Leadership - Kapil Tandon

Why I find Ratan Tata so inspirational

July 16, 2021 / Business, Leadership, Motivation

**Ratan Tata is the man who keeps his promises.**

I feel proud in telling all my readers that I am an ardent fan of Ratan Tata. I am now in my early seventies enjoying my third inning as a freelance advisor, blogger, business consultant, educator, and mentor. During all my classroom sessions with undergraduate and postgraduate students of management, strategy, and entrepreneurship as also during my professional interactions with young corporate executives and aspiring entrepreneurs – I have always been quoting examples of Tata Group and Ratan Tata. They are good exemplars to illustrate my lessons on best business and management practices. The Tatas have always adhered to excellent business ethics and corporate governance practices, corporate social responsibility. They are not only good at dealing with all stakeholders with earnest and fairness but also at contributing to environmental sustainability, and improving the quality of life of people.

“Once, Nano — one of his pet projects, was mired in controversy about land acquisition for the factory. After the protest of farmers in Singur, West Bengal, his company had to pull out of the state. But after all these happenings, he kept his promise to run this project. Tata’s project was shifted to Gujarat and delivered its promise to build the cheapest car.
A real-life example that demonstrates how serious he has been about keeping his promises.

Today – through this blog post – I am trying to bring about certain business learnings from the business experience of Ratan Tata. There is so much information available about Ratan Sir on the internet and other sources that it was difficult for me to decide as to what I should pick up for this post. I hope what I have finally chosen to include in this post benefits and motivates you.

A few lessons that are worth emulating:

It is great to be a Morning Person:

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise – Going to bed early, say before 10 PM and starting your day early next morning (say 5 AM) helps you better deal with negativity. It enhances your chances of success and makes you more persistent, cooperative, agreeable, conscientious, and proactive. Ratan Tata always believed in being a morning person – he used to convene his important business meetings at 6 AM in the morning to get the best results from these meetings.

Building an Atmosphere of Trust:

According to Ratan Tata – Trust is the psychological bond between you and your customers, employees, and stakeholders. Without trust, you risk becoming a superficial entrepreneur. It is therefore essential that you develop an environment of love, concern, and trust among all members of your enterprise – ensuring that you understand the aspirations and expectations of all your stakeholders and fulfil them.

Building Great Employee Relationships:

You must have a strong connection and nurture excellent relationships with your employees. Ratan Tata followed this religiously. According to him, you must inspire and motivate your employees to get the job done effectively and efficiently. You should also, through your leadership, strive to ensure that employees and management should adhere to the company vision and values.

Humility is a great Leadership Trait:

Ratan Tata has remained a humble man throughout his career. Staying humble made him a great leader and he always put himself grounded. As a result, he could easily serve his organization and its employees according to their interests. This is a great lesson for our current generation of organizational leaders and corporate managers – something worth emulating.

Always having a Positive Attitude:

As an entrepreneur or corporate executive – you must always carry a positive attitude. Ratan Tata always has a positive attitude, and he puts a smile on his face in every situation. He always possesses a positive outlook towards any difficult situation. He always tries to be a doer, not a criticizer.

Risk-taking is important for Entrepreneurs:

Ratan Tata always believes in taking the risk. He thinks that life is not lived unless one takes chances and learns how to survive the odds of new challenges. Once he said, “I don’t believe in making the right decisions. I take decisions and make them right.”

Need for Collaborating and Working together:

Ratan Tata has suggested that Indian companies need to focus more on collaboration in various areas to propel the country instead of focusing only on individual achievements. He says – “If you want to go fast, walk alone but if you want to go far, walk together.” No doubt – that is great business learning.

Learning from the Life Experiences of Others:

The best way to keep your motivational levels rising is by educating yourself from the life experiences of others. Other people’s struggle and their zeal to fight all odds to reach a pinnacle position in real life can be a great deal of inspirational dosage if you too want to attain your goals in life. Great learning indeed – try to learn from your own mistakes and failures as also from the experience of others.

