© Partha Pratim Pal and Dr.

Jones Mathew 2020

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First Published in March 2020

ISBN: 978-93-90034-52-9

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 Acknowledgment

This work would not have been possible if the authors had
not had the opportunity to experience and observe the
numerous leadership issues during their long corporate and
academic journeys. The leaders who went before exhibited
some good and some not so good qualities and flaws. Each
was a learning experience. This book is dedicated to all
those leaders who we learnt from - whether it be the traits to
acquire or the failures to be wary of.
Our parents must receive all the credit for whatever we have
accomplished and for the blessings to put it all into a
structured work such as this one. Without them we would
be nothing.
Gratitude is due to our families for providing their support
silently and often unknowingly while we worked long hours
in our studios writing this book.
Many thanks to Blue Rose Publishing for the exhaustive
reviews of the manuscript time and again and coaxing us to
complete the work within a reasonable amount of time.
Finally, thanks to all the aspiring managers who dream of
becoming effective and unique leaders. Without their
hunger to improve themselves, this book would not have the
same intensity of purpose.
Partha Pratim Pal, Bangalore
Jones Mathew,PhD, New Delhi
January 2020
 Prologue

I hear and I forget

I see and I remember
I do and I understand
(Confucius: 551–479 BC)
Leadership has been one of the most discussed, debated and
written subjects by academicians, professionals, authors and
journalists over many past decades.
Why is leadership such an important subject?
It has been well established that the quality of leaders, both
good and otherwise, has a bearing on the quality of life of
those who are associated with them.
A good leader creates an ecosystem which affects the life of
the team members in an organization; or the life of its
citizens when it comes to a state or country not only of its
present generations but also of future generations.
A pertinent definition from Field Marshal Sir Bill Slim may
be stated here: ‘There is a difference between leadership
and management. Leadership is of the spirit, compounded
of personality and vision; its practice is an art. Management
is of the mind, a matter of accurate calculation… Its practice
is a science. Managers are necessary; leaders are essential.’
He also goes on to say, ‘Leaders are made more often than
they are born. You all have leadership in you. Develop it by
thought training and by practice.’
The essence of this workbook is based on the Confucian
philosophy — I do and I understand.
There are many definitions of leadership but one that we
feel is most appropriate for leadership in business is this:
Leadership in business is the ability of a company's
management to make sound decisions, and develop and
inspire their team to perform.
Broadly:
 Leadership is about results.
 Leadership ensures that people achieve greater results
than they thought were possible for them to achieve.
 Leadership enables the team to upgrade their skills,
learn to collaborate with multiple functions and team
members, and most importantly, in the process, enjoy
their work in particular and life in general.
 Leadership inspires people to look at the bigger
picture and focus their energy and efforts in achieving
the organizational vision.
According to Keith Davis, “Leadership is the ability to
persuade others to seek defined objectives enthusiastically.
It is the human factor which binds a group together and
motivates it towards goals.”
This workbook was born out of the realization that
leadership lessons are lost as young managers are not able
to practice what they learn. In the rush of daily firefighting,
there are fewer opportunities to put into practice the lessons
acquired by observing, learning and absorbing from other
leaders.
You would agree that there is no better learning
methodology than experience which is practical and hands-
on.
As implementation is undertaken, the young manager gets
a mixture of both: desired results and crushing
disappointments. Sometimes the outcomes are as per
expectations, at other times not. There is often confusion
why the leadership style that worked for other leaders does
not work now. There are many reasons for that anomaly.
What works for some, may not work for others.
This workbook is an endeavour to assist young managers
understand themselves and practice their learnings as they
go along. In-depth introspection, deliberation, and
understanding of their personal leadership style will be
employed to examine what has worked (or not) for them till
now and what needs to be done in the future to become more
effective leaders. The carefully crafted chapters will take the
reader through a logical flow of steps to attain excellent
leadership qualities. We advise that the aspiring leader
proceed chapter wise in order to obtain the maximum
advantage from this workbook. Though each chapter is
linked to the next, the reader can benefit from going back
and forth to a chapter of his or her choice to absorb material
that is of immediate relevance.
This workbook is divided into three modules.
Module- I
● Leading with Integrity and Honesty: A leader must
stand up for what is “right”. Integrity is about character,
avoiding moral shortcuts and fostering long term
success. It teaches how you can build leadership based
on integrity and honesty for the team to follow.
● Self-Awareness: How to make the best use of your
emotions for the team to benefit from your presence.
Successful leaders know where their natural inclinations
lie and use this knowledge to boost those inclinations or
compensate for them.
● Servant Leadership: Servant leadership is primarily
about giving priority to team members’ needs, helping
them to grow as persons and in their profession. This is
the essence of servant leadership. You will also come to
appreciate why the servant leadership style is in demand
today.
Module- II
● Vision of a Leader: Leading is about going somewhere
by having clear goals and implementing initiatives.
SMART goal setting and creating an energizing vision
for the team are key to leadership success.
● Courage, Confidence, Conviction and Commitment:
Leadership is about demonstrating and inculcating
these four qualities or traits in the team.
● Communication: Words have energy and it is important
to know how to use them properly. It includes tone of
voice, body language in communication and the power
of listening.
Module- III
● How to handle failure: Leadership involves developing
resilience in adverse situations, keeping the team upbeat
when faced with failure, being with the team when
things don’t go as expected and using failures as
stepping stones to future success.
● Celebrating success: Leadership requires one to be a
successful creator and a successful finder. High quality
leaders appreciate the importance of positive strokes.
Teams come together to achieve majestic
accomplishments when their smaller achievements get
appreciated.
● Innovation: This is the lifeblood of any organization
today. Leaders must have mastery over the mechanics
of innovation, the ability to create the ecosystem
necessary to foster innovation, and effectively measure
and map innovative behaviour.

● Situation Leadership: This is of the essence to the

achievement of an effective leadership track record. One
size fits all is a common mistake leaders make. Trying
to make a large number of employees adapt to your
leadership style may not always be the best strategy.
What if you could adjust to their skills and commitment
levels?
Why should anyone be led by you? What would make you
an unstoppable leader? The above modules are designed to
make you the leader that you aspire to be. Great leaders are
the need of the hour. We hope this workbook helps you to
fill that void.
After mastering the Leadership Essentials workbook, we
hope you will join us for the Spartacus Leadership
Development Program (SLDP), where we facilitate the
participants to go on a leadership discovery journey with the
help of one-on-one coaching, making our leader outcomes a
tribute to the legendary Thracian gladiator warrior-leader of
the first century BCE, Spartacus, who gave the mighty
Romans some serious thoughts about their invincibility.
Your feedback is most welcome and we look forward to
receiving your thoughts on improving this workbook for
future readers.
Let’s walk together on this effective leadership development
journey. Good Luck! Benediximus! Happy Leading!

Partha Pratim Pal, Bangalore, India.

Jones Mathew, PhD., New Delhi, India.
January 2020
 CONTENTS
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 1 -
INTEGRITY .............................................................. 1
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 2 –
SELF AWARENESS............................................... 27
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 3 –
SERVANT LEADERSHIP ..................................... 48
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 4 –
VISION OF A LEADER. ........................................ 68
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 5 –
THE 4 C’S .............................................................. 110
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 6 –
COMMUNICATING FOR SUCCESS ................. 132
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 7 –
HANDLING FAILURES ..................................... 155
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 8 –
CELEBRATING SUCCESS ................................. 175
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 9 –
INNOVATION ...................................................... 190
LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 10 –
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP .......................... 201
EPILOGUE – THE UNIQUE LEADER ............. 225
AUTHOR PROFILES .......................................... 227
ABOUT THE BOOK ............................................ 230
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 1
INTEGRITY

Integrity is the practice of being honest and showing consistent

and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical
principles and values. In ethics, integrity is regarded as
honesty and truthfulness of one's actions. Integrity is the
opposite of hypocrisy and dishonesty.
Why do we begin with integrity as an important leadership
essential? The answer is simple enough: without integrity,
one has no moral right to lead.
Why is integrity important in leadership? Simply because it
is the cornerstone of the ability to persuade people you lead
on a long term basis. Also because it beats power-through-
position hands down any day.
Possessing and displaying integrity in the workplace is one
of the most important qualities of great leadership in
business.

“The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably

integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter
whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army,
or in an office.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
Let’s examine why.
Integrity is the ability and willingness to tell the truth as it
is, irrespective of its cost to oneself. Integrity demands
standing up for something when it is seen to be the call of
the hour. A leader must stand up for what is “right”.

1
Integrity is about character. It is about never taking moral
shortcuts. Integrity helps in being successful over the long
term.
A high integrity individual refuses to compromise on good
principles. Business situations often throw up opportunities
to do the “easy but wrong thing”. Integrity is your shield.
One cannot have integrity without strong moral and ethical
grounding.
Integrity is an all-inclusive character quality. It is not
possible to have integrity in one domain and not in others.
One cannot have integrity in accounting practices and not
have it in business development. A leader cannot have
integrity while dealing with suppliers while being immoral
with opposite gender employees.
Integrity is a binary construct. It is either a zero or a one. A
leader either has it or not. There are no grey areas when it
comes to integrity. Therefore, leaders must begin by
communicating and displaying a clear compass of integrity.
The true North is clear and the needle never wavers. Team
members know exactly what to expect and deliver. They can
count on a leader with integrity to do the right thing.
Always. What an assurance! No ambiguity. No confusion.
No chance of misinterpretation. Impact on business success
can only be phenomenal.
A leader with integrity is one who demonstrates honesty and
dependability.
A leader establishes honesty and dependability through
years of demonstrated behaviours. Promises are kept every
time.

2
The leader must walk the talk, even when the odds are not
favourable.
In case of inability to do what was promised, the leader
apologises and explains why the promise could not be
honoured.
Transparency in dealings with the team is a hallmark of such
a leader.

Ann Mulcahy, the former CEO of Xerox Corporation, was

a candid leader. Soon after she took over Xerox, she
pronounced its business model unsustainable, and that the
company would have to confront reality and make tough
decisions to return to profitability. Because of her integrity,
she gained the trust of the employees, who then pulled
together, gave their best efforts and brought Xerox back into
the black.

Such a leader may not profusely praise team members in a

one-on-one discussion but would be a strong defender of the
team in front of superiors. Straight talking, saying what one
means and meaning what one says is such a leader’s natural
characteristics.
Though one may not like the bluntness, the team members
know that whatever their leader does, it is for the benefit of
the entire team.
Cutting corners or bending rules are non-options when
business issues are discussed. Such leaders teach the team
to be well within the normative boundaries of the
organization and yet win, year after year.
Leaders with integrity find opportunities to be different and
not follow the herd unless it is aligned with personal and
professional values.
3
Progress may be slow in the beginning, but the team
discovers its new capabilities, not known to them till now,
giving them more self-confidence as they find a new purpose
in their professional lives.

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he

acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those
around him positively.”
Bob Marley, Jamaican pioneer of Reggae Music

The team under leaders with integrity realise they can do

much more than they thought they could by flowing with the
crowd; their leader’s thinking process is different — an
individual with integrity who will not compromise. Team
members get that.
If a leader breaks or bends the rules of the organization or
any other law or encourages or forces his team members to
do the same, then they are in violation of the sacred covenant
of integrity that they are expected to uphold. Such leaders
corrupt their subordinates. This corruption not only occurs
at the business activity or functional level but also at the
moral and ethical level of subordinates. This then expands
into the industry and national level. In short, a leader with
low integrity can create a pool of low integrity subordinates
who then go on to become low integrity business leaders.
Imagine the negative impact on a nation with a large number
of low integrity business leaders!
Financial integrity is paramount in any leadership role.
Dishonest people despite knowing that they should not
indulge in financial irregularities, cannot control the urge to
make quick gains.

4
Some may make personal gains by successfully indulging in
unscrupulous financial activities, which over time make them
quite confident of their devious craft, turning it into a habit.
Often it becomes a part of their extra income and then the
habit becomes a compulsion to support an extravagant
lifestyle riding on unethical financial gains. Ultimately,
when their financial misdemeanours are brought to light,
they not only lose their jobs but also become untouchables
in the industry. Disaster strikes their personal lives, as their
family suffers financially and also socially.
Financial illegalities do not happen without connivance of
or tacit approval from important people in the hierarchy,
most notably the immediate manager. Good leaders do not
allow anyone within the organization to take undue
advantage of their positions to sabotage the organization’s
reputation.
Integrity is more difficult than it seems. A few reasons for
this are:
1. People’s ability to rationalize anything makes it possible
for them to say that it’s not really cheating or everybody
else does it too.
2. Different people define integrity differently – some
cultures encourage gifting (Diwali in India) while
others would consider it as bribing.
When you sit across from a client do you tweak facts to suit
your company? Are promises made that are not intended to
be honoured? Are mistakes owned up to? These are
important questions a leader must answer. Integrity is doing
the “right” thing even when no one is watching. Again,
defining “right” is also not easy. The culture in which the
business is embedded determines “right” and “wrong” for

5
most leaders. To stand up for the truth and be a ‘minority
of one’ is the true test of a leader with integrity.
Exercise:
You have planned to attend a family wedding two months
from now in another city. You take your immediate manager
into confidence and then plan an official tour on the same
dates as that of the marriage. You may extend a day or two
and take leave for the same. Would this be high integrity
behaviour? Yes or No? _________
Has the manager lived up to his responsibility as the
custodian of integrity and honesty in his team: Yes or No?
___________________________________________
__________________________________________
Is the above an issue of financial integrity: Yes or No? Why
do you think so?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
__________________________________________
Unfortunately, some of these people also move up in their
career, and they bank on their dishonesty to indulge in
bigger ‘deals’.
There are many once-illustrious names in various industries
all around the world who have compromised integrity and
ended up in jail. Most such people tend to be over-confident
of being able to fool the system and survive unscathed. Time
and again this has been proved wrong. Time and again the
law has shown it possesses very long arms.
There should be no exceptions to honesty and integrity.
Integrity is a state of mind and is not situational. Integrity is
6
a philosophy of life. If you compromise your integrity in
small situations with little consequences, then it paves the
way for compromises on bigger situations with far-reaching
consequences.
Leaders with integrity always err on the side of fairness,
especially when other people are unfair.
It is human to have a personal liking for some team members
over the others, but a good leader is conscious of the fact
that all team members deserve fairness in all forms and his
every action is a demonstration of his fairness.
When a leader treats any person unfairly or does not support
him in bad times, he must understand that his action is being
watched by the team members. It spreads negativity in the
team, and quite naturally other team members know what is
in store for them in the future in similar situations. Being
with your team members in bad times or when things are not
going well for them is a sign of concern and warmth. Team
members respect that. Only honest leaders can do this
credibly.
Everyone can be good to his team members when the sales
and marketing figures are rosy, but it takes the character of
a good leader to support and encourage team members
during rough patches.
And life is a cycle of good and bad patches, so abandoning
team members in bad times will result in the team
abandoning the leader in good times.
Being fair to every team member is the hallmark of a leader
with high integrity.

7
You would have realized by now that integrity is
demonstrated as honesty and dependability, fairness and
transparency.
When a leader is consistent in demonstrating honesty and
dependability over and over again in various testing
situations, he gains the respect and trust of his team
members.
Trust is the only currency of a leader in today’s work
environment.
The team will go more than an extra mile for a leader they
trust.
Team members will forgo short term gains and even
undergo hardships if they trust their leader.
Leaders who enjoy the trust of their team members will
make the workplace more productive, enjoyable and in such
teams, a conflict is a rare event.
In today’s cluttered market place, with very little or no
product/service differentiation, a vibrant and cohesive team
is about the only serious differentiator.
Such teams can only be created and developed by leaders
who enjoy the trust of their team members.
Hence, trust is the most valuable currency of a leader which
is possible only if the leader demonstrates high honesty and
integrity.
Integrity is also about giving and keeping promises
diligently. In today’s times to be a leader with integrity
requires guts of steel. Short term gains through shortcuts
have become so prevalent that for a person of integrity to
hold his ground has become exceedingly difficult. Integrity
8
is not for the weak-hearted. It is not useful if one wants to
be the most popular person in the organization. In fact,
people with high integrity are often sabotaged with false
allegations and character assassination. Hence, integrity
requires strong nerves.
Can integrity be developed?
Without a doubt, yes.
Exercise:
A high performing salesman is accused of sexually harassing
a female subordinate and the leader ignores it in light of the
phenomenal hold on the market the sales man has; firing
him might result in the company losing major clients and
market share. Is he a good leader? Yes or No. Why?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Exercise:
As a leader you are to choose between a high performer who
is not very friendly with you (does not go on socializing
sessions with you outside of work) and a moderate
performer (who spends a lot of time socializing with you
outside of work and is a good friend to you) for promotion.
Who would you select? Why?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

9
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Integrity requires sacrifices to be made. Monetary benefits,
comforts and convenience, belongingness, shortcuts,
disproportionately high standards of living and popularity
are some sacrifices to be made.
The reward for integrity in business leadership is, becoming
a “legend”. Added benefits are a head held high, life-long
loyalty from similarly minded team members, peace of mind,
and long term success.
Vignette # 1
Rajeev’s team missed a deadline for an important
deliverable his team was supposed to have developed and
delivered. He took responsibility for the missed deadline
even though his team hadn’t delivered as promised. He
discussed the problems with his team and they put in place
precautions, checks and balances that would prevent them
from underperforming again.
Team members realized their part in the failure but the
consequences were controlled because Rajeev took
responsibility as the team lead. We believe Rajeev was a
leader with integrity.
Vignette # 2
Shalini was the HR Manager for a major telecom company.
A female employee approached her to complain against her
male boss who was bullying her. Shalini as the HR Head
took charge and investigated the complaint and found it to
be true. Other employees too had been bullied in the same
manner by that boss. She offered to mediate a
conversation between the boss and the employee. The
10
employee was scared to confront her boss directly.
Nevertheless, Shalini gave her assurance. The boss blamed
the employee for shoddy work. Ultimately, Shalini had to
escalate the matter to the Senior VP level who was the boss
of the accused. Only then did that person desist from his
obnoxious behavior. This is an example of high integrity
leadership on the part of the HR Head.
Now the pertinent question is: how to build ‘trust’ among
team members?

Trust is the culture of an organization that has to start at the

top. It is a leadership responsibility. It flows from integrity.
Hence this next section delves into the trust building aspect
which is best witnessed in organizations with a high integrity
leadership quotient.
Any company that is having trouble is a company that has
an issue of trust deficit between the team and its leader.
When there is a trust deficit, the environment is filled with
fear.

11
Fear in the workplace is the most damaging of emotions
which spirals the organization downwards with enormous
speed.
The environment becomes toxic which causes conflicts, poor
performance, employee attrition, low commitment and bad-
mouthing of the company in the job market.
It is only natural that such an environment does not attract
talent; on the contrary, it will repel talent.
An organization that is low on the trust factor will decay.
Hence, developing an environment of trust should be the
paramount responsibility of a leader at all levels, and it
needs to start from the top.
Leaders recruit team members taking into account their
competencies, their past achievements and track record,
assessing their job fit and their aspirations to make a mark
in their careers in the company.
They come to work with loads of aspirations and expect
support and encouragement to do their job to meet their
assigned goals so that they are professionally successful.
What makes them good or bad at their work is indeed the
culture of the organization.
Let’s discuss some ways on how to build trust in the team
and hence the culture of trust in the organization.
1. Be willing to accept that there is a need to
work on building better trust in the team.
Any management will be open to improving physical objects
without much problem.

12
If an employee informs his leader that there is a problem
with the office wifi or that the IT system does not have
enough bandwidth, the leader would have no problem
admitting that it needs to be upgraded or changed.
However, when it comes to organizational culture, it is a
different ball game altogether. It is difficult to admit that
there is a need to make changes in the culture of the
organization or the team.
Willing to make the change exhibits the courage and
character of the leader, and this is the first step towards
gaining trust from team members.
There are various tools to understand the level of employee
trust levels.
Employee engagement surveys are one way to understand
various aspects or parameters on how the company is
functioning including the trust level of various teams.
HR departments often organize the leader’s orientation
programs or 360˚ feedback mechanisms to understand the
trust levels between the leader and team members.
Exercise:
Do you recognize that there needs to be a change in the
culture of your team? Why?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

13
What are the cultural changes you want to bring about in
your team?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
What will you do to bring about the above changes?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
2. Don’t blame your team members when things
go wrong.

Make every task a team effort and define roles and

responsibilities. When team members are clear about their
goals and they have the tools and training to work on
achieving their goals, then people are more focused and
usually do a good job.

In case one is not up to the mark, it is better to discuss and

understand what the problem is and together form an action
plan to solve it by supporting each other.

This behaviour of the leader will give a sense amongst the

team that “we are in it together” and “we win or lose as a
team”.

Being involved as an insider rather than worrying about an

external threat brings more ownership amongst the team
members and gradually members go the extra mile to
accomplish the task.
14
STEPS TO INTEGRITY-BASED, TRUST
DRIVEN TEAMS

Step 1: Tell the team it is a “Team”

Step 2: Define roles and responsibilities with high integrity
Step 3: Train members to trust and work together
Step 4: Discuss and understand why low performance is
happening
Step 5: Praise good performance fairly
Step 6: Work as a Team on action plans

Overarching step: Be transparent, fair, display honesty and

integrity throughout, and communicate regularly.

Exercise:

In your opinion is there someone who is pulling down your

team’s performance? Why do you think so?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Have you ever given honest feedback to this person privately
or in a review meeting for the low performance?

Yes/No
How well did he know his roles? Not at all/ Fairly
well/Completely?
Did you empower him with the right tools and training?
Yes/No?

15
In the last 6 months how many times have you
communicated with him on an individual basis? <5/>5
What was the outcome of these communications?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
If you did provide feedback publicly or in person, did the
employee’s performance show any signs of improvement?
Yes/No
What are the areas which need improvement for better
performance?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
How do you plan to help the team member to improve?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

16
3. Apologise when you have fallen short of your
team members’ expectations.
Leaders are human too and make mistakes, small or big,
and some are big enough to pull down the performance of
the team.

Admitting one’s mistakes attracts admiration as a leader

and signals that this is an honest person who does not use
his position to cover up mistakes.

Such honest behaviour develops mutual trust and bonds the

team together.

Exercise:

List the mistakes related to integrity that you as a leader

have done in the last three months.
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

Which mistake(s) affected the performance of your team the

most?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

17
How would you have reacted if any of the team members
committed similar mistakes?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Let’s practice how to apologize to the team members for
your mistakes.

“Hello everybody. I am here to apologise to each one of you

for the leadership shortfall on my part. The entire team has
been under tremendous pressure for the shortfall in our sales
achievement. I do believe that our sales projections did not
go as planned. My analysis is that I should have been more
careful about the seasonality factor in the demand for our
product. Nevertheless, lesson learned. Going forward I intend
to look into every possible scenario so that we do not end up
missing our targets. I must take the blame for this fiasco. I am
sure we can regroup and re-emerge as the most successful
team in the upcoming festive season by overachieving our
October targets by 20%. This will help offset the current
situation and bring glory back to our team! Are we all in?!
Thank you.”

4. Have a culture of open communication in the

team
Leaders who depend more on one-to-one communication
amongst the team members develop a culture of openness
and direct feedback with their team.

18
Mails and other official memos should be kept to the
minimum, so that communication is more one-to-one or in a
group setting, for the team to express their views on what is
going to propel the team forward.

In such an environment, the team accepts “s t r e t c h”

goals and makes action plans to make those goals happen.

A trustworthy leader can create such openness and team

members rise to the occasion to face challenges.

Exercise:

According to you, when and what matter(s) should you

communicate over mail to your team?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Please give an example of the mail.
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

19
What is the general format of your team’s meetings?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

Let’s do a one-on-one discussion on a performance review

with a team member.
What are the key issues to be discussed?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

What do you want to achieve through this discussion?

___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

20
5. Give credit to team members when things go
right.

Leaders who are confident of themselves, shower praise on

their team members and give them the credit when they
achieve organizational objectives.

Such behaviour by the leader builds trust amongst the team

members and they get up on stage and sincerely thank their
leader for having contributed to their success.

Leaders with integrity present team members to the top

management and praise them in front of the top brass. Such
leaders find ways to highlight their good work amongst all
in the organization.

Such behaviour by the leader makes him stand out taller

than any other leader who craves attention and credit, and
their team members are prepared to give more than is
required to see the team on top.

Exercise:
Give some examples when you have praised a team member
in public for a good job done.
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

21
Did you let top management know about his or her success?

Yes/No

If yes, then what did you tell the top management of their
achievement?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

6. Be transparent and be your original self with

the team.

People gauge their leader in his every word and action. The
best way to build trust in the team is to be your own self.
Fakes are recognized faster than one realizes and having a
hidden agenda or pep talks for short term gains are a definite
no-no if one has to build a team on trust and mutual respect.

In case the leader is up against some odds, it is better to

share with the team and find a way out. This will offer a
new purpose for the team to stick together to fight new
battles as one formidable force.

