Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders

© 2015 MSR Leadership Consultants India. All Rights Reserved. This is a nonprofit blog to share Professor M.S.Rao’s passion and vision to build one million students as global leaders by 2030. The use of this material is free provided copyright is acknowledged and reference or link is made to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.in. This material may not be sold, or published in any form, or used in the provision of business services to a third party without permission.

Tuesday, 25 August 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Making Differences Matter?—Professor M.S. Rao,...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Why Making Differences Matter?—Professor M.S. Rao,...: “Love your mother, but don't hate others' mothers. Love your religion, region, community, culture, and creed, but don't hate...

Why Making Differences Matter?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

“Love your mother, but don't hate others' mothers. Love your religion, region, community, culture, and creed, but don't hate others' religion, region, community, culture, and creed." —Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—21st-Century Philosopher & The Father of “Soft Leadership

The 21st century has thrown several challenges to humankind. One of them for corporate leaders is managing a diversified workforce. With changing times and technologies, and with the rising aspirations and expectations of the people, businesses find it tough to meet their demands. Innovation and creativity are some of the solutions to meet the growing expectations of customers, and to achieve the same, it is essential to have a diversified workforce that can add value to organizations by bringing their diverse ideas and insights across the table.

As people are different, they have different attitudes, behaviors, personalities, gifts, talents, abilities, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and appearances at the workplace. Diversity brings various individuals with diverse backgrounds such as culture, religion, region, ethnicity, and education working under one roof to achieve organizational goals and objectives. Diversity does not talk about the dilution of an individual's uniqueness, but it talks about recognizing and respecting others' uniqueness in terms of religions, regions, languages, creeds, caste, color, gender, cultures, and communities. Diversity clearly defines that individuals are not alike. It portrays knowing the differences among the employees and respecting them accordingly.

Diversity management is all about fostering a conducive workplace ambiance by recognizing and respecting the differences among the employees. It is aimed at looking at the similarities rather than differences among the employees to promote organizational fraternity and prosperity. It is about appreciating the differences in gender, race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation of the employees working under the same roof.

It is essential to attract, retain, and train a diverse workforce as it enhances creativity and innovation. Although it has several challenges arising out of diversity, it has several strategic advantages as well for organizations. Here are some advantages.

It is a great asset where people across the globe bring in their diverse thoughts, ideas, insights, and cultures to the corporate world, leading to cultural assimilation and tolerance.
There is variety in diversity, where people have different and divergent characteristics.
Diversity helps in capitalizing on all the strengths of each employee.
It promotes innovation and competition.
It furthers flexibility and tolerance towards other communities and cultures.
The workforce realizes where they stand in their performance vis-à-vis others in the organization.
It enhances production, productivity, performance, innovation, creativity, and corporate democracy.
A diversified workforce brings in diversified talent across the table in the organization, resulting in the proliferation of ideas and innovation, resulting in new products and services as per the needs and requirements of customers. It promotes out-of-the-box thinking, thus adding value to the organization.

Here Are Some Disadvantages

Diversity has multiple challenges in the workplace, such as communication and cultural differences at the workplace.
Individuals may have less energy to contribute as they spend most of their energies in coping with an alien environment.
They may look at the differences but not the similarities.

Challenges For Diversified Leaders

Diversity is a gift from God without which our lives would be boring. God created people differently to add excitement and enthusiasm among the people.

We shall now look at a few of the challenges for diversified leaders.

It is very tough to please all, as people belong to diverse categories. Conflicts are bound to erupt due to differences, and it is a Herculean task for leaders. They need to reinvent themselves regularly in a dynamic global environment. They have to provide diversity training to the employees regularly. And to enable the same, the leaders must have rich experience in diversity to make the diversity process effective.

Diversity leaders must stay ahead of times and technologies. They must stay ahead of the game as well, which is possible through continuous learning and growth. They must

Never look at people with specific lenses. Sometimes they need to change their lenses. Therefore, flexibility in holding the lenses is essential.
Always look at the big picture.
Encourage second-rung leaders within the organization by bringing awareness about diversity.
Manage the anti-diversity employees constantly, continuously, and creatively because a bad apple can ruin the entire lot of good apples.
Praise the people who support diversity in public and correct them in private to ensure a successful diversity program.

