NHRDN Journal Oct17 PDF

Key Contributors
Dr Pritam Singh Dr Pradnya Parasher

Mr S Y Siddiqui Mr Gurucharan Singh Gandhi
Dr Anand Prakash Mr Devapriyo Ghose
QUARTERLY JOURNAL Mr K Ramkumar Mr R Anand
Prof Vasanthi Srinivasan Dr Kamal K Jain
October 2017 Prof R Srinivasan
Mr Ankur Jain
Ms Roshni Das
Volume 10 | Issue 4 Mr Prashant Pandey
Dr Deepa Mazumdar
Dr Veena Vohra
Mr S V Nathan
Mr Deepak Hota
Mr Bimal Rath
Dr Meena Wilson Mr Rajesh Uppal
Dr Cathleen Clerkin Dr Sanjay Srivastava
Prof Krishnan T N Dr Jyotsna Bhatnagar
LEADERSHIP
BEYOND
COMPETENCIES
www.nationalhrd.org
ISSN - 0974 - 1739
Volume 10 | Issue 4 | October 2017
Leadership
Beyond
Competencies
NHRD Network Journal
Leadership Beyond Competencies
Volume 10 | Issue 4 | October 2017
NHRD Network Board Members

National President Mr Saptarshi Roy
National President, NHRDN and Director - HR, NTPC
Immediate Past President Mr K Ramkumar

Founder Leadership Centre Pvt Ltd
Director General Mr Dhananjay Singh
Editorial Team Dr Asha Bhandarker, Guest Editor

Distinguished Professor of Org Behaviour
International Management Institute Delhi
Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Managing Editor
Leadership Architect & Career Coach, HR PLUS
Email: me@nationalhrd.org
Dr Arvind N Agrawal, Managing Partner
Lead Associates
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About the Journal
The National HRD Network publishes a semi-academic quarterly journal where in each Issue is dedicated to a
theme.
The Journal publishes primarily three categories of articles:
Conceptual and research based.
Contributions from thought leaders including a limited number of reprints with due permission.
Organisational experiences in HR interventions / mechanisms.
About this Issue

The theme of the current Issue is LEADERSHIP BEYOND COMPETENCIES.
Editorial Board Members

Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Managing Editor, is a Leadership Architect, Career Coach, Change and Transition
Specialist with thirty years of successful professional experience in managing entire gamut of Human
Resources Management with proven expertise in managing multicultural globally distributed knowledge
professionals. He has rich experience in companies like Citrix, Dell Perot, Cambridge Solutions, Sasken and
ALIT. He is a doctoral fellow in HRD from XLRI, a product of NTL, USA and provides HR consulting with many
large Indian and MNCs and start-ups in the area of Leadership coaching, Organisation development, Long-
term capability building, Strategic change and Organisation alignment.
Dr Arvind N Agrawal is Managing Partner at Lead Associates. He was the President and Chief Executive of
Corporate Development & Human Resources and Member of Management Board of RPG Enterprises. He held
senior positions in Escorts and Modi Xerox. He was the past National President of National HRD Network.
Dr Agrawal is an IIM, Ahmedabad and an IIT, Kharagpur alumni, and also holds a Ph.D. from IIT, Mumbai.
NHRD firmly believes in and respects IPR and we appeal to the contributors and
readers to strictly honour the same.
For any further clarifications, please contact:
The Managing Editor
Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay, Leadership Architect and Career Coach, HR PLUS
Sri Nrusimhadri, Flat No 303, Third Floor, No 12, 2nd Main, 7th Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore-560070
Email: me@nationalhrd.org
Contents
S. No. Title of Article Author Page No.
Editorial Note Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay 1

About The Guest Editor Mr Asha Bhandarker 4
Guest Editorial 5
Articles
1. Leadership Development: Dr Pritam Singh 7
Issues & Challenges
2. Issue and Challenges of Leadership Development Mr S Y Siddiqui 10
3. Leadership Development : Issues & Challenges Dr Anand Prakash 14
4. Inspiration-The Magic Potion in Your Leadership Mr K Ramkumar 17
5. Future-Ready Leadership Competencies Prof Vasanthi Srinivasan

Prof R Srinivasan
Mr Ankur Jain 21
6. Changing Paradigm of Leadership Mr Prashant Pandey 30

Development in Human Age
7. The What and How of Leadership Development Mr S V Nathan 37
8. Leadership Beyond Competencies - What Really Mr Bimal Rath 48

Defines Top Leadership Outcomes
9. Elevating Womens Leadership in India: Dr Meena Wilson 55

Issues and Insights Dr Cathleen Clerkin
10. Career Progression of Female Talent: Prof Krishnan T N 66

Issues and Challenges
11. Navigating Leadership Transitions: Dr Pradnya Parasher 72

Helping Leaders Successfully Transition into New Roles
12. Lost in Transition Mr Gurucharan Singh Gandhi 81
13. Why Leadership Development Efforts Fail Mr Devapriyo Ghose 85

Contents
S. No. Title of Article Author Page No.
14. Facilitating Development of the Leadership Pipeline: Mr R Anand 96

Issues and Practices for Consideration
15. Productivity Tools: Dr Kamal K Jain

Fitness Band for Workplace Engagement? Ms Roshni Das 104
16. Leadership Competencies for Good Governance Dr Deepa Mazumdar 111
Developing Leaders for an Uncertain World Dr Veena Vohra 119

17. How Appreciative Inquiry can help
18. Talent Management Initiatives in BEML Limited Mr Deepak Hota 126
19. The Journey of a LEADER- Making and Becoming One Mr Rajesh Uppal 131
20. Building Leaders through Learning and Dr Sanjay Srivastava 136

Teaching Organization
21. The Leadership Odyssey Dr Jyotsna Bhatnagar 144

Editorial Note
Dear Readers,
Whether or not leadership development works has been a topic of hot debate
and it indeed had been the subject of many research studies, literature reviews,
and organisational case studies for last two decades. Yet it remains a top priority
for many organisations even today. When you ask head of L&D in any organization
to list their biggest challenges, Leadership Development still features as one of
the top priorities.
In 2017 Workplace Learning Report Linkedin reported that when asked, What
are the most important skills that you/your team provide training for? Leadership
/People Management skills topped the chart with Fifty Two per cent among all
the L&D professionals who participated in the survey.
According to a Global Human-Capital Trends report last year Deloitte reported that companies across
globe spent nearly $31 billion on leadership programs.
They also reported that in 2016,
Ÿ Eighty-Nine percent of companies saw leadership as an important or very important Issue (up from
Eighty-Seven percent in 2015)
Ÿ Fifty-Seven percent cited leadership as very important (up from Fifty percent)
And yet
Ÿ Twenty-eight percent of respondents reported weak or very weak leadership pipelines in their
respective organizations.
It might be worthwhile to quote Global Human-Capital Trends report for 2017 where the Deloitte
Researchers found Disrupting Leadership as one of the top ten trends across the world.
Interestingly they summed up their findings as follows:
“Leadership development continues to be a significant challenge for companies around the world,
as the transition to the new digital organization creates even larger leadership gaps. High-
performing leaders today need different skills and expertise than in generations past, yet most
organizations have not moved rapidly enough to develop digital leaders, promote young leaders,
and build new leadership models.
The leadership gap has become larger; organizational capabilities to address leadership dropped by
2 percent.
Forty-two percent of companies cite “leadership development” as very important.
The percentage of companies with strong or adequate experiential programs for leaders rose by 2
percent this year.
So we thought to focus our current Issue on Leadership Development: Issues and challenges. I am glad
that Prof Asha Bhandarker, a renowned Leadership Researcher and Distinguished Professor of OB at IMI-
Delhi readily agreed when I requested her to be the guest editor for this Issue. Thanks for accepting our
request and doing a great job in guest editing this Issue.
NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 1

There is no reason to believe that India is not following this global trend. Indian companies are becoming
more global than ever and investing heavily in exports and overseas acquisitions to become powers to
reckon with. Most Indian Organisations like their global counterpart are investing in leadership
development and believes that the enhanced leadership capability will be a key to improved organisational
performance.
This context of growth provides unique challenges related to leadership development in India. These
challenges require that organizations grow leaders faster and work to build the capabilities needed to drive
growth among their leaders.
Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning partners as a part of their research and work with their
clients conducted a study of forty-three organizations with more than 1,000 employees in India and
identified four key trends for leadership development in India. These are as follows:
Ÿ Leaders in India have to mature faster.
Ÿ Leaders in India have to learn strategic skills to manage growth.
Ÿ Organizations need to accelerate leadership development through innovative action learning.
Ÿ Organizations in India need scalable and effective leadership development solutions.
It may not be out of way to mention very contemporary study conducted by Centre for Creative Leadership
(CCL) and ISB. This study aptly captured how organizations in India can develop a robust leadership
pipeline with a global mind-set, while making sure the value alignment of the interventions that are best in
class and also unique about Indias socio-cultural context and emergence of next generation leaders.
A deep dive into this report brings about a very interesting aspect of leadership development process in
India. This report found that in balancing the contradicting needs of business and emerging socio-cultural
perspectives, the next generation Indian Leaders will need to manage five distinct sets of paradoxes that
are described below. These are described as below:
Ÿ Slow Down to Catch Up
Ÿ Accomplish More by Doing Less
Ÿ Embrace Uncertainty to Ensure Growth
Ÿ Strive for Agility but Take Everybody Along
Ÿ Go Global but Remain Authentic to Self
Research across globe proved that there has to be a synergy between the individual aspiring to become a
leader, organization and the HR team need to make sure leadership development programmes become
successful. In order to do so, every stakeholder needs to play their roles that are complimentary to each
other. In this context I would like to quote from the CCL-ISB study where it is aptly described as follows:
“She must own her development journey, and enhance her capabilities by taking on ambiguous and
sometimes risky career moves, developing meaningful networks, getting global experience under
her belt, and spending time on self-reflection. Her manager, or the incumbent leader, must play the
role of a mentor, orchestrating the “right” opportunities. The role of human resource leaders is that
of a facilitator—to set up processes and systems for talent identification and accelerated leadership
development. Finally, the organization, on its part, collectively must create a culture and community
for learning and empowerment”

Before I end this editorial, I must also thank Nisha Kurup from National Secretariat of NHRDN, Gurugram who
worked tirelessly to support Prof Bhandarker in bringing this Issue. Thank you Nisha, for your timely support.
As always, contribution for this Issue came from both fronts: the practitioners as well as academics making the
Issue contemporary, though generating as well as reference for leadership researchers, students and
practitioners. I am sure that our readers will enjoy reading this Issue and would like to preserve it as a reference
for their future use.
As always, in line with our continuous endeavour of touching upon important HR Issues, I am happy to inform
you that the very first Issue for next year (January, 2018) will be dedicated to the theme of “Education,
Employability and Employment Landscape of India”.
Keep reading and send us your feedback at me@nationalhrd.org .
Happy Reading!
Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay
Managing Editor

About the Guest Editor
Dr Asha Bhandarker has over 3 decades of rich teaching experience. She has
worked actively in the corporate world across Industries conducting training,
research as well as consulting for the last 28 years. She is amongst the few Indian
professors of business management who has the opportunity to conduct
workshops at the board level of leading public sector organizations like Western
Coal Fields, SAIL, Power-grid and IFFCO; Banks like Canara Bank, Indian
Overseas Bank, Dena Bank, Union Bank of India; MNCs like Siemens India, Bayer
India, Du Pont, New Holland Tractors, Maruti Suzuki, FIAT etc. She has been
invited to serve as an HR expert on board level HR committees of banks like Bank
Dr Asha Bhandarker
of Baroda and Corporation Bank.
She is a member of various professional associations like the Academy of
Management, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Indian
Society for Training and Development and National HRD Network. Dr Bhanderkar
has also held various positions of academic administration. She has served as
Dean International Relations and Consulting at IMI-Delhi; Dean Research,
founding Chairperson of 2 post graduate level programs PG-HR and PG-IM and
Area Chair at MDI-Gurgaon. She has also tried at her hand at running a consulting
firm for a few years. Her teaching as well as research work has been recognized
and rewarded, the most notable one being the Senior Fulbright Fellowship (for
Research). She has experimented and brought innovative pedagogy into teaching
in the classroom and also for training in industry (Out-Bound Experiential
Learning). She has been responsible for successfully mentoring six Ph.Ds.
Dr Bhanderkar has published 8 books (2 of them award winning) as well as 40
Research Papers (1 award winning paper) and Teaching Cases (1 award winning
case) published in peer reviewed national and international journals. She has
made significant contributions to the field of Organizational Behavior and HR in
India as a Scholar, Trainer, Consultant, Researcher and Administrator and has
displayed a high level of academic leadership in the field of management
education in India. She is a widely travelled person who also gathered deep
insights of international culture and organizational behaviour having lived in
different parts of the world.
12 NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 4

Guest Editorial
A ccording to a recent global survey, one of the enduring concerns of CEOs worldwide has been the scarcity
of leadership talent. In fact the study brought out that economic opportunities have not been seized by
organizations to the extent possible because of this scarcity of talent. The challenge for all organizations is to
develop people who can successfully lead organizations into the emerging future. Leaders are very much
created through a steady process of learning and shaping through enriching opportunities and hence the
relevance of Leadership Development.
In all my years of working with organizations, I have seen that many people have leadership capability but it is
either not recognized or it is ignored, or it is actively discouraged. Reasons for such stifling of talent may be
many including the psychodynamics and acute competition that characterizes organizations. Superiors, who
feel threatened by brighter, younger people, squelch their self-confidence and even go out of their way to
demoralize and side-line them.
Another likely scenario is one where the lions are surrounded by corporate sheep and in turn begin to believe
they are sheep and behave like sheep. The story of the lion and the sheep beautifully illustrates this principle: A
lion cub rolled off the cliff and fell into a herd of sheep. The kind hearted shepherd took the cub home and
brought it up along with other sheep. The cub played with the sheep, ate grass like the sheep around him. One
day a mature lion out on his hunt, spotted an amazing sight a tame lion cub moving with a herd of sheep. It
began to chase the herd. Finally, the lion caught up with the cub and was aghast to hear it plead, Please spare
me sir, and Im a poor sheep. It tried to convince the cub, You are not a sheep, you are a lion.
Finally, the older lion took the lion cub to the nearby pond and showed the cub its reflection in the water and
said, Can you see your paws and my paws are alike? can you see my mane and your mane look similar?; And
it began to roar with its head held high. The cub followed suit and as it roared like the older lion, it found its lion-
hood.
Mentors have an important role to play in nurturing and developing leadership talent and a formal system of
mentorship when practiced genuinely will be of immense help. A culture which respects and values its people
is equally important to develop leadership talent. This will aid organizations to develop a culture which provides
scope for talent development. Organizations need adequate systems and processes to ensure that leadership
development takes place and a decent pipeline is available to supply talent for taking on leadership at senior
levels. In the long-run, this is the best investment which companies can make to safeguard their own future.
Leadership does not operate in a vacuum. The needed competencies change over time and as the context
shifts, leaders have to align and realign themselves accordingly. To reach their true potential leaders have to
overcome the unique challenges facing them and forge a new path. The type of challenges may be unique for
women leaders. Although leadership is beyond gender, the bias faced by women, are uniquely different.
This edition of the NHRD journal brings to you an interesting mix of thought pieces from practice, papers from
consultants as well as by researchers around the broad theme of leadership and leadership development.
We start with thought leader interviews of gurus like Dr P Singh former Director IIM-L, MDI-Gurugram and IMI-
Delhi; followed by Mr SY Siddiqui Chief Mentor Maruti; and distinguished thinkers like Dr Anand Prakash. Each
one brings unique thoughts to the table and raises questions on the subject from the philosophical as well as
pragmatic perspectives. K Ramkumars article, Inspiration - The Magic Potion in Your Leadership focuses on
the importance of an inspiring leader who can in turn enhance followers commitment and free will through the
power of self-belief and excellence in standards of performance.

Needed leadership competencies in the corporate sector have been presented by three authors, Vasanthi
Srinivasan, Future - Ready Leadership Competencies, Prashant Pandey, Changing Paradigm of Leadership
Development in Human Age and SV Nathan, The What and How of Leadership Development. Reading these
three papers gives the flavour of how the changing context brought about by the disruptive changes of the
VUCA world is making some competencies more important and relevant than others.
Bimal Raths thought provoking paper Beyond Competencies - What do Top Leaders Need takes the reader
beyond standard leadership competencies and highlights core attributes like Judgement, Balance, Resilience
and Trust for effective leadership..
The papers by Meena Wilson, Elevating Womens Leadership in India: Issues and Insights and Career Progres-
sion of Female Talent Issues and Challenges by Krishnan explicate the challenges faced by women leaders and
solutions which can enable their development.
Pradnya Prashars article Navigating Leadership Transitions: Helping Leaders Successfully Transition into New
Roles as well as the article by Gurcharan Gandhi, Lost in Transition highlight the challenges of transition into
leadership roles. They have clearly highlighted the need for transition management to enable leaders to settle
down and begin to deliver performance. The sink or swim approach is considered to be a less than optimum
worry of ensuring leader onboarding. They raise some vital questions which corporate India needs to focus
upon to ensure leader success. Mr Ghose, Why Leadership Development Efforts Fail, clearly brings out why
leadership development fails in organizations. By recognizing these factors organizations will be in a better
position to pre-empt leadership failures.
R Anands paper, Facilitating Development of the Leadership Pipeline: Issues and Practices for Consideration
dwells on the process by which leadership development can be done in organizations through a set of games
and activities. The major focus is on practical activities and simulations as the means to identifying leader
competencies.
There is a close connection between leadership and good governance. Papers by researchers like Dr KK Jain,
Productivity Tools: Fitness Band for Workplace Engagement? and Dr Deepa Mazumdar, Leadership Compe-
tencies for Good Governance under raise Issues for discussion.
Dr Veena Vohras paper, Developing Leaders for an Uncertain World: How Appreciative Inquiry can help throws
light on how the technique of appreciative inquiry can help leaders continuously develop and fine hone their
leadership capacities.
Deepak Hota CMD BEML,Talent Management Initiatives in BEML Limited and Rajesh Uppal Head HR of
Maruti The Journey of a LEADER- Making and Becoming One have given insights into the Leadership Develop-
ment process which is in place in their organizations.
The last write up is a review of the book Leadership Odyssey: Darkness to Light by Dr P Singh, A Bhandarker
and S Rai. The review has been written by Dr Jyotsna Bhatnagar of MDI-Gurgaon.
I take this opportunity to profusely thank colleagues and friends who have risen to the occasion and put pen to
paper to record their ideas and make them available for the larger HR community.

Leadership Development Issues &
Challenges
In the contemporary academic world, Dr. Pritam Singh is considered as one of the
global gurus in the area of leadership. As a scholar, he effortlessly integrates
occidental thought with oriental wisdom. He is a profound thinker with great
mastery at integrating thought with action. He is an outstanding scholar-leader
combining both the wisdom of architecting strategies as well as executing them
excellently. He is a Midas-touch leader having the distinction of shaping the
fortunes of IIM-Lucknow, as well as giving direction to schools like Administrative
Staff College of India (ASCI) and IIM-Bangalore to become holistic Business
Schools. Above all, he is a turnaround director and this was demonstrated
Dr Pritam Singh
admirably in the case of both MDI- Gurgaon and IIM-Lucknow.
In his 45 years of career as a Management Professor, he has mentored around 200
CEOs and organized 50 board level workshops. While working at ASCI he had the
rare honour of organizing and directing retreats for the Central Ministers and
Secretaries Government of India, as part of the initiative by the Late Shri Rajiv
Gandhi, to inculcate the passion for transformation among Ministers and
Secretary Level bureaucrats. He has worked on the boards of more than 100
companies and academic institutions.
Dr Singh has authored 7 books of which 3 are award winning. He has published
around 70 research papers in both national and international journals. He is the
only Asian who is on the board of Association of MBAs (AMBA) which is one of the
most prestigious accrediting bodies for management schools globally. The
breadth and depth of his contribution to the field of management and
management education were acknowledged by the Government of India in 2003
by conferring on him the prestigious Padmashri. In 2006, MIRBIS (The Moscow
International Higher Business School)-the No.1 management school in Moscow,
honoured Dr Pritam Singh as the 19th Global Thought Leader. He was not just the
first Indian, but the first Asian to have walked into this global hall of fame.
Dr Singh is the epitome of relentless quest and searches for excellence in every
endeavour. He is a great humanist, loved and respected as a friend, philosopher
and guide by his numerous students, corporate executives and faculty
colleagues.

Leadership Development
Issues & Challenges
Interview with Dr Pritam Singh
Why Leadership development?
F irst of all, congratulations to the National HRD Network journal for identifying the most critical issue facing
the world Leadership Development. Today every domain whether government, political arena or
academic world there has been a tremendous crisis of leadership. In fact, in an earlier research, we asked
executives in our MBA programs to identify five most important crises facing the world. Ethical governance,
leadership, environmental degradation and water scarcity emerged as the most critical crises facing the world.
In fact today, I am alarmed at the crisis of leadership I see in Infosys as well as TATA group. I question the basic
leadership competency of Vishal Sikka as well as Cyrus Mistry in terms of their emotional competency, social
skills, environmental sensitivity as well as capability to manage the board.
In the public sector, it has been a sad story where many companies have not been able to throw up candidates
at the Director level to occupy CMD level positions. In some of the Companies, PESB resorted to appointing
people at Executive Director Level as CMDs. The recent alarming example has been of Coal India which has
thirteen subsidiaries and a large volume of talent and yet, not a single person was found to be suitable for the
CMDs position. In another study, we asked our students in the executive program as well as regular MBA
program to name at least five leaders whom they admire. We were dismayed to find that they could barely find 3
4 names of Indian CEOs. A recent NHRDN study on leadership in the academic world threw up an even more
dismal picture. 97% students and faculty are quite cynical about the quality of their directors. They question
their commitment, value system, academic credibility as well as strategic thinking to grow the institution.
I have sketched the above scenario primarily to diagnose the prevailing ills, with a view to understanding the
issues in depth before making recommendations.
Q. In your view what can be done to develop leaders specifically in the corporate world?
A. First of all, the corporate world must identify and understand the emerging business scenario as to the
needed competencies, mindsets and skills to build sustainable competitive edge for their organizations. In
other words, they must look beyond, look around and look at using an alert antenna to identify challenges and
then strategize and architect action plans. However, let me also venture to articulate a few things about the
emerging global business world. It is a world of war, bordering on the rule of the jungle where the fittest will
survive. Business history has demonstrated that of the many companies in fortune 500 lists in 1915, hardly 15
% still in that list in 2017.
Those who survived clearly believed in grooming and developing their leadership talent, preparing them to take
on the challenges of corporate war. Out of the 7 levers of Competitive edge cost, quality, customer sensitivity,
innovation, people power, corporate culture, ethical governance these companies especially pursued people
power, ethical governance and culture building. In fact, in my opinion, innovation, business growth, and R&D
are the resultant factor emanating from building robust people power and corporate culture.
I strongly believe in the ancient Indian dictum,
There is no sound that is not a mantra, no plant that is not medicinal

There is no person unworthy, what is lacking is an 'enabler'
In other words, all are competent human beings and can be groomed.
I also believed in the statement, Janmaya Jayate Sudra,

indicating that all of us are sudras (ignorant) by birth and that we take rebirth and become Dwij ( twice-born)
through learning and self- transformation.
When I see organizations, I find an odd reality we tend to ask rabbits to fly and birds to run. This is tragic as
people may be poorly rated without giving them jobs which they are good at in the first place. What a sheer
wastage of talent. It is important to know who is who; we need to ask some basic questions, do we know our
own people? Do we understand them? Do we help them overcome their blocks and constraints? This is the big
dilemma in organizations today. People have more knowledge of the machines they operate. Do we know
human beings? An important belief to cultivate is in the dictum, my height as a boss depends on the height of
my subordinates. Many leaders dont allow subordinates to develop their talent and grow, for fear of becoming
dispensable.
I am raising these issues because when as a leader, I am going to play the role as a coach; I need the mindset of
the Acharya and Guru, not only in terms of mindset and skills but also in terms of values. I find this spirit sadly
missing in the corporate world. In fact, this is a global phenomenon not limited to any one country. These basic
paradigms are essential before we can embark on the leadership development journey. Leaders in
organizations will have to be cognitive, emotionally, philosophically and spiritually committed to the above
paradigms for people development.
In fact, before we embark on the leadership development journey, we must ask the following questions and
answer them authentically.
1. Do we know our people holistically?
2. Are we passionately committed to the odyssey of leadership development?
3. Do we have the appropriate culture to support and sustain a people development strategy?
4. Do we see this as a great investment for the future?
5. Have we developed the internal capability for leadership development or has this activity been
outsourced?
Let me now come back to the strategic action plan which organizations can initiate:
1. Identify the needed competencies to win the corporate Olympiad by the internal people along with outside
experts, rather completely outsourcing it. I am recommending this collaborative model of co-creation
because every organization has its own nuances which only internal members are aware of. To get a
broader perspective of problems and contextualize the organization can take the help of outside experts.
2. Stage 2 is focused on assessment. Assessing people as per their competencies are required to be done. It
is like asking the right people to sit in the right seats and asking the bus driver to move (to borrow from Jim
Collins). After identifying the needed competencies and assessing the individuals across divisions,
departments and organization (both vertically and horizontally) building needed competencies comes
into focus. This may be done through workshops, training, extensive mentoring, coaching and
counselling both by internal members and external experts/corporate Gurus/corporate priests.
A lot of discussions is happening regarding the emergence of Millennials with different mindsets,
competencies and value systems. To handle these third generation Millennials, we have to reorient our systems
and processes and mindsets. Unfortunately, I have seen in companies that third gen people are handled by
systems and mindsets of the first gen which creates its own problems. I, therefore, strongly recommend
mentoring from top-down as well as bottom-up (reverse mentoring).
I would like to raise an important point who is primarily responsible for ensuring that leadership development
takes place? This is where the role of Human Resource (HR) comes in. No doubt while managers across
domains and levels need to be involved, the primary responsibility lies with HR and therefore, I would say that
they must develop the mindset of the Acharya or Guru. Apart from mindsets, they have to develop the requisite
knowledge, emotional competency, value systems and conduct. HR leaders are watched very carefully by line
people. Many times I hear managers say about HR whatever they say, they dont mean.
These are some of the challenges for leadership development. Through this piece, I have raised some
fundamental questions and provoked the minds of the readers.

Issue and Challenges of Leadership
Development
Presently working directly with the Managing Director on Key Business &
People Strategies
Also heading MSIL Realty Business Vertical
Special Invitee on the Board of MSIL since 2006
Part Time Director on The Board Of Suzuki Motorcycles
A Post Graduate in HRM, Mr Siddiqui has a career track of around 37 years in the
HR & Business Roles of good Indian Corporates as well as MNCs such as:
Mr S Y Siddiqui Escorts Limited
DCM Group - DCM Toyota Limited; DCM Daewoo Motors Limited and DCM
Benetton India Limited
New Holland Tractors India (FIAT GROUP)
Widely traveled abroad, he has handled global and multi culture HR Issues in
highly competitive business environment in India & Europe. He has the unique
experience of working in multi cultures & multi nationalities.
Handled a broad Management & Leadership role from quite an early part of career.
Was inducted at the Company Board level at Maruti since 2006.
Passionate about cricket, Mr Siddiqui played cricket at the North Zone Inter
Varsity level from 1974 to 79 representing Jamia University, New Delhi.

Issue and Challenges of Leadership
Development
Interview with Mr S Y Siddiqui
Chief Mentor Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
Interviewer: Dr Asha Bhandarker, Distinguished Professor of Org Beh, IMI-Delhi
Q: Based on your rich experience, can you share with us your observations and insights on this topic?
What type of top-level leadership development efforts have you seen?
Ans: Indian companies have made varying degrees of efforts for Leadership Development. Unfortunately, there
are few sustained initiatives in organizations. Efforts generally tend to be limited to isolated, stand-alone
training inputs, a one off initiative. In my view leadership training efforts should be sustained over a period of at
least three years and should include the whole cycle including assessment, coaching, feedback and
counseling.
Some companies are making the effort to nominate their talent to open programs, where they get to meet and
interact with leaders from other companies. This in my view is somewhat better for development of leaders as
employees get multiple perspectives from different organizations. In-house training and development is a
model used by some companies where consultants are involved and training efforts are made by the peer
group.
Many companies make no effort to develop senior talent. People keep growing in terms of their position in the
hierarchy but development of leader competencies does not take place. People are steeped in the company
culture and without timely inputs for development they get into a Style Fix and Style Rigidity, shaped by
years of using the same approach day in and day out. People reach top levels but are unaware of their
competencies and their strengths/weaknesses because neither does the company have a particular
competency framework, nor have assessments been done and feedback given to these people in preparation
for occupying senior roles.
Q: What is the impact of this on the organization?
Ans: The organization becomes more individual-dominated rather than system dominated. As a result talent
management, retention and most importantly, succession planning will be affected badly.
In contrast, I would like to share that in Maruti Suzuki, Dr. Pritam Singh and Dr. Asha Bhandarker helped us
immensely from 2004 to 2010 with our leadership development process. As a company we are reaping the
benefits even today. Development of the MSIL competency model, global exposure and training for our top
talent, counselling and feedback as well as annual meetings contributed significantly to talent development for
the top levels of MSIL.
We need to now rethink Maruti 2020 by which time almost all the current leaders would have retired we have
to recommence the development process by design.
Q: Can you compare the Western models of leadership development to that of Japan?
Ans: Some companies in US, Europe (Fiat, Coke) and in India (Mahindra and AVG etc.) have diverse postings,
periodic 360 degree or use Caliper; they provide training inputs three-four times. At every level of positional
growth there is screening and some employees are dropped from the pool selected for their potential for higher
growth. Above all executive coaching is provided to support the leader development process. The entire
process lasts from three to five years. It commences when employees are around the age of 40 to prepare them
for leadership roles by the time they reach age 45.

Q: Based on your rich experience, can you share with us your observations and insights on this topic?
What type of top-level leadership development efforts have you seen.
Ans: Indian companies have made varying degrees of efforts for Leadership Development. Unfortunately, there
are few sustained initiatives in organizations. Efforts generally tend to be limited to isolated, stand-alone
training inputs, a one off initiative. In my view leadership training efforts should be sustained over a period of at
least three years and should include the whole cycle including assessment, coaching, feedback and
counseling.
Some companies are making the effort to nominate their talent to open programs, where they get to meet and
interact with leaders from other companies. This in my view is somewhat better for development of leaders as
employees get multiple perspectives from different organizations. In-house training and development is a
model used by some companies where consultants are involved and training efforts are made by the peer
group.
Many companies make no effort to develop senior talent. People keep growing in terms of their position in the
hierarchy but development of leader competencies does not take place. People are steeped in the company
culture and without timely inputs for development they get into a Style Fix and Style Rigidity, shaped by
years of using the same approach day in and day out. People reach top levels but are unaware of their
competencies and their strengths/weaknesses because neither does the company have a particular
competency framework, nor have assessments been done and feedback given to these people in preparation
for occupying senior roles.
Q: What is the impact of this on the organization?
Ans: The organization becomes more individual-dominated rather than system dominated. As a result talent
management, retention and most importantly, succession planning will be affected badly.
In contrast, I would like to share that in Maruti Suzuki, Dr. Pritam Singh and Dr. Asha Bhandarker helped us
immensely from 2004 to 2010 with our leadership development process. As a company we are reaping the
benefits even today. Development of the MSIL competency model, global exposure and training for our top
talent, counselling and feedback as well as annual meetings contributed significantly to talent development for
the top levels of MSIL.
We need to now rethink Maruti 2020 by which time almost all the current leaders would have retired we have
to recommence the development process by design.
Q: Can you compare the Western models of leadership development to that of Japan?
Ans: Some companies in US, Europe (Fiat, Coke) and in India (Mahindra and AVG etc.) have diverse postings,
periodic 360 degree or use Caliper; they provide training inputs three-four times. At every level of positional
growth there is screening and some employees are dropped from the pool selected for their potential for higher
growth. Above all executive coaching is provided to support the leader development process. The entire
process lasts from three to five years. It commences when employees are around the age of 40 to prepare them
for leadership roles by the time they reach age 45.
The Japanese do not use the classroom models, preferring to develop employees through different types of
exposure in the organization. Japanese companies start the leadership development process slightly later - 45
years of age, so that employees are ready by the time they are 50 years old to take on top positions.The
Japanese expect leaders to take up their own self development. In Japan employees are given key postings to
develop their leadership competencies. All leadership development is job oriented. Promising talent is invited
to the management committee so that they can observe strategic discussions.
Q: How do the two approaches, Western and Japanese compare?

Ans: I think the best of both approaches should be incorporated. The biggest advantage of classroom training
is the opportunity to step back and reflect in a safe environment. On the other hand, there is no substitute for
work assignments which can immediately prove employee credibility. There should be greater diversity in the
pool including both the young as well as the experienced employees. Rich learning happens in diverse groups
and this must be nurtured .
Q: Do you think it matters whether top leadership development is started at 40 or 45 years of age?
Ans: Yes, it does. Firstly, the older one grows, without developmental training and exposure, the more they
develop Style Fix, and the person is unable to develop Style Flex based on the type of subordinates, their
level etc. Secondly, having grown positionally without helpful feedback, such leaders develop an overinflated
sense of their leadership and their ability to accept feedback is low. Forty years is a good age to start
developing leaders. This will help increase sensitivity, increase flexibility and develop new leadership
competencies. Once Style Fix happens, people are unable to change. They become defensive and rationalise
their behaviour and reject all feedback which they disagree with.
Leadership development should take place over a three to five years time to make it impactful.
Q: What is your take on gender and leadership?
Ans: I have observed that many top US companies for example, Coke, Pepsi etc., and top Indian companies
have done great work across the board to develop female talent. This is not the case in typical Indian
companies which are still male-dominated. A sustained initiative is needed in companies, to throw up more
women leaders at senior levels.
Q: In addition to a multitude of competencies which are commonly talked about, what would you
recommend as essential for leaders in the VUCA world?
Ans: Volatility has been directly experienced by us in Maruti and today it has increased six to seven fold. For
example, two years ago diesel cars were most sought after by the customer, and yet today the demand has
plummeted.
Many environment related Issues are emerging for the first time. By 2030, all vehicles will become electric.
Dealing with ambiguity, complexity, envisioning the future have now become core requirements for the top
leadership.
I recommend the development of capability to compete ferociously, manage every kind of diversity including
multi-generational, multi-cultural and multi-national. Further, strategic exposure and identifying potential
opportunities will become critical as pressures to perform become crucial, in response to cut-throat
competition, ethical governance will assume even more importance than before.

Leadership Development :
Issues & Challenges
Dr Anand Prakash is a renowned Professor at the Department of Psychology at

University of Delhi. A Ph.D. from University of Allahabad, as part of thirty-seven
(37) years of teaching experience, he has taught courses on Organizational
Behavior, Psychology of Human Resources, and Qualitative Research
Methodology, Applied Social Psychology, Appreciating Diversity & Psychology at
The Margins. A proud recipient of several honors and awards such as Young
Scientist Award - Indian Science Congress - 1987, Career Award - University
Grants Commission - 1993, Convener, National Academy of Psychology - 1996 t0
2000, Treasurer, National Academy of Psychology - 1990 to 1996, President,
Dr Anand Prakash
National Academy of Psychology, (India) 2009 - 2010, Fulbright-Nehru
Educational Administrators Seminar, 2013, etc., he has also participated in
several International and National Conferences and Workshops. With several
research publications to his credit, he has supervised 25 Ph.D. scholars for their
successful completion of Ph.D. degrees in the area of Organizational
Socialization, Cultural Change and Value Orientation, Meaning of Work, Well-
being and Success, Leadership in Education, Change management and People
Issues using both Qualitative and Quantitative Methods.

Leadership Development :
Issues & Challenges
Interview with Dr Anand Prakash
Professor of Psychology, & Dean, International Relations at Department
of Psychology, University of Delhi
Q. Dear Prof Prakash, What are your initial thoughts on leadership development?
Ans. Should leadership be seen from an ideological perspective, or as a skill or as a personality preference or is
it the outcome of a situation person interaction? To my mind, the last option above has the most explanatory
power. Another way to view it is as a transformative experience, what Tichy calls self-leadership. It has its
challenges Leadership should be viewed from a deeper ideological perspective and it can sustain and last
only when it is deeply ingrained and embedded in the minds of people.
The general trend in the corporate sector however, seems to be to develop leadership skills which are linked to
the current task or set of tasks. This is not enough when we talk of sustained leadership development.
Another concern is regarding the placement of leaders. There are some leaders who are best in the drivers
position. Others are good navigators. They work best when there are well defined territories and maps. If
everyone is fighting for the drivers position, then there is a problem. Leaders also need to take up positions
according to their competencies. Can someone be driver and another is navigator depending on the
requirements of the organization? They should be willing to play complementary roles. Such flexibility is
essential for the organization. Unfortunately few companies pay attention to this nuance in the organization.
Q: Can you share some of your concerns based on your experience in the corporate sector?
Ans: I am concerned about how people are treated once they are rejected by the promotion committee. In some
companies owing to fixed percentage or quotas for promotion, only some people are promoted. The rest
though recommended are not promoted. This is extremely painful because it results in a public loss of face.
Matters get worse when a person is rejected twice for the same quota reason. This surely results in institutional
depression and has negative effects on the motivation and morale of the officers. Those who have some spark
are demoralized by the organization and turn them from leaders to something else. Institutions become
increasingly diseased.
Sometimes I wonder, what is the objective of leadership? Is it to create converts, bhakts or the focus is on
organizational outcomes? Many leaders confuse these Issues while the reality of the work place is that leaders
should facilitate the organization towards achieving the vision. Leaders can easily become toxic and hence
comes the question, should such leaders be encouraged? Virtuous leaders on the other hand may be less
visible, give others more space and owing to the style and other factors may be more sustainable. It is possible
for a leader to virtuously toxic and toxically virtuous. This depends on the goal and the type of outcomes.
Institutions have no self-correcting mechanisms. Things have to reach a crisis point before attention is paid to
bring the organization back to health. The classic example is the recent Ryan International School debacle. The
school probably had developed many of its inadequacies over the years and they were carried forward
because of lax leadership. A thinking leader would develop a self-correcting mechanism rather than waiting for
some extreme event to occur.
The other important aspect is our fascination with charismatic leaders. The Ram Rahim story is an example of
the type of cult following which charismatic leaders evoke among their followers. There is no doubt that
working with such leaders block ones creative capacity and we need to discourage such leadership from
proliferating.

Q. Why are we so fascinated by Gurus and charismatic leaders?
Ans. People see the complexity of the present and the likelihood of this increasing in the future makes them
fearful. Gurus are the ones who are expected to mitigate fear about an uncertain future, In the Ram- Rahim
case, the followers were from the lowest strata of society and were attracted to someone who symbolized their
aspirations and gave them a unique identity. This helps them beat their societal level marginalization.
In this country anyone leading a non-normal life be it by fasting, living simply or dressing ascetically has
been viewed as an extra-ordinary person for the capacity to sacrifice the normal way of life. The value attached
to sacrifice emanates from the archetype of Ram who lived an ascetic life in the forests for fourteen years before
he was crowned king of Ayodhya. During elections even politicians try to mine this archetype through some
form of visible personal sacrifice clothing, food, stay and so on. Gurus and sages not only live differently from
others but also try to look different from others and this evokes and perpetuates the archetype in the collective
psyche of Indians.
Q. What are the lessons out of this for corporate leaders?

A. Cultish or individual centric leadership is dangerous because it is personality centric. All cults tend to
suppress more and liberate less to the detriment of the followers.
Q. Can you speak about some other leadership archetypes in India?

A. Krishna is the prominent culturally embedded leadership archetype. He is the one with the capacity to
handle paradoxes. He is the one who changed the rules without sacrificing the principles of justice. Ashoka and
Akbar are other names that come to mind people who could handle diversity and manage paradoxes.

Inspiration The Magic Potion
in Your Leadership
Mr K Ramkumar is Founder, Leadership Centre Pvt Ltd, former Executive Director

on the Board of ICICI Bank and the President of ICICI Foundation.
Mr Ramkumar has completed his Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management
from Madras School of Social Work in 1984. He has joined the Board of Directors
with effect from February 1, 2009.
Prior to joining ICICI Bank in 2001, Mr Ramkumar has served companies such as
Hindustan Aeronautics, Brookebond Lipton India Limited (now Hindustan
Unilever Limited) and ICI India Ltd. His work in these companies has mainly been in
Mr K Ramkumar the areas of Human Resources Management and Manufacturing.
Leadership Development, Succession Management, building a supply chain for
the Banks human resources requirements, leveraging technology to innovate,
and driving operational excellence for world-class service quality, is his passion.
Institute of Finance, Banking & Insurance and ICICI Manipal Academy for Banking
& Insurance were conceived and nurtured by him. The partnership Initiatives with
SEBI National Institute for securities management and with NIIT - the NIIT
University, were also nurtured by him. He led the CSR project of ICICI Foundation
on skilling youth and promoting livelihood. This is done at the ICICI Academy for
Skills, which has 9 centres offering 7 skills to 7500 youth per year.
He writes extensively on a range of topics on his blog www.theotherview.in He
invites you all to be an active contributing member of this blog.

Inspiration The Magic Potion
in Your Leadership
N apoleon the Bonaparte escapes from Elba in February 1815; sets foot in southern France; a defeated
General without an army, an emperor without a country and an exile who sneaked back. On March 5, 1815,
nine months after his exile and two weeks after his escape, he is at Grenoble. Let me narrate the magic in the
words of Malcom Higgins from his article: Napoleon’s return from exile; Rallying an army with his words
alone’:
The people of France welcomed back their leader with open arms; men flocked to his cause. His army had
grown rapidly and, until Grenoble, no one had stood in his way.
Now, however, royalist troops barred the way. The 5th Infantry Regiment had taken their positions as the enemy
(Napoleon) approached, and as the vanguard of Napoleons forces came to a halt, a tense silence fell.
As the sun set, lighting up the western horizon, Napoleon strode out into the open.
He was unarmed, yet he showed no fear as he surveyed the line of gleaming rifles before him. For a moment he
stood quite still, his face inscrutable. Then, without taking his eyes away from the royalist regiment, he seized
the front of his coat and ripped it open.
If there is any man among you who would kill me, Napoleon declared, Here I stand!
After a moment of silence, voices within the ranks of the 5th Regiment began shouting;
Long live the Emperor!
As the cry spread, it was taken up by more and more of the royalist soldiers. Before long they had lowered their
weapons and, en masse, the entire regiment joined Napoleons army.
The following day, the 7th Infantry Regiment joined the cause .
On May 26, 1940, the British Expeditionary Forces were trapped in a pocket of 60 miles to 15 miles at Dunkirk.
Nearly half a million officers and soldiers were doomed to be annihilated by the Germans. Winston Churchill,
the newly elected Prime Minister of Britain was barely two weeks into his job. Churchill was ignominiously
sacked as the Officer of the Admiralty, after the rout of the Allies at Gallipoli, in 1915. He was in political exile for
a full 25 years, before returning back as the Prime Minister. Here, he is again faced with his worst nightmare.
Another rout of the allied forces even before the battle had begun.
Churchill defied the advice of his Foreign Secretary Viscount Halifax and most members of his war cabinet,
refusing to open talks with Hitler. He set a daunting objective of rescuing at least 40,000 fighting fit troops from
Dunkirk. The rest as they say is history.
Inspired by his defiance to capitulate, the Navy and the ordinary British people put together an armada of
yachts, trawlers and fishing boats along with 42 destroyers of the Royal Navy and rescued nearly 400,000
British and French troops in a magical week-long operation. These ordinary men and women; yes, I am correct,
women; defied the screaming Stuka Bombers and the diving Messerschmitt fighters. Churchill was back again
in the early 1950s, to inspire Dwight Eisenhower (Ike) his old WWII Supreme Commander in Europe, now the
US President, during the Korean war. Ike delivered a moving eulogy at Churchills funeral, recalling the
inspiration that Churchill was to him and many others.
But what made Napoleon or Winston Churchill to inspire ordinary people to commit their resources, whole
heartedly and unconditionally? One was a revolutionary democrat-turned-imperialist and the other a democrat
who was striving to save an empire. Albeit, both were consigned to the dust bins of history, yet they rose back,
like the Phoenix with popular support. Neither suffered self-doubts, even when in exile. Neither settled for
anything other than for the outcome they had set their eyes upon. Both could sense the pulse of the average
person. Both effortlessly spoke the voice of the common man on the street and made the common person
believe that even the most daunting outcomes could be achieved. They instilled self-belief in everyone they
came into contact with. They uplifted the emotions of the people they came in touch with. Eternal optimists!

