Leadership - Making a Positive Difference

There are many leaders who think they are different and indeed they are. Many of them do things differently.  Some of them do different things.  A true leader tries his best to make a positive difference in the lives of people who are around him/her and to those in his/her teams. There will be success sometimes and at times things will not work out exactly the way he/she wanted.  But, definitely, he/she would have tried his/her best.

I remember a story of a farmer who had bought a large corn field measuring hundreds of acres.  He had a problem. His field was filled with insects and so the yield was low.  He was rich and so he got in an aircraft to spray the field.  He quickly realised that while he could get rid of insects in his field, more insects were coming in from the neighbouring fields.  His neighbours were poor and could not afford this aerial spraying. So, they were struggling.  He quickly assessed the situation and decided to spray their fields too.  He did this for 3 years and during the 4th year, his neighbours came up to him and said that they he did not have to spray their fields as they could afford to do it themselves.  The farmer had made a huge difference to his neighbours. By helping them out of poverty, he had improved the yield in his fields significantly.

Every time we make a difference to some one in our lives, we end up enriching ourselves through the experience.  These experiences make us a true leader and these are the experiences that I call as "life experiences".

The recent uprising against corruption in India is an excellent example.  A leader, Anna Hazare, was supported by millions of people across India and because of that he forced the Government of the day to accept his demand to pass an Anti-Corruption Bill in the Parliament this year.  He started a fast unto death and little would he have realised that the support would be so overwhelming.  When it came, it consumed the country, the media and everything around it.  People realised that Anna Hazare was trying to make a positive difference for them and their future generations.  The support was immediate and immense.

The positive difference that a leader tries to bring about is something that the people he leads should not only see but also experience.  Unless they feel the difference, they will not accept the person as a leader.  I remember a very old Tamil Song in which the great leader MG Ramachandran sings (and I am translating this in to English), "The path that you visioned will vapourise as dreams, the words that you said will be forgotten.  Only the truth that people see and experience about you will live forever...."  So true.

Can you and I be an Anna Hazare and make a difference to millions?  It is necessary to make a true difference to just one more person in your lives.  If each of us can do that, we are leaders.  Try it, experience it and you will definitely understand what it is to make that difference to someone in their lives.  You will also see that Leadership has as much, if not more, of the heart than of the brain.

As I watched the two bees happily buzz by in my garden from one flower to another, I smiled and thought, "I am making a difference to these bees by having a lovely garden at home with so many flowers.  Does this too count in making that difference?"  The only answer that came to me was a resounding YES!!! 

Lessons from the Cricket World Cup Finals

It was great to see India win the Cricket World Cup 2011...after 28 years!!!  I really liked the match as it was very keenly competed and the game was played in its spirit.  Sri Lanka lost the match but the Sri Lankans won the hearts of millions because of their never say die attitude.

Personally, after watching the match and also hearing the comments from the young players, I culled out few lessons that will suit the Corporate World.  The comments I heard from Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli, "We played this match for Sachin and the Country", was an amazing learning.  Once there was an objective to win this game for the country and for someone who has played for this country for 21 years and was playing what could probably be his last World Cup Tournament, the whole team rallied around this objective.  So, a clear objective and one that is well articulated and understood can get a team to focus and go beyond the calling.  However, an objective alone is not enough. There must be a reason for each player to rally around that objective. There was pride here.  There was love for a team mate and the country.  All these made a huge difference.

The Captain, MS Dhoni, led from the front.  He played an innings that will be remembered in history as one of the best because it was under the most trying of circumstances.  With the top two batsmen gone when the score was 31, he watched two young players stabilise the innings. When one of them got out, he promoted himself in the batting order to come to the field. This would have been one of the most complex calls to take as the stakes were very high.  There were at least 2 other better batsmen but he decided that it was best that he walk out to steady the innings further and score at a brisk pace.  He spoke to the coach and to the team and walked out.  Clearly shows that he was leading from the front. He was not afraid to push for a change in the plan when the situation on the ground had changed.  He showed he was constantly reading the situation, looking for best alternatives and discussing with his team and the coach on the alternatives before changing course.  A leader needs to do this continuously.  Change, as everyone says, is the only constant.  A leader will not be able to anticipate all changes. He/she must continuously monitor changes and be fearless in taking suitable actions and decisions.  In this he must be collaborative enough to involve others in the decision but take accountability for the decisions.

