Territories

I saw the dog playing in my garden and the first thought that came to me was, "How did this dog get in?" I then saw that our gates were open. I was reminded of something that I had read, "Does the breeze ask you your caste or religion before touching you? Does the migratory bird worry about which country's airspace it violates? Does the cloud look at which country it is floating above before dropping rain?" All these territories are man-made. The dog did not understand it at all. Funny, because even the dog marks its own territory and if anyone is anywhere near it, it will growl or bark. Despite that, this dog didn't understand any other markings.

Man made these territories so that s/he could live in peace with neighbours. But most wars have been fought over territories. Most of the tensions that we see in Asia today are again on who owns the oceans and what are territorial waters. There are issues with airspace violations. There have been instances where civilian air-crafts have been shot down for violation of airspace killing hundreds of people. So, apart from dividing up land, we divided up water and space too. And, despite marking all these territories, we seem to be at loggerheads with each other constantly.

Human behavior is amazing and varied. You also see this behavior of territory in organizations. Whilst this is an issue in all organizations, it is especially acute in large organizations. We do try and ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly laid out. However, in large organizations, we typically notice redundant organizations, duplication of efforts and all these cause confusion on accountability. It also causes territorial issues. I have seen that typical human behavior is to make use of this confusion and actually not take accountability.  More so, if the organization is not meetings its targets.

"The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective." Warren Buffett.  This is especially true in large organizations and more complex multi-national organizations. I have seen people wanting to "own" certain types of work or certain teams and will go to any length to get it going. To a large extent this happens when they want to increase the spend budget or revenue budget under themselves. What I have noticed is that this is done so that they can survive either at their existing level or they go and ask for a promotion stating that their accountability has increased.  This is also done at times to protect the budgets under them if some part of their organization is taken away from them due to re-organization.  The problem stems from the basic fact that the size of a role or job is measured by the Cost or Revenue that the role/job supports. So, the larger the cost or revenue under the job, the bigger will the size of the job be. Eg. if you are a Vice President, you must have $x of budget under you (either cost or revenue). If that comes down, someone will question as to why you are at the level of a VP. So, what happens if that  sizing is under threat? You will immediately try to increase it (so that you can continue to remain a VP) and that is where territorial behaviours come in. 

"Most bad behavior comes from insecurity." Debra Winger. This is so true. When the sizing of your role is under threat, you behaviours change and you want to add to the dimension of your role.  I have also seen many leaders making a grab for business lines to bring in revenue streams under them. This is more so where they are just cost centres and want to become profit centres.

Over the years, I have found that it is best to get out of this paradigm and also get your teams to get out of this paradigm. Yet, despite this, you still have to manage the Human Resources Policies that are driven by this paradigm. Why do they have this way of measurement? Because, there are not many other ways to measure a job sizing across a global organization. If you measure based on complexity, then, over a period of time, every role will become complex. This is exactly why organizations have used this measure based on cost or revenue. 

What has worked for me is to show the value that the organization drives - in terms of revenue improvement, cost reduction, profit enhancement and cash flow accretion. These are also objective measures and moves the organization towards contribution rather than costs/revenue numbers managed.

Beyond all these numbers, we need to remember that leadership is about people. It is essential for every leader to create an environment that is non-threatening. As regards this, I would come back to what I have written on many times before - being a human being and treating everyone as a human.  "The fact is that people are good, Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior." Abraham Maslow. 

The Will to Win

There were elections in few States in India and in the Union Territory of New Delhi, a new party called the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which translates to the Common Man's Party, is the second largest party in terms of seats won. They have formed the Government with the support of another party. The party with the highest number of seats (BJP) is unable to form the government because neither do they have a majority nor the external support. One of the members of  the BJP is reported to have said that "The AAP is power hungry".

I asked myself the question as to why all these political parties contest elections. It was because they wanted to win, take charge and drive change in the society. They wanted the power to be able to change society. So, are they all not hungry for power? Yes, they are. So, then, why demean it? There is nothing wrong in being hungry for power so long as we do not do unscrupulous acts to obtain it and not misuse it once we become powerful. I believe that this hunger for power in order to drive change in the societies that we live in is the winning aspiration in politics. If this aspiration does not exist, then, there is no point in contesting elections. Anyone who participates for the sake of participation is a waste of time. What is needed is the will to win. I was reminded of Cicero, "The spirit, the will to win and will to excel are the things that endure."