22
Exercise:
Please recall if you have been tempted to give pep talks for
short term gains which may not have been entirely true?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
How can one be one’s own self in front of the team?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

23
In ancient India, Emperor Chandragupta Maurya (reign: c.
321 – c. 297 BCE), the founder of the Mauryan Empire
had a Chief Minister by the name of Chanakya (also known
as Kautilya). He was the author of the ancient Indian
political treatise, the Arthashastra, which is still considered
a seminal work in the field of political science and economics
in India.
The fame and name of Chanakya spread far and wide so
much so that once a Chinese visitor came to Pataliputra
looking for Chanakya. On not finding Chanakya in the
King’s palace, he looked elsewhere and found him on the
outskirts of the city, in a small hut in a remote place. The
Chinese visitor was impressed by the wisdom and humility
of Pataliputra’s ruler. "When the minister stays in a simple
dwelling, the subjects enjoy good housing; when the minister
lavishes on his stay, then the subjects will be bereft of decent
dwelling places.”
One of the most important qualities of a minister is being,
"swachh." Swachh is not simply being externally clean, but
also indicates integrity and transparency, which is illustrated
in the story below.

24
When a Chinese traveller entered the hut, it was dark and
only a small oil lamp was burning inside. Chanakya
welcomed the traveller inside and then lit another lamp and
put out the flame of the first lamp.
The Chinese traveller was confused and didn’t understand
why another lamp was lit and the earlier one was put out
upon his entry. “Is this lighting of a new lamp a tradition to
welcome someone to the house?” he wondered aloud.
Chanakya smiled and answered quietly, “When you came
in, I was doing the King’s work, and the oil for that lamp
was paid for by the king. Whenever I do my personal work,
I light the other lamp, and the oil for this lamp is paid for
by me, from my personal funds. Now that I am talking to
you, I will be doing my personal work and not the King’s
work, and therefore, I will be using my own money to light
the new lamp.”
This is an excellent example of integrity, which is not only
about external cleansing, but a total synergy between
thoughts, words, and action.
This is a fundamental learning about the basics of integrity
and character, without which a leader cannot get the trust of
his team members.

25
26
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 2
SELF AWARENESS

Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the

ability to recognize oneself as an individual separate from the
environment and other individuals.
Self-awareness is how an individual consciously knows and
understands his own character, feelings, motives, and desires.
It is the awareness of one’s own personality and individuality.
γνῶθισεαυτόν
The above inscription is an invitation carved in the forecourt
of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi of ancient Greece. It
translates broadly as, ‘Know thy self’.
This aphorism has been attributed to the famous Greek
philosopher Socrates who taught that ‘an unexamined life is
not worth living’.
To put it simply, self-awareness is the consciousness of one’s
self and one’s surroundings.
The authors of How to Become a Better Leader published
in the MIT Sloan Management Review state that self-
awareness is the most important capability that leaders must
develop. Effective leaders know what their natural
inclinations are and leverage this knowledge to boost those
inclinations or offset them.
Self-awareness operates at three levels: thinking, voicing and
acting.
Thinking involves contemplating about oneself and the
surroundings. It is not as easy as one thinks. That is because

27
more than 45% of our daily actions are habitual. What does
this mean for leadership? Is it possible for leaders to develop
self-awareness skills while leading a team? What it means
for effective leadership is this: a self-unaware leader is like a
bull in a china shop. He or she goes about the business of
leading without consciousness of the self, the team members
and the environment in which everybody operates.
Resultant leadership will be of poor quality.
Exercise (Without thinking answer the following):
How are your feet placed when you stand? Straight, at 5
past 11 or 10 past 10?
___________________________________________
Why is your star sales performer not performing up to the
mark for the last two months?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

What was the real reason for the heated discussion with your
boss in the last meeting?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

28
Chances are that the answers to these questions may not be
easily recollected or known. It is so because we are not
consciously aware of ourselves or the surroundings. We do
not find time to observe and reflect, to pause and think.
Self-awareness is a rare gift that very few species in the
animal kingdom possess. Humans are one of the lucky few,
besides orangutans, dolphins, orca whales, elephants and
magpies. Since it is a rare gift it is highly valuable.
Collectivistic human societies have generally a lower self-
awareness level among its people because the focus of social
existence is not on the individual here, but on the group.
India is a collectivistic society. Of late it is becoming
increasingly individualistic and materialistic. Hence, self-
awareness is weak leading to multiple problems, especially
in leadership positions. At the thinking stage self-awareness
may be cultivated by reading, actively observing, asking
‘why’, labelling thoughts and emotions, conscious breathing,
and attention to body language.
Voicing self-awareness involves creating an ecosystem of
journaling, writing down thoughts and reflections, creating
an action plan, and speaking with a self-aware person.
Exercise
 When was the last time you maintained a
diary/journal?
Never _____
Less than five years ago_____
More than five years ago _____
Am presently maintaining one ______

29
 If you did maintain or are maintaining a diary presently,
how did/do you benefit from it?
___________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Who is the self-aware person you seek advice from?
I don’t need anyone to help me be self-aware ____
I don’t have anyone but would like to have someone____
I had someone but then we lost touch ____
I presently have someone as my self-awareness mentor ____

Set aside time every day to jot down the highlights,

learnings, and lessons experienced that day. Self-awareness
suggests that this noting down must be goal-oriented.
Hence, your journey of discovery should be able to tell you
whether you are moving closer or farther away from your
goals as an outcome of improved self-awareness. For
instance, if you become aware that your short temper is not
only destroying team morale but also affecting employee
churn it would be advisable to take corrective action toward
the goals of improving team spirit and reducing employee
turnover.

In life, one experiences different situations and challenges.

The less self-aware person will react and will not be in
control of his emotions. He or she is likely to be extremely
depressed with failure or disproportionately excited by
30
success. Loss of equilibrium is an outcome of poor self-
awareness. A highly self-aware person experiences calmness
even in the face of upsetting situations or people and exhibits
equanimity in victory. Such a person first becomes aware of
his/her emotions internally, then accepts it, and then tries to
handle those emotions calmly.
A self-aware person is one who may not be in control of the
external challenging situations but manages it in a manner
that creates less disturbance internally. Self-awareness is
about knowing one’s strengths and weaknesses, one’s bright
and dark spots, one’s clear and blind spots.
So being self-aware is not only being in charge of a given
situation but also being unaffected emotionally and
behaviourally by stressful external situations. This mindset
helps in ‘acting’ instead of ‘reacting’ to difficult situations.
The difference between the two is that the former is
planned, thought-through and goal-oriented. The latter is
impulsive, immature and ego-centered.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that

space is our power to choose our response. In our response
lies our growth and our freedom,” stated Viktor Emil
Frankl, an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist as well as
a Holocaust survivor. Such is the importance of self-
awareness.
Successful leaders know where their natural inclinations lie
and use this knowledge to boost those inclinations or
compensate for them.
A study by Korn/Ferry International found that self-
awareness level of leaders affects the bottom line of their
companies. Interestingly, women executives exhibited
deeper self-awareness than male executives. With most
31
board rooms across the world packed with males, it is quite
possible that corporate leadership, financial results and
governance could have been better than what they have been
generally if women had been more widely represented.
The quality of one’s life will often be determined by the level
of one’s self-awareness.
Though it is so important, self-awareness is very often taken
for granted. We assume that we know ourselves quite well
and we know who we are, and therefore, this is definitely
not a skill that needs to be worked upon on priority to
develop ourselves into exceptional leaders.
It is unfortunate that our education system has laid more
emphasis on rote-learning, marks and grades while largely
ignoring the commitment to help students become more self-
aware.
This trend continues at the corporate level. Most corporates
focus on training employees with job skills in order to deliver
better results and scale up productivity. Of late, however,
corporates are attempting to impart soft skills to their
managers to help them interact better with customers and
other team members.
Programs to increase self-awareness could go a long way in
making the workplace more enjoyable and productive.
Let us see if you know who you really are by answering some
basic questions.
 Have you ever tried to understand yourself?
______________________________________

32
 Why do you behave the way you do?
________________________________________
________________________________________
 When was the last time you actively sought feedback on
yourself?
_____________________
 When was the last time you laughed at yourself?
___________________________________
 Do you micromanage your team?
________________________________________
 Do you know how the team members feel about your
micromanaging?
_________________
 Do you become defensive when you get feedback from
the team/superior or peers? ______
 Are you a good listener?
_______________
 If yes, then what per cent of the time do you listen vs
talk with your team members? ______________
 Did you say something to your team/peers which
changed the way they behave towards you?
________________
 Are you in control of your verbal and non-verbal
communication especially in difficult situations?
________________________

33
 Is it always the team’s fault when things go wrong? If
not, then when was the last time you took the blame on
yourself when some major mishap happened?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
______________________________
 Have you ever analysed your personality traits?
________________________________________
 Do you know when to use which trait? ____________
 What is your values compass?
________________________________________
________________________________________
 How many times in the past year have you stuck to the
right “thing”? __________________
If you have answered the questions above honestly, you may
realize that it is not very easy to claim that we know ourselves
well.
As leaders, your actions, words and gestures are being
closely watched and they influence your team members in
more ways than you can imagine. Hence, a leader who
carries himself with full awareness on what impact he/she
wants to make with the team will make a better leader.
For this purpose, one needs to be self-aware of not only
one’s strengths and weaknesses, i.e. not only what makes
him/her effective or ineffective, but also how one reacts to
different situations.
Self-awareness is the ability to recognize our own and
others’ emotions and to use this awareness to manage our
34
own behaviours so that we may get the desired behaviour
from our team members.
Hence, self-awareness also helps leaders control or
moderate their emotions which effectively helps them to
connect to their team members better.
As is evident by now, self-awareness is extremely
empowering as it customizes your thought
processes/emotions and aligns your behaviour in a way
which makes the team members more receptive to accept
your leadership.

“Yes, love yourself. But also, analyse and be critical of how

you think, act, and behave. Self-love without self-awareness
is useless. Be accountable to yourself first.”
Anonymous

In a study of 17,000 individuals worldwide, a Hay Group

Research found that 19 per cent of women executives
interviewed exhibited self-awareness as compared to 4 per
cent of their male counterparts.

Psychiatrist Prudy Gourguechon presents the question of

what happens without self-awareness. Among her answers:
“You would be ignorant of your blind spots.”
“You would not know when and how your emotions are
distorting your thinking.”
“You wouldn’t know what you know and what you don’t
know, so you wouldn’t be able to count on yourself to seek
necessary additional information.”
“You would not be able to judge the effectiveness of your
communications.”

35
“You would not develop as a leader because you wouldn’t
know where you need to go.”

Here are some methods to determine your self-awareness

level:
Method 1: Employ 360o feedback in order to compare how
you think about yourself at work and how others think of
you at work.
Method 2: If your organization does not follow the 360o
method, choose a range of people in your organization on
your own (some of the respondents should be people
negatively oriented toward you) and administer a suitable
questionnaire. Compare this with your self-filled
questionnaire.
Method 3: Benchmark yourself to a known successful leader
within or outside your organization. Map self-awareness
parameters and compare with chosen benchmarks.
Method 4: Seek professional evaluation of one’s self-
awareness level, either face-to-face or online.
Method 5: Employ a personal coach. The expense can
become an investment.
Method 6: Conduct self-analysis using the Johari window
method.
(In the interest of objectivity, remove all extreme outliers.
For instance, a comment such as “You are a rock star” or
“You are the worst leader ever” should be ignored. Also,
be cautious of feedback giving you a 5-on-5 on every
question. Nobody’s perfect.)

36
Method 6: In case you can’t have any of the above, you can
ask a few of your close friends to answer the following
questions.
Friends about You Score You about Score
(5 max) Yourself (5 max)
What are my What are my
strengths? strengths?
What are my What are my
weaknesses? weaknesses?
My behaviours My behaviours
limiting my limiting my
progress in my progress in my
career? career?
How would you How would I
describe me to describe myself
someone in our to someone in
personal circle? our personal
circle?
How would you How would I
describe me to describe myself
someone in top to someone in
management? top
management?
How would you How would I
describe me to my describe myself
peer group? to my peer
group?
Total Score Total Score
Analyse both the results and it will be evident how much
you know yourself and what the blind spots are. Blind spots
are those elements of yourself that you had no idea existed.
The results can be mapped on two parameters—
a) Similarities
b) Differences
37
List the similarities:
1.

2.

3.

4.

The similarities are the behaviours that you desire to

communicate which are in sync with how your peers/team
members perceive you.
Make a list of positive behaviours:

1.

The above list constitutes your sweet spot, where your

behaviours are making a positive impact in the minds of your
team members and the team is benefiting from your
presence.
The action point is to ensure that such behaviours are
repeated more often so that your team members enjoy their
work and go the extra mile to make the team more
successful.
Make a list of negative behaviours (if any)

38
 1.

Both you and your close friends agree on the above and you
know that such behaviours are very detrimental to the team
and to your own career and image. Such behaviours are to
be aggressively controlled or eliminated totally.
It is going to be tough, and it must be done very
purposefully.

Tests to measure self-awareness must be capable enough of

considering what goes on beneath the surface. Surface
messages include vague statements such as, “I’m afraid”,
“They are unfair” or “I am trying to win”. Deeper messages
would be, “Afraid of what?”, “Who is unfair” and “How
are you trying?” These are specific in nature. Answers to
specific questions help in improving self-awareness.
What’s in it for you?
More self-awareness = More Choices

One method which has worked for us is “Flagging”. We

have often used flagging with our team by telling them that
we have a specific bad behaviour characteristic (for example,
tendency to get aggressive around month end) and that they
should flag us whenever we get aggressive especially after
the 20th of the month. We also assure them that they have
our guarantee that they will never be penalised or punished
for flagging us for that behaviour.

39
It took a lot of courage and swallowing of our pride, but it
was one positive behaviour which made our team’s and our
work life enjoyable. You could give our version of flagging
a twist by depositing a Rs. 100 note in the “Flagging Box”
every time someone in your team flags you. Deposited
penalties could be used to take your team out for a treat at
the end of a quarter! When the penalties stop completely
thanks to your becoming totally self-aware and in control of
your aggression, then the team takes you out for a treat
(hopefully)!
Such behaviour could build trust and camaraderie in the
team and makes the team a formidable force.
Now the tricky part is when there are differences between
what you think are your behaviours and what your
respondents think is your behaviour. It is a dilemma. How
should one go about dealing with such differences?
Let’s start with the negative points about yourself. For
example:
You: Believe you are a wonderful listener.
Respondents: Believe that you hardly ever listen.
In such cases, go by what your external feedback is. The
simple reason is: perception matters a lot. What others think
about you as a leader plays a prominent role in your long-
term success. Because obviously, you cannot be a successful
leader without willing and motivated followers.
Exercise:
Try to recall and analyse your behaviour in the last two or
three meetings with your team and tick mark the appropriate
responses below:

40
 Behaviour to be Observed How often do you do this?
How many times do you Never | Rarely | Sometimes
interrupt when someone else is | Often
talking?
How many times have you Never | Rarely | Sometimes
paraphrased what the other | Often
person is saying?
How often do you throw your Never | Rarely | Sometimes
seniority weight when there is a | Often
difference of opinion?
Do you get emotional and Never | Rarely | Sometimes
defensive when someone else is | Often
disagreeing with you?
What has been your body Bossy | Open | Relaxed
language during | Supportive
discussions/meetings/
conversations?

And do the same as we did in the previous exercise to

consciously be vigilant not to repeat those behaviours.
And the positive points mentioned about you, we should try
to repeat them consciously.
Try this for 3 months and see the difference in the results.
If done with full involvement and sincerity it will create a
benchmark for all the other colleagues and leaders in the
organization to emulate.
When faced with a difficult situation, the leader needs to
pay attention to his or her emotions and be able to command
control of his or her emotions and not the other way around.
Once in control of one’s emotions, it will be easier to make
an emotional connect with one’s team members in a
constructive and meaningful manner.

41
The Johari Window
Created by Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in 1955,
the Johari Window technique is a useful tool to help people
understand their relationship with themselves and others.
In the Johari Window exercise, subjects pick a number
of adjectives from a list, choosing ones they feel describe
their own personality. The subject's peers then get the same
list, and each picks an equal number of adjectives that
describe the subject. These adjectives are then inserted into
a two-by-two grid of four cells as shown below.
The list of the 56 Johari adjectives:
able, accepting, adaptable, bold, brave, calm, caring, cheerful,
clever, complex, confident, dependable, dignified, empathetic,
energetic, extroverted, friendly, giving, happy, helpful, idealistic,
independent, ingenious, intelligent, introverted, kind,
knowledgeable, logical, loving, mature, modest, nervous,
observant, organized, patient, powerful, proud, quiet, reflective,
relaxed, religious, responsive, searching, self-assertive, self-
conscious, sensible, sentimental, shy, silly, spontaneous,
sympathetic, tense, trustworthy, warm, wise, and witty.

42
Mechanics of the Exercise:
Arena Quadrant
Adjectives that both the subject and peers select go in this
quadrant of the grid. These are traits that subject and peers,
both perceive. It is the Open Zone.
Blind Spot Quadrant
Adjectives not selected by subject, but only by subject’s
peers go here. These represent what others perceive but the
subject does not. This is the Blind Spot.
The Façade Quadrant
Adjectives selected by the subject, but not by any of the
subject’s peers, go in this quadrant. These are qualities the
peers are either unaware of, or that are untrue except for the
subject's claim. This the Hidden Zone.
The Unknown Quadrant
The remaining adjectives which neither the subject nor the
subject’s peers selected go here. These represent the
subject's behaviors or motives that no one participating
recognizes—either because they do not apply or because of
collective ignorance of these traits.
The technique is an engaging and enriching exercise in
knowing yourself better and what others think of you. Take
the test with a group of your colleagues.
Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Talking of self-awareness without reference to Emotional
Intelligence (EI) would be only half the story told. Self-
awareness is the first step toward EI.

43
EI, according to Daniel Goleman who popularised the
term, is “the ability of individuals to recognize their own
emotions and of others, to differentiate between different
feelings and label them properly, employ emotional
information to guide thinking and behaviour, adapt to the
environment and achieve set goals.”
The five components of EI important in business leadership
roles are:

Self-
awareness

Self-
Motivation
regulation

Empathy Social Skill

1. Self-awareness – the ability to know one's emotions,

strengths, weaknesses, drives, values and goals and
recognize their impact on others while using gut
feelings to guide decisions.
2. Self-regulation – involves controlling or redirecting one's
disruptive emotions and impulses and adapting to
changing circumstances.
3. Social skill – managing relationships to move people in
the desired direction.
4. Empathy – considering other people's feelings especially
when making decisions.

44
5. Motivation – being driven to achieve for the sake of
achievement.
Exercise:
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest) how would you
rate yourself on the 5 EI components?
SELF-AWARENESS
SELF-REGULATION
SOCIAL SKILL
EMPATHY
MOTIVATION

What are the areas you would like to improve on?

___________________________________________
_______________________________________
What three steps would you like to take for each of the above
improvement areas?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

45
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

X appears to be a friendly peer. However, he has the habit

of shooting off emails to all and sundry in a rude tone if he
does not like something or someone. If anyone retorts to his
rude emails, he would quickly explain that he was
misunderstood – “I was only thinking of the organization’s
interests”. People in the organization see through his
charades. Once in a while someone would retort in a similar
vein. Such emails and retorts disrupt peace and are a result
of poor self-awareness and low emotional intelligence on
both sides. It is always advisable for leaders to be calm and
self-aware when dealing with such situations. Tempting as
it might be, one should not retort or take action without
thinking. Self-awareness and emotional intelligence offers
one the wisdom to step back and look at the big picture. The
more one develops SA and EI, the better a leader he or she
will become.

46
47
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 3
SERVANT LEADERSHIP

“The servant-leader is a servant first… It begins with the

natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then
conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person
is sharply different from one who is a leader first, perhaps
because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to
acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the
servant-first are two extreme types.”
—Robert K Greenleaf
Servant leadership is primarily about giving priority to team
members’ needs, helping them to grow as persons, and
minimizing the negative impact of leadership on the less
privileged in society.
The term ‘Servant Leadership’ may be a bit confusing.
How can a “leader” serve? Or how can a “servant” lead?
In other words, if managers start serving team members, who
will manage?
Ken Blanchard, management guru and renowned author,
emphasizes, “The problem is that folks don’t understand
leadership properly, leave alone servant leadership. They
think that one can’t lead and serve at the same time.”
But of course, you can, if you understand that there are two
aspects of servant leadership.
 The servant role : the “desire to serve” part
 The leadership role: the “facilitating to succeed” part

48
Hence, the servant leader begins with a service attitude and
then makes it possible for team members to succeed through
leadership. The first part is the service attitude and the
second is the vision and implementation (the stuff of
leadership).
According to Tom Peters, author of the path-breaking book
on leadership and quality, In Search of Excellence,
“Organizations should exist to serve. Period. Leaders
should live to serve. Period.”
The servant leader’s primary objective is to serve the team
members and take care of their needs.
This reminds us of a quote by the Nobel Laureate and poet,
Rabindranath Tagore.
‘I slept and dreamt that life was a joy. I awoke and saw that
life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy’
Servant leaders take joy in their service. As a matter of
principle, they put serving their team members before their
own self.
Self-serving leaders are focused on serving themselves; they
pursue privilege, power and prestige for themselves. Servant
leaders are focused on serving others; they pursue privilege,
power and prestige for team members.
Business stakeholders are now increasingly choosing servant
leadership because they recognize that it is the right thing to
do. There is a serious leadership crisis across businesses and
this approach to a leader’s role holds out hope that things
can be improved.

49
How can you become a servant leader?
On the softer side, you can focus on two things to start with:
Your Words and Your Presence.
The Power of Words in Servant Leadership
Words can make someone joyful or miserable; they can
motivate or frustrate your team; they can honour or
humiliate someone; with one word you can start a lifelong
friendship or an eternal enemy.
The power of words or language is enormous, as it shapes
the culture of the organization to start with.
A happy person at work is a happy person at home with his
family, and a family is the very unit of our society in which
businesses are embedded.
So, the words of a leader are indeed quite powerful as it has
the potential to shape the organization’s culture which can
play a defining role in shaping the happiness of the homes
and families of team members. Now that is an unusual
thought. Since when did business leaders have the
responsibility of ensuring happiness at home?! Well, for
some time now that has been an important thought.
We remember genuine praise or a kind word for a lifetime
and it has a chain reaction, as the recipient of a kind word
often passes it around and it can cascade down to many
others in the organization, creating a positive and happy
atmosphere. This is not a clichéd, touchy-feely observation.
It is something which works every time. Because in the end,
human beings are more influenced by their heart than their
mind, ceteris paribus (all other things remaining constant).

50
Words have energy and power; hence words have to be used
with great care so that it becomes inspirational, and
encourages the team to give their best to take the
organization and team forward.
Hence, we need to be conscious and mindful of our words.
As the famous Indian playwright Gulzar says, “Lafzon ke
bhi zayke hote hain; parosne se pahle chakh lena chaahiye.”
(Words have many flavours; one must taste them before
serving).
In the last chapter, we saw why self-awareness is a useful
trait of a good leader.
Being self-aware ensures that we use words with caution so
that it brings about peace and compassion.
Yes, sometimes we need to ‘speak our minds’.
This means we need to be frank with an employee
sometimes to give him or her honest feedback about their
overall unsatisfactory progress.
In such cases, it is important to be mindful of what is to be
said as emotions would be quite high on both sides.
Words need to be rehearsed so that there is no exaggeration
of the issue, sticking completely to the facts; words are not
to be used to put down or manipulate the person in any way.
Instead, words need to be consistent and fair without letting
personal biases come in the way of such conversations.
Tough, yes, but with practice it becomes easy.
The suggestion to keep bias out of the communication is one
of the key challenges for any leader or manager because it is
very difficult to step back from a conflict situation and assess
the problem purely on the basis of merit, away from personal

51
ego. It takes prolonged practice. But is it worth it? You bet
it is. Mastery of detaching yourself from a situation and
addressing the situation objectively and then communicating
the negative feedback to the recipient in a compassionate,
empathetic manner is one of the best skills a servant leader
can possess.
Exercise:
List three words that you use when as a leader you get upset
with what you believe is a below acceptable performance of
your team?
________________
________________
________________
What has been the impact of these words on your team? Do
they feel highly motivated? Or highly dejected? Does it
serve your purpose of conveying your message? Does it
create fear in them?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

52
Do you think the right words have a key role to play in
servant leadership? Why?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Other than words, we need to be conscious and ensure that
we get the below three factors right when conversing in all
situations, more so in such a situation.
Paying attention to the tone of your voice is extremely
important, as words spoken in a kind and gentle manner
conveys a different meaning than the same words spoken in
a rough and derogatory tone of voice.
Your body language is another aspect that has a profound
impact on the effectiveness of your conversations.
A discussion on body language will be done in the chapter
on ‘Communication’, but some basic points that need to be
kept in mind are:
- Use a neutral body posture
- Look the other person in the eye in a non-threatening
way to hold the conversation
- Show agreement or disagreement from time to time
(nod your head) to signal comprehension.
Actively listening and understanding the other person’s
point of view is not only fair but also shows respect to the
other person who wants to convey his or her point.

