<div>All professionals face this dilemma of doing what is right versus doing that which is convenient. Intuitively, I feel that each of the senior leadership team would have faced this dilemma as they made their decisions and we know that each coped with it in a fundamentally different way. </div><div> </div><div>I believe that ethics and integrity at all levels and, more so, at senior levels is more about a mindset and belief system than a stated ideal. A commitment to doing what is right needs to be all pervasive. The biggest enemy that stands in the way of this is hubris. Hubris prevents us from openly examining our thought process — it stills that inner voice and manages to justify any action and decision that we make.</div><div> </div><div>I like the approach Rassal Baig, the HR head, has taken in this matter. He was clearly troubled by the situation, and initial thoughts were around fairness, inclusion or exclusion and perhaps how he will be perceived in the organisation if this decision was to go through. </div><div> </div><div>Yet, it wasn’t until he had the courage to speak to his coach that he began to get clarity. This is what galvanises him into the action that he believes to be right.</div><div> </div><div>The conversation with the coach helped Rassal sift through his personal motivations, explore how this is impacting his ability to influence the organisation and, above all, be clear about his goals. The coach helped Rassal understand how to use his sense of “powerlessness” to understand his own motivations and his commitment of being fair to Atul Vaidya. Had Rassal not had the conversation with the coach, he may not have had the courage to confront himself, the others and done great disservice to himself by having lost his own self-respect. </div><div> </div><div>Organisations that encourage the use of coaches especially in areas to enhance leadership performance, enable them to work with their limitations in an objective and fundamental way and thereby build sustainable capability. While there is a belief that the immediate line manager should also be an effective coach — imagine what would have happened in this case!</div><div> </div><div>An emerging field of work, Neuroleadership, clearly links the brain’s preoccupation with survival (fight-flight-freeze) to the quality of decision making. Within this, there is a whole field of coaching based on the principles of neuroscience. </div><div> </div><div>Some key elements of neuroscience as it relates to our lives is that in the interest of simplification, the brain hard wires learning and experience into predictable ways of responding to situations. We know that once we have hard wired our behaviours for success, it is very difficult to change. The piece of good news though is that the brain’s ability to create new wiring is much easier than we think. With the right motivation, the brain’s ability to adopt new behaviours and act on them enables us to make progress.</div><div> </div><div>This is what an effective coach does by encouraging the ‘coachee’ to explore new avenues of thinking. </div><div> </div><div>A master coach will reduce the effects of an emotional (threat) response by moving the person towards certainty and clarity — and motivate them to take the right action. Rassal wrestled with the full range of emotions and thoughts. In his heart, he knew what he needed to do, and in that short discussion with the coach, he found the courage to move into action. </div><div> </div><div>It is entirely possible that Rassal would have reached the same conclusion without the coaching conversation. However, had he resigned as an emotional response, he may not have been able to generate the real conversation that he wanted to have with his colleagues. The conversation with the coach helped him traverse a huge </div><div>distance. He moved to a place that he was really concerned about — the need to be fair and honest with Atul and preserve his dignity. </div><div> </div><div>Clearly, Harish, the CEO, needs to examine his motivations around respect for people and personal gains. As the saying goes, be careful who you kick on your way up, because you don’t know who you will meet on your way down!</div><div> </div><div>It is not apparent how Madhur Bhaskar, the company president, will deal with his dilemma, Maybe a conversation with Aibara will help! </div><div> </div><div><em>The writer is Head of Capability Development for the downstream business of BP, the global MNC. </em><em>The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the view of the company</em></div><div> </div><div>(This story was published in BW | Businessworld Issue Dated 03-11-2014)</div>
