Go East Young (Wo)Man – to India

I have just returned from Mumbai after an inspiring week meeting with senior business leaders at a conference on ‘Success through Corporate Sustainability’.

In contrast to the UK, Europe and the US, India is optimistic and there is a real buzz where their business people see a huge opportunity for growth. What is most noteworthy though amongst the business people I met is the importance they are putting on ‘the community’. They understand that sustainable growth in India depends on them sorting out the problems of the community where they are active.

Values = Personal Conscience + Self Determination

Two insights came today while in Mumbai.

I was given a book by Anant Nadkarni (my friend from Tata who is VP for Group Corporate Sustainability) called ‘Power & Love’ by Adam Kahane and later he talked about ‘Integrity and Courage’ as someone’s definition of good leadership.

1st insight is described in the blog; Teachers vs Learners.

The 2nd insight was that these pairs of words offered by Anant fit like a glove with our Transpersonal Leadership definition of Values (as defined in our 8ICOL model) which are broken down into Personal Conscience and Self Determination. Love and Integrity fit into the Personal conscience space whereas Power and Courage are Self Determination characteristics.

So to describe a leader, you do need to have both elements: “Who I am” and “What I am going to do with it”.

John Knights

Rupert Murdoch & Grayson Perry’s Exhibition – a Transpersonal (beyond the ego) experience

Catch up in my hotel room in Mumbai.
As a result of the recent News of the World debacle, Bella (my wife) and I decided not to buy any publications from the Murdoch stall and agreed to stop buying The Sunday Times. I rationally excluded Sky TV from the debate on the basis Murdoch only owns a minority stake – and I love watching sport on the TV. Reasonable don’t you think? After all, his daughter does live near us – albeit separated by their 10 foot wall.

The Fun Theory

The Fun Theory is a Volkswagen initiative dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better.

About Transpersonal Leadership: Ethical Leadership

The News of the World debacle identifies our total lack of ethical leadership – and it’s not just Rupert Murdoch

The current disaster can be laid firmly at the door of unethical leadership. The unethical genius that is Rupert Murdoch together with his disciples Rebekah Brooks and son James Murdoch may be at the pinnacle but our political leaders Blair, Brown and Cameron have shown more than just bad judgement in their quest for News International’s support. Then there is the police, the newspaper advertisers (who have been supporting the tabloids for years and then pull out for purely commercial reasons) and of course the journalists and private investigators themselves.