I recently had the opportunity of interviewing Mr. Maity who has more than ten years of experience in leadership positions within his organization. He started his career after grad school with a small non-profit research organization. His leadership abilities were quickly realized and he became a part of a large company as a Project Manager. He recalls that in his first job, the small size of the company and the nature of operations meant that soon after joining the firm, he started taking up multiple responsibilities with many being outside of his core functional role. This valuable learning experience has allowed him to excel in his current leadership position. After joining he got many learning opportunities, particularly …show more content…
Maity has been a part of many research projects and now leads project activities involving people and other resources within a functional group in his organization. During our interview, Mr. Maity laid out the history of his leadership experience, and pointed out how he has learned tremendously from observing others. In particular, Mr. Maity noted how leadership and management styles have changed over the years from a “my way, or the highway" approach (authentic leadership) to a more accommodative leadership approach (servant leadership)[1]. According to him all types of leadership styles may work under varying conditions. Moreover, the fact that one style works need not necessarily mean that other styles will fail. Servant leadership style is very well suited for optimizing long term gains within an organization. However, if the organization is geared towards short term returns, this leadership style will fail. In his work, at times, short term gains can become important. However, servant leadership styles or collaborative leadership styles are valued more since they help improve the overall productivity within the organization and improve employee performance …show more content…
Maity has transitioned to a servant leadership philosophy. He wants his employees to feel that with him as a leader, they have someone who cares about them and their concerns and he strives to make them feel confident and comfortable enough so that they can approach him with any problems or ideas they may have. In his opinion, this helps bring the best out of people. Within his team, he finds that his reports are highly ambitious, they demonstrate patience and humility, continuously learn and improve, take ownership of their actions, value other’s opinions, show independent, critical thinking and are very good at communicating their ideas when required. I do believe that some of this may be a direct result of the servant leadership approach that Mr. Maity follows. By being empathetic toward their work and personal lives and providing them with support and opportunities when needed, Mr. Maity has probably been successful in achieving above average results out of average