Dhoni said something else during his interview which I thought was really interesting.  He said that since the team had won this match, many things get overlooked.  There were questions relating to why he played few players in the side and rested some.  All these would have been points for discussion, post mortem and criticism if India had lost the game.  As in this game, a leader takes decisions in the best interest of the company. He/she may not have all the data when he/she takes this decision.  Many of these will work and some will fail.  The leader must be willing to stand up and face the consequences of his wrong decisions.  He must have the courage to accept that some of his decisions went wrong.  Most importantly, those reviewing these decisions should look at the circumstance under which these decisions were taken before making their call/statements about the leader.  It must be understood by all that it is human to err and the leader is also only a human.  Only the person occupying the seat really understands the "heat" in that seat.

I saw something else that was pleasantly surprising. Usually, we see players wilting under pressure, losing their cool, not playing to the game plan and playing the game in their normal style without considering the situation they have walked in to.  This Indian side did not do that.  I saw youngsters keep their cool, not losing heart when two veterans fell cheaply in the game, change their game plan effectively when circumstances changed, played to the situation on the ground and won the game.  I also saw some phenomenal flexibility in the coach to help the captain take decisions based on the reading of the situation.  This team work was amazing to see and the team got the results that it sought.

Lastly, I must mention how graceful the losing Sri Lankan captain Sangakarra was.  He was proud of his teams' efforts and praised them for an amazing match. He said how well fought the match was.  He said he was disappointed with the result because his team lost but he praised India as the better team that day.  He was honest, open, showed his vulnerability and did not let his team down.  The mark of a true sportsman, captain and Leader!!!

The Human Vulture - The Impatient Bird

At 2.46 pm on 11th March, mother earth stretched out lazily, triggering off the worst deep sea earth quake that Japan has experienced in the last 100 years.  Measuring 8.9 on the Richter Scale she triggered off a tsunami with waves measuring 33 feet in height and traveling at a speed of 500 miles per hour.  She smashed in to the port city Sendai and shut down Japan's largest nuclear power stations' cooling systems.  This forced Japan to shut down 7 nuclear power reactors and release nuclear vapour in to the atmosphere. These vapours are causing radiation levels to be 1000 times the normal levels.   US Jets are bringing in chemicals to Japan to handle the heightened radiation levels. People living within a radius of 10 kilometers of the Fukushima Nuclear Plant are being evacuated.  Japan's Prime Minister, Naoto Kan, was pleading to his people to calm down and was personally visiting the Fukushima Nuclear Plant. Thousands of houses have collapsed, cars, boats and farm equipment have been thrown miles away by these giant waves.  Hundreds of fires have been set off.  Thousands are dead and 80,000 people are missing. The whole country is in a state of emergency.  Clearly, the scale of the disaster was sinking in and only a massive international effort can help Japan now. 

Amidst all this chaos, a business television news channel was interviewing a trader as to why the Japanese Yen had gained against the dollar. Clearly, there is a disaster in Japan and its currency is gaining strength instead of weakening.  This was not making sense. The trader said that Japanese Insurance Companies were unwinding their assets in the US and purchasing yen so that they could keep money ready to handle the claims that will hit them.  A tsunami was being set off in the financial markets of the world. 

The trader then said something that made me feel absolutely sick in the stomach (despite being a seasoned banker myself).  He said that this strengthening of the yen was a temporary phenomenon and that in the short and medium terms, the yen would weaken dramatically.  So, he was going to "short the yen" i.e. short sell the yen.  As the trader spoke of shorting the yen, the visuals that were being shown were those of the giant waves swallowing up the port city of Sendai, thousands of cars and boats being tossed around, firemen fighting the fires, chaos all around... lives being lost...and all that this trader could think off was how he could make money out of this disaster.

James Hadley Chase wrote a lovely book called "The Vulture is a Patient Bird".  The duty of the vulture is to help clean up the earth off carrion.  It is a very patient bird.  It preys on the dead.  Here, I was watching this trader prey on a country that was reeling under one of the worst natural disasters.  And worse, he had a smile..and as they continued to speak, I couldn't help but think, this human vulture preys on the living. It is not patient. To it, the lives of these millions of people on the other side of the earth did not mean anything so long as it got what it wanted.  Degeneration of the worst kind?

Gautam Buddha called this Greed. He said greed is one of the reasons for unhappiness in our world.  He said this almost 3000 years ago and his words hold true till date.  Greed for power, greed for wealth, greed for position, greed for dominance has today resulted in unhappiness right across the world. Look at what is happening in the middle east, in Europe, in many parts of Asia and the US.  People are unable to manage their wants and needs. This has triggered off different issues across the world causing untold misery.

I read an interesting article on the 2008 Global Financial Crisis being triggered off because of greed.  We don't seem to learn. Somehow this comes through as "who cares?".