In 1915, the Bombay docks witnessed the docking of SS Arabia, a steam liner from South Africa. A frail 46-year-
old man set foot on the pier; Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi went on to inspire not only Indian masses, but
every freedom fighter, in every country. The weapon he chose was non-cooperation and civil disobedience.
Lakhs of ordinary men and women were prepared to sacrifice their personal freedom, knowing that they will be
jailed, in response to the call of one leader. For the next 30 years, his word was the mission of every freedom-
loving Indian. Gandhi to all of us was you and me. There was unison of purpose, identical thought and
emotions, between Gandhi and most Indians, which mobilised action in everyone who came into touch with
him. A supreme humanist!
I can regale you with endless anecdotes from history. You may even rationalise that you are not Napoleon,
Churchill or Gandhi, and may even not believe you could be. Yet to bring alive a theme like inspiration and
leadership, we need to pick up people and events that have captured our imagination.
We should remember that before they became the Napoleon, the Churchill and the Gandhi, they were ordinary
people like us. To quote Napoleon, Courage is not the strength to go on. It is going on when you do not have
strength. In fact it is this courage, which made all three of them inspiring and tall leaders, whom we now see as
out of the ordinary.
Does that mean ordinary folks like you and me, who from time to time exercise leadership, cannot inspire
people?
My physical education teacher Narayanaswamy Sir, at Avichi High School, in Chennai, inspired a generation of
young boys and girls to take up sports and excel in it. He would be up at 4:30 am every day, picking-up us boys
and girls from our homes, forcing vegetarians like me to have raw eggs for nutrition, putting us through gruelling
training, accompanying almost all of us to our matches, sleeping with us on the floor of a schools class room
(our 5 star lodging), applying turpentine oil on the aching limbs to relieve our pain before the next game,
screaming at us when we faltered, shoring us up when we cried after a loss (often with a tight slap!), celebrating
with us by taking us to the much awaited English movie (neither he nor we understood a word in these movies!).
Once our batch passed out, starting it all over with the next batch. He did this for 30 years until his untimely pre-
mature death. Our, no, my Narayanaswamy Sir, my leader, continues to inspire me to this day.
Decades later, it was the turn of K.V.Kamath to inspire a generation of ICICIans to go on and become leaders in
their own right. Kamath not only inspired us, he inspired the whole banking Industry in India to find its place
under the Sun and not feel second to the multi-national banks. He taught us all that world-class was possible
by Indians and in India. He did what Gopichand has done to Indian badminton. He instilled self-belief in our
capabilities, demanded excellence in everything, refused to accept mediocre thoughts or actions, pushed us
over the cliff to find our wings, yet was the net beneath to prevent us from crashing. He never answered a
question but challenged us to find the answer, put us on the stage and in the lime light and celebrated our
success. But above all, he showed greater faith in us than we had in our abilities.
In my book: Leveraging Human Capital: A Practitioners Perspective, I have narrated the story of Sg. Matt
Busby, who inspired Manchester United to 60 years of excellence. He instilled in the club the second to none
spirit. He built the Manchester United team from scratch thrice, once after he lost 23 players and trainers in an
air crash on February 6, 1958 at Munich. The legend has it that when you played for Manchester United you
actually played for Busby. It mattered to all the players that Busby approved of their efforts & skills, on the field
and outside. If you were 2 goals down and there was five minutes to go for the full time, Busbys babes, as they
were called, believed that a win was still possible. The fabled Uniteds prowess of scoring last minute injury time
goals to win is founded on the back of Busbys inspiration. The ethos lives on, decades after Busby is no more.
Inspiration is the quality that matters when the outcome looks improbable and beyond our abilities and when
self-doubts plague the people. Inspiration mobilises free will and whole-hearted commitment to action.
Inspiration eggs us to go beyond the call of the ordinary; it lifts our abilities and even surprises us on what we
can achieve. Inspiration is rooted in both thought and emotions. Thoughts that everyone can identify with,
emotions which are experienced as authentic and outcomes they believe that they have a stake in. An outcome
framed as an achievement inspires; while an outcome framed as numbers and performance goals feels banal.

How does this magic happen, again and again with some leaders, while most plod on to banality, even when
they occupy their high offices, with all the panoply of power?
Trust brings credibility and authenticity to both thought and emotions. It is when leaders lose trust, inspiration
becomes intimidation or exploitation. We should differentiate awe and admiration that are inspiring emotions,
from intimidation, which is a controlling emotion. Often we confuse these.
When ambition of the leader is beyond his and when it reflects that of the collective, it moves the collective.
Inspiring leaders are able to articulate the ambitions of the collective, as if theirs is drawn from it. They craft
propositions which are anchored on perspectives which make the outcomes vivid and desirable for the
collective.
They use simple messages to articulate even complex outcomes. Like Churchills, We will fight at the Beaches
address or Dr. Martin Luther Kings, I have a Dream address or Tilaks, Swaraj is my birth right. This is
not about speech making, yet it is about compelling and clear articulation of the means and the ends. Inspiring
leaders tell stories from the past; frame the opportunities and challenges of the present in a compelling manner
and make the future come alive. Obama or John F. Kennedy did this in ample measure.
Inarticulate people and reticent leaders struggle to inspire others. While it is popular to say actions inspire, the
truth is credible words when backed by actions, inspire even more. That is why Higgins highlights this aspect of
Napoleons leadership in the title of his article quoted at the beginning of this article.
We are not talking about empty and high sounding words. Having said this, history is replete with demagogues
briefly charming, if not inspiring people, until their unauthentic emotions betrayed them. Hitler inspired and
dazzled the Germans for a decade. Putin, Trump and Erdogan are doing it now; we do not know for how long?
Emotions, like thoughts, play a critical role in inspiring others. Power is the potent emotion for inspiration.
Power instils confidence; Power reassures; Power attracts, Power binds; Power energises. Make no mistake
about the power of Gandhi or Mother Theresa. I am not referring to charisma alone. Charismatic power does
add an extra bit. Even when a leaders power is not charismatic, it has to be manifest for others to feel it and
experience it. Power ambivalence is an inspiration dampener.
Care and compassion inspire as much as power does. Nurturance is a powerful emotion which drives
inspiration. Power with care, compassion and nurturance is a potent combination of emotions, which you will
find in most inspiring leaders. Inspiring leaders build an emotional bond, on which the call to action travels.
High standards, pursuit of excellence and duty consciousness trigger emotions linked to values, liberty,
equality, justice, right to life, egalitarianism, courage etc. are values and when demanded and exemplified by
leaders, they inspire. Every call for change, movement for freedom from oppression or the march into the new
world of tomorrow was born out of this kind of clarion call.
The risk appetite which leaders display has material impact on leadership. Daring leaders inspire people.
Demanding leaders inspire people. Defiant leaders inspire people. Decisive leaders inspire people. Optimism
is the magic potion of inspiration. Ownership for outcome and willingness to take accountability for outcomes,
no matter what they are, inspires others.
Napoleon, Churchill, Gandhi Busby, Kamath and Naryanaswamy Sir exemplified most of these inspirational
leadership behaviours.
Clinical, self-centred, inarticulate, incremental, activity-obsessed, power ambivalent, vacillating and risk-
averse behaviours induce banality and hence are uninspiring to others. Dr. Manmohan Singh for all his erudition
and duty consciousness could not inspire anyone.
Inspiration seeks value creation and hence believes in pursuit for success. Banality obsesses with value
protection and is fearful of failure. In the end inspiration is driven by belief of success. Any doubts, why we
remember leaders who inspired us and forget the banal ones?
Search for the inspiration in you. Gain insights on how you may deploy it to inspire others. That is what matters.
Do not use this article to judge others. That is uninspiring.

Future-Ready Leadership Competencies
About the Authors
Prof Vasanthi Srinivasan is a Professor in the Organizational Behavior and Human
Resource Management Area. Currently, she is the Chairperson of Alumni
Relations. Author of several Journal Publications, Book Chapters and Research
Reports, her research interests are in the field of Multi-generations in the
Workplace, Women in Management and Boards, Ethics Teaching in Business
Schools, HRM in Rapid Growth Organizations and Ethics, and CSR in Micro, Small
and Mid-sized enterprises. At IIM Bangalore, she teaches the core course on
Managing People and Performance in Organizations and also offers an elective in
Human Resource Management. She has designed and delivered sessions on
Prof Vasanthi
leadership development and career management on Executive Education
Srinivasan
programmes.
She was an Indian Council for Cultural Relations Chair Professor for Corporate
responsibility at the HHL Graduate School of Management Leipzig, Germany for
the period 2012-13 on deputation. She was also a British Council Visiting Scholar
at the International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility at the Nottingham
University Business School.
She has consulted extensively for both Indian and multinational companies in the
field of leadership development. She has designed, developed, and delivered
programmes to build the leadership pipeline for organizations. She has worked
with technology and R&D organizations to build their technical leadership talent.
She has also designed and delivered Tanmatra: Women in Leadership a
leadership development programme exclusively for senior women leaders in
business in collaboration with Catalyst India and IBM.
Prof R Srinivasan is a Professor in the Strategy Area. He received his doctoral

degree (Fellow Programme in Management) from the Indian Institute of
Management Ahmedabad. He worked for about eight years at IIM Lucknow before
joining IIM Bangalore. His areas of research include strategies of multi-sided
platform organizations, strategy processes in rapid growth organizations, and
competitive, corporate and international strategies.
Prof Srinivasan has co-authored a textbook on strategic management and a
research-based book on knowledge management in the Indian context. He has
Prof R Srinivasan published papers and cases in several international and national journals. He has
authored a number of cases on Indian organizations on platform business models,
rapid growth, strategy, and knowledge management. He teaches competitive
strategy, corporate strategy, mergers & acquisitions, and strategies for platform-
mediated networks at the post-graduate level; strategy classics and strategy
process research at the doctoral level.
He has designed and coordinated executive education programmes on strategy
for senior managers. He has conducted customized workshops on visioning,
strategizing and strategic planning, and strategic performance management for
various multinational, government, public and private organizations. He has
undertaken consulting projects for various large organizations on strategic
planning and restructuring.

Ankur Jain is a doctoral student in the OB & HRM Area. Possessing approximately
a decade of work experience, Ankur is a qualified engineer possessing a post
graduate degree in Business Administration.
All the authors belong to Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.
Mr Ankur Jain

Introduction
I n a world characterized by disruptive change, a reduced time to market for products and services, rapid
technological changes and risks posed by environment challenges, new and different approaches to leading
organizations will be required. The Conference Board study on CEO challenges 2017 highlights attraction and
retention of top talent as among the top challenges they face. To cope with talent shortage and demands of
alternate ways of leading, firms have resorted to hiring talent from the external labour market to fill internal
positions. This is not a sustainable option for the long term given the challenges of socialisation and culture
building. Some of the questions that confront leaders as they look in to the future are:
Does investing in individual leaders de-risk the organization from leadership pipeline shortages in the long run?
How do we anticipate the kind of leaders we will require in the future? How do we identify leaders who can secure
the present and build a future for the organization? How do we go beyond leader development and examine
ways to ensure leadership development in organizations?
Vasanthi Srinivasan is a Professor in the OB & HRM Area. R Srinivasan is a Professor in the Strategy Area. Ankur
Jain is a doctoral student in the OB & HRM Area. All the authors belong to Indian Institute of Management
Bangalore
In summary, the organizations of tomorrow require "future-ready leaders. By future-ready, we refer to a set of
competencies that ensure that the leaders endowed with them can adapt and learn new competencies as the
environment changes. Similar to the idea of dynamic capabilities (Teece, Pisano and Shuen, 1997), these future-
ready competencies are second-order competencies that enable a rapid and efficient assessment of the
environment, needs for change and the competencies required therein, and the ability to acquire those
competencies.
We argue that future-ready leadership as a framework holds potential as a research stream as well as provides
practical insights to the world of leadership development practice, in increasingly volatile and rapid changing
environments. We contribute to the literature on leadership development by introducing and refining the concept
of future-ready competencies as second-order competencies; and lay the foundation for development of
these competencies in leaders.
The objective of this article is to provide an overview of the changing context of leadership development and help
identify Future-Ready Leadership Competencies. This article is divided in to three sections: in section 1, we
explore the changes in the external environment that require organizations to adapt; in section 2, we examine the
implications of these changes for leadership development; and finally, in section 3, we present future ready
competencies and the manner in which leadership development practices can be designed to develop the
competencies.
Changing context
The last two decades have been characterized by volatile changes in context. There are four mega trends that
characterize the current context Technological, Regulatory, Environmental and Social. Recent reports from the
World Economic Forum on the Fourth Industrial Revolution mentions that the rate of disruption that is occurring
in the environment is difficult to understand and often takes decision makers by surprise. (Schwab, 2016). The
digital revolution, indicated by a fusion of technologies in the field of artificial intelligence, genetics, robotics and
3D printing are together creating a complexity that makes it difficult for leaders to understand and predict future
changes. Three key features define industry 4.0: digitalization, automation of routine processes, and reliance on
Vasanthi Srinivasan is a Professor in the OB & HRM Area. R Srinivasan is a Professor in the Strategy Area. Ankur Jain is a doctoral student in the OB &
HRM Area. All the authors belong to Indian Institute of Management Bangalore

big-data for decision-making. All the three directly impact the nature of work design and structure which form the
edifice of current organizations. As the nature of Human-Machine interface changes, and cyber-physical
systems interact with human processes, the role of human judgement and its application in decision making will
change. The recent debate on the future of artificial intelligence between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg
reflects the uncertainty that marks the future and predictions pertaining to technology of the future. This
fundamental technological shift has far ranging implications from a learning and development point of view.
There is a traditional assumption that leaders in hierarchical organizations acquire the necessary knowledge and
skills pertaining to their domain over a period of time, and that other employees in the organization can
supplement or complement the expertise and specialised knowledge that will be required through rotation and
movement across jobs in the organization. In todays technological context, a novice might well make an
informed assessment of the future, when compared to the assessment of an expert with years of experience in
the organization. The building blocks of future-ready competencies lie in this dimension which is lack of expertise
yet existence of a capacity to sense the future.
As our natural resources become scarce and environmental crisis seems imminent, identifying opportunities in
new industries, or in a circular economy where waste is eliminated, and in alternate energy sources and
responsible consumption of scarce resources, it is becoming critical for leaders to affirm their commitment to the
triple bottom line through responsible innovation. In fact, Social Responsibility initiatives which a decade ago
were seen as philanthropy and charity projects, are now turning into a social enterprises and valuable business
model challenge. The changing geo-political context with increasing protectionism related to jobs and visas has
a direct impact on operating models of businesses and the manner in which organizing has to be done. Finally,
the sweeping social and demographic changes arising out of an emerging middle class in the developing
countries, aging in the developed countries, widening inequality between the haves and the have-nots in most
parts of the world are all putting pressure on organizations to engage with new realities which were never
envisaged in the role of a corporation.
Changing Conceptualization of Leadership and Leadership Development

Against the scenario outlined in the previous section, placing leadership development as a talent management
imperative assumes significance. Leadership is a widely researched topic, with work spanning a century (Avolio,
Reichard, Hannah, Walumbwa, & Chan, 2009). Yet, the contribution of leadership theory and research to
leadership development has not been significant. The dominant focus of the leadership theories has been in
identifying traits/behaviours/characteristics that are relatively enduring. Such a premise is antithetical to the
discourse on development of human potential. Further, leadership development is inherently longitudinal and
multi-level (Day et al., 2014) and rests on the premise of growth and learning. Scholars in the field of leadership
development have been more eclectic and have drawn on a range of theories from adult development (Day,
Harrison, & Halpin, 2009), constructive development theory (McCauley, Drath, Palus, OConnor, & Baker, 2006),
and individual leader and follower attributes leading to team development (Day, Gronn, & Salas, 2004).
Leadership development literature has tended to focus on the set of practices that enable the growth and
development of leaders and has largely been informed by consultants and practitioners. Much more needs to be
done in integrating leadership theories and leadership development practices. Since, leadership is a dynamic
process occurring longitudinally, there is a need to focus on process theories to explore the phenomenon more
meaningfully. Gathering empirical evidence on the development of an individual is complicated. The call for
research in the field of leadership development is towards a focus on personal trajectories of leaders, broadening
the range of leadership development methods studied and identifying the outcome variable that is impacted
through this process (Day et al., 2014). Another challenge in the field of leadership development historically has
been the lack of distinction between leader development and leadership development. Leader development
focuses on developing individual leaders whereas leadership development focuses on a process of
development that inherently involves multiple individuals, for instance, leaders and followers or among peers
(Day et al, 2014). Moving the discourse on leadership development from being centered in a person to being a
collective capacity of a group of individuals or across several individuals within an organization challenges the

dominant assumptions of the relatively long history of leadership theory and research (Avolio, Reichard, Hannah,
Walumbwa, & Chan, 2009). Given the limitations in existing leadership theory, some authors have called for
alternate lenses to understand the new, complex and unfolding realities of the context. Osborn et al. (2002) argue
that leadership is socially constructed and embedded in a context. They propose a more contextually driven
theorization of leadership by drawing attention to macro-factors like stability, crisis, dynamic equilibrium, and
edge of chaos that shape leadership behaviour. In the VUCA environment, concerted action in organizations is
seldom by a single individual; it is usually by a collective of individuals. The growing interest in teams and
networks is indicative of the emerging reality. Collective and network approaches provide important theoretical
lens to improve our understanding of leadership under uncertainty. Gronn (2002) discusses how spontaneous
collaboration, intuitive working relationships and institutionalized practices work as mechanisms of conjoint
agency. Adopting a social network theory approach (Carter et. al (2015)) shifts the focus of leadership from static
traits and situational variables to leadership emergence as patterned relational processes. Future ready
leadership needs to be conceptualized as an interaction of the contextual and relational aspects in concerted
action.
While conceptually, these shifts indicate a trend towards a more systemic, holistic and inclusive
conceptualization of leadership, the pedagogy of leadership development that will enable building contextual
and relationship leadership characteristics needs more attention.
Identifying leadership competencies for the future

As a part of the Executive Education programs, since May 2017, we at the Indian Institute of Management,
Bangalore, have been conducting structured workshops to engage participants about the future of work
organizations. A total of 186 respondents participated in 8 workshops that were conducted at the Institute. Out of
this, 112 respondents belonged to 5 organizations from retail, insurance, automotive, precision engineering and
construction. 20 of the participants belonged to the social sector, another 21 were from the banking sector and
33 were from Government departments. 130 out of 186 participants were senior managers with about 18 years of
average experience. The remaining were top management and board members.
Each workshop had three questions What changes do you expect in your organizational environment in the
next 5 years? What are the barriers within the organization to manage these changes? What competencies will
these changes demand from you personally?
The five changes that emerged across different groups of participants were technological changes, regulatory
changes, business model changes, customer expectation changes and environment/climate related changes.
Most of them mentioned that the organizations had internal discussions on customer and technological
changes, but business model changes and regulatory changes received much less attention. In fact,
environment and climate related changes were still discussed as risk rather than altering the business models
of the future. Even in industries like insurance, where environment and climate changes could fundamentally
impact their business, these Issues were not seen as strategic. While leaders acknowledged that changes will
impact their business, a sense of urgency and a bias to engaging in concerted action were missing. There were
wide variations within the group on time frames associated with the various environmental changes. While the
need to innovate and create new business models was mentioned consistently, the lack of clarity on the
agreement about the future (however the future is conceived) appears as a challenge. In fact, participants
actively chose to speak about the present and the immediate future as opposed to the path to long term future
which was complex. Research from construal theory could provide some insights here. Construal level theory
explains that levels of construal vary with psychological distance, with greater distance leading to higher-levels
of construal. For instance, if you are thinking about an event which will happen 3 years from now, you will feel
greater psychological distance than if the same event took place today or tomorrow (Trope & Liberman, 2010).
Given this understanding, developing future ready leadership competencies is likely to require alternate ways of
development.

The barriers within organizations to manage the changes and shape the external environment were the following:
Silos within the organization which make it difficult to harness the synergy ; measurement systems that drive
behaviours that do not promote collaboration and sharing; lack of organization-wide engagement to promote
innovation and change; belief that the external environment can be managed through incremental changes as
has happened in the past. The respondents also acknowledged that stakeholder facing roles were the hubs of
innovations, change and best practices. They recognized that the excellence that was seen in pockets within the
organization needs to be more pervasive across the different lines of businesses.
The final question focussed on the competencies that were required to remain relevant in a changing context.
The four key competencies that emerged as important for both personal and organizational success are
described below.
Sensing the environment and managing paradoxes
As complexity in the environment increases, leaders will be required to engage with multiple and differing
perspectives from different stakeholders. The perspectives are likely to be paradoxical. Some of the
tensions that were discussed by the participants pertained to freedom and control; creativity and rigor;
vision and action; voice and power, sensibility and structure; form and substance; process and structure. All
the respondents mentioned that while the tensions provide opportunities for organizations, they also require
a constant scanning of the environment, engaging and managing differences and conflict with a clear vision,
finding ways of resolving tensions that enable several stakeholders to see a winning proposition. As one
respondent who handles the strategic planning portfolio said the traditional mantra has been about
converting problems to opportunities; the new mantra is to proactively identify dilemmas and manage them
effectively. Appreciating complexity in the environment requires that leaders are able to perceive the
environment and make decisions that shape the environment. Respondents felt that leaders need to
cultivate an and mind set, instead of an either/OR mind-set.
Agility in Response
Given the high degree of uncertainty, most respondents felt that speed in decision making is critical. It is
important for individuals to make decisions, do quick prototypes which allow them to experiment and fail;
recover from the failure and be ready to make the next decision. This quality requires both resilience and
agility. As the board member of a bank mentioned we need the capacity to execute changes in smaller
iterations and continuously carry a Beginners mindset. Another respondent mentioned Getting used to
being uncomfortable. Resist the temptation to cling on to outdated, inadequate processes and behaviours.
Most respondents spoke about the need for rapid prototyping, which is not just about knowing what to
build, but more about being able to building something new, destroy or reshape it and then rethink a
completely new idea. This continuous capacity to destroy and recreate the new processes requires capacity
to leverage networks and depend on others to support you in this endeavour.
Collaboration Mind Set
Almost all the respondents mentioned collaboration as a key capability that leaders require for the future.
Any environment which requires continuous value creation for stakeholder requires a collaborative mindset.
Respondents recognize that collaboration is currently also a required competence, but the capacity to
collaborate relentlessly both within and outside the organization is the difference. Such collaboration
requires leaders to co-create, engage with and nurture purposeful business and social networks through
social media and in-person communication. As interconnectedness increases and complex regulatory-,
technological- and environment-related challenges begin to surface, employees need to acquire the
capacity to build credible networks quickly and to be effective. Networks provide different and multiple
points of view; they provide an opportunity to test out ideas with a variety of stakeholders; they allow
exploration of ideas in a safe zone. This ability to collaborate in turn allows for rapid prototyping and can
reinforce several decisions that need to be taken under time pressure and with limited information.

Examining biases in oneself
It is well established that self-awareness is an important element of leadership behaviour. What dimension
of self-awareness is needed in a future ready context? Self-awareness is about a conscious and immersive
learning which is contextual and relational in character. In a world characterized by collaboration and
building relations, self-awareness is to be conscious of possible blind spots that one carries which prevents
people from bringing their authentic selves. Most of the participants mentioned needing to examine their
fundamental assumptions, a willingness to challenge things that have worked in the past, to be reflective
about those behaviours which occur by default; to make sure that new behaviours are internalized as habits
and finally to continuously find alternate ways to frame and engage with any problem.
Figure 1 below captures the key future ready competencies that are needed for leaders namely sensing the
environment and managing paradoxes, agility in response, collaboration mind set and examining biases in
one self. Within this, there are key behaviours that are more critical these behaviours include perceiving,
responding, self -awareness and co-creation. If employees in organizations have to remain relevant and
effective in the future, the four key behaviours have to be developed at an individual level and at the level of
teams. The challenge is that not much is known about how to build these behaviours in collectives and
leadership teams.
Self Awareness
Sensing the Examining

environment biases in one
and managing self
paradoxes
Perceiving Responding
Agility and need

Collaboration for quick
Mind Set Prototyping of
solutions
Co-creation with stakeholder
Figure 1: Future ready competencies

Several scholars who study the future have identified other future ready competencies. Bob Johansen, the
futurist looks at the following - maker instinct, clarity, dilemma flipping, immersive learning, bio-empathy,
constructive depolarising, quiet transparency, rapid prototyping, smart mob organizing and common creating.
In their paper titled, Leading Now: Critical capabilities for a complex world, authors Axon, Friedman and
Jordan, identify 8 key capabilities that leaders require to manage the complexity. They are systems thinking,
managing global business, acting strategically, fostering innovation, leveraging networks, inspiring
engagement, developing personal adaptability and cultivating learning agility.
It is evident from the above discussion that the future ready competencies are not just a linear extrapolation of
current competencies. Acquiring the future ready competencies, when there is such high uncertainty in the
present often means that organizations may not be able to invest in building the future ready leadership
competencies. Another challenge is also that the future ready competencies require fundamentally different
ways of development. In the last section, we will examine the implications of future ready competencies for
learning and development professionals and the way forward.
Opportunities for Learning and Development professionals

It is evident that the new paradigms of leadership require much more than the traditional leadership
development approaches. Leaders need to find ways to immerse themselves in the future in a low risk
environment to experiment. As the scale and intensity of the VUCA world increases, becoming comfortable with
the uncomfortable could help one lead more effectively than before. All of us know that when human beings
experience discomfort, they tend to act and make positive shifts happen. How then can such shifts be made to
happen deliberately?
Internet and digital technologies have become the go-to place for learning for professionals. However, overload
of information along with long search processes make search and information processing routes for leaders
more and more difficult. The 2012 ASTD study on mobile learning shows clearly that mobile usage is pervasive
and that learning content delivery through mobile would be a preferred mode of taking in information. Social
networks as a collaborative learning tool is again growing in importance. Several organizations are investing in
intra-organizational collaborative platforms that can help in employee knowledge sharing and also as a peer to
peer learning that can be harnessed effectively. Leaders can respond to queries on the platform thereby
providing opportunities for virtual mentoring. Self-awareness requires being authentic to oneself; perceiving the
environment requires one to suspend judgment, consciously manage the biases and a willingness to be open
minded to Issues and problems. Responding requires deliberate thought and action while making decisions on
the future. Finally, co-creation requires the capability to work in an alliance. Alliance requires that one is able to
see the positive in a partner, the willingness to play to the strengths of the partner and also a willingness to
complement their weakness. All of this call for actions that require significant change or transformation at a
personal level. Learning from unfamiliar contexts in the fields of dance, theatre and sports need to be integrated
in to knowledge enhancing contexts. Taking participants farther away from the familiar, exposure visits to
transformation projects or social landscapes where human imagination is challenged could be some ways to
build the future ready leadership competencies. Use of Virtual and augmented reality along with gamification
could be a route to simulate the future and thereby provide experiences which are near close to an expected
future. Leadership development therefore needs to be more learner-centric, experiential, non-linear and
providing investments that are about thinking differently rather than knowing differently.
Conclusion
Leadership in a complex and interdependent world is relational and contextual. The Future ready leadership
competencies of sensing the environment and managing paradoxes; a mindset of collaboration; agility and
quick prototyping, and examining biases in oneself require alternate methodologies for development. Future
research needs to focus on how these competencies can be developed both in individuals and in collectives.

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Changing Paradigm of Leadership
About the Author

Mr Prashant Pandey is the Country Manager for Right Management (India) the
global leader in Talent and Career Management workforce solutions within the
Manpower Group. Prashant is responsible for driving business growth and
delivering talent management solutions that help organizations align their
workforce strategies with business goals, in the India region.
Prashant has a rich and extensive experience of around two decades in Human
Resource Consulting. Throughout his career he has consulted and been a trusted
advisor for leading Corporates, Family Businesses in India and abroad. He has
Mr Prashant Pandey spearheaded the design and implementation of large scale Talent Management
and Organizational Transformation projects in multiple countries across the globe.
Prashant is recognized for his senior-level consultation in Talent Assessment, Leader
Development and Executive Coaching for C-suite leaders. He has worked across
industries including Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Pharmaceuticals,
Manufacturing & Engineering, Power, IT / ITES, Telecommunications and FMCG.
Prashant is a CFA and a Masters in Commerce. He is a certified Coach and Master
Trainer for American Management Association. He has a passion for mentoring
talent and regularly delivers talks at various Management Schools.

Changing Paradigm of Leadership
Abstract
T he dynamism and interdependencies of market, politics, environment, society, ecology, technology etc.,
impact businesses across the world. Strong leadership is the only factor which can help organizations
have a sustainable growth. However, organizations across globe feel there is a paucity of good leaders and
talent. The war for the right talent has intensified more than ever before. Access to human capital at the right
time, in the right place and position can make a huge difference. The ability of the organization to identify,
nurture, and retain talent makes the whole difference. However, the earlier leadership development programs
may not be relevant today.
The article pin points the Seven Truths which impact any leadership development program, especially in the
Human Age. Most of the leadership development interventions do not yield the expected results because it
does not enable its leader to deal with all the Seven Truths. The success of any leadership development
intervention lies in first, making its leader aware about these truths, second, by making them accept the need to
change and third by empowering them to adopt the changes in their way of working.
Keywords: Talent Management Leaders, Human Age, Sustainable Leadership Development, High Potential,
Manpower Inc.
Today, no business leader can dispute that we are living in, what Jeff Joerres, of Manpower Group called The
Human Age. The factor that differentiates organizations from their peers is their ability to attract, manage and
retain talent.

What is the Human Age?
We are on the cusp of a new reality. The world is experiencing a global readjustment in which powerful forces
over the last few years are converging to create a new reality where business models will have to be redesigned,
value propositions redefined and social systems reinvented. In this new reality, human potential will become
the major agent of economic growth. In the Human Age, people will take their rightful place at center stage as
the worlds only source of inspiration, passion and the driving force behind endeavor and enterprise.
What has caused the Human Age?

The world has experienced a series of tumultuous shifts over the last
decade, and the velocity of change is increasing. Manpower Inc. has
been tracking World of Work megatrends which are changing the face
of the labor market and business globally. It is the combined
impact of these changes (Figure 1) and the speed with which they are
transforming the world that has conspired to bring about the dawn of
the Human Age:
Figure 1: Cause of Human Age
Demographics/Talent Mismatch
The demographics and talent mismatch is the conundrum that both individuals and companies are feeling
right now. As the working age population declines and companies are looking for talent, theyre looking in a
much more specific way, yet individuals are also being more selective when they can. Demographic and
economic shifts are accelerating the talent mismatch. The pressure to find the right skills, in the right place
at the right time, will increase as working age populations decline, economies rebound, emerging markets
rise, and the nature of work shifts.
Individual Choice
Individual choice is creeping in wherever possible. Individuals are exercising their choice as they realize
they have the power to opt for or against a given job, which in turn is requiring companies to think differently
about how they attract, retain and stay relevant to an ever select group of talented individuals. Individual
choice is eliminating the one-size-fits-all approach, and elevating the need for one-size-fits-one.
Individuals are exercising the power of choice in all situations, choosing for and against opportunities. The
increased specificity of skills that employers are seeking, coupled with the increased confidence in choice
that individuals are exercising, is impacting governments, organizations and individuals worldwide
profoundly.
Rise of Customer Sophistication

Rising customer sophistication is happening across the board. The transparency and velocity of
information exchange throughout the entire value chain is creating innovation and tension at every level
within that chain. Customers expectations around price and value is rising, shifting the key competitive
differentiator from a companys access to capital, to access to talent. Customers have more access to
information, experts and lower cost channels which increases visibility and subsequent pressure on
companies to deliver value. Employers have become more sophisticated in assessing their workforce and
are looking for specific skills that enable their companies to do more with less to meet ever-rising consumer
needs.
Technological Revolutions
Technological revolutions are at the heart of almost all of this. Having the power to change where, when and
how we work, enabling organizations and individuals to be agile and innovative is happening daily and
weve only seen the tip of the iceberg. Technological revolutions facilitate new ways of working. Rapidly
changing technology and greater global arbitrage increases individuals and organizations choice of
where, when how and with whom work is performed.

Implications for Organizations
According to Manpowers most recent Talent Shortage Survey (Figure 2) of 35,000 employers across 36
countries, 40% of global employers are struggling to fill jobs they desperately need in order to succeed.
The bottom line is - Talent is emerging as the New IT. The pressure to
do more with less has awakened employers to human potential.
Talent - as capital once was - is becoming a scarce resource in the
economic world. A nation or corporations means of attracting,
mobilizing and liberating talent will be a key competitive differentiator.
Human potential will be the major agent of economic growth, and how Figure 2: Manpowers Talent Shortage Survey
to unleash then leverage that potential will be the key question
organizations will need to answer.
Implications for Leadership

In this new reality, talent is probably the only differentiator for an organization, and its an increasingly scarce
resource, the implications of how leadership responds and behaves is getting impacted. Leaders need to
show-up with a new mindset and skillset in case they need to navigate through the maze of challenges of the
Human Age. Some of the shifts that the leaders will need to make are as under (Table 1):
Table 1: Paradigm Shift in Human Age and Its Implications for Leadership
Yesterday Tomorrow Implications For Leadership
Companies dictate Employees dictate terms Personal engagement not organisational

terms engagement
Workers living near Workers living (or from) Remote working, remote management, integrated
(or from) place of anywhere cultures, emotional agility/adaptability, acceptance
work
Talent Mismatch and Need to identify talent from within and unleash
Talent glut
Talent Shortage potential to drive competitive advantage
Job for life 5 10 jobs by age 38 Career focus not organisation focus
Corporate opacity; Corporate transparency; Reimagining the language of high potential to

secretiveness openness, human ensure is it inclusive, yet-demanding, and sending
approach out the right messages
Work for an Work with an Individual choice and mass customization of
organization organization careers
Size matters Agility matters Need for learning agility, cognitive agility,
organizational agility to navigate in a modern,
global company
Hire for power Hire for passion Due focus on individual drive, aspiration, purpose
Command Flexible frameworks Self-insight and adaptability

and control

The silver lining is that leaders are now quickly awakening to this reality and are becoming increasingly
integrated and truly becoming customers for the Talent Management function in the organization. However,
this has increased the pressure on the Talent Management leaders to deliver. This has led to adding new
dimensions to the science and art of Talent Management. There is a need to revisit both the What and How
of Talent Management, especially leadership development. The biggest Talent Management challenge in the
Human Age is Predicting, Developing, and Measuring Leadership Effectiveness.
Globally, organizations are sending multiple billions of dollars on developing their leaders. However, are the
huge investments delivering the results? Right Management did a study asking leaders on the effectiveness of
their current leadership development practices. This was part of the annual study done by Right Management
for the past six year during their High Potential week. Right Management also surveyed 400 global business
leaders to get their unique perspectives on the biggest challenges facing their industries, including leadership
pipeline.
The results were worrying to say the least. More than half (51%) of the respondents mentioned that less than
25% of their high-potential employees go on to fill leadership roles in their organization. To top it up, 57% of the
respondents accepted that less than half of them actually are able to deliver on the job. It was hence no surprise
that almost 60% of the respondents expressed that their leadership development initiatives have delivered
limited or no ROI.
This brings us to the moot point. Where lays the challenge? Are we focusing on the right competencies? Are we
approaching development in a structured and logical manner? Are the participating leaders themselves seeing
the relevance, or are the just passive travelers on a journey that does not excite them? Is the design flawed or
the execution?
To find the answer, we first need to zoom out and relook at leadership development in light of the Human Age.
Layer it with some fundamentals of what drives human behavior and change. This will help us articulate some
fundamental truths that are relevant to leadership development.
Seven Truths Impacting Leader Development

Leadership operates within a dynamic business context
The business environment in which a leader operates is very dynamic best described by the often used
acronym VUCA (Volatile - Uncertain - Complex - Ambiguous). Every change, be it political, social,
environmental, technological or financial, triggers a chain of events with a varying degree of implications. Any
leadership development intervention needs to appreciate this and prepare to anticipate and deal with this
dynamism. A successful leader is one who anticipates changes in the business environment, interprets the
ramifications of changes and takes the necessary strategic calls to respond to them. The leader's
developmental journey must operate within this dynamic environment, and hence also needs to be dynamic.
Sustainable leadership development is integrated and systemic

A development program that is not integrated -both drawing from and feeding back into- other organizational
systems and processes will not sustain itself. To establish ROI that will excite the business, this interlinkage
needs to be established. For example, how does a leadership development initiative pick data from an
organizational C-SAT process and then feeds back into its CRM will make the development initiative live and
real. This will ensure participation from leadership across levels and functions. An effective development
journey is for the system, and hence needs to live within the existing systems. Sending leaders to executive
leadership development programs in management schools may prove to be a good engagement tool but with
limited effectiveness in terms of development.

Leadership requires a global mindset
Even if an organizations business is restricted to one or two geographies, it is important for leaders to
appreciate the changes in the global environment and the impact it has on their business. In an interconnected
world, no business is completely insulated from global events (political / social / environment / economic). The
impact may be direct and immediate; or indirect and latent. Look at how minimum wages in Europe get
impacted due to a famine in the Middle-East
Successful leaders need to be aware of global events and can decode the dependencies and interlinkages to
assess the impact on their business.
Leadership development starts with the current organizational reality

Leaders need to operate in their current context. As they plan to take the organization to the next growth phase,
they need to be aware of the current realities. Appreciation of the prevalent culture, values and inherent
capabilities are strong insights for a leader. A leader development initiative needs to ensure a leader is able to
chew and absorb the current context and reality of the organization. This reality is rarely absolute. It is largely in
relation and relative to the environment (including competitors).
Leadership is interpersonal
A key aspect of the leadership role involves influencing and inspiring large groups. They need to get people
aligned to the vision of the organization, manage conflicts within teams, and help people deal with change. A
leaders ability to effectively engage with people in one-to-one or one-to-many scenarios will largely affect
his/her effectiveness. However, this should not be confused with a leaders sociability. A highly social leader
with limited interpersonal sensitivity may not be able to generate the active alignment needed for driving a key
initiative.
Leadership is learned through on-the-job experience, not taught in the abstract

Leadership development is all about a delta in the demonstrated behaviors. The delta can be to demonstrate
more of the desired behaviors, or less of the limiting ones. A good question to ask is how does one get to reflect
on their demonstrated behaviors? Moreover, how does one get to implement the delta one is expected to
make, and make adjustments based on real-time feedback? The answer is straight forward. It needs to happen
on the job. A simulated environment will at best create an opportunity for sensitization, but for sustained
change one needs to move from the abstract to more tangible.
Leaders are developed most effectively in their business environment

In continuation to the above point, we need to appreciate that leaders have real Issues to solve within their
complex business environment. They have real people to deal with. They need to drive real changes. Leaders
need to appreciate how a behavior change is relevant and applicable in their context and environment.
Acceptance and adoption of any change is best when leaders do not hide behind the often unspoken defense
of my industry is different and this is not relevant to me. The best test of sustainable leadership
development is how a leader applies a newly acquired skill in his / her actual business environment, and
ultimately buys into the change. An effective leadership development program will allow leaders to operate and
implement changes in their real world and as close to their business environment as possible. This allows them
to see how the changes implemented are driving results for them and builds their confidence in adopting the
changes to make them part of their DNA.
In a nutshell, for any leadership development journey to be sustainable, one needs to be cognizant of some
fundamentals about what drives change of behaviors. While designing the initiative, one needs to be asking
themselves a set of questions (what I call The 3A Questions), and design the initiative around the answers.

How does one build Awareness in leaders about the global business environment in which they are
operating; and the impact that various changes (social / political / ecological / economical etc.) have on
their business? How do leaders become more aware of the interdependencies of the above factors and
how to navigate their organization through this rapid and constant change?
What will make leaders more amiable towards the Acceptance of the changes needed in their approach
towards their business? How does a leader become more aware of the newer competencies that they need
to acquire? How does a leader stop resisting change?
Post acceptance, ask yourself what drives a sustained behavior change which becomes ones DNA? How
does one drive Adoption of the new way of working? How does one get leaders to experience wins that will
make them to completely buy into the change? How does one make the change systemic?
If one closely ponders over the above question, one will realize that most of the answers lie in the seven
truths. One needs to accept that implementing and executing an effective development initiative is very
different from designing one. And their lies the fun and challenge for the Talent Management leader in an
organization. But speaking from personal experience, more and more organizations are asking for an
initiative that will deliver, and will not shy away from investing in one, provided they are convinced about its
efficacy.

The What and How of Leadership
Development
About the Author
Mr S V Nathan is Partner and Chief Talent Officer at Deloitte India. He serves on the
Executive Leadership of the firm and is a member of Deloitte's Global Talent
Council.
He has over 30 years of professional experience in Human Resource Management
across businesses such as Manufacturing, Services, Telecom, Information
Technology and Professional Services. He has vast experience in building and
leading high-performance teams in both multinational and Indian organizations,
developing leaders across levels, and serving as a trusted business advisor
Mr S V Nathan focused on transforming Talent as a strategic growth enabler.
Nathan has been serving the Deloitte firms for over 12 years and he has played a
crucial role in architecting the rapid growth and transformation of the US Deloitte
Firms in India into a truly global organization. Nathan led the team that helped build
the U.S. India Region from a humble beginning of 1,000 people to the large firm that
it is today. He also helped establish Deloitte as a key destination for top talent in
India.
He is a Behavioral Specialist in Sensitivity Training, and is acknowledged as one of
the top HR leaders in India. He is a mentor and an advocate of ethical leadership
and invested in developing future leaders. Nathan speaks regularly at several
national and global forums on contemporary HR matters.
Nathan has been conferred several awards including the LinkedIn Power Profile
2017, Digital Thought Leader by SAP and the recognition as a Distinguished
Alumnus of XLRI, a top business school in India is the one he values the most.
Till recently, Nathan served on the Board of the National HR Development Network
(NHRDN) as its National Secretary. He also serves as the Chairperson of
Sumedhas, a not for profit education and research body on Organisation
Development.
He is fond of reading and writing, and enjoys cooking for family and friends. He
blogs regularly on matters pertaining to life in all its many splendored hues and
wonderment.
He graduated in Mathematics and did his post-graduation in Human Resources
from XLRI, Jamshedpur.

