Kejriwalis is a disease...and it is spreading in Corporate India.

If you are a working Indian in the corporate sector, then you have met someone suffering from Kejriwalis. This condition is not as rare as one may think it is. Arvind Kejriwal is the world icon of the potpourri of messes, but the fact is, he is not the only one. There are dime a dozen who suffer from the same illness of the mind and darkness of soul but are not covered by media because they don't work in the area of politics...they show up in Corporate India instead. ?Peculiarity of Kejriwalis are as follows:

1) Will be highly educated and have convinced themselves humane qualities, behavioural qualities are not as important as score and tags.

2) They wave their qualification flag in your face thinking this is good enough to shut up logic and other's right to think...an utter disgrace to their alma mater but show no guilt nor remorse for being such a bad role model

3) They assume having got a seat in a prestigious college and being alumini means they are from Krypton and thus the only real Superman 

4) Have a desire to fly high - highly ambitious regardless of the cost

5) They show might by challenging all and sundry however ill prepared, inexperienced or under informed they themselves may be

6) To smash for effect is how debates and arguments will proceed. 

7) Ridiculing others, accusing randomly, being baseless yet ?generally creating noise is their passionate embrace

8) Objection is their middle name. And it is almost likely that objection is all they know. Following the norms of a) state the opposite of what ever is being said or done, to be a formidable opposition b) question decisions 3) demand proof for proof 4) derail, so you can feel powerful. Power to do things is positive power and to stall things is also power, albeit often used negatively. So when you can't do - at least stall. If there was a picture book with dictionary...they would be the spoke in the wheel

9) Argument for arguments sake and noise to keep the arch lights focused on them is their strategy to be in the tabloids or stay in current news.

10) Arrogance is showed by defiance and most of that comes from the idea "I gave an entrance test at a premier university and cleared it, Damn it! I lasted there 4 years and have a convocation to prove my IQ. Do you? Those who don't, are lesser mortals so make way for my greatness. This IQ proven by tests and exams, equals the total aggregate of the nations / company's IQ - so shut up and keep your small pea sized brains out of the way of a great mind approved and testified by XYZ university "

I have met those suffering from KEJRIWALS at work. Seen few leaders, some peers and even had a reportee practically dying of this. Many of the kind came from PREMIER institutions. Please note: NOT all but some from premium universities suffer from Kejriwalis. And the some that show Kejriwalis are so outright nasty; they leave a bitter taste long enough to last a lifetime. They come to work with a chip on their shoulder, feeling above the other employees. Sense of entitlement is obvious and very high. Ego is filled to the brim, thrusting hair follicles out. Despite their young age often, the place they demand at the work table is like the Chairman's! It's almost like someone gave them a sermon when they entered premier institutions "Now your career is made. Now on you are better, wiser and higher than others. You have been initiated into a cult and success will be yours thus. We are the Illuminati of the working class. Satan's servants who will rise in his blessings. Crush the others, feel no guilt, man is disposable - you are not ". 

That explains why they work with ruthless abandon, ignoring need to be in conformance to norms, hierarchy or position. As a LEADERSHIP Development expert the notoriety demonstrated by some employees from the top 33 percentile of top universities was such a huge burden to bear, that I insisted we change gear and either hire the more humble among them from bottom percentile, or start an interview process that evaluated ONLY VALUES or just simply dump premier institutions and get talent from smaller, less egoistic campuses. I was right...smaller institutions brought talent with hunger, need and gratitude. The two things often found missing in products from the best is just this - Humility and Gratitude. Again I repeat not all from the top universities suffer from Kejriwalis but a good number demonstrate the disease ; enough to call it a consuming condition - NOT to be ignored. 

Some of them come very young, in feeble frames but equally potent as Arvind KEJRIWAL; with the same degree of ?obnoxious snap. Charging, kick starting unnecessary debate, throwing illogical answers, meandering argument, tangent thinking that has nothing to do with current subject / goal, making demands to traverse through routes NOT on the agreed map of strategy are salient features. Overall a precocious energy; that a smart person can sense is wasteful and detrimental. Culture and systems prevent us from putting them in their place when they become nuisance but they take such decency to be fear and incompetence.

Quiet leadership is the way of the future. Bombastic leadership is passé. Now try telling these helium filled heads that and they will argue leadership is a figment of imagination experienced by societal structure; a new argument to detract you from giving them plain vanilla feedback. That's another thing Kejriwalis does to them - they won't be able to absorb frank feedback. Denial is survival. So frankly there is nothing one can do about them. It is a disease created by the lack of grooming in spirit and soul essence. Character should be a subject of equal placement when mind is being fed so much. Very easy for a genius to end up as a genius who is a social outcast. This I think is the biggest gap and growing horror story of India's talent landscape. 

We have created the Corporate Bhramins. Universities of preference and high regard become the centres producing the workplace Bhramins . The products that step out, confirming workplace casteism is very much alive. Companies that hire stating the names of institutions they will hire from are the loudest Corporate Bhramin houses. Values and behavioural strengths...., when that is missing there is no use of such intelligence. Kejriwalis try hard to find ground but in time, orgs can't stand them, people despise them and eventually they leave to do things on their own, not because they wanted to but because they couldn't fit in. 

Campuses and universities should study Arvind Kejriwal, not because he is the one that made it to front page, but because there are thousands like him they produced and let out freely, who we end up dealing with at the workplace. So in the view of saving brand name, contributing to society and nation, their curriculum needs a big shift. Bring in veritable subjects on execution essentials, influence levers, presentation of ideas and self norms, plinth of building relationships and more that chisels the being, than just the mind. Behavioural economics and Values inventory are a MUST in such universities. Having started my own practice now, I teach the subject of The Values Vehicle to university students. Am seeing a shift in how it makes a huge difference when you inject in before their ego grows to take over. My book " I GUTCHING " which will be published in 2017, covers this very subject of how the vehicle of learning and Leadership is incomplete without it's value wheels. 

Kejriwalis is not a myth, it is a reality which need to be nipped in the bud.