Who is a true leader; Kalam's favourite anecdote

A favourite incident that A P J Abdul Kalam loved to narrate from his life was how as mission director he faced a major disappointment when the SLV3, India’s first satellite launch vehicle, plunged into the sea barely a couple of minutes after its launch back in the 1970s.

School students paying tribute to former president APJ Abdul Kalam in Chenna (Photo: IANS)

As head of the failed mission Kalam was hesitant to face the media, but Satish Dhawan, who was the then Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation handled the press conference and answered the questions from reporters.

What was more encouraging for Kalam was Dhawan’s statement to the media that exactly in a year’s time they would successfully place a satellite in orbit.

A year later, Kalam’s team successfully launched a satellite. A press conference was organised to inform the media about the launch. However, this time, Dhawan handed the mike to Kalam and let him hog the limelight.

Kalam observed that he had learned a valuable lesson of leadership from Dhawan, which was to take the blame when faced with failure and to share the credit at the time of success. – TWL Bureau
 

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