Someone said, "The will to win is refusing to lose." I believe that this is required in the world that we live in. The attitude that "we will not lose". The attitude that "we can". That we will give it our best shot in order to win. That there is nothing wrong in having that winning aspiration. That we are doing a job or taking up an assignment or contesting in an election or running a race to win. Yes, it is important to enjoy the journey and to participate fairly. But, the attitude should be winning. Without that, we do not give it our best shot. As Vince Lombardi said, "Winning isn't everything, but the will to win is everything."

When we win something, we lose something else. This is life. We focus intensely on our jobs and careers, win there and take the eye of the ball on family or something else (could be our hobby). That is why we discuss work-life balance quite often. This balance depends on where the will to win is. If you want to be a great dad or mom, you focus on the child and win there. You become the best dad or mom and that, in itself, is a victory. Though we think that this is not yielding money, it could be the best investment we have ever made in our lives. A great childhood, good parenting, a well rounded child can give us much more than what many jobs can. We may end up becoming a great parent and probably not the best manager or leader in the company that we work in. It depends on the choices that we make. Whatever be the choice, we should look to not only excel but win in that choice and not feel ashamed about it.

 

Many companies lose their way in this world because they do not have the will to win and/or do not adapt that winning aspiration as the world around them changes. Yes, it is important to adapt our winning strategies as the environment around us changes. So, whilst we have the will to win, we should also have clear winning strategies and these will change as the world around us changes. It is said that of the Top 100 companies in 1900s only 16 exist now. I would say that it depends on how you look at it...most companies have been merged with others or taken over by others or taken others over and changed identity. What this shows is that most of these companies that have survived have kept on morphing and adapting their winning aspiration as the world around them changed. However, all of them had the will to win.

 

What does this mean for each one of us at an individual level? Each one of us needs to have this winning attitude. It is important to participate. It is very important to enjoy the journey. However, to be able to give it our best shot, it is important for us to have this will to win through this journey. This will to win or refusing to lose helps us build character. It makes us more resilient when we face adversity, as the journey to success is never easy. It helps us anticipate changes in the journey. It deepens our convictions and keeps us motivated. It pushes the "can do" attitude to the fore. We refuse to wilt under pressure. So long as we have this will, we motivate ourselves to keep going. The boxing champion Muhammad Ali once said “Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them - a desire, a dream, and a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill.” 

 

Most importantly, the will to win pushes us towards individual excellence. It gives us the pride in ourselves and the pride in the job that we do. I sign off with a Confucius quote, "The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

The Nervous Parent and the Confident Child

"Dad, I can handle this. Don't worry." I still remember saying this to my dad in 1984 as I left India. This was my first visit abroad and I was going to work for a chartered accounting firm. I was going away for a long time. He had come to Mumbai (from Bangalore) to send me off. I remember that it was his wedding anniversary but he had decided to come to Mumbai with me. My dad was clearly worried but I told him that I am old enough to handle this.

I was at the airport few days ago sending off my daughter to Mumbai...her first travel alone by air. Was I worried? A bit...But, then, I rewound to 1984 in my head and things settled down.  I was talking about this to a friend of mine who sent his daughter recently to the US. Her first travel alone. He told me how the connecting flight from London to Phoenix got delayed and had to land somewhere else. This meant she had to deplane, clear customs elsewhere, board another flight and reach Phoenix. Whenever she was confused, she used her smart-phone, got in to a video call with someone, cleared her doubts and made it through safely.

Is this a major problem in today's world? Absolutely not...technology has helped in a big way. However, we are all human beings...and as parents, there are anxieties despite all the technology and the assurances that our children give us. This is probably because in our mind's eye we find it difficult to see our little children grow to become adults. My mom says even today, "You may have grown up, but for me, you are still the little child."

 

I would like to take this parallel to the workplace. If people have worked with us for a long time, we find it difficult to imagine them having grown in the job and knowledge levels. So, despite us getting promoted or moving up, we struggle to see the next few levels growing up and being ready to take on more senior roles. That is why we see many leaders hiring from outside for senior positions instead of promoting from within. I have firmly believed that if a person is even 60-70% ready for a role, as leaders we should be able to take a punt and give him/her the role unless there are other issues.  We are prepared to take risks with someone who we have interviewed for an hour or more but not willing to do that with a person who has worked with us for years. This is because we know all the flaws and in our mind's eye this person has really not "grown". 

