LEADERSHIP LAB

PEER LEADERSHIP GROUP ASSIGNMENT

Submitted by
Division D Group 1

Vibhor Aggarwal (D001)

Bhavya Garg (D020)
Rahul Jaswal (D029)
Avantika Mehta (D038)
Omkar Rane (D046)
Neha Ayushi Taneja (D055)

Under the Guidance

Of
Dr. Shibani Belwalkar

Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), Mumbai

NOVEMBER 2019
Assignment-
Key Issue
The key issue that we have decided to take up, is that of a social as well as environmental one;
the issue centering the growing need for cleanliness. Our college is situated near the iconic Juhu
Beach of Mumbai, one that has been one of Mumbai’s landmarks for decades now. However,
despite being a scenic sight, it is now highly polluted, with all kinds of garbage all over and this
is something which is very disconcerting, as not only does Mumbai deserve to be a clean,
hygienic city but also that the garbage all over the beach destroys the its beauty. The issue of
cleanliness is an issue which has been brought to light due to various government schemes
undertaken to raise awareness regarding its repercussions, but have not yet been very effective.
Seeing this issue being taken lightly right in front of our eyes, makes us too want to work
towards attempting at mitigating it in any way that we can, even it is at a very fundamental level,
because that in itself is a start in the right direction. This is something which will not only aid in
our social and environmental sensitivity and make us more aware, mindful of our surroundings
and issues concerning them, but also make us more motivated and focused towards our goals.
Key Issue/Activity- Issue/Challenge/Recipients
Having identified cleanliness as the issue we would like to tackle, the need to break it down
further is also vital. The reason we chose this issue is not just because it is that of general worry,
but also because there are multiple segments of our society who are directly impacted by it.
These include the visitors of the beach, who are put off by the garbage all over, the residents of
the area as well as surrounding areas who may be exposed to it directly or indirectly, even the
animals as well as the fish in the sea are impacted by the large amounts of garbage accumulated
on the shore as well as the garbage that gets drawn into the water too. Apart from these, even the
residents of the city who are not in the vicinity get disheartened by such poor states of
cleanliness and even those directly responsible for its cleanliness, whether at a policy level or at
ground level, feel like their efforts are not really yielding major fruit.
Our agenda is to reach out to those who not only frequent the beach but also those employed
around it too, as getting through to them may drastically bring up the cleanliness level as well as
create an increased overall sense of awareness and bring others to act on it too. These
interactions will be informative as well as encouraging and may require persistence as these
changes do not take place overnight.
This may be challenging as the parties directly or indirectly responsible for the cleanliness issues
already have an established process of functioning and thus the transition may not seem
necessary or may even seem burdensome to them and they may have some mental blocks or pre-
conceived notions regarding the same, but it is vital to follow through persistently with a
constant progress report anyway to know if the efforts are materializing in the desired direction
or not.
Execution Plan:
The plan is not only to organize a beach cleaning drive but also to look at the long-term solution
that includes educating the vendors and locals of the area. We also intent to organize such drives
regularly, at least once a month.
Below is a detailed plan for our execution:
We group no. 1 have 6 members; we would be dividing our team in groups of 2. On a weekend
afternoon, each team would be given some specific tasks.
1. Team 1 starts with the beach clean drive. With gloves and big garbage bags, they collect
the littering that has been spread across the beach.
2. Team 2 visits and meet the local crowd strolling along the beach, they take surveys and
ask for their opinion and suggestion as to what is the main cause of beach destruction in
such a way and what can be done.
3. Team 3 visits the vendors; they are also the main source of attraction for various tourists
and serve food to them which is also one of the main causes of the beach being garbage
dump. The Team would go and ask them about their waste collection and disposal
mechanism and suggest them some options for proper measures accordingly.