Naoto san and the millions of Japanese impacted by this disaster are not worried as to where the Japanese Yen is in the currency market today.  As the hearts of millions of others across the world reach out to the families that are in the midst of this disaster, the human vultures continue to prey.  I only hope the television channels decide to report from the "heart" rather than from the "head".

Time out

In most of the games that we play, we have a concept of time out.  This is a time that is called out by the coach or the captain and the team takes few minutes out of the game they are playing, re-assesses the situation, thinks through what is happening to them at that point in time and decides what is their next course of action.  Have you been timed out in your work life? If you are beyond 35 years of age, most likely you would have been.  Most of us go through life without recognizing this and the question, "What am I doing with my life?" keeps coming up and we struggle to find answers.

While most of us get timed out in life, few of us understand it as such.  This is more prevalent when you are a high performer.  Till you are 35, you are managing smaller teams or an individual contributor. Your performance is driven purely by your actions. You either make it or don't.  And if you are a high performer, then, you have made it.  The organization is happy, your manager is very happy and so are you.  You are a manager or a senior manager and aspiring to become that executive - what they call as Director or Vice President.  A year goes by and your manager tells you that you need to wait a bit longer before you can become an executive like him/her.  Another year goes by and nothing happens and you are wondering, what this is all about.  Your manager is giving you the same excuse on having to wait.  Suddenly, you are wondering...is this all about merit or do they just want grey hair to appear all of a sudden.  Few more years go by and nothing really happens. You are frustrated, you have changed jobs few times, your salary has increased but that elusive Executive position just isn't turning up.  Life has timed you out!!!

The move up from being an individual contributor to a first time manager is probably one of the most complex and, most of the time, the most under-estimated step up.  From just managing your own outcomes, you are now managing the outcomes of few others.  If you are leading a team of 20, you are managing 20 different mindsets.  You must first assess if you have life experiences to manage different mindsets.  It has been one of the most difficult challenges for leaders to understand the readiness of such first time managers and set them up for success.

The move up from being a manager to an executive or a leader is again one of the most difficult jumps to make.  All of a sudden you are managing senior managers like yourself and so, while all the technical skill sets are needed, the ability to manage senior people needs a completely different mindset and a lot of maturity that comes with age and the life experiences.  Further, if you are working for a global organization, the complexity goes up multi fold because you are dealing with global teams, different points of views coming in from different countries and cultures, having to run at different speeds, having to operate at the 40,000 feet in one moment and come down to Ground Zero the next, having to accommodate the conflicting priorities of different teams and people, ability to manage effectively upwards, downwards and sidewards.  And the list goes on...

The organization, in all its wisdom, looks at a high performer like you and decides whether you have stepped up to become that executive or not and in majority of the cases, this step up happens only after you cross the magical age of 40 unless you are in a specialist function.  So, what do you do then? If life has timed you out, how should you react?

Organizations expect that people should have worked across regions, owned a P&L, done roles in functions like Finance/Risk/Operations/HR, led large cross-functional teams, worked in global teams,  worked across different customer segments and across different industries before considering the person for very senior general management roles or executive roles.  All this takes time and effort and each one of us should be willing to put in that effort over a sustained period of time.  Life experiences are so complicated that there will never be enough of them.  Every one of them is a learning experience and so senior leaders, being humans that they are, will make those mistakes even after years of experience.  However, the chances of these mistakes being really very expensive are lower than if they were asked to take these decisions when they were much younger.

Ask yourself the question - Do you deal with a given situation different now than how you would have dealt with it 5 or 10 years before?  In most cases, the answer will be yes.  The decision may be the same but the way we dealt with the situation will be different in most cases.  This is what life experience is and is probably the best teacher.

So, the next time you are feeling frustrated that you have stagnated, understand that this could be a timeout situation.  Pull yourself together, talk to your mentor and others in your organization, sketch out a plan for yourself, rotate around in different roles within the organization, be ready to travel and work in other regions, be ready to move out of your comfort zone and work in other functions - be that sales or a support function like Finance or HR.  Keep on re-skilling yourself.  Organizations are looking for well-rounded leaders - not in shape, but in mindset!!!

Passion and Honesty

This weekend was dedicated to interviewing.  My wife manages a school and she was recruiting teachers or as she calls them, Montessori Adults.  She wanted me to meet a person, who she said will change the way I look at life.  This was a person who went through a "special school" because, by birth, her mental faculties are slower than most others.  She got through 12th grade in the school and then has completed a rigorous 1 year Montessori Programme.

