The maverick business leader and bestselling author - Ajayya Kumar

Ajayya Kumar in conversation with WCRCLEADERS GLOBAL

What makes a strong leader? What are your key leadership strengths that make the strongest attributes of success.

To be frank, the very usage of strength when discussing leadership or leadership qualities in an individual is a little problematic in this time and age. It is time for us to take a strong and historically relevant relook at the idea of a strong leader. A leader need not always be strong, I feel. Instead, a leader should be organic, natural and as raw as he can get. A leader should be fallible to mistake, prone to misjudgement and even be ready to take the fall as and when it comes.

A leader cannot live on an ivory tower of faux mightiness but he or she should be grounded in a very realistic way and rooted in a culturally sensitive fashion. This means, instead of being ‘strong’, a leader can be weak, vulnerable and enchantingly malleable. But what should make the difference here is that he or she should be able to learn from the mistakes and accept their humility. These traits will make them better guides in their organisations’ pursuit for growth and prosperity.

Now, coming to the second part of the question, I believe my strength as a leader is that I accept that I am not a leader but I am a follower with a difference. If I can all myself successful that’s only because I have this realisation that I can make mistakes, I can learn from the mistakes, I am prone to make mistakes and I am capable of understanding the value of errors and mishaps and misfires. I believe in the power of continuous and constant learning. I guide and get guided.

An accomplishment that you consider to be the most significant in your career? What challenges did you face to reach success.

My most important or most cherished accomplishment, to be very frank with you, is not the business success I claim to have made so far, but the realisation or the philosophical understanding that I am just a cog in the larger scheme of things and even while I am having that realisation, it is important that I maintain my significance as a human being who can make a difference.

Why do I call this realisation the most cherished one? Because it took me years of toiling to reach where I stand now. I was also swayed in many ways as I continued my entrepreneurial journey over these years and there were moments I felt success meant material success. But my teachers -- which include the books I read, the people I met and the places I visited -- taught me to think beyond all that. They taught me to think beyond ‘making’ and start thinking about ‘giving’. That’s what I am practising now and the very idea of ‘giving back’ is what propels my journey now. In sum, I ‘garner’ now because I want to ‘give’.

As I said, this wasn’t an easy journey. It was a really challenging journey to get here. Being a businessman and doing business in a very cut-throat competitive world would require you to be an alpha leader, a chaser and a conqueror. You should always be on your toes. But to maintain a zen-like sanity in this hullabaloo you need to overcome multiple mental and physical challenges. Interestingly, one of the biggest beneficiary of my learnings has been my own organisation.

But if I have to point out a very recent accomplishment, I’d suggest the book I wrote recently - Mindful Parenting. I strongly believe writing such a work has been a milestone moment in my life. It is a mission accomplished. The book is part of my mission to give back to society. It is a book that talks to parents and children on how to be greater humans and how to evolve organically, how to understand life better and how to be compassionate to each other.

What is the role of a leader in these challenging times?

Motivate his team to believe in humanity.

Motivate his team to believe in the power of resilience