Being A Man of Values:

Ratan Tata believes that a company should be run on principles, not on personalities. He and his company had some core values which they followed all through their journey. He is also well known for promoting financial transparency and intense vetting for grants for projects which help needy people. Furthermore, public safety and welfare are some of their core values which they always followed. This leadership quality has made them one of the most trusted groups worldwide.

Tata Group: A few laurels it has earned

“The Tata Group is one of India’s most respected business houses founded on ethical values originated by the founding father Jamsethji Nusserwanji Tata. Its five core values are integrity, understanding, excellence, unity, and responsibility. Tata Group’s focus is on social responsibility and ethical business practices. It is committed to giving back to society and improving the quality of life of people and contributing to environmental sustainability. It has a well-established code of conduct and a business excellence model.
Since its inception, the Tata Group had sought to function with ethics, integrity, social consciousness, and fairness. According to Ratan Tata, these values were an integral part of the group. This was intended to serve as a guide to each employee on the values, ethics and business principles expected of him or her in personal and professional conduct.
Tata Power has been named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for 2016 by the Ethisphere Institute, USA, for the third successive year. Tata Power constantly works towards fostering an ethical environment through senior leadership involvement, training, and communication.
In 2017, Tata Steel had been recognized by Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practice. The steel giant has received the coveted recognition for the fifth time.”

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Who is a visionary leader? #GreatMinds

July 15, 2021 / Great Minds, Leadership, Motivation

A Visionary Leader/Manager is one – who formulates powerful strategies to outshine in today’s dynamic and volatile markets, responds appropriately to changing socio-economic trends and disruptive innovation practices prevalent in the industry, manages and coordinates various distributed assets, processes, partners, and collaborators, and most importantly manages all strategic alliances, outsourcing contracts, forward and backward integrative linkages with third parties.

Here’s what John Kotter, a Professor of Leadership, Emeritus, at the Harvard Business School, has to say:

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Let me know in the comments section.

In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.

Who is a visionary leader? #GreatMinds Read More »

Visionary Leadership

July 10, 2021 / Business, Leadership

Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
~ Warren G. Bennis

Business practices are centuries old – when there were small businesses with local customer groups and there was not much socio-economic pressure. With rapid industrialization in developing and developed countries, business over the years has become large/larger in size and complex in nature and character.

A modern business enterprise is multi-product and multi-location (and multi-national) and serving to a wide variety of customers across the globe. Businesses and the business environment have been changing at a fast speed – both the changes and the speed of change being very important. As such, the impact of the socio-economic state and structure of the region (and the rest of the world) has become critical in business.

Objectives of A Modern Visionary Organization

Serving customers more effectively and efficiently as compared to the competition (customer-centric approach).
Keeping products and services appropriate to changing times and conforming to customers’ needs and wants.
Running a business with a sense of earnestness and competition.
Keeping the organization worthy to work for and to be associated with. Making your enterprise a great place to work.
Earning profits and generating wealth through value addition and surplus generation.
Adhering to ethical business practices, good corporate governance, and Corporate Social Responsibility norms.
Earning respect from the people and the community

The above contextual shift in the management of businesses has necessitated the requirement of a newer breed of business managers and organizational leaders who can think globally and compete strategically. Such organizational leaders and executives with their proven competence can certainly drive performance across domains, industries, and borders.

A modern business leader or corporate manager as described above must carry a compelling vision of the future of the organization and must be able to inspire, motivate, and engage others to join him in holding this vision together. Such a visionary leader will be able to energise other members of his team in sharing the vision and working in collaboration with all others to turn that vision into reality.

Great Leaders must have two things: a vision of the world that does not yet exist and the ability to communicate that vision clearly.

~Simon Sinek

A Visionary Manager as profiled above will further be able to formulate powerful strategies to outshine in today’s dynamic and volatile markets, respond appropriately to changing socio-economic trends and disruptive innovation practices prevalent in the industry, manage and coordinate various distributed assets, processes, partners, and collaborators, and most importantly manage all strategic alliances, outsourcing contracts, forward and backward integrative linkages with third parties.

Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion.
~Jack Welch

Important attributes & traits of visionary leaders:

They exhibit a balanced expression of spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical dimensions. They solve day to day problems with a broader vision of the organization always at top of their mind.
They have a demonstrated ability to lead the team; make the best use of team synergy and cohesiveness.
They are effective communicators and possess the art of listening. Good senior executives generally listen much more than what they speak.
They possess excellent conceptual, human, negotiation, and persuasion skills.
They demonstrate their knowledge and experience during business interactions and meetings.
They possess the ability to organize themselves, the department, and the enterprise.
They practice effective time management and are clear about the urgent–important syndrome. They are punctual and love others being punctual.
They are confident in their ability, experience, and decisions. They always care for their priorities and never procrastinate.
They create an atmosphere of reliability and trust.
They are masters in effective delegation.
They love and respect their subordinates and team members.
They possess the necessary self-confidence meaning that nothing comes as a surprise to them.
They make valuable decisions and can substantiate how they were made that way.
They possess excellent core values and a clear vision.
They engage in empowering relationships.
They practice creativity and innovation.
Their perspective is broad, and they possess the ability to deal with a global network of human beings – in other words dealing with a multi-disciplinary, multi-dimensional and cross-cultural workforce with a diversity of thoughts.
They demonstrate effectiveness and efficiency in their action, brevity in expression, curtsey in behaviour, firmness in decisions, and tact in handling delicate and sensitive situations.

“Leaders think and talk about the solutions. Followers think and talk about the problems.”

~Brian Tracy.

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Who holds the steering wheel?

June 4, 2021 / Business, Leadership

The person who holds the steering wheel may not be the owner of the business. In fact, anyone, who is responsible for day-to-day business operations and controls all crucial aspects of business, should be positioned as the CEO.

Have you ever experienced driving a car or a four-wheeler? As the driver who is controlling the car – you must hold the steering wheel in your own hands and then decide where you want to go and what speed you take. There can be others sitting in the car either on the backseat or by your side but these people can only assist you with the road map, maybe guide you with directions; they cannot hold the steering wheel along with you.

Likewise, in any endeavour in your personal or professional life – like managing a small event or a project, managing a family, managing a small or medium enterprise, or a large corporation – let there be only one person at the helm – who manages and controls the business with the functional assistance, guidance, and support from other team members. So, who gets to hold the steering wheel?

Given below are certain guidelines to help in steering your business effectively so that your organization makes sustainable profits and makes all its stakeholders happy.

The Business Head

You may own a business or a company but may have no interest in operating it on a day-to-day basis. In such a scenario, you may assign a paid CEO who may be running and controlling your business. Whosoever takes the lead (let us call him/her as the Business Head) in handling business operations should be accepted and positioned as the leader.

Every other member in the organization must abide by, comply, and follow the directions (or suggestions) coming from the Business Head. Proper organizational arrangements should be instituted to create clear responsibility, authority, and accountability lines in the organizations.

Top-down and bottom-up communication

The Business Head will be exercising his/her authority and directing (communicating, coordinating, guiding, motivating, and inspiring) all members of the organization to attend to various activities and functions. He/she can also call upon organizational members either individually or in groups to obtain their advice, inputs, and suggestions on certain important aspects. This way, the Business Head will make use of the group decision-making style to seek opinions from everyone and build consensus on matters of crucial interest to the business.

In the above arrangement, all information, ideas, knowledge, and suggestions from various organizational members flow UPWARDS to the Head who gets the benefit of knowledge and wisdom from everyone to make his own best decisions and get these executed in the best interest of the business. We call this BOTTOM-UP COMMUNICATION. However, everyone in the organization gets commands, or instructions from the Business Head only and this communication is strictly DOWNWARDS. We call this TOP-DOWN COMMUNICATION.

