BW Communities

Analysis: Evolution Of A Leader

BW Online Bureau Nov 08, 2014

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><root available-locales="en_US," default-locale="en_US"><static-content language-id="en_US"><![CDATA[In today's fast-paced environment where business gets done at the speed of light, job complexity is quite different from the ancient times, and demands the skills of a juggler. There are implied expectations of working 24x7 in this rat race. In such a performance-driven culture, it is about exceeding expectations, delivering much more than what is expected of you and one puts in 200 per cent of efforts during or off-office hours. A Blackberry in one hand, latte in another, sitting in a conference call, and the poor executive assistant waiting to catch your eye while struggling to jam two more hours of meetings on a calendar which is already booked for 12 hours — not all might be inclined to work in such an environment. Organisations need to isolate and reward such marathon runners. An appraisal process is mandated to spot and identify such leaders.   In the case, the central character Vineetji referred to incidents from past and married them with management theories to draw some comparisons — albeit, not always in the context of appraisal and reward, but real Indian leadership challenges. In Krishna-Arjun story, the performance appraisal cycle was yet to begin as they were still in the phase of execution, but a real leader can provide situational feedback to guide and steer his team to achieve the objectives. In the King Dashrath-Shravan example, the key point about a leader's responsibility is to think before acting. At the same time, it demonstrates values for future leaders to emulate. Why are our leaders, many of whom have risen from humble beginnings, unable to act ethically in crisis? Is this because of our culture, values, social make-up or simply because of the individual pride where failure or committing mistakes are not acceptable? Is it a social construct that will not let its idols fall? Do we always demand success and success at all costs?   There are plenty of examples — Rajat Gupta, Satyam's Ramalinga Raju and a host of politicians with disresputable conduct. Yet the West, for all the mud that Indians sling at them, has shown propriety when leadership is tested. Like Bill Clinton who acknowledged and apologised for his departures from propriety, or Tiger Woods for his errant ways, even Ford whose tires were faulty recalled its SUVs. These  examples demonstrate their ability to say ‘Oh-o! I made a mistake!' But, in our culture, we not only are unable to accept a failure, we even justify it. What drives this behaviour is the premium we place on being number one in everything we do! Value-based leadership is centerstage today, with the spotlight on ethics. This is what Dashrath demonstrated. Today's great leaders not only think about financial performance, but also about external factors such as environment, employees, talent and human sustainability. This is not a ‘nice to have', but  a ‘must-do' to drive financial performance. For a value-based leadership that walks the talk will enable employee to have faith in the leadership — akin to the Pandava brothers in Yudhishthir. As for appraisal versus reward: the two are very interdependent on each other. Most progressive companies have a two-step process of appraisal feedback and a calibration process of forced ranking. However, this should not be communicated to the employees as both the processes together give the full view of employee's relative performance, opportunity areas and assessment of what roles s/he is capable of handling in the future. The process is transparent and equitable wherein performance is evaluated in the department (or a manageable sub-group) and calibrated within a bigger group for relative ranking, while maintaining the bell curve. The process ensures that rewards are in line with organisation's strategic priorities.   Performance appraisal can impact an employee's bonus for the past year and increment for the next year. If the employer's communication is sub-optimal, then obviously not getting that reward can impact his morale and future performance. Whereas a bonus linked to performance is what works in today's culture when organisations are repeatedly demanding self driven efforts from their employees. A sense of duty might work for a rare few, but organisations should emphasise on rewards and a leader must enforce the principle of pay for performance. The case has theories on work, luck and what are the different subsystems leading to performance. Here is my take on how mountains are climbed — ambition (dreaming the impossible), hard work and being at the right place at the right time. A perfect congruence of all three makes for a winning combination which if you repeatedly try, will make the impossible seem possible. A leader is aware of these and does not relent until he sets this in motion. Manoj is the CIO for PepsiCo in India and is responsible for business transformation and information solutions (This story was published in Businessworld Issue Dated 19-12-2011)