HR Playbook A Higher Order Analytical Tool
Keywords
Ÿ Leadership Development
Ÿ Leadership Theories and Evolution
Ÿ New Age Skills for Leaders
Ÿ Facilitating Leadership Development
Ÿ Best practices in Leadership Development
Ÿ Great Leaders are made
Abstract
T he paper encourages a discussion around the concept of Leadership Development and the goal is to
simplify this concept and propose a framework using which organizations can foster new age skills in their
future leaders. The paper relies on research of published articles by leading online journals to drive this debate.
The first section of the study seeks to explore the evolution of leadership and examines the existing leadership
theories. The second section drives the discussion from history to current context and we examine the
changing talent landscape and the resulting impact on key skills which future leaders need. We identify 8
competencies that every leader should develop to thrive in the future. The study then seeks to propose a simple
framework which can be leveraged upon to impart these skills. The framework has leadership support at its
core and incorporates four elements on setting defined goals, focusing on organizational context, providing on
the job experiences and measurement of impact. We also delve into some leading leadership development
practices and draw parallels to our framework.
Finally, we conclude that organizations need to take greater responsibility in developing the future talent since
great leaders are made.
Introduction
“All of us do not have equal talent. Yet, all of us have an equal opportunity to develop our talent” —Ratan Tata
This quote by Ratan Tata perfectly articulates what we should do in areas of learning and development at an
organizational level provide equal opportunities to develop our talent and leaders.
The value of great leaders in organizations has been documented and researched widely. A leadership study
was conducted by Deloitte to measure the impact of effective leadership by interviewing leading market
analysts across 5 countries, including India. The results showed that, on average, the analysts placed an
equity premium of up to 15% for organizations with perceived effective leadership and a discount of as low as
19% for organizations that were perceived to have ineffective leadership. Hence, these results reinforce an old
saying: leaders make and break organizations every day.
Great leaders directly impact the perception of organizations and their bottom line and it is critical to develop
leaders in our organizations. Great leaders are not born, but they are identified, developed and groomed to
become great.
This paper seeks to explore a debate on this topic developing leaders in our organizations by looking at the
evolution of leadership theories, current context and the evolving expectations of new age leaders, leadership
programs and some leading practices of various organizations.

Leadership Theories
While leadership has been a topic of interest since the dawn of mankind and can be dated back to as early as
4th century B.C., leadership and management studies were taken up in earnest in the early 20th century.
Back in the day, a philosopher and statesman known as Chanakya wrote the first few principles of
administrative management:
In the happiness of his subjects lies his happiness; in their welfare, his welfare; whatever pleases himself, he
shall not consider as good, but whatever pleases his subjects he shall consider as good.
As per Chanakya, successful leadership meant thinking about the people around oneself and always working
for the welfare of others.
Another historical figure who has had an impact in the world is Niccolò Machiavelli the medieval Italian
philosopher. Around 499 years ago, he had defined leadership in his book The Prince, a book which is still read
widely by many successful modern businessmen and political leaders.
In a nutshell, he has asserted that a good leader should have the support of the people because it’s difficult
to act without their support. He had defined the concept of followership without calling it out.
In the modern era, leadership studies focused on what have been referred to as Great Man and trait theories.
Great man theory of leadership proposes that certain men are born to lead and when crises arise, these men
step up to take their natural place. It assumes that the traits of leadership are intrinsic. That simply means that
great leaders are born.
Between 1930s 1940s, the trait theories pushed the boundaries further and included the aspect of developing
leaders. It stated that people are either born or are made with certain qualities that will make them excel in
leadership roles. That is, certain qualities such as intelligence, sense of responsibility, creativity and other
values puts anyone in the shoes of a good leader.
By 1960s, the discussion moved towards the concept of Charismatic leadership. House (1976) published a
theory of charismatic leadership within which he described the personal characteristics of this type of leader as
“being dominant, self-confident and having a strong desire to influence others.”
Differences between leadership styles began to emerge in 1970s and 1980s, with a clear demarcation between
‘Transactional Leadership and ‘Transformational Leadership’.
Transactional theories, also known as exchange theories of leadership, are characterized by a transaction
made between the leader and the followers it could be in terms of rewards or negative consequences. This is
the typical carrot and stick form of motivation.
Transformational leadership refers to the process whereby an individual engages with others and creates a
connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the followers. It is the art of
motivating a group of people to act towards achieving a common goal, where the leader is the source of
inspiration. He/she is the person in the group that possesses the combination of personality and skills that
make others want to follow his/her direction.
One of the most impactful transformational leaders we have seen is Mahatma Gandhi. His followers were
influenced by his drastic method of nonviolent protests and he instilled trust, loyalty, admiration and respect
amongst his followers. He also transformed his followers in a literal sense - changed them in mind and heart,
enlarged vision and clarified purposes to make behavior congruent with his beliefs, principles and values.
The pitfall of some of these theories was a constant emphasis on a larger than life leader. From a business
perspective, this would typically be a CEO of an organization - who single-handedly makes a company
successful.

However, in our companies, over time, we have seen thick layers of middle management, over-managed and
under-led departments, and structures which have not been designed to develop leaders. The hierarchy of
bosses organized into ranks, with each superior exercising authority over subordinates who do exactly what
their boss wants, has long been the dominant form of corporate organization.
But recognizing that they are handicapped by their current systems, many companies are now questioning the
way they manage themselves. They are striving for better effectiveness and flexibility to cope with and
capitalize on the fast-moving, ever-changing competitive conditions they see ahead. In todays age and time,
we need to focus on developing new competencies to build a pipeline of new age leaders.
But can we really develop our leaders? As reflected in leadership theories, modern research also indicates that
while some skills are inherited, environmental factors play a big role in development of leaders and hence great
leaders are made. The single, most powerful way to grow as a leader is to become self-aware of ones
strengths, weaknesses and moral compass. It requires deliberate practice consisting of feedback, coaching
and experimentation.
With changing times, and a fast-paced growth, modern day organizations need to provide this framework of
feedback, coaching and experimentation to groom our future leaders.
Current Context and New Age Skills Needed

Organizations are undergoing massive shifts and the business world is changing. These have a direct bearing
on the competencies and behaviors required of our new age leaders.
The coveted leadership qualities of the past - being experienced, decisive, authoritative and focused on
command and control -don't work with the changing world and an increasingly diverse workforce. At the same
time, key qualities required in every leader remains the same fairness, ability to listen, sensitivity to people
and situations.
What this paper seeks to demystify are the additional critical competencies every leader needs in this age.
Hence, it is important to first understand these shifts:
1. New Generations at the workplace: There is an increase in the number of Gen Y and Gen Z
professionals in our workplaces, especially in India. The country's more than 400 million
Millennialsthose born after 1982already account for a third of India's population and 46% of its
workforce. Data suggest that this demographic group will form 64% of the workforce by 2021.
The new workforce has different expectations from organizations and their leaders than their
predecessors. They want to work in organizations that provide them with career advancement
opportunities and a sense of purpose. Over 80% millennials aspire to become leaders at senior
executive positions. As per a Deloitte report, Millennials in India ranked opportunities to progress and
take on leadership roles as their strongest reason (when excluding salary) to work for an organization.
However, as many as 69% of those surveyed believed that their leadership skills were not being
fully developed. This remarkable absence of allegiance represents a serious challenge to any business
employing many Millennials, especially those in marketslike Indiawhere Millennials now represent the
largest segment of the workforce. This presents an opportunity to invest and innovate the way we develop
our future leaders.
New age leaders who manage them will have to manage these expectations. The new generation of
workers demand the following competencies:
Courage: this ability is the one that will make a leader stand up for what is right and the way to go ahead
regardless of the obstacles foreseen. It also carries in it a certain conviction that goes alongside it.

Humility: Humble leaders are accessible and initiate dialogue with them. The days of the CEO sitting in a
corner office with the door closed is a thing of the past. Today the more accessible a leader is, the more she
becomes a beacon for her organizations culture and people, and the more loyal employees will be. A
people-first culture is what the new generation of workers is demanding.
Regular feedback: Millennials thrive on acknowledgement and affirmation that what they are doing makes
a difference. They require regular feedback to develop their own leadership potential. New age leaders
should get their Millennials involved in projects that foster experiential learning and development.
Leadership Shift
Organizational Shift
Humble leaders
Gen X and Gen Y
Regular feedback
2. Hierarchy will be out, agility will be in: A shift away from hierarchical organizational structures toward
models where work is accomplished in teams is taking place.
As organizations make this transition from process based work to project based work, they will find that
smaller teams are a natural way for humans to work. For a company to stay agile, teams must be formed
and disbanded quickly. This ability to move between teams without risk is a critical attribute of today and
tomorrows high-performing companies.
The new agile organizations require:
Decentralized controls and leadership through networks of people at all levels.
Empowerment of new age leaders across all levels. A successful business should be run by a network of
leaders positioned right through the organization.
Leadership Shift
Decentralized leadership
Agility in organizations Empowerment across levels
3. Freelancers and flexibility to be on a rise: In the past five years, the gig economy has become a major
trend impacting the global workforce, and has created a new kind of diversity, with full-time permanent
employees working side-by-side with freelancers.
Organizations will not be reliant on permanent staff to the same extent as they used to be, as work can be
contracted to an individual operating on the other side of the world. Therefore, the new norm might be for
organizations to have a small in-house staff, completed with virtual networks of freelancers and other
contractors.
Additionally, India has an interesting mix of millennials, baby boomers for whom 80 is the new 60 for
retirement and women returning to the workforce. One common factor that links them is flexibility. For
millennials, flexibility and well-being are as important as financial rewards.

With many professionals working remotely, the following new skills will be required of our leaders:
Ability to manage without borders.
Shift in mindset, both in terms of communication and expectation setting. Theyre at their desk is not a
valid measurement of productivity anymore, especially when employees dont share an office space.
Instead, expectations need to focus on goals and outcomes, and workers need to be equipped with a suite
of tools that make communication and collaboration simple, whatever the distance.
Leadership Shift
Managing across borders
Flexibility
Focus on goals and outcomes
4. Technology will continue to cause disruptions: After waves of automationthe Industrial Revolution,
mechanization, computerization, we are now moving toward the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
We have seen remarkable advances in technologies including robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and
machine learning. Automation now has the potential to change the daily work activities of everyone, from
miners to CEOs. The impact of such advances will be multi-fold, ranging from increased output to higher
quality and improved reliability, as well as the potential to perform some tasks at superhuman levels.
In a future that incorporates more artificial intelligence in the workplace, leaders will need to be
• Emotionally intelligent: Traits that cannot be replicated by artificial intelligence anytime soon will need t o
be focused on. These include skills in accountability, transparency, fairness, honesty, and an ability to
design systems and processes for humans.
• Leaders in digital space: While the leaders of the future won't necessarily need to be the ones writing a
code, experts suggest that they will at least be required to demonstrate a robust understanding of the
capabilities, applications, and future potential of emerging technologies. All new leaders will need to be
digitally proficient.
Leadership Shift
Emotional intelligence
Automation and technology
Digital leadership
New generations entering the workforce pose major challenges for those in leadership positions holding on
to outdated management styles and hierarchical position thinking. The impact of an open talent economy,
the power of social networks, and increased access to knowledge and information have freed many
employees from autocratic management styles, leading to a new social dynamic between leaders and
followers.
What the digital age has facilitated is the notion of openness, dialogue and flexibility something which is
expected of leaders as well.
Therefore, the Tannenbaum and Schmidt Continuum model of leadership theory will be the new norm. The
model explores the relationship between the level of freedom that a manager chooses to give to a team, and
the level of authority used by the manager.
With time, as the team's freedom increases, the leaders authority will decrease. This is a positive way for
both teams and managers to develop.

Facilitating Leadership Development
Developing leaders in the new world is a critical need for any organization to flourish. For years organizations
have lavished time and money on improving the capabilities of managers and on nurturing new leaders. As per a
Deloitte report, US companies in 2015 spent almost $13 billion on leadership development.
While leadership programs help ease the chain of succession, make employees feel more connected to the
business, and can transfer good ideas from one section of a company to the whole organization, surprisingly,
many organizations fail to develop leaders since the programs fail to address the Issue of helping leaders to learn
and they do not deliver measurable impact and results. Research has indicated that just having someone do a
keynote presentation on leadership at a training program is not sufficient to create an army of leaders who can
effectively develop, communicate and execute a powerful vision.
The problem is that with even well-trained and motivated employees, they are unable to apply their new
knowledge and skills when they return to their jobs, which are entrenched in established ways of doing
things.
For example, the goal of a training program may be to help new leaders empower their team members. However,
if the existing basic processes require approval from a senior leader at every stage, then the goal of
empowerment will not be met. In short, the individuals have less power to change the system surrounding them.
Thus, best-in-class leadership development programs need C-level support to change the systems.
In addition to leadership support, a successful leadership development program should incorporate the
following elements:
1. A definitive goal: In the earliest stages of planning a leadership initiative,
organizations should ask themselves a simple question what is the goal of
the leadership development program?
For example, if the answer is to support digital innovation in an organization,
the company will probably need leaders brimming with ideas and those with
a track record of developing new technologies. Solely relying on past
performance indicators rather than demonstrated behaviors may lead to the
incorrect selection of candidates for the program.
2. Focus on the context: Context is a critical component of successful leadership program.
A brilliant leader in one situation does not necessarily perform well in another.
Too many training initiatives rest on the assumption that one size fits all and that the same group of skills or
style of leadership is appropriate regardless of strategy, organizational culture, or CEO mandate.
Focusing on context inevitably means equipping leaders with a small number of competencies that will
make a significant difference to performance. Instead, what we often find is a long list of leadership
standards, a complex web of competencies, and corporate-value statements embedded in programs.
3. On the job experiences: When it comes to planning the programs curriculum, companies face a delicate
balancing act.
On the one hand, there is value in off-site programs that offer participants with time to reflect. On the other
hand, even after very basic training sessions, adults typically retain just 10 percent of what they hear
in classroom lectures, versus nearly two-thirds when they learn by doing.
Hence, it is essential to tie leadership development to real on-the-job projects that have a business impact
and improve learning. This is the ideal environment, where the learning and the work are seamless.
For example, new age leaders can be taught to manage talent across borders by giving them global projects
to lead teams remotely rather than delivering a classroom style session on managing talent across
geographies.

4. Ability to measure program effectiveness: When businesses fail to track and measure changes in
leadership performance over time, they increase the odds that improvement initiatives wont be taken
seriously.
Mere collection of participant feedback does not help. There are numerous approaches to track the success
of leadership development programs:
a. Conducting a 360 degreefeedback exercise at the beginning of a program, followed by another one
after 6 to 12 months to track behavioral change.
b. Monitor participants career development after the training: Looking into aspects of how many
participants were appointed to more senior roles one to two years after the program ended.
c. Monitor the business impact, especially when training is tied to breakthrough projects.
Thus, the best leadership programs incorporate the following elements:
Thus, best-practice organizations develop an integrated system of leadership development that includes a
specific leadership strategy, detailed pre- and post-program assessments to measure effectiveness, and
blended learning programs with stretch assignments, intensive coaching, and continuous opportunities for
leadership development.
Best practices in Leadership Development
Organizations in India are investing in developing the leadership potential in talent across all levels and stages of
career, especially in the young talent. Some of the leading practices from the Indian industry are:
1. Deloitte: In India, Deloitte has initiated a long-term journey milestone program, for its top performing senior
professionals. It incorporates various blended learning formats like workshops, online certifications and
one on one coaching by senior leaders over a span of 8 months.
2. Hindustan Unilever: HUL sends young managers to live in Indian villages so that they can understand the
needs of rural consumers a leading example of integrating on the job experiences with learning.
3. IBM: IBM in India has set up a reverse mentoring program that allows a team of hand-picked young people
to be part of a shadow board. A similar work-related situation is given to both the young employees and the
senior leaders to analyze how differently they deal with it. This brings a better understanding between the
top leaders and the young employees and aids in their development.
4. Infosys: Infosys managers are assessed based on how many of their groups recent hires achieve an A
grade on tests of their new knowledge, how many achieve various competency certifications, and how
many lateral hires are rated as good in their first review. In addition, senior managers are evaluated on their
employees job satisfaction and the percentage of leadership positions that have an identified internal
successor. This helps in bringing about more accountability within the leadership team as well.

5. InMobi: Keeping in mind the flexibility which is required by the millennials, InMobi introduced the concept of
a learning wallet. The wallet of each employee is pre-loaded with Rs. 50,000 every year and can be used
for professional training of their choice, like taking tutorials in coding and attending technology
conferences.
6. Mindtree: Mindtrees co-founder Subroto Bagchi, whose title is vice chairman and gardener, spends much
of his time coaching the companys top 100 leaders.
7. PepsiCo: PepsiCo has an international leadership development program called PepsiCorps, which was
launched in India as well. It is a one-month, on-the-ground program that leverages an employees business
skills to make a positive impact on the world. It provides employees with an international business
experience that encapsulates PepsiCos Performance with Purpose agenda. Being part of a cross-cultural
and cross-functional PepsiCo team, these employees come away from the program with enhanced
leadership skills and on-the-ground insights into societal challenges across the world. This is an excellent
way to mesh leadership development opportunities with providing a purpose to professionals.
8. Wipro: In Wipros program, each of roughly 1,000 managers and executives is scored on 12 leadership
measures, and individual scores are compared with company averages. The top 300 leaders are reviewed
by Wipros chairman, Azim Premji, in a process that extends over five days. Following those reviews, the
company draws up a development plan for each candidate that includes coaching, training, and rotational
assignments. The process creates a pool of candidates to fill anticipated vacancies.
Conclusion
Organizational Shifts will require Leaders to adapt Leadership Development Program
framework
Humble leaders
Gen X and Gen Y
Regular feedback
Decentralized leadership
Agility in organizations
Empowerment across levels
Managing across borders

Flexibility
Focus on goals and outcomes
Automation and Emotional intelligence

technology Digital leadership
As organizations grow flatter and more diverse, and as the global operating environment becomes increasingly
more complex, there is a stronger demand for people who can lead at all levels of a company.
This paper proposes that given the changing landscape in the business world, the key attributes which leaders
need to develop are humility, providing regular feedback and coaching to the new generation of workers along
with empowering their teams, managing teams across borders and being digitally proficient with a strong base of
emotional intelligence.
While the traditional leadership development programs help develop some of these attributes, a deeper focus is
required on the way we develop our leaders. Besides leadership support, every development program should
incorporate elements on program goals, business context, provide the participants with on the job experiences,
and finally develop a way to measure the effectiveness of the program.

Leading companies recognize that developing leaders is the joint responsibility of the people and the
organizations. From an era of expecting leaders to take responsibility for their own learning, the best companies
now recognize they must be proactive and long-term in their approach to building skills their leaders will need in a
global, interconnected environment. I have a strong conviction that when people say, either you have it or you
dont, I respond by saying When someone does not have it, can we make it a priority to build leadership skills in
them?.
Thus, referring to the quote on development of talent by Ratan Tata, an organization must take a proactive and
long-term approach to developing a future pipeline of leaders who in turn can grow others in an organization to
succeed because “Great leaders are not born, but they are made”.
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14. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkotter/2015/06/04/why-leadership-programs-fail-its-not-what-you-
think/
15. https://www.forbes.com/sites/wesgay/2016/09/29/how-these-millennial-executives-say-to-effectively-
lead-their-generation/#6089363204d8
16. http://www.georgeambler.com/leaders-are-not-born-theyre-made-leadership-develops/
17. https://hbr.org/2010/02/leadership-development-secrets
18. https://hbr.org/2010/03/leadership-lessons-from-india
19. https://hbr.org/2013/07/why-so-many-leadership-program
20. https://hbr.org/2016/09/what-science-tells-us-about-leadership-potential
21. https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it

22. http://www.harvardbusiness.org/only-7-organizations-believe-their-leadership-development-programs-
are-best-class-according-harvard
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2014_Executive_summary.pdf
24. http://www.haygroup.com/en/our-consulting/develop-your-people/for-leaders/
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future.html
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33. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-five-leadership-lessons-from-chanakyas-sarbojit-mishra
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35. http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/ZxgufEOH9saYXk5RsmuhIP/The-rise-of-the-millennials.html
36. http://www.mckinsey.com/global-themes/leadership/developing-leaders-in-a-business
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38.
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ml
39. https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/India-millennials-growth-sectors
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42. https://talentculture.com/the-future-of-work-is-here-are-your-managers-prepared/
43. https://toughnickel.com/business/The-History-of-Leadership-Studies-and-Evolution-of-Leadership-
Theories
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leadership-essay.php

Leadership Beyond Competencies -
What Really Defines Top Leadership Outcomes
About the Author
Mr Bimal Rath is the founder and Managing Director of Think Talent Services, a
boutique firm specializing in leadership development, talent management and
culture change, operating since 2010. He is the Chairman of Braahmam Net
Solutions, an e-learning and localization company.
Prior to his consulting career, Bimal had over two decades of experience across
different industries, across geographies including the USA, Middle east, Africa
and APAC. His last corporate position was as HR Director for Nokia-Asia Pacific,
supporting the massive growth for the company. He had previously held senior
Mr Bimal Rath positions in Eicher, British Telecom and Tata Sons. His credentials lie in an
extremely business focused solutioning and providing insights and methods
which are both business and people friendly.
Bimals experience has been across different areas in HR including building and
maturing management teams, M&A integration, HR system and process
implementation, large scale change interventions, and setting up high performing
factories and R&D centers. He has been part of several projects across his
assignments dealing with corporate strategy, growth decisions and management
partner choices. He currently consults and coaches across industries as wide as
High Technology, Chemicals, Banking and Engineering. He is also associated with
Center for Creative Leadership, USA as a executive coach and with Duke
Corporate Education as an educator. He sits on the boards of several small to mid-
size young entrepreneurial companies.

Leadership Beyond Competencies -
What Really Defines Top Leadership Outcomes
Key Words: Leadership, Behavioral Competencies, Leadership Development.
Companies have been using competency models over many years now, using it as the basis for selection,
managing performance, and leader development. Talking to over 3000 managers in different contexts,
industries and market situationsfour elements have emergedwhich could potentially explain why
successful leaders are what they are, taken in conjunction. It may also explain their effectiveness and their
impact on others around them. These four factors are how others seem to feel their impact and results.
Judgment: the ability to use past information and decisions/outcomes, advise and have the courage to make
and action decisions in a new and unfamiliar territory.
Balance: The ability to balance seemingly opposite forces, priorities, demands and creates meaning for all
stakeholders in that context. The other aspect of balance is around personal balance, the ability to manage
ones inner world of values, interests and motivations with the outer world.
Resilience: The ability to come out of setbacks, reflect on past successes and failures and use the learning to
ones advantage without losing purpose.
Trust: the ability to trust oneself and others to make sound decisions and take action based on time, cost,
quantity and quality parameters. Generating trust among stakeholders about oneself, as an outcome of the
above.
Conversations show that these four elements may be made up of smaller portions of many behavioral
competencies, but defy definition in pure behavioral indicator terms. You can feel them very strongly though,
when you experience them. We can almost see leadership ability quite early by observing the above elements
in leaders.

C ompetency frameworks provide a structured guide enabling the identification, evaluation and
development of behaviors in individual employees and managers. Companies have been using
competency models over many years now, as the basis for selection, for managing performance, and leader
development. While it has given results, companies still lament the lack of a leadership pipeline and true
leadership talent. In fact, around the world, there is a general clamor regarding the lack of leaders, almost in all
fields.
Competencies applied as a basis towards various people development processes are expected to help build
leaders for an organization. The link between usage of competency frameworks and leader development is
tenuous at best. In contrast HR and line managers can see clearer links between (use of) competency
frameworks to performance management, training efforts or managerial skills development.
Over the years, working with practicing managers, organizational leaders and hi-potential employees across
organizations, three realities emerged.
a) While competency frameworks may provide a minimum standard of selection, performance management
and development in people, it does not encourage excellenceat best it is a lowest common denominator
to benchmark top talent, perhaps all talent.
b) The intangibles of leadership are really the more important aspectsalmost like the space between the
spokes in the Zen story, where the spokes themselves do not make the difference, the balance in a wheel is
created by the space between the spokes. These aspects are felt but are difficult to measure in isolation,
which is often what competency based systems tend to do.
c) A good leader relies as much on experience (which is largely the basis of developing personal compasses
for decision making and action) as on presciencethe ability to see beyond the curve. This is what makes
great leaders and it is almost difficult to define the set of abilities which allow this phenomenon.
Competency frameworks rarely enumerate or measure aspects related to this.
Over the last ten years, talking to over 3000 managers* in different contexts, industries and market
situationsfour elements have emerged, and taken in conjunction, could potentially explain why successful
leaders are what they are. Each of these factors has an interplay with others and with purpose and values, as
explained later in this note.
While these factors may be (arguably) built on a bed of competencies, they have been defined here in a way
which focus on others experiencing the leader in action.
Judgment: the ability to use past information and outcomes, advise from others and have the courage to make
and act decisions in a new and unfamiliar territory, using intuition as much as past references.
This is expressed by others as s/he consistently applies good judgment or s/he seems to make the right calls
more often than not.
Balance: The ability to balance seemingly opposite forces, priorities, demands and create meaning for all
stakeholders in that context.
This is often expressed by others as he has taken all factors into consideration or all constituents will gain
from this decision. Very often, this factor in leaders is also expressed as being fair, equitable and/or managing
contradictory interests better than most.
The other aspect of balance is around personal balance, the ability to manage ones inner world of values,
interests and motivations with the outer world.
Resilience: The ability to come out of setbacks, reflect on past successes and failures and use the learning to
ones advantage without losing purpose.
This not expressed as often in words but clearly felt by others as a long standing leader, is successful in a
variety of situations, bounces back, and is seen as is really able to play more innings than one.

Trust: the ability to trust oneself and others to make sound decisions and act based on time, cost, quantity and
quality parameters. Generating trust among stakeholders about oneself, as an outcome of the above.
This is best assessed by a creed of followers, and being able to make some unpopular decisions or to drive
tough change agendas, still taking people along. This is one factor where the impact is very clearly felt and seen
more than talked about.
The link to competencies

Clearly, the above four factors cannot be made to fit into the dictionary of classical competencies. However,
there are many competencies which be like these, or at-least adjacent. Conversations show that these four
elements may be made up of smaller portions of many behavioral competencies, but defy definition. You can
feel them very strongly though, when you experience them. We can almost see leadership ability quite early;
even though we may not be able to point out exactly how we have come to that conclusion. The current
experience and the trend of conversations show that these four elements are what we experience, based on
which we make that call of good leadership.
In working with organisations and in the conversation with leaders and managers, one other central element
emerged. This appears to be the fulcrum around which these four factors interplay and interact in the real
world. That fulcrum is the purpose fulcrum. Leaders apply the factors of judgment, trust, balance and
resilience while living up to a purpose. Each leaders purpose may be different based on their values but the four
factors together help work towards achieving that purpose and the play of the factors is consistently around
that.
Interestingly when asked about how purpose would be defined as a competency, there were often answers
that went back to the four factors e.g. she has great resilience in driving her agenda. Also, answers around
purpose were expressed as a mix of many traditional competencies, e.g., achievement orientation, strategic
thinking and drive for results.
Examples that speak

Judgment: A Harvard Business Review article notes When a leader makes a good judgement, nothing else
matters. Most of the revolutionary decisions made by leaders have some sort of judgement in them. For
Example-Samsungs decision to launch a sabbatical program that sends top talent all around the world,
continues to be the secret behind Samsungs success as a global brand. They probably wanted to build an
organization which places more importance on learning by exploration which defines innovation in their
products.
Balance: The case of the Tata group and actions taken with respect to Tata Finance and people involved is well
documented. At a significant cost the Tata group chose to make good the money owed to investors in Tata
Finance at the time. For more details, the case study Grime and Salvation** is worth a read. While, this is a great
example of building trust, it also exemplifies the personal balance of the leaders, lending courage to take action
relevant to various stakeholders and players in this corporate saga.
The whole area of work in mindfulness, now the new buzzword, has been practiced as a road to personal
balance by leaders always. As Socrates said, I call myself a Peaceful warrior, because the battles we fight are
on the inside.
Resilience: Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, shares insights on resilience and facing adversity (in her
book), and how she came out from her personal loss and grief. This insight helped her not only in coming out of
the adversity, but also building a culture around the organization which places an emphasis on training people,
on building resilience and providing employees a comfortable environment where they can feel valued and
steer out of difficult times.
Trust: In a well-known corporate story, Whole Foods CEO John Mackey forfeited $46,000 of a larger bonus
when he realized that his total compensation violated the companys policy that a CEO cannot make more than

14 times the average employees salary. Mackeys action reinforced employees belief that he served the best
interests of the company, not just his own. Degree of trust is an important parameter by employees/follower in
making a perception about both qualities in a leader and style of leadership. In the year 2002, the University of
Chicago surveyed 800 Americans and discovered more than four out of five had only some or hardly any
confidence in the people running major corporations.
Overall, the interplay between the four factors identified and the context of the individual leader needs
consideration. Trust, Judgment, Balance and Resilience are impacting an outcome or decision. In simplistic
terms, these come to play when choices are to be made. In many decision-making models, wisdom has been
quoted as the highest level of understanding. Leaders who exhibit behaviors associated with all four factors
somewhat consistently could be closest to this definition of wise.
The behaviors identified the four factors and the interplay between the four are given below:
Behaviors impacting perceived leadership outcomes
TRUST
Ÿ Importance of team members vs. Ÿ Full utilization of organizational

customers resources
Ÿ Not feeling let down by team Ÿ Dismissal of personal attacks
members Ÿ Confidence in a seniors judgment
Ÿ Values in line with organizational Ÿ Association with like-minded
goals individuals
Ÿ Rapport building with team and Ÿ Absence of negative emotion at
encouraging team spirit work
Ÿ Sensitivity towards team members Ÿ Judging values of new employees
Ÿ Importance of leisure and Ÿ Motivation and determination
encouraging creativity in team Ÿ Ability to deal with stress
members
JUDGEMENT
JUDGEMENT
Ÿ Motivated and loyal team members
Ÿ Flexibility while making decisions Ÿ Decisions driven by intuition

Ÿ Thinking a lot before taking Ÿ Reflective thinking to improve
decisions oneself
Ÿ Anxiety in the workplace Ÿ Importance of timely and good
Ÿ Control over destiny decisions
Ÿ Making time for family and leisure Ÿ Commitment on the job
Ÿ Inflexibility in thought and action Ÿ Organized and systematic style of
Ÿ Flexibility and determination to working
overcome challenges Ÿ Fairness and absence of hasty
Ÿ Self-confidence judgements
Ÿ Collective decision-making Ÿ Timely and well executed decisions
Ÿ Sensitivity to stress Ÿ Basing decisions on experience
RESILIENCE

The behaviors above are associated with more than one of the factors, as is evident in the diagram. For
analysis, these behaviors were linked to two of the four factors where respondents expressed strongest links.
However, some of these may well be seen having link to other two factors apart from the two evident in the
intersections in the diagram. Example, timely and well executed decisions is seen by most as closely linked to
judgment and resilience links to trust and balance.
More considerations for practitioners

As the study continues there are additional underlying findings which are emerging.
Trust, Judgment, Balance and Resilience seem to be highly valued as leadership behavior outcomes. The
absence of these are detrimental to good leadership. Humility (linked to Trust and Resilience) also seemed to
come across strongly as a fifth element.
Ÿ There are several underlying behaviors linked to these outcomes-some with more impact than others (33
specific behaviors have been identified and quoted consistently by respondents). These underlying
behaviors (Refer table above) impact more than one of the four overall outcomes as perceived by others. All
the behaviors impact two dimensions at least among trust, balance, judgment and resilience.
Ÿ There is also an interplay between these four (judgment, trust, balance and resilience) and while they can be
experienced in isolation of each other, the overall impact of leadership is felt when all the four are present
(as seen by demonstration of the many underlying behaviors of the leader).
Ÿ There is a rub off from one leadership outcome to the other, e.g., resilient leadership may also be perceived
as trustworthy. However, there are no clearly established causal outcomes at the behavioral level- i.e., more
display of behaviors which denote balance will lead to increased display of behaviors linked to resilience.
Ÿ In focus groups, one finding was: Clearly, some behaviors are valued more by senior managers (in
themselves and by implication in other leaders). There is a clear contextual link here as well. For example,
some behaviors are more valued in some contexts, say resilience in time of a downturn or apparent failure.
Ÿ This potentially implies that leaders with increased display of the higher valued behaviors are more
acceptable and likely to be more successful, or seen to be more successful. The higher ranked behaviors
are also potentially behaviors others would emulate or follow in their leadership journey.
So, what do we focus on for Leader Development?

Managers experience and explain leadership effectiveness in terms of Judgment, Balance, Resilience, Trust,
and additionally humility and purpose. When questioned deeper, they are basing these evaluations of leaders
on specific behaviors exemplifying these factors, therefore the identified 33 behaviors.
There is a strong correlation of the 33 behaviors to the four primary outcomes seen as critical to good
leadership - Trust, Judgment, Balance and Resilience. Leaders will be experienced through the display of
behaviors and consequently judged to have more balance or more resilience. In that context, measuring
specific behaviors is a good way to check leadership, as against a generic competency with a mix of
several behaviors.
All the behaviors have a correlation to more than one leadership outcome, but a stronger correlation to
some. For example, a specific behavior may have a stronger linkage to a leader perceived as having Good
Judgment, but the same behavior would also have an impact on other outcomes, namely balance, trust
and resilience.
It is not clearly established whether all the behaviors impact all the four leadership outcomes. However,
some evidence indicates an interplay of multiple behaviors will go into establishing any one leadership
outcome. i.e., no single behavior out of the 33 can by itself be said to directly depict either of trust, balance,
judgment or resilience. One interpretation of this is also that leaders may need to display and master
multiple behaviors to be seen as (for example) trustworthy.

There may be other leadership behaviors on display as well by leaders, but these 33 identified through the
study appeared to be covering the vast majority of those that mattered.
While the ranking of behaviors is not presented in this paper, clearly there are less and more valued
behaviors in different contexts. Behaviors that were ranked higher are more critically examined in leaders.
i.e., in the absence of behaviors that are more highly ranked, a leader may be seen as relatively more
ineffective. Absence of some of the lower ranked behaviors may be more acceptable.
A majority of the sample Indian, and as such no cross cultural data is available for comparison. However, in
conversation with experts, it appears that some behaviors were perceived to have higher correlation to
cultures. i.e., rankings could go significantly higher or lower based on the local culture.
In Conclusion
There are already studies and even instruments to measure the four factors. Trust (Steven Covey), Resilience
(See Rosabeth Moss Kanters Resilience is the new skill), Judgment (see the Hogan Judgment test and
related research) and Balance (check out all the research on mindfulness and decision making). The current
ongoing study is more focused on the interplay between these and purpose. It is increasingly clear that
examining and developing these in leaders, all of them together, may be a more improved path to leader
development.
*the study has been ongoing and the author has been conducting enquiries for the last 9 years. It is still
ongoing.
* www.tata.co.in/pdf/COH_2009/coh_investor_relations_grime_salvation.pdf
Select References
Ryan.J(2009), The Three Fundamentals of Leadership, Forbes
Mangurian.G(2007)),Realizing What Youre Made Of, Harvard Business Review
Sandberg.S, Grant. A (2017), Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience and Finding Joy, Published by
WH Allen
Margolis.J and Stoltz.P(2010), How to Bounce back from Adversity, Harvard Business Review

Elevating Womens Leadership in India:
Issues and Insights
About the Author
Dr Meena S Wilson is the Founding Executive Director, Genpact Center for
Womens Leadership (GCWL), a first-of-its-kind corporate-academia partnership
between Genpact and Ashoka University. A versatile 25-year veteran of the
leadership development industry, she is also author of Developing Tomorrows
Leaders Today: Insights from Corporate India (Wiley, 2010) and numerous book
chapters and articles.
At GCWL, her responsibilities included promoting womens leadership and gender
equity in India through original research and seminal leadership programs for
Dr Meena S Wilson corporates, the social sector and university students. At the Center for Creative
Leadership (CCL®), she worked in the U.S., Singapore and India, directing
strategic start-ups such as opening CCLs first Asia-Pacific campus in
Singapore; launching the Asia Pacific unit for research, innovation and product
development (RIPD); and designing the Asian Womens Initiatives and Network
(AWIN) and The Woman Leader® (tWL®) program.
Meena is the primary developer of the Experience Explorer card deck an easy-
to-use tool that applies decades of research on the 70-20-10 framework to make
talent development rapid, systematic and intentional. She delivers popular
conference keynotes and workshops on fortifying talent pipelines and developing
leadership in organizations, with a special focus on the needs of professional
women.
Meena holds a Ph.D. in adult and organizational development from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an M.S. degree from Syracuse University in
television-radio journalism, and a B.A. from Mills College in Oakland, CA.
Dr Cathleen Clerkin, PhD, is a senior faculty member in Global Research and

Evaluation at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL®). Cathleen is a thought
leader in the field of leadership development, and a popular public speaker. Her
current role at CCL includes designing and executing new research studies and
facilitating leadership development workshops. Her research interests include
womens leadership, social identity and diversity, creativity and innovation, and
applying neuroscience, mindfulness, and well-being in the workplace. Cathleen
has won multiple awards and honors for her research, including recognition from
Dr Cathleen Clerkin the National Science Foundation, the American Association of University Women,
and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues. Cathleen holds a BA
in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MS and PhD
degrees in psychology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

55
Elevating Womens Leadership in India:
Issues and Insights
Abstract
T his article outlines the status of women in India and proposes that gender balanced decision-making can
improve problem-solving, innovation, employee engagement, employee well-being, and the financial
performance of organizations. Research and anecdotal evidence is combined to explain how traditional socio-
cultural norms and practices in India stall professional womens careers. The constructs of collectivism and tight
cultures, and the Five Ms that afflict their careers, are used to illustrate how womens professional advancement
gets suspended. The authors advocate that organizations help female employees to power-up their leadership
talent by using three tactics. These are to: craft leadership purpose and identity; forge relationships with allies;
and design career opportunities intentionally. Next practices that is, well-considered and systematic
organizational interventions must be fashioned in partnership with Indian businesses. We contend that this will
enliven the quality of organizational leadership and take economic and human productivity to visionary altitudes.
Key Words: Womens Leadership; Leadership Development; Womens Careers.
In countries where benchmarking studies have been conducted, research on trends on womens advancement
show slow or stagnant rates of progress. For more than a decade, the percentages of women reaching senior,
top, and director-level positions is frozen at under 24% on average (Catalyst, 2014; Grant Thornton International
Business Report, 2016; KPMG, YSC, & 30% Club, 2016). Against this backdrop, the backward situation of
women in India is intense.
Indias Landscape for Womens Advancement

The World Economic Forums annual benchmarking report measures gender parity in four areas: educational
attainment, health and survival, economic opportunity and political empowerment. Sadly, India ranks a dismal 87
out of 144 countries on the indicators above. India. ranks in the Top 10 countries for political empowerment, but a
disgraceful 113 on educational attainment, 136 on economic opportunity and 142 on health and survival. This
index measures the gap between opportunities available to men vs. women: it is not related to a countrys
economic development level. For example, Rwanda, Philippines and Nicaragua are all developing economies
but rank 5, 7, and 10 respectively and are thus among the Top Ten on the Global Gender Gap index.
The World Banks 2017 statistics indicate that Indias female LFPR (Labor
Force Participation Rates) rates are among the lowest in the world; only a few countries such as Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia rank lower. Less than one-third of working age women are in the workforce.
Surprisingly, while the Indian economy is booming, womens LFPR has declined 10 percentage points over the
last decade.
India ranks last in Asia after - China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore in representation of women at
different levels, across multinational organizations, according to Community Business (2014), a leading non-
profit thought leader on Diversity and Inclusion in Asia. Professional Indian women give up on their careers,
sooner than their counterparts in Asian countries; almost half (48%) of employed women under 30 years old drop
out due to maternity and childcare.
This is not good news. The glacial speed of womens advancement is frustrating for two reasons, one idealistic
and the other pragmatic. Idealistically, these numbers tell us that Indian women face unacceptable levels of
social and economic inequality. Pragmatically, social science suggests that the failure to develop and utilize
womens leadership capabilities will ultimately weaken Indias political, legal, economic and social institutions.