Unity of Command

Further – no one other than the designated Business Head can pass on any command or instruction to anyone in the organization We call this rule: “UNITY OF COMMAND.” Enforcing unity of command helps in ensuring that no member gets multiple commands from different superiors or seniors only to create confusion and chaos.

Organizational Structure

Next, we must make suitable provision so that the Business Head can identify few dependable persons from his larger team who can be given responsibilities for certain major functions or group of functions. These members can be designated as Heads of the respective departments or functions – like Head (Manufacturing), Head (Marketing), Head (Finance) and so on. These Heads can also be provided necessary support staff and physical facilities. They should also be given commensurate authority (matching to their responsibility) in terms of the delegation given to them by the Business Head.

Best Practices for effective steering!

The aspects discussed above are the main guidelines but there are many more principles to abide by. I have listed them in the box below. These can be used to your advantage if you want to steer your organization towards success.

Formulating vision, mission, goals, and objectives for the organization.
Effective Value Chain Management: creating, communicating, and delivering value to all stakeholders.
Building Sustained Competitive Advantage – through cost leadership, product/service differentiation, and focus strategies.
Effective execution of all events and projects without any time overrun and cost escalation.
Striving to achieve 5 operational performance criteria: cost of production, product and process quality, speed of performance (ensuring fast and prompt deliveries), building flexibility and dependability in our dealing with customers.
Building world-class processes
Instituting effective risk management.
Strong marketing and sales network.
Effective monitoring, Control, and MIS.
Being customer-centric – taking good care of customers, looking after their specific needs, and keeping our commitments and promises to them.

Who holds the steering wheel? Read More »

The importance of a mentor in your business #GreatMinds

April 8, 2021 / Business, Great Minds, Leadership

Young entrepreneurs from SMEs and traditional business families should be encouraged to welcome knowledgeable consultants and experts and should be open to using their knowledge and experience in developing and fine-tuning their businesses. They should be open to invite and opt for senior members from business and industry with relevant experience (and/or subject matter experts from academic institutions) for representation on their boards and/or subcommittees of the Board.

Here’s what John C Crosby, an American politician, has to say:

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Let me know in the comments section.

In this ongoing series #GreatMinds on my blog, I am shining a spotlight on the important ideas that some very successful people keep talking about in their public life.

The importance of a mentor in your business #GreatMinds Read More »

Learning from Women around me

March 12, 2021 / Leadership, Personal

We live in a male-dominated world. I have realised this truth since I was a young boy. One cannot question this premise since we do live in a male-dominated world. The male member is supposed to be the breadwinner of the family, providing with necessities, mobilizing resources for a better standard of living and generally, providing support to all members of the family. It was believed, not so long ago, by one and all, that women have a passive role— they remain inside the house and attend to a variety of household activities like cooking, housekeeping, and taking care of children.

Since it did not affect my lifestyle, I happily lived with the above belief till my engineering college days. I spent a long tenure of about six years completing my graduation and post-graduation. Higher education proved to be transformative for me! In those six years, I learnt and adopted several newer ways of living my life – including but not limited to improving on my communication and shedding of my somewhat introvert nature. Thanks to the people I was surrounded by my classmates, close friends, seniors, professors at college and many more in the immediate external environment.

Unfortunately, however, my so-called transformation did not bring any worthwhile change in my attitude towards girls. Whenever it came to connecting with girls, I was attached and detached at the same time. If I reflect further, however, I was comfortable and felt secure in the company of elderly females and loved talking to them.

At the age of 24, I started my first job. My circle of influence was now steadily growing, and I had started connecting with many persons from different strata of society. If the work situation demanded, I had to interact with strangers too. In this period of my life, I had many occasions to interact with grown-up girls, young women, housewives (I would love to call them home-makers instead), and professional females like school and college teachers, company executives, and entrepreneurs. As a young man, I was interested and curious about them too!