I met the person and as she recounted some of her experiences in life, it just hit me like a locomotive.  I asked her as to why she had wanted to become a Montessori Adult (read Teacher) and she said that she wanted to teach children with difficulty in learning better than how she had been taught. She recounted that she had studied in a traditional school and, though she did not want to say that the way she was taught mathematics was not the best, she felt that this Montessori Method would have done her a lot more good.  She grew averse to maths at that early age because, as she put it, "The teacher asked me to count 2+3 mentally and tell her the answer when I could not and had to use my fingers."  The sheer force of honesty and the innocence that came with it in her discussions was the locomotive that hit me first.  I was dumbfounded. I just wanted to continue listening to what this young lady was telling. 

She said, "I want to do so much for children.  I love them and can talk to them without any fear because they are honest to me.  Any child I deal with likes me."  The burning passion that I could see in her eyes was something I have experienced very few times while interviewing.

She had given me a resume and in that I had noticed that she loved dance, painting, music..different forms of art.  So, I asked her as to what art meant to her.  Her reply was, "Just as we all need air to live, I need air and art to live."  For someone to whom mathematics, money, inflated egos, position, desire to conquer the world, etc. meant nothing, art was a life giver...it was a form that she could relate to and express herself.  It created a meaning in her life.

Then I asked her as to what her strengths were.  After thinking for a minute or more, she replied, "I don't know,"  When I asked her, "Can I give you some hints?", she gladly accepted with a huge smile.  I told her, that her disarming honesty was her biggest strength.  The burning passion in the eyes was her strength.  Her love for art and the different forms of it was her strength.  I saw the raw excitement in her eyes when I spelt these out as probably no one had told her that she had tremendous strengths.  She had only heard her inability to comprehend subjects like maths or science.  Her abilities to absorb art, music and dance were not understood by our traditional schools.  This was the first time in my life, I had met a person who could not articulate her strengths...such a shame that, we as a society, refuse to accept people for what they are and boost their confidence by focusing on their strengths.

When I started de-briefing with my wife, she asked me with a mischievous smile, "So, what do you think?  Should we consider her for our School and can you tell me why we should do that, if at all?"  She had already guessed my answer but wanted to hear it from me.  I told her that she is a definite hire. The reason was not because we needed to give a chance to a differently abled person but because of the burning passion and the disarming honesty that she brought along.  She was someone that any organization should consider hiring and we were lucky to chance up on her. 

To me, the chance that life gave me to meet few people, Passion, Truth and Honesty, face to face, was one of the best experiences that I have ever had in my life!!!

Gender Diversity

I wrote on Diversity of Thought earlier. Given that we are closing in on Women's Day, I thought it may be good to write on Gender Diversity and why it is so important to have it at all levels in an organization.  The observations I make in this article are more relevant to India. 

60% of women in India give up their jobs after marriage to focus on the family.  This results in Women being in the workforce at lower levels when they are young but since many of them move out of the workforce after marriage, there are fewer as we go higher.  It hurts me that we need to fight in the Parliament in India to set aside 33% of seats for Women. I believe they will get there even without these reservations.

 

The Hoysala Temple in Halibedu, Karnataka, India, was built in the 12 Century.  If we examine the carvings on the temple, it shows women in all walks of life - riding a horse, fighting a battle, at home, at school, in dance, in other art forms, etc.  The carvings also shows women wearing 64 different hairstyles and high heeled shoes!!!  This was India before the invasions started.  Post all the invasions, we seem to have lost our traditional practices and women were pushed lower down. The equality was lost.

 

Economic experts say that this is the century for Asia, in general, and, India and China, in particular.  If that is the case, let us make 21st Century truly memorable.  As proud Indians, let us go back to the 12th Century. Let us revive the glory of the past when the real India existed.  Let us let the women in our lives blossom.

I have always found that with women leaders in my team, the team dynamics change. There is a balance in aggression. There is more collaboration and sharing. The team members are more willing to share their fears and prejudices.  And, of course, there is more fun and laughter (or should I say, giggling...)

 

While, a healthy gender mix is essential, there are few points that I would like working women in India to ponder:

 

• How many times do we consciously take our male colleague or manager (our boss) out for a coffee?
• How many times do we network outside of work?  We all know that many decisions are taken outside of office.
• How conscious are we of our gender while at work? Do we differentiate (knowingly or unknowingly) between genders in our attitude or the way we speak or react to a situation?

I have seen the following in Women Managers (read - as on an average and not in every instance) - these are only the top few and there would be many more:

• Ability to multiplex - Women Managers are capable of handling various activities at the same time and they are better at this than men;
• More empathy - women managers are more empathetic to day to day problems of life;
• Emotional Resilience - I notice more emotional resilience in women than in men.