Developing diversity is like developing soft skills among employees. It is easy to cultivate hard skills such as technical knowledge, domain knowledge, or core knowledge. However, it is highly challenging to develop soft skills as it totally depends on the personality, attitude, and behavior of the employees. It calls for the involvement of both formal and informal leadership as well.

One of the ways to develop diversity is to ask the employees to bring their own foods, like a potluck lunch, to share at the workplace, as it connects them emotionally as one family.

Educational institutions must foster diversity on the campus itself. For instance, business schools want to have the right mix of students globally in the classroom so that the students get to know one another and learn to appreciate the differences globally. They not only develop a global mindset but also develop tolerance and assimilation. People with different backgrounds think differently, resulting in many more ideas and insights into the issues, resulting in meaningful and realistic ideas.

The 21st Century Demands Diverse Leaders

The leaders who lead a diversified team successfully by recognizing, respecting, and appreciating the cultural, racial, ethnic, gender, and other backgrounds in the workplace and by connecting them with a common thread are known as diversity leaders. The 21st century demands diverse leaders who can lead from the front with openness, trust, confidence, and magnanimity.

To put it precisely, diversity leadership is the process of setting the vision, influencing the people, building teams with a diversified workforce, motivating them through trust and confidence with a global mindset, and aligning their energies and efforts towards organizational goals and objectives.

Dr. Martin Luther King demonstrated diversity leadership by championing for equality of blacks on par with whites, where people need to live together with diversity. It is diversity but with a limited perspective, i.e., from a color perspective.

If you want to become a diversity leader, you must be wedded truly to the principles and values of diversity. You must also check whether you have flair for it. You must be free and fair and should have respect towards others. You must demonstrate impeccable integrity and character.

Take initiative to grab opportunities to coach and mentor employees. You must know how to give sandwich feedback and must learn to accept criticism gracefully. You must be a visionary. You must build trust and confidence amongst your employees. Above all, you must be a good listener and problem solver.

Look For Similarities, Celebrate Differences

Technology and times have brought people together under one roof. Therefore, it is essential to gel well with others to ensure workplace survival and success. It is time to recognize, learn, understand, and appreciate others' cultures, languages, ethnicities, and races in the larger interests of individuals as well as institutions.

The days of looking through the lenses of cultural, racial, regional, or national background are over. Now these are the days of ‘perform or perish’. Businesses never look at your cultural, racial, linguistic, regional, or national background. They fundamentally look at your work and performance and the value you add to them.

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Note: I had a brain hemorrhage. I was in bed for five months. My right hand has been numb and paralyzed. I am recovering. Thanks for empathizing with me. With gratitude. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFJrSRLHPUk&ab_channel=ProfessorM.S.Rao

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.-S.-Rao/e/B00MB63BKM

Vision 2030: https://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professormsrao

Substack: https://professormsrao.substack.com

X: http://twitter.com/professormsrao

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorMSRao

Meta: https://www.facebook.com/Professor-MS-Rao-451516514937414

See the Light in You: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132

Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below. I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.

This nonprofit blog will share Professor M.S. Rao’s passion and vision to develop one million students as global leaders by 2030. Please do not cut articles from my blog; redistribute them via email or post them online. The use of this material is free, as long as the copyright is acknowledged and a reference or link is provided to the Blog http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com. Without permission, this material may not be sold, published, or used to offer business services to third parties.

Sunday, 16 August 2026

How Can Women With Different Conflict Styles Work Together?—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—International Leadership Guru, The Father of “Soft Leadership” & 21st-Century Philosopher

When I administered a self-assessment questionnaire in 2011 to identify the conflict management styles of working executives in management education, three female students exhibited similar behavior—avoiding conflict. The total number of students was 14, of whom three were women executives. It is a strange finding to note that three women demonstrated their behavior by avoiding conflicts that automatically fall in the category of the Turtles. And strangely, their second priority in responses was to collaborate in resolving the conflicts, which sounded contradictory to me. In fact, it is always ideal to collaborate in resolving conflicts rather than avoiding them, as avoiding conflicts may result in a crisis in the latter part. I worked on this trigger as it may open new vistas in conflict management styles, especially from a gender perspective.

But before we discuss about the findings from these three women, it is essential to unfold various conflict management styles such as The Turtle, The Teddybear, The Shark, The Fox, and The Owl.