I think of this period, from 1972 until I married two years later in 1974, was the time that broke all my misconceptions. My discussions and interactions with women from all walks of life had opened up all the closed valves inside my head. I was now clear of all my mental blocks that any matured woman – in any role in society: a student, teacher, homemaker, business executive, entrepreneur, or social activist – can be a fantastic change agent for our country. Until that moment, I used to look at every problem, program, or project through the lens of the POV of a man but now my perspective changed totally. But now, I look at everything from the joint perspective of a male and female both.

GENDER COLLABORATION

If we accept the above concept of “joint perspectives,” it opens a new window of opportunity for us. Let me explain. If we have an important project to execute – we can build the project team by including both males and females from different social, ethnic, and demographic backgrounds, cross-cultural orientations, and skill-sets.

For the last several years, I have seen women successfully take important roles as businesspersons, organizational leaders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs. I read a Forbes article once that discussed how enterprises run and managed by women folks make more money. Women have a strong self-belief, exhibit extreme faith and are passionate about whatever they do. Women generally are very good organizers, have a strong sense of purpose, show patience and persistence and are more than willing to leave their comfort zones to reach their goals.

IN A WOMAN DOMINATED WORKPLACE- MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

In my third inning – as a retired professional – I have been working as an Adjunct Professor with a renowned film, communication, and creative arts institute in Mumbai. I teach business and management subjects in their School of Media and Communication (SMC). SMC is headed by a qualified and well-experienced media professional. I take pride in saying that our department is led by a woman.

She is a wonderful person, a master of her craft, and knows how to get the best from her team of over a dozen young and middle-aged female faculty members plus three academic coordinators. She has only two male teachers in her team, and I am one of them!

We work in SMC as a close-knit family under the umbrella of our lady-boss (not citing her name for the sake of privacy) who treats us with frequent gifts and small but cute celebrations within the department. She practices the creative fusion of assertion and affection excellently. Work is like play and fun at SMC because all members respect each other and love what they do. If they do not love what they do, they can always ask for a change under our flexibility-loving culture.

A DEDICATION ON THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

We celebrated International Women’s Day this week and I wanted to put on record my respect and remembrances to all those wonderful females with whom I have worked recently and who have had a significant impact on my life. As you all know, I am working as a freelance professional for the other institutions also. Through this post, I also pay my regards and respect to all those females in these institutions who have been working with me. I am grateful for their work and positive presence in my life.

Showing my gratitude to these wonderful women who have positively impacted my personal and professional life…

Learning from Women around me Read More »

Keep the conversation going!

January 17, 2021 / Leadership, Management, Motivation

Recently, I wrote a post (link to the original post) about my boss and how he trusted me and trained me to take a leadership role to resolve a crisis.

I loved watching your comments, reactions and disagreements to the story. Engaging with any case study at this level brings a deeper understanding. I want to take this opportunity to highlight this comment I received on email.

SP is a ‘senior professional’ whose opinion I really respect. As you will read further, SP disagrees with my boss’ (referred to as “PC” in the post) method. Other readers have also reached out to me and discussed their thoughts about this anecdote. As a teacher, I am thrilled that the story invoked such a strong reaction. I also completely understand where SP and other readers are coming from, but I also wanted to clarify PC’s stance.

Here is an excerpt from my conversation with SP on email:

SP: In handling issues of routine crisis, I would have appreciated PC’s approach. However, in the present case, you were dealing with a chemical plant where any failure on your part could have led to dangerous life and death consequences for many. The Bhopal gas tragedy immediately comes to mind. A boss could not have taken the stand that PC did, i.e., hope that you would find a solution. He was playing with the lives of people. I am sorry to disagree with this example since I’ve been both, a post-graduate with an MSc in Chemistry who knows the hazards of chemicals, and an IPS officer who has faced many life and death critical situations!

KAPIL: Thank you very much SP Sir! You have really taken interest and gone through the story considering all issues within and around the story. Your opinion and apprehensions are absolutely in place. In fact, two of my close associates also brought up the question of the hazards and the risk to the lives of people. I now realise that I should have added a paragraph to clarify that this project had no such risks.

