequences (a fine),

yes, I turn to an extremist when the question is on sustainability and people don’t understand.

Talking about capitalist economies I don’t support capitalist economies because of their focus on

only profits, that’s why my plans are of settling in Europe which is a socialist economy but nowadays

I can see a leaning towards capitalism.

CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY:

Firstly, when I heard that Organizational Behaviour is in our course I thought that it must be a class

how to trick with the use of psychology to get the work done and some ethics. But to my great

amazement, I learned many things. The best part is when I wrote so many incidents of my

experience it was like reliving the moments which was going to be deleted from my mind. Now, I feel

more confident that I know my strengths and weaknesses. In a corporate setup, I need to change

myself a great deal to achieve the expected results, as in the class I can remember I came in the

people-oriented company, I need to balance the task orientation and people orientation so that I

would properly act on the deliverables. These aspects work on a grey zone or a fine line, balancing

ourselves to form a perfect leader of our choice is a difficult job, not an impossible one. I think with

some more experience in a large corporation I would be able to exercise these abilities.
References
Allen and Unwin. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/books/general-
books/business-management/Honeybees-and-Locusts-Gayle-C-Avery-and-Harald-
Bergsteiner-9781742373935

IIT. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iitb.ac.in/alumni/en/newsletter-article/2017-06/qs-world-

university-rankings-2018-iit-bombay-ranks-179-40-place-jump

Small Business. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/transformational-leadership-

vs-transactional-leadership-definition-13834.html