Each team would have an area defined to them and when they complete that area, the teams
switch their roles and move to the other part of the beach. This ensures that each team
contributes to the cause in all the ways.
Once we have garbage collected, we dispose it off, segregated in the municipality trucks that are
frequent on the beach to collect the waste. Also, after we have ample number of surveys and
feedbacks collected, we go back and look into them and work on a strategy to implement the
next time when we visit the beach.
We plan to engage as many people as possible in the future.
Core Areas-
1. What was the leadership process like for each member during your project execution?
For example, what styles did you observe as default leadership styles?
 
a. When did they work best and when did you experience challenges with that style?
b. Describe your individual assessment and offer feedback to other members on the
observations you made about their styles.

Various member of the group displays a mix between Coach and Democratic styles of
leadership. Few members believe in Coach Style of leadership wherein they make best use of
everyone’s strength and improve on weaknesses in the due process. It works best when we have
a lot of work on our plates.
The other members have a democratic leadership style where in first input is asked from all and
then feedback from the team is considered before making a decision as we believe that it not
only makes the group members more confident in expressing their opinions without facing any
form of critical judgment from the others, but also as it makes our whole work environment and
group dynamics conducive for optimum results.
So often a combination of both styles was employed where opinion of all was heard keeping in
mind people’s strengths as well. Even though the leadership style was on a similar line for some
group members, each member displayed different qualities and adopted a unique process of
establishing a flow of work and a process for execution of that work.
A. This style of leadership worked best in the initial phases of our group interactions;
especially the brainstorming sessions for any assignment, wherein none of us hesitated in
expressing our own ideas as to how to go about the tasks that were assigned to us. We all
were able to freely and confidently express our opinions, without facing any bias or
grudges or even any judgment from the rest of the group members. This is due to the fact
that our group follows a flat structure and there is no hierarchy amongst us and we
consider each one’s opinion as important as everyone else’s. This structure is conducive
to free flow of ideas and aids in the quality of ideas generated to, in terms of creativity as
well as innovation and even in our group discussions, we were all in synchronization and
were able to complement each other effectively.

However, this leadership style poses its share of challenges too. Occasionally it so
happened that there were multiple decisions and alternatives available to us and at the
time of deciding amongst these alternatives, it becomes challenging as we sometimes find
it difficult to choose ideas as it indirectly comes down to choosing between team
members, especially while trying to decide which tasks to allot to which team members
as there was some discussion about the same. Thus, the process of decision making
sometimes becomes complicated as decision making may lead to a shift in group
 dynamics with some group members trying to assert their own opinions over other group
members’ and even if it is done unknowingly, it can give off a negative vibe which
results in the more docile members of the group feeling more vulnerable and the more
confident group members feeling more confident than before.

B. Individual Assessment-

Vibhor- He had valuable insight to offer throughout the planning and implementation
process. He was not only offering alternative solutions to any problems we faced, but also
patient when it came to tackling challenging situations, which is a great quality. Vibhor
could however benefit from taking up more initiative, since his contributions are of great
help.

Bhavya- He has always been very expressive about his thoughts and ideas and is also
good at taking others’ ideas into consideration and integrating them together to come
with something great as whole. He is energetic and responsible when it comes to any kind
of task. He could however benefit from being a keener listener as good ideas may also
not come up in the initial phases of any assignment, as displayed by this assignment
where we came up with interesting solutions at the end.

Rahul- He has always been very analytical and extremely patient with the remaining
group members. He is not only responsive but also very reliable when it comes to any
kind of task given to him and will even offer to help in tasks that were not initially
assigned to him. He could however benefit from being more participative and involved.

Avantika- She has a lively and enthusiastic demeanor, always ready to learn new things
and take up initiatives making sure that the task at hand gets completed well in time. She
has the ability of identifying when somebody is in need of help and thus offers to help,
clearly making her a hardworking person and thus taking on a lot on her plate. It would
add on to her personality and leadership skills if she could delegate tasks to people in a
better manner and get work done more efficiently.

Omkar- He is not only someone who makes the working environment of our group very
comfortable but also is someone who can always be counted on for any kind of task. He
was hardworking as well insightful throughout the course of our assignment. He is a very
good listener but can benefit from being a little more assertive.

