Leaders take risks

My Chief Operations Officer (COO) walked in to my office one day and said, "We have a situation. There seems to be a systematic credit card fraud possibly happening with small amounts being drawn daily. We are not sure yet and need to investigate. However, we need to stop possible losses and so need to stop certain types of transactions with immediate effect."  Sounds familiar to you? As a Leader you are in a situation where you need to take a decision but do not have all the information to do that. You could take a decision that could adversely impact business and guess what, it could be a wrong decision. 

This is what leaders face everyday. They need to decide without all information or data on hand. This is a risk. Not taking a decision is, in itself, a decision and, therefore, does not reduce the risk.

Many a time, we take decisions that go wrong. We end up facing the consequences and over years we start becoming risk averse. While organizations keep telling us that a vital ingredient of leadership is the ability to take risks, there is very little tolerance for errors in judgement. So, leaders become risk averse over time and some even reach a stage where they just don't take risks. This puts them, the organization and the employees at a greater risk because normal decisions that should have been taken, just don't get taken.

The previous Indian Government is a classic example. Stung by criticisms and asks for resignation due to so many scams that erupted, the government machinery just came to a grinding halt. During the last 3 years, absolutely no decision was taken. The ruling party got hit so badly that as they started campaigning during election time, we saw the same defensiveness and inability to take even calculated risks. The result was that they lost very badly.

I was staring at the new contract that we had signed up for a back office operation. It was a marquee account but if we didn't change our operating model, we were not going to make money out of it. I had called for a meeting of key leaders and we looked at the contract and worked on different options. What came out clearly was that we had to look at a totally different operating model for this account. A model that we had not tried before and were not sure will deliver what we wanted. Given the unknowns, we were also worried whether the quality of service delivery will be as good as what it was. So, the risk was one of damaging a great reputation that we had built over the years. As I thought through the pros and cons, it became increasingly evident that if we ever needed to make a profit out of this contract, we needed to change the model and we could take a calculated risk. So, I spoke to my operations manager, HR and my immediate manager. I told them that I was willing to go ahead with adopting a new model given that was the best for the organization at that point in time. I pushed on and we went through with changing our operating model. It became a huge success and became the model for some of our other contracts too. It was not an easy decision and making it happen also was not easy. However, with team work, we managed to pull through successfully with the model.

Sometimes, our decisions go well and sometimes they just backfire. If we are able to get 80% of our decisions right and limit the damage on the other 20%, we come through as successful leaders. No leader has reached a position of leadership and stayed there without taking risks. It is how the leader continues to take those risks and take decisions in the best interest of the organization that matters. Most importantly, leaders must be able to live down their errors of judgement and move on. If they are stuck at a wrong decision, life comes to a standstill and does not do good to anyone, especially, the leader.

So, let us be that leader that takes risks understanding fully well that there are consequences to wrong decisions. Not taking a decision is also a decision and carries with it far more risks!!!

Aham Brahmaasmi - The Creator is the Destroyer

A blog that I published earlier on Linked In

The manager spoke and the team listened with rapt attention. She was a fantastic orator. She conveyed what she had to in few words and most of the time it hit home. They all knew that the organization held her in high esteem as they did too.

It was late evening but he was still at work. His manager had told him to stay back as she wanted to meet him after her team meeting. He knew it would be late in the evening before she came back from the meeting. But, something in her voice made him realize that it would be a career limiting move if he asked to re-schedule the meeting. So, he waited patiently.

He had started his career with the company twenty two years ago. He had enjoyed his stint here till this new manager came in to his life a year back. Over the years he had learnt to navigate the company well, survive the various changes and manage to turn in a decent performance year after year. His teams had liked his approach to work. He was an expert in his field. There was none within his organization who knew the job as well as he did.

This expertise was gained over years of reading and working in the field. He knew very little else apart from this field. He liked the work and the field of expertise. However, very few companies needed a skill like what he had. So, to a large extent he had limited career choices. Given that, he had carefully avoided passing on all knowledge to his team members. He had set up the team in a way where no single person would get the entire knowledge. He did not rotate roles in a hurry. So, many people had quietly moved on from their roles and did not want to work in the team.