53
Some basic pointers on how to be a good listener. (Details
of listening skills will be dealt with in the chapter on
‘Communication’.)
- Don’t interrupt, be attentive, ask questions at the end to
clarify any point and most importantly, please
understand that listening is not the same as hearing.
- Hearing is a physical process of sound waves entering
your ears. Listening is a focused and concentrated effort
which is a mental process.
Active listening is not only paying attention to what is being
said but to the tone of voice of how it is said, the words that
are being used… it is about being conscious of the verbal
and non-verbal cues that the speaker is sending out.
Almost all successful leaders and entrepreneurs including
Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela credit their success
to their listening skills.
The words we use, the tone of our voice, our body language,
and our listening abilities are skills that need to be practiced.
They go a long way in making a good and effective servant
leader, hence, such skills need to be practiced over and over
again.
Exercise:
Imagine your team has just had a big failure (like not
meeting the monthly sales target). What words would you
use to make the team members still feel enthused and
motivated?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

54
What words would you avoid while conversing with your
team members?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
A team member has exhibited poor team skills in a recent
meeting. How would you communicate to him/her when
‘you have to speak your mind’?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Do you think you need specific help on the use of proper
words, tone of voice, body language and listening skills?
Reach out to an expert.
What are your take-home points on the skills that need to
be worked on?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

55
The second way to achieve servant leadership is by
leveraging your presence.
When do your people and team need you the most? Most
often when they are in trouble or are stuck.
An important question that needs to be answered is, are you
present when they need you the most?
Servant leadership is a reach-out program, i.e., when the
team needs you, you reach out to them, instead of them
having to reach in to you.
A reach-out program shows you care. It signals that you are
aware of the issues that the team has to face in their day-to-
day work and lives. Thus, the credibility and dependability
of the leader is enhanced significantly.
On top of the above advantages, the reach-out program is
time-saving and important issues can be addressed as soon
as they occur or even before they occur.
Servant leaders make it a point to regularly drop in on
employees and have informal professional or personal chats.
They prefer face-to-face informal conversations to
impersonal emails and semi-formal telephonic calls. In
terms of servant leadership communication effectiveness,
emails are the least effective, telephone calls are better and
personal face-to-face discussions and personal handwritten
notes are always the most effective.
The reach-in program (when the team has to reach in to the
boss), has its share of bureaucratic and official delays in the
name of hierarchy, protocol and processes.
When people have to reach in to the boss, there is a whole
lot of explanations to be done. Hence, a majority of the

56
issues are not brought to the notice of the boss, and is
‘somehow’ fixed by making it look as if everything is okay.
Unfortunately, often they surface later and spin out of
control.
Such mistakes can be very costly to the organization, which
can be easily prevented if the boss practices servant
leadership and reaches out to the team members more often
by anticipating when they need help.
In contrast, if there is a self-serving leader, then he or she is
more concerned about being served.
Servant leaders are more empowering than commanding.
A servant leader may not have all the answers but strives to
create an atmosphere of empowerment and encouragement
for the team to work together and find the answer.
Such answers propel the team forward as there is ownership
of the action plan and people go out of their way to prove
themselves right and hence be successful.
Servant leadership can create a bottom-up organizational
culture instead of a top-down one. And even though it can
be an organization- wide cultural thing, individual leaders
can practice servant leadership within their departments,
verticals, or teams.

Lao Tzu wrote about servant leadership in the fifth-century

BC: "The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the
people are barely aware. The Sage is self-effacing and
scanty of words. When his task is accomplished and things
have been completed, all the people say, 'We ourselves have
achieved it!'"

57
Service is love made visible
Servant Leaders serve the people who serve the customers.

Servant Team Fully serves the

Serves
Leader customer

No wonder organizations which have servant leadership in

their culture are so successful.
Imagine the other type of leaders, the ones who only wish to
be served.

Served Serves the Team Partially serves

Leader boss the customer
s

Here the team members’ focus on customer service is

compromised, leading to poor performance. They must
serve the leader first and therefore their focus on serving the
customer is compromised.
There are cultures where power is craved for. Once
acquired, that power is used to make others serve the leader.
All counter-points are demolished. All people who hold
truth to power are suppressed and punished. History tells
us that after some time, this approach becomes
counterproductive.
In today’s competitive environment it is very rare to have a
sustainable advantage based on products.
The real competitive difference flows from the
organization’s people.

58
The people who are in direct contact with the customer
(sales and after-sales service teams) are the ones that need
to create the differentiation in the eyes of the customers.
It is but natural, that if the needs of the team are taken care
of, if they are listened to and their requirements acted upon
in a timely fashion, then it is highly probable that they will
take definite steps to create value for their customers, take
care of their needs, listen to their concerns and act on them.
Isn’t this what all customers want? Thus, in effect servant
leaders can create and keep loyal customers for the
organization.
SERVANT-LEADER BEHAVIOUR
The behaviour of a servant-leader is that of authenticity.
Behaviour is when the ‘rubber meets the road’ at the action
point when a leader gains or loses credibility. Credibility is
born out of “walking the talk”.
The age-old saying, “trust has to be earned” is true. Even
though a servant-leader has authority based on his position,
trust is only generated through the servant and leader’s
behaviour.
Does the leader walk the talk or is it just a shallow show of
concern and some pep talk?
Any doubtful behaviour by the leader is a breach of trust
between the leader and the team members. Such behaviour
doesn’t go down well with the team members, and they
become plagued by discontent. It becomes almost
impossible to get them to believe in you in any future project.
In this way, you end up having a team which actually
benefits the competition because the leader failed to instill
trust and passion amongst the team members.
59
The results of a “service” attitude may not be quite
predictable and definitely takes a long time to fructify,
doesn’t offer quarterly results or a measure on how it will
help the company with the numbers. The tangibility of such
a leadership style is questioned by traditionalists as it is
mostly a “feeling” and doesn’t lend itself to “quantitative
assessment” easily.
In most organizations, going after the numbers game is the
widely accepted approach. Numbers are easier to make
sense of, is measurable, and therefore controllable and
assessable. Going after the numbers is sometimes taken to
be the mark of a strong leader, as a lot of energy is applied
in achieving the numbers - which is the ultimate reason for
which the leader is hired.
However, servant leadership is a different ball game. It is a
more mature, long-term and empowering game for all
stakeholders. But it needs patience and sincerity. So you
have to assess whether you and your organization have
patience and sincerity.
Being overtly focused on numbers makes a leader lose focus
on the most important resource that he is being provided
with to achieve the numbers, which is his or her team.
Servant leadership is about achieving numbers by leveraging
a team with more empowerment, freedom, and risk-taking
ability. Focusing only on numbers without taking care of the
team can be disastrous.
WHO IS THE SPOTLIGHT ON?
We have been in presentations or programs with the
chairmen or CEOs of organizations and it is a great
opportunity to present yourself and be in the spotlight.

60
After all the leader has led the team to success and who else
should be in the spotlight but him/her?
According to Robert Greenleaf, there are two extremes of
leadership.
At one extreme is the “leader first”, the leader who craves
for the spotlight and uses it for the purpose of his or her
personal advancement.
At the other extreme, there is the “serving leader”, the
“serve first” leader who turns the spotlight on the people
and uses all his resources in making the team members
exceed their own expectations by bringing out their best.
Below are some areas a servant leader is seen contributing
to the team in terms of ‘service’.
How to Become a Servant-Leader
According to Larry Spears, Former President, Robert
Greenleaf Centre for Servant Leadership, these are the 10
most important characteristics of servant leaders—
Listening Empathy- Healing- Awareness- Persuasion-
Actively- Feeling the Giving Conscious of Convincing
listening to other’s space to own strengths the team of
understand, pain/concern recover & weaknesses one’s point
not to reply from
failure/loss
Conceptuali- Foresight- Guidance- Commitment- Community
zation- Knowledge Mentoring To Team’s Building-
Creating a of the future team Growth Creating
vision for all to based on members on Others before belonging-
follow experience the right self ness
and wisdom track

Of the many approaches to attaining servant-leadership

excellence, we recommend the following:

61
 •Identify how you can support the team rather than imposing
STEP 1 your expectations on them

•Empower your team to give feedback to you honestly on your

STEP 2 actions as a leader

•Seek feedback instead of telling them what to do

STEP 3

•Avoid the desire to accumulate power in yourself. Instead try

STEP 4 giving it away.

•Practise humility everyday with your team

STEP 5

THE STORY OF DAN PRICE AT GRAVITY

PAYMENTS
Dan Price, Founder & CEO of Gravity Payments, a credit
card processing company that serves independent
businesses, once took a personal salary cut to implement a
minimum $70,000 annual wage for his employees. Instead
of his company being hit financially as he initially feared,
profits increased. The icing on the cake, however, was when
all the employees got together and bought Price a Tesla car.
This is Servant-Leadership in action and its rewards.

Exercise:
What are some of the cultural elements of an organization
that prevents the practice of servant leadership? (For eg.,
rigid hierarchy, authoritarian leadership, etc.)
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

62
In the last three months, how and when did you demonstrate
servant leadership, if at all?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
In the last three months, how and when did you not
demonstrate servant leadership?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
In hindsight, could you have handled the situation better as
a servant-leader? How or why?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
How well do you know your team members other than their
work personas? Do you know their hobbies, their likings,
their family members, etc?
Team Member 1
No. of Hobbies Spouse’s Spouse’s Last big
Children & Name employment milestone in
Names status their lives

Team Member 2
No. of Hobbies Spouse’s Spouse’s Last big
Children & Name employment milestone in their
Names status lives

63
In conclusion, we believe servant leadership creates long-
lasting and deep personal relationships which go beyond
professional boundaries and work-related issues.
The leader gets to know the team in depth, their strengths,
how they behave in stressful conditions, their pain points
and what energizes them and makes them perform.
Sometimes such bonding outlasts the professional
association tenure as many successful servant-leaders will
vouch.
Exercise:
Have you ever experienced a servant leader in your
professional career so far? ________
If yes, how successful was the team in his/her leadership
tenure? Give some of your personal achievements while you
were there in his/her team?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
Can you describe what traits of a servant leader you want to
imbibe or have imbibed from him or her in your leadership
style?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

64
Are you still in touch with him or her? Why?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________

“Leadership is not about being in-charge. Leadership is

about taking care of those in your charge”.
--Simon Sinek

Key learnings from this chapter for you:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Leadership in Times of Crisis

In the early 1970s, only six countries in the world had
satellite launching capabilities. India was not one of them.
Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was set up
with a target of developing Satellite Launch Vehicles
(SLVs) capable of sending up to 40kg payloads into a 400
km high orbit.
Prof Satish Dhawan, ISRO Chairperson, gave that
responsibility to Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and designated him
Mission Director. Dr. Kalam and his team of scientists
worked for seven years to create the SLV from scratch.

65
While speaking on leadership, Dr. Kalam recalled an event
from his ISRO days. “The year was 1979. As Mission
Director for SLV3, I was ready to launch it. The
countdown went to T minus 40 seconds and then the
computer put it on hold. There was a glitch. Six experts
behind me advised me to listen to the computer and
postpone the launch till the error could be corrected.” At
that moment he had to make a decision. He made it. Dr.
Kalam overruled the computer and SLV3 shot off into
space.
Of the 4 stages of the rocket, the first stage went off well. It
was in the second stage that it went off-plan and landed in
the Bay of Bengal. 1979 SLV3 was a failure. Dr. Kalam
recounts he was stunned and ashamed. He wondered how
he would manage the repercussions of this colossal failure.
Just then a great man, a great leader, Dr. Dhawan
approached the tired and deeply depressed Dr. Kalam and
requested that he go with him to a press conference. At the
press conference, to which Dr. Kalam went hesitatingly, Dr.
Dhawan answered the press’ queries and criticisms by
stating, “Today we have failed. But I support my entire
team so that next year they might succeed because I know I
have a superb team.” He took the entire blame on himself.
The very next year, on July 18, 1980, when SLV was
launched successfully, Dr. Dhawan requested Dr. Kalam to
conduct the press conference, himself choosing to be in the
background.
This is a story of how behind great organizations are great
leaders. India was fortunate enough to have a great leader
like Dr. Dhawan who headed ISRO and made India’s
space capabilities amongst the best in the world.

66
67
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 4
VISION OF A LEADER.

“Vision” has been defined in many different ways but the

one which we find most appropriate for working managers
aspiring to be visionary leaders is this: “Vision is the ability
to think about or plan the future with imagination and
wisdom”.
Vision is the very essence of a leader based on which
organizations achieve great heights and make a difference in
society.
Leaders conceive a powerful idea, envision it in detail, set
the direction to achieve it and help team members to reach
where they never believed they could reach.
Vision is about a dream in combination with action.
The vision of leadership permeates the workplace and is
manifested in the actions, beliefs, values, and goals of an
organization's leaders. This vision attracts and affects every
employee who is engaged in living this set of actions, beliefs,
values, and goals. They should want to share your vision.

“Vision without action is delusion.”

- Thomas Alva Edison

In most organizations, many people can neither recall the

vision statement of the company nor articulate what the
vision of the leader is. Both are tragic situations.
Vision must be articulated clearly and forcefully at every
possible occasion. In a large town hall meeting, the leader’s
vision must be elaborated in detail. During other
68
opportunities, the vision can be put forth more briefly. And
in yet other situations, the vision might be best explained by
deeds rather than words. It also means that visionary leaders
must have vision explanations set to different audience sizes
to serve different purposes. For instance, if a merger is
taking place, the leader’s vision must be elaborate. On the
other hand, if a new product launch has failed in the market
place, it is hardly the time for launching into the leader’s
vision statement in a detailed manner. So choose your vision
elaboration moment carefully.
In organizations, vision serves as a guide for the company’s
long-term strategic intent.
Vision is a destination statement supported by an action
framework.

SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced

rockets and space crafts. The company was founded in
2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate
goal of enabling people to live on other planets.”
—SpaceX Website

Many worship Elon Musk of SpaceX (and Tesla, Boring

Company and Hyperloop) as a visionary who has set the
world on a radically new trajectory. Musk’s leadership
theme is “ideas”. He is a visionary par excellence.
Employees at SpaceX are in awe of Musk more than of
SpaceX. An equal number of haters call him arrogant and
delusional. But that is the lonely path that leaders with
vision must embrace.
Managers are dime a dozen, leaders are available by the
scores, but visionary leaders are a class apart. They are the
gold standard of leadership. These are men and women of
almost divine capabilities. Mahatma Gandhi, Jamshedji
69
Tata, Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Martin Luther King
and Swami Vivekananda were visionary leaders. However,
it is not as if they were without any flaws and chinks. After
all, they were human, but humans with the superhuman
power to use their imagination and wisdom to craft a better
future for humanity. The leadership vision goes beyond any
written organizational mission or vision statement.

The ReCellular Vision

The story of a powerful vision is well explained by the story
of ReCellular, Inc. ReCellular was a company that
refurbished, repaired and resold wireless phones and other
electronic devices and thus kept millions of kilos of these
devices out of landfills, they also made hundreds of
thousands of products available for re-use. And, they
donated thousands of dollars to charitable causes from the
profits they made from recycling.
For environmentally-committed people, this leadership
vision was very appealing. The green mission and the
opportunity to serve a cause bigger than themselves was a
huge motivator for people to work for ReCellular. In
addition, the opportunity to serve many charitable and
environmental causes with the profit from sales of
refurbished phones while working there appealed to another
group of vision, mission-driven people.
(Source: Leadership Vision by Susan Heathfield)

A leadership vision is strong when the leader and the led

both live the vision every day. That is very different from a
few lines hanging impersonally from a wall.

70
What makes a Visionary Leader?
In an organization what should one do to become a visionary
leader? Our prescription, based on an extensive literature
survey, highlights the following:
 Lead with a dream of what the organization can
become.
 Develop the ability to bring about unprecedented
organization-wide cohesiveness.
 Fuse substance and style. Charisma is an essential
ingredient of leadership.
 Display extraordinary confidence through track record
and business acumen.
 Execute transformational change.
 Innovation and creativity should be the core strengths.
 Develop other leaders invested in the same vision.
Visionary leaders create a shared vision, which then gains
momentum and the team moves forward towards its goal.
The quality of leadership is defined by the quality of the
leader’s vision.
Additive, multiplicative or disruptive change?
A leader must decide whether the vision plans for additive,
multiplicative or disruptive changes? ‘Additive’ refers to
visionary change brought about by a leader that affects only
one’s own department / business vertical. ‘Multiplicative’
refers to a visionary change that affects the whole
organization. ‘Disruptive’ refers to a visionary change in the
way the “business does business”.
Does the vision take into account only the present challenges
or does it also foresee the challenges of the future and has
developed the inbuilt capacity to face those challenges?
71
Is it exclusive to one single vertical or affects the company at
large?
Does the vision bring about a new way in which the
organization looks at its business?
For example, a Walmart CEO a few years ago should have
had the vision of an Amazon-dominated internet-based e-
commerce retailing scenario challenging Walmart’s
domination in an omnichannel world.
The business world is playing in a very uncertain ecosystem
now. Disruption is the given state of affairs. Additive vision
is passe. Multiplicative vision is just about enough to stay in
the same place without falling off the treadmill. It is a
disruptive vision that will help a leader gain true respect.
Exercise
List one change you have brought about for your team /
organization in the three categories:
Type of change Description of Visionary Change
Brought About by You
Additive
Multiplicative
Disruptive

It is just fine if you do not have anything to list under

disruptive vision change, yet. At least, this exercise should
have put the thought in your mind as an essential ingredient
for visionary leadership.
Vision is not permanent
Vision is not fixed. It can surely be long term but it can never
be permanent. It may undergo alterations as per the
demands of time and environment. This entails managing
72
an organization over a period of time as the vision undergoes
modification(s) due to intrinsic or extrinsic changes. Hence,
it is important to keep all the communication channels open
to convey the vision consistently and continuously to team
members.
Communicating ‘Vision’
Simply having a vision is not enough. The effectiveness of a
leader is partly determined by how the vision is
communicated to the team. This communication of vision is
by its very nature different from normal day-to-day
communication. Vision communication should excite,
transport, stimulate, empower, sustain and visualize for the
team members a future, better state of affairs of which they
will be co-creators and co-beneficiaries. In today’s times, it
is also essential that leaders do not talk about the very distant
future. Almost nobody, especially not the millennials, plans
to be retiring from the company they are in at present.
The Effect of VUCA on Vision
This brings us to another valuable lesson: Visionary leaders
should understand that any future planned goal of the
company in an increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain,
Complex and Ambiguous) world should not be more than
5-7 years at most. There is too much volatility, uncertainty,
complexity and ambiguity in the business world. It will
generate scepticism about any goal to be attained more than
5-7 years away. Employees today do not want to think that
long into the future when a trade war or rising inflation or a
burst technology bubble or political upheaval can wreck
their jobs in a matter of days.

73
Strong Vision — A Call for Action
A strong vision when communicated properly, is a call for
action for the team! It is a call for a marathon instead of a
sprint. A visionary leader must be able to help develop the
stamina required for a marathon as much as building
excitement for the short sprints that are required to achieve
smaller goals en route to the vision-goal. A visionary leader
is a long-distance coach and a 100 metre dash coach both
rolled into one. That requires extraordinary skills. Visionary
leaders are extraordinary people.
Negotiation – A necessary skill
A visionary leader must also be a master at negotiating and
overcoming resistance to change. Vision is more than a
quarterly number that needs to be achieved. A vision is
conceived, born and delivered to make a change from the
status quo. This entails change. The cheese must be moved.
A lot of influential people in the system end up becoming
really upset. They draw their daggers to stab and sabotage
your grand vision. The visionary leader must anticipate this
overt and covert resistance. (S)he is not only like the military
general who visualizes victory but also a leader who must
make plans to overcome enemies from within. When
established empires inside the organization are threatened,
those satraps will come gunning. Often those internal battles
will be fought in the boardroom. But they will also be fought
on the factory floor and in office canteens. The visionary
leader must have a team in place to bring about positive
change in both places. He should have no illusion that the
war will be fought only on one horse using a single sword.
Once the internal victory is won, the fight for the market gets
underway. Sometimes the reverse also happens. And of

74
course, sometimes both happen in parallel. A visionary
leader will, eventually, have battle scars.
Vision – Seeing the Endgame before the first pawn
moves
Changing the status quo starts with dissatisfaction with the
current situation. A visionary leader sets about channelizing
this discontent into a dream or idea to steer the organization
away from this harmful climate. These dreams or ideas are
powerful enough to move people even before they take
concrete shape. The visionary leader sees the endgame even
when nothing tangible is in sight.
The Dual Creation of Vision
A visionary leader creates the vision in two stages: first, in
the mind where the vision is born, nurtured and shaped; and
second, in the execution phase where the concept is
translated into action. The first birth is the more important
event. The second birth will flow from the completeness of
the first. If the first is complete and well-formed, the second
one will most probably be done well.
Sometimes the team doesn’t want to change from the status
quo even if it is not totally satisfied with the current situation.
Employees will be willing to change and make sacrifices
only if they are convinced and believe in the vision. This is
easier said than done as most visionary leaders will confess.
The dual creation of vision is an important idea that
managers aspiring to be visionary leaders must bear in mind.
It can prove a helpful guide.

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Failure of Visionary Leadership
Visionary leadership is often unsuccessful because there are
too many mistakes that such leaders end up committing.
One of the common mistakes that aspiring visionary leaders
commit is to cause the burnout of team members with
constant changes. Many of us have had leaders who change
plans twice a day! Imagine the frustration and desperation
in the team.
Another common mistake is treating all ideas equally. A
simple mechanism is to grade the quality of an idea from
1— “an idea” to 5 — “an idea I am going to pursue no
matter what”. On that scale, 2 would be “a good idea”; 3
would be “an idea I am considering and detailing”, and 4
would be “an idea that I will chase unless something more
important comes up”. This grading could help significantly
alleviate the problem of communication and commitment.
Secondly, failure to offer appropriate progress rewards is a
trigger for team members going off track and becoming
demotivated. Without a high level of motivation, how can
the long-term vision of a company be pursued? It must not
be forgotten that followers do not have the same high level
of investment in a visionary goal as a visionary leader. They
are employees at a lower leadership level and need constant
encouragement to move up. The leader cannot despair and
become frustrated. A visionary leader must set short term
goals which will add up to achieving the vision for the
company.
The Vision Journey
The leader...
 Has a dream on how the future should be.
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 Believes that it is possible.
 Formulates an action plan to achieve the vision.
 Communicates the vision or the dream to the team
members passionately and consistently.
 Sets a direction and purpose for himself and the team
members.
 Walks the talk and goes to work with a set action plan.
 Inspires and enthuses the team members to believe in
themselves and work towards a goal which is bigger
than themselves.
 Doesn’t get discouraged when initially only a few
people believe that the vision is achievable.
 Relentlessly pushes the action plan.
 Keeps on communicating the vision irrespective of the
initial drag amongst the followers.
The above process will be quite challenging, to say the least.
To sum it up, according to Jack Welch, ex-Chairman of
General Electric, "Good business leaders create a vision,
articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and
relentlessly drive it to completion."
Leaders without a strong vision.
Now, imagine a leader without a strong vision.
How do you think team members will feel?

"There's nothing more demoralizing than a leader who can't

clearly articulate why we're doing what we're doing."
—James Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of Five
Practices of Exemplary Leadership

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Imagine a captain (Captain #1) of a cricket team telling
his/her team members, ‘Let’s play our best and win this
game’.
Now imagine another captain (Captain #2) telling his
team:
“This is a very important game. If we win this game, we
gain 4 points which will help our team secure a place in the
semi-finals. This will give us a good chance to be in the
finals, as we have to face teams which are relatively less
skilled than us as per the draw. So the finals can be very
much in our sight if we win this game. So let’s give it our
best shot.”
Captain #2 has provided the team details of individual
ownership and milestones and how to work as a team in a
more visual way with a clear outcome – a place in the finals.
The power of visualization helps team members with the
required cues, the shiny hooks on which to hang their efforts
for the next one or two years while the vision is pursued.
The visionary leader must keep refreshing the visual imagery
as sights might get blurred, or fatigue might set in over time.
Now another captain, Captain #3, provides even more
details: Over and above what Captain #2 stated, Captain
#3, says, “The opening pair needs to stay at the wickets for
a minimum of 5 overs and score 70 runs. On hitting that
target, Abhijit should get more aggressive and Aziz will give
him more strike so that the partnership reaches 150 by the
15th over. Be careful of the spinner who is likely to bowl in
the first 3 overs and the pace bowler who has taken 4 wickets
in the last 2 games against us.” Now, everybody knows what
they have to do on the field. Everyone has accountable goals.
There is cognizance of the competitor’s strengths. Since
everyone knows what everyone else has to do, there is
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complete transparency, and with that comes clear
opportunities for collaborations between team members in
pursuit of the vision.
Planning for eventualities:
Captain #3 goes on to build Plan B: “In case the opening
pair gets out before the first over then Sunil will go in as 1st
down instead of Vikas so that he can bring stability to the
team. The revised target will be to score 50 runs from 8
overs and then go for the strike and achieve 120 runs by the
15th over.”
OR
Imagine Captain #1 who says this:
“Our country where cricket is a religion hasn’t won a World
Cup in 15 years. We haven’t stood on the podium and
uncorked the champagne bottle in a long, long time. It’s time
we do that.”
Which of the above three captains would you prefer and
why?
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Two aspects need to be done extremely well for a team
leader to exhibit good vison to make a team win:
a) Setting and reviewing goals
b) Analysing competitors
Setting Goals
Each individual should be clear on his or her short-term
goals so that they are milestones in achieving the bigger
vision.
Short-term goals should be about a sense of achievement
and reward for the team members so that they pursue the
next goal with more enthusiasm with the sense that he or she
is playing an important part in achieving a bigger goal.
This creates momentum for the entire team and momentum
of this kind is a great problem solver.
Problems are bound to come up on the way to achieving
one’s goals, both internal and external.
Most experts agree that external problems no matter how
big or complex can be solved when the internal problems are
under control or internal challenges are met.
According to your experience, what are ‘goals’?
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What are the necessary elements of goal setting?
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How to set goals is a very pertinent question and all leaders
irrespective of their place in the hierarchy or span of control,
should be a master in the area of goal setting.
S.M.A.R.T. Goal Setting
The acronym S. M. A. R. T. is an effective guideline to set
goals and many successful leaders have used the SMART
goal setting framework to get to where they and their team
want to reach.
Let’s learn more about the S. M. A. R. T. framework:
Meaning Description Questions to be Be Careful about
asked
S Specific Clear goal What is to be Fuzziness
statement; to accomplished? Indecisiveness
the point; no When to be Too many goals
ambiguity achieved? together
Where and how is
the goal to be
achieved?
What resources
are required?
Why is the goal
important?
Now let’s go through an example:
Stated Goal: I want to reduce my weight.

