Quest for leaders

Updated on: Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Kolkata: Alchemy Leadership Awards, which was held at Alchemy Leadership School, Sugam Business Park, was an event aimed at picking out dynamic and diligent leaders among graduates less than 25 years of age. In this unique contest, youngsters from various fields were judged on miscellaneous parameters to unearth their hidden capacities. Their leadership qualities were highlighted through group discussions, games, extempore facing the camera, and videotape presentations.

Sanjay Bansal, chairman, Alchemy Leadership School, said, “Possessing leadership qualities is very important. It will help one take stalk of any intimidating situation and perform accordingly. At our business school, leadership concepts will be taught. We will ensure that such programmes take place annually and also conduct seminars, guest lectures, symposiums, workshops etc for students so that they can interact and learn from the industry heads.”

The victorious candidates of the event were more thrilled about participating than winning. They liked preparing for a Kids Magazine, which was one of their assignments, as it involved more of teamwork. The winner, Fatima Nissa, a BA (LLB) student said, “I feel on top of the world after getting a laptop as a prize! I think a leader should be an excellent communicator, a fearless soul, have team spirit, accessible to people and have faith in oneself. After participating I feel I have inherited some of these qualities.”

“As the fire test determines the purity of gold, we too learnt about our strengths and weaknesses. It was a self improvement exercise for us,” stated Rahul Bharadwaj, the first runner up.

Albeit, the contestants have separate mentors in life, they agreed unanimously that Rahul Gandhi is the face of India’s posterity and he has the full potential of becoming a good leader.

The chief guest at the ceremony, General Shankar Roy Chowdury (Retd) Ex Chief of Army Staff, after giving away the awards encouraged the finalists with his words of wisdom. “A leader must lead by setting examples. He or she must have a pleasing personality, be humble and a good decision maker, know the job, be fair and last but not the least know the Murphy’s Law and act at the spur of the moment,” affirmed the general from his experiences of Army life.

Speaking of the present scenario of recession, Sanjay Roy Choudhury, MD, knowledge partner Grey Matters Consulting, said, “The current economic turmoil is the best period to assess one’s leadership traits. The companies or people who are able to survive this critical situation will be the leaders because challenging times reveal the power and grit lurking within us.”

Quest for leaders

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