 

The other issue this behavior gives rise to is that leaders suddenly think themselves to be the "parent" equivalent. This can trigger off huge issues in an organization. I faced a situation where a team manager would land up for any social gathering individuals in his team called him to and at whatever time of day. I had heard of him turning up for weddings at 2 am!!!  However, his team felt that it was difficult working with him because he behaved like that "difficult dad" who you would dare not go against. I called him and coached him. He continued to struggle and so we had to take him out of the managerial role. However, given his domain knowledge we gave him a role of a subject matter expert. He enjoyed his new role and loved the interaction with the team, though not as its manager.

 

A leader clearly needs to avoid these pitfalls. What I have done is to measure myself on few parameters. How many of the roles falling vacant in my teams have been filled internally? Further, I have also tracked meticulously how many "Ready Now" successors we have created across all levels in the whole organization. In one of the organizations I led, we had reached a situation where we could fill a position falling vacant anywhere in the world within few hours. If we put in this rigour as leaders, we will end up with highly engaged teams.

The King is dead....Long live the King!!!

When I was in school we played inter school tournaments in various sports. The winning school would get a large trophy which they could keep for a year. The next year, the trophy went to the school that won the tournament. I asked our Coach one day, "Why cant they give a new trophy every year so that the School gets to keep it forever?" The coach told me how expensive it was to make a trophy and that's why it is handed from school to school every year. He told me something else that I remember to this day, "Ravi, the trophy is like a revolving chair. You are sitting on it now and when someone else wins, you are out and that person is sitting on the chair. It is like an old king dying and a new king taking over...The King is dead...long live the King!!!"

At work, we find leaders face this problem. They confuse themselves to be that chair rather than the person sitting on it. This results in them not knowing how to get out of the chair. It is essential not to confuse our individual self with the position that we occupy.

Over the years, I have managed to move away from getting confused on this aspect. But it took me a while. When it did happen, it was a wonderful feeling. It was like watching yourself at work as an outsider. It gave me a sense that I term as "detached attachment". I would be laser sharp focused on the job. However, I was never stuck to it. Till I had the job, I would give better than my best to it. Once I moved on, I actually moved on...there was no looking back.  This has at times made my colleagues feel that I am cold but over a period of time they have recognized that it is the best thing to do. I believe it also gets you to be professional too.

I remember that I had moved out of a role once and there was a period when the new leader took time to figure out and announce what she wanted to do. In the meanwhile, the team started getting jittery. One of them called me one day and said that others are jittery and they have started maneuvering in an attempt to please the new leader and figure out what is in her mind. I told the person that she is welcome to call me anytime but not on this topic. I told her that I have moved on and the new leader must be given a chance to succeed in her own right. The person who called was a bit upset at the beginning but after few weeks she called me and apologized. She said that she was very upset with my response but having thought about it, she felt that it was one of the most professional responses that she had ever received in her life. She felt that this was a new lesson in leadership that she had learnt. She summarized it well for me - "You are not the chair on which you sit. When you move on, give the next person the chance to take the organization to the next level from where you left it."

It is often these small things that everyone notices in leaders and learn. I know of a person who was the Managing Director of a company. He was one of the best leaders of those times in India. As he started getting closer to retirement, there was a lot of unease in him. I noticed that he was struggling to handle the fact that someday people who respected him for the position he held could possibly ignore him. The first few months after his retirement was an absolute struggle for him. If his ex-assistant did not pick the phone when he called, he thought that she was ignoring him. The last I met him was almost 10 years after his retirement. Even then, he would refer himself as the Ex-Managing Director of that company rather than just introducing himself by name. He could never come to terms with retirement. He could never see himself as an individual. He was always the MD or the Ex-MD of the company. The seat had got to him.  What I also noticed was that he would try and talk to people who had worked with him and were still there in the company to find out what was happening. He hardly had nice words to say on the new leaders. Over a period of time, he lost respect and people just avoided speaking to him.