81
Is the above a specific goal?
Yes or No. ______
Why?
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Let’s re-work the goal (as you would have correctly pointed
out, it is not a specific goal):
The “5 W 1 H” approach
“I (who) want to reduce 5 kgs (what) in two months (when)
by going to the gym (where) so that I can be in shape (why)
by doing cardio and weight training (how).”
It may not be always necessary to have all the W’s and the
H in the goal statement, but more the detailing, the more
specific will the goal become for better and clearer
understanding.
Let’s take one more example.
“My (who) goal is to achieve Rs. 500,000 net sales (what)
in the month of December (when).”
It has thewho, the what, and the when.
But two W’s and the H are missing.
The ‘why’ may be incorporated as:
“My goal is to achieve Rs. 500,000 net sales in the month
of June to qualify for the special incentive earning (why).”

82
Still the ‘where’ is missing, which may not be too important
to mention as it is implied that a sales executive will achieve
his or her target in the assigned market.
But no harm in making the goal more specific to ensure that
there is no ambiguity.
Now the ‘H: How’
“My (Who) goal is to achieve Rs. 500,000 net sales (What)
in the month of December from my designated area of Delhi
(Where), to qualify for the special incentive (Why) by
leveraging my strong relationships with five ‘A’ category
customers so that I can increase my selling efficiency by 15%
(How).
Compare and rate this goal with the first goal on a scale of
1–5, 1 being the lowest. ______
Give two specific goals that you would like to set for yourself
in the next three months.
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2.____________________________________________
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Check if it has all the 5 W’s and 1H.

Now set three specific goals for your team for this quarter.
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2.____________________________________________
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_____________________________________________
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3.____________________________________________
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Mark the W’s and the H in each of the above goals.
Can you give an example of a goal set for the team prior to
this assignment?
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Would you like to make some changes to make it a specific
goal?
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M- Measurable
Meaning Description Questions Be careful
to be asked about:
M Measurable Progressively What is to Too much
trackable be measurement;
using well- measured? Ambiguity
understood When and about what is
metrics how often? to be measured
Who
measures?
Why
should it be
measured
with the
given
frequency?
How is it
to be
measured?
Goals must be tangible, where you can gauge progress by a
specific number at pre-determined intervals.
Goal achievement needs to be tracked for progress and to
monitor whether you are on the right track to achieve the
goals in the stipulated time. Measurability is not an end-
game measure but an in-game measure and you will know
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what per cent of the set goal you have reached at any given
moment in time. This is essential to plan out resource
allocation and mitigate manic pressure toward the end of the
goal cycle.
Don’t be ambiguous with statements like, ‘will increase the
sales by a great extent’, ‘will work out to get in shape’, ‘will
reduce smoking’ and so on.
Such goals are just bluffs, as you will agree that little or
nothing gets done as there is no accountability for the end
result.
Measurable goals look like this:
“Will increase sales by 20% this quarter over last quarter,
with a focus on closing 80% sales in the first two months.”
“Will reduce 5 Kgs in two months, 2 kgs in the first and 3
kgs in the second.”
Write some measurable goals for yourself to improve on this
quarter’s performance.
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2.____________________________________________
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_____________________________________________
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3.____________________________________________
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Write some measurable goals for yourself to address some
issues in your team.
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2.____________________________________________
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3.____________________________________________
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Write three measurable goals for your team members that

you will give them to improve on their current performance.
1.____________________________________________
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2.____________________________________________
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3.____________________________________________
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Write three measurable goals for your team members to

address some skill areas which need improvement.
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2.____________________________________________
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3.____________________________________________
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A – Attainable
Meaning Description Questions to be Be careful
asked about:
A Attainable Achievable; Has my team Being
Realistic done something unrealistic
similar before?
Does the Not matching
industry have skills required
similar goals? to attain goals
Does my team
have the Not
requisite skills to accounting for
attain the goal? dependency
Does my team on other
need new skills departments
to achieve the
goal?
Who can lead in
the team?
What resources
would be
required?
How much do
we have to
depend on other
departments?
Questions to be asked: Is the goal really attainable? Is it
realistic?
Have you decided on a goal which in your heart you know
is not possible, that it is over-ambitious?
‘Reduce 20 Kgs in one month through my regular workouts.’
‘Double the sales in this quarter over last quarter from the
same geography with the same product range’
Most often, the above goals are unattainable.

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When setting goals for self, one needs to be realistic and set
goals with lots of stretches, while being realistic. That might
seem like a contradiction. How can stretch reconcile with
realism? Well, we all can figure out how much a rubber
band will extend before snapping. The realistic point is just
before the snap. You will see the snapping points if you
know what to look for, like CVs of your team members out
in the market, or fewer people coming to work highly
motivated and enthusiastic, or a lot of gossiping going on
instead of actual work. These are signals of snap points
about to happen. Pre-empt such situations as a visionary
leader.
When setting goals for the team or with the team, leaders
need to make the goals mutually agreed upon. Mutually
agreed upon goals are more likely to get accomplished.
However, though the goals may be mutually agreed upon,
they should ultimately be a part of the whole objective of the
company or the team’s achievement, with an adequate
element of stretches and challenges.
How do you usually give a “stretch” goal to your team
members?
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What has been the success rate when goals have been
mutually agreed upon by the team members versus when
goals have been communicated to the team members
unilaterally by the leader?
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Comment on the energy level and commitment of the team
when there is an agreed goal.
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R- Relevant
Meaning Description Questions to Be careful
be asked about:
R Relevant Goal connected Is the goal Misalignment
or appropriate aligned with a with corporate
to the overall larger goals;
organizational objective? Time stretch;
vision or mission Can the goal Irrelevance to
be completed team
within the members’
time period of perceptions of

93
 the larger what is
goal? important and
Is the goal in urgent
line with what
team members
consider
important and
urgent?

R- Relevant Goals
The goals should be relevant to the overall objective.
To use an analogy, if a patient has health issues and the
doctor advises weight loss, and then if the patient sets up
this goal: ‘Will complete writing my new book in the next one
month’, it would have no relevance to the health objective
which is important and urgent for the patient.
When “increasing sales 20% month on month” is an overall
objective, then one needs to have a sales goal, instead of, “I
will work on my communication skills for the next one
month.”
Although communication may have an impact on the overall
sales in the long run, it is not a relevant objective in this case
and team members will ignore it or be unable to focus on it
given a larger pressing goal of increasing sales.
Relevance is about having a focus on the issue at hand and
setting goals as per the need of the hour. But visionary
leadership is about long term results. Hence, the lesser
goals, or intermediate goals, must be aligned to the overall
goal and help achieve the long term vision.
It becomes clear now that “relevant” goals are intermediate
goals to address the issue at hand while on the way to the
larger objective. They are like small rest stops up a hill to

94
the summit. Suddenly digressing to see what’s in the river
valley off the main track not only makes the journey longer
but distracts efforts and resources. In fact, many might find
the river valley more interesting as one does not have to
climb anymore up to the summit!
List two “irrelevant” goals that you or your team had to take
recently which digressed from the main goal.
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2.____________________________________________
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T- Time Bound
Meaning Description Questions to be Be careful about:
asked
T Time Completing How much time is Time extensions;
bound goals in a required to achieve Other
prescribed the goal? departments
time frame; Can we move faster making your team
time is money; if more resources lag behind;
delays are are provided? Slow runners in
costly Is the time frame your team
unrealistic? dragging down
What constraints the overall team
can prevent speed
achievement of goal
within prescribed
time limit?

T- Time-bound.
A time-bound goal is more likely to be completed as it is
known how much is to be done in a stipulated time frame.
Open-ended goals are not goals, but just wishful thinking
with a low probability of success.
When a goal is set, there must be milestones set to the overall
achievement of the final objective.
Consider a goal stated thus, “I will reduce 10 kgs from my
weight, by working out every day for one hour in the gym so
that I get into great shape.”
This is an example of a well “intentioned” goal having no
progressive milestones and no fixed time frame for the final
achievement. Whether the goal is to be achieved in two
months, six months or one year is any one’s guess. Hence,
the achievement will be stretched into the time available; in
this case, time available is indefinite.

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Naturally, it is highly unlikely that those 10 kgs excess
weight will actually disappear.
Now re-write the same goal in a time-bound manner.
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The new goal statement should look something like this:
“I will reduce 10 kgs of my weight, by working out every day
for one hour in the gym and carefully watching my diet so
that I get into great shape within 6 months, gradually
increasing the weight loss as follows: 1 kg in the first month;
1.5 in the second; 1.5 in the 3 rd; 1.5 in the 4th; 2 in the 5th
and 2.5 in the last month’.
Doesn’t it look so much more complete and do-able? One
can measure the progress, on a monthly basis.
The owner of the above goal would be so much more
committed and motivated to the progress, as the timelines
for each little stop up the hill is specific, measurable,
attainable, relevant and time-bound, i.e. S.M.A.R.T.
Corrective measures can be taken if the progress is not in
line with the overall objective in a specified time frame.
Visionary leadership is all about setting goals with time-
bound markers. Some milestones will be tougher than
others.
For instance, getting a 10% increase in market share in a
highly competitive marketplace could be a visionary goal for
a company which is always in the second place. A leader in

97
such a company would have to appreciate that an initial
couple of percentage points gain in market share would be
the tougher milestones. Once the team gets early successes,
motivation will get turbocharged. So in the first few months,
the sub-goals should be smaller and with success will come
momentum to charge on ahead towards the end of the cycle
with the team achieving larger percentage jumps in market
share. Like the weight dropper in our example above, the
visionary leader should pace out the final goal intelligently
and wisely keeping in mind his team’s skills, hunger, and
capability for a sustained fight.
Time-bound goals create focus, discipline and a
commitment to the progress. Focus, discipline and
commitment are critical elements in achieving any goal.
It is also very important to appreciate that while the team is
at work, the visionary leader should lead from the front. He
/ she must walk the talk and lead by example. If there is a
slippage in smaller goals, the leader must take action
immediately. If there is a team member who is a weak link,
he or she must be trained or exited. If the team needs
resources or support from other teams in the company such
as logistics or advertising, the leader should be able to liaison
and pull in such support. If there is a major dealer /
distributor / channel member that the team needs help with,
the leader must go clear that roadblock. The leader must be
with the team and be seen to be with the team.
Now that S.M.A.R.T goals are clearly understood, write
three smart goals for yourself.
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_____________________________________________
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2.____________________________________________
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3.____________________________________________
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Write down one SMART objective for each of your team

members, for which you need to get their acceptance in your
next interaction with them.
Team member A
Team member B
Team member C
Team Member D
Now we come to the second important part in setting goals:
Competitor analysis
No company or organization can operate in a vacuum.
Every company operates not only in an eco-system of current
competition but also of future competition.
P.E.S.T.L.E (acronym for Political, Economic, Social,
Technological, Legal and Environmental) factors are
largely outside any individual firm’s control and can present
themselves as threats.

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Hence, to have a competitor analysis, the leader needs to
understand the macro factors (PESTLE) and undertake a
thorough scan of it.
Michael Porter in his Five Forces Model has stated that the
competitive environment within an industry depends on five
forces-
1. Competition in the industry.
2. The threat of new potential entrants.
3. Bargaining power of suppliers.
4. Bargaining power of buyers.
5. The threat of substitute products.
Porter's five forces is a framework to analyze a company's
competitive environment from a strategic point of view. A
clear understanding of this is necessary for visionary
leadership.
It considers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats of a given company (called the SWOT analysis).
Strengths and weaknesses are internal and specific to the
company – for example, culture, brand legacy, employee
skills, manufacturing capabilities, technology level, etc.
Opportunities and threats are external to the organization –
competitors, market place, government regulations, currency
fluctuations, political climate and so on.
A deep analysis of the above elements can help a company
design a robust business strategy and formulate a vision for
the company.
Can you analyse the 5 competitive forces that shape the
industry you are in:
1. Competition in the industry.

100
 Who are your three main competitors in the industry?

C1

C2

C3

 What major marketing activities (marketing, R&D,

channel development, etc) are they engaging in?
C1
C2
C3
 Name the top 3 customers for each of the top three
competitors in your area of operations
C1
C2
C3
 What have been the competitors’ major success stories
in the last one year?
C1
C2
C3

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 What new products have they launched in the last one
year?
C1
C2
C3
2. The threat of new potential entrants.

 Name new companies that have entered the field in the

last one year.
 Name their products.
 How successful have their products been?

3. Bargaining power of suppliers.

 Is there a scarcity of suppliers for supplies that are

essential to the manufacturing of the products or
services of your company?

4. Bargaining power of buyers.

 Do customers have an alternative to your products

(benefit wise, price-wise)?
 Comment on the bargaining power of your customers.

5. The threat of substitute products

 Are you aware of some close substitute products that

can harm your current business?
 If yes, then what are these close substitute products or
services?

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Agreed that complete knowledge of competition is quite
difficult to acquire, but it is essential to formulate the vision
and strategy of a company or team.
Now let’s see how well you know your own company:
 What is the vision of your company?
 Do a SWOT Analysis of your company
STRENGTHS (Internal to the OPPORTUNITIES
company) (External to the company)

WEAKNESSES (Internal to the THREATS (External to

company) the company)

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 Do a SWOT Analysis of your team:
STRENGTHS (Internal to the OPPORTUNITIES
team) (External to the team)

WEAKNESSES (Internal to the THREATS (External to

team) the team)

104
Do a SWOT analysis of your main competitor
STRENGTHS (Internal to the OPPORTUNITIES
competitor) (External to the
competitor)

WEAKNESSES (Internal to the THREATS (External to

competitor) the competitor)

 Where do you think that your company’s strengths can

benefit from the weaknesses of your competitor?
Strength of my Weakness of my main Desired
company competitor outcome

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Management by Objectives (MBO)

In a modern corporation, setting objectives and pursuing

goals according to them has been used as a technique for
nearly six decades ever since MBO (Management by
Objectives) was popularized by Peter Drucker. MBO is
simply the amalgamation of three main activities which
effective leaders would do well to adopt:

1. mutually agreed upon goals between employer / boss

and employees
2. periodic review of the fulfilment of each objective in a
constructive work environment and
3. distribution of rewards to team members according to
their level of goal attainment

Leadership at world-beating companies such as Hewlett-

Packard and 3M have credited the MBO approach for
their continued success in the business world.

Annual Performance Reviews (APR) or Work

Performance Review (WPR).

Professionally managed organizations must have

Management by Objectives (MBO) based Annual
Performance Appraisals, for every level of the hierarchy.

At the individual level, MBO is translated into Annual

Performance Reviews (APRs) or Work Performance
Reviews (WPR). APRs are management processes
designed to measure the performance of individual team
members against mutually agreed upon objectives based on
quantitative and qualitative parameters. Leaders must be
able to set these objectives objectively and in consultation
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with team members. Such appraisals are done at fixed
intervals, most commonly quarterly and half-yearly intervals,
culminating in the APRs. APRs are graded or scored and
have multiple parameters to assess the progress of an
individual employee.

The role of the effective leader in conducting APRs is to

ensure that there are free-flowing and candid one-on-one
discussions on all employees’ progress with the reporting
officers for the review period. Compliances, achievements
and deviations are measured objectively against pre-set
parameters. The APR discussions also help the leader and
his or her team members to further work on a development
plan as required so as to improve the overall deliverables in
the coming assessment period.
Exercise
Keeping this entire segment on vision in mind, create a
vision statement for your team.
The stated vision must be clear, inspirational, and packed
with energy for immediate action.
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

107
Thoughts of two visionary leaders on true leadership:
“Our philosophy has been that most of the money we might
ordinarily have spent on advertising should be invested in
customer service so that our customers will do the marketing
for us through word of mouth.”
Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.
-----------------------------------------------
“We foster a climate where the employee can deliver what
the customer wants. You cannot deliver what the customer
wants by controlling the employee. Employees who are
controlled cannot respond caringly. You need superior
knowledge and real leadership, not management.”
Horst Schultze, Former President, Ritz Carlton Hotels

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109
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 5
THE 4 C’s

Four essential qualities of a successful leader are: Courage,

Confidence, Conviction and Commitment (the 4 Cs).
Why are these 4Cs important?
Let us see the meaning of each of these terms as applicable
to leadership qualities before we dive deeper.
Courage is:
“Strength in the face of pain or grief; the ability to do
something that frightens one.”
Confidence is:
“A feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of
one's own abilities or qualities.”
Conviction is:
“The quality of showing that one holds a firm belief or
opinion on something.”
Commitment is:
“The state or quality of being dedicated to a cause or
activity.”
The 4Cs of Leadership
In our previous chapters, we discussed Integrity, Vision,
and Servant Leadership which are essential qualities of a
successful leader. These qualities cannot come to the fore
fully if the leader lacks courage, confidence, conviction and
commitment.
110
Courage helps successful leaders in displaying traits like
integrity, well-articulated vision and the humility to exhibit
servant leadership.
Courage and confidence are qualities which can be taught
in the classroom or in a workshop just as much as it is
developed by observing leaders within and outside an
organization. It also comes from one’s value system. A
leader from an unshakeable values foundation is both
courageous and confident.
This is the story of one of the authors. As a front-line sales
manager at the beginning of a pharmaceutical sales career,
he was leading a team of people some of whom were without
work experience and with moderate academic track records.
Many of them were the first-ever graduates in their families
and came from very weak economic backgrounds. The job
assigned to them was to go to well-established doctors of the
city and explain the company’s drugs and request them to
prescribe the drugs for their patients.
In effect, they needed to talk about the “science of drugs” to
well-qualified doctors who had lived and breathed science
for more than 30 or 40 years of their lives! The feeling of
low confidence was clearly observable in the team members.
His job as the team manager was to instill confidence in
them and make them communicate effectively and
convincingly so that doctors prescribed their drugs to
patients.
Now, that was quite a tall call. How did he achieve it?
The process was time-consuming and required a lot of
patience.

111
His leadership style demonstrated how the pitch was to be
presented, handhold them while they learnt the pitch and be
there with them while they pitched, encourage them when
things didn’t go as planned, prepare them for various
situations, teach them how to tackle objections, make them
aware of the bumps that they would encounter, and praise
them for every small success.
The process was quite strenuous but with persistence, the
results gradually became visible. The leader’s courage and
confidence was gradually transferred to the team members.
Confidence killers
One common confidence-killer is the attempt by leaders to
assign big tasks to beginners. Beginners need to be assigned
work suitable to their skill level; otherwise, leaders would be
setting them up for failure. It is intelligent to assign them
easier tasks in the beginning so that initially the confidence
is built and not shattered. This needs courage especially in
sales-driven organizations where every person is expected to
be hands-on-board irrespective of their readiness. Very few
managers have the courage to assign work according to the
skills of members.
Confidence is like a muscle
Confidence is like a muscle one builds slowly with regular
exercise. It is better to start small and build the exercise
regime over time so that the muscles become well developed.
Lifting of heavyweights when bone structure and muscle
mass are not well developed can have disastrous outcomes.
Similarly, like the gym trainer, the leader must gauge the
capacity of the individual to take on a task and customize
the level of work out and build the regimen gradually.

112
Can a leader develop confidence? Is it decided at birth or
early childhood? Does leadership come only after one
becomes confident?
Important questions. Yes, leaders can develop confidence
and it is not absolutely true that only confident persons can
become leaders. There are many less confident people who
have been given leadership positions. They have then gone
on to become great leaders.
We believe that like any skill, confidence can be acquired
and developed.
The basic tenet of confidence-building
Practice: “Practice makes perfect” is an old saying. We
believe “proper” practice makes perfect. One cannot
become Sachin Tendulkar — one of the world’s most
celebrated cricketers or Mary Kom — world boxing
champion even in her mid-thirties and as a mother of three
kids, simply by practising night and day with a cricket bat
or a pair of boxing gloves. One must practice properly. The
proper coach, the proper moves and the proper mental
attitude are essential. That is where a good quality leader
comes into play.
Persistence: The art of continuing towards your goal despite
repeated failures. This is one of the most desirable qualities
in a leader. Success does not come easily. A leader must
march on ahead. However, constant monitoring of the
situation must be taken up. But a leader must avoid
controlling employees. Controlled employees lose their
initiative. If there are major changes in the environment or
the team, like when a star performer leaves the organization,
then the leadership must accommodate and adjust to the
change. If the market has moved on to something else, then

113
it would be futile to continue to persist with the same plan.
Wisdom and intelligence tempered with humility to accept
that a change of plans is called for, are the hallmarks of a
great leader.
Self-talk: Motivating your soul through positive mantras
spoken to yourself is very essential. Practice self-talk in your
mind. Pepping yourself up with positivity is a good formula
to remain courageous and confident, committed and
convinced about your vision and mission. It is an effective
technique as leadership often gets lonely.
Self-affirmation: Considered the world’s greatest boxer ever,
Muhammad Ali was often boastful. Whenever he talked to
the press or his opponent in the ring, “I Am the Greatest”
was one of his popular claims. This was actually self-talk
and self-affirmation. It was, of course, backed up by a string
of knockouts delivered to his adversaries with unfailing
regularity. His courage was also on display when he refused
to be forcefully conscripted into the US Army for the
American War in Vietnam in 1966 stating that the
Vietnamese people were not his enemies. This was a very
bold stand at that time, for which he was stripped of his
World Champion title and banned from the boxing ring for
nearly 4 years of his prime fighting time. Courage has its
price. Are you ready?
“I am the captain of the ship and master of my fate,” brave
words spoken on behalf of your team and yourself. Blame
no one else for your failures and offer credit generously to
all those who helped you reach where you are today.
Write a letter to your own self – all that is good about
yourself. Don’t be shy. Don’t be bombastic either. Just state
it as it is. Be honest and sincere when you write. List your
achievements, and read them to yourself at those times when
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no one else believes in you. First, a great leader must believe
in himself / herself. Only then will others believe in him or
her.
Reflection: In the highly pressurized life of a leader in the
current corporate context, reflection is a lost art. Reflection
helps you step back from the everyday situations of leading
a team, achieving numbers and reaching your vision.
Reflection is a vital step in the self-improvement process.
Irrespective of the time in the night when you finally rest,
every day one must spend a few allotted minutes for
reflection. It will give you the desired perspective. And
perspective is not to be taken lightly. It adds depth and
width, relevance and context of one’s leadership style for the
team that is being led.
Giving and Receiving Feedback: As a leader of your team,
have the courage to praise positive behaviour and the
courage to call out negative behaviour. Do the praising with
openness. Do the calling out (reprimanding) in the privacy
of a one-to-one. Courage in leadership refers to the ability
to take negative feedback in a positive manner. This requires
strength of character and confidence. In fact, courage in
leadership is about setting up feedback channels, as formal
or informal as desired, with the assurance of anonymity and
no bar on the frequency of feedback.
In business, confidence is all about self-assurance which
comes from expertise or good results. Expertise comes from
knowing the product, the company, the channel, the
industry, the consumer, the economy, the competition, the
brand’s history, government rules and regulations, and so
on. Results come from repeated and successful
performances in terms of important company objectives,
especially in tough market conditions. An individual

115
aspiring to develop into an effective leader needs to focus on
both expertise and results. One without the other or neither
is a recipe for failure.
Practice Exercises:
1. Write a letter to yourself about all that is good about
you. Highlight all achievements, all the obstacles that
you have overcome. List the people who appreciated
your work or efforts. Make it as clear and bold as you
can.
2. How confident are you about facing life in general?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
3. What qualities do you already possess which make you
confident about facing life (list at least 3)?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
Confidence: A Must Have Quality
Confidence is often listed as a ‘nice to have’ quality, instead
of as a ‘must have’.
Have you seen teams or companies with a high knowledge
base, and sufficiently well-resourced with ‘skilful’ people but
still producing average results? They are more common than
what one would believe.