Anyway, let me take a moment to explain this to you, sir… This story is related to a chemical plant where there are no such risks about high-pressure reactions, poisonous gas leaks etc. The worst scenario could have been huge spillage and loss of slurry from filter pans (the big circus-like equipment that occupied an entire floor) which were open to the sky. It could have resulted only in huge financial loss and there was no danger to human lives at all.

Both PC and I were well aware of this, and it was true for everyone working in the plant. The only risk was from handling of concentrated sulfuric acid which was stored in closed tanks and brought to the reactor after adequate dilution. Another occupational hazard of this plant is the exposure to fluorine gas which can cause harm to human bones in the long run.

Sir, as I write this to you, I got to brush up on my chemistry and chemical engineering which I have almost forgotten. It was nostalgic! For over the last 30 years, I have been largely a business and management professional. But, I do hope that my reply clarified any apprehension you had. As an author, I should have touched upon this aspect of the story!

This was a part of a longer discussion we had. It goes to show how a good case study can open itself to so many learning moments.

If you recall the story, PC himself called me within an hour to check on me, without knowing if I had solved the situation or not! When I told him that I was successful, his few words of confidence (“I knew it!”) motivated me. It kept ringing in my ears for years to come!

As a writer, while communicating the stakes of the situation, I might have caused an unintentional misunderstanding where some of you imagined a tragic alternate ending! Rest assured, the stakes were only financial!

Let me know your thoughts on such anecdotes that I will continue to share, and let’s keep the conversation going.

Keep the conversation going! Read More »

Want Success? Leave your comfort zone!

January 7, 2021 / Leadership, Management, Motivation

This story is a true event, but I have changed the real names and places in the story for the sake of the characters’ privacy.

In 1975, I was working as a young chemical engineer in chemical process plants. My then- Project Chief deploys a somewhat unpleasant strategy to train me— one of his favourite engineers. In hindsight, I see it as practical training in leadership and troubleshooting!

I was a part of a project team of 20 engineers from various functional disciplines. We were handling a turn-key chemical project in western India. There were also around 30 plant operators, 20 office staff, and approximately 80 contract workmen. The entire project team consisted of 150 people who were being headed by our Project Chief. I shall address him as PC for the story.

PC was a renowned professional with over 4 decades of rich experience in project execution, plant operations, troubleshooting, and general management. His general management and administrative skills were extraordinary, and he was often a sought-after person for counsel and advice by many. Although he loved all his team members immensely, he was a hard taskmaster at the same time! He knew the art of practising a creative fusion of aggression and affection – or practising “tough love” if I may say so.

On this particular night, I was on project duty managing a 12-hour shift (from 8 PM to 8 AM) as a Shift In-Charge. Undoubtedly, it was a big responsibility but then I was well trained and had several years of experience in similar roles.

Everything was running smoothly from 8 PM to 12.30 AM but then suddenly after 12.40 AM or so, we noticed some abnormality in the plant. Certain operating conditions and control parameters were showing abnormal deviations. We felt as if the entire plant was getting out of our control! We experienced abnormal vibrations and sounds coming out from the Control Room floor. You could say it was similar to what one would hear during a bumpy ride or turbulent flight. Clearly, it was indicative of some major issues brewing that needed to be identified. I felt anxious, worried, and somewhat helpless! I was handling dangerous chemicals, for god sake!

I consulted my team members, pooled their opinions but I could sense that everyone was looking at me for help and advice. They were right in doing so. After all, I was their boss, and it was my responsibility to ensure that the plant gives an optimal performance during my shift. At a personal level too, I tried to analyse the problem and thought of several turn-around strategies but then I was not able to pinpoint the problem; forget finding the solution!

Frustrated and perplexed, I dialled the residential number of PC, my boss. It was the last step to take. I was hoping that he would give me an instant solution. But then the way our conversation unfolded compounded my problem!

