This is a presentation I made as part of National Entrepreneurship Network's webinar series. Here I talk about exhibiting leadership skills at an individual level as well as creating leadership attitude in teams.

1. Gandhi’s leadership was rooted in clearly understanding that the British wanted India
to be a net importer of goods, thereby making it totally dependent on England. This
has NOTHING TO DO WITH ARMS & VIOLENCE. It was economic independence!
He Inspired & motivated others to become self-reliant, and fight the British in a non-
violent way – This was the common & key uniting PURPOSE & METHOD that echoed
well with the people.
Dhoni played hard and was the match winner in 2011 World Cup. He was a performer
& lets his performance speak for itself – to his team as well as to the spectators. If
you have seen the winning parade when we won the world-cup in 2011 after 28 years
under the leadership of Dhoni, it was clear that Dhoni was UNDERPLAYING HIMSELF
and gave all the SPOTLIGHT to Sachin., his team member who probably had all the
feathers in his cap, except the world cup.
They were leaders who inspired their teams through their leadership skills. These
skills are:
- Understanding the people & uniting them with a common actionable purpose
/vision
- Underplaying oneself – BEING HUMBLE, while giving the team prominence.
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2. The sum & substance of this presentation is covered in the above quotes.
Please read them through for a minute & then we can proceed with the presentation.
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3. In Robin Sharma’s words, “Remember That You Need No Title to be a Leader.
Leadership has less to do with the size of your title than the depth of your
commitment. I've seen front-line employees, taxi drivers and carpet installers doing
their work like Picasso painted. Leadership isn't really about authority. It's about a
choice you can make to do your best work each and every day, regardless of where
you are planted.”
Leadership is NOT necessarily a titular position in the organization;
Leadership is NOT just management only;
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4. Leadership is ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY
Leadership is exhibited at ALL LEVELS, BY EVERYONE, irrespective of titles, job profiles
As an entrepreneur, you have already decided TO FOCUS your efforts on a problem
and solve it. You are starting with a clean, white paper & writing your own destiny.
The key is to REMEMBER that all through your entrepreneurship life, especially when
the going gets tough!
Even if you are an employee, the same rules apply. Assume responsibility. Focus. Do
fewer things well.
What if you don’t have the title to drive any change? Probably it is easier to drive
change without the burden of a title!!
Leadership is the ability to FEEL & SHOW MEANING, MOTIVATE & MANAGE ONESELF,
MOTIVATE & ENERGISE OTHERS, COMMUNICATE, HAVE AN UNWAVERING MORAL
COMPASS TO GUIDE DECISIONS.
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5. In the next couple of slides, I will take you through how I broke down the CONCEPT of
ASSUMING RESPONSIBILITY; of LEADERSHIP into seven, simple, no-nonsense
elements as listed here.
These seven elements are not in any particular order of importance.
However, it is always good to start with oneself.
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6. A 2010 McKinsey study on “How centered leaders achieve extraordinary results”
shows that executives can thrive at work and in life by adopting a leadership model
that revolves around FINDING THEIR strengths & CONNECTING with others!
A quote from that article that is relevant to this element of knowing & managing
yourself: “Our senior team is always talking about changing the organization,
changing the mind-sets and behaviour of everyone. Now I see that transformation
is not about that. It starts with me and my willingness and ability to transform
myself. Only then others will transform”
What are your motivations?
Money? Fame? Learning? Power? Helping others?
Do you value team goals higher than self goals? Or Vice Versa?
What kind of a person are you?
Logical? Intuitive / Instinctive? Emotional?
Do you use fear /anger /rebuke to manage others?
Integrity? Ethics?
What kind of emotional state you are in?
Usually cheerful & happy? Prone to mood-swings? Angry most of the time?
Peaceful mostly?
Stressed out?
Sattvic? Rajasic? Tamasic?
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7. What kind of baggage do you carry?
Past behaviour is no indication of future performance!!
What kind of patterns do you see in the way you react to situations?
These are important. If you don’t know OR are not curious to know about yourself,
then how can you transform yourself into a leadership attitude?
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8. I wrote an article in my blog recently about “Define who you are to solve your
problems”. My core idea is that unless you know & understand yourself, how can you
make any change???
Ask yourself constantly about your motivations & past baggage
Gain clarity!
What is it that gives MEANING to your life? To your work?
When I started out, I was not clear of my motivation to start out, other than
“JUST START, CREATE A HIGH VALUE COMPANY, MAKE MONEY!” It did not
work out, as I had to face conflicting situations in the journey, where decisions
were not taken in line with the basic motivations! We constantly started
asking ourselves, “how long would it take to recover our ‘opportunity cost’ of
being an employee!!
I was not clear on the MEANING the startup was offering to me. The vision
was narrow, to admit the least!