116
‘Confidence’ may have been the missing ingredient from the
equation.
What is the use of all the knowledge and resources if they
are not going to be put to use to discover and unearth the
potential of team members?
Courage is essential for change in order to keep up with the
demands of the market place and the demands of internal
customers. Confidence is the belief in one’s own and the
team members’ strengths.
Doing things according to ‘past practice’ in a company and
expecting to overcome new challenges may not lead to
success in leadership. As they say, “If you keep doing the
same things, you will get the same results”.
But change is a difficult thing to bring about as the human
psyche resists anything that it is not comfortable with, and
change has its share of discomfort as ‘new beginnings are
often disguised as painful endings’ (Lao Tzu). What this
essentially means is that before the sun, must come the rain.
When the rain comes, believe that the sun will shine soon
enough.
Being able to take a stand and promoting practices and work
norms which have not been practiced before takes lots of
courage and confidence on the part of the leader as there is
no guarantee that the changes will bring definite results.
Acknowledging that changes are required, but at the same
time knowing fully well that such changes are not a
guarantee for the desired result, and still driving the change
speaks a lot about a leader’s courage and self-confidence.

117
Performance with purpose.
Indra Nooyi took over as CEO of Pepsico in 2006.
She envisaged the shift in consumer behaviour and
governmental pressure to limit the sale of sugar-based
beverages and foods and the move to healthier options.
Many governments including India in 2018 introduced the
sugar tax for foods and beverages having a high level of
sugar. In October 2019, Singapore banned advertisements
of high sugar products.
Nooyi being a visionary business leader, introduced a new
strategy at Pepsico: ‘Performance with Purpose’, and
introduced healthy food and beverages.
Industry analysts told her, ‘Don’t be Mother Teresa. Your
job is to sell soda and chips.’
She followed her conviction with courage and transformed
the company.
Pepsico’s arch rival, Coca-cola, stuck to their sugar-based
soft drinks.
End result: Pepsi’s stocks grew by 70% since 2011, and
Coca-Cola’s grew by just 15%.
A great example of courage and conviction in a leader.
Nooyi declared, “We are committed to delivering top-tier
performance while being responsive to the needs of the more
than 200 countries and territories we serve around the
world. That commitment — what we call Performance with
Purpose — is about expanding our portfolio of more
nutritious products with the aim of shrinking our
environmental footprint as a responsible corporate citizen
and working to lift up people and families, from widening
the circle of opportunity to providing relief in times of need.”
Source: Pepsico website.

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Conviction – When leaders stick their necks out
Courageous leaders with conviction have a huge impact on
the team. In tough times, when the industry is sluggish and
there are layoffs, most managers would like to keep their
heads down, keep their mouths shut and make the ‘least
noise’ so that no unwanted attention falls on them. They
prefer to remain quiet till the storm passes, often not even
fighting for their team members who get laid off. Without a
doubt, these are the times when leadership with conviction
needs to be exhibited. However, it is easier said than done;
in fact, for some leaders, it can be quite frightening to stick
their necks out for their team members.
When embarking on a new project, challenging the status
quo, knowing that it’s the right thing to do even though there
is no guarantee that the project will be a success, is indeed
unsettling, especially in difficult times. There is so much at
stake. The fear of failing, the fear of losing one’s job, one’s
career getting affected, and so on are some of the challenges
that demand conviction in leaders.
Playing it safe is the preferred thing. Survival is the name of
the game. Heroes who stick their necks out are remembered
for a few days and the tide moves on. Is it even worth it? It
might be useful to remember that “playing it safe” is a short
term remedy in most cases. There are leaders out there who
are bringing about disruptive changes, so as to challenge the
status quo, aimed at the long term.
Let’s see an example of courage which changed the
trajectory of entertainment business models.

119
The cable is a rigid medium, where one had to watch
whatever was broadcast, with no way to skip advertisements,
no fast forward options to eliminate what one did not want
to watch, no replay options of what one wanted to watch
again, and it was restricted to largely one device – the TV.
Netflix, Inc., an American media services provider,
headquartered in Los Gatos, California, founded in 1997
by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley,
California disrupted the cozy world of cable TV operators.
Cable companies were continuing with their normal
business and were oblivious of the changes in consumer
behavior, choices in entertainment consumption and the
upcoming technological advancement. They were
comfortable with a steady flow of business. Then came the
disruption. Netflix bulldozed them out of business.
The challenger took into account the prevalent
dissatisfaction of cable TV customers. They took advantage
of the cable TV ecosystem which was anything but dynamic
and customer-centric.
Netflix addressed the big customer pain points. It utilized
internet streaming technology, eliminated geographical
boundaries, it could be accessible from anywhere in the
world, and it could be watched on any device. In addition,
it adopted an innovative subscription based business model
which satisfied the customer question, “Why should we
spend our money upfront in buying a product when we can
simply subscribe to one that can be switched on or off as per
our convenience and need?” So, Netflix’s business model
was designed to be viable even if the economy slowed down.
The subscription model was futuristic and it is predicted
that it would undeniably capture a gross market of $100
billion by the end of 2020.

120
Result:

Sources: Netflix, Leichtman Research Group (Richer,

2017)
The above story is of a company whose leaders showed deep
conviction and commitment, courage and confidence in their
disruptive model of business by keeping their eyes open for
customer pain points and acting upon them.
Team members will follow a leader not only because of his
or her vision or his knowledge or qualifications but mainly
because of the courage and commitment that the leader
exhibits in real situations.
It is difficult to be an effective leader without commitment
and courage. They are the attributes of a leader which
inspire team members to believe in the vision.
The mission and vision are lived by the leader when the
team members see him or her in action going that extra mile
consistently and exhibiting commitment unflinchingly,

121
especially when it is uncomfortable. For instance, if the
market signals that a once-successful product category (such
as tobacco) or consultancy practice (like energy strategy) is
losing relevance with customers and the team associated
with it is in jeopardy, then the leadership must have the
commitment to defend, protect, reskill, realign and re-
motivate the team. Commitment is visible when the leader
stands by the team. It comes before success and often before
all things get perfect. The leader’s commitment opens the
doors to achievement.
Communication consistency
Communicating the mission and vision clearly and
consistently is important, but for the team to believe you and
to be led by you, one must exhibit consistency in his or her
commitment. A leader cannot follow one path one day and
another on another day unless he has taken the whole team
into confidence.
Consistency is also exhibited by how the leader deals with
different team members. Often there are one or two
members in a team who have their own ulterior agendas. A
leader must stand up and take action against such people.
Otherwise, consistency is not the quality the team members
see in the leader and that could lead to negative
consequences.
A committed leader walks the talk
A leader’s commitment is measured by his or her actions.
Actions must replace words on almost every occasion.
Walking the talk inspires as well as gives proof of the
leader’s courage.

122
If a leader expects commitment from his or her team
members, then he or she needs to exemplify commitment day
in and day out.
A team leader who consistently tries to develop his or her
own skills is likely to inspire the team members to develop
their skills.
A good example of this would be the Indian National
Cricket team captain, Virat Kohli. His commitment to
keeping himself fit and agile is a standard that others are not
only inspired by but must also achieve as a minimum
requirement to be included in ‘his’ team.
Exercise
1. What are the areas you feel proud of yourself that you
have walked the talk in the last 2-3 months?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
2. What are the areas you would like to walk the talk in
the next 2-3 months?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

123
3. How do you think your team members will perceive you
once you have accomplished the above?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
Commitment and Accountability
Accountability is what makes a person stand out and be a
leader.
The leader is willing to make a difference by setting high
standards, committing to the set standard and then working
relentlessly at making it a reality.
He or she takes the blame if things go wrong and pass on
the credit to the team members in times of success, thereby
motivating them to commit to the cause for future success.
In the process, the entire team holds themselves accountable
as their leader takes ownership and accountability for
achievement.
Exercise
1. What are the areas you hold yourself accountable for?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

124
2. What are the areas you think that you are not
accountable for, but your superior thinks otherwise?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
3. What are the areas you hold your team members
accountable for?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
4. Are there similar feelings amongst your team members,
as in question 2?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
5. How do you think that this conflict / disagreement can
be resolved?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
Committed leaders find solutions not excuses
Excuses are addictions. Harmless at first, they change our
willpower swiftly and we become enslaved.

125
It is quite often seen that the underperformance is covered
up with excuses by a leader.
What credibility or respect do such leaders have in the eyes
of their team members?
A very common cover up experience is with sales numbers.
It is easy for the leader to cover up by saying that the
economy is down, or that competitors’ sales graphs are also
dipping; it is so soothing and comforting to know that we
are all sailing in the same boat and we need not feel guilty
as it is the ‘environment’ which has resulted in the low sales
volume.
In a matter of life and death, such as your need to support
your family in a layoff situation, what does one do? Many
solutions will present itself when it is a matter of life and
death. Maybe you would work an extra shift, or partner with
some relatives and friends and work with them and so on.
Just because you got laid off does not mean that you can
resort to finding excuses.
Similarly, when sales are down, the committed leader will
find solutions to overcome the setback. He or she should ask
questions such as:
- Can we make some extra calls to our existing customer
base asking them to support the company in our tough
times?
- Can we run a campaign for our highest selling product
and try different sales channels?
- Can we explore a different market so that it can begin
giving sales from next quarter onwards?
- Can we identify 5 top competitor’s customers and work
on an engagement plan with them?

126
The list of questions / opportunities goes on. It will soon be
clear that the solutions are not really very tough to figure out.
They are ordinary work plans with some creativity and
extraordinary will. Such solutions when rolled out to the
team by a committed leader energizes the team members
and the entire unit goes out and hunts for more sales.
Solutions with an action plan have the power of a hunter,
and a skillful and committed hunter rarely goes hungry.
You will agree that every day such opportunities present
themselves abundantly. Effective leaders by their nature and
training, commit to solving the issue at hand. Such
situations clearly separate the problem solvers from the
excuse givers.
Hence, to differentiate yourself from the average leader,
commit yourself to solving problems, and you will have a
dedicated team to work with, who will also commit
themselves and raise the performance bar.
Exercise
1. List the solutions that you have given to the team and
their corresponding results in the last 2-3 months.
Issues Proposed Implementation Results
Solutions Levels Achieved
with an action
plan
Eg. Determine Team and Roadblock
Proposal for roadblock; immediate superior identified.
increased strategize to level; Finance dept
funding not overcome it; Seek help from helped in
being failing this other teams reallocating
approved look for an budgets from
alternative another less
funding important
source project

127
2. What are the issues that your team is facing that you
wish to tackle over the next 2-3 months?
Issues Proposed Implementation Plan Results
Solutions with Expected
an action plan

Key learnings from this chapter for you:

1.
2.
3.
4

Stories of courage and dedication.

(Reprinted from Space India, Oct-Dec 2003)
The President of India, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam visited the
Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at
Sriharikota on October 10, 2003.
It may be recalled that Dr. Abdul Kalam was the Project
Director of India’s first Satellite Launch Vehicle, SLV-3,
which was successfully launched from Sriharikota in 1980.
128
Since then, ISRO has come a long way in establishing the
capability to launch remote sensing satellites into polar
orbits using PSLV and communication satellites (upto 2
ton class) into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit using
GSLV, thus making the Indian Space Programme self-
reliant.
After his visit to the launch facilities, the President
addressed the personnel of SDSC at Dr. Ambedkar Open
Air Theatre.
He cited several instances of individuals’ commitment and
dedication to the task of the nation’s space programme at
various levels, which have made India self-reliant in this
technology. While appreciating the achievements of ISRO,
Dr. Kalam said that ISRO has an important role to play in
making India a developed nation by 2020, especially in the
areas of resources survey, communications and
meteorological services.
Excerpts from the speech of the former President of India,
Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
‘’At every stage, SLV-3 team was blessed with some
extraordinarily courageous people.
Once Mr. Shivakaminathan was bringing the C-band
transponder from Trivandrum to SHAR for integration
with the SLV-3.
The SLV-3 launch schedule was dependent on the arrival
and integration of this equipment.
On landing at the Madras (now Chennai) airport, the
aircraft in which Mr. Shivakaminathan was traveling,
skidded and overshot the runway. Dense smoke engulfed the
aircraft. Everyone jumped out of the aircraft through
129
emergency exits and desperately fought to save himself or
herself — all except Mr. Shivakaminathan who stayed in
the aircraft till he removed the transponder from his
baggage. He was among the last few persons to emerge from
the smoke and he was holding the transponder close to his
chest. This is the level of dedication and the attachment to
the project because people owned this project.’’
Dr. Kalam went on to say, “Another incident I remember
is the one that happened during the third launch of SLV-
3. The countdown sequence was proceeding smoothly.
There were two operations to be carried out on the launcher
— one, for release of the spacecraft’s umbilical cord and the
other, to release the arms holding the vehicle. Both these
were pneumatically operated systems remotely controlled
from Block House.
The arms got released as expected. However, the
spacecraft’s umbilical cord release system failed to respond
to the command. This automatically stopped the
countdown. There was suspense on how to proceed. The
launch managers huddled together to find a solution. Mr M
R Kurup and I volunteered to reach the umbilical system
through a ladder to manually release it.
Seeing the situation, one young tradesman of SHAR, Mr.
Pappaiah, volunteered to climb onto the launcher and
release the mechanism manually. After clearance by the
launch managers, he accomplished the marvellous feat and
the vehicle was launched that day.
I can never forget such committed individuals who have
become the backbone of ISRO.’’

130
131
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 6
COMMUNICATING FOR SUCCESS

Once upon a time, in a mid-sized agriculture produce

marketing company, one team member, who was originally
a passionate and committed part of the team, had become
detached and was slacking off. Torn between letting her go
and keeping her, a one-on-one meeting was set up by the
leader of the organization. It was only then that it was found
that she was feeling left out of decision making as nobody
had contacted her for months assuming that she being a
passionate and committed member would be fine. Her long
term goals had also changed over the past one year while the
leader and her managers were assuming that all the
assignments given to her were helping her achieve her
previously stated long term aspirations. The power of one-
on-one communications should not be underestimated,
especially with smart and sincere employees.
For leaders to be effective, simply being eloquent and aware
of the mechanics of communications is not enough. Yes, it
is a 2-way process and yet it is much more than that.
Communications is a core skill of effective leaders. The
power of the spoken and written word is immense and can
never be overstated. It can move armies of demotivated and
frustrated employees into conquest. It can energize a team
into delivering more than their best. It has the capability of
transforming organizations. Conversely, a leader with poor
communication skills can cause demotivation and insecurity
and a lack of clarity and focus among employees.

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 Sincerity

Listening Visibility

There are three aspects of great communications that need

to be kept in mind: sincerity, visibility and listening.
Sincerity and honesty matter a lot. Great leaders do not
speak like corporate robots. They speak in their own voice.
They do not pretend to be someone they are not. Employees
like, respect and follow “real” leaders. Employees detest
false, double-headed, forked-tongue leaders. Genuine
leaders say what they mean and mean what they say. There
is no dichotomy between the said words and their meanings.
What a pleasure it is to hear such leaders communicate!
Visibility is about being physically present from time-to-time
to interact with all stakeholders. Remote communications
through emails and phone calls alone are not amenable to
great followership among employees. Step into their
cubicles or stop by their workstations to chat, share and
bond with members of the team. Care must be taken to do
this with all members of the team irrespective of one’s
personal likes and dislikes. It must also be ensured that the
body language exhibited is genuinely positive, warm and
encouraging. One boss had the habit of putting his arm
around the shoulder of any particularly demotivated worker
or someone who had had a bad day. It almost always
brought a smile back on the face of the employee.
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Communication is about treating people right and being
seen to do that often.
Listening well is the ability to understand another person’s
perspective or situation clearly and empathetically.
Empathy invigorates; sympathy enfeebles. A good leader
does not sympathize but empathizes. Active listening is one
of the core communication skills of leaders which is under-
addressed and needs to be well developed in a good leader.
Exercise
 What is your assessment of your team / department
leader or the organization’s leader who has
communicated with you in the past one year? Tick the
appropriate place on the scale below:
Low Sincerity---------|---------|-----------|----------|-----------|---------High Sincerity
Low Visibility -------|---------|-----------|----------|----------|---------High Visibility
Poor Listening -------|---------|-----------|----------|-----------|---------Good Listening

 What is your assessment of your own communications

with your team / department in the past one year? Tick
the appropriate place on the scale below:
Low Sincerity---------|---------|-----------|--------|----------|----------High Sincerity
Low Visibility -------|--------|-----------|--------|----------|----------High Visibility
Poor Listening -------|---------|----------|---------|----------|---------Good Listening

 If you have received feedback from your team members

what area do you feel you need to work on in order to
communicate effectively?
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
__________________________________________
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The “How” of Good Communications
Communications is a process. It has three sender related
activities, one receiver related activity and two system related
activities. First, the communicator must be fully conversant
with the target receiver – performance, background,
motivation level, etc. This helps in the most important part
of the process – the encoding.
Encoding
Encoding is where the communicator creates the message
that is to be delivered. Creating the message requires the
following: using the receiver’s language, a good
understanding of the context of the communication, and a
reasonably good understanding of the receptivity level of the
receiver.
Transmission
Now that the message has been encoded, it has to be
decided how the message should be transmitted. Who
should say what has to be said? Often the leader decides to
send a spokesperson / substitute especially when bad news
has to be conveyed. All those who aspire to be great leaders
should deliver, both, the good and the bad news in person.
When communication is done in person, a leader basks in
reflected glory when it is good news and displays courage
when it is bad news.

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Medium
Third, what medium for communication is ideal?
Townhall? Intra-office group messaging platform?
Newsletter? Email? Video? It depends on the importance
of the message, expected audience, geographical dispersion
etc. If it requires interaction and listening to grievances, the
townhall format is best owing to its face to face nature and
real-time interactivity with a large audience. If the receivers
are a group of 10-20 members (like sales teams), a face to
face small group discussion is best. If it is geographically
spread over a large area, a video conferencing is probably
most appropriate. The idea is to communicate the message
in one instance to all who need to hear it. This prevents the
grapevine working overtime and causing widespread distress
and confusion with rumours spreading chaos.
Decoding
At the decoding stage, the receiver of the communications
is at work. The receiver is checking for relevance, timing,
sincerity, the complexity of the message, ease of
understanding, call for action or mere information level
content. The receiver decides the success of the
communication. He or she can hear instead of listening;
disregard it for lack of relevance, timing, sincerity, simplicity
of language, or call for immediate action. No matter how
great the message, if the receiver decides to ignore it, the
communicator will never succeed. Leaders must be aware of
this reality. Therefore, focus on the receiver must be
complete.
Noise
All through this process, there are disruptive cues
collectively called “noise”. Noise is anything which

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interferes with the communications process and hinders the
receiver from responding in the communicator’s intended
way. For instance, a very important message being delivered
via videoconference may not have the desired impact if
connectivity gets repeatedly disrupted. Or, in a townhall
meeting, if there is a group of employees heckling or
questioning pointlessly, the leader’s message might get
diluted in smaller whirlpools of discussions.
Exercise
In your experience where have you faced the maximum
difficulty while communicating (rank in order of difficulty
from 1 being most difficult to 5 being least difficult):
Understanding the receiver
Encoding the message
Choosing the communication media
Noise in the system
Receiver not appreciating the message
AIDA Model of Communication
Communication focuses on 4 broad objectives – Awareness,
Interest, Desire, and Action (AIDA). The purpose of any
communicator is to take new members through the four steps
and keep older members of the team at the ‘desire’ and
‘action’ levels. Awareness about the culture and processes
of the team and the company are important inputs for new
members of a team. As they mature, they go from interest in
the workings of the organization to a desire to contribute
significantly by taking action aligned with the company’s
values and goals. This critical job of inducting, training and
energizing team members belongs to the leader. One of the
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authors recollects the time taken by the CEO of the first
company he worked for coming to spend three whole days
with new Management Trainees in the company. The fact
that the CEO of a large company took three working days
off to get to know new inductees had a lasting impression of
what the company stood for. Awareness, interest, desire and
action stages were all covered very well in those three days.
All fresh management trainees unanimously agreed that the
leader was a class apart.
Given the nature of the communication process, a leader
must decide whether it is attention, interest, desire, action,
or assurance that is the desired outcome of the
communication. Sometimes it is a mix of these objectives
that might be the desired outcome. For instance, if a
company is being acquired by another, the leader must not
only inform existing employees but also assure them of
continued employment security. If a team needs to course
correct, the leader must inform, create desire and ensure
members take action. The goals of communications must be
set out clearly in advance and a suitable message must be
selected, encoded and communicated via the most optimum
channel. Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) of
communication must be set clearly for achieving success.
Leaders achieve success with their communication skills
when they:
- Communicate regularly
- Listen empathetically
- Keep it simple, straightforward, and sincere
- Use storytelling where necessary
- Back it up with action

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Communicating regularly
Essentially this means being visible regularly, sometimes in
a direct way and sometimes in a non-obtrusive way. Use all
the media channels at one’s disposal according to the
context. It also involves making sure that communication
channels with the team members are always free and without
blockages. For instance, if there have not been any inputs
from your front line salesmen lately, the leader should
wonder why. Is it because the middle layers are speaking for
them? Is it because the front line people feel that the leader
does not meet them often enough? Is it because someone in
the frontline was punished for communicating with the
leader directly? The cause must be determined and
resolved.
Exercise:
How often does your organization leader communicate with
employees? In what ways? Is the frequency good enough,
too little or too much?
Who? How What Too Just Too
often? mediums? little? Right? often?
Example: Once a Newsletter, Yes
CEO month townhalls,
mails
Your
immediate
leader:
Your
CEO

How often do you communicate with your team? Is it as per

a schedule? Or as and when needed only? Is it only through
one or two methods?

139
 Who? How What Too Just Too
often? mediums? little? Right? often?
You as a
leader:

Listening empathetically
Listening empathetically involves respecting and
appreciating team members. It does not mean agreeing with
everything that comes from the audience, but agreeing to
disagree respectfully. One employee in middle management
in an organization wrote to the leader of the organization
about some changes that would be good for the organization
as a whole. The leader’s response was more a ‘retort’ than
an empathetic reply. A retort is a response that is designed
to snub or end the discussion abruptly. Instead, if the
response had been based on empathetic listening, there
could have been a healthy, fruitful discussion. A
communicator who bulldozes alternative views is only able
to do so because of his power or position of authority. That
is not the kind of leader who communicates well. He or she
does not achieve buy-in from the team members.
An effective way of being an empathetic listener is to create
the right situation for proper communication – no phones,
no people coming and going into the room, and a pre-
decided time for the communication; the opportunity to ask
many questions for clarifications and validation; use of the
LSF (Listen-Summarize-Paraphrase) technique to help
the other person know that you are actually listening to him
or her, not just hearing; and finally allowing silent moments
to let the communication sink in and be fully grasped.
Exercise
Evaluate the last three communication events you have had
(one with a senior, one with a peer, and one with a junior).
140
 Scoring:
If you get 3 ‘Yes’es, it is a moderately good situation. If you
get 4 ‘Yes’es it is a fairly good situation. And if you get 5
‘Yes’es then you are definitely in a very good
communication situation.
3 persons you Was Was there Were Was Was there
last rapport any many there silence
communicated created by observation of questions any from time
with on making the the emotional asked in LSF? to time to
something ambience tone of the the form of let the
important comfortabl conversation a discussion
e? dialogue? sink in?
Example: No Yes Yes No No
DGM (Ops)
1.
2.
3.

Based on your last three communication interactions (as

above), what would you like to focus on to be an empathetic
listener?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

KISSS
Keeping the message simple, straightforward and sincere is
easily done when the intent is honest. Leaders who
communicate in a long-winded, meandering way often do so
due to insincerity. Leaders with good communication skills
talk straight and with respect. Listeners ‘feel’ the

141
genuineness of the message. Many African-Americans have
this wonderful way of saying they understand what someone
is trying to communicate. They say, “I feel you”. In effect,
what they are saying is, “I understand you with my heart”.
KISSS brings buy-in from the team and from the
organization. Without buy-in the message falls like water on
a duck’s back without the desired impact.
Exercise: (tick one)
1. Usually how long are your communications when you
send an email:
a. 3 lines
b. 5 lines
c. > 10 lines
2. Usually, how long are your talks with your team
members?
a. 5-10 minutes
b. 10-30 minutes
c. > 30 minutes
3. How often have team members come back seeking
clarifications?
a. After every talk, because I encourage discussion in
the group
b. Once in a while as I am usually very clear in my
communications
c. Never! I am always very clear what I want to say
Email communication is best between 3-5 lines. Whatever
important content that has to be said can be said in those
many lines. Besides, employees do not like to read lengthy
emails. They have work to do.
Talks should be precise and rarely exceed 5-10 minutes by
a leader. Rest should be Q&A, discussions, clarifications,
etc. Anything beyond this limit creates boredom.
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Communication meetings should have start and end timings
clearly mentioned.
If team members come back seeking clarification after almost
every talk, then the communication may not have been
simple, straightforward and sincere. If they never come back,
it might be a sign that there is no open culture to discuss
things rather than clarity in communication on the leader’s
part. Be cautious.
Storytelling: It is an irresistible tool for capturing the
listener’s imagination. Most of us remember the stories from
all the speeches we have heard more than the actual content
of the communication. Which means that if the message can
be transformed into a story and then communicated, it
would have a higher impact and retention. People are
attracted to stories because of our social nature. Storytelling
also releases cortisol when tense moments in the story
appear and the feel-good chemical oxytocin when there is a
release or empathy moment in the story. For example, the
news that a key member of the team is leaving the
organization can be crippling. But what if a story of how the
organization was instrumental in the person’s growth as well
as how the individual contributed to the growth of the
organization can be spun in an interesting way? It would
take the sting out of the departure. If a few words can be
said on how the best practices of the organization would be
carried forward to the organization the individual is going to
join, it would give a sense of continuity of the organization’s
legacy. Hence, instead of merely looking at the loss from an
organization’s point of view, it could be looked at as the
organization’s gift to the industry! That would be
storytelling.

