Leadership remains one of the most researched topics, but scientific mechanisms behind the phenomenon are not yet known completely. Leadership competency is considered as a trait of a leader than a process in the organizational context. The purpose of this research was to explore the impact of integrated yoga module on leadership competencies as given in Indian transformational leadership (ITL) and propose a model for the leadership phenomenon. We conducted a randomized control trial study on a total of 126 managers with 90 days of intervention (integrated yoga module (yoga group) (n = 63) and physical exercise (PhyEx group) (n = 63) participants). Experiments revealed that leadership competencies were affected by both integrated yoga module and physical exercise significantly (p < 0.001). RM ANOVA results showed that yoga group showed high effect of size than physical exercise and had a consistent significant effect over repeated measures. The integrated yoga module was found to have a consistent positive impact on most of the leadership competencies with emotional and cognitive domains requiring willpower and self control, while physical exercise had a positive impact only on emotional domains of leadership competencies.

1. Avolio, B. J., Walumbwa, F. O., & Weber, T. J. (2009). Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology, 60 (1), 421 - 449.
2. Bass, B. M., & Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 10 (2), 181-217.
3. Battilana, J., Gilmartin, M., Sengul, M., Pache, A. C., & Alexander, J. A. (2010). Leadership competencies for implementing planned organizational change. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 422- 438.
4. Begley, P. T. (2006). Self-knowledge, capacity and sensitivity: Prerequisites to authentic leadership by school principals. Journal of Educational Administration, 44 (6), 570 - 589.
5. Branson, C. M. (2007). Improving leadership by nurturing moral consciousness through structured self-reflection. Journal of Educational Administration, 45 (4), 471- 495.
6. Bruch, H., & Ghoshal, S. (2004). A bias for action: How effective managers harness their willpower, achieve results, and stop wasting time. Brighton, MA: Harvard Business Press.
7. Bruno, L. F. C., & Lay, E. G. E. (2008). Personal values and leadership effectiveness. Journal of Business Research, 61(6), 678 - 683.
8. Burns, J. M. (1998). Transactional and transforming leadership. Leading Organizations, 5 (3), 133-134.
9. Capra, F. (1996). The web of life: A new scientific understanding of living systems. New York, NY: Anchor Books.
10. Chadha, N., Jain, G., & Krishnan, V. R. (2013). The effect of optimism and belief in the law of karma on transformational leadership. International Journal on Vedic Foundations of Management, 1(1), 51- 66.
11. Chakraborty, S. K. (1995). Wisdom leadership: Leading self by the SELF. Journal of Human Values, 1 (2), 205 - 220.
12. Clarke, N. (2013). Model of complexity leadership development. Human Resource Development International, 16 (2), 135-150.
13. Colbert, A. E., & Witt, L. A. (2009). The role of goal-focused leadership in enabling the expression of conscientiousness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94 (3), 790 - 796.
14. Doci, E., & Hofmans, J. (2015). Task complexity and transformational leadership: The mediating role of leaders’ state core self-evaluations. Leadership Quarterly, 26 (3), 436 - 447.
15. Douglas, B. (1979). Rank, power, authority: A reassessment of traditional leadership in South Pacific societies. The Journal of Pacific History, 14 (1), 2 - 27.
16. Dwivedi, U., Kumari, S., Akhilesh, K. B., & Nagendra, H. R. (2015). Effect of yoga practices in reducing aggression and counterproductive work behavior: A randomized controlled trial. Prabandhan: Indian Journal of Management, 8 (10), 21 - 31. DOI: 10.17010/pijom/2015/v8i10/79822
17. Eberly, M. B., Johnson, M. D., Hernandez, M., & Avolio, B. J. (2013). An integrative process model of leadership: Examining loci, mechanisms, and event cycles. American Psychologist, 68 (6), 427- 443.
18. Gailliot, M. T., Baumeister, R. F., DeWall, C. N., Maner, J. K., Plant, E. A., Tice, D. M., ... & Schmeichel, B. J. (2007). Self-control relies on glucose as a limited energy source: Willpower is more than a metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92 (2), 325 - 336.
19. Ganpat, T. S., & Nagendra, H. R. (2011). Integrated yoga therapy for improving mental health in managers. Industrial Psychiatry Journal, 20 (1), 45 - 48.
20. Gardner, W. L., Avolio, B. J., Luthans, F., May, D. R., & Walumbwa, F. (2005). “Can you see the real me?” A self-based model of authentic leader and follower development. The Leadership Quarterly, 16 (3), 343 - 372.
21. Gentry, W. A., & Sparks, T. E. (2012). A convergence/divergence perspective of leadership competencies managers believe are most important for success in organizations: A cross- cultural multilevel analysis of 40 countries. Journal of Business and Psychology, 27 (1), 15 - 30.
22. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2001). Primal leadership. Harvard Business Review, 79 (11), 42 - 51.
23. Gordon, G., Gilley, A., Avery, S., Gilley, J. W., & Barber, A. (2014). Employee perceptions of the manager behaviors that create follower-leader trust. Management and Organizational Studies, 1(2), 44 - 58.
24. Harung, H.S., Heato, D.P. and Alexander, C.N. (1995). A unified theory of leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 16 (7), 44 - 59.