The Pragmatic Case for Achieving Gender Balance
There is anecdotal evidence that women and men frequently approach problem-resolution differently. For
example, male mullahs often sanction triple talaq due to stilted social norms; but female qazis consider marital
Issues more realistically and deeply, thus restoring fairness in family relationships (Times of India, August 2017).
In a very different example, consultants from a U.S. firm were brought in to evaluate a merger. While the men on
the team analyzed the profit-loss statements and Annual Report, the sole (early-career) woman on the team
observed that the Presidents of both companies appeared caustic with each other. At the time, she was
reprimanded by her team leader for not focusing on useful details. But a few years later, the merger failed due to a
falling-out between the two Presidents (Helgesen, 2017).
Scientific evidence supports these observations. Page Scott, a U.S. Professor of Political Science, and
Economics, research indicates diverse teams are better problem solvers than like-minded experts. Established
experts are more likely to approach problems in similar ways, but diversity of thought leads to novel insights and
solutions.
According to research studies, women on work-teams improve the financial (Joy et. al., 2007) and psychological
well-being (Fitch & Agrawal, 2015) of the group. For instance, a 2014 Gallup Study (Badal, 2014) found that
among over 800 business units in two different industries, gender diverse groups had better financial outcomes
compared to groups dominated by one gender. A study by the Center for Creative Leadership, found that people
who worked in organizations with a higher percentage of women felt more job satisfaction and organizational
dedication and less work-related burnout (Clerkin, 2017).
These findings suggest that by balancing female and male points of view, we increase our collective capability to
overcome challenges faced in every sphere of human activity. The end-goal is not to supplant a masculine
approach with a feminine one. Rather, the practice of accessing multiple points of view opens a wider range of
options. Families, teams, organizations and policy-makers are likely to make decisions that are prudent and
powerful.
We live in a global village where technological achievements are accelerating material progress; but human
connections continue to be fragile and fraught with conflict and obstruct human progress. We argue that a
balanced representation of women and men, working shoulder-to-shoulder in the workplace, at home and in
their communities, will enable us to act with wisdom and make a difference to human advancement.
Why Indian Womens Careers Stall

In this section, we summarize insights concerning womens careers in corporate India. These observations are
based on delving into the popular and academic literature and interacting with men and women who are
employees, managers or senior and top leaders in Indian businesses.(We have focused on describing Issues that
impact womens careers in for-profit organizations; but many of our points provide relevant insights into
challenges that women face in the non-profit and other sectors in the Indian work environment). Viewpoints and
explanations -- for why women fail to advance up the career ladder are discussed next.
Societal Norms
Societal norms are unspoken and informal rules about what is acceptable. Every culture has its own norms. For
example, in some societies, people are always punctual but in other societies people are excused for delays of
minutes, hours and even days. Similarly, in some cultures it is rude to address people with status and authority
such as leaders or elders by their first names; but such salutations are customary in Scandinavian countries.
There are myriads of examples of these types of differences.
There are a few norms that are particularly relevant to Indian womens challenges in the workplace. Firstly, India
has traditional views of gender roles and the status of men relative to women. It is expected that men are the
bread-winners and head of household, while women attend to housework and child-rearing. Secondly, India is a
collectivist culture (Hofstede, 2001). Collectivist cultures place more importance on the goals and needs of

social groups (such as families and work-groups) over the needs and desires of individuals. Finally, India is also a
tight culture, ranking among the top three tightest countries in a 33-nation study (Gelfland et. al., 2011).
Tightness means that social norms are strong and that deviant beliefs and behaviors are less likely to be
tolerated. Family, extended family, peers, neighbors, and even workgroups feel that imposing their views on a
person affiliated to them is justifiable.
Taken together, these key features of socio-cultural life in India have an adverse impact on the career ambitions
of Indian women. Traditional gender roles dictate that women must fall in line with restrictions on their personal
autonomy; married men are entitled to higher compensation in the workplace; a womans primary role is to be a
mother; and she cannot be a good mother and a professional at the same time. Collectivist norms pressure
Indian women to put aside personal aspirations in favor of fulfilling their roles as sisters, wives, mothers and
daughters (and pressure men to prioritize providing for their families over personal pursuits). Finally, cultural
tightness allows friends, family and coworkers to intervene and chastise women who aspire to deviate from such
norms.
One vital indicator alerting us to emerging trends and a turning point in the status of Indian women: womens
expectations about their role in society are shifting. Thereby rising urban lifestyles, higher connectivity through
global social media with other women (and men) who argue against the status quo, and exposure to a world-wide
call for a change in womens standing.
Next, we look more closely at how tradition, collectivism and cultural tightness have constrained the professional
and personal lives of Indian women, keeping them out of the workplace (and in their homes serving their families).
Our objective is to provoke reflection and collective dialogue in families and social groups. This alone can make
the womans life and career choice more intentional. Societies are dynamic and evolving; we are optimistic about
what the future holds for women in India.
The Five Ms

Ladders, labyrinths, and lattices are metaphors commonly used by western social scientists to describe career
progress. In contrast, the careers of Indian women is described as a game of snakes and ladders with marriage
and motherhood depicted as snakes that swallow the woman and delay her from finishing the game. What do
such metaphors tell us about on-the-ground realities that professional Indian women must tackle?
In her book Can I Have It All? (2015), Anuranjita Kumar (a top Human Resources leader in India), points to three
career stallers: marriage, mobility, and motherhood. In our experience, these stallers, and two more Ms --
mothers-in-law and men often grip the lives of women searching for successful careers.
To substantiate the Five Ms we use themes from focus group discussions, interviews, and dozens of informal
conversations with career women (carried out by one of the authors) as source material. Our observations are
grouped into two career stages: early and middle.
Early career: leaving the home and entering the workplace, till recently, pervasive socio-cultural gender
norms pressured women, to get married and have babies, and discouraged them from having careers. The
expression, log kya kahenge or what will people say? is commonly used to curtail independent thought and
action in young women, to corral them into marriage and parenthood.
Once married, the two Ms of Marriage and Motherhood encumber women with even more career-related
liabilities. After marriage, a woman belongs to her husbands family, and must align with her husband and in-
laws expectations about whether to work; this is accompanied by not-so-subtle queries about when a
grandchild can be expected, which is another obligation to fulfill.
These scenarios occur because sons often continue to live in their parents home (in the same dwelling or on a
different floor in the same building) unless they find a job with a multinational company and move out. Within this
setting, the daughter-in-law assumes her role-related responsibilities and is expected to serve the needs of the
elders of the family and her husband. If she is fortunate, her husband and his family will support her career

ambitions. Now-a-days women in their 20s and 30s are advised by friends to investigate whether a suitors family
is traditional, or progressive in their views about daughters-in-law being employed outside the home. Further,
women who value their autonomy are choosing to stay unmarried.
When the third M Mother-in-Law -- enters the picture, she can make or break a womans life choices. The
mother-in-law and daughter-in-law (sasbahu) relationships portrayed in television serials have a ring of truth.
However, every family situation is unique, and successful women report having stellar support and
encouragement from an unconventional mother-in-law.
The absence of attention and support for a womans aspirations and dreams shows up as the fourth career-
stalling M: Mobility. Because social sanctions prohibit her from showing more commitment to career than family,
a career woman is unable to adjust lifestyle or location for a career opportunity; or she experiences considerable
guilt when she does so. Yet, her own career progress halts abruptly when she and family move to accommodate
a wonderful opportunity offered to her spouse.
Regardless, a majority of young women from conventional homes are still excited about joining the world of
work. During their first seven years of employment, they congratulate themselves on prevailing over family and
social norms. They are pleased by the attention they earn from male and senior colleagues; and they shrug off the
benevolently protective attitudes that disbar them from working in the field or taking on jobs that involve night-
shifts or travel. But their exhilaration soon dissipates. Womens job satisfaction levels dip significantly during
their mid-career phase of work-life (Wilson, 2015).
Mid-career: encountering obstacles and ordeals in the workplace. Approximately between their 7th and
15th year of formal employment, women begin to sense that men and women in their organization are treated
differently. At the workplace, people seem unable to separate women from the home; in turn, women become
increasingly cynical and frustrated that their family lives and gender roles are used as a reason to downplay or
dismiss their organizational performance. These disparities stand out as unwarranted. This brings us to the fifth
M: Men. Once women make it out of the house and into the workplace, it is often their male colleagues that
contribute to the continual stalling of their career, although female managers may do so too.
Here are examples of typical comments made by mid-career women when it comes to gendered differences in
career development.
Performance appraisal ratings. ‘Why are biological realities not recognized? asks the returning mother. Her
query concerns the reflexive and unthinking practice of giving lower performance ratings to women who have
been out on maternity leave. The question is a logical one: how is having a child connected to on-the-job
performance? Childbirth does not diminish talent or dedication and effort toward professional achievement.
Special assignments and promotions. Another common grievance relates to managers questioning female
subordinates about plans to marry or have children--often during performance reviews or career planning
conversations. These intrusive enquiries about her private life feel unjustified, there is no logical connection
between the questions and the womans eligibility for a plum assignment or promotion based on her proven
competence.
Similarly, female employees assert that nobody asks women whether they are willing to get shop-floor
experience. It is just assumed that they are not interested. So, they are not even given the opportunity. Instead,
women are expected to perform office housework (e.g., upgrading office decor, coordinating social events,
fetching coffee, taking notes), which demean women and damage their career prospects (Frankel, 2004).
Productivity and dedication. According to women who are on double-shift managing career and home, face
time at work does not equate to productivity. Female employees who leave their office at the designated time are
frequently seen as uncommitted and disloyal to their organization. This is simply not true. After attending to
domestic and maternal responsibilities, these employees usually return to their laptops when the children are
asleep and work late into the night.

But organizations often fail to recognize their female employees double-duty commitments, colleagues make
snide remarks when she leaves at the officially sanctioned office-closing time, and managers impose penalties
through lower pay increments and the absence of opportunities for career growth. For women, this situation is
galling, wearisome and disappointing.
Interactions with male colleagues. I dont know how to say this. Some of our seniors not the ones from
western countries obviously are not too happy with females. They are more comfortable with men folk. They
take men out to lunch. My boss has seldom asked me. The feeling I get is that he is not comfortable.
Males from earlier generations, who have been socialized in India, are often uncomfortable interacting with a
woman as a peer and equal. In the past, men and women have been segregated from each other for instance in
their families, in educational systems and on social, ceremonial and other occasions. Women have been viewed
as goddesses, sex objects or servant-like caretakers. So, the skills and habits of relaxed and egalitarian
interactions between the genders are under-developed.
As a result, crucial conversations between males and females do not happen. Even though women are admitted
to organizations as employees, the inter-gender relationships that will contribute to womens career progress,
and help them to become leaders in their organization, are not likely to take place.
Based on conversations about the five Ms, and our earlier review of relevant literature, we assert that the
hardships that men and women experience in their workplaces are dissimilar; and it is critically important to
reflect deeply on these differences. Men report hardships in handling crises, recovering from operational
mistakes, and reaching ambitious targets and business goals; on the other hand, womens hardships are
personal and involve the struggle to be recognized, rewarded and access to opportunities to advance their
careers (Clerkin & Wilson, 2017). In our view, the hardships experienced by men incite them to work more
tenaciously for career success; but the hardships experienced by women lessen their interest in continuing to
work in organizations.
Powering-up Womens Leadership Talent

Can the shackles of social norms and restraints from the five career-stalling Ms (marriage, motherhood,
mothers-in-law, mobility and men) be cast off? Although corporate workplaces are a mans world, we believe
that women can do well and flourish in organizations on their own terms. Women do not have to become like men
to achieve career success.
We advocate that organizations use three keys to unlock womens leadership potential. The first is to help
women craft a leadership purpose and identity. The second is to work with them to forge relationships with allies.
The third is to design womens career opportunities intentionally. (These keys are also applicable to boosting
mens leadership learning and performance).
Leadership Purpose and Identity

People evolve as leaders by having a leadership purpose and identity and not just by holding a formal leadership
position. Internalizing a clear leadership purpose and identity is an important tactic that can help determined and
ingenious women maneuver careers past their early career euphoria and mid-career exasperation and
despondency.
Leadership Purpose. Despite many obvious and subtle barriers to advancement, women who wish to follow a
leadership path must start by discovering a personal purpose for leading others. For example, Indian women
who are taught that reticence and modesty are desirable qualities may still choose to step into the glare of
publicity to advocate the welfare of a marginalized community. Purpose must be based on ones own values
such as the desire to promote the progress of a team, group or community of people (Ely, Ibarra & Kolb, 2011). To
hone womens leadership ability, organizations are well-advised to help them to unearth which values are most
dear to them.

One aspect of leadership women find motivating is relationships and connecting to others. Women are
socialized to connect with people. When given opportunities to represent the interests of their team or
organization, women are driven to overcome personal insecurities and fears and become formidable advocates
and role models for other women. However, on the flipside, women who would be leaders need to let go of their
socialized drive to please others and win approval. This requires them to focus on their own expectations of
themselves, and not just on others expectations, and makes them more authentic and trustworthy as leaders.
Leadership Identity. A person is seen as a leader- by others and by her or himself through repeated social
interactions. Leadership identity is constructed through back-and-forth verbal and non-verbal messaging,
between leaders, their peers and subordinates. For women, the task of constructing a leadership identity
(through social interactions) is loaded with impediments.
Since masculine values permeate our perceptions of leadership, feminine expressions of leadership do not
attract recognition or respect, and womens exercise of leadership is often disparaged, making it more difficult
for them to form a leadership identity. For example, if an assertive young woman respectfully states a point of
view different from that of a person in a position of authority, she may be seen by others as arrogant, rebellious or
cute. However, if a young man behaves in the same way, he is a bright spark with leadership potential. When
men are dominant and outspoken, they are considered leaderlike; but women behaving similarly are penalized
for breaking a gender stereotype.
The continual affirming messages males receive, bolsters the mans self-confidence, strengthens his leadership
identity, creates motivation to lead, and fuels his search for opportunities to grow as a leader, attracts
organizational validation, and reinforces his interest and fortitude for practicing complex leadership skills (Ely,
Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011). The disconfirming messages that women receive creates a downward spiral for them,
making it less likely to see themselves as leaders or in leadership roles. Leadership identity becomes central and
enduring for men, but not for women.
To reverse the downward spiral, and to support women in forming a sturdy leadership identity, organizations
must orchestrate events and processes for female employees to find allies at work.
Allies: Role Models, Mentors and Sponsors

Interpersonal relationships play a meaningful role in leadership development. To break through traditions and
socio-cultural norms, women need allies. The Free Dictionary defines ally as an associate who provides
cooperation or assistance. Role models, mentors and sponsors are all indispensable allies who can boost
womens career trajectories.
Role models. For women, female role models stimulate personal ambition. The noticeable presence of senior
women in the ranks of top management increases female employees belief that they too can lead. Top and
senior women are living proof that leadership can have a female face.
Role models can come from ones immediate environment or from books or social media. Consciously or
unconsciously, role models are powerful motivators because they arouse individuals to become the best
possible version of themselves. Though necessary, role models are not sufficient for helping ambitious and
talented women rise within their organizations.
Mentors. Mentors, including bosses who are willing to be mentors, can give professional women the gift of
coaching, honest and constructive feedback on many aspects of career success such as: self-presentation,
communication, building a personal brand, working with difficult peers, influencing senior management,
networking, negotiating effectively, and so forth. Mentors can also help women overcome feelings such as guilt,
inadequacy, and self-criticism. These habits of mind are often informally dismissed as biological differences, but
are more likely learned through early-life socialization.
Honest relationships are crucial to a womans advancement. Research shows that people give women vaguer
feedback (Correll & Simard, 2016). In some cases, this is probably well-intended. There is evidence that

managers who want to support women do not want to discourage them by sharing negative feedback (King et
al., 2012). Even when women are given critical feedback, it is less developmental and more personal, such as
telling women to be less abrasive (Davis, 2014, para. 7) or bossy (Clerkin, Crumbacher, Fernando, & Gentry,
2015, p. 5) or that maybe this role is too hard for them. This unconstructive, positive and negative feedback,
leaves women unsure of what to do to improve their leadership skills.
Sponsors. Sponsors are a special subset of mentors who not only listen to, support, and advise their protégés,
but use their power and influence to advocate for them. Research shows that people are more likely to sponsor
men than women (Ibarra et al., 2010). Yet, women are more likely to need sponsors. Indian women need male
sponsors. Ron Burt, in The Gender of Social Capital, (1998) suggests that in organizations in which power
holders are men, women must borrow social capital, not build it (p. 2). In other words, women need mens help
gaining access to the boys club of existing social networks. Especially in India, where workplace norms tend to
dismiss or undervalue womens contributions, women may fail to be recognized without the help of sponsors to
vouch for them.
Therefore, ally relationships heighten self-assessment and self-insight. By guiding women to continually learn
and take on new challenges, and helping them gain self-confidence and credibility, role models, mentors, and
sponsors become a pivotal source of career momentum.
Creating Career Opportunities

One of the reasons that women have a hard time making it to the top of organizations is that they struggle to
obtain the right experiences at the right career juncture (Clerkin & Wilson, 2017). Studies have demonstrated
that challenging assignments are vital to leadership development and career advancement. Across cultures,
both men and women report learning their most critical leadership lessons from challenging assignments (Yip &
Wilson, 2010). However, women are given fewer, less important and less impactful assignments.
Male managers job experiences involve higher stakes and external pressures (Oflot, Ruderman, & McCauley,
1994). According to a study from Catalyst, men are more likely to get hot jobsjobs that are highly visible,
mission-critical, and international (Silva, Carter, & Beninger, 2012). The same study showed that men are given
more monetary and human resources during these challenging assignments. These differences make a
difference, giving potential leaders more experiences and successes. Indeed, the report showed that having a
hot job was a strong predictor of future advancement.
In contrast, women are given more lateral moves and fewer opportunities to turnaround a business or travel or
work internationally. Studies suggest that this is because managers assume that women are not willing to travel
or that international businessmen want to meet with male representatives; however, empirical evidence shows
that neither of these are usually the case (Adler, 1984; Caliguiri, Joshi, & Lazarova, 1999; Silva et al., 2012).
Is it surprising that many ideal experiences that prepare individuals for top leadership (e.g., well-funded
challenging assignments, positions abroad, high-level sponsorships) still disproportionately go to men?
Considering that modern leadership development pathways were largely constructed by men, with men in
mind, when opportunities come up, people implicitly and automatically consider men more readily than women
(Clerkin & Wilson, 2017, pp. 396). This bias has long-term consequences for women who are passed over for
leadership later in their careers, having missed learning-loaded experiences earlier in their careers. These
scenarios need to change.
Gazing into the Future

We believe more women leaders are in our future. Female representation in leadership roles is linked to improved
financial performance and employee engagement. In
Athena Doctrine: How Women (and the Men Who Think Like Them) Will Rule the Future, the authors found that
traits and abilities traditionally associated with women (e.g. communication, collaboration, nurturing) were the
same traits and skills that were highly valued in innovative organizations across eighteen nations (Gerzema &

DAntonio, 2013). In a survey of over 60,000 men and women in thirteen countries, including India, two out three
people agreed that the world would be a better place if men thought more like women. Their research findings
indicate that countries where citizens prefer a balance between feminine and masculine values have a higher per
capita GDP and a higher reported quality of life.
Further, evidence suggests women leaders bring something special to organizations. Sally Helgesens classic
study focuses on what women can contribute to the workplace, and not on what they lack or how they need to
change. Her collection of case histories found that organizations run by women tend to be less hierarchical;
instead these organizations take the form of webs, with leaders reaching out in all directions, and connecting
others to foster communities and collaboration (Helgesen, 1990). Similarly, academic research suggests that
women tend to have more relational and communal leadership styles (Buttner, 2001; Eagly, Johannesen-
Schmidt, Van Engen, 2003). Carol Gilligan (1982) argues that women see themselves in the context of
relationships with others; in contrast, men tend to focus more on individual achievement, hierarchy, and
autonomy. McClelland (1979) found that women were more likely than men to measure power as the ability to
care for others.
The ground-breaking question is: can we learn to blend these and other differences between the genders to
design richer and more productive organizational environments?
Next Practices: Using Multiple Levers of Change

While we believe more women will take on leadership positions in the future, we also believe that they cant go it
alone. Much of the advocacy for womens leadership is by women; yet, women need men as equal partners to
progress toward a gender-balanced leadership.
There is reason to believe that women might require more support than men to reach the top of their
organizations. Research shows that women are less likely to negotiate on their own behalf (Amanatullah & Morris,
2010), self-promote (Moss Racusin & Rudman, 2010) or apply for stretch positions (Mohr, 2014). Those who do
so often face social and economic punishments for breaking gender roles (Rudman, 1998). Women will only
reach their full potential when we all work together to help change such restrictive norms.
Hindrances related to the career progress of women throughout the span of their work-lives must be explored.
Programmatic interventions must offer a mix of training, coaching, action learning, mentoring, forums,
organizational dialogue and strategic internal communications directed toward women and men. Womens
initiatives should be integrated and promoted together with existing talent management practices, processes
and programs. Both men and women must be involved in devising gender-neutral practices for recruitment,
retention, appraisal, engagement and leadership development. Validating womens leadership should be an
enterprise-wide endeavor.
In conclusion, our examples, explanations and arguments showcase how the entire organization needs to invest
in creating a culture that removes career roadblocks for the benefit of both women and men. The way forward
calls for partnerships with Indian businesses that are willing to commit to making womens career advancement
one of their top priorities and to introducing game-changing approaches to 21st century leadership development
practices.

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Career Progression of Female Talent:
About the Author
Prof Krishnan T N is an Associate Professor in Organizational Behaviour and
Human Resources at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode. His research
interests are in the areas of Talent Management and Human Resource
Management. Recent research publications have been on the topics of talent and
human resource management in SMEs and organizational ambidexterity in the
SME context. His publication record focuses on a range of OB/HR Issues such as
employee relations, career systems, organizational ambidexterity and talent
management. He has published his work in journals such as Human Resource
Prof Krishnan T N Management Review, The International Journal of Human Resource Management,
Employee Relations, Career Development International, IIMB Management
Review etc.

Career Progression of Female Talent:
Abstract
T alent management of women is an area of interest for organizations globally and specifically in India. This
article highlights the case for gender diversity and some of the barriers to womens advancement through
both secondary and qualitative research findings. We also suggest initiatives that both organizations and
women managers can undertake to support and complement each other in facilitating career development of
women managers. We discuss practical steps that different stake holders can initiate based on research
findings.
Key words female talent, career progression
Introduction:
Recently, it was heartening to read news in major dailies that women were fully manning assembly line
operations at a leading automobile manufacturer. Womens presence in the core part of operations is not
surprising, but their representation in some jobs and in certain hierarchical positions is certainly newsworthy.
One such category of interest is the representation of women in executive positions in an organization.
According to a 2012 McKinsey report (McKinsey & Company, 2012), the proportion of women sitting in
executive committees and corporate boards is significantly lower in India and Asia, in comparison with many
European and American companies. The McKinsey report highlights that in India this figure is 3 and 5 percent
respectively. While this is a cause for concern, the gender representation at the board level is improving in
recent years due to the new Companies Act introduced in August 2013. The Act requires a certain class of
listed companies to have at least one woman on the board of directors. We outline below reasons for the lower
participation of women in the workforce in general, and in management.
Female participation in the Indian labour force has remained lower than that for males. Women account for
most of the unpaid work. Even in the paid work category, women are overrepresented in the informal sector.
The 68th National Sample Survey results indicate that a total of 20.5% women were employed in the organized
sector in 2011, with 18.1% working in the public sector and 24.3% in the private sector. This low representation
of females makes it more challenging for women to gain access to the management pipeline. The
management pipeline in the organised sector requires a graduate degree, it is important to note the
representation of females in the overall graduate population and more significantly to understand how many of
these female graduates are employed. According to the 2011 census, only 8% of the total population in India
are graduates, across the country (excepting Kerala and Chandigarh) the proportions of male graduates are
traditionally higher than the proportion of female graduates. In addition, though 42 percent of graduates are
women, only 29 per cent of entry-level professionals are female (McKinsey & Company, 2012). However, a
significant development is that the rise in proportion of female graduates in the previous decade is higher at
115% as against only 65% increase in male graduates for 2001-2011.
Female participation rates in the labour market are increasing significantly, however family related pressures,
traditional customs and work-related Issues constrain women employees ability to grow in the organizational
hierarchy (Rashid, 2010). Given the increasing proportion of women in the graduate population, rising
aspirations of women in the country is combined with the need for corporates to have gender diversity in their
management pipeline.
Understanding the barriers for womens entry to the workforce and Issues effecting their growth once they are
employed are significantly relevant in improving the transition of graduate women to the workforce and in the
management cadre.

The case for gender diversity in the executive cadre:
Visualizing the talent pipeline metaphorically, employees enter at one end of the pipe and gradually move to the
other end. The dropout rate of women employees is high and this gives rise to two different but related
challenges. One, women are unable to utilise their full potential. Second, the leadership team that emerges at
the top is less diverse. The world of business is increasingly more complex and very few business models have
long term stability. In such a scenario, the more diverse the set of minds that could be applied to a problem, the
more likely we find better solutions.
Performance benefits rise especially when companies pursue effective diversity policies which combine the
complementary competencies and ways of thinking of male and female employees (Linehan and Scullion,
2008). In an age of increasing competitive pressures and talent scarcity, having the best talent in strategic roles
provides distinct competitive advantage (Collings and Mellahi, 2009) and if half the population continues to be
significantly underrepresented in the talent pool from which senior management personnel are selected,
organizations could lose out on their competitive edge. Women do better in terms of innovative problem
solving, bring in variety in ways of thinking, beliefs, working style and consider alternatives from more
viewpoints. Personally, in executive development workshops having womens participation brings in more
diverse view points and engagement.
Further, gender diverse leadership sends positive signals to external labour market. Gender Diversity at the top
could evoke greater awareness of work-life integration challenges. Women leaders are likely to be aware of the
Issues in managing both work and personal life challenges. In the context of the millennial workforce, having
developmental opportunities, and work-life balance are important considerations, and the presence and
understanding of women leaders, is going to be even more valuable. Highly placed women could also act as
role models for women down the ranks and have a powerful influence on aspiring younger women. Mellström
(2010) in her study found how Malaysian women dominated the IT profession, and the female respondents
interviewed in her study highlighted the importance of female role models who held senior positions in the IT
field both in the industry and in academia. Tlaiss and Kauser (2011) highlight the role of influential networks
within the Lebanese culture that impacts the career progression of women. One of the important challenges for
women to move up the hierarchy is the lack of informal networks and mentoring opportunities (Linehan&
Scullion, 2008). If an organization has a proactive policy on promoting gender diversity, it could create a pool of
women leaders who could act as inspiring mentors and leaders and eventually the organization could create a
positive employer brand amongst the female talent pool.
Barriers to Career Advancement of Women Executives:

Previous studies have revealed many barriers to women advancing to senior positions both organizational as
well as social.
Of the many, the following two critical obstacles are as follows:
An organizational culture which demands high face time as indictor of performance and commitment, could be
damaging to female aspirations for growth in the company. This is a significant barrier to womens promotion
and career growth. One of the interviewees shared that quality and commitment are measured by hours of
presence at the office, this perception can limit womens position and status in the workforce over time.
Unconscious biases can affect performance and potential assessments. Many consider leadership positions
as equivalent to unfailing availability and mobility. Appraisals and promotion decisions are sometimes largely
based on availability at the workplace, which acts as a barrier to vertical growth for women in the organization.
In a recent qualitative study, conducted by me and two other co-authors at two major IT companies in India, we
found that the hiring, reassignment, performance and promotion policies are all based on well-defined gender-
neutral terms. Hence, even in objective terms, there was no question of one gender benefiting at the cost of the
other. Talent management policies were positively perceived and evaluated by the women managers.
However, the implementation of certain policies regarding performance appraisal and promotions, are viewed

as areas that could be improved. While policies are gender neutral, their implementation, especially the
appraisal process that help categorise talent and provide inputs for promotion, are perceived as key
constraints in the career advancement of women managers. The demands of the job in the IT industry often
requires employees to work late in the evening which conflicts with meeting family commitments. While
policies which required explanation from the superiors for late working hours for women were in place, some
women respondents felt that showing unwillingness to work late shifts would affect their image in the company
in terms of flexibility, and they felt that being left out of late night calls could damage their performance
evaluation and hence promotion and career prospects. A significant concern of the women managers was that
they did not want to be excluded or left out professionally due to family responsibilities, while at the same time
they did not wish to be neglectful of family responsibilities. In some cases, women opted to take a break from
work to fulfil their parenting responsibilities before returning to work and career aspirations. It is indicative of
the multiple roles the women play that affect their participation in management. Women re-joining work after a
break need to be oriented and fully supported in the return to work process. The empirical findings from our
study indicated that social and family support were major factors that influenced the women managers
participation and career progression in the company. Hence perceptions played an important role in womens
job distribution regardless of what policies are in place to support the employees.
Organizational support for Womens Career Advancement:

The interviews and secondary data from the companies revealed that the support offered for the career
development of women in both companies were of three types: Inspirational, developmental and facilitative.
Inspirational programmes consisted of various events in which interaction with successful women leaders
either from inside or outside the organization are facilitated. The senior women leaders are invited to share their
experiences and challenges in integrating their personal and professional lives. These programmes help coach
and counsel aspiring female talent and to reflect on work life priorities. In practical terms females could draw on
the experience of senior female leaders in meeting the challenging work-life balance Issues. Motivational
lectures by female leaders could inspire and motivate them to think innovatively about these Issues.
Developmental programmes typically are aimed at developing women for leadership positions. Peer
mentoring and coaching, platforms for women to learn and exhibit leadership capabilities are important
avenues for these. Individual coaches and mentors are increasingly assigned to work with women of high
potential. Senior women managers acted as mentors and conducted workshops where female talent can
exchange experiences about the conflicting work-life balance challenges and learn from each other. This
increases the role of female voice in developing career opportunities for women.
Facilitative programmes typically are aimed at providing support, flexibility and care for all employees
particularly beneficial for women employees. This took several forms including: Work from home policies for
parents, opportunity to work from city based offices instead of the long commute to suburban offices,
telecommuting option and part-time work options where an employee could work 2 or 3 times a week. Family-
friendly policies may also make provision on some days when kids come to parents place of work. Further, help
is provided across the various offices for engaging day care facilities. Voluntary affinity groups also function to
provide a platform for discussing challenges of parenting, women etc. Information shared on safety of women
helps women employees identify how and whom to reach out to in times of need and some of the precautions to
follow even when out of the office.
How can Companies Promote Gender Equity?

Research suggests that integrated policies and support can help in retention of female talent and these policies
should be part of a wider Talent Management strategy that seeks to take an inclusive approach (Scullion and
Collings, 2012)
Top leadership has two important roles: One, as role models, exemplifying the values and behaviours reflecting
womens participation in management. Second, as strategic implementers that orchestrate the management
systems and culture to align with the identified values.

A well-articulated and widely shared set of values, arising out of a constant reflection of where we are as an
organization, and where want to be in the future with regards to womens representation in leadership
positions. Values are aspirations that come to life based on behaviours. Studies have found that when there is
token representation of women at the top, the dominant group(men) tend to heighten cultural differences
creating an old boys network, other informal networks where important information is shared (Kanter, 1977).
This works against gender representation in the managerial pipeline. Hence, while commitment of top
management to promote womens leadership matters, people down the hierarchy pick up important cues by
what the top management does and does not do about the matter. Hence behaviour of leaders/top
management counts significantly. Enlisting senior women leaders, as role models to openly discuss
challenges, and strategies the senior managers have used in balancing work and personal lives is important. A
systematised formal process where critical information is shared and decided upon becomes crucial.
The other important role for leaders is to ensure that management practices and culture match the stated
values. The role of the senior managers is to make sure that values are maintained, and constantly made real to
all the people in the organization. Hence, showing commitment by acting as role models, and constantly
setting up systems and processes, that capture and reinforce these values is important. Examine if there is
consistency across practices when implementing the core values. Being aware of how each core value is
implemented including things like who gets rewarded for what, who gets promoted, and what the organization
celebrates. Things such as work-life support, career flexibility are important practices that promote gender
equity. Enable flexible work such as telecommuting to work, institutionalise career flexibility such as return to
work after taking for example a long-term maternity break. The use of flexibility should not undermine career
prospects. Reflecting on the facilitative, developmental and inspirational programmes for institutionalising
gender diversity would be significant.
It is important to recognise some of the work practices, that could work against the stated objective of ensuring
greater gender participation. Reduce work practices that could create work-life conflict. Try to plan work
without scheduling meetings early in the morning or after regular work hours. The interviews have identified
that performance evaluation is a major concern that affects the fairness of the process and future career
prospects for women. It is important to fine tune Performance Management systems, and have a verifiable trail
of performance evaluations. Specifying what constitutes good performance, the process and outcomes in
measurable and objective terms, specifying how these are going to be evaluated, in what frequency and by
whom, having descriptive anchor points for subjective performance measures, sensitising line managers to the
unconscious bias, and doing justifiable evaluations to reduce ambiguities and concerns, that women face in
performance evaluations.
It is important to have a shared understanding of what constitutes talent in a firm and approaches to potential
evaluation and talent management. Companies vary a lot in the perception of talent and how they manage
talent (Krishnan, 2015). Talent management in companies that are top talent nurturers, perceive it as an
organizational capability-building exercise, where line managers play an equally important role. Formal and
transparent processes for performance and potential identification, are a necessary condition for success.
Rigorous analysis and open discussions help identify the best talent, help deploy it where it can grow
effectively, and then tracked on a continuous basis. This information should be used in identifying candidates
for T&D, developmental assignments and placement decisions. In companies which undertake talent
development seriously, 30-40% of the senior managers spend time identifying and nurturing talent.
Information about career goals and interests are tracked regularly. Line managers are held accountable for the
development of their subordinates, and employee development is viewed as a core responsibility of every
manager in the organization, not just a task managed by the specialized HR functional group.
How can Women Managers Progress to Leadership Positions?

Women managers can undertake many initiatives to support, and complement, organizational career
development practices.

Becoming self-aware and actively managing ones work and personal life. Not every woman is able to strictly
compartmentalize work and personal life, in fact that would be an exception rather than a norm. With higher
demands on time in the working womens lives, it is important to recognise personal commitments that can
hinder their professional lives and vice-versa, and manage them proactively. As an example, a women
executive shared that when she worked late at office, she ensured that her school-going children were made
aware of the tasks they had to complete before they made a routine call to her. This approach allowed her to
focus on work when it was most needed, while ensuring active involvement of the children in managing their
own tasks. Women managers need support of colleagues and family members for this approach to succeed.
Properly planned activity both at home and work, and contingency planning when the need arises, are
important components that facilitate, and complement their efforts to integrate work and personal lives.
While companies may provide equal opportunities for career development, the lower proportion of women
leaders at the top makes it less feasible for them to get mentoring and role modelling. However, there are other
avenues that women can proactively look out for. Many career development assignments such as, job rotation;
cross-functional teams; task forces; and committees to address business problems are excellent platforms to
learn on the job and hone skills. Such opportunities are available for both women and men in most companies.
Career development and leadership effectiveness requires constant reflection and practice, self-analysis of
performance and awareness of activities that drive ones passion and energy. The continuous process of
review and active engagement to facilitate the career decision process is as relevant when one is 51, as it is at
age 21. Experimenting with different learning, employment and voluntary activities gives a solid sense of
identity. Expect career choices and priorities to change through life. It is important to be aware of the wider
social circumstances when making career choices.
Conclusions:
Through this paper, we highlight some of the key challenges for career growth of female talent in the Indian
context. While India aspires to be an important driver of the global economy, having adequate gender
representation in the executive cadre is an important factor that would drive this growth. We highlight through
our research some of the initiatives that both organizations and women managers can undertake to facilitate
the career progression of female talent to leadership positions.
References:
1. Collings, D.G. and Mellahi, K. (2009) Strategic Talent Management: A review and research agenda, Human
Resource Management Review, 19(4), 304 313
2 Kanter (1977). Some effects of proportions on group life. Skewed sex ratios and responses to token
women, American Journal of Sociology, 82, 965-990
3. Krishnan, T.N. (2015). Need for and Perspective of Talent Management, National HRD Network Journal,
January 2015, 8(1), 124-128
4. Linehan, M. & Scullion, H. (2008). The role of mentoring and networking in the development of the female
global manager, Journal of Business Ethics, 18: 29-40
5. McKinsey&Company (2012). Women Matter: An Asian Perspective. Harnessing female talent to raise
corporate performance. http://www.boardagender.org/files/2012-McKInsey-Women-Matter-An-Asian-
Perspective.pdf
6. Mellström, U. (2010). New Gender Relations in the Transforming IT-Industry of Malaysia. In Gender Issues
in Learning and Working with Information Technology: Social Constructs and Cultural Contexts,2547
7. Rashid, R. (2010). The battle for female talent in emerging markets, Harvard Business Review, 88(5), 101-
106
8. Scullion, H and Collings, D.G (eds.) (2012) Global Talent Management, Routledge; London.
9. Tlaiss, H. & Kauser, S. (2011). The impact of gender, family, and work on the career advancement of
Lebanese women managers. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 26(1), 836.

Navigating Leadership Transitions:
Helping Leaders Successfully Transition
into New Roles
About the Author
Dr Pradnya Parasher is the founder and CEO of ThreeFish Consulting
(www.threefish.in). She has 20+ years of experience in Strategic HR, Talent
Management, Executive Assessment & Coaching. An Industrial-Organizational
Psychologist by training, Pradnya has lived and worked in the United States and
India.
Instrumental in bringing Hogan Assessments to India, Pradnya has provided
Hogan feedback to hundreds of business leaders. As the Master Distributor for
Hogan Assessments in India, she is responsible for driving Hogan sales and
Dr Pradnya Parasher marketing in India and ensuring scientific rigor in the application of Hogan
solutions across clients, resellers and solution partners.
She has coached leaders from diverse industries and from different regions of the
world including China, SE Asia, Middle East, Europe and the US. Client
organizations where Pradnya has coached leaders include PepsiCo, AT Kearney,
Dolby, Dell, Johnson & Johnson, Godrej, McDonalds among others. She has also
facilitated leadership development programs across US, Asia, and Europe.
In the past, she has held various HR leadership roles including Director People &
Organization Capability for Microsoft India, Senior Director & Country HR Head for
eFunds, Director & Country HR Head for Discovery Communications, and AVP HR
for InterGlobe Enterprises. Her last role was as a Global Talent Assessment
Program Manager for Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, USA.
She brings rich experience across a variety of industries and deep understanding
of workplace behavior and organizational dynamics to her coaching and
consulting engagements. Pragmatic & result oriented, Pradnya believes in human
potential for transformation. At ThreeFish, she leads the design and
implementation of coaching, consulting and learning solutions.
Pradnya has a Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from the University of
South Florida and is a member of the Society for Industrial-Organizational
Psychology (SIOP). She is a regular attendee and presenter at the Annual SIOP
Conferences. She continues to be a Life Member of the National HRD Network in
India. In the past, she has served as the Vice President of the NHRDN Delhi
Chapter from 2004-2006.

Navigating Leadership Transitions: Helping Leaders
Successfully Transition into New Roles
Abstract
E xecutive on-boarding is a critical and yet, often, overlooked aspect of hiring a senior leader into an
organization. Companies will engage top-notch Executive Search firms to find the right talent, and then
expect the person to hit the ground running. Organizations often overlook the role that they play in helping a
newly hired executive land successfully in their system. The challenge of successful transition is equally critical
when leaders are promoted internally to take on critical roles. Organizations and individuals assume their
chances of success because of their past track record. There are two distinct aspects of successful transition
management the individuals integration and organizations support for this integration. When derailment
happens, it is due to unique interactions between individuals failure to assimilate and the organizations failure to
provide support. In this article, Ive tried to articulate my experiences from last 10 years of working as a Transition
Coach with Senior Executives transitioning into new roles, review some of the research that has informed my
work and share practices that I have seen help with successful transitions. Target audience here is HR
professionals who can play a key role in supporting new leader success.
Keywords:Leadership transitions, leader on-boarding, leader assimilation
Leadership Transitions: A Success Story

Let me begin with a story of success -- how a thoughtful HR leader and a caring business leader facilitated
successful transition of internal talent into key positions. Some years ago, one of my clients, a successful
multi-national corporation in the food and beverages, decided to bet on their internal, home-grown talent, and
promoted four competent sales managers to lead each of their four regions North, West, East and South. All
elevations happened in the same performance cycle, and hence, almost at the same time. All four candidates
had been with the company between 7-10 years, had joined the company as management trainees, and had
risen through the ranks. They knew the business well. They had incredible track records of making their
numbers, quarter after quarter, year after year. As Regional Managers, the transition was significant. This role
was a mini-general manager role a role identified as a crucible experience for those on general management
track in the company. While making the numbers was still key, they had to begin to leverage all functions for the
first time HR, Finance, Supply Chain. The HR leader and India Sales Leader carefully planned their transition,
hired an external Transition Coach, remained patient and personally available to coach these mid-career
leaders as they navigated this career stage transition. The process yielded results in terms of business growth,
accelerated development for the leaders, and smoother transition for the teams that they were going to lead.
Leadership Transitions: Reality

Most leaders dont have the benefit of such carefully facilitated transitions; most people stumble through
leadership transitions. When asked to rank order a list of lifes challenges in order of greatest difficulty, making
a leadership transition was often cited as the number one challenge (Paese & Wellins, 2007). Leadership
development practitioners have cited failure rates for leaders hired from outside as ranging from 30-40% after
18 months (Ashkenas, 2010). Global leadership development consulting firm DDI has projected 28% as the
failure rate for internally promoted leaders (DDI Global Leadership Forecast 2014-15). Their estimates of
leadership failure rates rose alarmingly to 52% for externally hired leaders. These findings show that globally,
the leadership pipeline is leaky with ready now candidates available for less than half the positions.
In the same study, DDI notes that formal programs for leadership transition increased the percent of ready
now leaders by 7% and that formal programs for smooth leadership transitions at all levels had an impact on
the organizations financial performance. Does the availability of formal transition management programs

provide a safety net for both the organization and the individuals? Are both far more willing to take a leap of faith
knowing that there is a process to help ensure successful transition? If so, making these programs available will
have a direct impact on both availability of leadership talent and financial performance of the organization.
Managing Leadership Transitions

Leadership transition challenges are encountered at all levels of the organization, when a leader steps into a
new role, either from outside or promoted from within. A successful transition is one in which both the
individual and the organization are transformed for the better and are able to leverage each others strengths to
achieve mutually beneficial goals. (Downey, 2001).
Dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty, getting work done through others and navigating organizational
politics were listed as the top three challenges of leadership transition in a study of more than 600 leaders-in-
transition (Sinar & Paese, 2014). Engaging and inspiring employees, and creating a new network also made it
to the top 5 on the list of challenges.
Diane Downey, in her book Assimilating New Leaders, published in 2001, observes that it can take 18 months
and even longer for a new leader hired from the outside to become fully assimilated. In a recent survey
conducted by Egon Zehnder, a global executive search firm, of 588 senior executives from across Asia,
Europe, North and South America, 60% of the respondents said that it took them six months to have full impact
in their role and another 20% said that it took 9 months.
The challenge of assimilation is one of managing polarities and achieving the right balance being patient vs.
being productive; setting your own pace vs. following the organizations pace; drawing on experience vs. not
letting past experiences blind you; acting with authority vs. staying in a learning mode. Downey delineates four
distinct stages of Assimilation process Anticipation and Planning, Entering and Exploring, Building, and
Contributing. At every stage of the process, a leader needs to shift her focus of activities and the organization
needs to shift the focus of support. Leadership transitions are most successful when individuals and
organizations share responsibility for success.
Downeys book has been written for HR practitioners responsible for hiring and on-boarding senior leaders.
She recommends an ‘Assimilation Coach’ and a HR Touchstone to support the leader in transition. An
Assimilation Coach can be of tremendous value and support to the transitioning leader. The Coach can
collect or provide objective feedback, support the leader as she makes the necessary shifts, help her assess
the organization and culture, facilitate entry meetings such as a New Leader Assimilation meeting with the
team, and be a sounding board. Downey also recommends designating an HR Touchstone to partner with the
new leader through her assimilation process. This HR professional could come from a corporate HR group or
from within the new leaders line of business. The touchstone role requires the HR professional to balance
being an advocate for the new leader and ensuring that organizational objectives are met. HR Touchstone is the
internal go-to person for the leader-in-transition.
Byford, Watkins and Triantogiannis (2017), also recommend shifting the focus from leader on-boarding to
leader integration for newly hired leaders. They describe leader integration as doing what it takes to make the
new person a fully functioning member of the team as quickly and smoothly as possible. Its about integrating
fully into the companys culture. They identify five major tasks that a transitioning leader must tackle in her first
few critical months assuming operational leadership, taking charge of the team, aligning with stakeholders,
engaging with the culture and defining strategic intent. An organization can accelerate integration by
orchestrating custom-designed experiences that help the leader integrate more rapidly and fully.
One of my clients, a global strategy consulting firm, provides very structured support for the on-boarding and
integration of their new Partners. Most new Partners are internal promotions. The firm also selectively hires
laterally at Partner level. All new Partners undergo a structured development program, that also includes a New
Partner Forum where all newly promoted Partners come together for learning and networking. Other Senior
Partners and firm Executives are present at this forum for knowledge sharing. Each new Partner is also

provided an Integration Coach. They complete in-depth personality profiles, using the Hogan Leader Forecast
Reports, to provide insights on their strengths and development needs. Reflecting on what it means to be a
Partner, what personal brand they wish to build as a Partner, along with a deep-dive view on their personality
strengths and weaknesses, allows the new Partners to successfully navigate this critical career transition. For
the lateral hires from outside the firm, reflection on the organizational culture, where they fit, where they need to
adapt and how they wish to influence for change, is also a critical aspect of the Integration Coaching.
First 90 Days
The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins is a must read book for transitioning leaders. Consolidating years of
research and consulting experience, Watkins has listed 10 key transition challenges and advocates building
a 90-day acceleration plan to deal with them. The book gives in-depth reflections and useful tips for each of the
10 key transition challenges: promote yourself, accelerate your learning, match strategy to situation, secure
early wins, negotiate success, achieve alignment, build your team, create coalitions, keep your balance and
expedite everyone.
Emotional Dips
Most leaders in transition report two paradoxical emotions excitement and fear. While leaders are prepared
for the intellectual learning curve of taking on a new role, they are often unprepared for the emotional highs and
multiple dips that Downey (2001) says are predictable. The first emotional dip happens at around four weeks,
second around six months, and third dip around nine months. The big dip often happens around nine months,
when new leaders are beginning to build their organization and steer their organization in the new direction.
People realize the gap between their expectation and reality, they question their effectiveness, even their
suitability for the job, and start feeling like outsiders. Raising awareness of these difficulties when they arise,
helping the leader to be more alert and tolerant, to remain patient and supportive as new leaders navigate their
way past this difficulty is the most appropriate course of action during this time.
One of the most successful Leader on-boarding program that I have been associated with is run by a US
headquartered MNC pharma company. They recruit talented graduates from premium B-schools from across
the world, and offer them one year of structured, programmatic, on-boarding coaching support. This on-
boarding program has been running for more than 10 years. In my six years of association with this program as
an On-boarding Coach, I have witnessed what Downey calls the Big Dip happening at the six-month mark for
most of my graduate recruits. After the initial excitement and sense of achievement at being recruited to be part
of this global talent program fades, difficulties of navigating the organization to achieve results begin to dawn.
Gaps between expectations and organizational reality begin to appear huge. The hitherto high achieving
recruit begins to doubt personal competence, hits a low and sometimes begins to question his/her fit to the role
or organization. Acknowledging this dip and helping them understand that this is a normal part of the
assimilation process, releases much of the stress. A few specific questions to help them reflect on what has
gone well, and a few questions to help refocus on action planning and problem solving, re-energizes them and
helps them reconnect with their own resourcefulness.
Personality Assessment for Strategic Self-Awareness

Leadership transitions stretch and grow a person. This is a time to take stock of what one is naturally
predisposed to do given ones personality, and how it is likely to play out in the new role and during the
transition. A good personality assessment, with a feedback coaching session, when positioned developmentally,
can be a big benefit to the new leader. Transition times are periods of stress, where natural coping mechanisms get
into high gear for most people. Coping mechanisms when over-used can in fact become derailers. Something like
the Hogan Challenge Report, a measure of personality derailers, can provide powerful watch-outs to the
transitioning leader and her organization. Even one coaching conversation, based on an insightful personality
assessment like the Hogan Leader Forecast Reports is sufficient.