143
Storytelling is most effective when it uses Freytag’s Pyramid
of Storytelling:

Source: HBR, March 2014

Take a look at the Budweiser Puppy Love commercial at
the Super Bowl and the power of storytelling using the
Freytag Pyramid becomes clear. A leader needs to build his
or her communication in the same way wherever possible.
Exercise
In a business situation when the team is fighting for sales,
market share, topline, bottomline, new products,
profitability and distributors, is there any room for
storytelling? Where?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
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Here's an example of the storytelling skills of Moe Levine,
a great trial lawyer in the U.S.

Widely recognized as the leading trial lawyer of his time,

Moe Levine often used the “whole man” theory to
successfully influence juries to empathize with his clients.
Seeking compensation for a client who had lost both arms
in an accident, Levine surprised the court and jury, who
were accustomed to long closing arguments, by painting a
brief and emotionally devastating picture instead:
He said to the jury, “As you know, about an hour ago we
broke for lunch. I saw the bailiff come and take you all as a
group to have lunch in the jury room. Then I saw the
defense attorney, Mr. Horowitz. He and his client decided
to go to lunch together. So, I turned to my client, Harold,
and said: “Why don’t you and I go to lunch together?” We
went across the street to that little restaurant and had
lunch. (Significant pause). Ladies and gentlemen, I just
had lunch with my client. He has no arms. He has to eat
like a dog. Thank you very much.”
Levine reportedly won one of the largest settlements in the
history of the state of New York.
Source: Harrison Monarth, Harvard Business Review,
March 2014.

Back it up with action: As described in earlier chapters,

leaders have to “walk the talk”. At some point, words alone
will not be sufficient even if they are very powerful. Action
brings credibility and gives birth to trust. Leaders who only
talk, lose both quickly. Action is an expression of
commitment to the spoken word. True to the old saying,
“Action speaks louder than words”, a leader with good

145
communication skills must have the courage and conviction
to do something about what he or she speaks or promises or
encourages. Don’t be a leader nicknamed “hot air”, or
“empty bag”, or “all bark no bite”.
“Do as I say, not as I do” might have worked in earlier
times. Now it is more, “Do as I do, whatever I might say.”
Leaders who are action-oriented must also balance their
people skills. Walking the talk involves the leader helping
people achieve their goals, giving them freedom and
autonomy, ferociously defending the company’s values,
improving the lives of one’s team members, and listening
more than talking, just as much as focusing on number
crunching and overcoming competitors.
People feel
As a leader, what you make your employees feel will always
stay with them long after what you said and did are
forgotten. You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?
If there is an aspiration to be a great leader, then one must
master this principle.

In the business of politics, Mahatma Gandhi walked the walk

with such regularity that ordinary followers found it tough to
keep up. Uncompromising and steadfast, Gandhi was also a
people’s person, caring, listening, empathizing, and leading.
His leadership gave the world a model moral code.

Action in leadership sometimes brings forth enemies.

Tough actions make people feel upset and sometimes turn
them into mortal enemies. Leadership brings loneliness.
One must learn how to cope with that. Sometimes your
followers backstab you. Then as a leader, you will feel let
down and worthless. One must find the courage to go on in
both situations.

146
Exercise:
How many times in the last six months have you, as a leader,
walked the talk? Give an example.
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
How many times in the last six months have you, as a leader,
not walked the talk? Example?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
What factors would you ascribe your inability to walk your
talk?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
How have inhibiting circumstances affected your
relationship with your team?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

147
To avoid failure in walking your talk, take care to observe
the following 5 steps:

1. Be careful what you claim or promise (under-promise

and over-deliver).
2. Ensure you have Plan B ready (in case Plan A fails).
3. Monitor your walk carefully and regularly (to align with
your talk).
4. Make it a habit to talk wisely and thoughtfully (so that
your talk is not impulsive).
5. Take inputs and buy-in from your team for your talk (so
that the walk is not yours alone).

Body Language
No discussion on communications can be complete without
a look at the importance of body language. It is interesting
to note that according to research, almost 70% of
understanding of a personal one-on-one communication
comes from non-verbal cues. Signals such as tone of voice,
posture, smile, crossed arms and legs, leaning in or pushing
back, fidgetiness or calmness are all important in
understanding the communicator and the message.
Body language is the conscious and unconscious movements
and postures by which attitudes and feelings are
communicated. These unspoken elements of
communication convey true feelings and emotions. A leader
must be good at reading these signs and conveying
communication with the proper body language.
Difficult conversations are an uncomfortable part of life at
work. Dealing with your team members about poor
performance or goal non-accomplishment can be tough.
Having to let go of a team member can be devastating for
both. There is often a lot of defensiveness and bruised egos
148
and even anger. And these emotions if not read properly
lead to confrontations rather than productive
communication.
Certain cues of difficult conversation situations are as
follows:
Arms folded in front of the body (not open to you or your
message, defensive, closed-minded)
Tense facial expression (nervous, afraid, dangerous, angry,
distrustful)
Body facing away from you (indifference, casualness, non-
serious, defensive, evasive)
Eyes looking down, minimal eye contact (timid, untruthful,
lacking confidence)
Certain cues of unengaged audiences are as follows:
Sitting slumped, eyes focused elsewhere (low involvement,
low engagement)
Fidgeting, fiddling with pens, clothes, buttons, and phones
(low engagement)
Scribbling, doodling, looking at the time often (distracted,
engaged in other thoughts, boredom)
Certain cues of an aggressive audience or communicator are
as follows:
Hands on hips, chest out, legs apart (aggression,
dominating, dismissive)
Glaring eyes, heavy breathing, stammering (excited, angry,
maybe furious, offensive)

149
Barely touching handshake / crushing handshake
(dismissive, showing power)
Body language is a language worth learning for leaders who
want to communicate empathetically. It is important for
leaders to understand when to be assertive and when to be
soft. Knowledge of body language sets us free from the
mistakes that can occur by depending solely on spoken
words.
Leaders should also be aware that the spoken word and
associated body language should match. For instance,
offering praise to an individual while looking away from the
person will be understood as false praise.
One can train one’s body to talk a certain language but
insincerity and dishonesty will expose you in an unguarded
moment. For instance, a firm handshake and a straight look
into the eyes might give the impression of a confident person
but when a challenge is thrown up out of the blue and the
individual’s training does not get time to get activated, then
the true self will appear, however briefly. That is a giveaway.
Nevertheless, good body language training triggers
behavioural change. When you are trained to look confident,
often you actually end up being confident. When you train
yourself to appear open and warm, usually it results in you
becoming open and warm. So practice regularly, correctly
and sincerely.
Reading other people’s body language as well as writing
and speaking your own positive body language are
important steps on the road to being an effective leader.
Find a coach if you have to. Invest in it. Master it.
If you want to do it on your own, record yourself on video,
talking in a formal situation. Check for gaps, aahs, ticks (like

150
 constantly touching your nose or your hair), posture, tone of
voice, modulation of voice. Now compare it to a few good
speakers you admire. Keep a logbook of your improvement
journey by recording your speeches or talks using a phone
camera on a tripod. It could look something like this:
Session Date Duration Flaws Strengths
(min:sec)
Session 1 1/1/2020 5:12 17 aahs; 3 face Good
touches; 6 content
fidgetings with
the watch; voice
totally
monotonous;
limp hand
gestures; low
passion
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4….
……………
Session n

Exercise
You are giving a motivational talk to your team after a month
of low sales. Of the thirteen members in your team, two
sitting next to each other are alert and upright, looking at
their smart phones every few minutes. One of the two gets a
call and steps out after excusing himself. Your talk
continues. Some of the others are sitting downcast, looking
at their shoes. One team member in particular has not
looked up even once. A few in the front are sitting up and
listening intently. The person who got the phone call comes
back in. As he sits down he leans back in his chair with his
legs stretched out in front of him. A brief glance is

151
exchanged between him and his partner. You ask him about
his sales performance and he offers a casual answer looking
away from you at the others in the team with a half-smile.
Meeting gets over. Discussions get stretched over tea. On
the 31st of the month you get two resignation letters. Whose
are they? How do you know?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
___________________________________________

152
 Lead from the back and let others believe they are in
front
Mandela loved to reminisce about his boyhood and his lazy
afternoons herding cattle. "You know," he would say, "you can
only lead them from behind." He would then raise his eyebrows to
make sure I got the analogy.
As a boy, Mandela was greatly influenced by Jongintaba, the tribal
king who raised him. When Jongintaba had meetings of his court,
the men gathered in a circle, and only after all had spoken did the
king speak. “The chief's job,” Mandela said, “was not to tell
people what to do but to form a consensus. "Don't enter the debate
too early," he used to say.”
During the time I worked with Mandela, he often called meetings
of his kitchen cabinet at his home in Houghton, a lovely old suburb
of Johannesburg. He would gather half a dozen men, Ramaphosa,
Thabo Mbeki, and others around the dining-room table or
sometimes in a circle in his driveway. Some of his colleagues would
shout at him — to move faster, to be more radical — and Mandela
would simply listen. When he finally did speak at those meetings,
he slowly and methodically summarized everyone's points of view
and then unfurled his own thoughts, subtly steering the decision in
the direction he wanted without imposing it. The trick of
leadership is allowing yourself to be led too. "It is wise," he said,
"to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their
own idea."
From:
Mandela: His 8 Lessons of Leadership
By Richard Stengel Wednesday, July 09, 2008

153
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

154
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 7
HANDLING FAILURES

Failures are a part and parcel of human endeavour. Most

people experience more failures than successes. Leaders
have to tilt the balance in favour of more successes to earn
and maintain their leadership positions. Even then, as some
failures are almost inevitable, it is important that existing
and aspiring leaders know how to handle them.
What is Failure?
Failure has many definitions. According to the Cambridge
English dictionary, failure is—
a) the fact of someone or something not succeeding
(eg. The negotiations were a complete failure)
b) the fact of not doing something that you must do or are
expected to do
(eg. Her failure to see the market signals resulted in the demise
of the company)
c) the fact of something not working, or stopping working as
well as it should.
(eg. The number of CEOs quitting last year due to business
failures has risen sharply)
Main causes of failure
Failures in corporations could result due to various reasons.
The two most important ones for leaders to be aware of and
manage are:
a) change management failure
b) innovation management failure
155
Change management failures result from the inability of
putting transformation items in a culturally acceptable
manner. For example, if the leader of a large legacy telecom
company like BSNL is unable to install and lead cultural
change for employees to become more agile and customer-
centric, it can lead to loss of customer relevance due to
change management failure. Leaders trying to change
corporate culture are likely to face this kind of failure. A
good illustration of this type of failure is the case of Air
India. Many leaders have attempted to set things right
culturally at the national flag carrier but have not succeeded.
Innovation management failures result from the failure to
create a robust innovation strategy and the failure to evolve
with the market. Examples of innovation failures are
numerous and have been well documented. Kodak failing to
adapt itself for the digital onslaught despite being the first in
the world to actually invent digital photography led to its
downfall from the pre-eminent position in imaging products
it had held for many decades. IBM, Nokia, Blockbuster,
and JVC are other examples of innovation management
failures.
Focus on People, Process and Innovation: It can
help avoid failures
Leaders in the 21st-century corporations would do well to
adopt a flexible leadership model with an emphasis on
people, process and innovation.
It is important to note that the first of the three things to
focus on for successful leadership is “people”. Without good
quality, highly motivated “people”, no leader can deliver
consistently over a long period. The premium Ritz Carlton
hotel chain is an excellent example of highly motivated staff
fulfilling the leadership’s vision. Every employee at the Ritz
156
from housekeeping to management has a no-questions-asked
pre-approved sanction to spend up to $2000 (yes, Rs.
1,40,000! Simply wow!) on any hotel guest in order to give
excellent customer service. Their motto “We are ladies and
gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen’ embodies respect for
their employees first which in turn creates respect for their
guests. That is an awesome approach to get your people
excited, engaged and enthused!
Exercise
Have you ever tried offering respect to your team first before
anything else? If yes, how did you benefit as a leader?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The second emphasis must be on mastery over processes
within the organization. Many companies have discovered
the benefits of the Japanese way of “Kaizen” – continuous
improvement of processes by asking the why, what, when,
where, who and how questions. A leader’s role requires that
the focus on process change management must be done in a
minimally disruptive manner, or, if disruption cannot be
avoided, then the team must be informed and taken into
confidence. You will be surprised at the level of buy-in that
can be achieved from employees when things are discussed
and debated. The effects are often magical. Of course, there
will be dissent but effective leaders need to anticipate and
offset dissent, respectfully. What does USA, Burma and
Liberia have in common? They are the only three countries
in the world which have not adopted the metric system
(where speedometers read mph; weight is measured in
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pounds and temperature is recorded in degrees Fahrenheit).
US President Jimmy Carter’s administration in 1975 tried
to implement the metric system. In the face of complete
apathy from the public at large, the plan was shelved in
1982. Lesson? Culture eats process for lunch. Prescription:
understand organizational culture well and then align
process changes to leverage that culture.
Exercise
Have you ever launched a process change in your
organization and met with a strong pushback because of
cultural issues? Briefly describe what happened. Did you
consider your organization / team’s cultural barriers?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The third emphasis is managing innovation as a strategic
element for organizational success. Failure to do so results
in leadership failure. McDonald’s “Made for You” – a
customized food creation process for its customers — was
an ‘innovation’ failure as it took away from efficiency and
reliability. McDonald’s is a place where people go for quick
and consistent fast food with short wait times. “Made for
You” put more emphasis on trying to be something which
they were not supposed to be — Made to Order and long
queues. If the leadership had taken the time to seek out
feedback and tested the innovation concept before rolling it
out, a disaster might have been prevented.
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Great leaders work on all three aspects of avoiding failure
and embracing business success. As can be appreciated
from the above, failures can occur (or avoided) anywhere,
anytime.
Exercise
In the last 6 months examine your leadership as per the grid
below (one example has been given for you to fill in the rest):
Area of People Process Innovatio Reason for
Leadership n leadership
Failure failure
Go to Channel Channel Five-in- Inability to
market plan partners not needs to see one inspire
for a new supportive the benefit shampoo sales team
shampoo in it for and
themselves channel
partners
about the
potential of
the product

Before we get to handling failures, it is necessary to dig into

some additional causes of leadership failure in
organizations. Here are some of them:
1. Taking the business in the wrong strategic
direction. For example, when Netflix split into
separately paid services, it was a wrong strategic
decision for the company which had earlier
revolutionized the video industry. Similarly, Kingfisher
Airlines became shaky the day it acquired the no-frills
airline Air Deccan (among other things). Wrong
choices, wrong roads, wrong outcomes.

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2. Allowing factors other than merit to be employed
for choosing leaders. For example, at a once very
successful North American smartphone maker,
nepotism played some role in poor succession planning.
In Indian PSUs the iron law till recently was that
seniority trumped merit in most cases. Family-based
business houses have had its share of problems in
accession to top spots for family outsiders.
3. Corruption: When leadership is or becomes
corrupted there is only one way for the organization –
downwards. Enron is the perfect example. After hiding
fraud for many years, the leadership finally found itself
in prison. In India, the leadership at a leading Indian
private bank got compromised with organizational
interests becoming subservient to the Chief Executive’s
personal interests.
4. Ineptitude or lack of ability to lead: This is a major
reason why leaders fail – being chosen for a profile they
are inherently incapable of fulfilling. An American
banking and financial products supermarket (one of the
largest in the world at the time) in the 2000s committed
the mistake of appointing a leader who committed a
series of missteps leading finally to his ouster. At one of
India’s largest legacy corporate houses, the new CEO’s
inability to carry the Trust members with him resulted
in his ignominious ouster. The ability to lead is not in
every leader who gets into the driving seat.
5. Insincerity and Dishonesty: This is not only
exhibited in the handling of business operations but also
in terms of unsavoury dealings with the opposite gender.
It also refers to dual standards for top management and
lower-level employees in treating reported cases of
unacceptable financial, illegal or immoral behaviour.
Uber, Google and TERI are some companies whose
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 leaders failed by bringing disrepute to their companies
and their employees.
Organizations go through immense turmoil when their
leaders are unable to lead well and with honesty. 20,000
employees walked out at Google when they felt their leaders
were not up to the mark in terms of dealing with sexual
harassment complaints or kowtowing to China in
undermining the very idea of “free and unbiased search”.
Exercise
1. In your current organization or any previous ones
(without naming them), did you feel that your leader(s) let
you and the company down? If yes, how?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
2. Did anybody raise the issue? What happened
thereafter?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
_______________________________
3. What would you have liked to be done differently?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
_______________________________

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4. Have you ever faced a situation as a leader when
someone came up and said that your leadership is below
expectations (in nicer words)?
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
___________________________________________
_______________________________
Why do leadership disasters occur?
1. The Power Distance: One of the prime reasons for
leadership failures lies in a characteristic of many
collectivist, hierarchical societies (like Indian, Korean
and Japanese) – the power distance. We do not like to
point out the failures of our seniors and leaders. We
consider it disrespectful and ‘not our place’ to point out
the mistakes of elders or leaders. We prefer to suffer it
quietly rather than tell our leaders, managers and elders
that they are making a mistake. In turn, this leads to
failures of the leader and the system.
2. Fear in the system: Fear of repercussions for stating the
truth is very real in many cultures which permeates the
business environment. Not agreeing with the boss or
leader is counted as being anti-system. Resisting
unethical demands often result in penalization. Women
employees and subordinates know this the best.
Creating a fear-free environment is the key solution.
3. Wrong selection process: Too much emphasis on
experience kills the creative aspect of leadership.
Psychometric testing for interest in leadership roles
rather than the ability to lead is another wrong approach
in leadership selection. A third wrong approach is too
much “people empathy” and too little “task
orientation”. Leaders who do not maintain a balance
between the two often end up failing to lead. Too often,
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 a leader once instated in the position wants to sail
quietly without rocking the boat at all. This causes
disasters too.
4. Poor early warning systems: Often leaders out of a sense
of insecurity surround themselves with people who are
inferior to them. Such a circle is often filled with
sycophants and yes-men. Their mission in life is to
camouflage looming disaster signs and keep feeding the
leader only rosy pictures. Lulled into a sense of false
superstardom, such leaders sink without a trace. A
robust and healthy critiquing system is what good
leadership should strive for.
5. Sense of arrogance: Often when a leader tastes a little
success, there creeps in a sense of arrogance. Arrogance
is defined as (among other things) a “sense of false
superiority”. This results in discounting the suggestions
of others. One expression which captures this tendency
well is “my way or the highway”. Arrogance makes a
leader impervious to good advice. Such leaders think
they have it all figured out. Soon the good people in the
team start moving out and there are only those left who
survive on loyalty and sycophancy.
6. Inability to see the dynamic future: Changes are
happening at breakneck speed in the business and
technology fields. Leaders who do not see the future
changing on the horizon and sit pretty on their past
laurels, suffer catastrophes. Sometimes such leaders are
responsible for entire companies folding up. Leaders
without vision take the company backwards or, in the
worst-case scenario, into extinction.
7. Failure to manage top-level interpersonal dynamics:
Often many organizations are rife with negative
“politics”. The term is used negatively here to express
all that is wrong with group dynamics in the
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 organization. At the heart of such negativity is the
hunger for power. Since that cannot be eliminated, a
leader must be able to navigate the choppy waters
carefully and with authority. Inability to assert authority
leads to alternative power centres cropping up which
undermine the leader’s position.
Exercise
1. Have you observed any of the above 7 reasons for
leadership failure? Please explain briefly.
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
2. What was the impact of the leader’s failure on the
company/division/team?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
3. Have you ever personally faced failure because of any
of the above 7 reasons? If yes, which reason(s) was
evident in your situation?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

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4. What was the impact of your failure on your team? Be
honest!
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
5. Do you think there could be any other major reason for
the failure of a leader? If yes, what?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
What to do when faced with failure as a Leader?
Leaders have some options when they sense failure looming
ahead. For one, they can brace it out boldly by accepting
the mistake made, evaluating one’s situation objectively,
talking to trustworthy people, learning from the situation one
is in, and moving forward. The other option is to deny the
mistake, blame others for the mess one is in, create bad
blood within the team, and stagnate. The choice is yours.
All of us have different ways of coping with failure or loss.
Some become aggressive and vindictive. Some blame others
for their failure. Some withdraw into a shell and others
might resign and move on unable to bear the humiliation.
The fallouts of any of the above are that it can make a bad
situation worse. Resigning and leaving the organization
might haunt one forever.

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Blaming others for your failures would be churlish, childish
and immature showing a low emotional quotient.
Becoming aggressive and vindictive might lead to a revolt
from team members who now have you on the back foot.
All the above paths can lead to deeply negative outcomes
for the organization, team members and yourself.
What is called for is a mature approach. The mature
approach entails taking a step back and reflecting on what
actually happened and assessing the situation
dispassionately. It is a good practice to have a mentor with
whom you can discuss your failure (and successes) for fair
and balanced feedback.
A dispassionate assessment of failure requires the following
“12 Steps of Failure Management”:
1. Understanding and accepting that a failure has
happened. Denial is of no use.
2. Revisiting the parameters that had been set. Were they
realistic and doable?
3. Which factors played a major role in the failure?
4. Was it possible to have had control over those factors?
5. If not, then was it a complete failure?
6. If yes, what are the reasons you were not able to see
the signals?
7. What needs to be corrected? Can it be done? If yes,
what steps?
8. If not, is there a need to change the goalposts, set new
targets?
9. After the assessment, bring the team into a town hall
session and share your analysis.
10. Discuss learnings from your failure and set new goal(s)
with the team.

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11. If people within your team caused you to fail, two
options: counsel and keep; inform and fire
12. Inform management (or board) of your analysis and
seek support.
The above 12 steps of Failure Management, if adopted, would
not only show you in a positive light but also one with an
analytical bent of mind. You would be perceived as a structured
person, mature in your outlook, dispassionate in your
examination of the causes of your failure, brave enough to brace
the discussion with your team, inclusive enough to involve them
to achieve new goals and smart enough to discuss with your
superiors the way ahead.
The hallmark of a successful leader is to have the intelligence to
know when (s)he has failed and the wisdom to know that s/he
can live to fight another day.
Failure is a learning process. People often don’t think about it
that way, especially if they’ve been successful in life. However,
failure can be just as valuable as success. Instead of decreasing
your confidence and your feelings about your abilities, it should
boost those. Such experiences make you a better leader.
Also, stop beating yourself up about failure. Overcome the
tendency to blame yourself beyond a certain point. Stop dwelling
on the past and look at the future. Stop getting entangled in a
psychological web of self-pity and blaming others.

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Exercise
1. When faced with a failure in your organization, what
have you seen your leader(s) do?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
2. If you are faced with a failure in your job, what do you
normally do?

________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
______________________________________
3. Would following the 12 steps of Failure Management
help you in your leadership position in case of a failure?
Why or why not?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
Important Note on Failures
Failures are milestones on one’s way to success. There is not
a single person in the history of our species who has not
failed. Some fail more than others. The real trick is to keep
going. Ask yourself if there is any other way to deal with
failure – except to get up, dust yourself and move on?
Would you rather give up, lie on your back in self-pity,

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blaming others and drown in your own sea of negative
thoughts? Or not? Find your purpose and keep moving with
the final objective in your sight. You have a task to achieve
irrespective of your failures. Actually, because of your
failures you learn that life is worth living and that goals are
worth achieving. You have got to prove it to yourself that
you can do it, if not for anybody else.
An Anecdote of Leadership Failure Management
There is a very long list of failures who finally made it to
great heights. From Abraham Lincoln to Dhirubhai
Ambani and Katy Perry to Sunil Bharti Mittal, there are
numerous stories in every field where overnight success was
often many years in the making. Stories of indomitable
courage in business, sports, entertainment, music, science
and literature are inspirational. It tells us the power of not
giving up. One such story is that of Ratan Tata, erstwhile
head of TATA Sons, the holding trust of the $100 billion
dollar Tata Conglomerate.
Heralded as one of the greatest industrialists of modern
India, Ratan Naval Tata, faced failures and tough times in
many situations. His first major failure was in trying to turn
around Empress Mills in Mumbai in 1977. He faced stiff
resistance from militant trade union leader, Datta Samant,
which he could not resolve. Eventually, the Mills had to be
shut down. Then, he spent his initial years after taking over
from JRD Tata at Bombay House trying to rein in the
satraps who had been allowed full freedom by his uncle
JRD. It took him a long time to assert his authority over
these individual company heads. Russi Mody and Ajit
Kerkar openly fought with Ratan Tata after the latter was
nominated as Chairman, jumping over the heads of Mody
(TISCO), Darbari Seth (Tata Tea), Ajit Kerkar (Indian

169
Hotels) and Nani Palkhivala (Board Member). Ratan
Tata had to navigate this extremely hostile climate created
by the independent heads. Mody had to be ousted based on
irregularities in the appointment of certain key top
functionaries at TISCO. Seth and Kerkar were eased out
by Tata after he brought in a new “70 years cut-off age for
MDs”. Therefore, though he belonged to the family, Ratan
Tata had to prove his mettle at every step. He did this by
careful engineering in order to steer the Tata Conglomerate
into the new business environment post 1991. He kept on
forging ahead despite repeated failures and temporary
setbacks.
The Role of a Mentor in times of Failure
A mentor is an experienced and trusted adviser. A mentor’s
experience helps because he has “been there, done that”. A
mentor you trust is helpful because you can share details
without having to hide facts or pretend in order to maintain
your self-esteem. A mentor should be chosen carefully.
Some qualities in a prospective mentor: values in alignment
with your own, capable and willing to give honest feedback,
loads of experience, humility, confidentiality, helpfulness,
wisdom and vision.
The mentor is one who understands you well, listens actively
and empathetically, gives you scathing feedback if need be,
connects you to his or her network, and encourages you
through the tough times. For at least two senior leaders the
authors know personally, their mentor is their spouse. It has
worked for them. Others prefer to pick a mentor from
industry. The mentor can be a perfect bouncing board for
overcoming failure.

