Thoughts on leadership
Press articles
Press articles by Kosheek Sewchurran
What do we really need from a professional public service? (2024)
Giving people a desire to long for is perhaps the most fundamental act of leadership to produce a striving nation, organisation or team. It is essential to appreciate leadership as purposing. In addition to knowing what to shoot for, people need to know what they stand for and why this matters.
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Sustainability is essential in business education (2022)
"Business schools must help leaders imagine creative solutions to inequality, underemployment, climate change, and declining levels of wellness and safety" (AACSB, 10 May 2022)
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We risk our society’s future by betting on a system that produces dysfunctional leaders (2021)
"Whatever system we design, it needs to take seriously this idea that its processes should produce the desire and motivation to search for the endless possibilities that can emerge from our collective excellences; where the desire to improve, and a communal spirit, are continually reinforced through the ongoing process of acting and working together to build a better life" (Daily Maverick, 22 July 2021)
Business leaders must seek a different logic (2021)
"The thinking that has informed business leadership will not see us through the present challenges we face. To remake the world we need to recognise the deficiencies in leadership we experience and change how we train future leaders" (Daily Maverick, 18 February 2021)
Visualising the future (2021)
"Every moment is a contestation between our memories of the past, current perceptions and assumptions of the future. Henri Bergson, the renowned process philosopher, will remind us that it is out of this contestation that novelty and creative evolution occurs. Human beings are hard-wired to naturally care about the future and are restless about this by incessantly envisioning possibilities about ways in which it can unfold. So, envisioning is not a brand-new idea for individuals and organisations. Have we however unraveled our assumptions about how this ongoing present becomes the future? Is it an already-existing place we need to orient toward?" (Mail & Guardian, 8 July 2021)
Leaders are honed through practice and reflection
"To be a resilient or an empathetic leader, especially in complex and difficult times, is [...] something that has to be continually aimed at. It’s a work in progress, so to speak. What’s more, it’s not just work we engage in, in isolation, we are constantly coming up against the needs and desires of others and this also will inform the trajectory of the person we are aiming to be" (20 October 2021)
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Emotional intelligence is what separates the good leader from the bad
"Framing leadership only as ‘heroic’ is to miss the importance of the subtle craft of the practice. This is especially true in times of crisis when tension runs high and opinions are polarised. How leaders adapt and respond in such times can make or break an organisation or a country" (Daily Maverick, 19 November 2020)
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