The Making of Corporate Rishi

Abstract

Crucibles of Leadership is a Western leadership concept. A crucible refers to a transformative experience through which an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity. Warren Bennis used the term crucible for the first time in the context of leadership. The key message is that the essence of leadership is learning and the most valuable learning comes from crucible experiences or more precisely transformational experiences. There are different types of crucible experiences- Mentoring, New Territory, Suspension, and Reversal. Rishi as Re-see Model of Leadership is an Indian leadership model. Wise and successful leaders learn from a crucible experience (LFC). This leads to a mindset change in them. The leaders undergo transformation because they re-see the crucible experience, adopt a personal learning strategy, are resilient, and have an adaptive capacity. This in turn makes them a Corporate Rishi. In short, the paper tries to link the Western leadership concept of crucibles with the Indian Re-see Model, thereby, explaining the making of a Corporate Rishi.

Keywords: Crucibles of Leadership, Mentoring, New Territory, Suspension, Reversal, Corporate Rishi, Learning from a Crucible

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