Great Quotes: Gems from Subroto Bagchi on Leadership

Tanmay Vora
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I have always enjoyed reading thoughts of Subroto Bagchi, one of India’s most well known and respected leaders from the IT industry who operates as a “Gardener” and Vice Chairman at MindTree.

I have read both his books, “The High Performance Entrepreneur” and “Go, Kiss the World” with great interest. (Read the reviews here and here).

Mr. Bagchi recently gave an interview at Emploi Global Newsletter where he shared some very interesting (and profound) insights.

I would like to share some excerpts of that interview, and ideas that touched me the most:

On Servant Leadership

“Servant leadership is about the conviction that I am just a means to an end; I am not the purpose, I am the mode of conveyance; like a municipal water pipe, my job is to deliver the water and not quench my own thirst.”

On Receptivity as Leaders

“The Japanese say that the mind can be a mountain or a valley. However tall a mountain is, and however torrential the rain on it, it cannot hold water. To hold water, you need to make your mind a valley.”

On Being a Gardener

“The job of top leaders is to build leaders. That is a one-on-one thing like a gardener must tend to his or her plants in a one-on-one manner. Each plant has different needs at different times and the gardener must anticipate those and be proactive. The plants do not come to the gardener; the gardener must go to where the plants may be.”

Read the full interview here.

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8 Comments

Last 2 points of leadership were absolutely remarkable.
Well regarding, Servant Leadership, can you please explain where can this kind of ideology fit in a leadership activity or what a leader can benifit and when, by following this attitude of being just a server or a purpose to attain a end goal for organization.

Thanks,
Jay Chhaya

Tanmay Author December 23, 2010

@Jay – Thanks for comments and glad you liked the ideas.

Servant leadership is all about getting authority (not just power) by serving the people you lead. Servant-leaders focus on achieving results by giving priority to the needs of their people/peers. Servant leadership is not just a concept – it is a mindset. It allows a leader to strongly influence the people and rather than “commanding-controlling”, they focus on”communicating, listening and enabling”. Practicing servant leadership is most effective when the overall organization’s culture is built accordingly. Benefit to a leader is very clear – higher influence, better relationships and of course, improved results.

I hope this helps.

Best,
Tanmay

Hi Sir,

I have read this book. “Go, Kiss the World” is Author’s blind mother’s last words to him, which turned on to become his life’s guiding principle.

Good read for people of all ages to understand life. One of My Fav. book 🙂

Regards,

Jagat
.-= Jagat´s last blog ..Email from the boss =-.

Tanmay Author December 23, 2010

@Jagat – Go Kiss the World has been one of my favorites too. Some very important life lessons there. I have been a fan of Bagchi’s writing since last many years, and his writing has strong influence on me. His other book, “The High Performance Entrepreneur” is a must read too.

Thanks for chiming in!

Best,
Tanmay

There are so much opinions and sayings about
leadership but in every way lets look at the situations to know what to apply .

Tanmay Author December 23, 2010

@Donna – I agree, but in my view, application of ideas start with awareness. These thoughts help in raising our awareness to the fundamentals of leadership. Secondly, I believe that for leadership, we need to have some sort of reinforcement mechanism so that these fundamentals become a part of how we operate as leaders.

Best,
Tanmay

@Tanmay – got ur point very clearly. This is very important for a leader but equally difficult, because a team lead is like a caption who has to server the needs to it’s team players and in terms have to convince it’s coach / management in getting the team’s requirement fulfilled in order to achive best results.
A better people management, relations and techniques can help a leader perform this very effectively.
Thanks for sharing these views…

Regards,
Jay Chhaya

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