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.
