In Search of Roots & Stars: Re-Discovering Lost Treasures of Work

Off late, I am doing some hands on studies (book reading, discussions with experts, interpreting psychometric profiles etc.) on Leadership Personalities, Leadership Behaviors and their impact on People and Performance. And this quite a fascinating area to explore!

Thoughts, Behaviors and Actions of a leader are akin to origin of a river. It starts like a small stream. But gains momentum and power while flowing downstream. Authenticity, High degree of self- awareness, Balance of mutually complementing strengths and commitment to build a competent, value oriented apex leadership team are so very vital for sustainable Organizational progress.

There are interesting accounts of how once successful or charismatic CEOs failed miserably, when they became slaves of their own selfish ego-drivers. When a CEO uses his key strength blindly, without realizing its impact on people, things star cracking down and later they become interesting case studies of a failed hero.

 It is fair to give some benefit of doubt to CEOs/Apex leaders as they constantly reel under unrealistic expectations of board members, investors, media amidst volatile market trends and competition.

It is important to address fundamental issues of how much need, ambition and greed should we place as a driving force in the business organizations.

I was fortunate to get exposure to high level discussions on operating budgets, mid-term planning and strategic planning from very early stages of my career. I can vividly recollect those matured discussions, whose focus primarily remained on new products, re-defining customer service, process innovations and meaningful HR programs. And I also was part of discussions which did not go beyond financial numbers and sales growth targets. Former were stimulating and engaging. In later, everybody went through motions without any real connect. 

Let the focus be back on serving customer needs, creating value through innovations. Let sales and growth targets reflect intent of ambition, but not the end in all.

Let us reclaim the joy of work from slavery of stress. Let there be matured work ethos flourishing on strong roots of cherished values Respect, Integrity and Employee/Customer Centricity.