Virtusa held a first-of-its-kind EQ based leadership development program in Chennai for partner Universities and colleges across India
Posted on: 17/Sep/2022 11:31:09 AM
Virtusa Corporation, a global provider of digital strategy, digital engineering, and IT services and solutions, organized a leadership development program in Chennai for academicians who hold various leadership positions at partner Universities and colleges across India. The single day workshop aimed to mentor the academicians to hone their leadership skills through group discussions, educational talks, panel discussions by industry leaders and group exercises.
The event held in Virtusa’s Navalur campus was kicked off by a workshop conducted by Dr. Murali Padmanabhan, Sr. VP and Head of Thrive Academy at Virtusa, where he said, “Emotional Intelligence plays a key role in leading a group of individuals and we should imply Six Seconds Emotional Quotient model into our day to day lives. The model connects the 8 EQ competencies to three inner pursuits that impact four success factors: relationship, efficiency, wellbeing, and quality of life. This helps the leaders create an action plan that might greatly impact one or more success factors. It is an honour for Virtusa to develop and execute these programswith the academia which are the centres of learning.”
The participating 57 leaders across partner institutes undertook a leadership EQ assessment (Six Seconds Emotional Inventory). A group debrief was conducted following the assessment results. Dr. Ganesh, Head of Entrepreneurship and Management Studies at IIT Hyderabad delivered a session on Educational Leadership. Following which, Dr. Murali moderated a panel discussion with a set of leaders from Virtusa : Mr. Ram Meenakshisundaram, CTO, Mr. Ram P, CIO and Venkatesan Vijayaraghavan, Head of Executive Vice President -Delivery. The panel discussed various aspects of leadership and stressing on the fact that command and control kind of leadership is ineffective and passe. The panellists emphasized on empathic leadership and creating an interdependent relationship with their followers is an essential attribute in today’s world. They also discussed the nuances of leading in ambiguous and uncertain times with some real-life anecdotes.
The program also included a very interactive session on challenges faced by educational leaders and probable solutions by Dr. Sivakumar Krishnan of VEDIC. Dr. Sivakumar polled the audience on various challenges they face and help the audience prioritize multiple challenges. He also facilitated a discussion on possible solutions to the issue faced by leaders in the educational institute.
Leaders leading the placement and training departments of the academic institutes participated in experiential team bonding activities lead by EzhilArasanMeyyappan Pillai, Myrtle Andrady and Sai Venkata Sumanth Ammapalli of Virtusa Thrive Academy. The Directors and TPOs of various colleges underwent leadership lessons by carrying out group activities that included problem-solving some of the pressing challenges faced by them.