Alternately, I know a bunch of entrepreneurs who have created successful
small startups, including consultancy services because they were clear, they
wanted to be small, do meaningful work, enjoy life, write a book, so on & so
forth.
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9. So, it is important to Observe yourself constantly. That provides a wealth of
information!
To understand yourself. To understand emotions. Manage them.
How can we claim to “lead” if we are not physically fit?
How can we claim to “take responsibility” if we are not able to control our emotions,
instead the emotions control you??
It is absolutely important to stay physically fit through regular exercise. You reduce
your ‘downtime’.
Do Yoga or other forms of exercise that suits you
Equally important is managing emotions; controlling negative emotions; Beating
Stress
Anger, jealousy, sadness, hatred are strong emotions. They cause stress if you don’t
manage them. They also cause immense damage to you & others around you!
I recommend you to meditation, & breathing exercises.
Take responsibility for your actions; reflect on the actions & their results
For example, let us say you are responsible for pricing decision of your product
/service. Although you will take inputs from many people, remember the final
decision rests with you. If the product bombs in the market, because of pricing, then
you take the responsibility for failure.
Don’t pass the buck and turn around the story by giving excuses! Accept failure.
In another example, I was once given a feedback that I did not take care of my team
member’s interest and somehow belittled his contribution towards a project.
Although I did not feel the feedback was appropriate (note – I was justifying to
myself!!!!), perhaps my body language, the tone etc., may have given that impression.
On reflection, it was indeed clear to me that I did not go with the right attitude
towards my team mate’s interests & contributions. I did go back and apologize to the
team member and from then on, I was more conscious of how I should support him.
Lead by example
Here again, I want to bring back Mahatma Gandhi & Dhoni into picture. Both of them
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10. lead by example – simplicity, experimentative, tenacious, being the change they want
in the world etc. etc.
So, if you want your employees to work hard, you work hard too! Show them.
If you want your team to be on time, you try to be on time!
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11. The second important element is to understand people around you.
Understand people as they are; accept them; make them feel safe with emotional
dialogues
Motivations?
Likes /dislikes?
Style of working?
Type of person – emotional /logical ?
Motivate them & guide them according to their nature.
Remember that NAME, FAME, POWER, WEALTH are considered as common
yardsticks for success. As a leader, DO NOT criticize or condemn such notions. If you
do, YOU WILL CONFUSE people, or even make them reactive, defensive or rebellious.
We had an employee in our startup, who used to leave office everyday at 5pm! It was
unthinkable for us as we were working late nights every day and here was this guy
who was leaving so early every day. It was agony for us to think of him enjoying his
evening while we slog! One day we decided to confront him and ask him why is he
leaving so early. His answer was very simple! “I go to an English speaking course, to
improve my communication skills and my class starts at 6pm!”.
We were actually embarrassed by his answer. However, that dialogue created a space
between us to work around his need to learn and our need to get the work done
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12. from him. Once we understood each other, we started being more cooperative &
helpful. This contributed well to the startup.
Leverage their strengths
Don't over emphasise training to overcome weaknesses
Trying to change others when they are not ready disturbs them.
I had a team member who was good in data analysis, presentations etc., but
was tongue-tied when he had to meet up with customers! Unfortunately, he
was in a customer facing role. So, over a period of time, I had to transition him
out from a customer facing role into a marketing role.
Encourage people by celebrating small/big contributions
The trick is not to over-do anything, thereby losing the meaning of celebrations!
Use compassion; not fear /anger as the key emotion
Listen with empathy
Pay full attention to the moment. Listen to your team members.
Switching off your mobile, not checking your email is all the physical aspect of
listening with full attention. The most important thing you should do is to listen
without judgement & mental chatter!
Learn to let go & don’t expect perfection
Remember that each one of us is different and we do things
differently. I cant take care of the house like my wife, and she is not as good as what I
am in investing in stock market. If she expects me to keep the house spick & span; or
if I expect her to make investment decisions the way I do, we will end up with a
Mahabharata war everyday at home!
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13. As a leader, you need to be clear about the goals of your organization.
Why are you doing the startup?
What is in it for the people who are toiling away to create value?
Articulate the goal.
Understand what needs to be achieved
Prepare hypothesis of ‘future’ & articulate it
If you don’t understand the goals, don’t fear to ask questions & clarify the goals
Internalize the goals. That is when decision making becomes easy!
REMEMBER THIS: The GOAL worth striving for is ALWAYS that has a ‘larger good’ –
what is it that is beneficial to all the stakeholders in the startup?
Goals that serve the interests of only the founders or investors always are inferior to a
shared goal. Evolve the shared goal. That gives more power & momentum to achieve
it.
