A two day Management Development Program (MDP) was organized by Centre for Management Studies Dibrigarh University on 22nd and 23rd of December, 2016, on the topic “Leadership Development for Mid-Career Professionals and its Significance in a Modern Business Organisational Context”; attended by twenty four participants from corporate, educational institutions and from the University administration. The organizations represented were Oil India Limited, Duliajan, Assam Gas Company, Duliajan, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (AOD), Digboi, Brahmaputra Cracker and Polymer Ltd. Lepetkata, Numaligarh Refineries Ltd. Golaghat, Jalan Tea Group etc.
The MDP was chaired by Resource Persons from different organizations and successful leaders in their respective fields. Shri. Alok Mehta, presently working as a HR Consultant; Dr. Bhupati Kumar Das, the Ex-Managing Director, Numaligarh Refineries Ltd. and also Ex-Managing Director of Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd. and presently the Emeritus Professor of Dibrugarh University; Prof. Alak Kumar Buragohain, the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor of Dibrugarh University.
The MDP started with the first session on “Ability to see a connection with the larger universe, connect seemingly unconnected dots, meaning making, envisioning” with Mr. Alok Mehta was seemingly interesting and imbibe in a deep understanding of oneself. He brought in the environment of discussion and experience sharing about the meaning, role and the challenges of a leader. He focused on the relationship between ‘self’, ‘team’ and the ‘system’ or the ‘context’ and how accordingly one can adopt to the various leadership styles. The relevance of environment in inculcating and define leadership style was discussed in his session and forced the participants to think deeper into two most philosophical questions of “Who I am?” and “What is the purpose of my life?.”
Dr. Bhupati Kumar Das transacted the next session titled “Leadership Roles and Leadership Styles” wherein he initiated the session with the interesting difference between a manager leader and a coach leader. With his extended knowledge of the Indian epic like ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’, he mesmerized the gathering by his judgement about the Indian mythological leaders like Rama and Krishna. He in his delivery touched many relevant aspects of leadership theories including the western leadership styles with Indian mythological examples, mental models of people, the ladder of inference and the learning cycle.
The Honorable Vice Chancellor, Prof. Alak Kumar Buragohain transacted the last session titled “Industry Academia Interface and University Leadership“ wherein he shared his experience as a leader of an educational institute like a University. He explained the circle of leadership wherein he explained the evolution of a leader and the various stages through which a leader passes through. The leader initiates change which in turn initiates resistance at the beginning but when the intents become more clear and visible the building of trust and faith happen thus leading to acceptance. The leader according to him has even greater mission of developing new leaders who will continue the legacy. He also talked about the ability of a leader to give up the leadership at some point of time in the near future. According to him leadership is not something which is permanent and needs to be handed over to his/her successor. Therefore there is also the need for a successful leader to carefully nurture the growth of successful and effective successors.
The programme ended with a vote of thanks to the eminent Resource Persons as well as the participants by Dr. Pratim Barua, the coordinator of the 11th Management Development Programme