A few years ago, one of my clients hired a senior leader into a critical function. We generated the Hogan Leader
Forecast Reports and I had the opportunity to conduct the coaching session. The reports showed many
leadership strengths, and the risks of overestimating capabilities, over-commitment and becoming attention-
seeking. The leader was coming in with a strong track record, and expectations were high. He would have
equally strong peers, and building strong relations with these peers was going to be important to drive the
changes that he needed to drive. Becoming aware of these potential derailment risks helped the leader
develop more realistic 90-day on-boarding goals and remain conscious about sharing credit with his peers.
One year later, the leader was promoted and given even more responsibilities.
New Leader Assimilation Meeting

Within the first 4-6 weeks of a new leader taking on a role, it is a good idea to run a facilitated New Leader
Assimilation meeting. In my experience, this is one of the quickest and most effective ways to break-ice, build
connection between the team and the new leader, and surface critical Issues / challenges facing the team. The
output from a New Leader Assimilation meeting often helps identify possible early wins that the leader can
include in her 90-day on-boarding plan. It also sets the tone for open communication and dialogue between the
team members and the new leader, and begins to foster trust.
This meeting is typically divided into two parts, and can be facilitated by an internal HR partner or by the
external Assimilation Coach. Once the manager kicks off the meeting, and encourages people to be open and
honest, she leaves the meeting and a facilitator takes the group through various questions such as:
What do we know about the leader?
What we dont know about you as a leader?
What we want you to know about us as a team?
What are the greatest challenges facing our team that will impact our ability to deliver on expectations?
What do we think the unit needs, to perform our jobs better in the next 30-60 days?
What advice do we have for the leader to be successful in his/her role?
Group answers are noted on flipcharts. The leader then returns to the room and team takes a break. The
facilitator walks the leader through all the team comments and coaches the leader to prepare her comments,
clarificatory questions and answers to some of the questions. This is an opportunity for the new leader to begin
to set direction and have her voice heard. She begins to set the tone for the culture that she would like to create
in her team. The team is then called back and the manager shares her observations, comments, and answers to
some of the questions. Table 1, shows a sample agenda for a New Leader Assimilation meeting. Typically, this
session is run with the leader and her next level of direct reports; it can also get extended to one-level below in
the organization to include an expanded group of leaders in the process of leader on-boarding. Keeping the
core structure intact, the meeting is often converted into a 1 or 2 days of leadership team building retreat.

Table 1. Sample New Leader Assimilation Meeting Agenda
Leader Kick-Off 10 minutes
Warm-up / ice-breaker activity, facilitator shares process and agenda
Leader encourages people to be open and candid, leaves room
Facilitated Team Discussion 1.5 hours
What do we know about the leader? What dont we know and would like to know?
What do we want the leader to know about us as a division/unit/team?
What are the greatest challenges facing us as a division/unit/team?
What does the division/unit/team need in the next 30-60 days?
What advice do you have for the leader to be successful in his/her role?
Leader Overview: 20 minutes
Excuse all the attendees from the room for 1:1 with the leader
Give leader high-level overview of meeting, themes, Issues that had a lot of passion
Review each question/comment with the leader providing coaching as appropriate
Leader Responses: 1.5 hours
Participants return to room; Leader asks for clarifications, shares openly
Leader can pass on a question/comment and state that she is not yet ready to respond
Meeting Closure 15 minutes
Leader thanks participants; leader commits to converting insights into goals and action plans (working
with her Assimilation coach)
Proven Best Practices

Transitions are challenging. However, there are a few straight-forward things that an organization and the
leader can do to ease the transitions process.
Plan for the On-boarding

Transition management begins even before the new leader steps into the role. This planning should be done
with the manager of the leader. Manager can plan the on-boarding process in terms of initial meetings, sharing
of information prior to the leaders joining, as well as taking care of the basics like office resources for when she
steps in to the role. Critical stakeholders can be informed and enrolled in supporting the new leader integration
from even before the person joins.

Engage the Manager
Manager of the leader plays a critical role in setting up the new leader for success in her new role. More than
40% of transitioning leaders surveyed (Sinar & Paese, 2014) wrestled with lack of guidance from their manager
and unclear expectations. Thus, engaging the manager in the transition process is a best practice. Manager
needs to think through what are the key deliverables of the role, who are the critical stakeholders, and how
should the joining of this new leader be positioned with the rest of the organization. If there is a departing leader
whose vacancy is being filled by the incoming new leader, it is important to plan for hand-over/take-over.
Appropriate messaging around the earlier leaders departure is also an important aspect of how the new leader
is perceived and accepted by the team. What information needs to be shared with the new leader after she
steps into the role, what forums/groups should the new leader be invited to join, and setting up a rhythm of 1-1
connection with the new leader to review, discuss, and offer support during the transition process needs to be
worked out by the manager of the new leader.
Assign a Transition Coach

An Integration or Assimilation Coach can help the transitioning leader manage himself through the change,
uncertainty and learning related to the transition. The transition coach can work with the leader to help her build
clear and actionable goals that will help accelerate her assimilation. Coaching also provides a safe place for
reflection and the coach can be a sounding board. Coach can collect stakeholder feedback and provide
insights for course-correction as needed. Coach remains connected to the manager of the leader-in-transition
and facilitates Manager Engagement. This can be an external, professional coach or an internal coach, with
experience in transition coaching.
Table 2. Sample Focus Areas for Assmilation Coaching Goals
Assimilation Coach can work with the leader to identify clear, actionable goals in these areas.
Business Agenda - short/long term goals for the unit
Leadership agenda - leadership style, core values/principles, org. savvy; 90-day on-boarding plan
Relationship Agenda positive working relationships with manager, peer, directs, building a network
(key stakeholders list)
Learning Agenda - strengths and development areas in new role; create a development plan
Personal Agenda - manage time, priorities, balance work & family, maintain motivation and focus
Guide the Leader

Successful integration is a shared responsibility. Most transitioning leaders reported that a structured
development plan would have helped them immensely through the transition (Sinar & Paese, 2014). While the
organization provides support to the leader, the leader needs to actively manage the transition process. Over
the years, I have built a short check-list of what the transitioning leader can do to make her transition
successful. This is a condensed version of and draws heavily from Michael Watkins list of ten transition
priorities.

Table 3. Transition Success Strategies
Promote Yourself
Make the mental break from your old job
Negotiate clear expectations with old boss around hand-over (especially for internal transitions)
Build Momentum
Build a productive working relationship with your new manager
Gain agreement on your 90-day plan
Identify key stakeholders and start building relations across the organization
Keep your balance transitions are stressful times
Engage your support network this could be friends, families, mentors, colleagues at work
Secure Early Team Wins
Identify an early team win
Create coalitions supporters, opponents, those convincible vs. convincibles
Communicate your teams results
90-Day Plan
A 90-Day On -Boarding Plan is a most useful tool to guide a leaders transition. Firstly, it ensures clarity and
transparency around what the leader is focused on. It also ensures alignment with the manager, so there are no
surprises. Finally, it allows the leader and her manager to have focused conversations around how the
transition is progressing.
Table 5. Building a 90-day On-Boarding Plan
Think in terms of what you wish to accomplish by these specific milestones: End of Day 1, End of Week 1,
End of 30 days, End of 60 days, End of 90 days
Focus First 30 days on learning
Discuss key responsibilities, priorities and objectives with the manager
Agree on scope of role including non-negotiable and not-to-do list
Get to know your team
Generate questions that will help you learn about the past, present and future
Seek information from manager and others who may have critical knowledge about your situation (e.g.,
direct reports, peers)
Identify key stakeholders and begin to build your network of relationships
Develop 30, 60, 90- day expectations and gain manager consensus
Focus 30 60 days on 1 - 2 key priorities where you can secure early wins.
During the 60 90 days achieve or demonstrate progress against the 1 - 2 key priorities

CEO Transitions
CEO successions are the most publicly visibly leadership transitions. We have seen successful transitions for
CEOs like Satya Nadella at Microsoft (2014), Chuck Robbins at CISCO (2015), and closer to home, for Abidali
Neemuchwala at Wipro (2016).
Transitions to watch in the coming months are John Flannery taking over as the CEO of GE from Jeff Immelt,
and the recent announcement of Joe (Joseph) Jimenez retiring as CEO of the pharma giant Novartis and Dr.
Vas Narasimhan taking the reigns as the CEO from February 1, 2018. In both cases, the incoming CEOs are
internal promotions of long tenured leaders with a 5-6 month overlap for transition with the current CEO.
At the other extreme is the appointment of Dara Khosrowshahi on August 30th as the new CEO of Uber, after
the stormy exit of Travis Kalanick, who stepped down as Uber CEO under investor pressure in June of this year.
Khosrowshahis transition is going to be challenging, with high expectations for addressing known company
culture Issues, making the company profitable and possibly paving the way to an Initial Public Offering.
Closer to home, stormy exits of Vishal Seka from Infosys and Cyrus Mistry from Tata Sons would have created
both succession and transition management challenges for the two corporate behemoths of India. It is a rare
GE that plans CEO succession for 6 years and then carefully handles transition of the new leader into the role.
In India, most Boards dont discuss CEO succession. Most of the corporates are family owned and reluctant to
discuss Issues of death and letting go of control.
Although some of the challenges at this level are unique, most of the research-informed principles and best
practices for managing leadership transitions mentioned above can and do scale across organizational levels,
with some uniqueness based on level and situation.
Conclusion
Today, leader transitions are more frequent and even more complex. Transitioning leaders are often left to sink
or swim. Research has shown that leaders in transition desire and benefit from a structured approach to their
on-boarding and assimilation process. Doing this is not complicated in fact, most of it is quite
straightforward. What it requires is a mindset shift, commitment and disciplined execution. I strongly urge HR
colleagues to develop a systematic process to support leader transitions at their organization. Not only will
they receive thanks and appreciation from these leaders, but also, there will be financial payoffs.
References
Ashkenas, R (2010). Hire Senior Executives that Last. https://hbr.org/2010/08/how-to-hire-senior-
executives.html; last accessed on September 6, 2017.
Byford, M., Watkins, M. & Triantogiannis, L. (2017). On-boarding isnt enough. Harvard Business Review, May-
June 2017.
DDI Global Leadership Forecast Report 2014/15
Downye, D. (2001). Assimilating New Leaders: The key to executive retention. AMACOM: New York, NY
Paese, M. & Wellins, R. (2007). "Leaders in transition: Stepping up, not off." Development Dimensions
International.
Sinar, E. & Paese, M. (2014). Leaders in Transition. Progressing along a precarious path. Development
Dimensions International.
Watkins, M. (2003). The First 90 Days: Critical success strategies for new leaders at all levels. Harvard
Business Press: Boston, MA.

Lost in Transition
About the Author

Mr Gurucharan Singh Gandhi currently heads Learning & Development of a
leading Indian Conglomerate.
An MBA in marketing from the Institute of Management Development and
Research, he did his B. Pharmacy from Berhampur, Orissa. Along the years he
earned certifications in OD & Change management and in Coaching from the
NeuroLeadership Group. His current interests are individual and large system
change.
Guru, as he is known, is the author of a best seller called Kabeer In Korporates a
Mr Gurucharan
book which explores an alternative management narrative, learning from the
Singh Gandhi
famous bhakti saint and applying those learnings in the corporate set up. The
book won the best debut manuscript award in non fiction at Lit-O-Fest in 2017. He
writes regularly through his blog www.mondaymusingsbyguru.blogspot.com and
a few other publications. Guru enjoys long distance running.

Lost in Transition
A rticle in Brief: Organizations spend hugely for creating a pipeline of leaders. While many succeed, many
more struggle to transit to the new roles. This struggle may be rooted in the context, policies and the innate
personality of the incumbent. It is critical to understand deeply the phenomenon of transition and slice the
various types of the struggle during the process of transition even before we try to solve for the problem. This
article outlines the challenges of transition in detail and thereafter proposes some ways in which those
challenges can be solved for.
Lost in Transition
One of the most common conceptual errors of emphasis in Leadership Development is the area of development
during transition.
Most leadership development programs and initiatives are preparatory. The broad method involves picking up a
pool of potential future leaders and putting them through a journey of a cluster of developmental inputs. Some of
these inputs stick, others do not depending upon the quality and relevance of those inputs and the assimilation
ability of the participant concerned.
This method is akin to preparing for a jungle trek we plan, prepare, pack the bag with necessary tools and
equipment required for the journey. It is important to conceptually understand what the journey ahead is going to
look like, plan based on the literature available to us, basis based on what others in the similar circumstances
have gone through and finally based on our own estimate of what we are good at and what needs further
strengthening. However, as anyone who has been through a trek in a jungle will tell you that all that gets tested as
soon as there is contact with the unknown. The novice trekker needs most help during the trek not as much as
before the trek, without underplaying the importance of the latter.
The big question while designing the leadership development journey is to ask if we have provided enough
attention for assistance during the transition as much as we have provided for before it otherwise the journey
and the passenger may suffer from what I call lost in transition.
Transition challenges are of many types. A few archetypes are as follows.
The Comprehension challenge - The new roles, particularly a higher-level role is a qualitatively different one. The
nature of thinking and application required is different, if not higher. A new incumbent for reasons of
comprehension simply does not get the new terrain and the new game. The comprehension challenge is acute
when the transition involves a different business, a different product category or a different function. The
incumbent faces challenges in discerning the newness of the role. The new roles require new capabilities. These
capabilities may be at an operational level or at a functional level or at a behavioural level. The levers of the new
role and their interplay demands the new incumbent learn new skills and acquire new knowledge or master a new
technology all of which might turn out to be a gap too big to bridge. The good news about comprehension
challenge is that once correctly identified, it is easy to solve, assuming intent on the part of the transiting leader
both of which is easier said than done.
1. The Mindset Challenge: Every leader grows over his/her career and develops maps to manoeuvre around,
negotiate with problems and deal with Issues. Over time these maps also tend to become fossilised and
outdated. The rate of change of the map mostly trails behind the rate of change of the terrain. All of us have
an inbuilt SOP that has been honed over years that might have yielded results. We have our world views that
determine our default responses. Every transition is also a moment where such world views get tested for
relevance. A logical and technical person in a dominantly people related leadership role will struggle. A detail
oriented operational person will struggle in a strategic role. Despite technical brilliance and high IQ, leaders

in a new role may struggle if the temperament required for a new role does not undergo a transition. The
trouble with mindset transition is that it is not so easy for the incumbent to see his own failings in this light.
The Mindset challenge often comes camouflaged as a comprehension challenge in the eyes of the
incumbent, observer and receiver.
2. The Relatedness Challenge: A difficult reality to confront and accept in leadership roles is that we may not
be cut out to do all kinds of roles. This may be for a variety of reasons but the one most difficult to ascertain is
associated with relatedness. Each role consumes us in a unique way for example artists get consumed by
the greatness of art that is produced because of inspiration; a seller/sales leader is consumed by the
exhilaration of sales and growth at an envious level; a designer by the envy of its creativity and a product
specialist by the sweetness of having solved a consumer problem through its product. Each role has a
specific way of relating with its incumbent, just as each incumbent has a way of relating with its role. Its a
perfect union. However, every transition for a leader represents a possibility for this unique relatedness to
change. If the change represents a loss of that unique relatedness so precious for the incumbent, he will
experience a void, a loss of mojo, an inexplicable loss of meaning. It is truly difficult to identify and solve this
one.
3. The New Work Rhythm Challenge: Every role demands a transition in the work rhythms. Some roles
involve micro management and others macro management and both require a different work rhythm, a
different way in which the daily and monthly time allocation is managed. One kind of time allocation perfect
for one kind of role can be a disaster in another kind of role. The proportion of time allocated for managing the
team versus the stakeholder versus the market versus the regulator undergo a change as roles change.
However, the incumbent might still be stuck in a time warp, thereby creating circumstances ripe for a
transition challenge.
Solving the Transition Challenges

Each of the above transition challenges should be solved by the team which is responsible for crafting the
transition journey. While each archetype is broadly speaking a transition challenge, they do not have the same
topography; solving each one of them requires an approach which is geared towards solving the specific
nuance of the challenge. The same strategy for enabling the transition will not work in all the four types.
The comprehension transition challenge can be solved by formal and technical training programs or creating
conversations & buddy programs with senior members who have been there and done that. A slightly long
handing over phase with the previous incumbent often plays a significant role in minimising this transition risk.
Sometimes, it also helps by creating opportunities for industry visits with similar industry companies &
attending industry body conferences. If the basic intellect was present in the incumbent and has a track record
of success which provided him the new role in the first place the comprehension problem usually, but not
always, will be the symptom of a deeper Issue such as the other three transition challenges outlined above.
Hence it is critical to diagnose the real transition Issue if we expect any success.
The Mindset Challenge is more difficult to solve. It is not a skill or capability challenge that is easy to identify or
even accept. The incumbent usually shall not be forthcoming to accept is as such for it requires an awareness
and courage of very high order. The usual method recommended is providing a transition coach which might be
external or even a mentor from within the organisation. Irrespective of the choice between the two, this is an
aided process. It rarely solves itself on its own. The choice of the coach or mentor, their credibility and their own
abilities to deal with the Issues of mindsets must be tested before they are assigned. A wrong choice can cause
irreparable damage to the incumbents self-confidence and transition challenge. The process of transition help
involves many things vis-à-vis:
A. Making the incumbent see his own worldview and its impact on his choices
B. Reflection on his own personality characteristics, determining his attitude towards business challenges
and his preferred method of solving them

C. The impact of past experiences and particularly past successes on the incumbents perspective and blind
spots
D. The presence or absence of risk taking in decision making of the incumbent and reasons thereof etc.
The Relatedness Challenge is the next level of the transition challenge that few are prepared to confront,
because of our blind hunger for career growth. Many years ago, a senior colleague offered me a higher-level
assignment which I politely declined, I thought it would take me away from the action and involve me in
administrative & coordinating. He smiled at me and said, we call it strategizing and influencing. Later, I
understood I was so attached to the action and doing part of my role, and I the possibility of moving away from
it was an anathema to me, even if it came with a promotion. The perfect way out of this challenge remains a
puzzle. A part of the responsibility lies with the incumbent and the other, with the talent team. The incumbent
must ascertain if he is emotionally prepared to deal with a change in the nature of work. He must accept the new
role only after he confronts his likes and dislikes, the roots of his mojo from his job and when he is sure that a
change will not leave him disillusioned. On the other hand, talent teams should be able to judge the candidates
likes and dislikes in equal measure. Given sufficient time there is a strong possibility a newer nuance may catch
our fancy. We must approach the new role with an open mind to allow newer sources of mojo to strike roots.
The New Work Rhythm Challenge may be understood as a different version of the mindset challenge, except it
is often related to the time management aspects. The person should be provided him the benefit of an internal
mentor who has done the same or similar job in the past and is aware of the pitfalls. New roles expect new time
allocations, prioritisations and emphasis- and if not managed properly it has the potential of robbing the
incumbent of effectiveness even when everything else is in place. The above four archetypes can manifest
themselves in combination of each other, thereby complicating the form and shape of the transition challenge.
It requires some imagination for the talent management processes to estimate and foresee the transition
challenges in each case, and then provide for them well in time. It will however require a high degree of
awareness for the incumbent to be able to see which one or more of the above is causing a transition stress.
Role of Line Managers

It is not uncommon to lament the poor role in leadership development that line managers play in general. It is
astonishing that rarely is the ability of managing transitions a part of any leadership development program.
Managing transitions is a specific competence with very different conceptual and operational backbone.
Unfortunately, it is rarely accorded the importance it deserves in the leadership development journeys of
middle or senior management. It is left to the mercy of individual leaders to figure this process on their own and
approach it based on their experience and instinct. On the other hand, it is common to see the use of external
coaches to enable transitions, thereby perpetuating the conundrum.
Most transition creates stress, in small measure or large. Many of these take care of themselves over time as
the incumbent struggles his/her way through the blues. The question to ponder in matured and progressive
systems is - can we save the incumbent and the system from avoidable pain during this transition?
Gurucharan Singh Gandhi is the author of national bestseller Kabeer In Korporates and the Head of Learning
& Development with a leading conglomerate. The book was recognised in the Best first Published book
category at the LIT-O-FEST, a literature festival in Mumbai|| www.gurucharangandhi.com||

Why Leadership Development
Efforts Fail
As an independent leadership development expert Mr Devapriyo Ghose helps

organizations improve leadership performance with a view to enabling enable
effective execution of business strategy. Executive coaching, assessments,
feedback, and facilitation of learning / organizational outcomes for executive
teams are his specialty areas. Earlier Devapriyo led the Leadership Development
Practice at Mercer Consulting and was with the Infosys Leadership Institute
at Infosys Technologies for 5-6 years facilitating the leadership development of
Tier -1 leaders. Devapriyo represented Infosys on the Leadership Development
Council of the Conference Board, USA. He has written and spoken on leadership
Mr Devapriyo Ghose
development in various national and international forums. He has over 30+ years
broad multi-disciplinary experience in India/US in consulting and industry.
Academically, he has an MBA from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
and a Masters in Economics from Calcutta University.

12
Why Leadership Development
Efforts Fail
Abstract
L eadership development can be a significant contributor to organizational success and longevity. However,
there are a number of many flaws that often bedevil leadership development efforts. These happens when
not enough attention is paid to context; when ownership is missing either in the individual, the organization or in
executive sponsorship; when there is not enough clarity on leadership requirements; when a whole systems
approach is missing; and when some critical element of the development process is missed out or insufficiently
implemented. Based on the authors long experience with leadership development and both primary and
secondary research the paper elaborates where and how these flaws are typically seen, resulting in the less than
satisfactory outcomes for many leadership development interventions. Conversely, through the identification of
flaws, the papers hope to help identify the critical elements that make leadership development efforts succeed.
Keywords : Leadership Development, Derailers, Context, Ownership, Leadership requirements, Whole systems
approach, Leadership experiences, Leadership journey.
Introduction
A January 2017 World Economic Forum report lists Reimagining the leadership model as one of the The 4
concerns that keep CEOs awake at night. Read any CEO interview about their major business challenges and
concerns and youre very likely to find leadership listed somewhere near the top; or check out any airport
bookshop and youll find it chock full of books on leadership. Yet for a subject that is so talked about, the level of
real engagement in thinking about achieving meaningful value through leadership development is surprisingly
patchy.
Its not that money is not spent on leadership development. It is. But equally, most often youll find the overall
impression ranging from mild disappointment about lack of tangible results to raging unhappiness about money
having been being wasted. The DDI/Conference Board Global Leadership Forecast 2014-15 says,
Why is leader quality going nowhere fast? Apparently, because leadership development efforts have stalled,
despite the fact that it is estimated that some $50 billion a year is being spent on developing leaders worldwide.
As in the last two forecasts, only 37 percent of leaders in the current study rated their organizations leadership
development program as effective, indicating no improvement over the past seven years. The An overwhelming
majority of leaders are still saying they are not satisfied with their organizations development offerings. Its no
wonder that, with leaders reporting a lack of improvement in their development, we arent seeing a vast
difference in overall leader quality.
So, based on both research and personal experience of seeing both successful and failed leadership
development efforts, here are five of the most common flaws that typically derail such interventions.
Figure 1: Mind map for why leadership development efforts fail
Missing Out on Context:

Leadership development happens in a context. Without a deep understanding of why development is
important, any development effort runs the risk of being misdirected. Leadership development has most value
when there is a clearly understood causal link between what the organization wants to accomplish and the
changes that leaders need to make, individually and collectively, to achieve them.
The context of the industry conditions, the life cycle of the organization, the organizations history and culture
and the bench strength among other things would make an enormous difference. These differences may not
call for a different set of leaders per se, but almost certainly call for different leadership with different mix of

leadership qualities. An organization facing a downturn would require different leadership than the same
company enjoying years of sustained growth. An organization in a mature industry with well-defined
Individual
Leader
Culture Ownership...
Which needs to Organization
exist for ...
Strategy
Executive
Leadership
Context...
Which Clear and
misses detailed
out on... Mindset, behaviour
beliefs and indicators
skills
Why Leadership
Development
Efforts fail.
Because we
miss out on.... Leadership
Metrics/ Requirements
Milestones ..Which dont
incorporate ...
Feedback
Reflection Systems/
-
action loop Policies
Whole system
approach..,
Which does
not account Teams
Elements of for....
the Development
Process... Holistic
Which dont approach/
include... multiple
methods
Structure
characteristics, e.g. building aircrafts, would require different leadership than an industry on the brink of
disruption, e.g. automobiles. An organization focused on an acquisition led strategy would require different
leadership from another company in the same industry focused on organic growth.
While this seems obvious, it is surprising how often leadership development efforts are undertaken devoid of
context and instead based on some universal set of principles that may or may not apply in this particular case.
A variant of this approach is interventions based on off-the shelf products or based on the latest management
book that has become a fad. Not that this book may not contain great and very useful ideas, or that the product
does not have great attributes. Unfortunately, the question what are we developing people for and does this
leadership development approach serve that objective often does not even get asked, much less answered.

Along with executive education courses at leading global MBA schools, these types of interventions can be
very useful for exposing leaders to current thinking/theory, building perspective, helping them network and
signaling the organizations appreciation of the leaders worth. However, they are not necessarily do not help in
helping for changing behavior or perhaps even for in building specific capabilities and skills. Unfortunately, it
has often been seen observed that these forms of leadership development efforts are initiated with just those
kinds of objectives, behavior change or specific capability building, in mind. Eventually there is a clear sense of
disappointment in the organization that its objectives were not met. It could be argued that that the objectives
were mismatched but it is surprising how often people expect specific results through interventions completely
unrelated to the leaders specific context.
Contrast that with the action learning projects undertaken by the India arm of a global electrical engineering
organization. The projects were considered relevant enough to be presented to the Board and subsequently to
the Global executive leadership and two of the projects were considered important enough to examine
whether they could be implemented globally. There was a palpable improvement in engagement, clear
business benefits and important opportunities for senior people to step up their game to influence peers at a
global level which they had not done before.
The other element of context that is critical is culture. Organization culture determines how strategy gets
translated into execution. An organization which prides itself on individual heroics to get things done and see
planning as somehow constraining needs a different approach to leadership development than one with
mature human capital processes embedded into. Unfortunately, many organizations are uncomfortable talking
about culture since its often ill-defined and hard to precisely pin down and therefore react to culture passively.
However, the implications for success of leadership development design to succeed are twofold. Firstly, in
evaluating how the culture might impact the leadership development process and what elements might work in
this culture versus what will be rejected (e.g. trying to do a 360-feedback assessment in a highly politicized
environment where people are very suspicious of each other or trying internal coaching in a let me tell you what
to do culture). Secondly, in baking into the design what in the culture needs to change to achieve its strategy.
At another level, changing culture is an exercise in leadership and every culture change initiative is an
opportunity to develop and deepen leadership abilities. If these elements of culture change are not included in
leadership development, as they often are not, there is a very real danger, as Peter Drucker is supposed to have
said, of culture eating strategy for breakfast
So, deep immersion in and connecting to the leaders business context is critical to the design of any
leadership development thinking, to ensure that there is ensuring a strong felt need which satisfies the
questions of why leadership development before one get to the question of what leadership development
needs to be done. Understanding the organizational culture will help to determine the extent the design has to
be embedded in the culture or has to thread the needle on how to change that culture which will have an
important bearing on how leadership development happens.
Missing Out on Ownership:

The Issue of ownership operates at multiple levels.
The individuals ownership of his learning is perhaps the most significant key to the success of the
interventions. Actively creating that ownership and setting expectations that any participant in a leadership
intervention is required to take ownership of and responsibility for their development journey is a very important
first step. However, this is more often than not overlooked and thus ensuring any intervention, even if well
designed, becomes a hit-and-miss affair some motivated participants get a lot out of it; others wait for
learning to be poured into them without their having to engage with the process. This is seen most often in
industries with high attrition or these where there is a lot of investment in learning and development so people
dont have to feel that if they miss this opportunity it will not come again. Its important to be clear that
leadership cannot be taught; but it can be learnt.

Individual ownership can work only when there is corresponding ownership at the level of the organization -
through organizational follow-up and link with organizational process; ensuring that line managers are thinking
about both potential and performance, identifying relevant development opportunities; providing linkages to
career stage and possible growth paths; through messaging that the a particular leadership development
intervention in question is both relevant and important
Finally, executive ownership sponsorship, though through messaging and demonstrated commitment goes a
long way towards successful leadership development efforts.
For example, at a mid-sized MNC, a global leadership development initiative pushed by an influential HR Head
got shelved 6 months later by the CEO citing revenue / margin pressure and the proviso that he had never been
convinced about the virtues of the initiative anyway. A few months later when it was sought to be revised under
the aegis of a new HR Head, a significant number of participants were very skeptical saying they didnt believe
the organization was serious about people development.
Missing Out on Leadership Requirements

While the overall connect to the organizations business context and strategy is critical, it is only the first step
albeit a foundational one. To make the development process operational there needs to be clarity on what
exactly is the intended to happen as a result of that particular leadership development intervention what skills
or behaviours needed to be acquired, enhanced, modified or dropped. Without this clarity, interventions are
almost being set up to fail.
These changes in terms of skills, behaviours, beliefs and mindset therefore have to should be drilled down into
much more specific indicators this drill-down typically happens through the organizations competency
model.
Competency models have a couple of problems. One is its development in the traditional what the best
performers do approach given the change in the pace of change and the multiplicity of continual but different
challenges that arise in todays business context, this kind of a static approach is doomed from the start.
Traditional management theory of business growth held that organizations went through a growth phase and
over time emerged into a steady state. That no longer happens very few organizations can cost coast along at
a steady state either youre growing or someone else is eating your lunch and youre declining. In this
environment, competency models need to be a lot more future focussed.
Even when they are future focussed, it is useful to distinguish between traits like curiosity and empathy that you
probably need to hire for; versus behavioural practices like pattern recognition and being able to give feedback
which can be learnt and built on. These are in contrast to behavioural outcomes such as being a good strategic
thinker or being a trusted advisor that in turn helps you achieve better business objectives like getting more
business through better strategy or better relationships. The clarity between traits, practices, behavioural and
business outcomes not only helps business managers understand the required behaviours but also build their
beliefs on why they are important by linking to what they can do if they exhibit those behaviours. Obviously,
each stage is only a precondition i.e. curiosity is not a guarantor for being a better pattern recogniser but it is
certainly a good predictor. Likewise, being a good pattern recogniser certainly cannot ensure a great strategic
thinker but is it almost certainly enhances the probability.
Thus, rather than looking at the competency to be developed per se, it helps to focus on the strategic demands
being put upon the leader(s) as the starting point of any leadership development effort and work backwards
from the business outcome to the leadership challenges represented by those demands which can then be
further used to pinpoint behavioural outcomes to the practices that need to be developed.
Even where there is a level of clarity of outcomes, by definition a competency model has to be relevant to a large
range of people and therefore operates at a fairly high level of abstraction. To make it operational to a particular
set of people at a particular point in time, the competency indicators have to be narrowed down and grounded
anchored to specific behaviours that need to change, to be strengthened or to be elevated to hygiene level.

12
Hence narrowing which competencies and within those which indictors are relevant to the people/group being
developed clearly is important.
Another criticism of competency models is that in attempting to be holistic they become fairly complex in the
number of competencies, and extent to which people are expected to excel in each of them. A standing joke is
that if God (or Superman) were evaluated on a typical competency model they would almost certainly fail if
they clear the standards for vision or setting direction, might they not clear the bar on execution or building a
second line?
Even at the level of a particular competency and a particular behavioural indicator, a further level of specificity
may be required. While many competency models talk about building relationship skills to be a trusted
advisor what constitutes trusted advisor-ship would be different across organizations, across functions,
across roles and across time.
Having a grounded understanding on what exactly that looks like at a particular time and location is a critical
requirement of driving successful leadership development. However, this level of grounded understanding
which requires a large investment in time and detailed questioning is not often seen.
Further, more often than not, Issues around mindsets and beliefs tend to get missed out. For one theyre much
more fuzzy and unclear than knowledge and skills; and for a second theyre much harder to change. However,
particularly at senior levels, it can be argued that the bulk of the development effort needs to happen in
precisely that space. For most if not all people at senior / executive management levels, development Issues do
not arise from knowledge and skills even where skills gaps exist they can be traced back to mindset and belief
Issues. A CEO who fails, probably doesnt fail because a lack of knowledge of Finance or Chemistry; but more
likely because they dont listen to warning signs or because of hubris coming from being super-successful in
the past or because they are incapable of delegating and lands up doing everybody elses work. Tracing back,
that inability to delegate probably doesnt come from a lack of awareness of how or what to delegate but more
likely comes from beliefs about his own capability or from impatience to get results or from not being able to
move on from past success to recognising what was is most important in their current orbit.
Without diagnosing the Issues and setting realistic objectives accordingly any leadership development effort
runs the risk of tackling the wrong problem.
Missing Out on a Whole System Approach

Since were talking of leadership development, rather than leader development, it is important to take a whole
systemic view of what needs to change, besides the leaders behaviour and skills, to achieve the organizations
objectives. weve been talking about. Specifically, to look at what are the other structures and systems that
need to be exist to support changed leader behaviour; who else needs to be impacted to build the critical mass
other individuals, team, organization; what organizational policies or processes affirm, reinforce and
complement the leadership development effort.
Some commonly seen examples of this are:
What the organization measures and manages versus what the individual is being developed for e.g.,
leaders are developed for creating 2nd line but rewarded for individual performance
Providing on-the-job developmental assignments to support leadership development programs are very
useful to reinforce learning but woefully infrequently used
Where the leader is going versus how his career is planned and managed and what he is developed for
(from a succession perspective) e.g., the organization wants him to be a holistic leader but keeps him in
sales delivery
The set of capabilities looking to be built for individuals versus the set of leadership requirements across
the organization e.g. the organization needs adversity leaders but individual leaders are focused only on
operational leadership

What a leadership development intervention is aimed at versus the material conditions the leader will go
back to e.g. leader is sent for a course on empowerment or delegation and comes back to being told by the
manager to get back to real work and that the program was a waste of time
Consider a leadership development exercise aimed at, among other things, bringing about better collaboration
in a professional services firm organized as a matrix. While there were clear benefits to the program, including
enhanced efforts at working across silos, post intervention analysis of the impact, lead to a realization that
some other scaffolding for the required behaviour change was needed. Building in structured forums for joint
planning and providing a means to give multiple groups revenue credit for joint work went a long way to support
the changed behaviour. Often, soft methods such as exhortations of the virtues of collaboration and
collaboration capability building through leadership interventions need to be buttressed by hard changes in
structure and incentives to have real impact.
A similar exercise intended at the India arm of a global technology major had to be called after the diagnostic
phase. Senior members of the leadership team of the groups different line of business expressed their
frustration privately at what was seen to be as hobby-horse of the global leadership development function. As
someone succinctly put it We talk about collaboration once a year in our leadership workshops and forget
about it the year round. The performance management system, even at senior-most levels, was clearly
oriented towards individual or silolevel results; and the incentive systems only reinforced them. There was no
attempt to explain why their collaboration would make a meaningful difference either for themselves personally
or for the businesses they headed; there were no formal touch-points where they had to come together; the
organizational mythology prominently celebrated the individual hero who stood alone and achieved against
impossible odds and the unstated culture was one of getting ahead and not compromising. Under the
circumstances it was deemed prudent not to have a collaboration themed intervention at this stage without
supporting actions in some of the above areas.
Lastly, take the case of an industrial manufacturing organization which put its middle-senior level leaders
through a leadership development initiative that includes an action learning component. One of the action
learning projects involved a cross-functional team designing an improved quality management system. The
project went so well and ahead of time that and the team was tasked with implementing it, as well. However,
there was no explicit organizational sponsorship and no one at anthe executive level intervened to rope in the
Head of Quality and the Head of Manufacturing and through them the rest of the function. Thus the action
learning team, even with senior representatives from both these functions failed to make much headway since
they are were able to influence only some people on their own steam but not enough of a critical mass. The
project failed and it was seen as a failure of the leadership development process rather than a failure to look at
other missing support elements.
Missing Out on Elements of the Development process

It is important to be clear that leadership development efforts are designed to facilitate the leaders learning as
well as their ability to learn. Its not that leaders would not develop without formal leadership development
interventions. People learn from their experiences, from being in the right place at the right time, from crucible
moments, from having someone given the perspective or feedback, from being able to process their
experiences and being able to garner lessons which they can apply subsequently.
Leadership development tries to do this by design and with purpose to replicate what might otherwise happen
by accident or serendipity. It reverses of process of undergoing reflection, from what it is that needs to change
and then providing the platform and resources to bringing about those changes and learn from it. NEEDS
REWRITE?
In a perfect world, leadership development would provide a continuing reflection action loop. Reflection
would have the leader examine where they wants to go and identify the knowledge, skills, behaviours and
mindset required to get there; identify the current state of these and thus the gaps through feedback or self-
analysis; reflect on why that goal is important to reinforce the motivation. Action would entail filling in the gaps

12
through learning from a classroom, learning from others, learning from experiences. All the while ensuring there
is enough feedback to ensure they are learning, are on the right track, getting towards their intended goal and
ensuring the goal is still valid. Concurrently they would be reflecting on how to assimilate the learning and apply
it in the future and in the process, acquire the meta-skill of learning how to learn. Thus, this cycle continues with
the next orbit of personal growth and development and the next set of actions and so on.
Since the world is not perfect, the above paragraph also encapsulates all the flaws that creep into the
development process resulting in the less than stellar results that leadership development efforts often deliver.
Leadership development programs are often sold as a one-off exercise with the message being do this and
you become a leader and youre set for life rather that this is the first step on a long and ongoing journey. This
comes from focusing on leadership development as an event and stems from short term organizational
expediency. It is perhaps a reflection of a tick the box approach rather than a process to build long term
engagement and benefits both to the organization and the individual. This is also reflective of the fact that
leadership development is often seen as either a reward for high performers or a way to fix erring behavior,
including fixing obvious derailers among otherwise strong performers. As an outcome, there is generally not
much attention paid to, and therefore insufficient preparation for, ensuring the leader is clear about how this
development is going to help them and are motivated; neither is there sufficient discussion on and or facilitated
reflection on career direction and where the development process fits in either to the current or future roles
Learning has to be holistic to have impact. While many interventions benefit from a classroom component it is
important to keep in mind that the classroom sessions, to be effective, have to be designed somewhat
differently from the traditional teaching approach - instructor-led, content-heavy, knowledge-imparting - and
instead focused on learning by doing. Without application of the learning and follow-up either through
development experiences or on-the-job, the full value of the classroom session is seldom realized. However,
since it is difficult to provide structured experiences that can be monitored or be able to influence line managers
to do the monitoring, this follow-up component often gets overlooked. Other ways of sealing in learning e.g.
through teaching / facilitating others learning in a supervised manner can also be effective both for the
teacher and the taught. For the teacher because the process of thinking through and being clear about what to
communicate itself is a great learning process and often helps to bring about a higher level of commitment to
the topic as well. For the taught, because the extent of connect to the business and practical day-to-day reality
can be high. Supervised since the first time, one teaches / facilitates to ones peers or junior can be
intimidating, so scaffolding the process is helpful. However, this is very infrequently used because its usually a
hard sale to make internally.
Experience shows using multiple methods of learning over a period of time can be much more effective that a
single intervention because the multiplicity of touch-points allows the learning to be reinforced and deepened
in multiple, small, digestible doses rather than in one large chunk and thus made more impactful. A Pharma
research organization decided to run a year-long Leadership Excellence Acceleration Program (LEAP) for
about 20 people who were seen as potentially taking over executive leadership roles in the next 1-3 years. The
program was designed to start with a 360-degree feedback/development center, followed by structured
individual development planning, followed by 4 classroom sessions, interspersed with an action learning
project in 2 phases, conceptualization and pilot, supported by group and peer coaching and concluding with a
360 feedback to evaluate progress. At the first classroom session, which was focused on Leading Self two
thirds of the participants, 90% of whom held post-doctoral degrees in Chemistry, or Biology, decided to stage
a walk-out because they felt the session was adding no value. Instead they suggested that the ideal leader be
profiled, and since they had already been assessed through the development center, just told what they
needed to fix and they would fix it in one shot why waste time and money over a year. Fortunately, the CEO
intervened and persuaded them to give the program a chance, talked about the struggles and joys of his own
leadership journey and stayed personally engaged in talking to and guiding the participants over the course of
the action learning projects and review sessions. A year later, when asked what their learning had been, various
people offered various benefits strategic thinking, managing change, influencing others, developing others

and so on - but 100% of the participants said the key learning was that leading oneself was the hardest part of
leadership, that leading the self was the foundation to leading others. The continual reinforcement of the
learning through the projects and group coaching, sharing experiences through their peer coaching and the
role modeling of behavior by the CEO were critical factors in making the intervention work.
At the risk of making a sweeping generalization, most organization are much better at providing operational
feedback (you did a terrible job of) than providing timely, actionable and future focused development
feedback. This is a problem in general but gets exacerbated in the context of leadership development
interventions where such feedback is critical to understand where one is to start with, to support the process
and provide the means of making mid-course corrections. Compounding this is the fact that while performance
is measured, even if imperfectly, there is not much evaluation of potential in most organizations. In fact, many
organizations may not even have a shared understanding of what constitutes potential in their context. Thus,
there is likely to be little or no feedback on potential and how to develop that along with performance.
The other thing that helps to evaluate progress, keep people off?/on? track and understand where and when to
make mid-course corrections that are milestones and metrics. Not make-believe metrics like program
satisfaction scores but meaningful ones that tell a leader whether theyre moving in the right direction and
perhaps to what extent. Since leadership development objectives tend to be fuzzy and take time to be realized,
it is hard to stay focused and motivated without a sense of this. While it is almost impossible to come up with
specific, objectively measurable numbers to measure progress it is possible to engage with the question of
what will we see different if I achieve my leadership development objective. True, it is very hard work to come
up with these meaningful surrogate metrics and very few organizations or people do it, bet when they do, it
adds a lot of value to the process. Examples of such surrogate metrics are How confident is the Board, that the
CEOs appointed successor is ready; has the decision making cycle reduced; have the number of customer
complaints reduced, have the number of escalations to the boss or the number of fires being fought come
down they may be fuzzy and inexact but they are observable even if not precisely quantifiable and would still
help determine if progress is being made and in the right direction or for the organization / leader to decide that
the development methods or objectives need to be tweaked.
Conclusion:
This article identifies five elements that, when missed out by leadership development efforts, cause them to
fail. Conversely, ensuring that attention is paid to these elements goes a long way to ensuring they succeed.
These five elements are:

Firstly: Missing out on context specifically ensuring that development is informed by the organization
strategy to ensure alignment of development with business objective; is embedded in organization culture to
ensure it is not designed to fail and / or can use organization culture change as a crucible to achieve develop
leadership which achieving strategic objectives
Secondly: Missing out on ownership ensuring that expectations are set that individuals to own their own
leadership development, no one else does; organizations take ownership for follow through and organizational
alignment; ownership at the executive level for sponsorship and messaging to demonstrate commitment
Thirdly: Missing out on leadership requirements - ensuring that objectives are drilled down to
behaviour/mindset change and/or skill development that will make a material difference to the leaders
performance and potential to impact organizational results
Fourthly: Missing Out on a Whole System Approach ensuring attention to other organizational elements that
need to support the leadership development process structures, systems, policies and people.
Finally: Missing Out on Elements of the Development process ensuring a reflection-action loop to build both
learning and the ability to learn, holistic learning using multiple methods for mutual reinforcement, sufficient
feedback and appropriate metrics and milestones to keep the leader on track.