Neha- She has displayed great leadership skills right from the start. She always puts her
team before anyone and else and will always be there for all of no matter what and thus
makes her team feel very secure. She can be both kind as well as provide the tough love
that we all need, especially during the implementation stage of this assignment. However,
she could benefit from being a little less hyper and more responsive.
2. What were the changes if at all, that you observed in others, and experienced yourself. In
the pre and post project phase in the following areas: (Describe your individual pre-post
growth and offer feedback to other members on the observations you made about their
attributes in the pre and post phase).

a. Display of Emotional Intelligence, especially empathy

b. Risk Taking ability
c. Trust between you and the recipients/ subjects of your assignment
d. Collaboration
e. Humility and respect displayed by self and others
Pre-Assignment Phase -
Avantika- She was sensitive to all the other group members’ ideas and thoughts in the pre
assignment phase and less of a risk taker as she’s used to playing it safe. She not only displayed a
high level of trust in the team members but also believed in a collaborative effort. However, she
at times was more arrogant rather than humble.
Vibhor- He was respectful to all the other members and even took their opinions into
consideration. He demonstrated a high appetite for risk taking and let things work themselves out
too. He was confident yet humble.
Bhavya- He was passionate about the project right from the start and even respected everyone’s
opinions. He was inclusive on the whole and never let the other members feel alienated. He was
trusting as well as believed in taking risks to be able to get more effective results.
Rahul- He was respectful and humble right from the start. He always listened to the others’
opinions without questioning it much and even trusted that whatever decisions we would take
would be the right one. He even provided moral support throughout the process.
Neha- She was confident right from the start. She was not only in the favor of taking risks but
also was open to trying alternate ideas as suggested by the other team members, and thus was
humble throughout too. She also respected these different decisions as pointed out by the others.
Omkar- He was contributing significantly to this assignment, right from the start and was even
collaborative with the others. He was respectful as well trusting and always made him team
members feel included too. He was humble throughout this process.
Post Assignment Phase -
Avantika- This assignment brought about a change in her risk-taking abilities; She became open
to being more experimental and less rigid and it was even felt that she was respecting team
members and their efforts more than before.
Vibhor- Post the assignment, he became more understanding towards his team members and
even respected the process more as it required much more than just a regular task and thus even
his humility level also saw a rise.
Bhavya- Post the assignment, he started believing in his members much more than before as he
observed a high level of collaboration amongst them and thus came out as even more trusting
which in turn made him humbler.
Rahul- Post the assignment, he seemed more confident as he provided us a lot of interesting
ideas which we even implemented and this made him feel more self-assured too. His humility
level however did not waver.
Neha- She valued her team members more after the assignment, as she saw them work
conscientiously at their respective tasks and this made her even more humble. She even trusted
them more and even became more sensitive to them as she realized how valuable they were.
Omkar- Post the assignment, he respected his team members even more as they all stuck to their
tasks till, they were not successfully completed. This also made him humbler and he ended up
being even more trusting.

3. Describe the impact of your leadership interaction on the recipients/ subjects or your
project through the lens of the following context

a. The benefit of your work: How has your leadership intervention impacted their life in a
positive manner?
b. How can the benefit be assessed - what would be a fair metric to assess impact?
c. What feedback did the recipients have about your intervention, your leadership style and
the relationship you were able to cultivate with them?

3a: The benefit of our Juhu beach clean-up drive was immense. Through our leadership we have
guided people to the benefit and advantages of having a clean beach in our vicinity. This will
help the local residents to have a good exercise, access to healthy sea food, learn the right
method to dispose of waste, help the local economy due to increased number of tourists and
preserve our natural resources to name a few.
Our major focus was to educate the shopkeepers as well as local residents about the increasing
necessity to segregate waste into plastic waste, natural waste and electronic waste. This
segregation we made them understand was to be made at their home itself. We gave them an
example that sea turtles often confuse plastic to be jelly-fish, which they eat and die. This is
really harming our marine life. They could easily relate to such daily and small examples and
were convinced that segregating waste will crop the problem right at the root, rather than letting
environmental hazards to come to ocean and then go to clean it. Thus, the subjects of our project
were positively impacted and promised to change for the good.
3b: The benefits can be assessed on a monthly basis with shopkeepers as well as local residents
to understand how they are implementing the segregation of tasks after explaining them the
harmful effects. This mixed waste concept should be avoided and its direct affect will be seen on
the beaches. The recipient willingly gave their mobile numbers to help us track their waste
segregation pattern as well voluntarily took initiative to spread this message in their societies.
This created a chain of events which could be easily assessed due to ecosystem sensitive
recipients.
3c: The recipients had a very positive feedback about our intervention and in fact thanked us for
providing such a valuable insight. We had used the Coaching style of leadership wherein we as
well the recipients were aware of the harmful effects but required just the right kind of guidance
to implement these simple steps. They were impressed by the insights we provided and real-life
examples we gave. The Segregation of waste part we gave was very helpful. The relationship we
created with them was of more of a friendship wherein they were impressed by the ecological
awareness we had at such a young age. They shared their concerns also and agreed that more
such initiatives should be undertaken on a regular basis.

