B S DARA
bsdara@gmail.com
This is my own perspective on leadership, shaped by firsthand experience working with some of the world’s best organizations in construction project management.
Leadership is learned by watching, by observing how your boss speaks to people, how decisions are made, how mistakes are handled, and how success is shared. Over time, without realizing it, you start absorbing that behavior. You begin to lead the way you were led. You become, in many ways, a product of the management culture you grew up in.
I have been fortunate, and sometimes unfortunate, to work under very different management systems. My professional life has taken me through European and Indian corporate cultures. I worked with the German construction giant HOCHTIEF, the French multinational Bouygues Batiment, and the Indian real estate and engineering major Shapoorji Pallonji Group. Each shaped my understanding of leadership in a distinct way.
What I learned is simple but powerful. The boss you work under slowly rewires your idea of leadership. You are being trained by the boss you work for.
Let me begin with my experience with European multinationals. In German and French companies, the boss is demanding, but clear. Expectations are defined early. Targets are realistic, deadlines are firm, and roles are well-drawn. When you are at work, you are expected to perform. No excuses. No emotional drama. No long speeches. A European boss will question your work sharply. He will challenge your logic. He will point out errors directly. But he will never shout. He will never insult you. And most importantly, he will never make your performance a personal battle.
If you underperform consistently, action is swift. You may be warned. You may be coached. But if results do not improve, you are let go, cleanly, professionally, and without humiliation. There is no shouting, no daily pressure games, no prolonged mental torture. Performance is always a business issue than a personal vendetta. European boss understands something very basic that work pressure does not require emotional pressure. I have seen senior managers grill engineers during the day and sit with them in the evening for a drink. I have seen bosses eat with workers, laugh with them, and even celebrate small personal milestones. Laughter at work is hardly seen as lack of seriousness but as normal human behavior.
In European organisations, productivity is measured by what you deliver than how long you sit at your desk. If your work is done, your boss does not care if you leave on time. There is no moral judgment attached to work-life balance. Meetings are short. Decisions are quick. Authority is clear. Once a decision is made, execution follows. There is little obsession with control for the sake of control.
This environment teaches you a crucial leadership lesson that respect improves performance more than fear.
Now let me turn to Indian corporate culture. In many Indian companies, the boss sees himself as a rider on a saddle. The team is the horse. The boss holds the reins tightly, keeps a bit in the mouth, and uses the spur often. Control is constant. Trust is limited. The Indian boss believes that unless pressure is visible, work is not happening. Long hours are treated as commitment. Late nights are worn like medals. Endless meetings are seen as seriousness. Shouting is mistaken for leadership. Silence is seen as weakness. Under such leadership, success is quietly claimed by the boss, while failure is loudly distributed across the entire team.
A common belief persists that if employees are relaxed, something is wrong.
I have seen bosses who become uncomfortable if they see their team laughing, even during spare moments. A smile is interpreted as lack of workload. A calm employee is assumed to be underutilized. Happiness becomes suspicious. An employee if excelling in a personal passion often unsettles the boss, who reads it as a compromise with work. I experienced this firsthand when my published writing became visible and was met with indirect, uneasy hints instead of appreciation.
The Indian boss often believes that results come from stress, not structure. Meetings stretch endlessly, often without clear agendas and outcomes. Decisions are delayed. Authority is centralized, but accountability is diluted. Everyone is present, but no one is empowered. There is also a deep emotional attachment to hierarchy. The boss must be feared. Distance must be maintained. Familiarity is mistaken for loss of control. Many Indian managers believe that being friendly will weaken authority. Mental health is rarely discussed. Burnout is normalized. Personal time is treated as negotiable. The idea that a rested employee can perform better is still struggling to find acceptance.
In such environments, employees learn a dangerous lesson. That leadership means pressure, not clarity. One of the biggest differences I noticed was how productivity is understood. In European work culture, productivity is about output per hour. Systems are designed to reduce friction. Processes are documented. Tools are optimized. Time is respected. In Indian organisations, productivity is often confused with endurance. An employee who stays late is seen as hardworking, even if output is low. An employee who leaves on time is viewed with suspicion, even if results are strong. The system rewards presence over performance. This shapes future leaders badly.
Young managers who grow up under such bosses start believing that leadership means monitoring, not mentoring. They repeat the same patterns, long meetings, constant follow-ups, unnecessary pressure, because that is what they were taught. They do not know any other way.
European management systems trust structure. Roles are defined, and authority follows responsibility. If a manager is assigned a decision, he takes it. If it goes wrong, accountability is clear. Indian systems often fear decision-making. Decisions move upward. Everyone wants approval. Nobody wants blame. Meetings are used to spread responsibility thin so no one stands alone. As a result, speed is lost. This teaches young professionals to avoid ownership. They learn to wait, not act. They learn their own survival, not leadership.
Over time, the environment you work in becomes your leadership training school.
If you work under a boss who shouts, you may begin to believe shouting works. If you work under a boss who mistrusts, you may begin to micromanage. If you work under a boss who measures effort by exhaustion, you may demand the same from your team. But if you work under a boss who is firm, fair, and human, you learn balance. You learn that discipline does not require humiliation. You learn that performance does not require fear. You learn that authority does not require distance.
Indian companies are not short of talent. They are short of healthy leadership models. The belief that pressure automatically produces excellence is outdated. The world has moved on. Global competition today is about speed, innovation, and sustainability than just about cost.
A burnt-out workforce cannot innovate. A fearful workforce cannot think freely. An exhausted workforce cannot lead tomorrow. Indian leadership must unlearn the idea that a boss must always look angry to look important. The best leaders I worked under were calm, decisive, and human. They did not need to remind people of their authority every day. Results spoke for them.
You do not become a leader the day you get a designation. You become a leader long before that, by watching the person you report to.
If we want better leaders tomorrow, we must first become better bosses today. Because whether we like it or not, we all end up leading the way we were led.
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