The Turtle Style: Turtles avoid challenges. They are submissive by nature and care for relationships. They feel like doormats. This style is to avoid conflicts when they are minor in nature. However, it is improper to avoid conflicts when they are major in nature. Most of the time, it is not advisable to avoid conflicts, as it might lead to a crisis. It is a style of playing safe and staying away from conflicts all the time. It is known as the lose-lose approach. The disadvantage of this style is that the conflicts remain unresolved.
The Teddy Bear Style: Teddy Bears emphasize relationships more and goals less. They are not assertive, but cooperative and accommodative. However, they stand up for a few things that are close to their heart. They strive for peace and harmony. This style is accommodating when people want to maintain amicable relations with others. It is a submissive style and a lose-win approach. Conflicts are resolved in this style, but people can be exploited in the future as they are more concerned about relationships.
The Shark Style: Sharks are one of the most feared creatures on earth. They are competitive in nature with a clear eye on their goals. They are autocratic, authoritative, impatient, and uncooperative, and intend to win by any means. They emphasize goals more and relationships less, as they have the least emotion. This style works when time is short, and there is a need to maintain confidentiality. It suits best during a crisis. Usually, defense organizations adopt this style. It is competitive, and it wants to win at the cost of others. It is an aggressive style. It is known as the win-lose approach. The advantage of this style is that there is a temporary win and the conflicts are resolved. The disadvantage is that there is resentment and hostility from the other side. At times, sharks win the battles but lose the wars in the long run.
The Fox Style: Foxes are clever, quick, energetic, and independent animals by nature. They are manipulators and deal-makers. They want to eat the cake and have it too, as they care for both goals and relationships. They don't lose focus on their goals for the sake of their relationships and vice versa. Since they are clever animals, they want others to lose so that they can also lose something to resolve the conflicts. It is win some-lose approach and is also known as the compromising approach. It is against the competing and controlling style. You can adopt this style when both the contending parties are equally strong, and nobody is prepared to give up. However, it is still not the ideal outcome, as the contending parties lose something to resolve the conflicts.
The Owl Style: Owls are intelligent birds. They believe in dialogue and discussion. They care for both goals and relations and strive for consensus and collaboration. They sympathize and empathize with others and work for a win-win situation. It is the ideal outcome where all contending parties are happy, as their interests are protected and conflicts are resolved. This style collaborates by taking the strengths of all parties. It is an assertive style, quite the opposite of the avoiding style. We can adopt this style when we have enough time to think through and arrive at a consensus. However, it is often difficult to reach this situation. Besides, it consumes a lot of time, effort, and energy.

The questions to address here are why the three women working executives first avoided the conflicts and subsequently collaborated to resolve their conflicts. Is there any specific behavior pattern women demonstrate when they are faced with conflicts? Is age a factor in avoiding and facing conflicts? Is the conflict management style gender-based and biased? It is time to address these questions.

Research reveals that men and women react to the same situation differently due to gender aspects. While facing conflicts also the way women respond is different from men. Women often try to avoid conflicts in their first attempt and then collaborate in their subsequent attempt to resolve conflicts once and for all, unlike men, who compete in their initial attempt and collaborate in their subsequent attempt. According to the findings and my observation and analysis from the assessment of these 14 management students, it reveals clearly that women often avoid conflicts initially. If conflicts are thrust upon them, they would take it forward and see to it that they are resolved through collaboration and consensus rather than competition, compromise, and accommodation.

Often, women can sustain pain without reflecting it externally, whereas men demonstrate it externally. Women are often assertive and good at emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills. They are better at soft skills than men. However, men tend to exhibit aggressiveness due to biological reasons. Women are good at multitasking, while men are not. Some gender behavioral gaps between men and women cannot be avoided and must be accepted while managing conflicts and, thus, ensuring interpersonal effectiveness. Hence, extensive research from a psychological perspective on gender basis in managing conflicts can throw more light on whey women avoid conflicts in their initial attempt.

References

https://www.amazon.com/Strategies-Build-Women-Leaders-Globally/dp/1949003108

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tie.21990

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html

Life is great!

Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.

Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/M.-S.-Rao/e/B00MB63BKM

Vision 2030: https://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/professormsrao

Substack: https://professormsrao.substack.com

X: http://twitter.com/professormsrao

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfessorMSRao

Meta: https://www.facebook.com/Professor-MS-Rao-451516514937414

See the Light in You: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132

Thanks for reading!

