Akshaya Patra: A Leader in Battling Classroom Hunger

Akshaya Patra, the world’s largest mid-day meal program run by a not-for-profit organization, was started in 2000 by serving approximately 1500 school going children in Bangalore, India. In 2009, the organization achieved a milestone of serving one million lunches to the school children. By 2021, it had been feeding more than 1.8 million children and aimed at feeding five million children by 2025. Akshaya Patra also offered its services to people affected during natural calamities like floods and earthquakes, and for the homeless living in shelter homes[2]. It was also the first NGO managed food programme in the world to receive the FSMS ISO 22000:2005 certification. The project received an entry in the Limca Book of Records and India Book of Records[3]. The organisation was able to successfully create a partnership model that included governmental funding, contribution from individuals and support from for-profit companies and not-for-profit organisations.

Serve to Lead: Why Serving Others is Essential to Lead?

The purpose of this research paper is to inculcate the attitude of service to serve others selflessly. It explains the benefits and consequences of serving others. It discusses nonprofits, volunteerism, sharing with others, caring for others, adding value to society, and making a difference in the lives of others. It illustrates the consequences of serving others with the examples of Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, and Nelson Mandela. It emphasizes contribution over achievement. It unveils that greatness is determined by service and outlines a nonprofit initiative, Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders. The predominant emphasis is to serve others for a cause, not adulation, and implores the reader to be a giver, not a taker, by infusing life with passion and purpose.

A Leadership Role: Creating an Ethics of Diversity

Although we desire peace and tranquility, harmony and social stability, life can be harsh and brutish. We also acknowledge exploiting the values of others for self- aggrandizement negates their sacred personhood. And although we dance on the summit of individual rights and liberties conceding their personal and private nature, we need to understand democracy is built on a collectivity of like-minded people, on a foundation of dialogic civility, communal accountability, and a moral sensibility that is pubic and open to criticism and adjustments.

Reflecting on Crucibles: Clarifying Values in Authentic Leaders

This qualitative study explores the role of crucibles, life-triggering moments, parents’ life mottos and definitions of success, and holding values in the lives of authentic leaders. This research used the life-story approach to explore the experience of such concepts on authentic leaders. Self-identified leaders with more than five years of experience in a leadership position or in a role of managing and developing others were invited to this research. Qualified authentic leaders (between 65 to 80 in ALQ) were invited to a qualitative interview utilizing the life story approach to explore significant forming factors of their leadership qualities. An inductive coding method was used in analyzing the transcription of interviews. Significant themes and codes show that life-triggers, crucibles, parents’ life mottos, their definition of success, and holding values play a significant role in authentic leadership development. Leadership scholars should emphasize the forming experiences of authentic leadership in their leadership development studies. In other words, the experienced dynamics of parents (life mottos and definitions of success), the experience of crucibles are suggested as antecedents of authentic leadership. The research shows that parents’ dynamics, crucibles, and life-triggering moments resonate with Erikson’s stages of development on authentic leadership development.

Prudence, Ethics and Anticipation in Visionary Leaders

In ethics, prudence is an essential skill in making informed decisions. Although several studies in various fields have dealt with the notion, few empirical studies have addressed one of its inextricable aspects: anticipation. To gain a better understanding of the notion, this study questioned fifteen leaders whose peers consider to be “visionary” in their respective fields. The results of this qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews describe the fundamental aspects of anticipation according to three categories: reasoning and trend analysis, implementation and strategy, and personality and values.