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When you become a Mentor for a Failed Leader /
Team Member
After a successful tenure as a leader, there will be times
when your team members would seek you out for
mentorship. What are the signals? Often a team member
comes to discuss issues, ideas and strategy with you. Ensure
that he / she is not short-circuiting any line of control. And
then be miserly in providing advice at first. This is to make
sure that he / she is not seeking your advice only to get closer
to you for various professional reasons. Once he / she starts
implementing your initial suggestions, you might want to test
the person again. After you are convinced about the
genuineness of the person’s interest, only then should you
step into a full-fledged mentoring role.
Exercise
1. Have you sought out a mentor yet? If not, why?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
2. If you have a mentor, what have you benefited from that
person?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

171
3. Have you mentored a failed team member / leader? If
not, why?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
4. If yes, what would that mentee of yours say about your
mentoring style?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
5. What part about mentoring would you like to change in
your mentor?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
6. What would you like to change in yourself as a mentor
of failed team members?
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________
________________________________________

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Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Failure is an Essential Part of Leadership Success

Dean Kamen, the inventor of Segway, says, “Most people
go through life trying to avoid failure. Those who end up
doing something are the ones who get up after every failure
and keep going. Often their failures are so monumental that
they lose all hope. Finally, when they make it, people
compliment them. The compliments only come when the
failed person succeeds. The important thing is to keep going
at it and to remember that failure is a lonely affair and that
success, when achieved, becomes the celebratory event.
What people forget is that failure is an integral part of a
successful leadership journey.”
Leadership success depends a lot on seeing problems
differently from everybody else and finding solutions that
nobody else thinks of. Like inventors, leaders must step up
from failures in order to improve the trajectory of the
businesses they handle and of the people they lead.

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174
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 8
CELEBRATING SUCCESS

A Leader’s Role
Today, celebrating success is a big part of most
organizations — small or big, startups or established, across
industry sectors, including not-for-profits. The system takes
care of recognition and rewards for outstanding performers
and milestones achieved by employees. Automation has
crept into much of the celebration of birthdays,
anniversaries, tenure milestones and promotions related
events. Impersonal e-cards and templated greetings have
killed the fun in celebrating successes.
If celebrations and recognitions are taken care of by the
organization’s HR department or automated software, what
is the role of a leader in this case? Apparently, a very
important role.
Leaders create a culture in the organization which
recognizes challenges of the journey and celebrates
milestones so that the team is kept motivated and
approaches the next task or milestone with sustained focus
and vigour. Leaders must create a culture of giving equal
weightage to the journey as well as the end goal.
Appreciation dissolves over time
You might ask when employees are recruited and on-
boarded, aren’t they screened for self-motivation? Of
course, they are. But no matter who it is, everyone has
phases of low energy. It is the leader’s role to identify the
signals and intervene. Since leadership is in the “people
business” and people by their very nature can never be
175
consistently upbeat and highly motivated, it is essential for
leaders to be people-sensitive. Appreciation must be offered
frequently and sincerely to employees. It has been proven by
many researchers that appreciation has a bigger and longer
impact than monetary rewards alone. At the same time,
appreciation has a dissolvable quality. Hence, it needs to be
refreshed from time to time.

Once a wife declared in utter frustration to her husband of

thirty years that she had not heard the words “I love you”
from him for many years. The husband thought for a moment
and nonchalantly replied that he had said it when they had
married three decades ago. As there was no change in that
emotion for him, he did not think it important to mention it
ever again. Relationships on the personal front or in the
organization do not work like that. We are humans. Humans
need constant reinforcement and reassurance. Be free and
generous with celebrating small or big successes of your team.

Being task and people-oriented

The leader has eyes on the ultimate goal because it is
imperative that things keep moving ahead. Momentum must
be kept high to reach the next assignment, en route to the
end goal. Therefore, remembering to celebrate small
moments which are important to the team members is a
tough task for the leader. Besides, most leaders got to where
they are because they were task-oriented. Now to suddenly
ask them to become task and people-oriented becomes very
difficult. However, good leaders recognize that celebrating
success after every unit of achievement motivates and adds
momentum to the team which propels them toward the next
milestone. Connecting with people in the organization
should be a skill that must feature prominently to be a high
impact leader.

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Catch people doing right
We have been numbed into believing that numbers are the
only thing that matters for a leader to deliver. Undoubtedly,
numbers are concrete, they are undeniable and they most
often win against an abstract, disputable entity such as
leader-employee relationship. It is important to understand
that leadership is not only in the numbers achieved (though
it is an important part), but also the quality of work and the
consistent habit of getting things done. The celebration is a
day-to-day affair, as a good leader tries to ‘catch them doing
things right’. Too many leaders focus on the reverse, trying
to catch people committing mistakes. A focus on ‘catching
people doing things right’ will change the work environment
dramatically, as team members will know that every good
piece of work is noticed and appreciated, which boosts the
morale of the team.
When one feels valued at the work place, self-esteem of the
team members goes high, and this creates more positivity in
the work place. Sharing and celebrating successes
strengthen the team.
Contrary to a common practice these days, instead of
sharing successes of team members over closed social media
groups consisting only of team members, it is the
responsibility of the leader to ensure that there are sufficient
success stories frequently floating around openly in all
media. The above is challenging for a task oriented leader,
but is an absolute necessity. One organization even has a
“Celebration Bell” where all employees gather to celebrate
every achievement of the past month of every employee –
doorman to CEO.

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Ensuring frequent success stories
How can we ensure that there are frequent success stories?
Our experience of coaxing out success stories in the many
companies we worked for have taught us that it works almost
every time irrespective of whether you are a front line sales
manager or a Director in a company. Occasional low sales
and low morale are realities of every organization.
Achieving success every day or week or month is difficult.
The first step is to pick your ‘A’ team members who have
the highest success probability.
The second step is to make a detailed action plan for a set
of customers who can contribute to your sales in a short
period of time; in other words, identify the low hanging
fruits, make an attack plan and prepare the sales
commandos.
Thirdly, leverage the ‘A’ team members’ customer contacts.
In step four, augment the current relationship with your
support and resource it adequately. Follow up with the
customer and the team members on a personal basis until
the first signs of success start emerging.
Step five is to share successes which will encourage others
to look for ways to succeed; then work towards that goal with
more focus and determination.
In other words, a leader has to engineer the creation of
successes. Further, the language of success-sharing needs to
be subtle, not at all boastful and not in a way to put others
down. It should never be a comparison exercise between
team members. A typical communique could go like this:

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“I would like to congratulate Sumitra on a job well done in
generating the first Purchase Order for the month from Saturn
Pharmaceuticals, a very important customer. Her consistent
efforts and focus for the last one month have got her this
breakthrough. I am confident that we will hear more success
stories from Sumitra and all the other team members”.
You might want to go a step further in some cases. “I would
request Sumitra to share with the team how she got this
breakthrough at an open house session tomorrow at 11:00
A.M”.
Sharing of good practices is a cross-learning platform. If the
platform is well-designed and transparent, each team
member would step forward to share their success mantras.
Such success sharing triggers an appreciative climate among
peers, and each congratulatory message is a motivator.
I used to have a mailer series: “No success is too small to
share”, which gave the team members a platform to share
successes irrespective of the sales order size.
Each success is like a building block towards achieving the
ultimate quarterly or yearly number. Hence, the importance
of celebrating small milestones each time over.
Cumulatively, sharing success becomes a matter of pride as
each and every success story is met with praise or celebration
spearheaded by the leader and supported by the peers.
When team members take pride in their work, there is no
limit to what can be achieved.
In a 2015 article titled, “Why You Must Celebrate Small
Successes”, business technology specialist Minda Zetlin
(co-author of “The Geek Gap”), writes that in order to
succeed in a big endeavour, you must “parcel the journey
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out into the smaller steps you’ll take along the way” and
“celebrate when you reach each one.”
Simple, creative ways of celebrating successes are
opportunities to build the leader into a brand.
A leader should be on the lookout to “catch team members
doing things right”, and every opportunity should be
celebrated in a creative way. The celebration need not be
expensive. For most team members it is the thought or
intention that counts.
Often, even the simple gift of a good quality ballpoint pen
to any team member who achieves some success works
wonders. The gift would be accompanied by a sincere
comment such as “(Name), Congratulations on the job well
done!” Or let the gift just be a chocolate bar for the
successful team member’s son or daughter with the words,
“This is for your child, and tell her it is a gift from me to her
for a good job done by her father / mother”.
It bears repetition that it is the thought, timing, intent, and
consistency that count in celebrating successes with your
team members. Handwritten cards, saying
“Congratulations” or “Thank you” on a job well done, will
go a long way in building the ‘brand’ of leadership which
celebrates success – in short, your leadership brand.
How do we celebrate successes that are unquantifiable,
unlike sales numbers?
There are many such activities which team members do
which may not be as visible as ‘sales’, nevertheless, these
activities contribute positively and significantly to the culture
of the company and build camaraderie in the workplace.

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For example, in the absence of a team member, a colleague
substitutes selflessly and meets a customer’s demand in time.
Such activities may not have a number attached to it, but no
one can deny that it is a success story that needs to be shared
and supported by the leader. Going the extra mile for a
colleague will build a culture and a habit in the team to do
one’s part when some colleague is indisposed or fighting
some other war.
Sharing best practices publicly opens the flood gates of
positivity and learning. Usually, this is undertaken during
mid-year or annual conferences, where the entire team meets
with senior and global level executives. Employees who
achieve breakthrough success are invited to present their
success stories on this platform on certain parameters which
is followed by a Q&A session, which is usually the highlight
of the event. The presenter is flooded with critical questions,
on how it was done, the method adopted, challenges
overcome, and so on.
Such sessions serve as very practical and interactive learning
forums where insights are dug up and it resonates with team
members as they live the very same challenges day in and
day out. Incidentally, such forums provide far better
learnings than many training sessions on how to be
successful.
Another method adopted is poster presentation (rather than
boring PowerPoint presentations) of a success. This
requires a lot of hard work as the presenter has to repeat the
success story as many times as audience members turn up in
front of the poster. A panel of judges assesses the best
performances for felicitation.
The entire exercise works on the motto: ‘Share
passionately, copy intelligently’. Such wide-angle and
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larger than life events celebrating employee successes are a
worthwhile investment by the organization as it has a
significant impact on the entire team aspiring to be in the
elite club. The value of such showcasing far outstrips
monetary compensation for an employee any day.
Parameters for the presenters:
 The Objective: Defining goals is the 1st step towards
any big breakthrough
 The Challenge: In-depth understanding of the eco
system before an action plan
 The Action Plan: Step by step progress detailing,
leaving as little as possible to chance
 The Innovation: Yesterday’s excellence, today’s
commonplace, tomorrow’s obsolete
 The Resources: Deploying scarce resources to
achieve success
 The Collaboration: Explaining how networks were
leveraged
 The Result: Sharing results with others helps other
also see possibilities
 The Future of this project: Good ideas get copied;
ensure the customer stays with you
Exercise:
Imagine you were to present your latest success to an
audience comprising your whole organization. Write your
plan of action for each of the parameters given below:

182
The Objective: Defining the goals is the 1st step towards
any big breakthrough.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Challenge: In-depth understanding of the eco system
before an action plan is made.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Action Plan: Step by step progress detailing, leaving
as little as possible to chance.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Innovation: Yesterday’s excellence, today’s
commonplace, tomorrow’s obsolete.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

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The Resources: How scarce resources were deployed to
achieve success.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Collaboration: Explaining the leveraging of internal
and external networks for success.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Result: Sharing results with others helps others also
see possibilities.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
The Future of this Project: Good ideas get copied; did
the customer stay with you or was poached by a competitor?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

184
It is also important to note that all celebrations and
recognitions must be offered for meaningful jobs done;
where the leader can clearly or specifically articulate the
reason for the celebration / recognition. ‘Job well done’,
‘Great effort’, ‘Huge help to the team’ — are incompletely
articulated reasons for celebration. It leaves the recipient and
the team members confused on what he or she has been
complimented for! Even for intangible contributions, such
as a team member stepping in for his or her indisposed
colleague on an important client meeting must be translated
into numbers (revenue generated, or what would have been
the cost to the company of losing the client altogether).
The 10 Golden Keys to Successful Success
Sharing:
1. Generating success on a frequent basis is the
responsibility of the leader
2. The success needs to be meaningfully defined as per set
standards
3. ‘Catching them doing things right’ generates desirable
team and organizational culture
4. Large momentum is built when everyone wants to be
caught doing things right
5. Success sharing creates a sense of community and the
team members take pride in their work
6. The leader must ensure that the least member of the
organization feels valued
7. Timeliness, authenticity, consistency, and right intent
are vital elements of success sharing
8. ‘No success is too small to share’, as these are the
building blocks towards the final goal
9. A leader’s brand is built on his or her approach to
celebrating successes with the team

185
10. Celebration in public and with personal recognition
makes many aspire for success
Exercise:
Give some examples of you celebrating success of your team
members.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Write a congratulatory note to a team member for a job well
done.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Think of some innovative ways to celebrate success and
build your ‘brand’ of leadership.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

186
Have you missed any opportunity in the last three months
to celebrate the success of your team members? If yes, Why?
If no, what did you celebrate?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

If yes, please list it so that it will not be overlooked in the

future.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
How would you like to develop your personal leadership
brand in celebrating successes?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

187
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

The Ritz-Carlton has a daily “Wow Story” session during

the team huddle. A “Wow Story” is a verbal show-and-tell
that illustrates an employee delivering an amazing guest
experience or embodying Ritz Carlton’s core cultural
values. Sharing these stories reinforce three organizational
outcomes:
 Make important cultural values and brand promises
clear, understandable, and relatable.
 Provide an inspiring and fun way to recognize and
appreciate the greatness.
 Communicate “You matter. Your great work makes a
difference.”
These wow stories do not have to be recorded and curated
only by the HR team but by appreciative peers too. So it
becomes a community enterprise. Leadership at the Ritz-
Carlton has mastered the art of celebrating successes.

188
189
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 9
INNOVATION

In 1891, William Wrigley started a soap business with

baking powder offered as a freebie. However, the
promotional baking powder became more popular than the
soap and Wrigley shifted his focus. Now, he started selling
baking powder with chewing gum as a promotional offer.
Somehow the chewing gum became more popular than the
baking powder. The innovative Wrigley shifted his focus
again. Chewing gum thereafter became his new product and
he launched Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint. The rest,
as they say, is history, 120 years in the writing.
Another innovation story is that of India’s OYO Hotels.
Frustrated with poor quality stay arrangements Ritesh
Aggarwal created OYO Rooms, which has now become
the world's third-largest and fastest-growing hospitality
chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes & living spaces
in just six years. Today Aggarwal’s OYO is operating in
Asia, Europe and the Americas. Success mantra:
innovative and disruptive business model.
Innovation is flexible
Innovation is real. It is multidimensional. And it is difficult.
Hence, moving with innovative ideas is no easy task.
Innovators are also never stuck in their ways. They change
directions as the situation demands.
Innovation is often the opposite of “flashes of brilliance” or
“the big idea”. Often it is seeded small, gradually gaining
momentum and becoming disruptive. Twitter, for example,
was the result of a new way of looking at the very nature of

190
communication. In organizations, the acceptability of only
fully proven ideas stifles innovation. Innovation is often
incubated rather than planned. The appropriate ecosystem
must be created for innovation to flourish.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Professor at Harvard Business
School, states that innovation and leadership are affected by
a leader’s thinking process and behavioural preference.
THINKING PROCESS BEHAVIOURAL REFERENCE
Analytical leaders – rigorous Expressiveness – understands full
analysis, measures even spectrum of team members’
small ideas expressiveness from quiet to gregarious
Structural Leaders – Assertiveness – knows when to push
practical; prepares guidelines employees and when to step back on
and schedules innovation
Conceptual Leaders – Flexibility – decides on leader-led or
visionary, creative, crowdsourced innovation
imaginative; enjoys the
unusual, encourages new
techniques for innovation
Social Leaders – relational; Perseverance – continues to forge
focused on building right ahead against obstacles
team environment for
innovation

Exercise
What thinking process characterizes you as a leader in terms
of innovation?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

191
What is your behavioural preference while leading
innovation? Do you wish to change it for better outcomes?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

Innovation is not an Individual Level Activity

In a business setting it is a mistake to think of innovation as
an individual-level activity. Business innovation is a
collaborative effort starting from ideation through
development to implementation involving multiple groups.
An innovation focused leader must possess skills that make
this collaboration possible. Collaboration helps others see
the ‘big picture’ by coordinating rival groups, allocating
resources, liaising with stakeholders, and by being
encouraging in times of innovation failures.
From being an irregular ad hoc activity, effective leaders
know that innovation is now on centre- stage in
organizations. It drives growth, performance and valuation
and is no longer a fad. According to a 2018 McKinsey
report on Leadership and Innovation, innovation is seen by
many top-level leaders as the most important way to
accelerate the pace of change. Innovation has moved out of
traditional product and service domains to processes,
distribution, value chains, business models, and every other
business sphere.
Innovation value creation is moving downstream
Much of customer grabbing innovation is happening
downstream, according to Professor Niraj Dawar of Ivey
Business School, Canada. What this means is that useful,
192
profitable innovation is not about what you do inside your
organization but what you do outside your organization for
your customers. The locus of customer stickiness has moved
outside. Innovative leaders, therefore, have to work with not
only their own internal departments but also with
downstream partners such as distributors, wholesalers,
stockists, logistics partners, banking and financing partners,
and so on.
Modern leaders have to think at multiple levels and
perspectives. A career salesperson moving into a leadership
role will have to think much wider than just innovative
practices in acquiring and growing customers and driving
numbers. He or she must now envision innovation across
the board. As a leader, he or she must apply influence in all
spheres of the business and its employees, as also vendors,
bankers, media partners, and so on.
The skills set required to move from an executive manager
to an innovative leader is not an incremental jump but an
exponential leap. Most organizations do not offer a new
incumbent the luxury of time to learn. It is assumed that
learning will happen ‘on-the-job’. Most leaders have been
found unable to stimulate innovation at scale level where it
can have a positive financial impact.
Time and again two factors have been identified as the
biggest drivers of innovation – people and corporate culture.
It is the responsibility of the leader to ensure that both
people and the culture are innovation-conducive.

193
Exercise
What were the two things about your previous organization
you found to be unsuitable for an innovative climate?
1.____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
2.____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

Do you think the innovativeness quotient of a leader has any

impact on team members? Give one example either way.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

194
As a leader when did you last encourage an innovative
(defined as something not done at your organization before)
initiative to improve business results? Describe the situation.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Did you notice any impact on your team members after the
above initiative? If yes, what impact? If not, why not?

___________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Two Components of Innovation Leadership
Innovation Leadership has two components – An
innovative approach to leadership and leadership for
innovation.
The first is about applying innovative thinking to leadership
tasks. For instance, when unable to build a strong
distribution network on its own, one automobile company
195
tied up with another automobile brand. That is an
innovative channel management leadership.
The second is about the organizational climate for
innovation to happen. For instance, one software company
is at the cutting edge of the market thanks to its employees
coming up with a string of innovative product and process
ideas. They ascribe the prolific idea generation to an
organizational culture that encourages mistakes and false
starts.
Two kinds of Managerial Thinking
The Business Thinking way is what most managers are
adept at. It is based on facts, data, analysis, formula and
logic. It focuses on removing ambiguity and quick decision
making. It is based on past precedents. Managers are
trained in business schools to operate in this ecosystem.
The Innovative Thinking way is what most managers are not
adept at. It is intuitive and less based on facts. It focuses on
embracing ambiguity and speed of decision making is
secondary. It is not based on past precedents. Managers
often do not have much training in innovating or building
an innovative culture.
The Business The Innovative
Thinking Way Thinking Way
Logical Intuitive
Dependent on past precedence Open to multiple possibilities
Attempts to eliminate Embraces ambiguity
ambiguity
Quick decision making Speed is of secondary
importance
Trained in this way in formal May not be trained formally in
education this way

196
Exercise
Based on the above table, mark with an X where your
personal ‘thinking way’ lies at present on the continuum
below.

|--------------|-------------|-------------|-------------|------------|-------------|-------------|

Business Innovative
Thinking Thinking
Way Way

Skills to Up Your Innovative Thinking

Actively listen – Slow down, absorb the situation, don’t
jump to conclusions based on first appearances, develop the
habit of looking beyond the obvious, search for nuances,
hunt for details.
Value personal experience – Tap into personal life
experiences. For instance, a football team manager who was
once a player would be able to better coordinate the team
members’ different rates of absorbing new technology.
Visualize Information – It helps in processing a large amount
of information and picturing the desired future. For
instance, one might imagine a large number of people
working in groups in a hall and the innovative solution
coming from the fusion of the ideas of two groups in close
proximity.
‘Funnify’ work – The most innovative ideas come from
people at play, having fun, and enjoying themselves.
Moments of serendipity crop up when least expected.
Encourage fun at work, even in serious businesses such as
consulting and education; scientific inquiry and plane

197
building. Rigidity kills creativity. Loosen up and let the
creative juices flow.
Share Knowledge – Collate and create new information
from the inputs of various stakeholders. For instance, a
leading global technology company hires people from
diverse fields such as music, mathematics, astronomy,
geography and veterinary sciences. The result is innovation
at a rapid pace to make it the world-beating internet search
company it has become.
Synthesize Ideas – Have the ability to embrace two
opposing ideas in your mind at the same time and yet
function. It’s about integrating and resolving contradictions.
For instance, while prototyping a new product, can you
function with two opposing ideas such as expensive,
upmarket versus inexpensive, lower segment?
Exercise
In your role as an innovation leader, how do you self-
evaluate on the following?
Active Listening:

Totally Me|------------|------------|------------|------------|Not Me at All

Visualizing Information:

Totally me|------------|------------|------------|------------|Not Me at All

Funnify Work:

Totally Me|------------|------------|------------|------------|Not Me at All

Share Knowledge:

Totally Me|------------|------------|------------|------------|Not Me at All

Synthesize Ideas:

Totally Me|------------|------------|------------|------------|Not Me at All

198
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Pierre Omidyar and the auctioning website

innovation. In 1995, a computer programmer started
auctioning off stuff on his personal website. AuctionWeb,
as it was then known, was just a personal project, but as web
traffic grew it made it necessary to upgrade to a business
internet account and Omidyar had to start charging a fee.
Today that site is known as eBay. Innovative skills are
sometimes unpredictable where they will take you.
Leadership is a lot like entrepreneurship. You really don’t
know where you will end up. But being innovative is one
critical factor in the success rate being higher for such
leaders.
Matsushita innovates into electronic glory. In 1918
Japan, a 23-year-old apprentice Konosuke Matsushita at
the Osaka Electric Light Company came up with an
improved light socket. His boss wasn’t excited about it. So
young Matsushita started making samples in his basement.
He later expanded to battery-powered bicycle lamps and
other electronic products. Matsushita Electric, as it was
known until 2008 when the company officially changed its
name to Panasonic, is now worth $66 billion. Especially
when nobody believes in what you are doing with your
innovative skills is when one should try to stay innovative. In
tough business times, leaders must find a way to be
innovative to protect and grow the team and business.

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200
 LEADERSHIP ESSENTIAL # 10
SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Different strokes for different folks for different jobs.