25. Hollenbeck, G. P., McCall, M. W., & Silzer, R. F. (2006). Leadership competency models. The Leadership Quarterly, 17(4), 398 - 413.
26. Howard, A. (1963). Conservatism and non-traditional leadership in Rotuma. The Journal of the Polynesian Society, 72 (2), 65 - 77.
27. Inzlicht, M., McGregor, I., Hirsh, J. B., & Nash, K. (2009). Neural markers of religious conviction. Psychological Science, 20 (3), 385 - 392.
28. Jung, D. I., & Avolio, B. J. (1999). Effects of leadership style and followers' cultural orientation on performance in group and individual task conditions. Academy of Management Journal, 42 (2), 208 - 218.
29. Karp, T. (2015). Is willpower important in acts of leadership? Leadership, 11(1), 20 - 35.
30. Klenke, K. (2007). Authentic leadership: A self, leader, and spiritual identity perspective. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 3 (1), 68 - 97.
31. Kugelmann, R. (2015). Will - training between religion and psychology in the early twentieth century. International Psychology, Practice and Research, 4. Retrieved from <a href=http://fiuc.org/en/piper/fourth_trimester_2014/willtraining_between_religion_and_psychology_in_the_early_twentieth_century target="_blank">http://fiuc.org/en/piper/fourth_trimester_2014/willtraining_between_religion_and_psychology_in_the_early_twentieth_century</a>
32. Kumari, S., Hankey, A., & Nagendra, H. R. (2013). Effect of SMET on emotional dynamics of managers. Voice of Research, 2 (1), 49 - 52.
33. Leavy, B. (2003). Understanding the triad of great leadership-context, conviction and credibility. Strategy & Leadership, 31(1), 56 - 60.
34. Lichtenstein, B. B., Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., Seers, A., Orton, J. D., & Schreiber, C. (2006). Complexity leadership theory: An interactive perspective on leading in complex adaptive systems. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 8 (4), 2-12.
35. Marion, R., & Bacon, J. (1999). Organizational extinction and complex systems. Emergence, 1 (4), 71-96.
36. McLeod, A. I. (2012). Self-coaching leadership: Simple steps from manager to leader. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
37. Michael, O. B., & ACP, P. (2013). Willpower – The essential project leadership discipline. PM World Journal, 2 (7), 1-14.
38. Miller, E. M., Walton, G. M., Dweck, C. S., Job, V., Trzesniewski, K. H., & McClure, S. M. (2012). Theories of willpower affect sustained learning. PloS One, 7 (6), e38680.
39. Mohler, A. (2012). The conviction to lead: 25 principles for leadership that matters. Ada, MI: Baker Books.
40. Moss, S. A., & Ritossa, D. A. (2007). The impact of goal orientation on the association between leadership style and follower performance, creativity and work attitudes. Leadership, 3 (4), 433 - 456.
41. Muller, R., & Turner, R. (2010). Leadership competency profiles of successful project managers. International Journal of Project Management, 28 (5), 437 - 448.
42. Nagendra, H. R., & Nagarathna, R. (2004). Promotion of positive health (Revised edition). Bangalore, India: Swami Vivekananda Yoga Prakashana.
43. Newell, W. R. (2009). The soul of a leader: Character, conviction, and ten lessons in political greatness. New York City, NY: Harper Collins.
44. Osborn, R. (2008). Complexity leadership: Conceptual foundations. Academy of Management Review, 33 (4), 1013-1015.
45. Pipe, T. B., & Bortz, J. J. (2009). Mindful leadership as healing practice: Nurturing self to serve others. International Journal for Human Caring, 13 (2), 35 - 40.
46. Reddy, C. M., & Srinivasan, V. (2015). Dialogue on leadership development. IIMB Management Review, 27(1), 44 - 55.
47. Singh, N., & Krishnan, V. R. (2007). Transformational leadership in India developing and validating a new scale using grounded theory approach. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 7 (2), 219 - 236.
48. Surie, G., & Hazy, J. K. (2006). Generative leadership: Nurturing innovation in complex systems. Emergence : Complexity and Organization (E :CO), 8 (4), 13 - 26.
49. Uhl-Bien, M., & Marion, R. (2009). Complexity leadership in bureaucratic forms of organizing: A Meso model. Leadership Quarterly, 20 (4), 631 - 650.
50. Uhl-Bien, M., Marion, R., & McKelvey, B. (2007). Complexity leadership theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge era. Leadership Quarterly, 18 (4), 298 - 318.
51. Vivekananda, S. (2014). Jnana yoga: The yoga of knowledge. Kolkata, India: Advaita Ashrama.
52. Vivekananda, S. (2015a). Bhakti Yoga: The yoga of love and devotion. Kolkata, India: Advaita Ashrama.
53. Vivekananda, S. (2015b). Karma yoga: The yoga of action. Kolkata, India: Advaita Ashrama.
54. Vivekananda, S. (2016). Raja yoga: Conquering the internal nature. Kolkata, India: Advaita Ashrama.
55. Wheatley, M. (2011). Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world (Third Edition). Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
56. Zaccaro, S. J. (2001). The nature of executive leadership: A conceptual and empirical analysis of success. Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.