Individual Reflections
on
The Key Insights and Learnings from the
‘Perspectives on Global Leadership’ Programme
Shamika Lal
Student ID: 10233401
Introduction
The ‘Perspectives on Global Leadership’ Programme, facilitated by the fruitful partnership
with the London Business School, was a smorgasbord of diverse experiences and learnings.
The two weeks that went by during the stint of this course were an eye-opener in several ways.
It goes without saying that having the chance to interact with and exchange ideas with the
brightest minds at one of the finest business schools in the world will be of immeasurable
benefit in the years to come.
The courses taught were seemingly eclectic at first glance, but on closer inspection made
cohesive sense. They encompassed modern aspects of management in the context of globally
relevant issues. The expansive and varied slew of courses covered facets of cross-cultural
leadership, digital strategies, global economic power imbalances, innovation culture,
sustainability disruption, and the entrepreneurial mindset.
These formal courses were also bolstered by some incredible speaker sessions. Hailing from
fields stemming from investment banking to writing & culture, each speaker doled out some
crucial takeaways by virtue of their distinctive experiences. Each speaker also touched upon
interpersonal aspects crucial to success, besides the requisite technical proficiencies and
knowledge.
Another aspect of the Programme which truly brought forth global immersion for all the
concerned participants was the ‘Entrepreneurship Project Lab’. Through this initiative, the
participants had the opportunity to work with some incredible start-ups based in the United
Kingdom. The nature of the firms, which spanned from online wills to vegan cheese, provided
a wonderful opportunity to conceptualise original tactics and suggest the same. This was in
addition to the chance to grasp the European and UK markets and industry.
It would be remiss to not bring up the fact that the participants were encouraged to explore the
great city of London, to truly get a feel of the culture. This was taken a step further via the
Scavenger Hunt, in which participants explored the city in the most pedestrian of ways whilst
completing tasks and racing against time. Besides the immense exposure, it culminated in
memories that shall forever be cherished.
Since the objective of this individual reflection paper is to touch base about the key learnings
and substantial takeaways, the formal courses have been given more weightage. Despite
extensive time investment in said courses, the learnings have been streamlined for this paper.
Exploring the Impact of Sessions
Although each formal session that took place at the London Business School was enriching by
itself, some stood out. The sessions that shall be explored in this paper are as follows:•
Exploring Cross-Cultural Leadership
This course, taught by Professor Randall S. Peterson, mainly explored the domain of
organizational behaviour through the lens of cross-cultural diversities. The course
commenced by stressing upon the fact that interpersonal and/or people skills play just
as vital a role as do technical skills and domain expertise. It is imperative to learn how
to work with people and manage work relationships by striking the right balance of
competition and collaboration. This could also be assessed through the conflict
continuum, which demonstrated the dynamics of both self-interests and joint interests
and the role they play in defining enemies as well as allies. The course then examined
how cultural diversities mould perspectives through the example of a picture of some
fishes swimming together. The professor highlighted how an Anglo manager would
assess the picture from an individualist point of view as opposed to a manager from
China or Japan, who would view it from a collectivist perspective. This aspect was
further emphasized by highlighting the advantages and disadvantages of each global
style, and how these could be navigated more easily by being self-aware.
•
The Power of Social Innovation
The course commenced with Professor Kamalini Ramdas asking the cohort about the
various man-made innovations over the years such as the wheel, the lightbulb, and the
iPod to name a few. She questioned the significance of each innovation and the benefits
provided by them. The conversation then shifted to the impact of social innovations
through the example of Narayana Healthcare as well as a study conducted on cardiac
patients taking treatments collectively and in isolation. The benefits of social innovation
versus innovations facilitating isolation were also touched upon.
•
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
Through this course, Professor Luisa Alemany explored the different meanings of
entrepreneurship, what it takes to be an entrepreneur, as well as the various mindsets
required while taking up the responsibility of leading the company as an entrepreneur.
Additional Deep Dives
This section is mainly concerned with the key takeaways from each of the aforementioned
sessions which stood out. Without further ado, here they are as follows:•
Exploring Cross-Cultural Leadership
➢ One can increase one’s level of self-awareness by talking to others and taking
their feedback seriously, by not telling oneself how self-aware they are, and by
recruiting a friend or having someone around to keep one’s ego in check
➢ What works at one level of management does not work at the next. Thus, it
is crucial to understand the difference in the skill requisites at different levels of
management. For example, an individual contributor i.e., the lowest level of
management is concerned with the mastery and execution of technical and
functional aspects as opposed to an executive suite i.e., the highest level of
management where the main purpose is to conceptualise the strategy and set the
culture. The transition from lower to higher levels of management require
certain trade-offs. Thus, making it more imperative to not rest on past laurels
➢ It is crucial to stick to one’s core values and goals and work at a place which
identifies and respects them. The professor highlighted this through an example
of firing a brilliant colleague who while technically proficient, did not respect
the intra and interpersonal culture of the London Business School
➢ All advantages can also be weaknesses. For example, what is flexible can be
considered as inconsistent
•
The Power of Social Innovation
➢ One needs to shift from a victim mindset to an innovator mindset and then
to an investor mindset whilst evaluating opportunities. This will ensure that
ideas are being evaluated critically, their perceived benefits are being viewed
with clarity, and that the idea will generate significant returns on investment
•
The Entrepreneurial Mindset
➢ The entrepreneur possesses the qualities of creativity, internal control, risktaking, and challenges the status quo, and has minimal fear of failure
➢ The elevator pitch is timely, data-backed, has a proposal & call to action
Application of Programme Learnings
The takeaways from the programme can be applied in the real world in various ways, some of
which are as follows:•
Whilst managing work relationships, one needs to see it in shades of grey and not
classify it as black and white. It involves dispassionate assessment of which colleague
requires investments in terms of energy and time when comparing the self and joint
interests. By viewing work relationships as a mixture of both competition and
collaboration, they can be managed more effectively without causing interpersonal rifts
within the organisation
•
Understanding that the current environment is increasingly unpredictable (think
climate change, VUCA) which demands solving complex problems (think of
measures such as globalisation & digitalisation) can go a long way. This
understanding would enable one to be flexible at the individual level and collaborative
and adaptive at the group level especially whilst working in hybrid mode, or even work
from home
•
Applying the Johari Window to perform individual self-assessment can do
wonders as it showcases the difference between our public image and private persona.
Such introspection can also make one aware of their positive traits and the negative
flipside and work on them accordingly
•
Service delivery can be reinvented by way of applying the following framework:o Change the numbers
o Shift the boundaries
o Change the location
o Change how one is organised
A shining example is the Narayana Health hospital chain in India, which provides low
cost but effective services, employs volunteers and trains and upskills them to perform
operations, is in areas accessible to all economic strata, and allows group operations to
take place. By bucking the trend of conventional hospital functioning, it has found
innovative and better solutions to various problem at hand
•
One needs to assess diversity for the benefits it brings. Treating diversity as the right
mix between alignment and divergence can be applied to all firms