12
In summary, to be truly effective at developing leaders and a leadership pipeline organizations need to look
beyond a quick fix of a program or a workshop, to understanding their objectives clearly with all the
complexities of their current context, what needs to be achieved and why and design the intervention
accordingly. Organizations also need to understand what are the multiple levers that influence to help get there
in additional to the personal development, the role of senior executive commitment and sponsorship, the
interplay of systems, structure, policies, processes and culture that will enable or vitiate the development
effort. Integration with real work, holistic development methods, feedback and metrics all play a part in making
the development process more effective,
Leadership development is a long gestation journey for the organization and a lifetimes journey for the leader
however accomplished a leader, a different time and space will bring different challenges to be faced and
different qualities to be exhibited.
On the other hand, done well, leadership development can be the single largest differentiator between
organizations that thrive and sustain over time and those that dont.
References:
Carter Louis, Ulrich David and Goldsmith Marshall, Best Practices in Leadership Development and
Organizational Change (How the Best Companies Ensure Meaningful Change and Sustainable Leadership)
Conger Jay A., Leadership Development Interventions: Ensuring a Return on Investment, Handbook of
Leadership Theory and Practice (A Harvard Business School Centenary Colloquium) ed. Nohria Nitin and
Khurana Rakesh
Feser Claudio, Nielsen Nicolai, and Rennie Michael, Whats missing in leadership Development?, Mckinsey
Quarterly, August 2017
McCall Morgan W. Jr., The Experience Conundrum, Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice (A Harvard
Business School Centenary Colloquium) ed. Nohria Nitin and Khurana Rakesh
Profiles International Whitepaper, Why Leadership Development Fails (And How to Make it a Success)
Ready Douglas A and Conger J, Why Leadership Development Efforts Fail, MIT Sloan Management Review,
Spring 2003
The Conference Board and Development Dimensions International (DDI) Global Leadership Forecast
2014|2015
Williams Ray, Why Leadership Development Fails to Produce Good Leaders, International Coach Federation
blog

Facilitating Development of the Leadership
Pipeline: Issues and Practices for Consideration
About the Author
Mr R Anand is presently Sr Vice President HR at HCL Technologies Ltd, an IT
services company with an employee strength of 120000 and operating in 33
countries. In his professional life, he has focused on the study and practice of
organizational effectiveness and designing people practices that are fit for
business. He has more than 14 years of experience in the design and deployment
of leadership development and pipeline building efforts across multiple countries
and cultures. He has facilitated multiple organization re-design efforts at his
employers with very favorable business outcomes. He has also introduced leading
Mr R Anand people practices using social technologies and the employees first customers
second philosophy for which he has received international acclaim by Workforce
Optimas, Human Capital Leadership Institute, Aon Hewitt to name a few. Job
readiness of youth is his other area of expertise and passion towards which he
published a book, Job readiness for IT & ITES, 2016, McGraw Hill. His expertise
in this area of job readiness and employability have been acknowledged and
recognized by the governments of Uttarakand, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. He is
presently researching the impact that positive psychology, behavioral economics,
psychoanalysis, mind-body connections should make in addressing well-being
Issues of modern urban life. He is an alumnus of IIT Madras from where he did his
Masters in Physics and XLRI Jamshedpur from where he did his Post-Graduate
Diploma in Human Resources.

Facilitating Development of the Leadership
Pipeline: Issues and Practices for Consideration
Abstract
A healthy leadership pipeline is a definitive competitive advantage. The failure rate of newly acquired
leaders is as high as 40%, while the failure rate of newly promoted leaders from within, is much lower. In
this article the author argues that the act of individual development, i.e., the individual development input- is a
small part of the leadership pipeline building process. There are many other variables that take away or add to
leadership pipeline building but they are often not focused on with the same rigor. It is time to focus on these
other variables and for a bit it is important to focus less on the exalted input that a program or a coach claims
to give. Designing for these other variables need to be anchored on strong theoretical foundations. The author
of this paper offers an option that has been tested with encouraging results and is now open for consideration
and critique.
Key Words: Leadership pipeline, Leadership development, development stages, development design
Whether facilitated or not, leadership development happens in any organization or social system.
Development practitioners may like to imply that leadership development is possible only after leadership
development input is given. However, when employees start managing higher responsibilities or solving
complex problems, the organization has already indulged in operational or technical leadership development
respectively. Political parties do not provide formal leadership development but successions happen and
leaders do emerge when the situation demands.
Development of High-potentials often appear as an aside, and as a parallel track to work, business, or
employee processes in the organization. High-potentials hence do not relate to and often cant draw a vivid line
between what is happening here in development and what should be done there on the field. The focus of
this article is on these other variables and how they add to the leadership pipeline building process.
The author and his team introduced several practices to create a leadership pipeline building system. Each
practice element or design element is hinged on certain theoretical foundations and the purpose of this article
is to describe the practice elements, the underlying theory, the method of deployment, the outcomes and the
learnings. The elements are listed below.
1. The reason why we must develop leaders
2. Gating development & bringing parity between build and buy
3. The Gates & Labs of development constituting stages in the development journey
4. Proof points: Anchoring the affirmation of development on pre-anticipated positive events
5. Lead labs that utilize the social system to state and hear on development journeys
6. Achieving Happiness not point B: Marrying Strengths, Identity and opportunity
7. Creating a system
8. Gamification of the retrospection phase
Why develop leaders in your organization?

While this looks like a no-brainer, the subtle differences in the answers have lots of implications for
development design. We use development design as a broader term for all the elements and how they come
together in the development and delivery of a leadership pipeline. It is not used in a bounded manner for the
individual development input.

We have long promoted performers whose leadership quotient is suspect. In order to get out of this syndrome
there is a need to develop a pipeline for growth and a pipeline for entering new markets. This approach
becomes relevant in a context where skills are changing and senior leaders are retiring. Each of these answers
call for definitive change in the development design prevalent in the organization.
For example, if leadership is being built to enter new markets, high potentials with adjacent exposure to similar
markets must be selected, the course curriculum must have content about the market and the practices. There
must be a cultural orientation to the new marketplace.
Similarly, if leadership is being built because the skills are changing, high potentials with high learnability are to
be selected. Those not afraid of making a transition, proved by their previous career record should be selected.
The current motivation of the high potentials to undertake such a transition must be validated.
When the pipeline is being built because senior leaders are retiring, the political aspect of acceptability of the
new leaders should to be examined thoroughly. Visible rituals in the development design to increase
acceptability of the new leader is important. The new leader must know how to negotiate space with the
transitioning current leader. These will have to be part of the counseling given to the emerging leader in the
development design.
Similarly, there is a need for a gap analysis of the current leadership capacity (do we have enough leaders?),
capability (do we have the right leaders?) and risk (will we retain our leaders?). This author has often found it
useful to characterize current leaders on capacity, capability and risk profile and to sketch an ideal
configuration of achievables two years hence. Discussing this with the CEO, the board and the business
presidents help sharpen the response to why we must create a leadership pipeline at all?
Build-Buy parity
When a leader is applying for a job outside the organization, there is enough introspection and psychological
mobilization. The candidate anticipates the required skills, motivations, the demands of the job, and is aware of
the risk of transition and has burnt the proverbial bridge to the past. There is no going back and the way forward
should lead to success. Such a leadership candidate not only takes responsibility for her actions but knows
that risk of failure is a possibility.
When high potentials are being developed, there is no such deep and urgent reflection. The selected candidate
feels secure and believes that I am here because I am good. Such an attitude prevents a candidate from
making the personal transition and accepting the personal costs of the journey. In the development process,
the bridges with the past are strengthened. To introduce a healthy discomfort and to build awareness of the
probability of failure, three elements are critical:
1. Orientation Session: This is where the organization could talk about similar journeys facilitated in the past,
which constitute the external benchmarks of leadership development success. The objective would be to
remove the idea that there is only upside and no downside. For example, this author always begins such
orientation by giving statistics from the previous development cohort. 55% of you will reach your point B,
25% will be good but for lack of opportunities will leave the organization and 20% of even this elite group
will drop out, unable to cope and having been pronounced as not capable of reaching point B.
2. GATES: The development design must ensure candidates are able to track their own progress without
ambiguity. The first GATE is the commitment GATE. This is where the high potential has done all the
introspection and presents their journey to the leadership development board. When this introspection is
accepted as substantial and the journey is plausible and aligned to organizational vision, the high potential
crosses the commitment GATE. There are several other GATES as indicated in the diagram below that we
use in our development design. (Please note that the Leadership development program in this
organization is called TOPGUN). After demonstrating proof of development, they are let in to another
GATE, into another lab in which to perfect themselves. The concept of the labs is elaborated in the next
section

3. Selection: The process of selection and the parity between an external candidate and an internal high
potential is critical. This author has found that when the same team is responsible for leadership hiring and
leadership development, it ensures that the choice of internal and external candidate happens on an even
keel. The internal candidate has proven credibility but may lack exposure and acceptability of peers; the
external candidate is a new variable and hence can be set up to succeed but we are never sure whether the
short selection window is a credible one and if the external candidate will adjust to the culture of the
organization.
TOP GUN TOP GUN - HONORS
300 Potential Leaders 270 Committed Leaders 200 Blossoming Leaders 130 Certified Leaders
Goal Assessments and Internalization oflearning's

Chemistry lab interaction between the Top Gun
Internalization and Personal Goal Setting.
Psychology lab Transition and coherence

Track the journey Explore the physics lab.
achievement and categorizes people
Biology Lab - adapting and evolution

prescribe customized intervention.
Live Assessment and Development–

in ABC, and also leadership Type
Performance on Stretch Roles and
( including External Candidates)

Early signs of progress or derailment
DPB does validation of goal

Begin The Journey LDB - 1
Mode : Selection Interview
Final Goal Assessments and

categorizes people in ABC { IDP
Leadership Appreciation
DBP does goal refinement and

360 + other instruments
Mode: Power Positioning
Deputation Planning
Stretch Assignments
The learning process
“What” Questions
The ecosystem
LDB - 5
LDB - 4
Gets initiated}
LDB - 3
LDB - 2
Gate 1 Only Gate 2 Only

Gate 3 Only
committed Leaders go Demonstrated /
Certified ready
forward Improved Leaders go
Leaders go forward
forward
DBP: Development Board Presentation [DB : Cross LOB, Min : 3 Members , Progress Assessment
LOB EC]
GATES & LABS

At the first GATE of commitment, participants showcase their self-reflection. They sketch the trajectory of their
life thus far and describe their present. They present the knowledge and skills; the experiences and exposure;
and the competencies they have acquired. They also marry it with who they are, i.e., their identity. The
development board consisting of senior organizational leaders need to be convinced that the introspection has
been honest as well as substantial.
At the next GATE, they go through the physics lab. This is the lab, where they calibrate the distance to point B
(their destination). This point B is often a role that is different from their point A role or a level of mastery that is
higher than their current level. They demonstrate that this point B is a stretch but still at striking distance from
where they are today. The development board verifies their calculations, ensures that this is real, aligns well
to the journey of the organization itself and certifies that enough work has been done by the high potential in this
physics lab. The engine that the participant will switch on to make the journey from point A to point B is also
certified by the development board. The participant gets to point B and a development roadmap is given as a
take away in the physics lab. If this roadmap is not signed off, the physics lab is deemed incomplete. Once
perfected, the high potential has passed this GATE of calibration and dimension, he/she moves to the next
GATE.
The next GATE gets the person into the chemistry lab. This is 4 months after the physics lab where the high
potential comes back to present how the development journey has sparked certain internal reactions. This is

an early stage assessment that the development intervention is indeed valid for the individual. The struggles
and how they are being overcome is the discourse in the chemistry lab. The development board at this juncture
shares personal stories of their own struggle with development and who or what helped them. Where there is
no visible reaction, positive or negative, the journey of the chemistry lab is deemed incomplete and the high
potential is asked to substantially engage in the development process
The next GATE that the high potential passes and the next lab they enter is the biology lab. This is where the
high potential proves that all it takes to go to point B has been acquired by a without a doubt demonstration of
proof points. This is the proof that the person has now evolved akin to biological evolution. Almost all proof
points are signed off in this lab and the development board of the individual certifies that the person is ready for
point B.
This is not the end of all. There is one last GATE. Here the person enters the psychology lab. A personal
change uncomfortably accomplished will not sustain (2). Like a dogs tail, one will spring back to ones old self.
In this last lab, the individual is encouraged to achieve psychological coherence and fully accept the
consequences of the new self and the psychological costs of change that it has elicited. Once this self-image is
re-integrated, the development is complete and the threat of regression to the earlier state is minimized.
The proof of development

While externally recruiting, we ask candidates why they think their knowledge, skills, exposure, experience and
competencies make them fit for the job. If we were to collect proof points on which to admit a candidate into a
leadership position, in this design element, we are just asking our high potentials to generate similar proof
points.
It is important that we transfer the burden of proof of having developed on the high potential themselves. The
idea is to put them on the spotlight and hot seat and test their leadership qualities. A development board
comprising of line leaders cannot be expected to discern psychological change, but they can certainly verify
the proof points just like they do for external applicants. In the physics lab itself, agreements are drawn on what
constitutes proof of development.
This design element hence is fit for purpose. In addition to transferring the burden of proof, the development
process itself unleashes lots of success events in the organization thus bestowing competitive advantage even
as individual development is taking place.
There are two other advantages:

The development board comprising of senior leaders in the organization have a data based platform to agree or
disagree on what constitutes leadership. The level of fine tuning they achieve on the leadership model that fits
best with their current organizational juncture is a big take away for the development board.
The second advantage is that the heads of these businesses have a live opportunity to benchmark the quality
of leaders and the pace of development taking place in their adjacent business. Often, this author has seen
them inspired by the stories of leadership they now see in front of their eyes and when they go back, they expect
their own teams to raise to these benchmarks thus. This unleashes a Pygmalion effect (3) on the teams.
During the labs, the high potential explains their proof of development. We present an aggregated view of the
development board about the participant through gamification. This was done by asking the leaders to
distribute a finite number of coins amongst the high potentials they met that day. We then share this aggregated
score to the high potentials. For example, we gave 10 coins each to 3 development board members to bet on 6
high potentials. If all were equal, each high potential can expect 5 coins, but you have got 7, well done. This
provided the vital feedback link to the development process as there was now a competition with a standard of
excellence (4). This relative comparison of all high potentials is well received by the high potentials. This moves
the paradigm of development efforts into an opportunity mindset from an entitlement mindset. It is easy for a
leadership development participant to fall into the entitlement mindset as they are the exclusive few amongst
the many selected for development and receiving personal attention from the leaders of the organization. This
need for constant feedback amongst high achievers is well established in theory.

The Lead Labs
The day after their labs with the development board, all the high potentials assembled under the facilitation of
the program design team. The idea is to reflect on the inputs from the development board. Typically, the
process of facilitation was all who need to work on xyz competencies and a few hands would go up. The
next question was all who had this very same competency as their strength were accepted by the
development board. The facilitator asked the high potentials who are strong on these competencies to talk
about the following:
Describe a situation you tackled recently that manifested your strength being worked upon by your
colleagues?
How do you think you developed this competency?
What are the mindsets, skill sets and tool sets that facilitate the expression of this competency and what
hinders?
The facilitator would then turn to the advice which the high potentials got from the leadership development
board. They would then ask them to integrate their learning from the recent discussion above to draw a
roadmap that is now more specific.
Throughout these conversations, the facilitator reminds them that they are good, and re-wiring one-self is hard
business and if they feel fully ready to undergo this personal transformation. The social proof (5) from fellow
colleagues about acquiring and expressing these competencies usually encourages the high potential to make
the first intrinsic commitment that this change entails and be ready to pay the psychological price for this
transformation
It is Flow, not Point B

In the first introspective presentation of the commitment GATE, everyone records a video about their peak
moments. This is when they were at their best. The development board is trained to locate the themes that
anchors the persons career from these peak moment descriptions. Often, we see that the high potential is
presenting a point B that is not aligned to these career themes and even identity themes. The development
board spends plenty of time with the high potentials counseling them to do what makes them happy, not what
makes others happy.
At their peak moments, also called Flow (6), these individuals forgot themselves, time stood still, and they were
effortlessly masterful. This happened when they were pursuing a worthwhile objective with their core strengths
and skills. To be a leader is to aspire for many more moments of Flow or peak performance. The high
potentials receive the input that Flow is more important and point B is just an incidental step on the way
Creating a system
The author believes that creating a leadership pipeline is about creating a whole system and not a pre-
occupation with the development input or a classroom transaction. If the system has integrity, each of the
elements will reinforce each other and address the final outcomes. The system described above solves many
problems faced in the designing and deployment of leadership pipeline building efforts. Chiefly,
a) Harmonization of what the individual wants and what the organization wants
b) Using social proof to make development immediate and real for the high potentials
c) Providing feedback, an important expectation of high achievers throughout the process, thus creating an
opportunity mindset as against an entitlement mindset
d) By transferring the burden of proof of development, the system encourages the high potential to reflect
and convince their candidature much like an external candidate would do in a job application process
e) The GATES allow the system to evolve so that there is an exit out of the process in the most natural manner,
especially when the journey is long, the failure rate of development is non-trivial and the circumstances
may change

f) The 4 labs that impose a development structure is naturally aligned with real human development
processes which must first establish the what of development (the physics lab), whether the process
works for the individual (the chemistry lab), and if the adaptation to the new task is complete (the biology
lab) and if it is irreversibly secured (psychology lab)
Gamification as a tool
It is very hard to retrospect as a group on a recently concluded development intervention. The richness of
inputs throughout the process is high, the stakeholders have often seen parts of the process, the stakes are
high as they are talking about their very best talent and they are in the presence of a peer group where the need
to go one-up may prevent an honest retrospection of what worked and what did not and why. Any debate
based approach will lead to rhetorical questions and the central agenda of retrospection could get hijacked
Further the leadership program and design team, especially if they are internal have a lower status compared to
the development board and the CEO. This further necessitates that the retrospection happens through a
methodical but sensitive process. It is here that the gamification of learnings becomes useful.
In order to tackle some of these Issues, the author and his team created a card game. There were three types of
cards in three different colors. One set was the high potentials card. At one card per person, it had a brief profile
and photograph of each person. The second set was about opportunities. They contained all the leadership
vacancies that arose in the organization in the last 2 years, the third set of cards were the development plans
that the board recommended to different high potentials. The leadership group was divided into 4 teams and
each team had 5 members. There were 3 leaders who were pulled out to judge the game.
Each team was dealt with a set of cards, equal number of high potential, leadership positions and development
intervention cards. They had to create a match to close a position with a high potential. Once they close all the
positions, they win the game. They may or may not use the development intervention cards. For example, if
they think the individual with the development intervention is ready for the job, then the set of 3 cards form a
closure. When the individual is already ready, then the individual and the position card form a closure.
The facilitator then announced that each team give away that development intervention that they think is not
useful to them and in-turn receive the development intervention that their neighboring team does not want to
see if they improve their match. After 2 rounds, the development interventions that teams were willing to give
away were noted by the coordinators. These are the least efficacious interventions and must be discontinued in
the collective wisdom of the group.
Similarly, the facilitator asked to give away a high potential card that the group believes will not fit into the
opportunities they have. The coordinators similarly noted those individuals who are getting passed around
as least valuable. These were candidates whose characteristics are such that they ought to have been filtered
out while identifying potential in the first place
Thirdly, the facilitator asked for some position cards to be given out. All those position cards that got passed
around are those for whom our pipeline is not getting built and the corrective action was to either focus a
pipeline on them or decide to externally hire for those positions.
This way retrospection of the entire intervention was done and collective learning of the entire group was
captured and accepted in the most efficient manner
Conclusion
Leadership pipeline is about many other variables, while what receives wide attention is the development input
itself, the other variables that make the system of pipeline development deserve focused attention. How these
other variables work in conjunction with each other and towards pipeline building is the focus of this article, and
is being offered for consideration and critique. To put the other significant variables in play, they must be well
grounded in theory and well-integrated in design. A 55% success rate amongst the leadership cohort for
reaching their point B in 24 months, a high level of engagement and participation from both the high potentials

and the leadership development board (more than 75% scheduled attendance measured in planned vs actual
person-sessions on the date scheduled and the joy of seeing so many TOPGUNS grow and reminiscence
about their experience several years after the intervention were the happy outcomes of the leadership pipeline
building model described in this article. Three lessons were learnt. The first one was the expectation mismatch
between typical participant expectation of structured input vs. a thrown into the deep approach. The second
was that structural changes in the organization in the development timeframe that moved the point Bs of the
aspirants. The third was not factoring personal constraints like lack of mobility in the design.
The author wishes to acknowledge several colleagues who were part of the development design and
deployment across many high potential cohorts over the years. They are Heena Verma, Rajan Johri, Vasudha
Atreya, Deepali Khanna, Preksha Prabhakar, Srivathsan V M, Kannu Priya and Anand Noatay.
The views expressed in this article are the authors individual views and may not be construed as those of his
current or former employers
Notes
1. Adaptation from Korn Ferry model on the possible reasons for developing leaders
2. 10 Factors predicting relapse: Common barriers to maintaining behavioral change: Heshmat, Shahram,
2016, Psychology Today (psychologytoday.com)
3. Pygmalion in Management: Levingston, J. Sterling, Harvard Business Review, 2003, originally published
in 1969 Harvard business review
4. The Achievement Motive: McClelland, Atkinson, Clark and Lowell, 1953, PP 76-77
5. A room with a view point: using social norms to motivate environmental conservation in hotels:
Goldstein, N, J, Cialdini, R, B & Griskevicus, V. (2008), Journal of Consumer Research, 35, 472-482
6. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Harper and Row, 1990, Copyright
© Global Learning communities, 2000

Productivity Tools: Fitness Band for
Workplace Engagement?
About the Authors
Dr Kamal K Jain is currently professor in the Area of OB & HR and Dean (Academic)
at IIM Indore. He joined IIM Indore in September 2007. Prior to joining IIM Indore,
he worked as Professor of Strategic Management/HR with University Tun Abdul
Razak (UNITAR), Malaysia. Besides teaching at IIM Indore, he has taught at
National Institute of Financial Management Faridabad, IIM Ranchi, Helsinki School
of Business Finland, and several other places.
Dr Jain is actively involved in corporate training programs.. He primarily conducts
training programs in the area of Negotiation, Leadership, Performance
Dr Kamal K Jain Management, and Instructional Pedagogy. He has published around 60 research
articles in the national and international journals and his bio-data has been
included in Reference Asia - Asia's Who is Who of Men and Women of
Achievement, and Trainers and Training Institutions - Who is Who. He got
President's Special Mention award in 2006 by the President of UNITAR for his all
round meritorious contribution to the cause of university in general and the Faculty
of Business Administration in particular. He was awarded the best professor in
Human Resource Management in 2010 by World Education Congress Asia
Awards. He was awarded Agra University Gaurav Shree Award in 2013 by the
Global Network of Alumni of Agra University. He was given the best professor
award by IIM Indore in 2015.
Ms Roshni Das is pursuing her doctoral studies in organisational behaviour and

human resource management at the Indian Institute of Management, Indore. Prior
to joining the program, she was working with the risk consulting division of Oracle
Financial Services Software Limited, Mumbai. Her area of expertise was
operational risk management and banking process analysis. Presently, she is
associated with the AON HR Think Tank Initiative as a Track II scholar.
Ms Roshni Das

35
Productivity Tools: Fitness Band for
Workplace Engagement?
Abstract
T he extant and dominant theory of results-oriented leadership has been challenged and severely criticised
in recent times, in both academic and popular culture, due to several cases of organisational misconduct.
We cite and discuss two cases of misconduct, one in academia and the other in microfinance to support our
assertion. We also submit that the antidote to these risks is to adopt a process-oriented leadership style. To this
end, we offer some forward looking recommendations that can be adopted by leaders to get better and quality
outcomes in the future. Implications for leadership development programs are discussed.
Key Words: Result oriented leadership, dark side of leadership, process oriented leadership, leadership
development
Introduction
To discuss something as serious as Risk, let us begin on a lighter note. A man was walking on the road.
Suddenly he saw Yamaraj standing in front of him. The man was frightened. Yamaraj looked at him and in a
reassuring tone said, You have another 50 years of life so go and enjoy, nothing will happen to you for the next
50 years. The man drove a car very recklessly, met with an accident immediately and passed away. On the way
to heaven he saw Yamaraj smiling mischievously. He asked Yamaraj, why did you lie to me? Yamaraj said,
Sorry son, dont you know it is the month of March and it is appraisal time. I have to meet my targets." We now
want to impress upon our readers that the risks of results oriented leadership are for real, we are not joking.
Results oriented leadership: A recap

Leadership theory has progressed along multiple lines of inquiry in the last fifty odd years. We outline four
prominent ones here. First is the study of leadership style of the individual as a manifestation of personality
related variables, i.e. understanding whether it is a trait, state or something external to the individual
(Antonakis, Day & Schyns, 2012). Second, study of leadership as a function of situations in the environment
and the consequent dynamicity of style within the individual corresponding to changing environments (Vroom
& Jago, 2007). The third stream studies leadership as a collective process and other alternate variants such as
shared or distributed leadership (Cullen-Lester & Yammarino, 2016). Finally, we have the perspective of
leadership as a multi-level phenomenon within the organization. It is this last view, contributed and developed
by Yammarino and co-authors (2001) that we subscribe to, in this article. What follows is that, we endeavour to
understand how particular kinds of environmental stimuli (read culture) within the organisation shapes the
leadership orientations of employees across the hierarchy. We advance the proposition that if one of these
stimuli happens to be a profit maximisation based culture; then what ensues is a results oriented leadership
style within the organisation and in turn, this leads to several consequences that are detrimental to the long run
continuity of the business.
What results-oriented leadership essentially implies is that results or outcomes are not just privileged criteria
in determining performance of employees across levels, but are the sole focus for the organisation, at the cost
of all the other four facets, and especially, the facet of process. Bazerman (2014, p 33) observed, Leaders
often fail to notice when they are obsessed by other Issues, when they are motivated to not notice, and when
there are other people in their environment working hard to keep them from noticing. Numbers-driven
managers often end up producing reams of low-quality data (Likierman, 2009, p 99). If an organisations culture
hinges itself on such a lopsided view of leadership, then consequences can be quite unpleasant. There are
several cases in contemporary times which support this assertion. We take up two cases in particular.

The case of Research Misconduct
One case of scientific misconduct (Harvard Magazine), among many others, that gained considerable media
attention was that of Marc Hausers, in 2010. Hauser was a psychologist at Harvard, researching the
comparative evolution of cognition and language in monkeys and humans. Between, 2002 and 2007, he
published a series of articles in some of the most renowned journals in the subject, with false data, false
reportage of analysis and results and false method descriptions. After all these malpractices came to the fore
following an ethics inquiry by the department, Hauser had to resign from his position and incur much
professional discrediting. He later confessed, I tried to do too much, teaching courses, running a large lab of
students, sitting on several editorial boards, directing the Mind, Brain & Behavior Program at Harvard,
conducting multiple research collaborations, and writing for the general public. I let important details get away
from my control to achieve those numbers.
In a recent, densely anecdotal and informative article, Herndon (2016) lists out almost the entire range of
malpractices that have emerged in academic research owing to the publish or perish policy being adopted at
several top institutions. The pressure to publish as a pre-condition to retention or promotion opportunities have
led to an explosion of quantity or the numbers of research papers published, at the expense of quality. To cater
to this demand, several unscrupulous publication houses have mushroomed which will print anything for a fee.
Newly hired and seasoned academicians both, in a bid to maximise quantity, sometimes use the same dataset
to generate multiple papers or worse still, manipulate the data if the results of the research are not favourable
and there is apprehension of being rejected by editors. Distribution of authorship among multiple authors
without commensurate contribution or roping in a foreign author, based on the latters familiarity with the
editorial board, are some other malpractices that are being adopted. Bazermans (2014) observations in this
regard merit attention. He quips, How did we get to this state of affairs in social science research? To start with,
in recent years academia has become more competitive. Quite simply, today it is much harder to obtain a
prestigious university position than it was thirty years ago, when I was a junior faculty member. The quantity of
publications produced by the top new PhDs on the job market is astonishing. In addition, scholars at the top
universities have the best chance of receiving media attention, large speaking fees, and rich book contracts, so
the stakes of winning coveted position are high. All this calls for a serious look at whether scientific progression
is being served or not.
The Micro-finance debacle

Micro-finance is a financial intermediary service between regular banking operations and the marginal and
underserved population. Initially, it was hailed as a harbinger of financial inclusion for the global south, but there
were several anomalies to come to the fore, later on. Microfinance has been referred to as a very operations-
intensive business, which translates into the concern that the scope for human error and/or manipulation of
processes is quite high. Given this scenario, the kind of leadership that is prevalent in such an institution, can
have deep consequences with a ripple effect across the system i.e. it can also affect the end users or
customers of the service.
There have been several adverse reports of many micro-finance companies and their executives indulging in
profiteering oriented malpractices that have only made poverty worse, in many states of the developing world.
In India, some companies have been known to charge upto 200 percent per annum interest on loans given to
the poor. Many times, this was done in lieu of improper or inadequate documentation being provided by the
borrowers. When the borrowers were unable to service these on time, extortion and shaming practices
conducted by companies drove many to commit suicide. In the specific case of SKS Microfinance,
unreasonable expectations and skewed management philosophy also lead to counter-productive behaviour
and deviance at the workplace., there was employee embezzlement to the tune of 15.8 crore Rupees
(Bandyopadhyay & Unnikrishnan, 2013), made possible owing to the fact that all transactions with customers
are on cash basis. It was also reported that both authorised and unauthorised commission agents had extorted
customers on the assurance of getting them loans. The Micro-finance institutions (MFI) bill of 2012, by the
Andhra Pradesh government forced SKS to expunge its operations and withdraw from the state, which was
once the leading state in financial inclusion.

Remedies
It is obvious that there is a need for re-evaluating leadership within the organisational set-up. This in turn means
that the criteria of judging and rewarding appropriate behaviors and performances must be re-looked at. The
organisation must re-orient itself to look at long-term sustainability rather than short-term outcomes. In order
to achieve this, we recommend a three pronged approach, consisting of: (1) Best Practice culture, (2)
Compliance as a criterion in employee performance management, and (3) Risk based audit.
Best Practice Culture

Organisations must consider benchmarking themselves against the best practices in their sector and ensure
that this culture and awareness percolates down to every employee. From the individual employees
perspective, this will bring two outcomes. First, knowing that ones organisation is classified among the best in
their industry will lead to enhanced identification with the organisation and pride. Second, this pride might
translate into employee engagement and several pro-organisational behaviors in turn. Essentially, a best
practice culture has been shown to have several far reaching and previously un-anticipated spill-over effects,
across the board, in terms of employee outcomes.
The idea of the best practice culture can perhaps be best understood in the context of the recently promulgated
Corporate Social Responsibility Act, 2013. This act was a formal bid by the government to bring in private
companies into the fold for sharing the responsibilities of social welfare by mandating a 2% contribution of their
net profit to this end. The fact remains however, that most public sector companies in the infrastructure building
sectors such as SAIL (Steel Authority of India Limited), OIC (Oil India Corporation), CIL (Coal India Limited) etc.
have been making substantial investments in the socio-economic upliftment of the backward regions in which
they operate, for several decades now. These Maharatna and Navratna companies were already setting
benchmarks long before their private sector counterparts were made aware of it. These companies not only
generated both direct and feeder jobs in these remote regions, but also set up full scale townships with
extensive amenities such as schools and hospitals, to benefit their own employees as well as the local
populace, across the social strata. Among the few private sector companies that might be appreciated for
taking a best practice stance in this regard, the Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO) deserves a special
mention.
Compliance as a criterion in employee performance management

The idea of a best practice culture need not stay just at the principle level but can be advanced further into
concrete performance appraisal criteria for employees. Compliance with process fidelity might be considered
as one of the items to be evaluated alongside such things as delivery time and/or relationship building, for
instance, among others. Moreover, it might be integrated in a seamless manner by breaking it up into parts
overlapping with other requirements rather than just being a sore box to click kind of obligation. An illustration
might be a mandatory compliance certification on one hand, and also including compliance orientation of
the employee as a question to be asked from various stakeholders during the 360 degree feedback process.
An illustration of this afore-mentioned suggestion is visible in the information technology (IT) industry. In this
sector, maintaining privacy of data shared by clients is of utmost importance for the vendor IT organisation. To
encourage employees to be ethical custodians of this sensitive and confidential data, the organisation
encourages them to take IT security and quality certifications, such as Six Sigma, CISA (Certified Information
System Auditor; i.e. certifications from the international apex body in this area: Information Systems Audit and
Control Association, ISACA) etc, the costs of which are re-imbursed. This is beneficial from the employees
perspective as well because the latters resume is strengthened and future potential for landing such projects is
augmented. An extant instrument that can be put to good use and thus deserves mention here is the Balanced
Scorecard approach by Kaplan and Morton (1992). It is a technique that can be applied for quantification and
measurement of performance at any level or of any function within an organisation by taking stock of indicators
across five sets of parameters. These parameters are the customer perspective, employee perspective,
internal process, financial perspective and societal perspective. Compliance is something that can be
integrated into the employee perspective for a particular department. Meyer (2003) offers an excellent guide for
practitioners on how this kind of integration can be achieved and implemented.

Risk based audit
Process audits must be integral to cleaning house in every organisation on a regular basis. A good example is
the banking industry. This sector has served itself well by constituting and adopting a rigorous set of self-
regulatory measures, across the board, in the form of the Basel accords. While risk management has been
prevalent in other sectors as well such as project engineering and healthcare to some extent; the Basel
committees contribution as applicable in the banking sector was devising a very thorough and rigorous
version of risk weighting all possible documented risks of the banking process. It was a mammoth exercise in
terms of compiling all these risks under three categories: credit, market and operational risks and
recommending appropriate procedures, frequencies and statistical processes for quantifying each. The final
step, after quantification, is asking banks to pre-emptively allocate a portion of their capital for covering these
risks, should they occur. Central banks in the entire developed world and large parts of the developing world
have actively implemented this system to better protect their economies against banking failures.
In a more localised regulatory context within the banking sector, most countries also have a banking
ombudsman structure in place. This is the central banks way of pulling up a bank in case a grievance is filed by
the public or by a private citizen. The insurance industry has time and again tried to come up with similar
measures for actuarial organisations, in the form of both internal and external mechanisms; although the jury is
still out on their effectiveness. One reason is the inherent complexity of the actuarial products which demand
that process-oriented leaders must necessarily be extremely proficient in product and process knowledge if
they must effect changes in the result oriented culture.
In government organisations, this idea pf public audit and public scrutiny has been operationalised by the Right
to Information (RTI) Act of 2005. One must however bear in mind that external audits are a post-hoc measure
only and do little to prevent a decline in organisational health. What must be the focus for the organisation
instead are pro-active, internal checks and balances to deter any negative outcomes in the first place.
Essentially what the above three measures imply is that, there is a need to move away from the results-oriented
leadership style to a Process-oriented leadership style. This entails incorporating several changes across
levels from the organisational culture to HR practices in terms of the performance appraisal process and from
coaching leaders to cultivate a different quality of relationship with their followers to ensuring that auditing
mechanisms are augmented and made robust. We succinctly capture these differences in the two diametrically
opposite leadership styles in figure 1 as given below.
Figure 1: What does going from a Results-oriented leadership style to a Process-oriented leadership style
mean
Recommended Shift in style across levels
Results-orinted leadership Process-orinted Leadership
Over-arching Organizational culture: Profit maximisation Value maxinization (i.e. Best practice Culture)
Prevailing Temporal outlook
Short term profits Long term sustainability
within organization:
Leader/manager/supervisor’s
Efficiency based Effectiveness based
monitoring style:
Transactional in nature. Leader Relational in nature. Leader monitors short
Leader vis-’a’vis follower is primarily concerned with term revenues earned as well as the long
relationship quality revenues earned by follwers term developmental potential and needs of
as per targets set. followers and the department.
Goal setting and Performance Focus only on accomplishment Both quantity and quality (including
management philosophy of quantitative goals compliance procedures) of goals
achieved are scrutinized and evaluated.
Auditing styles followed at the Conventional Audit (Post-hoc; Risk-based Audit (Pre-emptive;
organizational and individual levels: diagnostic in nature) prognostic in nature)

Re-crafting leadership development programs
In order to realise a change in orientation of leaders from a results mindset to process mindset, careful thought
must be given to re-crafting the organizations leadership development programs. We agree with scholars (Day,
Fleenor, Altwater, Sturm & McKee, 2014) who argue that leadership development is a large scale intervention
that can only be realised over a medium to long period of time and to that extent, it tends to metamorphose into
organization development (OD) programs. This assertion coincides with our proposition that systemic
remedies such as the three illustrative ones outlined above, can be helpful to organizations. As far as individual
outcomes are concerned, which are the easiest to observe and measure in such a broad-based program; it is
recommended that the human resource department track the personal career trajectories of people who have
attended these programs, to assess the latters effectiveness. The literature (Day, 2000; Day & Harrison, 2007)
suggests inclusion of some more approaches within the program, which although generic, are complementary
to the remedies proposed in this paper. They are: (1) providing stretch job assignments in varied forms such as
in role, function or geography; (2) creating opportunities for project based learning corresponding to specific
business problems, also called as Action Learning; (3) assigning the individual to a developmental
relationship with a senior manager, also termed as Mentoring; (4) promoting intra and inter departmental
collaborations and (5) promoting the culture of working across boundaries (both social/interpersonal and
technical), among others.
Post-script
Singh and Bhandarkar (2015) in their article in NHRDN journal, have advanced an innovative and indigenous
model for development of leadership capabilities with action points both for the individual and the
organisation. With the current article and our thesis of process-oriented leadership, we attempt to build on their
excellent contribution.
In Academic research, some correctional process oriented measures have been initiated, recently. An
organisation, the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) which conducts a massive journal ranking
exercise every three years, now also comes up with a separate list of predatory journals that is journals that
indulge in pay for publish practices. The objective being to deter researchers from taking such shortcuts to
publication. A journal, Management and Organisation Review, in their editorial, this March 2017, has declared
that from now on, researchers must necessarily declare the entire dataset collected during the submission
itself and if they are slicing it up to write multiple papers. Also there is provision for a separate track for authors
who would like to take pre-publication approval of proposed theory and models for testing. This would dis-
incentivise them against padding data and reporting fabricated results. There is a need for leaders of academic
institutions to recognise the pitfalls in their prevailing culture, follow the aforementioned cues and implement
similar guidelines within.
In micro-finance, the several lapses in process oversight by companies has attracted the promulgation of the
Micro Finance Institutions (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2012, crafted by the Malegam committee. Most
of the recommendations of the committee including strict norms of registration for MFIs, imposition of caps on
chargeable interest, direct liability of CEOs etc have been implemented. The Reserve Bank of India has
emerged as the sole regulator of this industry. All these represent industry level process oriented measures
which are liable to spawn compatible monitoring practices within the companies as well. If this re-orientation is
accepted systemically by companies, then hopefully, with time, this industry will get back on track in achieving
its original objective, which is sustainable eradication of poverty.
Conclusion
Growing number of cases of doping (The use of banned drugs to enhance performance) in athletic can be taken
as a testimony to our assertion that a result oriented leadership makes organizations highly vulnerable. A little
bit of warning in the words of Deepak Parekh, we hope, will keep leaders on high alert, Always bear in mind that
your reputation once lost, is almost impossible to earn back. There is no such thing as a temporary breach of
integrity - you cannot make amendments later. So do not stay in any place where doing the right thing is not an
option. Work honestly, make people trust you and let them depend on your integrity (Parekh, 2009). When the
tide runs out, you can see who is swimming naked, said Warren Buffett rather aptly (Parekh, 2009).

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149163.

Leadership Competencies for Good
Governance
About the Author
Dr Deepa Mazumdar is a multi-talented academician, trainer and counselor.
Presently, she is working as Associate Professor in HRM at the National Institute
of Bank Management, Pune.
She completed her Masters in Industrial Psychology from Bombay University and
Ph.D in Counseling Psychology from University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
She is certified in the areas of psychometric and competency assessment; such
as DiSC, MBTI, Culture at Workplace and Competency, Emergenetics, and is a
certified trainer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Dr Deepa Mazumdar
Her varied work exposure includes working with NIBM, S.P. Jain Institute of
Management & Research; Institute for Integrated Learning in Management (IILM);
University of Lausanne and Fonds National de Recherche Scientifique,
Switzerland. She has started her career by working as a lecturer in the
Department of Psychology at Mithibai College, Bombay.
At NIBM, she functions both as a teacher and a counselor for Post-Graduate
Student specializing in Banking and Finance as well as a trainer for the Banking
Sector. Her training specializations are on leadership and faculty development,
focusing on developing skills on team, communication, mentoring, coaching and
counseling, simultaneously assessing the trainees career drive, intra/
interpersonal relationship and overall personality.
Her research interests are on Generations at Workplace, Employee Engagement,
Advocacy and Word of Mouth in Consumer Behavior. She has co-authored many
papers that have appeared in international as well as national journals like
Psychological Reports., Journals of Social Psychology, Journal of Applied Social
Psychology, Irish Journal of Psychology, Swiss Journal of Psychology etc., and
has also authored papers on leadership Issues; Leaders with or without
Leadership a concept based on Organizational Commitment and Psychological
Maturity in the Journal Management and Change, Building Leaders for
Managing Change in Banks for International Conference of Business, Hawaii,
and Managerial Work Values in Public Sector Banks published as a book
Chapter in Towards the Next Orbit. Has been awarded the Asias Best B-School
Award of best professor in HRM in 2013.

