A leader overcomes biases to create effective team, says IIM Indore director Himanshu Rai at leadership workshop

Conducting an extensive and detailed workshop on leadership and communication in Kolkata, Prof. Himanshu Rai, Director IIM Indore, said, “The first and foremost duty of an individual is looking towards ownself. To find your own true potential, what do you want to do in your life and make sure that you become that.”

In the recent workshop, Prof. Himanshu Rai talked about the biases that we face at an individual level, the issues which may creep up on a team, thus hampering or enhancing its effectiveness, and, finally, the complexities of the systems. How when these three things come together, they impact the outcome in terms of an organisation's success or an organisation's failure.

He explained personality traits that one should adopt as a leader and the behaviours that one should consider while adapting to an appropriate leadership style.

"The behaviours one should practise becoming a leader in one’s own right and the kind of the leader who overcomes these biases creates a very effective team and successfully manages the organisation,” he said.

Expressing his views on the concept of money, Prof. Himanshu Rai said, “Money is what money does. We have to figure out what we want to do with it. We have to be clear and should differentiate between our wants, desires and needs.”

On leadership, Prof. Rai said, “Among the five personality traits, three traits are of a leader, i.e. extroversion, openness to experience and conscientiousness."

"You have to build a strong network. To be a leader, you have to be within three degrees of separation from a successful person.”

On communication, he said, “The sender’s heart, mind and intellect should resonate with the receiver’s heart mind and intellect to establish effective communication.”

Quoting Socrates, he said: “The unexamined life is not worth living."

Commencing the event, Arihant Jain, co-founder and current Chairman of ALFA Network (Achievers and Leaders Forum) said, “The tools and techniques discussed here will not only help us all to become more effective change-makers and leaders but also provide us with the skills to communicate more effectively to achieve desired goals.”