I have always believed that our time will come. When it does, give it your best shot. Once it is done, just move on. Don't look back, except with really fond memories. Wish your successor the best in your heart of hearts....this will go a long way in helping you wean yourself away from that chair.

Smile, and the world smiles back at you

I am back to writing on that rare commodity called "SMILE"...I had written on this earlier but want to do so once again. Someone said, "Don't go for looks, they can deceive. Don't go for wealth, even that fades away. Go for someone who makes you smile because it takes only a smile to make a dark day seem bright." Another lovely saying from Phyllis Diller is, "A smile is a curve that sets everything straight."

In all the worries of the day, we forget to smile. It is a proven fact that if we smile, our health actually gets better. Just try out this experiment....when you are walking, look at strangers and smile at them. More than 90% of them will return the smile.  Many a time, I have started conversations with total strangers because I smiled first and that broke the ice.

There are some leadership aspects to smiling that I believe should be practiced. The first one is that when you smile, it sends out a signal that you are approachable. It also sends out a signal that you are friendly. This is helpful when you manage large teams. Your teams should know and feel that you are friendly and approachable. Otherwise, like many leaders, you will be alone at the top.

It is hard practice that will get you to keep your smile throughout the day. It is said that disciplined practice is what makes someone succeed. Practicing to smile consciously helps in building a discipline that is essential to succeed.

It also makes you aware of your surroundings as you try and notice people who are smiling.  Your attitude changes over a period of time and you see life in a totally different light. Every aspect of life seems to be worth living for.

I have also seen that it helps me focus. Smiling and getting in to the habit of smiling helps you focus hard on how you appear to the public and helps you to draw people closer to you.

Just imagine if you always looked like that picture of yours that you adore!!! That should be your face to the public and it is essential that as a leader everyone sees you with that huge smile. As I walked in to the department store, a counter salesperson gave me an amazing smile. I walked up to her and thanked her for lighting up my day. She was so thrilled because no one had every complimented her for her smile. That smile had lit up both our days.

A smile, therefore, goes a real long way in helping you. It lightens up your mood, it changes the mood of the person interacting with you, it improves your health, it changes your attitude towards life, it makes it hard for anyone dealing with you to actually get upset with you, it helps you focus and it actually  changes lives.

That's what a simple smile can do and it does not come at a cost at all!!! So, why should we be afraid to smile at each other?

Leading in tough times...

Many a time we are happy with our leaders. These are people who can present themselves and their ideas in a nice way. They come through as clear thinkers. They make you think. They are pleasant to deal with. In the corporate world, we find many leaders who are good people to work for till adversity hits. It is true that the toughest of times will bring out the best or the worst in leaders.

Many leaders let their image melt when adversity hits. Leaders are humans. Human beings tend to go in to their core during adversity and then their true character comes out. If a leader comes through as the same fantastic person during adversity, you have a great leader. Cling on to him/her as this is the person you need to work with.

I have seen few things work for me as a leader during very tough times:

1. Being in front of customers more often;
2. Trusting and depending on key people so that I could focus on what matters to the customer and business;
3. Focus on the immediate term and ensure you knock down all targets one after the other;
4. Get all hands on deck, including your own and meet more often with the relationship and sales teams;
5. Focus on high impact programs and ensure you deliver to them;
6. Take tough decisions;
7. Put more focus in to transformation and innovation;
8. Communicate more and extensively.

You will need to be a different leader during these difficult times. Each day will be different. The path  to success will have twists and turns. You will be forced to summon all your courage to be able to lead. At this time, it will be essential to never let your teams down. It will be very easy to blame someone else in your team if something does not work. It is best not to fall in to that trap.

It is also during these times that leaders slip. There is nothing wrong with slipping. Just get up, dust yourself and move on. If, as a leader, you let that become a huge fall, then, you will struggle to move on. Many leaders struggle to move on because we struggle to forgive ourselves when we slip up. Someone once said that when you fall you need to behave like a steed (that gets up and runs) and not like an elephant (that takes time to react).