Leadership Competencies for Good
Governance
T he Leadership Model tables a framework composed of three tiers. The tiers represents the three aspects of
human element of intentions, values and behaviors. The strength of one tier influences the strength of the
other two tiers. Outer tier represents the behaviors or expressions observed by the outer world, the middle tier
represents the values, beliefs and attitude instilled by education and exposure at the time of growth and
development and the inner tier represents the primary intention. The framework postulates that when the
leadership intention is in the application of institutional power used for larger good to benefit both employees
and organization, is likely to promote the middle tier containing of values and beliefs of learning, expertise,
altruism, openness, ethics and integrity; will reflect the observable behaviors like knowledge, skills, self-
actualization, confidence, exposure, feedback, trust, commitment, decision making, conscientiousness,
curiosity and growth. Similarly, from the observable behaviors one can determine the leaders values and
beliefs directed by his/her intention. Efficacy of these competences is shaped by the individuals capability and
willingness for good governance
Key words: leadership, governance, intention, values, competences
Leadership Competencies for Good Governance

King Dasaratha lived in the age of truth, he was known to have been a happy and an undisturbed king. The
principle cause for a kingdom without strife was his selection of ministers. The characteristics and skills that
dominated the good-natured ministers who functioned as domain experts were humility that comes with
emotional intelligence, a willingness to learn, avidly following the practices of institutional power, decision
making influenced by commitment and integrity, and openness to censure and analyses. The teamwork of the
king and his ministers resulted in excellent governance. (Sudhamahi Regunathan, 2011)
The most relevant idea of leadership in the last century is Ravi Chaudharys, a leader is a person whose
thoughts, words, and decisions to act or not to act, have a discernable impact on the thoughts, feeling and
behaviors of many people around him, as well as on the trajectory of their future lives and livelihoods (2011);
underscoring the impact of a leaders sagacity and prudence on the present and future state of the intellect and
emotions of followers.
The prevalent leadership practice, Loquor Ergo sum I talk, therefore I am, ignores goals, values and needs of
the followers, and is oblivious to the insecurity prevailing in the followers. These followers-lets call them
associates cannot emerge as new leaders by themselves. Associates will simulate the most eye catching
and easy to adopt practices, like substandard twins, because em never gets prefixed to power.
Worldwide, there is a scarcity of good leaders and few are known for their values and practices.
Developing leadership capacities should be an essential practice in VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity
and ambiguity) world. When leaders focus on values and beliefs of altruism, integrity, learning and openness,
effectiveness is ensured. These essentials are not suspended in isolation; they are connected to each other
such that if one quality varies in strength other qualities moves in the same direction.
This paper is an attempt to generate a model for leadership development process. Inspired by the leadership
qualities and behaviors evident in King Dasharathas ministers, that could have contributed to good
governance.
Leadership Model
The Leadership Model below charts out a framework into three tiers. The tiers explain three aspects of human
element of intent, values and behaviors. The strength of one tier will determine the strength of the other two tiers.

o The Inner tier represents the leaders purpose and objectives, strongly influenced by ones prime motive.
This tier is very potent as it drives the middle and the outer tiers
o The Middle tier represents the values and beliefs (which also shape the individuals attitude) of leadership
instilled by his education and exposure at the time of growth and development. These values cannot
emerge without the support of the values found on either side, such as openness requires the support of
learning and integrity, or learning requires the support of expertise and openness, etc.
o The Outer tier represents the individuals behaviors, skills or expressions of leadership as observed by the
outside world. They are the manifestation of the middle tier.
Example 1: Effective leadership is based on the followers perception of the leaders behavior (trust and
commitment), and his understanding of the leaders values (integrity) which stem from his motive (institutional
power).
Example 2: Ineffective leadership is based on the followers perception of the leaders behavior (distrust and
inconstancy), and his understanding of the leaders values (dishonesty) which stem from his motive (personal
power).
Fig. 1. Leadership Model with 3 tiers of primary motive, values and behaviors
Prime Motives
David McClelland (1970) proposed that the need for power is bifurcated into two entities personal and
institutional or social. Personal power represents the leaders need to fulfill his personal desires at the expense
of the power held, this need is perceived as undesirable. Institutional power represents the leaders need to
organize his followers efforts to fulfill their goals and achieve the goals set by the organization. Analogous to
this, Chakraborty and Chakrabortys (2008) refers to the ego and the self. Ego is directed by personal power
and self is directed by institutional or social power. Ego represents the lower identity of the individual who
strives to use power to enrich himself from the resources available in the organization. Kuber had built Lanka,
but he was driven out of his kingdom by his half-brother Ravana who desired to substantiate his identity
through his kingdom.
Institutional power is used for the larger good and extends beyond personal gain. The benefit of this power is
inclusive of the organization, employees, customers and other stakeholders. The leader is aware and accepts
this without dependence on external symbols and rituals. Ram was exiled to a forest for fourteen years at the
behest of stepmother Kaikeyi who wanted her son Bharat to rule Ayodhya. Ram accepted the verdict without
any rancor or resentment accepted. Bharat ruled Ayodhya as a custodian, keeping Rams wooden sandals on
the throne. The implication here is that Rams self, i.e. the higher identity, was so complete that he did not
require a kingdom to symbolize his identity; his individuality was independent of any observable
representation. Same was with Bharat, being complete, he did not need a kingdom to ascertain his identity.
Values and Beliefs

The middle tier represents the values and beliefs embedded during the individuals growth and development
enabled by his/her education and experience. The values encircling the middle tier are interdependent, such
as, the extent of openness depends on the opportunity of learning and integrity, or volume of learning is
dependent on the scale of expertise and openness. Here, learning does not represent qualifications or degrees
attained, rather it represents the depth of meaning derived from learning. The quality of the core competencies
of expertise, learning, openness, integrity, altruism and decision-making, are reflected by the style of the prime
motive of power. Efficacy of these competencies is shaped by the individuals ability, capacity and willingness
for good governance.
Expertise results from the union of knowledge and skills adding to its definition of professionalism and
sophistication. It forms the basis of individuals authority and credibility of a subject matter through his
expressions of knowledge and skills. According to Logan and Crump (2009), eliciting knowledge from
experts can be difficult as they just do it, not conscious of the rules and procedures.

o Knowledge is based on observation, reasoning or logic, and experience. It is the information and
facts that the individual has acquired from external sources and added to his already acquired
experience to form a meaning. This form of knowledge is known as propositional knowledge which
needs to be combined with procedural knowledge or skill.
o Skill is the procedural knowledge or know-how. It is implicit and permits task performance, although
the knowledge is not available at the conscious level (Logan and Crump, 2009). When cognitively
attained information or propositional knowledge is put into practice, then the domain of expertise
becomes more refined.
Expertise is the composition of both propositional and procedural knowledge, more commonly known as
knowledge and skills.
Ethics plays a significant role in leadership, strictly speaking, leadership cannot function without ethics,
and is an integral part of the leadership process and content (Rost, 1995). It directs and evaluates moral
choices like right or wrong, seeks to institute principles and explores values appropriate for the
organization. The moral choices influence the outcomes like action and behavior; e.g. decision making
and conscientiousness. Ethics is a cognitive discipline that finds justification by moral reasoning. It is
important to note that the constructed principles that prevailed successfully at a place or time may not be
possible to introduce or continue with success at a different place or time.
o Decision Making acts as a key measure of effective leadership. Many heads have fallen because of
ineffective decision-making and many heads have risen because of effective decision-making.
Decisions are made in the context of fulfilling needs. We begin with whose needs? The leader in this
context will answer it as peoples needs as he is aware that when people are satisfied and accept
decisions, their motivation is roused for performance. It is important that in decision making, the
cognitive process should be combined with the emotive process, because the leadership concern is
principally people.
Both emotion and cognition are cerebral, where the seat of emotion, the limbic system is much older
than the seat of cognition responsible for self-control, reasoning, planning and other executive
functions centered in the frontal/occipital lobe. In other words, the frontal lobe plays a crucial role in
leadership behavior by taming the free use of emotion in the limbic system (Rock and Page, 2009).
The Emotion spectrum is large and expansive, ranging from superficial to deep emotions such as
annoyance to rage, serenity to ecstasy, acceptance to adoration, from pensiveness to grief, boredom
to loathing, apprehension to terror (Plutchik, 1991). In extreme emotional state the physical,
physiological, and psychological elements in human beings are stressed and the behavior expressed
can be offensive. On the other hand, it is better to experience emotion at a conscious level to
determine the management process enabled by the cognitive factor. Application of cognitive process
prevents reactive behaviors and promotes proactive behaviors. Cognition is the thought process that
includes information, knowledge, awareness, perception, problem solving, reasoning and judgment.
Leaders decision-making ability depends on the extent of effective organization of these mental
facets. The effectiveness can be developed by connecting each of these facets in a constructive
manner that will facilitate the leaders communication to the outside world.
o Conscientiousness consists of two distinct features - dependability and achievement. These
leaders reflect carefully before acting upon any obligations and responsibilities; they set the rules and
regulations of goal achievements in advance. Facets related to conscientiousness are fairness,
consistency and transparency which results in doing the right thing for themselves and others. The
leaders stand out as models and believe in communicating important information and data to
employees. Conscientiousness is highly related to achievement motive, where the leaders need to
accomplish through maximizing their own effort instead of delegating responsibilities (Kalshoven et
al. 2011).

Altruism. Altruism is an integral part of leadership virtues; it is selfless concern for others welfare. The
leader, like the philanthropist, helps others to develop and grow, and continue to be in the giving mode.
This virtue is present in individuals who feel that they are inherently secure; materially he has it all, and
seeks satisfaction from intangible actions and activities. This virtue is revealed through his self-confidence
and need for self-actualization.
o Self-actualization is on the top of the pyramid in Maslows hierarchy of needs (1954). The assumption
is that the lower order needs to be satisfied before experiencing self-actualization. The criterion of a
leaders satisfaction of self-actualization is high self-esteem, which is inclusive of the knowledge of
his self-worth. The experience of self-actualization is based on his contribution towards the
enhancement in the growth of his dependent employees to becoming interdependent via the passage
of independence. He facilitates the development of others without expecting external rewards and he
treats them as challenges to be met.
o Confidence arises more from an individuals feeling of security and not fear of failure. Knowledge of
ones strengths and weaknesses is evident and not decided by others. In a critical situation, he is more
driven by the idea of finding out his ability and capacity to solve problems than avoid them because he
fears failure.
Integrity is defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary as the quality or state of being complete or undivided;
so much so that the differences or polarities can be connected to create a new meaning. It is a concept that
reaches out beyond self. Srivastva and Cooperrider (1988) aptly sum up the implication of integrity as an
inclination to the development of human values, having consistency between vision and action which
promotes trusts and represents the pinnacle of human development and intelligence. The authors make a
clear distinction between integrity and creativity, morality, intuitive capability and rationality. It integrates
any conflicting or opposing Issues to give a new meaning. Integrity needs to be present at both personal
and organizational levels because they are interdependent; if each one does not receive support from the
other, then the environment suffers from a lack of intellectual, moral and ethical capital. High integrity
fosters mutual trust and commitment between the leader and his environmental forces.
o Trust involves being trustful and trustworthy. A virtuous leader tends to trust others, and is
trustworthy. The leaders relationship is based on co-creation of ideas and thoughts and adoption of a
transformational approach (Glaser, 2014). In case of low level integrity, the leaders distrust of others
endorses transactional relationships. High trust relationships make the action or behavior predictable
and certain. The employees can rely on the leaders for distributive and procedural justice.
o Commitment refers to the coherence between beliefs/values and behavior. It relates to self in terms
of self-improvement, having a purpose and the determination to realize the purpose, and other
stakeholders, such as the organization, employees, and customers. A leaders behavior to
commitment is constantly monitored by employees who watch for what is not going right rather than
what is going right. Vacillating commitment is the surest way of reducing leadership value.
Openness to experience is the willingness and readiness to receive information from both the external
and the internal environments of the leader. Openness to experience relates to the individual's range
of interests and fascination with novelty. It refers to the individuals extent of creativity, curiosity, and
artistic sensitivity. Openness is the willingness to positively accept new and different ideas, which
may not align with established norms. It plays a critical role in changing management. The leaders
extent of openness, influences the degree of openness amongst the followers and influences the
quality of his decisions. (Hutton, 2012). Openness encourages transparency, information sharing,
progress and overcoming errors. Noble Prize winner, Danish physicist had said in conversation with
Arthur Krantrowitz,, The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a
democracy should be the weapon of openness. (1992, p.303)

o Exposure is an effective influencer for opportunities and ideas, they expand with the extension of
openness. This ability is well connected to the degree of self-esteem and eclectic experience the
individual has accumulated through the years; it also provides him with inputs and a balanced
sensitivity to realistically accept and reject ideas. The leader is predisposed to learning and thus
allows himself to be exposed to stimuli which in turn enhances his capacity. His insights and
observations will become more expanded.
o Feedback is the ability to evaluate information. It is the process of giving and receiving data on
performance. Here the emphasis is more on the leaders ability to receive information related to his
behavior and performance of a situation (organization) larger than himself. His response to feedback
becomes the backbone of the organizations performance. A system of anonymous, employee
feedback was introduced by J.J. Irani of Tata Sons. Subsequently action based on feedback was
taken for the next six months, after which feedback was sought for again. The leader can relate the
evaluated information to the past, present and future systems in the organization.
Learning is a continuous process in our life. It happens unconsciously, subconsciously, and consciously.
Leaders ought to be able to enhance both explicit and implicit/tacit forms of learning, because explicit
learning takes care of what of knowledge in the form of information and data emerging from the
conscious level, whereas implicit learning is responsible for the how of knowledge and skill emerging
from the subconscious level. The aspiration to know and seek can be assumed from the individuals
curiosity or quest to know and his need to evolve.
o Curiosity is a childlike quality, which unfortunately disappears in adulthood through control,
suppression and often discouragement. Curiosity is related to wanting to know about something, or
whats happening or whats the matter/problem. Curiosity is linked to what, why, where, when and
how. It is a form of seeking input, and enlarging ones horizon. It has resulted in many discoveries,
inventions, creativity and expanding ones goals.
o Progress refers to the leaders desire for growth and development; his need to evolve prepares him to
bring changes when needed and it also facilitates organizational development. Progress contributes
to a futuristic mode of thinking, feeling and acting.
It must be affirmed that the concept of leadership can only function in the context of the people, for the
people and by the people. To be looked upon as effective leaders one needs to start from the most
important aspect of maintaining and sustaining the synchronicity of the mind and body in a positive
interactive mode, their functions influences each other. The mental condition is in negative mode
when plagued by anxiety, anger, guilt or depression, the body is postured downwards, head
downcast, shoulders slouched, slow gait etc.; and when the mind is in a positive mode, such as
happiness, confidence, joy or pride, the body is postured upward, head held high, erect shoulders and
fast gait. Similarly, the body influences the state of mind, a healthy person is in a positive state of
mind, and a simple illness like fever can make us temperamental.
Leadership lessons start from the core area of the inner circle the intent of leadership. Clarification
and strengthening of the primary motive through assessments, introspection, questioning,
understanding the meaning and finally the acceptance of the goal is the first step to be taken. The
question that arises in the intent or primary motive can range from personal to social
- is it for Me only? Or
- is it for Me through others? Or
- is it only for Others? Or
- is it only for Others through me?
Thus, the clarification of the intent or motive is the first necessity.

When the social motive is intent, the middle circle of values and beliefs become easier to adopt and
practice, developing emotional, social and spiritual intelligence through the means of neuro-linguistic
programming, self-assessment of underlying needs etc.; as for the outer circle competencies, i.e. the
expressions of values and beliefs can be refined with appropriate skill, developmental processes,
improving upon intrapersonal, interpersonal and conversational skills. These three skills are interactive
and not independent.
Intrapersonal Skills
Intrapersonal skills are related to individuals relation with self. The process applied in emotional intelligence
helps in being aware of the leaders level of self-esteem and self-worth, identification and mastering of
complexity of emotions that varies in both range and depth, (Plutchik, 1980). This process results in self-
confidence and proactive behavior, without it the individual is risking being reactive.
Interpersonal Skills
The interpersonal skills are mostly influenced by the individuals needs and perception of others; their
perceptions guide their thought process, and the pattern that is created in the brain is expressed through
verbal and non-verbal communications, such as words, expressions and body language. Often the visceral
(unconscious) speaks louder than the cognitive (conscious) language. Both will be in sync in a value-based or
authentic leader.
Conversational Skills
Glaser (2014) refers to this skill as intelligence, which is one of the the top five management skill requirements.
Conversational skill is composed of three dimensions and three types. The dimensions of biochemical,
relational and co-creational are brain functions. The biochemical process functions in the limbic system, in a
negative state the amygdala (emotions) can hijack the conversation into an emotional state, the individuals are
in a I state, at this stage focus is on liking or accepting the other; relational function happens when the
individuals focus on investing further in the relationship, here the individuals are in I/We mode, and finally the
co-creational function is purely cerebral, where the individuals are in a We mode to co-create an objective or
goal together. The types of conversations can be explained thus: transactional and purely seeking data or
information, positional indicating the individual is testing or assessing the other and transformational focusing
on moving from a position to a better position of development. The dimensions and the types are incremental
processes, the aim is to attain the final dimension and types. Leadership fails when the process remains
underdeveloped.
Conclusion
It is best to understand that leadership practices are a continuing process. Although leadership values are
static, the expression of these values emerging as behavior needs to be innovative and matching with time,
culture and generations. The predominantly benevolent leadership style that worked during the time of baby
boomers, is no longer effective with the present generation. The present generation is looking for challenges,
mentoring and frequent feedback from their leaders. The long-sightedness of past leadership behavior has
been replaced by short-sightedness in meeting immediate goals and achievements. In the past, leaders have
built institutions that have outlasted them for many generations (Tata, Godrej and Bajaj), and stand tall and
proud to this day. Their leadership vision and strategies have evolved down generations to meet the industrys
present and future needs. Today, we continue to have leaders like Azim Premji who have moved beyond the IT
business. He is an altruist who created a university and foundations for a greater good for mankind. The doubts
of the merits of the Panaya Deal, constrained N. R. Narayana Murthy, founder of Infosys, to take the decision to
let go of CEO, Vishal Sikka as he could not compromise with his ethics of corporate values (Economic Times,
2017).

The presence of leaders is temporary and short-term, and the existence of leadership is almost always
permanent and long-term, leaving behind a legacy of values, ideas and continuity. Centuries old leaders like
Ashoka the Great, Alexander the Great, Chanakya, Jamshedji Tata and many others, are remembered for the
leadership and their legacy. The leadership model cannot be looked upon as an ultimate, because leadership is
evolutionary. The model is intended to get the leaders to introspect on their intent and values and question the
existing attitude of leaders on leadership do we continue to perceive the world from a magnifying glass? Or
are we ready to search out those who are lifting the world and can be seen only through a telescope? Maybe we
can use the telescope initially to search for the suitable leaders (Fig. 1), and then take the magnifying glass for
an appropriate placement.
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Developing Leaders for an Uncertain World:
How Appreciative Inquiry can help
Dr Veena Vohra is Associate Dean and Professor Human Resources and

Behavioral Sciences at the School of Business Management, NMIMS University.
Veena is an MBA with specialization in HR and has completed her doctoral
dissertation in the area of Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Appreciative
Inquiry. She has previously been Chairperson of the MBA Programme and the
MBA HR Programme at SBM.
Veena has research interests in the areas of change management, trends in human
resource management, leadership, emotional intelligence and qualitative
Dr Veena Vohra research paradigm. She has published a number of research papers in national
and international journals. Veenas recent publications span the areas of
organizational environments and response mechanisms in India (Journal of Indian
Business Research), critical HR practices during times of change (Journal of
Organizational Change Management) and using multiple case study design to
study leadership behaviors (Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods).
Her case studies have been published by Ivey Publishing and Emerald Emerging
Markets Case Studies. She has co-authored the Indian adaptation of the book
Behavioral Science Interventions for Organizational Improvement with French and
Bell. She has also co-authored the Indian adaptation of the book Human Resource
Management with Snell and Bohlander by Cengage Publications.
Veena has presented research papers in the area of leadership, causal texture of
environments in India, Lokasamgraha, internationalization of SMEs and
pedagogical innovations in the MBA and MBA HR programmes amongst others in
various International and national conferences. Currently she is working on the
revised editions of her co-authored books, as well as research studies on diversity
and inclusion practices, and leadership. She delivers courses in the areas of
organizational behavior, change management, emotional intelligence and
appreciative inquiry. She has received the Best Faculty Award in 2015, 2013 and
2009, as well as the Best Department Award in 2011 when she chaired the Area of
HR and Behavioral Sciences. On behalf of the School she also received the Best
Academic Institute of the Year Award for contribution in the field of HR at the
SHRM Annual HR Conference in 2014 as well as the Gold Award at Indian
Management Conclave, New Delhi for Curriculum and Pedagogical Innovations in
MBA HR.

Developing Leaders for an Uncertain World:
How Appreciative Inquiry can help
Abstract
Emerging economies are being studied like never before. The world has begun to view countries like India and
China as emerging global powerhouses, where myriad opportunities co-exist with the fight for survival. The
churn of the markets and recent global events have brought into sharp relief the chaos that leaders at the helm
of business affairs have to deal with. How these leaders make sense of their environments and facilitate change
may reveal interesting insights to design and deliver effective leadership development processes. Assuming a
new leadership role can often be daunting and individuals generally may not receive much training to help them
succeed in the new leadership roles.
The paper looks at how Appreciative Inquiry, through its very design as a method of bringing about positive
change, holds the promise of providing leaders and leadership development processes with a new language
rooted in positivity for the future of the organization. This paper also maps the lens that have been used to study
leadership so far while attempting to articulate the challenges that future leaders will face especially in the
context of uncertain environments. Appreciative leadership has been the subject of various studies aiming to
define the leadership styles that facilitate the Appreciative Inquiry approach in organizations constantly facing
turbulence. This paper suggests that Appreciative Inquiry based leadership development may serve to
effectively deal with the leadership challenges of the future.
Keywords
Leadership; Leadership development; Uncertainty; Appreciative Inquiry
Introduction
A study of organizational environments today indicates that unstructured, distributed work is becoming
increasingly prevalent. Technological advancement is changing how we work and live by leaps and bounds.
Organizational teams are more distributed than ever before. The employer employee relationship has
become fluid and therefore requires more attention and management. In a fast paced economic scenario, the
Indian markets throw up various challenges for leaders at the helm of business organizations, providing them
with early leadership opportunities. How these leaders lead, and what are the behaviors they exhibit in order to
make sense of as well as manage the environment they are in, is the question driving several research projects.
India is fast becoming a source of managerial talent for the rest of the world, as Indian managers and leaders
are groomed and developed in one of the most dynamic markets of the world.
Chui, Manyika and Miremadi (2015) have argued that leaders across all organizational levels would have to
continuously redefine jobs and processes in a bid to ensure organizational longevity. Mr Manvinder Singh
Banga, then CEO of Hindustan Unilever stated in the March 2010 Issue of Harvard Business Review, Indian
leaders..have been trained or groomed in extremely fluid, dynamic, uncertain environments. Thus, they have
a much greater ability to cope with uncertainty, they dont get disturbed by uncertain events, they keep an even
keel. they also tend to be more creative as a result, because they have to face these sorts of untoward
situations almost on a daily basis. Seven years later, the variety and pace of uncertainty in our world has only
increased. With constantly changing contexts, organizations are constantly reviewing future leadership
challenges in a bid to design and deliver effective and relevant leader development processes.
Industry experts and Human Resource Leaders are clear that leader development will be a core focus area for
organizations going ahead. The context of flatter organizations and disruptive environments would require a
deeper understanding of driving and managing change by leveraging data as well as diversity. Leaders would

have to become comfortable with failure, while drawing lessons from it. Leaders would face increasing
amounts of physical, spiritual and mental strain while having to make decisions under uncertainty.
What we know about Leadership so far

Leadership can be defined as the interpersonal influence exercised in a situation .and directed towards the
attainment of a specified goal or goals(Tannenbaum, Weschler and Masarik, 1961). Leadership has also
been defined by a persons ability to influence and motivate others in order to accomplish organizational goals
(House and Aditya, 1997).
Bass (1990) postulates that the focus of leadership theory and research has either been the great man theory,
or an inherited trait. Several earlier leadership studies have concluded that individuals are able to lead when the
situation demands them to, owing to being biologically advanced (Dowd, 1936; Wiggam, 1931). Stodgill (1948)
called for the consideration of these leader traits in relation to the environment. Although the earlier trait
theories lacked empirical support and reliability, the later studies of McClelland, House and Kenny and Zaccaro
addressed this Issue. Personality, mental and physical assessments were stated to be the leadership
differentiating factors according to later trait theories. (Bernard, 1926; Bird, 1940; Dowd, 1936; Jenkins, 1944;
Kilbourne, 1935; Kohs and Irle, 1920; Stogdill, 1974).
The New Paradigm models viewed leadership from the perspective of managing scenarios of constant change
and relate to concepts like Charismatic leadership (Conger 1989, House, 1971), Visionary leadership(Sashkin,
1988) and Transformational leadership(Bass,1985). Modern notions of leadership place a lot of emphasis on
the power and importance of followers in ultimately legitimizing and enabling leadership (De Pree,1993;
Lee,1993). These studies eventually led to the differences being captured between managers and leaders
(Kotter,1990).
Burns (1978) defined leadership as influencing followers towards pursuing common purposes based on
common values and motivations of both leaders and followers. Burns(1978) also defined and distinguished
between transactional and transformational leadership, stating that transformational leaders can become
further self-actualised by engaging with the higher order needs of followers. In doing so, transformational
leaders ensure that their followers become aligned with larger causes rather than remaining motivated by
individual self- interest.
Due to the increasing complexity being faced by organizations, their information processing requirements to
enhance decision making and make it more effective have also increased (Huber, 1984). House, Spangler and
Woycke (1991) stated that leaders are more important now, than ever before since organizations exist in a
complex and uncertain environment. Organizations depend on leaders to solve complex and unclear
organizational problems and to be able to navigate the challenges of the external and internal environments
(Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Jacobs & Fleishman, 2000).
Khandwala (2004) in his study of senior Indian managers found that in an ever changing situation, senior
managers have to display leadership far more effectively than in a sheltered economy (Khandwala, 2004).
Given the turbulence in the business environments, it has become critical to view and understand the nature of
leadership navigating the organizations in this turbulence. Singh and Bhandarker (1990) tried to give the theory
of transformational leadership an Indian spirit.
During the last decade interpersonal skills have become more integral to effective leadership (Goleman,
1998a.). Hogan et al. (1994) articulated that the roles of leaders have changed from simply controlling, planning
and inspecting the organizational functions to motivating and inspiring others, creating a positive culture and
emphasizing the significance of contributing. With these changes in the leaders roles, leadership development
programs are tasked with the development of such skills and identify candidates with such potential (Fulmer,
1997).
House and Aditya (1997) have postulated that several leadership functions may be universally expected,
accepted, and effective across organizations globally. However, developing leaders remains a challenging

problem to date. Leadership development processes in organizations bear the responsibility of creating a
pipeline of leaders with relevant skills and perspectives to lead the organization in uncertain environments.
Leader development involves expanding an individual's leadership capacity. Recent research suggests that
Appreciative Inquiry may help in bringing about such a change.
Bushe and Kassam (2005) have proposed that Appreciative Inquiry (AI) has transformative potential due to its
focus on changing how people think instead of on what people do. Further they also highlighted that AI focuses
on supporting self- organizing change processes flowing from new ideas. AI researchers have concluded that
leaders need to create an appreciative context, listen for what is hopeful and positive and change the
conversation in the organization to what is possible. Appreciative leaders themselves are extremely self-
aware, have positive hopeful belief systems and continuously incorporate new learnings. In an uncertain
environment, a hopeful vision of the organizational future may serve to energise employees.
Leadership challenges for the future

Amongst the several challenges being signalled for leaders to lead in the organizations of the future, include the
ability to develop foresight and build strategies as also have execution excellence. Industry leaders point to
rigid mindsets and poor change management skills that limit the capacity of leaders to deal with uncertain
scenarios.
Leadership performance is assessed in the light of business results and organizational health, and these would
remain imperatives for effective leadership stints in the future as well. A deep understanding about the context
and sense making skills have become a must. Sensemaking skills enable a leader to quickly read a situation for
effective decision-making, formulating an appropriate context for communication and bridging with others.
These skills help leaders make better sense of complex, uncertain environments and also enable employees
to quickly understand these environments better.
A recent survey covering 763 middle and executive leaders in organizations across a wide spectrum of nations
has concluded that there are some common leadership challenges being articulated by the leaders. These
include developing managerial effectiveness; inspiring and developing others; guiding positive change;
leading teams and managing internal stakeholder politics. These challenges have become very evident if one
were to glance through the recent leadership struggles of Infosys and Tata Sons.
Proactive value based behaviour, compassion and confidence brought about through varied exposures and
experiences are other aspects fast becoming critical for leaders to develop effectiveness. With the goal posts
shifting in an uncertain environment, leaders are challenged to revisit their strategies frequently and be
comfortable with failure.
Organizations today have diverse workforces which makes it challenging for leaders to communicate
appropriately in order to build relevant and healthy organizational cultures. The case of Ubers culture
becoming toxic for its employees, took the world by surprise and led to the exit of several top leadership team
members.
Future leaders will find it useful to create a shared purpose for their organizational members so as to create
alignment between organizational, employee and societal needs. A recent report by Pricewaterhouse Coopers
highlighted the significance of trust building for leaders. This underlies success in the relational aspect of
leadership.
Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and Leadership Development

Developed by David Cooperrider and colleagues at Case Western Reserve University and the Taos Institute,
Appreciative Inquiry is finding wide adoption in organizations globally for development. Drawing from the fields
of positive psychology and social constructionism (Srivastva and Cooperrider, 1990), AI is based on the
principle that organizations change in the direction of what they study. AI enables the organization to focus its
attention, dialogue and member learning on its core strengths, thereby leading to the development of

affirmative processes for organization development (Whitney,1998). As an organization development
intervention, AI works on the basis of some principles drawn from the theory and research in the human and
social sciences.
Social Constructionism is one of the main contributing fields of Appreciative Inquiry. It suggests that
individuals create their own perspective of what is real through shared symbolic and mental processes, and are
responsible for the perceptions they experience. Social Constructionism provides the foundation for three of
the five principles of Appreciative Inquiry, which are:
The Constructionist Principle Social interaction processes invent organizations and also bring about
change in organizations. The focus of the constructionist principle is language and relations that enable the
development of meaning and identity. Whitney(1998) stated that organizations find meaning in the stories
employees share and the patterns of communication they have with each other. Leaders increase their
effectiveness by becoming skilled in understanding and analyzing organizations as living entities created by
social interactions (Fitzgerald, Murrel, Miller, 2003).
The Simultaneity Principle Inquiry and change happen simultaneously in organizations as these are living,
social entities. The seeds of change are implicit in the questions asked, which in turn determine what we find.
The Poetic Principle According to the poetic principle, organizations are created by socially created and
continuously changing practices, therefore the organization takes on its meaning in the act of storytelling.
Moreover, the past, present and future of an organization have the potential to inspire employees and can be
interpreted in multiple ways, just as a great piece of poetry.
The Anticipatory Principle Images of the organizations future held by the organizational stakeholders are
the best predictors of their current behavior since these images influence the current behavior of any organism
or organization.
The Positive Principle Building and sustaining the momentum for change requires huge amounts of positive
affect and social bonding (Fitzgerald, Murrel, Miller, 2003).Leading inquiry using positive questions makes
change possible and democratically mobilized.
The Appreciative Inquiry process consists of four stages and is a narrative based process of positive change.
It begins by engaging all organizational or community members in an open ended dialogue focused on
strengths in an attempt to discover the positive and life giving core of the organization. The second stage
involves shifting the groups focus to envisioning bold possibilities and dreams for the future. The third stage
helps set the tone to bring people together for discussing and crafting propositions to guide the achievements
of the dreams. Finally the fourth stage involves forming teams, allocating responsibilities and building timelines
for realizing the dreams and propositions.
Positive change is sustained by leaders practicing Appreciative Inquiry behaviors enable an effective leader to
sustain positive change. Cooperrider claimed appreciative leaders see, make meaningful and connect all that
is good and best in people and the world around them. They inspire transformational conversation and
collaboration. Anderson, Gergen, McNamee, Cooperrider and Whitney (2001) noted that leaders facilitate
collaborative participation, inclusion, appreciative listening, coordination and co-construction.
Appreciative change can be sustained by leaders by exhibiting behavior and motivation that can be viewed as
a dualistic construct. While one dimension describes and reflects on the practices, actions and behaviors of
the leader, the second dimension reflects that leaders intention, worldview, self awareness and self regulation.
The latter is referred to as the leaders Appreciative Foundational Core and is linked to unconditional positive
regard (Lewis, et al., 2006). The core elements reflect the leaders positive psychological capabilities (state of
being) and impact the other dimension of behaviors and actions.
Guided by the principles and constructs of Appreciative Inquiry, leaders can develop their individual leadership
capacities by focusing on:

- Creating a culture of strengths based inquiry within the team or the organization, enabling thoughts and
ideas to be shared and heard
- Enabling employees to discover individual and organizational strengths so as to operate from areas of
strength
- Developing the abilities to collaborate and co-create to achieve desired futures
- Facilitating positivity within the organization so that employees remain hopeful and enthused about
managing and sustaining through long periods of change
Including the development of the above abilities within the leadership development programs may enable
organizations to create leaders who can drive transformation, innovation and high performance. In conclusion,
this paper suggests that while there exist several theories, frameworks and styles of leading organizations
today, leadership development processes must explore the opportunities and advantages offered by the
Appreciative Inquiry approach in developing effectiveness in leading organizations of the future.
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Talent Management Initiatives
in BEML Limited
About the Author
Mr Deepak Kumar Hota, is Chairman & Managing Director of BEML, and has over
33 years of experience including over three years of Board experience
A man of conviction, leading from the front, and open to change. As CMD BEML,
he has taken major steps in leveraging Technology, Re-engineering Business
Processes, Cost Control and Optimization, Tie-Ups for expansion of Business,
greater thrust on Indigenization and R&D. He is the driving force behind green
energy development enabling BEML to be a Green Company.
He is an alumnus of St. Stephens, New Delhi graduating in Economics
Mr Deepak Hota
(Honours) and is a Post Graduate in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations
from XLRI, Jamshedpur. He is a certified Coach from M/s. Hay, as also in
Psychometric testing, Q12 Gallup Engagement Survey & Balanced Score Card by
Robert Kaplan.
Being an HR person by profession and strong believer in Vasudaiva
Kutumbakam brought in a wider perspective to the Corporate Social
Responsibility(CSR) by implementing schemes in areas of Education, Skill
Development, Sanitation, Hunger eradication, etc., that express the true spirit of
CSR.
During his professional career, Mr Hota has brought several accolades and awards
both to the Company and himself including IPE Asia Pacific HRM Congress
Awards 2013 for HR Leadership, NHRD Award for Most Seasoned HR
Professional of the year 2014, CHRQ Asia Global HR Leaders Award 2015, Most
successful HR & CEO by NIPM & Distinguished Alumnus Award (Practicing
Manager) from XLRI & Centre of Excellence in Project Management (CEPM)
Fellowship Award, in 2016.

Talent Management Initiatives in
Beml Limited
ABSTRACT
B EML Limited, a Defence PSU, offers high-quality products for diverse sectors of the economy such as
coal, steel, power, construction, road building, aviation, defence, metro and railways. BEML is faced with
significant changes in the business environment marked by competitions, rapid technological changes and
opportunities in domestic and export sector. To enable high-paced and best-in-class business, the Company
is focusing on Human Resources front especially on training and development of its human capital.
Training Advisory Councils across the Company ensure seamless alignment of training to business
requirements and formulation of training strategies. Specific developmental interventions are executed for
senior, middle and junior management level to fill the training gaps and a robust mechanism for new
employees. Focused training programs are provided in collaboration with prestigious institutions such as IITs,
IISc., NID, NLSIU etc., for capability development.
A comprehensive Competency and Leadership Development initiative develops a leadership pipeline in the
company. All senior executives go through the Assessment and Development Centre to determine areas of
strength and development. Strategy Conclaves, are organized to design prospective business plans based
on fresh and wide inputs drawn from groups of selected middle-level executives.
The organization conducts skill development programs to increase productive manpower and for the
semi/unskilled employees. Critical skills are built in Centers of Excellence at manufacturing divisions.
Apprentice training is imparted to students of ITIs. /Polytechnics/Engineering Colleges.
Employee Satisfaction Surveys found BEML in the high-performance zone with most of the market leaders.
BEML encourages job rotation, job enlargement, and job enrichment to provide career development
opportunities. A manpower study is also underway based on process requirements to optimize on human
capital. In the ultimate analysis, a progressive organization like BEML is building stronger employee capability
by leveraging training and talent management process.
Talent Management Initiatives In Beml Limited

BEML Limited, a multi-technology, multi-location, mini ratna category-I company, under the Ministry of
Defence offers high-quality products for diverse sectors of the economy such as coal, mining, steel, limestone,
power, irrigation, construction, road building, aviation, defence, metro and railways. BEML is operating under
three distinct business verticals viz., Defence & Aerospace, Mining & Construction and Rail & Metro. The
company has manufacturing facilities at Kolar Gold Fields (KGF), Mysore, Bangalore and Palakkad, Kerala.
The companys R&D Centre comprising laboratories such as Fluid Power, Material Science, Structural
Engineering and Powerline Aggregates at KGF, is the biggest R&D Centre in India. BEML has designed and
developed the countrys first Stainless Steel EMUs and Metro Cars, Intermediate Metro Cars, Aluminium and
Stainless-Steel Wagons and many pioneering products such as 205 Tonne Electric Drive Dump Truck and 180T
Electric Excavator.
BEML is grappling with significant changes in the business environment marked by competition, rapid
technological change and opportunities in the domestic and export sector. To enable high paced and best-in-
class business, BEML has undertaken various Human Resource initiatives, especially training and
development of its human capital. The executives are groomed by ensuring they are trained, measured,
rewarded, recognized, and consistently aligned with the business objectives of the Company. The diverse
business verticals of the Company, preclude special focus areas for each vertical, especially in the
enhancement of technical skills. Honing existing skills; developing additional skills; optimizing on

technological advancement; and dealing with competition from MNCs, is the cornerstone of non-executive,
junior and middle-level engineers development initiative.
Specific training interventions are executed, for each cluster of senior management, middle management, and
junior management to fill the training gaps. The leaders are provided opportunities to sharpen their functional
knowledge, through advanced external programs, to enable leaders to keep pace with the latest in their area of
functional expertise, or programs that encompass elements of general management and best management
practices from various industries across the world. Keeping in mind BEMLs global operations, aspirations,
high-impact programs are designed, developed, and deployed in key areas such as decision making, strategic
negotiations, and strategic thinking. As BEML collaborates across the globe, the leaders interact with a global
audience, leaders are given periodical workshops on executive presence and business etiquette.
Each senior should ensure subordinates possess requisite knowledge, skill and attitude, to perform their
current job, and are trained to shoulder higher jobs, in line with the succession plan or job rotation. The training
departments at the complexes and corporate office ensure streamlined conduct of training programmes
across the company. Training Advisory Councils have been created at Corporate Office and in all Complexes,
to ensure seamless alignment of training to business requirements and formulating training strategies.
Sustained efforts are made at the complex levels to promote awareness about the role, constitution &
objectives of Training Advisory Councils. The overall planning for the Training Advisory Councils is jointly done
by Corporate HRD along with Training Advisory Councils members for efficient integration of the learning
efforts. Employees are encouraged to share their opinions about the training required through their managers,
thereby employees feel t their opinion counts and helps to create buy in.
The mechanism for onboard new employees, is robust and ensures quick settling down and optimum fit into
the new role. The need to develop a standardized, structured, and systematic induction program that will
provide new employees with a good overview of the company, its business, technology and operations needs
no emphasis. As part of the induction program, new employees, especially Graduate Engineers, are scheduled
to spend sufficient time on the shop floor and direct functions to facilitate a first-hand understanding of the way
the shop operates therefore accelerating the learning. Focused training programs, where junior executives are
provided extensive exposure, and experience in collaboration with prestigious institutions ensure capability
development.
To enhance the capability of the engineers working in Production, R&D and allied areas, a tie-up was
established with Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) and an MoU, sponsoring R&D projects, and
training of Engineers through Continuing Education Programs. To build up a broad technology base, three-
month capsule programs for young production engineers in collaboration with IIT-M is organized. An MoU was
signed with National Law School of India, University of Bengaluru for training in areas such as, Contract
Management and Consultancy in Legal Issues. Tie-ups have been established with IISc., Bengaluru for
Engineering Consultancy Services and with National Institute of Design for training in design clinics.
Leadership development programs are designed and deployed across all functions/levels and with training
models for fostering leadership across specific functions/levels such as Human Resources, Commercial
Leadership, Finance Management, Engineering Development, Operations Management etc. It was found
necessary to design, develop and deploy high impact programs on Decision Making, Strategic Negotiations
and Strategic Thinking keeping in mind the Companys global operation aspirations.
Strategic planning is core to envision Companys business goals and conclaves are held meticulously. A
Strategy Conclave attended by senior executives, grouped into seven core committees, covering three
business verticals: Marketing, Quality, Procurement and R&D, was held to prepare a Perspective Plan and
envisage business propositions for a period of around 15 years for the Company, make an operational plan for a
short term of 5 years (annual) with reasonable growth rates and specific, measurable physical dimensions in
terms of numbers, values, and to create Companys Values, Vision, Mission, Procurement & Quality Policies
and a R&D Roadmap. To get wide and fresh inputs, five Sub-groups (covering respective Business Verticals,
Marketing, Quality, Procurement and R&D functions) were formed from middle-level executives, and carried
out deliberations at Complexes.