Once the shared goal is clear,
Connect the short term goals to the ‘larger’ team goal
Constantly ask, how will this fit into the larger ‘good’ of my startup?
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14. I recall a bunch of entrepreneurs who wanted to build a small, boutique company and
had no grandiose vision of creating a high growth startup. Their key interview
question was, “Would you like to work for a slow growth, boutique company, where
we enjoy working with each other and create value OR rather would you work for a
fast, high paced startup?” If they were not convinced about the person’s true interest
to work in a small company, they would reject him irrespective of his credentials!
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15. Karma-yoga, as the Bhagawat Gita Chapter 3 says, is PERFORMING SELFLESS
ACTIONS.
Focus on the larger goal, not on your personal goal.
Decisions should be made based on the larger goal.
Also, as a leader, in your sphere of work, you SHOULD LEAD BY EXAMPLE!
This is the best way to guide others.
As a leader, you must be detatched, patient, enthusiastic, dynamic & inspiring.
Remember, the underlying motivation should be “welfare of all” and not selfish goals.
Take the case that you as a customer facing leader will face all the time –
negotiations!
If you view negotiations as a race to show one-up-manship over your customer, then
you are “attached”.
The attachment gives rise to impatience, mis-guided enthusiasm.
Over a period of time, it will give rise to anger & then you lose control of the
situation.
Being detatched should not mean, apathy. Rather it is intense observation of the
situation and LIVING IN THE PRESENT. LIVING IN THE NOW – to resolve the situation
to the welfare of all.
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16. When you do a lot of work, your attitude is the qualitative aspect that comes into
your work & exhibits your leadership:
- Have an attitude of dedication: Work devotedly. Don’t demean any work as “below
me – I will not do it”.
- Attitude of cheerful acceptance: Accept all work that comes along & do the best.
- Attitude of continuous giving & giving up: Share your knowledge, help others. Give
up the “results” of your work by NOT claiming YOU DID IT! Credit the team.
Genuinely praise the team for the good work done & the results.
Also,
What are the levers you should apply?
Anticipate challenges that you are likely to encounter & plan for Plan B
Sharpen the axe constantly (Trainings, reviews, regular 1-1s)
Get the right tools
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17. Hardest thing to do!
But, if you can’t measure something, no point doing it!
Ask what is expected at the end of it!
In large corporations where I have worked, it was clear that the performance of sales
person was measured on only one parameter – revenues. So, the sales persons did
everything possible to maximize their revenues and in turn the sales commissions
they were entitled to!
While the strategy worked in general for the company & the sales person, there were
instances when the commission paid was much larger & disproportionate to the
sales! Such a strategy was not in the larger good of the company. On the contrary, I
know of smaller organizations where the outcome is measured in very complex way,
with no transparency. This benefits the organization but not the sales person.
As a leader, you need to be clear how you want to measure your team. As a founder,
you set the rules.
Articulate them well. Be transparent.
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18. There is an important disconnect that you should be aware of.
Corporate mumbo-jumbo of vision, goal, roles & responsibilities as written down on
paper or on your intranet is NOT communication.
As a leader, you should be able to articulate to your team how their work “connects”
and contributes to the larger goal.
If you can’t do that, how can you expect your team members to relate to the larger
goal?
Clarify purpose & enlist their help;
Share your vision of how their works help in achieving the purpose
Tell your goals, plans, strategy, concerns, questions, doubts to your team
For example, if your goal is to maximize profits, then you should communicate that
clearly. You should articulate the decision making criteria. When your team comes
with an investment proposal, they will ensure that the proposal is maximizing profits
and NOT revenues!
In another case, pushing inventory levels was the most important short term goals to
improve profitability. The CEO ensured that he communicated that all we need to do
is to push inventory as a priority action. This automatically empowered the sales to
offer higher discounts!!
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19. The more easily you make the team understand the vision & goals, the better is the
cooperation.
Learn effective presentation skills
Learn the art of story telling
Analyze & present complex stuff in simple words
Influence through writing, presentations, 2 way dialog, questioning
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20. Find meaning in your work.
Don’t fill in the hours.
Take five minutes in the day and ask yourself, what is the top thing that you must do
today that would further the cause of the universal, larger goal of your startup?
You may be surprised with the answer!
It could force you to NOT postpone important hiring decisions OR important spending
decisions if you ask the question.
I want to end this presentation by sharing a simple thought:
There are several paths to the goal
Some are correct, ethical, short, less cumbersome; some are exactly opposite
Choose ethical path to achieve your goals
Goal of ‘universal good’ – that which is good for your team, is “higher” than selfish
goal.
When you make decisions, ask yourself from where the decision criteria has arisen? If
your conscience points you to the “higher good” and not “selfish good”, go ahead and
decide. Else, think through again!!!
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