The Leadership Pipeline

This post is inspired by Ram Charan’s - 'The Leadership Pipeline’. Ram Charan talks about different passages of growth which an individual goes through in an organization or the many organizations he/ she works through..

I particularly got glued to the chapter where he talks about the passage from ‘Managing Self' to 'Managing Others’. I completely identify and agree when he says that individuals ‘recognize this transition intellectually but reject it psychologically…’

For a detailed and enlightening information, I would suggest that this is a must read for all professionals… for the ones who might forget to buy a copy of this book… here’s a bird’s eye view of the shift in value system required for the above Level 1 transition...

How do you define Level 1 transition?
When you are recognized as a successful individual contributor in the organization who produces profitable results, you are promoted to the 1st line manager…now you get a team to work with you..More than half of your time is dedicated to ‘managing’ rather than ‘doing’

Key Value Shift
From getting results through personal efficiency to getting results through others… It’s easy to fall in the temptation of doing things yourself. It sure is faster, but pause… is it the most effective… would you be able to manage larger roles and responsibilities alone… Absolutely not… Trust and train your team.

Team success over personal success… As a manager, a value shift of team over self is absolutely essential. Remember, your appraisal would depend upon your team’s success story rather than your individual performance.

From relationship building for personal results to relationship building for team’s success … Indulge in workplace socialization. You should engage in relationship building with your boss, direct reports, peers, customers, cross function employees for the team’s benefit. This exercise would build trust and would keep the communication transparent and flowing.

Avoid overpowering direct reports with your expertise… Coach and guide your team.. assess the situation and chose the role of a coach, a mentor, a guide, a boss or a peer. Allow them a certain amount of latitude in the way they carry out their assignment… your role is to observe, monitor and provide feedback.

Be available… both physically and emotionally… Remember, being approachable is crucial to your leadership role. Your body language, attitude, speech should exuberate positive vibe… a feeling that you are not just present but actively present for them.

True it is the responsibility of the Human Resource or the L&D function to train the 1st line managers, but I feel that the responsibility also lies with the individual to absorb and adapt the change in behavioural values. If individuals are not made aware about the importance of shift in value systems required with each leadership role, it definitely would result in, as Ram Charan puts succinctly, ‘clogged leadership pipeline’.

This is the first in the series and I intend to share all the six passages of leadership mentioned by Ram Charan in this fabulous book. Stay tuned:-)

Are you afraid to let go?

Attended a conference on ‘Coaching for Organization Development‘ in Delhi recently….my idea was also to get a chance to visit the charming India Habitat centre:-)

One of the speakers there, Pramath Raj Sinha,(Founding Dean ISB) talked about the failure of professionals in family owned businesses. He quizzed the audience for reasons. The white board soon flooded with answers which I felt could be bucketed under two heads...

1. Transparency or rather lack of it
2. Control or rather too much of it

Coincidentally, the same day Corporate Dossier carried an article on ‘Learn to let go’. And surprisingly the day ended with a meeting where the client was battling over transparency and control issues….!

Not that being amidst corporate professionals for past 15 years, I am unaware of “How much is too much control”, but its one of those mornings that I just spent some time reflecting on it…

Lack of transparency leads to a control freaky culture in organizations. It requires not good but great leadership to steer clear of it.

Kavil Ramachandran in his article says, “Leaders have to identify talent and groom them to share responsibilities so that they themselves can move on to take greater responsibilities.’

They have to feel confident about two things - 1.letting someone do what they have always been doing and 2. feeling comfortable about doing new things.

Being a mother, I always draw analogies from my parenting experience. This battle of control starts pretty much from childhood. The lack of trust or over protectiveness or the first time perfection mania holds us from passing control to our children.

This often leads to power struggle between a parent and child. Most parents consider their grown-ups as children which causes friction. Similarly most control freak leaders if they may be called so consider their managers to be still learning.

Do what is good for your child but remember a parent is not the only one to value-add forever. Children learn to overcome challenges successfully. In organizations too, there are new challenges but the premise remains the same – A CEO or CXO may not be the only one to add value to the strategy and governance of the organization.

Let go...You and your company will go farther!

Tell Me About Brand You!!

“Tell me something about yourself… What do you do?“ How many times would I have heard these self introductory questions...I don’t even remember how many times I would have answered this…. And being an HR professional, I have asked self introductory questions umpteen times myself...

