Challenges and Opportunities for Building Leadership in Indian Agricultural Research System.

Building required leadership capabilities to strategically lead the organization is a definite requirement of any organization. It is also an established fact that research organizations need to be led by top scholars. However, research has shown that researchers are rather 'average' to 'moderate' with regard to various traits of leadership. This necessitates that research scholars have to be provided capacity building opportunities to undergo the needed metamorphosis to transform into a good leader. The paper presents five important areas, viz., self-development, facilitation for change, managing research, facilitating partnerships and managing team, which need to be focused for leadership development. Appropriate Executive Development Program on Leadership Challenges for new leaders and Management Development Program on Leadership and Personality Development for prospective leaders are elaborated. Possible interinstitutional collaborative approaches for strengthening the leadership development initiatives are also suggested. Though the details presented in the paper focus on agricultural research organizations, these apply to all other organizations as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]