This new manager of his had latched on to this. She was pushing him to cross train his team. She was pushing him to create few successors. The opening of the door brought him back from his thoughts as she walked in. She quickly greeted him, sat down and took few gulps of water. She was looking a bit tired but quickly got in to the groove. “What’s happened to our previous discussion? I had asked you to create few successors.” He responded stating that he was doing so but given the complexity of the job, the technical nature of the role and the relative inexperience of his team, it would take some more time. “How much more time?” she asked. He hesitatingly said that it would take few years. She lost it and screamed, “Do you know that you have now become a blocker for your team members? Top talent do not want to work for you because they do not see a career path. You have not grown for years now and seem to be contented with it. This has become a problem for the organization. I will give you six more months and if I don’t see a successor I have decided to bite the bullet and replace you.”

Many a time we create situations like this in our lives. Knowingly or unknowingly, we become blockers in the organization. We don’t re-skill ourselves so that we can stay relevant. We refuse to see the shifting sands. As a good leader or manager, your job is to de-risk the organization and ensure that you stay relevant.

He felt as if the earth under him was moving. He just could not imagine a life where he did not have a job. He needed a job to keep the kitchen fires burning. He was in a state of panic. Coming from a manager who had the support of the senior leaders in the organization, he knew that he didn’t stand much of a chance trying to argue. He looked at her once again and she looked like an angry Indian Goddess with various arms and with a weapon in each one. She was ready to kill. She could determine his life. His survival strategy by not creating his successor and specializing in only one area (at the cost of the organization) was working against him now. Suddenly, she had become the creator “Brahma” and as she continued speaking all he heard was, “Aham Brahmaasmi” (Translated as I am the Brahman or I am God - The Creator is also the Destroyer – The God who determines your life).

A Positive Attitude is all that you need….

He jet set the world working for the Government and bringing about changes to the country during the 1960s. He then moved to the corporate sector and did the same during the 1970s till the 1990s. He was one of the busiest and active persons that I had met in my life. By early 2000s his wife was diagnosed with dementia and she started forgetting incidents and people in her life. He stopped everything and was fully focused on his wife. As age caught up, he was not able to drive around in the Indian Traffic and so decided to move to an old age home in the outskirts of another city. The new place had a nice house he could stay in with his wife and a caretaker. The Old Age Home had catering facilities and medical facilities. All these were needed for him so that he could focus his time on his wife. He is in his late 80s and married for 60+ years. His wife is close to 80 years.

I visited him few months back. I expected that I would see someone a bit depressed given his illustrious past. Out came a “young man” dressed in a colourful t-shirt and shorts and carrying a tablet phone. He wished me and was actually in great cheer. He told me how happy he was to see my wife and me. He then took me to see his wife. She was bed ridden. He would sit by her most of the day. As we got talking, he asked how everyone was at home and he remembered everyone by name.

Then I got to know how he spent his day. He had a detailed diary of what he wanted to get achieved for the day and how he went about it. It was completely focused on what he wanted to get done for his wife. He talked of how he had tried to make her walk. He would go one day at a time. For example, today would be for her to take 5 steps forward. He would encourage her to take that step and go for those 5 steps – step by step. And he had written that down. Every aspect of what he did was documented – her weight, blood pressure, pulse, etc. In short, he was totally immersed in her progress and was actively participating in it.

I did not see a bit of fatigue in him. When I asked why, he said, “Why would I feel tired when I do something that I love and for someone who I love so much?” This love had created a positive attitude in him. That kept him going and with such a cheer that I had not seen or experienced in my life.

Many a time we wonder why are we doing whatever we are doing? Our jobs do not satisfy us. The environment is not what we want. We have differences of opinion with our boss and wonder who made her/him a boss in the first place!!!! All this is a manifestation of how we are reacting to a given situation. We are happy or sad not because a situation has made us happy or sad but because we have decided to take it that way. If we decide to have a positive attitude, then, any situation can be handled. We need to have that confidence in ourselves. We don’t need to search for happiness outside…it is very much inside each one of us and depends completely on the positive attitude that we have towards life. Happiness is a choice!!!