Kindly share your thoughts and comments below. I’m sure someone out there will find your story useful.

Sunday, 7 June 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Things You Didn’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao, ...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Things You Didn’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao, ...: “ I am 63 years of age and a survivor of a brain stroke that occurred in 2021. My upbringing was not characterized by lu...

Sunday, 17 May 2026

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Valuable Life Lessons Struggle and Hardship Teache...

Professor M. S. Rao’s Vision 2030: One Million Global Leaders : Valuable Life Lessons Struggle and Hardship Teache...: “ Early success is a terrible teacher. You're essentially being rewarded for a lack of preparation, so when you find yourself in a si...

Valuable Life Lessons Struggle and Hardship Teaches You—Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D.—21st-Century Philosopher & The Father of “Soft Leadership”

“Early success is a terrible teacher. You're essentially being rewarded for a lack of preparation, so when you find yourself in a situation where you must prepare, you can't do it. You don't know how.” ―Chris Hadfield, An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth

Everyone wants to achieve success in their lives from cradle to grave. However, few people achieve success in their lives. Some people never achieve success in their lifetimes and die as unsung heroes and heroines while some people reach peaks in several stages of life with valleys. Some people achieve success at an early age in life and fail consecutively thus becoming oblivion. Some people achieve success late. A few people achieve success consistently without looking back. They are known as people with Midas touch. Everyone aspires to achieve success in their lives.

When you fail in the early stage of your life, you will learn what did not work and realign your strategies to accomplish your goals. You will be able to identify your true calling, find your true friends, and become humble. You understand ground realities very well. You don’t take things and people for granted. You value people as people. Hence, early success is not advisable because it doesn’t teach valuable lessons in life. Inspiring leaders including Abraham Lincoln encountered several failures for many years and finally became the 16^th President of America. He learned valuable life lessons and found out what would work to achieve success. Similarly, Einstein encountered several failures but learned valuable lessons and finally became a successful scientist. It is obvious from these leaders that early success is not ideal to achieve amazing success in the later part of life.

Success can come at any time and any stage of life. People must work hard with a focus on their passionate areas unmindful of outcomes. When you look at Tiger Woods he achieved success in the initial stage of his life and encountered several setbacks and failures and finally won the Masters golf tournament on April 14, 2019, and earned America’s highest civilian award—Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Emphasize Efforts, not Luck

"Hardships often prepare ordinary people for an extraordinary destiny." —C.S. Lewis

Nothing can replace your hard work and persistence. Emphasize your efforts, not luck. Luck may give you temporary fame but it is your consistent efforts that give you permanent fame. Don’t blame external forces and factors. Take responsibility and work hard to prove yourself. If achieving success were easy everybody would have achieved success and the term ‘success’ would have lost its relevance.

Don’t blame your destiny when you fail to accomplish your goals. Explore alternative paths to reach your goal. It is the weak individuals who blame their external forces and circumstances. It is strong individuals who take responsibility for their actions, overcome their challenges, and come out with flying colors.

Emphasize Service over Success

"I slept and I dreamed that life is all joy. I woke and I saw that life is all service. I served and saw that service is a joy." —Khalil Gibran

In history, inspiring leaders seldom became a success overnight. They worked hard for many years when there seemed to be no light at the end of the tunnel. They saw the silver lining over the dark cloud and persisted. They never craved success. Instead, they craved to add value to others through their service. Service was the end product while success was the byproduct for them. Hence, emphasize service over success to leave your footprints.

Take-Home

"The highest reward for man’s toil is not what he gets for it, but what he becomes by it." —John Ruskin

People should strive for happiness rather than success because happiness lies within while success depends on various internal factors including hard work, discipline, and persistence, and external factors including luck. To conclude, work hard consistently unmindful of the outcome to achieve success and leave your mark for the next generation.

“Marine leaders are expected to eat last because the true price of leadership is the willingness to place the needs of others above your own.” ―Simon Sinek

Share if you care!

“Things You Don’t Know about Professor M. S. Rao” http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2015/10/things-you-dont-know-about-professor-m.html

Read my ‘Vision 2030 One Million Global Leaders’ URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html