Director as a Transformational

Leader
Madhavi Srinivas
Co-founder
eMBArkers
 Transformational Leaders
“Leaders are truly transformational when they
increase awareness of what is right, good,
important and beautiful, when they help to
elevate followers' needs for achievement and
self-actualisation, when they foster in followers
high moral maturity, and when they move
followers to go beyond their self-interests for
the good of their group, organisation or society.”
Prof Bernard Bass
 Lee Kuan Yew

The first Prime Minister of Singapore who transformed the small country to a thriving
economic entity. He believed in meritocracy, strong human capital enrichment and in an
ideology that ‘works,’ not in an ideology for ideology sake.
 Mahatma Gandhi

He had no formal power vested in him. Yet, he achieved what he believed in, using only
peaceful, non-violent means.
He was able to unite people to a cause they believed in.
He was able to walk off from centre stage when the mission was accomplished.

Mahatma Gandhi
1:08 – 2:22
 A few Attributes of a Transformational
Leader
• Envisage a bold vision
• Rally people emotionally
• Encourage constructive dissent
• Build the institution, for posterity
• Let go when the time comes
• ……
 The impact of the Transformational Leader

• Builds trust
• Builds self-confidence of the team
• Engenders responsibility taking by the team
• Builds a culture of objective reasoning, as
against blind following
• Everybody gets their due
• Makes everybody accountable
• …..
The Business School Director’s Context – A Simplistic Reduction!

Nation Building

Students

Culture Building Social

Industry Director Faculty Responsibility

Administrators

Research

The Director’s authority is somewhere in between the two examples shared!

 How You can influence Quality in the Classroom
• Understand how you can motivate faculty to take ownership of the
learning process – for both students and themselves
– Guidance – not micromanagement
– Autonomy – not abdication
– Skill Development – not training attendance
– ….
• Autonomy to design effective class room teaching methodologies
• Access to knowledge resources for faculty to enrich themselves
• Recognition of effective methodologies
• .....
 How You can influence Student Community
• Involve students in solution finding
• Give them responsibilities they can handle
– Identify guest faculty
– Identify industries / companies they could visit
– Host inter-disciplinary events in college
• Show them the larger picture of their role in the immediate civil society
and the world at large
• Give them a glimpse of the corporate world and the requirements of the
corporate world
– They will learn the importance of inter-personal skills and communication skills
• ….
Responsible Management Education – A Framework

• Purpose: to develop capabilities of students to be generators of sustainable business and

society at large and to work for an inclusive and sustainable global economy
• Values: to incorporate into our academic activities and curricula the values of global social
responsibility
• Method: to create educational frameworks, materials, processes and environments that
enable effective learning experiences for responsible leadership
• Research: to engage in conceptual and empirical research that advances understanding of the
role, dynamics, and impact of corporations in the creation of sustainable value
• Partnership: to interact with managers of business corporations to extend knowledge of their
challenges in meeting social and environmental responsibilities and to explore jointly
effective approaches to meeting these challenges
• Dialogue: to facilitate and support dialog and debate among educators, students, business,
government, consumers, media, civil society organisations and other stakeholders on critical
issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability

http://www.unprme.org/