IIM Calcutta campus, Kolkata, February 6, 2012:[/b] Swami Vivekananda memorial workshop was organized by the Management Centre for Human Values at IIM Calcutta on February 3, 2012. The workshop was conducted by Dr. Gururaj Karajagi, an eminent educationist and the Chairman, Academy for Creative Teaching, Bangalore on the topic of “Developing Ethical Leadership”. The workshop was inaugurated by Professor Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIMC.
Dr Gururaj started the workshop by reiterating the fact that a person who lives for others will not be forgotten. People often do not remember the names of their great-great grandfather but they do remember great persons of human history who have lived their life for others and contributed to the cause of humanity. He made a fine distinction between ethics and values. He said ethics is what we practice i.e. the means, and value is what we reach i.e. the goal. Repetitive doing of good things turns into habit and habit later becomes an attitude of a person. When doing good becomes attitude of people things around change for better. He gave example of a driver who signals at late night even when there is no traffic to exhibit how habit should be formed.
He gave very good demonstrations of how people/followers do what the leaders do not what the leaders say. He also demonstrated how people anticipate what will be the behaviour of the leader. He spoke that successful leaders relate themselves to the followers and they relate well when they are in the same platform; meaning they relate their life and experiences to the ordinary mass. A successful and good leader always cares for the over lapping succession in the absence of which organizations get ruined. He also reiterated to be a leader one need not have to occupy positions and offices. The world has not seen a better leader than Mahatma Gandhi but who never occupied any political position or office. Gandhi is the only person in human history for whom all the flags of all nations at United Nations were lowered that to for a person who never occupied any political position. Dr. Gururaj also emphasized about how ambiance leads to good behaviour. An individual throws trashes around in a dirty place and if the place is clean the same individual behaves differently by taking care to throw it in proper place.
He ended his workshop expecting a future where people would work without any supervision. The workshop was sponsored by ONGC endowment.