Leadership Tips From APJ Abdul Kalam

Brut India

In this 2008 conversation, former President APJ Abdul Kalam gave some valuable leadership lessons he learnt during his long career. Thanks to Wharton India Economic Forum for the footage.

Transcript

00:00A leader must know how to manage success.

00:05Most importantly, the failure.

00:06Every action of the leader should be transparent.

00:09You were also very involved with India's missile program

00:15and that you earned the nickname, the Missile Man of India.

00:18Could you please tell us about that experience

00:20and what were the main lessons you learned?

00:22I learned one of the important thing in this programs,

00:28both space program, missile program.

00:31We should know how to handle the,

00:36not only how to handle the success,

00:39how to handle the failures.

00:41Particularly, you are in the management environment,

00:43you are done, I want the young people to understand

00:47how to manage the failure.

00:50Because any task you do, you have to come across problem.

00:55Problem should not become the captain of the individual

00:58or a project chief.

01:00And the project chief should become

01:04the captain of the problems

01:05and defeat the problem and succeed.

01:07So this is what I have learned.

01:09How did you come to become India's president?

01:12What leadership qualities do you think are needed

01:15to lead a country that is so huge,

01:17so complex and so chaotic?

01:20Well, I won't say chaotic,

01:22every type of order comes out of disorder, okay?

01:28This is what's happening now.

01:30I was elected as a president of India 2002-2007

01:36through a well-structured election process.

01:42Now, the leader, not only to become the president,

01:48you need to give any political leadership

01:50or technological leadership,

01:54you have to have six traits one leader should have.

01:59And what are the six traits?

02:02Number one, leader must have a vision.

02:06Without a vision, you will not be a leader, he or she.

02:09So leader must have a vision.

02:12The second one, leader must be able to travel

02:16into an unexplored path.

02:19Normally, tendency to travel the well laid out path,

02:24but the leader, he takes a path of untraveled path.

02:29Third thing, leader must know how to manage success,

02:34most importantly, the failure.

02:38Any mission he does or she does,

02:42so he has to go through some failure.

02:45They should know how to manage the failures.

02:47Could you give us an example from your own experience

02:50about managing failure?

02:51Well, my own experience like this, 1973,

02:57I became the project director

03:00for Satellite Launch Vehicle Program, SLV-3 it is called,

03:04to put a Rohini satellite in the orbit by 1980.

03:07So when the time came, 1979, I think it's in August,

03:11instead of satellite going in the orbit,

03:14the whole rocket system went into Bay of Bengal, okay?

03:19So it was a big failure.

03:23So that day, Indian Space Research Army Chief,

03:28Prasathis Dhawan, there's a press conference,

03:30seven o'clock we launched.

03:327.45, there's a press conference,

03:34the whole world press is there in Sererikota

03:37at launch base.

03:39So I still remember the chairman of the organization,

03:44the leader of the organization,

03:46taking the press conference, I was by his side.

03:48He said, we have failed first time we tried to attempted,

03:54and this failure really makes us to believe

04:00we have to do more technological support my team,

04:05and they worked very hard,

04:07definitely in a year they will succeed.

04:10So I was a mission director, I was a project director,

04:14I am responsible for the failure,

04:17and he took the responsibility of failure

04:20as a chairman of the organization,

04:22and the leader of the organization.

04:25Next year, 1980, July, we succeeded.

04:29The whole nation was jubilant.

04:32There was a press conference.

04:35Prasathis Dhawan told me,

04:37you go and take the press conference, okay?

04:40The message is, when the failure occurred,

04:45the leader of the organization owned the leader of failure.

04:50When the success came, he gave to his team.

04:53That the best management principle,

04:56I have not learned previously, any books have not taught me,

04:59I learned from that experience, okay?

05:03That's a beautiful story.

05:04Thank you very much for sharing that.

05:05Next one, fourth point,

05:09leader must have courage to take the decision.

05:12That's a problem today throughout the world.

05:14Leader must have a courage to take the decision.

05:17Fifth one, leader should have a nobility in management.

05:21Nobility in management, a big question mark.

05:24So I believe leaders should have a nobility in management.

05:30Every action of the leader should be transparent.

05:33You know what I mean?

05:35Every, that is, a leader should work with integrity

05:38and succeed with integrity.

05:41Leader should work with integrity

05:44and succeed with that integrity.

05:47And I believe president, since you asked the question,

05:53has to be continuously in touch with the people.

05:56Rashtrapati Bhavan, where I was there,

06:01became a people's Bhavan.

06:03Instead of Rashtrapati Bhavan, it becomes people's Bhavan.

06:07And also, I travel into the whole state,

06:11cutting across hills, deserts, and sea.

06:13I was in touch with millions and millions of people.

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