Book Review : The Leadership Sutra

Title : The Leadership Sutra

Author : Devdutt Pattanaik

Publisher : Aleph

ISBN : 978-93-84067-46-5

"Leaders often equate themselves with lions, and indulge their desire to dominate when, in fact, the point of leadership is to be secure enough to outgrow the lion within us, and enable and empower those around us."

This thin 124 pages book is actually derived from Devdutt Pattaniak's Business Sutra. As the name suggests, the book talks about power and leadership at the work place and the analogies are taken from mythological anecdotes. It analyzes the fact that humans seek power, importance and significance and how much are they ready to bargain to achieve the same.

It is an innate human need to feel they matter, to feel recognized and to be envied by others. This recognition brings in security and power and in turn satiates the desire to dominate. Domination imparts a feeling that one can exert control over external things. Through various means humans try to satisfy this need whether it is in the form of any social rules, position or things like property which gives the delusion of immortality.

The whole book is categorised under four broad sections addressing - Significance, Property, Rules and Stability. The book begins with discussing how Durga, the external power is distinguished from Shakti, the inner power - physical and mental prowess. And this distinction becomes a common thread through all the sections. Building and nurturing Durga is important but more significant is working on the Shakti because that is what imparts wisdom and innate strength.

To bring home a point, various interesting anecdotes are picked from the mythology followed by case studies from the corporate. His signature line drawings keep the narrative mind-stimulating. His writing style is par excellence and 'The Leadership Sutra' just validates it even further. It was a sheer pleasure to read this book.