#15 Rethinking Leadership with Deepa Natarajan

What is the place of resilience in leadership and how can we stop overplaying our strengths for more sustainable growth ? 

In this episode of Let's talk, Deepa and I discuss how to 'rethink leadership'. Growing leadership in a sustainable way that allows you to have both success and well-being, has never been more topical. The current pandemic has given leaders the time to go inside and tap into bigger questions they have, and their larger vision & purpose. We discuss rethinking the paradigms of leadership, and understanding how to shift the paradigm around who you are as a leader as well as understanding your drivers, to find the balance between your strengths and the limits of those strengths, as well as the duality of 'thrive versus strive'.

Deepa shares her wealth of experience and insights from her work with organisations big and small, as well as her methodology on sustainable leadership and personal transformation.

The main insights from this episode :

• Understanding people and change is about understanding the human brain, facing challenges and being open to personal growth and development
• Everyone has potential but we must be prepared to reach deep within ourselves to unlock it and accept an alternative version of ourselves 
• To achieve lasting change, leaders must defy the conventional (corporate) definition and perception of talent - people are more than data, expertise and solutions
• High-achievers must strike a balance between ambition and reflection; COVID has brought more time for the latter as life has been forced to 'slow down'
• This duality of 'thrive versus strive' broadly reflects the difference between Eastern and Western philosophies; getting off the hamster wheel requires courage to overcome the fear of asking for help
• Transforming leadership means engendering co-responsibility, taking time to enjoy stillness and increase one's awareness - epiphanies often come out of the blue!  
• The value of giving and receiving requires putting the ego to one side and tapping into our intuition: is the way I function sustainable? and, arguably most importantly, can I enjoy life?