Surprisingly, more often than not I have found executives fumbling for words while introducing themselves. Long back, when I was a consultant to an MBA preparatory organization, we would take special class to help the students successfully market themselves in a short duration of 15 - 30 mins.

Therefore in today’s competitive and ever changing market dynamics it is essential for executives to position themselves.

From my experience let me share 5 pointers while Self Positioning/ Branding yourself

1. Focus on your core offering – What is it that you best do. What are you most passionate about… Talking about your value and belief system helps you attract like-minded employers.

2. Find a Mentor – Mentors and coaches are experts who could be the much needed Guiding Lamp. Remember to talk about your Mentor/ Coach – it reflects on your openness to learn and grow, so don’t hide your Guiding lamp under the bushes.

3. Be Visible – Rejoice! You live in a time when the entire world could be your market. Social media /networking sites are the best platform to establish your presence. In today’s time of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google +, you must make yourself known on the internet.

4. Voice your opinion – People value and respect individuals with a point of view. It may not really matter if it is correct or not, what is more important is that you have a Point of View-an independent thinking and speaking mind.

5. Exhibit Versatility – People are looking for additional toppings. No more are we interested in just a Good cup of Coffee – we are constantly looking for what’s new and interesting on the menu.

In case you are looking for a branding expert's opnion on brand you, you may want to read this

Coach Yourself to be Happy & Successful - Part 2/2

Hi! here’s the second part of the earlier post… Few more simple, easy to follow tips to keep ourselves happy.

1. Exercise Exercise!… – Here I am not preaching about some elaborate exercise regimen or fancy gymming. It could be as simple as dancing to your favorite song, 20-30 minutes brisk walk in the neighbourhood or yoga for an 45-60 minutes 3-4 days a week. Believe me, it’s one of the best stress busters. Again, it adds to your self esteem. Even better, if you team up with your family, spouse or friend…it adds to the overall energy level.

2. Extend Help – Helping others makes you feel good about yourself; it could be helping your colleague with presentation skills or donating money for someone in need, giving an hour a month to an under-privileged school, giving some time to a neighbourhood cause, etc. Whenever I have given some time to others, I have felt happy.

3. Be close to nature – If nature is not close to you, you get close to nature…having a couple of potted plants or just a beautiful money plant on your kitchen window sill also helps. (I love mine on my window sill..)

4. Meditate – Don’t have time…Try for 5 minutes every day – you would learn the art and feel the power of meditation… It’s amazing. You can meditate sitting on your office chair, while commuting, while waiting for someone. In our busy lives creating that 5 minute oasis is often what will calm you and make you happy!

5. Be Child like – Let loose and be yourself…laugh, sing, dance, play pranks ….You are never too old to practice these things. Soon, you will notice people around you will love you for this.

Aren’t you already feeling a little good….I am:-)

P.S. In the picture above, it's my son's first bowl of pop corn which he made the day before. Enough to make our day blissful..

Amygdala Hijack and Stress Control!

Hi...this is our second post and today I want to share about how stress controls our emotions if we do not control stress!

In my work with senior management I have not found a single soul whose behaviour has not been controlled by stress at one point or the other.

Hence every leadership guru emphasizes that the higher one goes in an organization, the more important is the role of emotional intelligence. It’s been found that managers with higher emotional intelligence are able to manage stress better.

For those in leadership positions, emotional intelligence skills account for close to 90 percent of what distinguishes outstanding leaders from those judged as average.

When reading Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, I came to know about Amygdala - the fascinating almond-sized-and-shaped brain structure. It is the centre of our emotional mind.

All incoming sensory data—sights, sounds, smells, sensations—pass through the amygdala where they are instantly analyzed for their emotional value before they go for further processing.

Amygdala, is rightly termed as Sentry and the Strategist of the brain. Too much stress “turns on” the amygdala creating an oversensitive heightened state of emotion.

Compounded stress buildup can make the amygdala a hair trigger, ready to hijack us into anger or panic at the least provocation. This situation is described by Daniel Goleman Amygdala Hijack’.

This explains how individuals and also quite a number of evolved leaders lose a significant amount of ability to “control” their emotions, thus becoming temporarily less emotionally intelligent!

Its interesting how understanding the physiology behind the psychological behaviour can help us attain better understanding of human behaviour hence leading to empathy and compassion.