Can leadership lessons be learnt from the Mahabharata? Demystifying Leadership positively asserts that we can and probes inquiry in the lives of six characters-Bhishma, Ashvatthama, Karna, Shakuni, Kunti and Krishna. It studies these characters in inescapable situations as they navigate through life by demonstrating values, decision-making ability, integrity and principles. Within the given constraints, some of these characters swim and rise, while others sink in moral turpitude. Extrapolating these successful and not-so-successful character traits to corporate leaders and linking them to scholarship, the authors provide lessons for leaders and managers operating in diverse situations.

Borrowing from different disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, politics and psychology, Demystifying Leadership proposes to link essentials of leadership in the form of a Leadership Triangle comprising six levels: positive personality, peace with personal identity, purpose, positive use of power and politics, paradoxical leadership and principled pragmatism. It takes a grounded approach in amalgamating mythology and leadership through scholarship and practice.

Intro --
Half Title --
Title Page --
Copyright --
Contents --
List of Figures --
List of Boxes --
Foreword by Bibek Debroy --
Acknowledgements --
1 Introduction --
Unpacking --
Reflecting --
Assimilating --
2 Bhishma: Misaligned Goals --
Birth of Devavrata --
Devavrata to Bhishma --
The Abduction of Amba --
Disrobing of Draupadi --
The War-Mahabharata --
Bhishma, the Conflicted Patriarch --
Lessons in Leadership Paradoxes --
A Great Life Riddled with Paradoxes --
Leadership Paradoxes --
Paradoxical Leadership Skills --
'Both/And' Vision --
Long-Term Thinking The Irony of Being 'Bhishma' --
3 Karna: Quest for Identity --
Birth of Karna --
Life of Karna --
Karna's Life of Complex Relationships --
Karna Breathes His Last --
Identity Crises and Blind Devotion --
Personal Identity, Social Identity and Identity Conflicts --
Ego-self: Our Identity Thief --
Blind Devotion towards Group Goals --
Resolving Identity Crises and Biased Decision-Making --
Awareness of Unintended Consequences of Goals --
Rational (Fact-Based) Decision-Making --
Self-Belief, Humility and Moral Integrity --
Adolf Hitler: German Identity and World War II Karna: Mahabharata's Tragic Hero --
4 Ashvatthama: A Life of Envy, Anger and Revenge --
Who Was Ashvatthama? --
Anointed As the General --
Killing of the Pandavas --
Brahmastra Unleashed --
The Automatic Cycle of Behaviour --
Thoughts, Emotions and the Automaticity of Behaviour --
Envy, Anger and the Desire to Seek Revenge --
Breaking Automaticity: Self-Awareness and Self-Control --
Breakpoint 1: Mindfulness and Appreciative Inquiry --
Breakpoint 2: Action Regulation and Forgiveness --
Ashvatthama: A 'Great' Life that Could Never Be --
5 Kunti: Perspective and Wisdom Early Life of Kunti --
Marriage with Pandu --
New Abodes --
Kunti Pronounces "Share it" --
Death of Kunti --
The Nurturant-Task Leader --
Vision-Setting and Communication --
Relation- and Task-Orientation --
Lessons in Strategic Leadership --
Strategic Leadership: Vision and Values --
TREAT Leader Behaviours --
Kunti: Mahabharata's Iron Lady --
6 Shakuni: Power, Politics and Stratagem --
The Early Days of Shakuni --
Shakuni and Hastinapur --
Death of Shakuni --
Revenge and the Use of Power and Politics --
Revenge and the Means to Achieve It --
Power and Politics Iago and Shakuni: Immoral Acts of Power and Politics --
Leadership Lessons in Power and Politics --
Develop Power Sources: Personal and Relational --
Positive Use of Power and Politics: Purposeful, Empathetic and Value-Based --
Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery in America --
Shakuni: The Mahabharata's Strategic Villain --
7 Krishna: The Pragmatic Middle Path --
The Birth of Krishna --
Pre-War --
The War --
Morals, Ethics and Ethical Dilemmas --
Ethics and Morals --
Leadership and Ethical Dilemmas --
Principled Pragmatism: Leading a Pragmatic Middle Path