Gandhinagar: What would you do to boost the morale of your team when your project hits a wall? How will you make a decision when faced with two conflicting situations? How can you lead your organisation to the next level with innovation and limited resources? These are a few of the dilemmas faced by professionals in leadership positions.

A new book penned by Prof Rajeev Sharma, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN), answers these and more questions to groom and guide engineering leaders. The book, titled “Leadership Transition for Engineers”, was unveiled by Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IITGN, along with the author of the book Prof Rajeev Sharma, and Prof Vikrant Jain, HoD, HSS-IITGN, on February 9, 2024.

Prof Rajeev Sharma dons multiple hats and transitioned from a seasoned banker to a management consultant, coach, mentor, academician, and author. His case study on the Turnaround of Canara Bank, where he superannuated as the Chief General Manager, was also published in the Harvard Business Review (HBR). In the last ten years, he has built Leadership Development Programmes for the top management and senior managers of public & private sector banks, foreign banks, corporates and Fortune 500 enterprises, and women leaders.

This is his third book, and it attempts to guide engineering leaders on how to navigate and accelerate comfortably through career transitions based on his own leadership experiences and studies. It provides the insights, tools, strategies and advice engineers need to succeed and keep moving in their career journey through a series of chapters like Seeing the Big Picture, Mastering Relationships, Communicating Effectively, Getting Things Done, Using Assets Wisely, Taking Organisation to the Next Level, and so on. It will be a differentiating resource for aspiring engineering students, mid-career engineering leaders, and CEOs of startups and unicorns, helping them to make a positive impact in their field.

Speaking about his motivation to write the book, Prof Rajeev Sharma said, “Even though there are a lot of books on leadership, I realised that there are virtually no books to guide engineering students on their leadership journey. Hence, I decided to write this book while teaching a course on Strategic Leadership at IITGN, which will also serve as a guidebook for grooming future leaders.” The book is available for sale at Amazon and Flipkart.

The event ended with a Q&A session between students and Prof Rajeev Sharma. The book is available on Amazon and Flipkart.