Keeping a positive attitude during these times is also essential. It is not very easy to do this as most of the days you wake up to news that is not very good. So, how do you handle this? One thing that has worked for me is to see the opportunity in the difficulty facing me. Many years ago, I was faced with a situation that presented a huge financial loss to the division that I was managing. I also realized that this possible loss was because the company that we had given a loan to was not able to meet its working capital needs fully. We, in fact, saw that situation, sized up our losses and actually decided to invest more in to the company to tide through its working capital problems (could have resulted in greater losses). Within 3 months, we were out of the problem, no losses and our customer appreciating that we were bankers that helped when they most needed it.  A huge problem was converted in to an opportunity.

Patience is also another commodity that will be needed during these times. Else, we end up making mistakes and setting back the whole organization.  This commodity is typically in short supply and most leaders lose it when they actually need it most. Loss of patience is probably the biggest challenge that I have seen leaders face and this is because of stress. This stress increases if the company is listed as there are quarterly pressures.

As I sign off on this post, thought I will share few quotes that I came across with you:

1. The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places - unknown
2. When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on – Franklin D. Roosevelt
3. Remember when you see a man at the top of a mountain, he didn’t fall there – Unknown

Life in Rewind or Fast Forward Mode

Many a time we would like to re-wind life and hope that something that happened did not. It could be that bad meeting that you had with a colleague of yours or an email that you shot off in frustration or a huge life changing event that has hit you. If only we could hit the rewind button, life would be so different.

 

At times we wonder why things are moving so slow in life. We are bored and want more action. Or it could be that elusive promotion at work. The action is missing and you wish that you could hit the fast forward button.

 

Ever thought of living in the present? The now and here? Somehow, we don't do this though that is what reality is. We need to learn to live in the present. What is now and here is real. All others have already happened or yet to happen. There is nothing much you can do about them. You don't control both. So, why focus on something that you don't control and just use the past as your learning points? Why don't we just grab the current moment that we are living in with both hands and make the best of it?

 

So, does this mean I am telling you not to plan for your future? No, not at all. Planning for the future is essential so that you de-risk it to some extent. But, believe me, you can do it only to some extent. So, give it all the importance and time that it needs. However, don't forget to live in the present. A great example would be to save for a child's education and planning for that. Another would be setting aside money for retirement, etc. All this needs you to work harder and put in those extra hours of effort. In pursuit of all this, will you then stop "living" with your family? Will you be so focused on the future that you forget that your family is right here next to you and wants your attention and time? This is what happens to most of us and then we complain about work-life balance. How work is so merciless that we need to sacrifice life for it. My dad said, "Work hard, plan well and play hard." I would see him come after a real tiring day at the factory and still have energy to play some cricket or ring-ball with us. He would spend time in the evening for a game of cards or carom.  He was with us in mind, body and spirit. How many of us can say honestly that we do this today?

 

We let our ambition, our need to excel and our worry of the tomorrow just steal the present away from us. It is necessary to be ambitious. It is essential to excel in whatever we do. Otherwise, there is no pride in the work that we do. It is necessary to plan for tomorrow. But, let it not take away the need to enjoy the moment today.

 

I am reminded of a dear friend of mine. She lost her husband in a split second to a massive heart attack. He was here now and she had told him that she would get him dinner as he was on the phone. By the time she came back in few minutes with dinner, he was dead. Over the last one year, I have seen her go through pain as she remembers all the good times that they had together. He is not there anymore to share her joys, her sadness, her anger, her pain. She just feels lonely. There were times that both of them fought on things. All those seem so trivial now. She told me that so many things that were really important to her have lost significance without her husband. She really wishes that she could hit the re-wind button so that she can find those times when they fought and convert them to moments when they could have lived happier. She wants to hit the re-wind button to savour for few more minutes the wonderful moments that she shared with her husband. She wants to hit the re-wind button so that she could live with him again.

 

Many a time, we do not appreciate what is with us. We live in the past or in the future and forget the present. When this dear friend of mine told me about her need to re-wind, I told her that while that is great, she needs to be really happy that she has a daughter, her dad, her sister and so many other friends and relatives who love her and will go that extra mile to help her. I told her that whilst what has happened is not easy to digest, life has to continue and she must move on. That if she loses sight of the people who are with her in the present, she will just die in the past. So, however tempted you may be to hit the re-wind or fast-forward button, think twice. Maybe, hit the pause button. Look around you. There is so much to love, enjoy and actually live for in the present moment.