What is the best leadership style?
If asked this question, what would your answer be?
Most leaders would reply, “It depends on the situation”.
But often we see people in charge of others using a singular
style of leadership – laissez-faire, participative, democratic,
or autocratic.
Let’s consider the toolbox of a carpenter, it has multiple
tools for different tasks — hammer, saw, chisel, wrenches,
screwdrivers, pliers, planes etc. Each tool has a specific
purpose. Using the right tool for a given job makes the
desired outcome easier and faster to achieve. The carpenter
will not use a hammer to cut a piece of wood or remove a
nail.
There is a wise saying, ‘If you only have a hammer then
everything looks like a nail’.
So, a leader who has only one leadership style will use this
one style in all situations and the results may not be too
pleasant.
This is the very basis of situational leadership thinking: to
adjust or customize your leadership style to the task and the
person doing the task.
Let’s discuss the background of Situational Leadership
(SL) theory.

201
SL theory was developed by Paul Hersey and Kenneth
Blanchard in 1969 as a leadership lifecycle framework.
They state that there is no ‘single best’ form of leadership.
What’s ‘best’ would depend on various factors or situations.
This primarily means that the leadership style to be used
will be decided by the task to be performed and the level of
competence and commitment level of the team member(s)
performing that particular task.
The SL framework is a tool to help develop team members
as they progress through their career life stages over a period
of time so that they can reach the highest level of
performance.
The SL framework asserts that there are many variables that
a leader needs to take into account while dealing with people
and thereafter consciously and purposefully select the
leadership style that best suits a situation.
Every individual has his or her own dominant leadership
style. However, using one leadership style across situations
and people is inadvisable. Micro-managing your team might
be resented by highly skilled or highly motivated team
members in a routine job. Members with low skills might
feel ignored if the leader does not hand-hold. The SL
framework helps the leader to diagnose the situation and
then choose the optimal leadership style for that situation.
The leader must, therefore, re-evaluate his or her own
dominant leadership style on a regular basis and check for
suitability at a given moment for a specified task.

202
Let’s understand the diagram below:

The ‘X’ axis represents Directive Behaviour (amount of

direction that a leader gives a team). Higher the directive
behaviour, less the team is allowed to make decisions for
itself and less the dialogue between the leader and team
members.
The ‘Y’ axis indicates supportive behaviour
(encouragement and motivation a leader offers the team).
Higher the support, more the team makes decisions on its
own and more the dialogue and discussion between the
leader and team members.
The bar at the bottom of the chart represents the
development needs of the team members being led.
203
Development need is a factor of two parameters:
a) Commitment: Team member’s motivation and
confidence to take on a task.
b) Competence: Team member’s skill or aptitude to
complete the task.
The stages of development can be labelled by considering
these two factors.
Going from right to left, the team member becomes more
competent and more confident for a specific task. It indicates
how well developed or motivated the team member is.
Here, D1 stands for the lowest level and D4 is the highest
level of development.
D1 — Low competence but high commitment.
The enthusiastic beginner.
Typically, these are new employees or those new to a
specific task, who lack experience but show enthusiasm to
learn how to complete the task.
They lack specific skills to complete the task, but they are
willing to learn and are excited by a new task.
At this stage, ‘they don’t know what they don’t know’.
D2 — Some competence with low commitment
The disillusioned learner.
Here, the team member has some competence to complete
the task but exhibits a lack of commitment (for whatever
reason) to complete the task.

204
He or she might have faced some setbacks, failure or
negative feedback, so commitment level is likely not as high
as at the start. The task may also be proving to be tougher
than what the expectation had been in the beginning.
The high excitement period is over at this stage and the
initial enthusiasm wears off. The team member is probably
confused now.
At this stage, the person is frustrated and may quit.
D3 — High competence with variable
commitment.
The capable or cautious performer.
After a few months (time can differ with task and team
member), the team member acquires the skills to do the task
with less amount of supervision and completes the task as
per the leader’s expectation.
Here, the competence is more or less developed but the team
member is yet to develop full confidence in terms of ability
to repeat the task. Therefore, he or she approaches the task
with caution.
At this stage, the individual is hesitant and unsure of how to
repeat the task unsupervised.
D4 – High competence and high commitment.
The self-reliant achiever.
When a team member has demonstrated that he or she can
deliver a task with a high level of competence and confidence
over and over again, the leader decides to give this member
more decision-making powers and he or she does work with
little or no direction.

205
He or she trusts his or her own ability and is self-motivated.
At this stage, they are an inspiration to others.
In the following section, four different leadership styles suited
for each development stage of members are discussed.
S1 — Directing: High directive and low supportive
behaviour.
The leader makes all the decisions and the subordinate is
not consulted. It is mostly one-way communication from the
leader to the team member. The team member is expected
to carry out instructions without any questions and feedback
from the team is discouraged. The leader decides who,
what, when, where and how. This is also known as the
‘autocratic’ type of leadership. Boss’s favourite line: “My
way or the highway”.
Have you behaved in the “Directing” leadership style with
anyone in your team? Why?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

S2 — Coaching: High directive and high

supportive behaviour.
Here, the leader takes feedback from the team member who
is also encouraged to seek answers and clarify doubts. There
are both one-way and two-way communications, but the
leader still defines the roles and responsibilities for the task.

206
Leaders ‘sell’ their ideas and tasks to the team member(s)
to get their cooperation. This leadership style is close to the
‘democratic’ style of leadership.
A good sports coach demonstrates this type of leadership.
He puts the players in a field and then directs them as a
team, together, for the benefit of the team’s best
performance.
Have you “Coached” anybody in your team? How?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

S3 – Supporting: Low directive and high

supportive behaviour.
The team member at this stage need not be told what needs
to be done, although there is still some more development to
be done. The leader will leave most of the decision making
to the team members, although he or she may participate in
the decision-making process as and when required. The
leader seems like an equal team member as he or she
participates with the other team members in idea generation
and decision making.
In your business, how much time does a team member take
to get to the stage where you can adopt a “Supporting”
Leadership Style?
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

207
S4 – Delegating: Low directive and low supportive
behaviour.
By this stage the team member is fully developed, so he or
she can complete assigned tasks independently. This style
of leadership is more ‘hands-off’, similar to laissez-faire (no
interference) leadership, where the group makes more or
less all the decisions and the leader provides the resources
and the tools to complete the task.
Nevertheless, the leader is responsible for the performance
of the team and continuously communicates the vision of the
team or organization and the importance of getting the task
completed as per pre-decided parameters.
Let us discuss a situation that most of us can relate
to, but outside the work area.
Shaina has turned 18 and she has been waiting for this day
when she can start driving a car.
She requests her father to teach her driving, to which he
agrees.
Now visualize the first day she starts to learn driving with
her father. She is full of enthusiasm and wants to learn fast
so that she can get her driver’s license quickly.
Her father gives directions and instructs her on the various
functions and car parts, the accelerator, clutch, brake, gears,
steering wheel, driving rules and regulations, and traffic
signals symbols.
Shaina is a fast learner and memorizes everything and is
back the next day for a hands-on training session with the
driving instructor.

208
Her driving instructor tells her what she needs to do and she
is asked to follow the instructions in totality, without any
deviation.
She follows the directions and starts to implement what has
been taught and coordinates between the clutch, accelerator,
gears and steering.
The instructor gives her his full attention and keeps giving
her specific directions. As she progresses, she asks questions
on the task and her instructor answers them specifically and
gets her back to the task.
She slowly understands the skills which improve over time
under the direction of her instructor.
Before she started, driving seemed to be very easy as her
friends and family members drove so effortlessly, chatting
with the people in the car and listening to their favourite
music. But with time, she gets to understand that it can be
tiring and that she must be careful of other reckless drivers
on the roads. The task, it seems, is not as simple as
anticipated, and the initial enthusiasm wears off.
While driving, her coordination between the clutch,
accelerator and gears sometimes slackens and the engine
stops. This results in honking and shouting from the people
driving behind her, and she gets jittery which leads to
demotivation and frustration. Sometimes it reaches a point
where she wants to give up on her driving (task).
Here, the instructor coaches her to accept that failure is part
of the journey. He acknowledges and praises her progress
at the opportune moments which slowly reinforce her desire
to do the task and brings back her confidence and
commitment.

209
With proper coaching, she becomes more competent to
drive, but she still lacks full confidence.
Now her instructor helps her to make decisions on how to
overcome the issues faced and encourages her to keep on
overcoming challenges.
With time and practice, Shaina learns almost all the
nuances of how to drive the car in various conditions and
she becomes self-reliant. She can drive on her own and enjoy
the freedom and have fun driving, but within the rules of the
game and remembering her responsibility.
We must understand that the leadership style is ‘situational’
and is applicable in normal situations.
Suppose, a truck comes speeding from the wrong direction
or the vehicle in front of her brakes suddenly. This is an
emergency situation. Her instructor can give directions on
what is to be done, or he may himself pull the hand brake.
There would not be any time to coach or support or delegate
the task to Shaina.
Exercise
 Discuss a task that you had given to the team in the
recent past and plot the development needs and the
leadership style you had adopted for each of your direct
reports.
Team Task Development Leadership Was the
Member Level Style adopted
Adopted leadership
style effective?
If not, what
would you do
differently?

210
 A Ex: Get the D2: Directing; Yes. It was
newly Development clear the only
launched Level: Low; instructions effective
drug into the Competence: given; option as
prescription moderate; regular members had
list of 20 key Motivation: monitoring moderate
doctors in Low performed competence
30 days and low
motivation
level
B

By now it must be clear that effective leaders adjust their

leadership style on broadly three parameters:
1. The task that needs to be completed
2. The maturity level or competencies of the team
member(s) for the task
3. The motivation level of the team member(s) to take on
the task.
Customized leadership styles which can adapt to any
situation and employee competence-motivation level is the
only way to achieve great results from a team of people with
varying competencies and commitment
How do you develop high-quality situational leadership
skills? The answer lies in nurturing the following:
1. Flexibility and versatility
2. Deep understanding of the team, especially competence
and motivators
3. Leader’s own self-awareness level
4. Clarity of the task at hand with distinct time-bound
goals (SMART Goals)
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Let’s discuss the above points now.
Flexibility and Versatility
Flexibility is an important requirement in situation
leadership. It requires maturity and an open mind and
demands alertness to every team member’s specific
requirements. However, it can also be perceived as unfair
by some team members – you are ‘supportive’ of one team
member and ‘directing’ with another. Hence, the team
members should also be apprised of the need for each style
being adopted for different team members.
Situational leadership is a continuous process. It is not
about changing one’s leadership style once in a while but on
a need basis whenever the situation warrants it. This calls
for knowing and applying different leadership styles in
different situations. This needs versatility, the ability to use
different methods and taking on different roles.
Things to be aware of:
1. Different team members might misunderstand your
different styles for different folks.
2. Team members need to be educated on a one-on-one
basis of leadership style differences.
3. Organizational culture plays an important part in one’s
flexibility and versatility.
4. It is not a one-off thing; it must become an integral part
of one’s professional interactions
Deep understanding of the team.
Having a deep understanding of the team members’
personal, social and professional background as well as their
behavioural aspects (how they respond to crises, what
motivates them, cultural background, how they work in
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teams) will help determine the leadership style that needs to
be adopted for a specific task.
Leadership is about developing the team and it requires
chalking out a development plan for each member.
Therefore, understanding the team members will be
beneficial to the entire organization, as each and every team
member can be developed to the next level as the leader
provides the right development tools and methods.
Things to be cautious of:
1. Shallow knowledge of the team member’s nature, social
needs and skillsets will result in inappropriate use of a
particular leadership style.
2. Inappropriate use of leadership style will not get the
desired result and worse may induce conflict or
dissatisfaction amongst team members.
3. It would be suboptimal to consider a team member only
as a resource person; reach deeper.
High self-awareness.
Self-awareness is an important aspect of leadership, and we
have dedicated a complete chapter to it (Chapter 2 of this
Leadership Essentials workbook).
Self-awareness becomes so much more relevant in
situational leadership, as one needs to not only be aware of
one’s own natural leadership style but also learn to apply the
leadership style which is best suited for the situation.
A question might come to your mind, “Instead of the leader
changing his style as per the needs of the team members,
should it not be the other way around?” Should team
members not adjust their style of doing things to the leader’s
style of leadership? The answer is ‘no’. For better
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performance outcomes, it is easier for the leader (one
person) to change his or her style than the team members
(many).
The relationship between the leader and the team
member(s) will determine the performance readiness of the
team member(s) to approach a task. Based on the above
relationship, when the appropriate leadership style is
applied, the right blend of task behaviour and relationship
behaviour will ensure the right outcome. Self-awareness will
determine how much relationship equity the leader enjoys
with the team.
Things to be cautious of:
1. Self-awareness is not as simple as it sounds. It needs a
proper process of reflection best done with a
professional coach.
2. The full awareness of the self can often be traumatic for
many individuals. One must prepare mentally before
attempting a full disclosure of one’s true self.
3. Once mastered, self-awareness can elevate leadership
effectiveness tremendously.
Clarity of the task at hand with distinct time-
bound goals (SMART Goals)
Leadership is about reaching a goal successfully by team
members.
Hence, the task has to be well defined with clear roles and
responsibilities, only then will the leader be able to
customize his or her leadership style.
Vague tasks and directions lead to disenchantment;
motivated members gradually slack off as they hardly know
what is expected of them.
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We have discussed SMART goals in an earlier chapter,
which is the mantra for any effective goal setting activity.
Situational leaders, or any leader for that matter, should
communicate tasks based on the SMART parameters.
This will not only clarify the roles and responsibilities but
also make the team take ownership of the task at hand.
The right match between a role, development level
(competencies / skill) and motivation (willingness to do the
task) is the critical judgment that the leader makes. A
situational leader will work keeping these three elements in
mind while deciding the leadership style that needs to be
adopted.
Raj is the leader of an FMCG sales team. Let’s discuss the
tasks of his various team members.
The task at hand is to develop business from 3 new retail
chains. The SMART objective: To get business entry into
three retail chains —Sunlight Retail, Moonlight Retail and
Starlight Retail in the next quarter and generate business of
Rs. 500,000 from each within the next six months. All
documentation, proposal submission including quotations
and the first meeting with key stakeholders are to be
completed within 45 days.
Jenny, Anil, Iqbal & Sunil are Raj’s four team members.
Jenny has just joined the company and has high enthusiasm
and works hard to understand the job but lacks skills for the
task at hand. This particular task is very new to her but she
is willing to put in extra hours to equip herself for the job.
Anil has been with the company for the last six years and
has delivered on his task with great enthusiasm and has
upskilled himself to deliver performance above expectations
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and still exhibits these qualities in any new assignment. His
skill level is quite high for this type of task so is his
willingness to do the task.
Iqbal is the longest-serving member in Raj’s team, 10 years
to be exact. He has delivered on projects in the past with a
great deal of enthusiasm and dedication. His skill level for
this task used to be good in the past. Now it is variable,
sometimes he does a good job, at other times poor quality
work. His motivation to take up new tasks has been
decreasing steadily and is at a low level at present.
Sunil has been with the company for more than a year. He
has not delivered yet on his commitment for this type of task
as he lacks the required skills. Further, he has also not
exhibited enthusiasm to upgrade himself. His energy levels
are quite low.
Now allocate the above team members in the below Skill–
Will matrix.
The Skill-Will Matrix is derived from the model of
situational leadership created by Paul Hersey and Ken
Blanchard.
In this model, the employee’s performance of a task is
related to two parameters:
a) Skill — his or her capability to do that task.
b) Will — his or her commitment and motivation to
approach and complete that task.
The leadership style will depend on which quadrant the
team member is in.

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Should Raj use the same leadership style to manage all four
of his team members for this task?
The answer is ‘no’.

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It would be such a waste of executive time. It would also
possibly cause some amount of resentment amongst some of
the team members if an inappropriate leadership style is
applied to any of the team members.
Each team member has different needs and different ways
to be managed for a particular task. This is the basis of
situational leadership.
Let us take each situation and discuss the leadership style
that is the most appropriate and work on the steps to be
followed by the leader to maximize outcomes.
High Skill & Low Will (HSLW)
The team member used to be a good performer in the past
for this particular task, and has the required skills, but lacks
the will of late.
He or she may have got bored due to the repetitiveness of
the job. Frustration could be due to past good efforts having
gone unnoticed and unrewarded.
Steps to be followed:
1. Have an open discussion and find the reason for current
demotivation for the task.
2. Explain why the member’s contribution is important to
the team’s progress.
3. Find aspects of the task which can motivate the team
member.
4. Give adequate praise publicly for the progress made.
Suggested leadership style to be adopted here: ‘Excite &
Motivate’ a ‘high skill-low will’ team member. Raj needs to
‘Excite & Motivate’ Iqbal.

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High Skill & High Will (HSHW)
This team member is highly ambitious and wants to grow in
the job. He is in the high-performance zone and is making
rapid progress.
Steps to be followed:
1. Provide proper resources and give freedom to such
members.
2. Seek their opinion and involve them in decision making.
3. Encourage the team member to take up more
responsibilities.
4. Praise and reward success.
The leadership style here should be to ‘Empower’ the ‘high
skill-high will’ team member. In order to get the best out of
him, Raj’s leadership style with Anil should be to Empower
him.
Low Skill & High Will (LWHW)
These team members are usually new to the task and want
to establish themselves in the eyes of their peers and
superiors. They are enthusiastic to do the task and learn new
skills which they currently lack.
Steps to be followed:
1. Create a learning environment and teach/ demonstrate
specific skills for the job.
2. Ask to repeat instructions to confirm understanding.
3. Demonstrate how it is to be done and encourage
execution under your supervision.
4. Give frequent feedback and praise progress.
5. Praise and reward success.

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The leadership style appropriate for this type is to ‘Guide’
the team member. Hence, Raj needs to Guide Jenny to
complete the task as explained above.
Low Skill & Low Will (LSLW)
‘Low Skill-Low Will’ team members come into play
because:
i) They may have been assigned the wrong task against
their will
ii) Are quite new to the task/team/organization and lack
both confidence and skill
The leader needs to understand the team and explore the
reasons why they fall in this category.
Steps to be followed:
1. Discuss and identify what will motivate the team
member.
2. Build motivation before trying to upskill the member.
3. Demonstrate, provide resources and supervise on the
job.
4. Set clear expectations and communicate what success
looks like.
5. Offer regular feedback and praise progress.
6. Praise and reward success.
The leadership style to be adopted for ‘low skill-low will’
team members is to ‘Direct’. Hence, Raj needs to Direct
Sunil to get the best out him to complete the task.
We reiterate that situational leadership methods are ‘task’
based.
Suppose the company wants to introduce a new e-reporting
platform, and Jenny happens to be very tech-savvy. So Raj
will be using the ‘empower’ style of leadership for her.
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Exercise:
Discuss two tasks that you expect two of your team members
(the longest-serving – Member X; and the newest in your
team – Member Y) to do in the next one month.
Place each of them in the appropriate quadrant on the Skill-
Will matrix for this particular task.
Task for Member X:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Task for Member Y:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________

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Mention the leadership style you would like to adopt for
each of these two team members. Explain why.
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
Key learnings from this chapter for you:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Different strokes for Different folks – the Essence

of Situational Leadership
14 students from elementary school to high school stood
proudly on stage on the first day of the new school year.
Their audience? 700 educational facilitators and leaders
representing the ten campuses comprising a school district
in Texas, USA.

222
One by one, the students shared personal examples of the
challenges they faced every day dealing with dyslexia:
• “I can’t speak as fast as my mind moves.”
• “People don’t understand me.”
• “I’m not stupid, I have dyslexia.”
Finally, one elementary school student summarized all the
challenges:
“Don’t grade me on my spelling, grade me on what I wrote
about.”
The impact of these messages was immediate and profound.
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house and it got everyone
thinking about their flexibility — or lack thereof — as
leaders of their respective schools or classrooms.

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224
 Epilogue – The Unique Leader

In your corporate career, you are likely to have already

worked with (or are likely to work with in the future) a wide
variety of leaders. Over time it will become clear that the
personalities, styles and attitudes of leaders begin to
repeat. Soon, leaders and leadership styles become
predictable.
The most memorable leaders are those who are genuinely
unique. They have a presence about them that helps them
stand apart in a crowd. Their way of looking at things is
“out of the box” and “unconventional”. They may admire
other leaders and learn from them too but they will never
follow them mindlessly. Not only are their business
decisions unique but so are the ways in which they support
you in their personal capacity. They have your back and will
stand up for you when times get tough. They sponsor you
at work and help give you a platform to get discovered and
propel your career forward.
You know that your leader is unique when he or she
consistently goes out of his or her way to make you know
that you matter. They are wise enough to attempt leveraging
a skill or competency that other leaders did not notice or
neglected in you. These leaders are characterized by deep
self-awareness and self-trust, deep enough to appreciate the
differences in others.
The Need For Uniqueness (NFU) is a trait in people that
makes them seek differentness from others. High powered
leaders might be very effective in business but not
memorable enough as having stood up for a just cause or for
having given a member of their team the personal touch in

225
times of anguish or failure. High need for unique leaders set
themselves clearly apart from other leaders in terms of both
business acumen and personal approach. They are often
remembered long beyond the tenure they serve in
organizations. They live on in the hearts and minds of
people. They leave behind a legacy of high profits and solid
people.
As an aspiring leader, it would be worth seeking out a
special place among the ones who lead. Examining your
uniqueness quotient and pursuing the desire to stand apart
from others would help you leave behind the sea of
mediocrity and forge ahead as a unique leader.
Here finishes the first part of our leadership journey
together. We hope it has been an enriching one. Do not be
discouraged if all the insights and approaches shared here
do not always come true for you in your leadership journey.
The important thing is to set yourself on this odyssey and
stay the course. Learn and act upon what has been provided
to you in this workbook and add your own deep insights
from time to time. Let us know too how to make this work
richer and more useful for aspiring leaders like yourself.
Many thanks for picking up this book and choosing to act
upon it! We sincerely hope that this book can be your
companion in the pursuit of leadership excellence.
Partha Pratim Pal and Jones Mathew

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 AUTHOR PROFILES

Partha Pratim Pal

Partha is a veteran in the field of sales
and marketing with more than 30
years of work experience in the highly
competitive and regulated pharma
industry.
A science graduate, Partha has been trained at Indian
Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and holds an MBA
in marketing.
In his three-decades-long corporate career, Partha has built
multiple teams with a strong ethical and business
orientation. His journey has also seen him mentor numerous
young professionals who are leaders in the industry today.
His expertise comes from his ability to learn from the
mistakes made and successes achieved while pursuing high
stakes assignments using innovative business strategies and
employing situational leadership styles.
Partha’s professional career has been one filled with
national and international exposure. His work experience
with major national and international pharmaceutical
companies such as Ranbaxy, Zydus, and Allergan India,
where he had the opportunity to lead the India & South
Asia operations for its Neurosciences division. Leading
teams across these geographies and the opportunity to work
in complex market conditions gave him valuable insights into
business and leadership.

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A highly driven leader, Partha is passionate about training
and mentoring the next generation of leaders in the industry,
and to disseminate his learnings to future business leaders.
Jones Mathew
A PhD from the Indian Institute of
Foreign Trade, New Delhi, Dr.
Mathew has 30 years of work
experience, of which 18 years were
spent in Indian and multinational
companies such as HCL Ltd,
MECON, Yonex, and Reebok. His last held corporate
position was of VP (Sales & Marketing) at an Indo-US
joint venture.
Sales, Product and Brand Management, Vendor
Development, Retail Operations and Marketing were his
core areas in the corporate domain. He has been in
academics for the last ten years and teaches Marketing
Management, Product and Brand Management and
Services Marketing to postgraduate students and working
executives.
As a corporate trainer, Dr. Mathew has conducted
Executive Development Programs (EDPs) for Nokia
Siemens Networks, PHDCCI, IIFT, Women and Child
Welfare Department, Govt of Delhi, and Somany
Ceramics, among others.
He has authored research articles in international journals,
popular press articles in the top Indian media outlets, and
published case studies with Harvard Publishing, Ivey
Publishing (Canada), and ECCH (Europe). He is the
recipient of the 2016 ISB-Ivey Global Case Competition
Marketing Category Winner award. Dr. Mathew is also on

228
the advisory board of academic journals and is a member of
the Research Development Council of three universities. At
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, Dr.
Mathew heads the Marketing Area, Rankings and
Accreditations, and Research.

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 ABOUT THE BOOK

“The Leadership Essentials” is a Workplace Series

presentation. The Workplace Series will focus on various
aspects of success in the corporate domain. The Leadership
Essentials is a collection of important action areas for
succeeding in the most critical of business functions –
leadership. The book is the distilled wisdom of the authors’
combined professional experience in the pharmaceutical,
lifestyle, sports and education domains. Leadership has
many facets and many pitfalls. The important focus areas
for successful leadership have been highlighted with
examples. Divided into 10 chapters, the reader is taken
through a set of workbooks to introspect, examine and
position oneself for leadership roles.
The chapter themes have been developed and curated
carefully so that the aspiring leader can maximize the
benefits in an easy-going, conversational, step by step
leadership journey. In every chapter, there are exercises to
help the reader to practice and synthesize the lessons. This
work focuses on ‘Learning by Doing’ as the most effective
self-improvement technique. Whether it is SMART goal
setting, vision development or situational leadership, this
workbook has it all. Interesting vignettes add a unique flavor
of relevance to each chapter. This book is intended to be an
aspiring leader’s constant companion. Existing leaders too
can benefit from this book by reflecting upon and examining
their leadership journey against the chapters here.

230