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 .
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ETP3DEC15
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