4. Which networks did you have to activate for greater collaboration and impact during
your project execution? How did you develop those relationships? Did you experience
political clouts and the display of power in different circles?
With reference to our strategy for execution, since our approach was centered more on reaching
out to those at the foundation, ground level, we did not require any significant source or network.
The network would have been necessary at a higher; policy framing or legislative authority level,
but since that was not the trajectory that we had decided upon, we did not face any major
political clouts or display of power. We were approaching people who worked on the ground
level and even though there was no influence involved in reaching out to them, we did have to
concentrate on establishing a conversational rather than a preachy vibe so as to be able to reach
out to them effectively and get through to them without having to display any kind of force or
sense of compulsion. Reaching out to those who are not as well educated or well-read as others is
often more challenging than not, as the most rational choice or alternative may not always seem
like the best alternative to them and thus making them understand the importance of any issue, in
this case cleanliness and the severity in the lack thereof, in a manner that would genuinely
resonate with them was challenging. Another aspect which did bring about a challenge for us
was that of the retail vendors that we approached in and around Juhu Beach, who had formed
somewhat of this cohesive group and thus creating a need to be able to get through all the parties
involved; thus reducing the overall impact of even getting through to several of them, as they all
worked in cohesion and not in isolation and thus any change in functioning, if not replicated by
most or all of the vendors involved, wouldn’t yield the desired results, and thus calling for a
more comprehensive plan. Thus, a combination of the right plan as well as establishing positive
relationships with the goal deeply embedded at every stage was the key to being able to get
through to them at that stage.
5. How do you see yourself and your group members continuing to impact the subjects of
your project?
We have undertaken this project in order to understand the root cause of the issue of clines and to
implement the strategies in the long term. Hence, we propose to change the lives of the residents,
vendors, tourist and even marine life in the long run.
We plan to do a monthly beach clean drive. However, it does not provide a long-term solution so
for those reasons we have two action plans. First, asked the residents about their problems and
their suggestions. Secondly, tourists who come to enjoy the beach also eat at the local vendor at
the beach side. This is the major cause for beach being in such a stage. So, we asked the vendors
what can be done about the same and how efficient waste management system come up.
They provided us some suggestion which would help in long run sustainability of the beach.
These are as follows:
1. Residents suggested that tourists are the main cause for littering and main garbage being
the plastic bags and bottles among others that are the most detrimental for the beach and
marine life. To curb this, we need strict anti-littering policies. Strict fines and effective
imposition of those fines would help curb the problem. For this respect we plan to visit
the local authorities and police station and work out a plan with them. Also, in the future
we can, along with beach clean drive educate the tourists and stop them from littering.

2. We saw, there are acute shortage of waste bins along the beach, tourists do not find a
waste bin, so they end up disposing the garbage on the beach. We would plan to visit the
municipality authority in the region and request them to provide some more bins along
the beach.

3. We observed that plastic is the major item being littered. We suggest the sales of plastic
PET bottles, and other food items in plastic wrappers to be discontinued. This can again
only be done by the authorities which we plan to visit.
Beach Clean Drive

Before After
Meet the local crowd strolling along the beach, take surveys regarding views of main cause
of beach destruction and what can be done

Visit vendors- talk about waste collection and disposal