Leadership and Responsibility: An Analysis of APJ Abdul Kalam's Life

This assignment provides an overview of the life of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and analyzes the relationship between his life and leadership skills. It also highlights the major contributions and personality traits of Abdul Kalam.

LEADERSHIP
AND
RESPONSIBILIT
Y

INTRODUCTION
• The purpose of the assignment is to understand the
various aspects of life of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam
• Additionally, the relationship between his life and
leadership skills are required to be analyzed that will be
providing a brief overview on the individualities required
for meeting the different aspects in the personal and
professional life

OVERVIEW ON APJ ABDUL
KALAM
• Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was born at Rameswaram
based at Dhanushkodi, Tamil Nadu to the working class Tamilian
Muslim Family (Deccanchronicle.com 2019)
• He was born on 15th October 1931 and his father Jainulabdeen was a
boat owner and mother Ashiamma was housewife.
• In his school, he was being described as the most sincere,
hardworking and bright student who had the strong kind of desire in
learning as well as spending hours in studies

EDUCATIONAL
QUALIFICATIONS OF
ABDUL KALAM• APH Abdul Kalam completed his schooling from at Schwartz Higher
Secondary School, Ramanthpuram
• After the elementary schooling, he went for graduation in Physics at St.
Josephs College, however, he was not interested regarding the same.
• Finally, he graduated in Physics Subject in the year 1954 from the
college situated at Tiruchirappalli (Donate and de Pablo 2015)
• In the year 1955, APH Abdul Kalam went to study aerospace
engineering from Madras Institute of Technology and achieved the
degree

PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS OF ABDUL
KALAM
• Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam joined the Aeronautical Development
Establishment as Chief Scientist after becoming member of
Defence Research and Development (Donate and de Pablo 2018)
• APJ Abdul Kalam initially started his career in DRDO in the
year 1958 and then he joined ISRO in the year 1963
• Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was elected as 11th President of India after
succeeding K.R. Narayan

CONTD….
• In May 2012, Kalam was successful in launching
programme for the youth of India named What Can I Give
Movement, wherein the main aim was of defeating
corruption (Larsson, Schnurr and Clifton 2018)
• Dr. Kalam was positive in becoming the visiting professor
after he left office at Indian Institute of Management,
Shillong, Ahmedabad, Indore and honorary fellow of
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS
OF APJ ABDUL KALAM
• Moreover, Dr. Kalam was successful in making significant
kinds of contributions to Indian Satellite and launch of the
vehicles at ISRO and missile programme of DRDO
(YouTube.com 2019)
• He served as the scientific advisor to Defense Minister and
later Government of India from 1999 to 2001 and he was
responsible for evolving kind of politics and strategies for the
different development programmes

STRUGGLING TIME OF
ABDUL KALAM
• Abdul Kalam was not successful and he failed in launching the
SLV-III for the first time
• Moreover, he was the one who owned the entire responsibility for
the failure of the project
• However, lastly, he has finally achieved the success in the next time
and gained full confidence along with his entire team

PERSONALITY TRAITS OF
ABDUL KALAM
• Determined
• Passionate regarding the work performed
• Artistic
• Hard-working
• Loving and Caring
• Possess high level of perseverance

BIG FIVE PERSONALITY TRAITS OF
ABDUL KALAM
Big Five Traits Traits Displayed by Kalam Outcome
Emotional Stability Positive Thinking approach and
better Decision-Making Skills
He was an inspiring leader and
achieve the great deals and goals
Extraversion Interpersonal skills are effective Personality is charismatic and
Humble President of India
Openness Creative and Innovative along
with flexibility is the main criteria
He was regarded as the Missile
Man of India
Agreeableness Individual Recognition to the
different team mates
True and Genuine Colleague
Conscientiousness Organized and Disciplined and
there was planning
Single Minded and total devotion
to the tasks done by him

LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES OF
DR. ABDUL KALAM
• Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was considered to be an optimist
• He preferred the participative decision-making
approaches for taking the different decisions
successfully
• Leaders try to inspire others as well as help them in
achieving such goals accordingly
• Leaders are truly considered the visionary

CONTD….

RELATIONSHIP AND TASK
ORIENTED
• Total commitment for the creation of SLV in succeeding
in the mission and create a vision for the future from the
lessons learned from the respective aspect
• He tried to maintain cordial relationship with the different
members along with helped them in performing the tasks
in a successful manner as well.

LEADERSHIP STYLE OF
ABDUL KALAM
• Dr. Kalam was considered to be the CHARISMITIC
LEADER as he had the extraordinary skills in
communication
• He had the proper maturity and character that has helped
them in achieving goals
• The listening skills and delegative aspects are the two major
approaches followed by Dr. Kalam

CONTD….
• Additionally, he was considered to be the democratic leader wherein he was successful in
understanding the compassion of the employees and he provided chance to all the
individuals in sharing their views.

LIFE LESSONS FROM
LEADERSHIP SKILLS OF
ABDUL KALAM
• Development of the High Performing Teams is the most significant attribute
• Proper communication and leadership quality is essential
• Changes in the de-motivating teams into motivated teams

CONTD….
• Delegation and prioritisation of the tasks play a crucial role in
improving the growth of the company and themselves
• Thinking with Creativity will be suitable in generating proper
solutions that will be helpful in gaining competitive advantage

CONTD….
• Commitment to yourself is the other main aspect and vision should
be clear among the leaders
• Having Confidence in themselves is the other major attribute and
lesson learnt from Abdul Kalam

CONCLUSION
• Therefore, it can be concluded that Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam was one of the
most successful leaders in the world due to his huge contributions in different
projects
• He had been successful in attaining proper communication skills which has
helped him in becoming a successful leader and followers were happy under
his leadership
• From the lessons of Abdul Kalam, there are different things which have been
learnt by me that includes the communication is the key element that will be
generating two-way communication and it will be enhancing the
effectiveness and motivation among subordinates

REFERENCES
• Deccanchronicle.com 2019 Dr APJ Abdul Kalam was a great leader, God to children (online) Retrieved from
https://www.deccanchronicle.com [Accessed on 16th September 2019]
• Donate, M.J. and de Pablo, J.D.S., 2015. The role of knowledge-oriented leadership in knowledge management practices and
innovation. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), pp.360-370.
• Larsson, M., Schnurr, S. and Clifton, J., 2018. Leadership special issue on leadership-in-interaction. Leadership, 14(1), pp.134-136.
• Learmonth, M. and Morrell, K., 2017. Is critical leadership studies ‘critical’?. Leadership, 13(3), pp.257-271.
• Nguyen, T.T., Mia, L., Winata, L. and Chong, V.K., 2017. Effect of transformational-leadership style and management control
system on managerial performance. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.202-213.
• Williams, E.A., Pillai, R., Deptula, B.J., Lowe, K.B. and McCombs, K., 2018. Did charisma “Trump” narcissism in 2016? Leader
narcissism, attributed charisma, value congruence and voter choice. Personality and Individual Differences, 130, pp.11-17.
• YouTube.com 2019 Abdul Kalam Inspirational Speech on leadership and Motivation (Online) Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com [Accessed on 16th September 2019]