Where I see Women Managers lag behind their male counterparts:

• Willingness to make compromises in business dealings to get on with life;
• The search for perfection and trying to prove a point takes a toll on women managers and they lose the woods for the trees;
• Empathy taken to a level that sometimes takes a toll on the fact that at times managers need to also be task oriented;
• Unwilling to a larger extent to network outside of office.

 These are more relevant to Indian Women managers and not necessarily true in other countries.  Again, these have been my experiences and, as I said earlier, these are statements in general and will not fit all women managers.

Everyone comes with a bundle of strengths and improvement areas. So, with men and women managers.  What is needed is our ability to notice the talent and groom it.  Each leader can make a difference to Women Managers by communicating more and talking them through their dilemnas.  Most women go through pangs of guilt when they are unable to focus on the family (be it their parents, their husbands, their siblings, their children).  They want the freedom of choice, the financial stability and independence and the family.  They struggle to balance work and home.  This is where males should step in effectively - as managers, as husbands, as fathers, as brothers, as friends - males should take a bold step forward in doing things that are seen as work to be done only by women eg. cooking, cleaning up the house, taking care of the child, etc.  They must be able to share the workload to the extent that the woman feels confident to balance work and home effectively.  This is the only way to lessen and finally remove the pangs of guilt that a woman goes through in her life.

There are deep rooted issues in our biases and these arise due to societal issues that we see in India.  We hear of societies killing new born female children, abortions because the child in the womb is a female, discussions that daughters need not go through formal education because they are going to get married and stay back and manage their homes.  Not that managing homes is easy..but the disdain with which women are treated leaves a lot to be desired in our society.  There is a lot of change happening in our country now but we need to do more.

I will sign off with a good version of the Story of a Man's Life:

• I was born and a woman was there to hold me - my Mother
• I grew as a child and a woman was there to care for me and play with me - my Sister;
• I went to school and a woman was there to help me learn - my Teacher;
• I became depressed and whenever I lost, a woman was there to offer a shoulder - my Girl Friend;
• I needed company, compatability and love and a great woman was there for me - my Wife;
• As I grew tough, a woman was there to melt me - my Daughter;
• When I die, a woman is there to absorb me - my Motherland. 

Leader - the flawed individual with thick skin

A call prompted me to write this posting this week.  My friend talked to me of a situation in his organization where one of his peers got pulled up by their manager's manager (boss's boss) in front of every one.  He told me something that hit me quite hard, "Ravi, after witnessing this incident, I lost faith in the leadership of the organization.  That person fell in my eyes."  I realised that it takes just one incident and one slip by a leader to fall in the eyes of the organization.  Years of hard and probably very good work get blotted out by one slip in behaviour.

While talking to my friend I told him that all of us are flawed individuals.  More importantly, we need to know and appreciate that our boss is also a human being and is, therefore, both vulnerable and flawed.  If we put the person on a pedestal, it becomes dangerous.  The first mistake will result in a fall that will damage his/her image permanently.

We tend to think that our leaders are super human beings. Incapable of making mistakes.  We need to appreciate that they are human beings like us and, therefore, will make the same mistakes that all of us end up making.  Only difference is that their mistakes could be more costly than those below as the impact will be higher.  For that, they pay a dearer price.

It is also important for leaders to understand that they are flawed individuals and are vulnerable.  Only if they show and accept these vulnerabilities and the fact that they are flawed, will they be successful leaders.  Leaders who believe that they are these fortified beings who cannot be penetrated easily, cannot be farther from the truth.  The only fortification that I have seen as we move up the ladder is a thicker skin.

So, what is this thick skin?  Our egos get pricked when we are pulled up in front of our colleagues or even if it is one to one with our manager. However, as we grow older, we tend to manage these incidents better - both internally within ourselves, and, externally.  We swallow our pride.  This is what, I believe, we call thick skin.  However, to grow this thick skin, we need a huge amount of maturity and life experience.  If we begin to understand that whatever be the comment from our manager or colleague is only a feedback from a different point of view, such comments hurt us less. Over a period of time, each of us decides as to how to accept these comments.  Many tend not to react.  To not react needs maturity and I see this as the life experiences.  This is necessary for senior leaders.

It is also essential for senior leaders to ponder their actions.  To show your might to someone well below you in an organization may satisfy your ego immediately but then will get you nothing in the long run.  It will only destroy your credibility and all your hard work.

As we move further up the ladder, we need to definitely understand how to align better, execute better and have trust/faith in our managers. We need to appreciate that leaders are flawed individuals and that their skins are probably thicker than ours!!!