These conversations are etched in my mind because of the night unravelled. I will list the series of brief conversations we had.

THE FIRST CALL AT 1:10 AM:

Anxiously, I called him and despite the unusual hour, he was typically calm.

PC – Hello! Tell me, Tandon… What I can do for you?

KT – Sir, there is a serious problem in the plant! (I narrate the problem to him.) I am not able to fix the same… What do you suggest we do, Sir?

PC – Sorry Tandon…I cannot help you! This is your job!

To my shock, he did not even let me protest. He had abruptly disconnected the call. I went back to work trying to work out something to report!

THE SECOND CALL AT 1.30 AM

After a few futile efforts to set right the plant’s condition, I again called PC with growing anxiety. But this time his tone had changed. He was mildly annoyed.

PC – Hello, PC speaking.

KT – Sir, I am not able to fix the problem!

I am sure he could read the desperation in my voice, but before I could say anything more, he cut me off…

PC – I was under the impression that you were a first-class Chemical Engineer!

He disconnected the call again. I kept wondering about how he could reprimand me at such a crucial juncture! I needed a solution urgently!

THE THIRD CALL AT 1:45 am.

You could imagine how totally helpless I was to keep calling him for within the hour. I swallowed my pride and called PC again. Hoping to get through him, before the problem worsened.

PC – Sorry Tandon! I have no help to give you.

And before I could put in a word, he disconnected the call again.

I was at my wit’s end! This was not training! This was a real-life problem with real consequences! How could he take the matter so lightly! How much longer should I play along with being insulted and ridiculed? I was looking up to him for help, and he kept refusing me so callously!

For the very first time, I was feeling terribly annoyed at PC. I was seething with rage but then there was nothing I could do! I thought of this popular quip: “The boss may not always be right, but he always is the boss.”

PUSHED TO A “DO OR DIE” SITUATION

It was 2.10 am and the problem stared at me. I decided not to call PC again and thought of the predicament before me. It seemed like it was a do or die situation.

I called my Assistant and told him to get me a large cup of steaming hot coffee and requested him to leave me alone in my cabin. He promptly obeyed my instructions, closed the glass door behind him and left.

For a few minutes, I closed my eyes, tried to analyse the situation with a cool mind, and gave full focus to the problem as if I were an Einstein or a Newton! Soon, before the coffee cup was empty, I had clearly thought of 3 specific remedial actions.

I jotted these points of action on a piece of paper, called the main plant operator and handed over these directives to him. I told him to initiate the action plan. After that, there was nothing left to do but the whole team to wait and watch. In the next ten minutes, he did exactly what I told him to.

It took 30 more minutes, and to our utter surprise, the plant was returning to normalcy. Indeed, it was a great moment for all of us! We cheered!

Around this time, my phone began to ring. It was none other than PC calling me back!

THE FOURTH CALL AT 2.50 am:

I received the call with confidence and joy.

PC – How is the plant now, Mr Tandon?

KT – Plant is perfectly normal, Sir!

PC – I knew it!

He spoke these three words, and he cut the call again. But this time, my fury had melted. Clearly, PC had been awake at this hour and worried too! He trusted me and pushed me so that I could rise to the occasion!

CASE ANALYSIS: LEADERSHIP PIPELINE

Let us look back and pick out important learnings from this experience.

First, it was “a calculated move”:

While I was feeling furious on him for not helping (spoon-feeding) me – he was looking at a much bigger picture! He was busy thinking as to how to use the crisis at hand to create another competent leader and problem solver in his team.

All the drama he played during those three telephonic chats was an intentional act on his part to pull me out of my comfort zone and position me as the smart leader/manager who leads from the front and sets an example to his team members.

Second, IT was “leAding by example”:

He was not acting out in anger as I initially thought. While I was tensed under pressure, struggling to solve the plant problem, PC was also not sleeping!

The stakes were high! If I had failed the chemical slurry would have to be thrown out and the plant would have suffered a colossal loss in both production material and costs!

