Thursday, December 17, 2015

MANAGEMENT /LEADERSHIP SPECIAL..... Taking charge - Big bosses who mean business

Taking charge - Big bosses who mean business


What is the path to great leadership -a collaborative style like Shikha Sharma or a passionate drive like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk? Some experts and insiders weigh in

At a recent annual edition of a literary festival, an afternoon session was spent dwelling on the making of a great leader.
Authors Ian Robertson, Aparna Piramal Raje and Sudhanshu Palsule, along with Harish Bhat, a member of the group executive council of Tata Sons, discussed the qualities needed to make an effective leader. The conversation yielded some interesting insights into the role of a chieftain in a corporate setting and who among the old and new guard embodied true leadership:

Accessible to a team
The panel agreed that Deepak Parekh, H DF Chairman, and N Chandrasekaran, Tata Consultancy Services MD & CEO, are considered “masters of being accessible to people“. However, they have different approaches. Chandrasekaran relies on technology to be in touch with people.
Deepak Parekh, on the other hand, doesn't. He has three assistants who organise his emails on a regular basis. There are over 300 people who contact him every day for matters large and small. They are all given a meeting with him at some point.

Position is not personality
Business leaders often get carried away by the power their designations command. Knowing the difference between the person and the position is important.
In this regard, Piramal-Raje found Nitin Nohria, Dean,
Harvard Business School, exceptional. She spoke of how well he understands that there is the real Nitin Nohria and then there is the dean of Harvard D Business School. “He is clear that the way people approach him today as the dean of HBS may be different from the way they approach him as just the individual,“ Piramal Raje said.

Collaborative, not controlling
The demands of 21st century leadership are quite different. Palsule said, “We don't want tougher leaders. We need leaders who empathise. Hierarchical systems are remnants of the military-industrial system that wouldn't work in the 21st century.“
When Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, Axis Bank, moved to a new office, she took some radical decisions.
Everybody, including seniors in the organisation, had desks of the same size. She was trying to demon
strate to the company the need to be more open.

 “We don't want tougher leaders.We need leaders who empathise“ -SUDHANSHU PALSULE, AUTHOR

For Bhat, J R D Tata is a great example of collaborative leader ship. He said, “He had a leadership style which was not controlling for control's sake. He didn't control them (his CEOs) with a sense of control but a sense of collaborative control. He worked with great names like Nani Palkhivala, Russi Mody, Sumant Moolgaokar as the chair man, who then went on to build great institutions within the Tata Group.“

Maverick leaders
Some bosses are successful despite not conforming to accepted traits of leadership. Take the case of Steve Jobs. He may have created one of the most valuable companies of the century. But he was never in the race for popularity. Tesla boss Elon Musk is considered a difficult boss to work with too.
According to the panel, Jobs's saving grace was that he was connected to something more than himself. He wasn't an egotist but had this vision for beautiful design. As is the case with Musk and his sense of purpose.
Effectively, the panel agreed that greater the sense of purpose, the more leeway leaders have. They can bend and reject the rules and yet be considered great .

masoom gupte


ETP3DEC15

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