Legislative Department Begins Leadership Interaction Series

The Legislative Department of the Ministry of Law and Justice has started an Interaction Series for its own staff. The idea is to give senior officers a platform on which to pass on their experience, professional judgement and views about leadership, administration and personal effectiveness to the officers and officials who work with them.

The first session

The opening session of the series took place on 5 November 2026 at the legislative training auditorium in Kartavya Bhavan 2, New Delhi. It was chaired by Dr. Manoj Kumar, Additional Secretary in the Legislative Department. The talk was delivered by Smt. Akali V. Konghay, also an Additional Secretary in the department, who spoke on the theme Improving Values and Personal Effectiveness in Leadership and drew on her own career for illustration. More than 80 officers and officials of the department attended.

What the talk argued

Smt. Konghay held that leadership is not tied to a post or a formal designation. It shows instead in the capacity of any individual to sway others through conduct, values and action. Leadership, she said, starts with a change in oneself, and then asks for vision, a sense of purpose, clear communication, accountability, teamwork and a willingness to build up the people around one. At its root, she argued, leadership is an act of service rather than an exercise of authority.

The Five Cs of Purposeful Leadership

The session introduced a framework she called the Five Cs of Purposeful Leadership.

• Consistency — practising integrity, humility, honesty, compassion and accountability as a matter of habit
• Culture — building an organisational climate that is positive and inspiring
• Contribution — recognising one’s own gifts, passions, talents and resources and putting them to meaningful use
• Community — carrying a sense of responsibility towards the wider society
• Curiosity — staying open to feedback and committed to learning without end

Effectiveness beyond efficiency

Personal effectiveness, the speaker said, means more than finishing tasks quickly: it means becoming a person whose presence tells in the lives of others. She asked those present to look honestly at their own conduct, at the effect they have on colleagues and at what they return to society. The real measure of leadership, in her reading, lies in the positive difference a person makes to other lives and in the ability to inspire and prepare the leaders who come next.

A continuing initiative

The department has planned the Interaction Series as a standing arrangement rather than a single event. Its purpose is to spread knowledge within the department, encourage conversation that goes somewhere, and let officers and officials exchange experience and the practices that have worked. The first session gave participants room to think about ethical values, purposeful leadership, personal growth and shared responsibility in both working and private life.