He still did not buckle under the pressure and resort to micro-managing my actions. He put faith in my intelligence and was ready to check-in with me within an hour. His appreciation in the end, not only made me forget my anger but I also gained respect for him as he unlocked my inner potential!

A TRIBUTE TO MY LEADER!

PC is no more with us. He died long back. But his memories are all fresh in my mind even today. I have been narrating this story to my students for the last 10 years in my classroom sessions.

Today, I thought of publishing this story in my blog as a tribute to him!

RIP, dear PC!

Want Success? Leave your comfort zone! Read More »

How to connect with the world around you?

December 21, 2020 / Leadership, Motivation

People are important. They constitute the most important resource – the human resource. Organizations, events, and/or projects succeed or fail because of the people involved. So, for an entrepreneur, connecting with the right people becomes crucial!

Then, how can you become a better judge of people? Of course, the obvious values are those of intelligence and sharp judgement. You need people who can anticipate, to see around corners and make sharp decisions. In a partner and employee, it is also ideal to find someone who demonstrates loyalty, integrity, and a high energy drive. You can bank upon someone to get things done and who has a balanced ego.

Giving connects two people, the giver and the receiver, and this connection gives birth to a new sense of belonging.
Deepak Chopra

Of course, it is easier said than done. Let me share what I have learned about people, and these can be applied in life. Every management lesson, in the end, is also a life value.

YOU’LL DO BETTER IN GOOD COMPANY

Make a list of people you like, and you want to emulate – also the people who create positivity in you, motivate you to do better and bigger things in life. Create an eco-system of such people and personalities and spend time with them – both work time and playtime. There is no point wasting your time in a suffocating environment filled with persons with a negative mental attitude (NMA). This will, for sure, never help you grow into the person you want to be.

CHOOSE THOSE WHO IMPROVE YOUR MOOD

Surround yourself with such friends and persons who have a constructive and positive impact on you. Cut those from your circle of influence, who possess a negative mental attitude (NMA) and/or not supportive in furthering your initiatives. Do not keep friends and associates who do not add value to your eco-system or, for that reason act or behave like an autocrat who does not care for the opinions and suggestions of others.

BE HONEST IN YOUR DEALINGS

Always present yourself to others as you are. Let others see you – who you are. When you are being original, everyone will accept you at your face value and there are fair chances that others will enjoy your company. At the same time do not worry as to what other persons talk about you. What matters is the presence of supportive people in your life. The naysayers simply do not matter. They do not think they can do so they hate seeing other people succeed. But remember, it is your life.

KEEP AN OPEN MIND

Welcome, all kinds of suggestions and feedback from wherever it comes. Be an active listener (as opposed to being a selective listener) – especially when it comes to listening opposite or confronting perspectives and/or criticism or any kind of negative feedback. This is the acid test to know – whether you are on the right track or not. Never be so happy with the status quo that you always, as a rule, resist changes. Embrace changes if the situation so demands. Sometimes the change may introduce you to a better way, a better person, or a better lifestyle.

COLLABORATION OVER FORCE

It may prove useful at times to organize people in non-hierarchical settings to inform, share, discuss and agree on items of importance to the company. Do not ridicule people, do not insult them either. As a basic rule of life, be friendly with people, and help them as much as you can. This is a great strategy to build rapport and to create an environment of trust and comfort. At your workplace, create an atmosphere where people (both as individuals and in teams) demonstrate the spirit of cooperation and collaboration and keep workplace conflicts at a minimum. People work on the dictum – consent and collaborate rather than following the traditional dictum – command and control. Treat everybody with due courtesy and respect – after all people will remember you for as to how you treated them.

All my family members and close friends call me a people-person. That is entirely true. I love to operate as a senior colleague and friend to all my teammates – attaching the highest importance to employee engagement, job enrichment, and enduring motivation. I strongly believe that you take care of your people and your people will take care of the business.

How to connect with the world around you? Read More »