The overall strength of skilled and experienced manpower in the Company has drastically declined mainly due
to superannuation. If left unaddressed, the resultant impact of a skill/ leadership vacuum across some critical
functions, could impair the companys ability to meet the business objectives. Superiors and supervisors are
nominated to play the role of a coach/mentor to high-potential subordinates and assist them in building skills,
understanding the nuances of management, leadership functions and business.
A manpower study is also underway based on process requirements and the volume of business, and to
optimize the human capital. To identify potential leaders, and to motivate each senior executive in the
organization, to invest in building their own Leadership capabilities, comprehensive competency, and
leadership development initiatives are undertaken to develop a leadership pipeline in the company. A
Competency Framework was formulated, and all senior executives were put through Assessment and
Development Centers to determine their areas of strength and development. The senior executives are trained,
measured, rewarded, recognized and aligned with the business objective of the Company. Leveraging their
strength and readying them for new roles and to deliver high quality business results based on their core
competencies is critical.
Skill development programmes are designed to increase productive manpower, optimum utilization of
resources and to skill the marginalized/unskilled persons of the organization. Apart from the organizational
requirements, to augment the shortage of skilled workforce at the National level various Apprentice/Vocational
programmes have been introduced at colleges. BEML conducted programs to hone skill/trade of the trained
persons passing out of various ITIs /Polytechnics/Engineering Colleges. The Unskilled permanent employees
who are on the rolls are put on full-time 18 months training in specialized trades. After 12 months of practical
and theoretical training at the Training centre they are assigned to on-the-job training on shop floors for a period
of six months. On completion of 18 months training, they are tested and successful candidates are re-
categorised, and re-designated, as Direct workmen (Technician) in the respective Discipline.
Employees possessing skill in a trade, and are inclined to enhance their skills are identified for training in other
specialized trades, to optimize their services. In-house training is conducted under the supervision of
designated instructors and a test is conducted at the end of the training to ascertain the proficiency attained.
This training helps in job rotation and to meet the urgent requirement of specialized tradesmen. A Skilling the
Unskilled Scheme has been designed to skill the contract workers engaged through service
providers/contractors who perform menial jobs despite of VIII/SSLC qualifications.
To focus on building the requisite skills, which are of critical importance to the Companys operations, Centers
of Excellence in Structural Welding, Hydraulics & Power train, and Electronics & Electrical Systems, have been
set up in manufacturing Divisions/Complexes. The technical training, in the Centers of Excellence includes
theoretical and practical aspects, on successful completion of training, candidates are certified. Suitable
reward mechanisms exist for motivating the employees to get certified in specific skills.
Employee Satisfaction Surveys, encompassing study of organizational climate/culture, employee
engagement, satisfaction level and measuring effectiveness and the alignment of HR strategy, HR policies and
practices are held in the Company. The surveys are intended to determine the integral role BEML employees
play in upholding brand value. A survey modeled on six pillars i.e., Organization, Opportunity, People, Quality
of Life, Work and Rewards was conducted online for executives whereas in case of non-executives pen and
paper method was adopted. Total target coverage achieved was 94% of the total workforce. The overall
Employee Engagement Mean Score for BEML, was found to be in the high-performance zone with most of the
market leaders.
The surveys indicate that intrinsic factors motivate employees and are based on meeting the personal needs of
an employee. BEML Ltd., recognizes these intrinsic needs and encourages job rotation, job enlargement, and
job enrichment, to provide career development opportunities. Job rotation which involves periodically
changing jobs, and work areas to develop new competencies, while gaining cross-departmental experience is
an important measure for personal development. To improve and drive holistic engagement strategy, five
initiatives have been identified as top priority namely: Skill Development, Recognition Scheme,

Communication, Quality and Leveraging of Technology. A team of internal resource persons have also been
identified and entrusted to champion the change management initiatives post surveys.
In BEML, people development is the focal point of HR functions, framing talent strategies with clearly defined
and aligned goals, with structured career paths, supported by robust learning and development plans. This
approach has a distinct impact on business outcomes; with 88% of sales being achieved from orders obtained
in stiff competition mode, and over 50 percent of product range coming from in-house developed products. In
the ultimate analysis, a progressive organization like BEML is bringing in stronger people capability by
leveraging training and talent management process though internal expertise and external support, resulting in
synergized business outcomes.

The Journey of a LEADER- Making and
Becoming One
About the Author
As an Executive director of Education and Training vertical, Mr Rajesh Uppal is
responsible for creating a skilled and motivated work force at MSIL. It was under
his aegis Maruti Suzuki Training Academy (MSTA) was established with a vision
Sustaining Business Excellence by building competent people across the value
chain. As a center of excellence MSTA is accountable for training and
development of MSIL employees and value chain to meet dynamic business
needs.
Mr Uppal believes employee development is crucial to delivering our vision of
Mr Rajesh Uppal building great products that contribute to a better world. The most important thing
we can do is stay focused on creating a skilled and motivated work force. We do
that by investing in our employees, strengthening their technical and leadership
skills and recognizing them for delivering results that cultivate success.
It is under Mr Uppals expert guidance learning and development strategy has
been assembled and successfully executed at MSIL. As a global company, there is
a need of certain standards and processes for employees who can take MSIL to
the next levels of performance.
He is also involved in various skill development initiatives for youth at MIL with
Government of India and he is the Chairman of Institute Management Committee
for various MSIL adopted Industrial Training Institutes. Mr Uppal is also part of the
Board of Directors of various education institutes such as: -
National Institute of Technology
Trustee at MSIL adopted Delhi Public Schools
Under his charge MSIL has garnered prestigious awards and accolades in
Education and Training which include: -
Gold trophy for the category Best Private Organization Training Program at
ASSOCHAMs, Summit-cum-Awards on Skilling India
MSIL Trained participants represented India at prestigious World Skills India
Competition for the categories Auto Body Repair and Car Painting
Brandon Hall Award for Learning Management System offered at MSIL
Mr Uppal association with Maruti began in 1985 when he joined the IT team. Since
then he has adopted and reinforced techno based innovative practices in learning
and development.

The Journey of a LEADER - Making and
Becoming One
ABSTRACT
L eadership pipeline should thrive on a strong objective and transparent system, coupled with employee
centric-tools. While standardizing the development activity we should also have an understanding that
everyone has his/her style for development and the system should be able to deliver that unique experience. A
baseline assessment shall give an objective view of the direction to start and annual metrics monitoring would
give us the progression from AS IS to the TO BE state. A hand-in-hand objective TNI methodology with
comprehensive L&D methodology will be the key input in framing succession management model giving
transparency and openness its due importance. While building leadership lessons for the top, the frontline
leaders at the bottom of the pyramid should be groomed. New technology-driven development tools are there
in todays digital world but more than the leadership know-how, developing leadership mind-set should be the
focus.
Keywords: Learning style, Virtual Development Center, Succession management, Simulation-based learning
and developing frontline leaders
The Journey of a LEADER- Making and becoming one

Importance of Leadership Development: Leadership development is the core requirement for sustainable
business excellence. All successful companies i.e., organizations who have created value consistently for a
long time and excelled irrespective of the market challenges understand that their leadership is the DNA for
their existence. My vision to build a leadership pipeline has always been that it should thrive on a strong
objective and transparent system, coupled with employee-centric learning tools.
Focus on Leadership Development: We talk about standardization, consistency and achieving benchmarks,
but I feel when we are about to build any system for the people, it should have that human element; it should
give the employee a unique experience close to his own style of work for his growth and development.
Standardizing the development activity alone will not help as it involves human factor but measurement is what
we can make transparent and standardized. More the objectivity better is the acceptance by the people as then
they take ownership for their own development.
Training Need Identification (Assessment to address the gaps): It is very important for employees to have a
baseline assessment, to look at their current standing on the organizations competency framework and to
work for their development in the right direction. Development is reaching from ‘AS IS’ state to the ‘TO BE’
state.
Next step would be to clearly define the TO BE state which is often a function of business requirement and
potential for development. Failing to understand the potential may fail the entire intervention; it would be like
demanding performance beyond the capability of a person. Equally important is to derive patterns or predictive
analytics of what will work best for whom. This is effective when year-on-year the trends, the metrics are
monitored. So never miss the first step capturing data. If there is no data there is no direction to get started,
you may choose any development tool and it may take you anywhere since you dont know where you have to
reach.
Development Center (DC) methodology is the preferred option to take a comprehensive look at talent portfolio
and to define talent strategy. Various studies have established that the Development Center Approach for
competency assessment is a reliable technique in comparison to other traditional techniques such as,
competency based interviews, work simulations, ability tests and personality tests. Integrating the

competency framework of an organization with the development center approach can track readiness of
employees for the next level. IDPs should be created for employees for individual-driven development.
Looking at the reliability aspect of the DC approach to accurately evaluate the gap, this exercise should not be
limited to select employees in an organization but should be extended to a larger population, from middle-
management to the top. To enable such a scale-up I will recommend virtual development center (Online DC). In
the virtual DC, the entire exercise is online. It is apparent that the computer cannot observe individual
behaviors. Therefore, the underlying traits which induces a particular behavior can now be effectively
measured through online mode by administering various exercises like case study, market knowledge test,
situational judgment test & psychometric test etc. This approach has been designed to observe deep rooted
attributes of the employee without any bias. The virtual DC eliminates the human bias in the evaluation
process. The results are more acceptable as the test is self-administered. The online form helps in covering
many employees at a time and reduces the duration of the assessment to 3.5 - 4 hours instead of the traditional
1 or 2 days of investment. The participants are given reports which will contain their competency wise
performance, percentile positioning in their level, proficiency in their key abilities, engagement level as well as
the industry benchmarking. The reports are quickly available and give the individual a better perspective of
his strengths and developmental needs. The entire training need identification process is an objective exercise
where fact-based inputs are taken. Since this approach is objective, the participant is his own assessor, and
has complete control over the results and hence more acceptable to the employee.
Developing the Unique Learning Path for every employee: The changing business scenario demands
constant up gradation of skills, the need to adopt a robust Learning and Development framework to ensure a
quality talent pool is. Inputs from the assessments can be aligned to the framework to link it with the business
objectives.
Vision >> Core-Values >> Strategic Business Objectives >>Company Level KRAs>>Departmental KRAs
>>Individual KRAs >> Assessment >> Training Needs >>required competencies >>L&D framework >>Training
programs
For employee development, multiple modes of learning should be used with a combination of training
workshops, external exposure, and internal programs created by the organization. A central training unit in an
organization may cater to developmental needs of the entire business entities, units, and employees with more
strategic focus.
Learning and Development (L&D) framework should be developed with a rigorous training needs identification
process across levels. It should be a role-based competency framework across vertical/business units. The
key intent in the framework may be different for different leadership levels.
-Leadership at Senior Management levels: Develop a strong leadership capability, focusing on the capability of
strategic competence, on the culture of change through both continuous and disruptive innovation and
become builder and groomer of people. The approach can be their participation in global level programs
focusing on Strategic IQ, Change Management, Advanced Management programs and Risk Management.
Leadership at Middle Management levels: Creating an innovative and nurturing leadership pipeline by
engaging them in subordinate-development, proper-planning and execution strategy formulation and
managing teams.
Junior Management levels: Creating ownership and engagement by enhancing their personal effectiveness
skills and conceptual ability.
Supervisory level: Strong people competence, understanding of processes and technical competence.
Learning
Talent Profile Group Report: Interventions
Online Dashboard: Efficacy:
Reports: Talent MDPs,
Development Individual Recheck after
Strength & Readiness Coaching,
Centre Development a year
Focus areas Across e-learning etc.
Plan

Associate level (shop floor): Strong ownership and engagement, understanding of important shop floor
practices & clear understanding of how business works in terms of productivity, profit and sales.
Setting-up the framework:
STEP 1: Top management driven: With inputs from top management and respective vertical unit expert teams,
L&D framework can be formed consolidating the standard training needs as per levels. These identified
hygiene competencies should be addressed through mandatory programs.
STEP 2: Fact-based assessment inputs: Specific modules along with inputs from online development center
can provide the competency gaps specific to the individual.
STEP 3: Alignment with business objectives: Regular (every month) reviews of current training programs may
be conducted where CEO or Executive-Director or other senior personnel together discuss framework
alignment with business goals. Any challenges in way forward should be dealt with, and inputs fed into L&D
framework.
Comprehensive L&D Methodology ComprehensiveTNI Methodology
Learning map for each employee Online - Development center for all levels
level-wise function specific training Competency gap analysis àTraining need
Case study, Simulation, Psychometnic
Succession Management Framework: Providing the correct skills for the right employee and putting him at
the right place is the key for 360 leadership development exercise. In an organization where internal talent is
groomed to take up higher roles that are critical, development process should be able to take care of same.
Succession planning makes the system transparent enough for employees to see their eligibility and fit for
available positions. Employees with their own unique learning progression own their self-development. For
employees being groomed for specific roles ‘Action–Learning projects’ establishing a new process or
implementing a company-wide new system may be given. Another approach is to bring together high-
potentials into one exclusive batch and focus their development on strategic Issues. Projects may involve
interviewing employees to find the cause of a business problem and sharing the recommendations with the
top-management. Here top management needs to give full cognizance and support, provided it has potential
to create business value or is of strategic importance. This pushes the employees to think beyond their
traditional working and move out of siloworking mode to deal with business Issues and break-through the
barriers of thinking to achieve an innovative mindset. Job-rotation is another mode for development where an
employee is groomed to take up a senior management position after cross-functional exposure within the
organization. For example, an employee first works in the production area, then works in supply chain and
finally occupies a senior position in marketing or service thereby exposing the employee to multi-dimensional
thinking. Only high potential employees undergo such an exercise. Stretch assignments is another mode for
development where the employee has to execute the role of the position one level up, for instance temporarily
handling the role of a regional head while the employee is an area manager.
Achieving Transparency and Openness: Transparency and openness it is believed will drive the employees
to contribute and excel to try and reach their goal. Performance may not depend on seniority. At the same time,
another view is, this may not work if full access to information is given, an employee who knows he is not in the
identified elite group may get de-motivated. The solution is to indicate that the employee has some potential,
but not exactly the degree to which it exists.

Measurement and Monitoring: Ensuring the right employee moves to the right position is important but it is as
important to measure and see if the employees are moving at the right pace.
Funneling should not make the list of prospective employees too thin. It should be a dynamic process where
the deserving employee takes the position in the elite list and other non-performers get dropped. Monitoring
the development of the junior and middlemanagement should be an ongoing parallel activity. Leadership
development is the backbone for the business and a systematic, focused, and employee-oriented approach,
will impact business positively.
Lastly, when we are looking for sustainability we should not just build leadership at the top but also the frontline
leaders at the bottom of the pyramid. In view of overall IR trends a pragmatic approach to developing
leadership at shop floor is equally important. The workforce should have fundamental understanding of
business, technology, economy, and people skills that do not emerge from a conventional mode of education.
A concept of healthy connect, changed mindsets and groomed shop floor colleagues can be cultivated and
nurtured by addressing the underlying structural changes in our people connect through an intervention which
will focus specifically on mentoring the young population of front-line supervisors. The concept of mentoring
where the mentor (supervisor) is a one touch point for associates (shop floor workmen) and helps in
establishing a connect when an associate requires with association and eventually prevents even the smallest
Issue impacting IR. These mentors may choose to support the mentees not only within the boundaries of the
organization but even in personal Issues like a death in the family, need for re-location, school admission of
kids etc.
Most of the leadership strategies and interventions I shared have been implemented at Maruti Suzuki and they
are yielding very positive results. I would just like to state that more than the leadership know-how, the
approach should be to develop the leadership mindset.

Building Leaders through Learning and
About the Author
Prof (Dr) Sanjay Srivastava is a Ph. D. in Organizational Culture from University of
Delhi, an expert in Psychometric Profiling and a trainer practitioner of
Transactional Analysis and NLP. He is one of the few who have been accorded with
the International Honorary Research Fellowship for five years upto 2021 at Lahti
University of Applied Sciences, Helsinki, Finland a rare honor, bestowed upon him
by the Honble Prime Minister of Finland Mr Juha Sipila on February 14, 2016. His
book entitled - The Timeless Wisdom from Geeta & Leadership (Geeta ka
Shashwat Gyan tatha Netratva ki Kala) was released on April 4, 2017 by Honble
Dr Sanjay Srivastava Governor of Haryana.
Dr Srivastava has worked with Haryana Institute of Public Administration for many
years and responsible for conducting programs for the civil servants of the cadre
and conducting programs of Department of Personnel & Training, Government of
India at their various academies like LBS - National Academy, Mussoorie & SP
National Police Academy, Hyderabad, National Academy of CBI and many more.
Before Joining Manav Rachna Educational Institutions, he worked for 18 years
with Amity University and has had the privilege of teaching eighteen out of twenty
batches graduated from Amity Business School, flagship institute of Amity
University as Professor of Organizational Behavior. He has worked at Amity
University as its Dean Examination and Faculty of Management Studies &
Chairman, Doctoral Program of Amity University, Uttar Pradesh.
24 scholars have completed their Ph. D. work under his guidance and at present, 7
of them are pursuing their doctoral work with him. He has guided more than 350
dissertations, 450 summer internships at Post Graduate level and many consulting
assignments of Government in India and abroad, some of his classic consulting
work includes Kudremukh Iron Ore Company Limited at Karnataka, Dubai
Electricity & Water Authority (DEWA) & Sharjah Transport, Falcon Group of
Industries Sharjah) and many more. He is Life Member of International
Psychoanalytic Society and National Academic of Psychology.
During his distinguished career of over two decades having had many distinctions
the academic community knows him as team builder, an acclaimed teacher, a
prolific speaker, an avid researcher, a consultant and an Organizational Coach.
Besides, Dr Srivastava has worked on many international assignments on various
capacities which include Training, Consultancy etc.

12
Building Leaders through Learning and
A nyone who acquaints oneself with the word organization understands it as a body consisting of
numerous people who are brought together by pursuits of a collective goal. This body of people is
considered to (and should) operate as a well oiled machine with linkages to the external environment that
would eventually provide it with resources for accomplishing that goal. However, human beings, by a natural
disposition, require a constant source of motivation if they are to accomplish something. It is easy to drive ones
own motivation about a personal goal because all it takes is accountability and responsibility for self. The
picture changes all together when an entire bunch of people need to stay motivated for a goal which cannot be
associated with an individual but is going to fulfill their basic need for which they came together in the first
place. This necessitates the existence of a structure where a selected few can take responsibility of steering a
larger lot of people towards the organizations goal.
In this age where quite a few organizations are moving from a hierarchical structure towards a flatter
organizational structure, talking about managers may not be as relevant as it was a few decades ago; but it
underlines the requirement of persuasive leaders who can land into the battlefield with the team, extracting
results because of their influence instead of authority. If the organization is a ship, a leader is its designer, a
leader is the teacher, a leader is the steward – whose purpose is to serve a greater purpose of reshaping
business where the employees can steer themselves. To understand this in true perspective, its important
to understand that Leader is not a designation. Leader is that invisible badge that a person wears with honor,
not because it has been bestowed on him/her, but because one is willing to take ownership of accomplishing
the goals and take people along in their pursuit while according them due respect and space that they deserve.
As we talk about accomplishment of goals by the organization, the process would be a very linear process if it
were to take place in a vacuum; which, however, is far from reality. The progress of an organization is almost
entirely dependent on its response to its external environment. It might pay us well to remember a clichéd
adage “Change is the only constant” because old as it might be; there is nothing better that explains a
business environment well. With a world that is taken over by technology which changes with the blink of an
eye, dynamism is the new normal. To sustain this new normal, saying that we have to be on top of it, is an
understatement. An organization that continuously evolves by enhancing its capabilities, intentionally as well
as incidentally, is the one that will be around for a long haul.
Considering that leader is the one who truly owns the responsibility of ensuring that the organization is moving
in the right direction, he would be signing up the organization for an early dissolution if he fails to perpetuate his
learning. The organizations must change with time, however, the leaders need to tread with caution and help in
building capabilities that are more classic and less a trend. Studies have shown that “great companies
changed less in reaction to a radically changing world than the comparison companies”. Yes, it is
important to take cognizance of the changes. Yes, it is important to foresee challenges that may arise out of
these changes. Yes, it is important to equip ourselves to deal with contingencies. But despite of it all, the
leaders have a responsibility of dealing with extreme patience. Jim Collins in his book From Good to Great
has talked about how it has been proved: “Leading in a Fast World always requires Fast Decision, and Fast
Action is a good way to get killed.”

The leaders who facilitate continuous augmentation of their abilities to adapt to a dynamic environment,
develop collective as well as individual learning scenarios and use the results to achieve better results, are the
need of the hour. The organizations must understand a very real phenomenon called the competitive tension
or a discomfort felt because of the presence of a competition, where within the organization people might look
at each other as rivals but eventually have to work together in the same direction. There are some aspects of
work which one must keep working on irrespective of the environment which the organization is thriving in. The
one who welcomes this competitive tension and is on a path of continuous learning has the makings of a true
leader. The need of a Leaders learning is visible and it is also clear that nobody is born a leader; it is an art and a
sentiment that is cultivated with time but sadly, not taught anywhere. Its a grey area that is plagued with
Issues and challenges and identifying some of them would be a great way to kick-start a holistic journey of
learning.
The challenges that a leader faces are double edged – they not only give a perspective of what needs
development within the team, they also give a leader an insight in his/ her personal areas of
improvement. Do you identify with some of the following?
1. Team: Search for a purpose
Leader: Identifying and communicating the purpose
If your team lacks direction and you often feel that they are not able to look at the broader picture, have you
considered communicating the organizations vision to them while explaining how important their
contribution is. Great leaders know where they are going and they are able to persuade others to follow.
But leaders can never take their people farther than they have traveled. For successful communication
and fulfillment of purpose, remember the 5As: Articulate the ideas, Announce the vision, Acquaint your
subordinates with it, Assign responsibilities and Accompany them while they work at it.
2. Team: Trust
Leader: Trust
The team trusts when they can see that their needs are being taken care of and the leader also feels the
need to be trusted to patiently take care of the teams needs which may need time to fulfill. In a system that
is built of humans, its a vicious circle of trust and benefits. An efficient leader will ensure the 5Cs of Trust
Building: Communicate effectively, Commit and fulfill promises, Coach the subordinates, Credit them for
things they do well, and Concede when hes wrong.
3. Team: Focus on personal goals
Leader: Develop focus on organizational goals
A true leader understands that every team member is important and respects their personal goals due to
which they are a part of the organization. Instead of highlighting a conflict, the leader identifies and
underlines the correlation between the organizational goal and personal goals of a team member. To
establish this focus, a leader would do well to follow the 5Cs of aligning personal and organizational
goals: Collaborate with the team, Confide in them with your personal goals, Correlate how they fall in line
with organizational goals, Confer with them to seek this correlation in respect to their goals, and
Cooperate with them when they need support to establish this alignment.
4. Team: Need to be heard
Leader: Need to be heard
The team and the leader have a mutual need of being heard and need is often fruitfully fulfilled in a beautiful
system of barter and mutual respect. A team that feels that they are being given due importance and are
not merely slaves of remuneration, they establish an unbeatable sense of belongingness. Pay attention
when the team relies on you for 5Cs: Clarity, Complaints, Consideration, Confession and Compensation.

5. Team: Dealing with unfamiliar expectations
Leader: Dealing with unfamiliar responsibilities
A leader might be dealing with unknown territories on being assigned a new responsibility, an event which
burdens the team with unfamiliar expectations, much unknown to him. Taking cognizance and being
considerate can ease out the experience for both the parties. To ease out the experience, leaders can rely
on the 5Es of dealing with expectations and responsibilities: Explain your point of view, Empathize with
the team and understand their position, Empower them with new tasks and ward off their fear, Endure the
uncertainties, and Evaluate from time to time to keep everything from going out of order.
6. Team: Belongingness
Leader: Isolation
Often the team yearns for a sense of belongingness which, in more cases than not, gets fulfilled within the
team. A leader on the other hand faces isolation for he/she cannot confide in his time about his/her
ruminations. A healthy familiar environment is essential for the team with their leader to sail through trying
circumstances. If one pays attention, an employee feels attached to the work place if it fulfills its 5Ms: Men
or social groups, Money to fulfill basic needs, responsibilities and desires, Mind or appreciation of his
ideas, Motivation to self actualize, and meaningful experience to gain Mastery in his area of expertise.
7. Team: Emotional Intelligence
Leader: Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence is all about making the best of each others emotions in any situation. To be able to
understand and respect another persons emotions, it is essential to begin on a journey to self awareness
which allows one to extend exactly the kind of support that is required in varied situations pregnant with
volatility of human emotions. Moods of a leader are transmitted to those he/she leads. An emotionally
intelligent leader will stop these 5Cs from nurturing within the organization: Criticizing, Complaining,
Comparing, Competing and Contending.
8. Team: Lack of inspiration
Leader: Lack of skills to lead from influence
An employee knows what hes there for in an organization but lacks the fire to consider it his own. A leader
stumbles in situations where he exercises his authority in passing on instructions, failing to realize that the
task at hand will get accomplished wonderfully if he jumps in the task with the team member, offering him
the streak of inspiration that hes yearning for. Remember that team looks up to you for 5Cs: Charisma,
Care, Cleverness, Communication, and Consolidation.
9. Team: Accepting change
Leader: Managing change
Change is probably the biggest challenge in an organization as it is inevitable and comes across as a
complete upheaval of what a person has been used to experiencing for a considerable period of time.
Managing change is the true test of a leader and creates a hearth where new leaders are born molten,
blown and transformed. Remember the 5Es of change management: Envision the future scenario,
Establish the changes that the organization requires, Enumerate them clearly for your teams
understanding, Empower them to take control, and Embed them in the system with effective control
mechanism.
10. Team: Becoming a leader
Leader: Developing a leader
As a leader evolves with time, he also bequeaths the responsibility of passing on his Guru’s learning
to newer individuals who have every essential ingredient to become a corporate warrior. The real

benefits of leadership are achieved not when a project does well because of the leaders efforts, but
instead when his learning and doing ignites a passion in somebody else to pass it on to more individuals.
To nurture future corporate warriors, a leader will go through 5Es: Exhibit his skills and inspire
subordinates, Explore the team for future leaders, Evaluate them on their current skills-set, Enlighten them
about areas of development and Encourage them to take on new tasks that will eliminate their
weaknesses.
These challenges are ubiquitous and not a single organization would be spared from these because they are
evolutionary in nature, always leaving a scope for improvement. According to Singh and Bhandarkar (2016),
Virtuous Leaders influence subordinates through unpretentiousness and empowering behavior,
respecting the dignity of others, listening intently, through their approachability along with clear sense
of direction for performance. In other words, they powerfully integrate human skills with focus on
performance outcomes. However, becoming a leader like that involves a long learning process, the teachings
and experiences of which should be regularly and tactfully passed on to others if more leaders are to be
nurtured. This requires additional attention and moving away from the primary focus of minting money. Porras
and Collins have talked about the importance of building an organizations core value system instead of
relying on great product ideas, charismatic leaders, and paying too much attention to profit.
Its imperative to quote Peter Drucker here who said “We now accept the fact that learning is a lifelong
process of keeping abreast of change. And the most pressing task is to teach people how to learn.”
Moving on to become a Learning & Teaching Organization is more a matter of a cultural change than a structural
change. It begins by building an organization culture that nurtures learning, acceptance of change and an
unwavering faith in continuous improvement and innovation. This culture is further brought to life by inculcating
a feeling of free dissemination of knowledge and skills which is a departure from the common vice of
knowledge hoarding; teaching is rightly considered the highest form of understanding. However, this massive
metamorphosis is impossible without the inclusion of all members of the organization. When we talk of
change, we cannot undermine the importance of the human element that’s involved in a business
organization and hence, HR leaders have a greater responsibility to shoulder in facilitating the path to
learning.
A Learning & Teaching Organization will be developed where the higher ups understand the need to properly
manage knowledge available within the system, the requirement of superior infrastructure for knowledge
building, the importance of gathering knowledge and to top of it all, a necessity to disseminate it strategically to
the right person at the right time. Innovation, Implementation and Stabilization are the three phrases in a
learning organization. A Learning Organization focuses more on lifelong learning and softer skills set to
adapt, innovate and learn rather than the hard factual knowledge base, which has an increasingly short shelf
life. It is important to remember that Innovation by itself turns out not to be the trump card in a chaotic and
uncertain world; more important is the ability to scale innovation, to blend creativity with discipline. Thus,
innovation ought to be accompanied and followed by a creative implementation and disciplined stabilization.
With the knowledge that its us humans who drive the change and innovation when motivated well, importance
of steering your Human Capital becomes all pervasive. The beauty of Human Resource Management is that it
can get as subjective as can be. But one can always sneak in a bit of objectivity and turn grey areas into neatly
outlined blacks and whites. Its said that identifying the Issue is half the battle won. If one would like to
evaluate their organization and move onto a continuous path of progress, it would be a great idea for
practitioners to understand the following checklist of attributes. One can take a moment to pause and
reflect, rate their organization on a ten point scale and chalk out an achievable plan of action:
1. Intellectual Curiosity: It is characterized by a passion to identify changing forces and an eagerness to
learn about aspects that may not directly relate to the business right now, but which may indirectly impact
it at a later stage. If restricted to a particular division or function, it could also mean the hunger to learn
more to be able to deliver results in geometric progression. Do you identify an unquenchable quest of
excellence among your people?

2. Creating Organizational Capacity for Anticipating and Responding to Change: Do all your people
understand the macro picture of the organization? Do your employees take pride in anticipating changes
and proactively offering solutions that may be implemented in advance? Do you have a reward structure in
place for team efforts? Do your employees feel that they are in a win-win situation? Is everybody a winner?
3. Organizational Humility: This attribute is characterized by the eagerness to learn from others. Is this
need communicated across the levels horizontally, vertically and diagonally in your organization? The
vibe that knowledge is not held in close proprietorship of any person but is a phenomenon that leads the
team to collectively achieve the organizations goals is a game changer. However, it requires a top to
bottom approach replete with validation and acknowledgment, by the people at the helm, of the great
ideas brewing among the juniors. Do your subordinates feel that their ideas are valued?
4. Learning to Adapt, Adopt and Adept: Do the people in your organization understand what signals to pay
attention to and which ones to ignore? Do they put in persistent efforts to adapt to the new changes by
learning how to juggle schedules, resources and assignments; adopt the changes required during
inevitable crisis situations; and to become adept at planning for various contingencies?
5. Vigilant Self-Criticism: There should be a constant rift between stability and change. Do your people
sustain a systematic effort towards questioning the conventional wisdom? Do they project a keen
awareness that complacency and procrastination should not set in? Delay is the deadliest form of denial it
is said otherwise its just a matter of time that it will lead to its own sad demise.
6. Moving from Intentional to Incidental Learning: Conscious mechanisms for creating, collecting and
disseminating knowledge have become a recurring theme and learning organizations recognize that
knowledge-value is very rarely created; it is only shared by accidental learning. Conscious mechanism
must be evolved to acquire it, and considerable energy expended to disseminate and leverage it. How
does your organization fair as far as incidental learning is concerned? Do you encounter Eureka moments
often?
7. Developing a Culture of Continuous Improvement and Continuous Learning: Culture of continuous
improvement involves accepting the fact that learning at all the levels and all functions are critical in
organizational processes. This assists organizational members to become and see themselves as
increasingly effective, self reliant and cooperative learners. Learning Organizations believe that a human
beings first responsibility is to shake hands with him/herself. Are your people consciously aware of the
knowledge levels that they currently possess? Do they proactively work on enhancing it?
8. A Capacity to Imagine Alternative Futures: Learning Organizations prepare every member of the
organization to create, nurture and process the alternative futures and it comes only with the realization of
togetherness. This capacity to imagine or imbibe conviction, which is communicated that the dream we
dream alone, is only a dream, but the dream we dream together is reality. Undoubtedly, loneliness and the
feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty. Do your people feel like they are a part of a bigger
fabric and that their contribution matters?
9. Revitalizing Team Development Processes: Team building should be an opportunity for team members
to assimilate and adapt to change on a continuous basis, to increase skills of team learning and
adaptation. Are situations dealt openly and constructively to allow the employees to feel that they are an
important part of your organization? Team needs time together to set goals, plan, organize, and execute.
We often judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already
done. The organizational environment goes a long way in bridging that gap.
10. A High Tolerance for Ambiguity, Complexity and Change: Learning Organizations believe that pain
nourishes courage and you cant be brave if youve only had wonderful things happen to you. The
organizational life cycle is intrinsically iterative, experimental and often non-linear. Henceforth, advice
should always be consumed between two thick slices of doubt because in times to come, complexity and
ambiguity would be the two pillars of existence of any corporate. Is your organization equipped?

11. An Appetite for Feedback: This attribute is characterized by a genuine eagerness to reach out and get
performance feedback from variety of sources and a willingness to actually listen to it and incorporate
needful changes. Lessons learned from past projects can become a rich source of knowledge and provide
meaningful insight if you have a genuine appetite to digest. This task of course can be very daunting, but
do you have a feedback mechanism in place? Is it robust enough to give you a 360 degree evaluation of the
organization?
12. Helping Individuals to Cope with Frequent Reassignments and Role Changes: Managers in
organizations going through major changes are often forced to cope with different & frequent
reassignments and changes in the reporting relationships, roles, and job descriptions. Learning
Organizations believe that imagination is more important than knowledge. Is your organization ready to
take the risk? Does your organization believe that your people might not like switchovers but those are
willing to evolve will come along anyway?
13. Facilitating Organizational Support for Individual Coping: Organizations have to facilitate employees
ability to cope up with change by helping them develop their creative thinking. This is also done by
communicating that discoveries are often made by not just by following instructions, but by going off the
main road, by trying the untried. Learning Organizations create a space to allow employees to develop a
personal vision and plan, learn conflict resolution, manage stress; and above all provide an environment
that recognizes family needs with a genuineness that says We Care. Does this sound like your
organization?
14. A High Pain Threshold for “Constructive Failures”: Matthew J. Kiernan in his book entitled Get
Innovative or Get Dead writes that most CEOs would probably concede that they have learned more from
their corporate mistakes than their successes. Sadly, they tend to have a much higher tolerance level for
their own mistakes than those of subordinates. Learning Organizations and their leaders view
experiments as desirable, mistakes as inevitable and failures as the raw feedstock for the learning
process. Do your people feel comfortable to make honest mistakes?
If the points listed herein above have stirred you, it would discomfort you to know that this list is not exhaustive.
However, a silver lining to this cloud of apprehension, confusion and botheration is that all of these attributes
are idealistic and not fully attainable there will always be something more to do, irrespective of the pinnacles
of success that your organization reaches. Now on these attributes rate your own organization. What sets
Learning Organizations apart is the realization that in the odyssey of success, the destination is like the
bottom of an ocean – uncertain and unfathomable. Challenges unfold themselves in three dimensions: The
Simple, the Difficult and the Impossible. True leaders always embrace the third one which results in not only
satisfaction over attainment, but also in getting epitomized for their brand value for future generations to
remember.
Often, some managers, who are not able to persuade their team on a path to goal fulfillment, look at their
successful contemporaries in despair and attribute their success to luck. Collins and Hansen (2011) had
interesting observations to make after extensively studying Fortune 500 companies and role of luck in
their success. By empirically defining, quantifying and studying the role of luck, they concluded that the
great companies and leaders who built them were not luckier than the comparison companies and their
leaders. However, they did get a higher return on their luck quotient. The reason for this greater return on
luck can be accredited to various factors. Always remember, that the best leaders in the world were not the
ones who had a great vision, a great appetite for risk and a creative mind; best leaders were the ones
who were more disciplined, more empirical and more paranoid. To make yours a Learning Organization,
identify an attribute that it needs development on and set on a journey with a strong plan of action. Bon voyage!

References:
1. Boss, J. (2016, February 2). The Top Leadership Challenges for 2016. (Retrieved from:
h t t p s : / / w w w. f o r b e s . c o m / s i t e s / j e ff b o s s / 2 0 1 6 / 0 2 / 0 2 / t h e - t o p - l e a d e r s h i p - c h a l l e n g e s - f o r-
2016/#3382ab0919e0)
2. Collins, James C., Porras, Jerry I (1994). Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. United
States: William Collins
3. Collins, Jim C. (2001). Good to Great. United States: William Collins
4. Collins, Jim C., Hansen, Morten T. (2011). Great by Choice. United States: William Collins
5. Goleman, D. (2004). Primal Leadership. United States: Harvard Business Review Press
6. Kiernan, Matthew J. (2004). Get Innovative or Get Dead. United States: Diane Publishing Company
7. Maxwell, John C. (1993). Developing the Leader within You. United States: Harper Collins
8. Senge, P. (2006). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization. United States:
Crown Business
9. Sharma, R. (2010). The Leader who had no Title. India: Jaico Publishing House
10. Silsbee, L (2015, May 18). The Top 7 Challenges facing Leaders today. (Retrieved from:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-7-challenges-facing-leaders-today-lynda-silsbee-cpt-sphr/)
11. Singh, P., Bhandarkar, A., Rai,S. (2016). The Leadership Odyssey: From Darkness to Light. India: Sage
Publications Pvt. Ltd.
12. Waldon, G. (2015, August 6). Competitive Tension can push you to Greater Success. (Retrieved from:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/competitive-tension-can-push-you-greater-success-gary-waldon/)

Book Review
The Leadership Odyssey
About the Author

Dr Jyotsna Bhatnagar is a Harvard Business School affiliate. A masters in
Psychology from Lucknow University, and is a PhD from Indian Institute of
Technology¸ New Delhi. She launched her academic career at IIM-Ahmedabad in
1990. and was also associated with Escorts Corporate Limited in 1997.
At MDI, Dr Bhatnagar offers teaching , research and consulting on Talent
Management, Innovative HR practices, Strategic HR role of line and HR Manager,
Talent and leadership pipeline development to organizations such as: Govt. of
India-Ministry Of Statistics & Program Implementation¸ Designing uniform ACR
Dr Jyotsna for Subordinate statistical services; Competency Mapping and redesigning
Bhatnagar Performance appraisal form; Agri. Insurance Company-HR Policy and
Performance Management criterion; IBM Train the trainer Retention Workshop for
IBM GPS-HR; Samsung R&D- Retention through performance counseling and
feedback; -; Hewitt HRO; Jindal Stainless Limited on High Performance work
systems; American Express-Financial Centre-East-outbound team building and
culture building interventions. Prof. Jyotsna Bhavnagar has co-edited three
books: Future of Work; Changing Face of People Management in India;
Innovations in People Management: Cases in OB/HR/Communication.
Dr Bhatnagar recently published an article based on a case in Harvard Business
Review on Should you hire a Defector? Her cases have been published by Richard
Ivey and Harvard Business School Publishing case collection. Dr Bhatnagar has
presented her thoughts at the Academy of Management USA, regularly from 2008
to 2016. Dr Bhatnagar was nominated advisory board member of International
HRM Conference Secretariat. Her Research on Talent management received the
Emerald literati award 2009, at Academy of Management Conference, 2010,
Montreal Canada.and is the 5th most downloaded paper in the world, in emerald
Employer Relations journal. Dr Bhatnagar is a Editorial board member of British
Journal of Management.

The Leadership Odyssey
T he Leadership Odyssey begins with inspirational words of Jagdish Seth, a

foreword which readies the reader to an exciting journey of purpose and
passion, which may go toxic or virtuous as one examines the leaders in their
corporate journey. The journey entails a roadmap for understanding the A-h-
as of leadership, where one cannot make or buy leadership but earn it (p xvi),
to quote Seth.
As the reader curls up with the seminal work, by Dr. Pritam Singh, Dr. Asha
Bhandarker and Dr. Snigdha Rai, one comes across a blunt question: Why is
there a leadership crisis? As a practitioner and an evolving leader is there
something to learn, know, reflect and deflect? If you are riddled by these
questions, you must grab this book and introspect upon the findings of this
research based book.
Uniqueness of the book is that both paradigms of toxic and virtuous leadership
are investigated together, instead of either or leadership framework which
earlier research has explored. The authors dive into in-depth case studies of toxic and virtuous leaders, and
while reading the book one comes across questions such as: How your talent is dwarfed by a toxic leader, or
magnified by an enlightened, virtuous leader? Why do some leaders traverse the trap of unconscious
conspiracy? Know-it-all syndrome? Intoxicated with the position, power, arrogance, a leader may become
toxic and derail. How can one be a conscious leader focussed to evolve with purpose and passion, and humility
unique to himself? How do we learn leader behaviour worth emulating?
Based on qualitative and quantitative research, the authors provide a framework to know what and who are
toxic leaders, and how we recognize them. Further, who are virtuous leaders and how do we differentiate
between the two? The takeaway is the impact of these two paradoxical leaders on their environment, their
subordinates and their organizations, which under the zeal of their leadership march towards nadir, or towards
excellence pinnacle respectively.
The authors have organized the book in four chapters: Chapter one, titled, Peaks and Valleys of Leadership is
a literature review on both Toxic and Virtuous leadership. Chapter two examines, Toxic Leader Profile in which
you will learn to examine the dark side of the toxic leader, the proverbial wolf in sheeps clothes in any
organization, real life yet camouflaged examples are investigated which give a disconcerting feel to this profile
of the bully, an arrogant unethical wolf. Chapter three examines, Virtuous Leader Profile. This chapter is based
on case studies of enlightened virtuous leaders in the government and in the public sector, who are whose care
and concern about others is hallmark of their humanity. Those who are inspiring by their demeanour, are intent
listeners & followers, empathetic, emotionally balanced, inclusive, humble and patient leaders who walk the
talk. This style leads to accomplishing, challenging and impossible tasks, and leads to a happening, happy,
enjoyable and exciting inclusive workplace. The findings are based on interviews of important stakeholders
and subordinates of these leaders. Chapter five is titled, Leadership Consciously: A roadmap for moving from
Toxic to Virtuous leadership, and provides the landscape and key findings of the study. Blocks to move from
Toxic to Virtuous Leadership are identified, and a gestalt for a self-therapy checklist is provided.

This book sets you on the path of reflection. Go slow in reading the last two chapters, as authors are constantly
trying to ask the reader the question which kind of leader are you evolving to? If you are in any part of the
corporate hierarchy, the authors prod you to think, reflect and emulate. Choice is yours as a reader: Toxic or
Virtuous leadership journey? To discern, differentiate and demonstrate in every day managerial life by asking
yourself: Is there an Unconscious conspiracy you may be buckling to? Stop-Check-Reflect-Emulate and read
this book, as it offers you a new normal, a sound and practical way forward to increase the power of
virtuousness. A self-assessment checklist and creation of a sensor provided in the last chapter is a navigator to
move from toxic to virtuous leadership.
The authors stimulate the reader for a holistic gestalt, attained through the integration of physical, emotional,
intellectual and spiritual awareness and living, a balance of these four levels in management of the self as a
leader is offered by the authors.
Young HR leaders, trainers, academicians will find this book an important addition in their mental models and
their libraries. Mid-level leaders in any context, who find themselves on leadership crossroads, will find this
volume helpful in guiding them to the right turn in their leadership journey. Senior leaders will enjoy this book as
an identification of what they are going through in their leadership journey.
As a leader one must always know what to do, what to avoid, what to follow and why? The how and why of
leadership evolves into extensive case studies, crafted with such expertise by the authors, that the reader
revels in the learning journey from the Odyssey of the Virtuous leaders. The reviewer has a humble suggestion,
authors in their future work may investigate women leaders in both frameworks, toxic and virtuous styles which
will provide further insight and learning to the readers.
Conscious leadership is what beckons the readers to emulate, to quote Rumi, Set your life on fireseek those
who fan your flames. Read this book to unravel the flames of the conscious leader within.
If you want to unlearn the toxic behaviours which you may have acquired and want to develop into a holistic
conscious leader who can make a difference in the organization by positively impacting subordinates,
colleagues and important stakeholders, this book is for you.
This book will help you discover your leadership style and bring it forth from darkness to light...!

Since your journal has become online from January, 2016, you need to
make sure that your email id is updated with NHRDN national secretariat.
Without your correct email ID we will be not in a position to send you the
Issues at regular interval. In case you or your fellow professionals and
members have any problem in receiving the journal online do write to
Pranay Ranjan (pranay.ranjan@nationalhrd.org) at national secretariat.
As you also have noticed that all our Issues are theme based and
therefore we do not publish any article in a particular Issue that is not
related to the theme. So our request to future contributors will be to plan
your contributions based on the future themes only and send me your
contribution only at me@nationalhrd.org. Please also note that final
decision to include your article will be based on the decision of the guest
editor for that particular Issue and the editorial team. We would also like to
know about the themes/contemporary Issues that you want to focus us in
our future Issues. Please send your suggestions and feedback to
me@nationalhrd.org after reading this Issue.
12
Network HRD Network
The National HRD Network, established in 1986, is an association of
professionals committed to promoting the HRD movement in India
and enhancing the capability of human resource professionals,
enabling them to make an impact ful contribution in enhancing
competitiveness and creating value for society. Towards this end, the
National HRD Network is committed to the development of human
resources through education, training, research and experience
sharing. The network is managed by HR professionals in an honorary
capacity, stemming from their interest in contributing to the HR
profession. The underlying philosophy of the NHRDN is that
every human being has the potential for remarkable achievement.
HRD is a process by which employees in organizations are enabled
to:
Ÿ acquire capabilities to perform various tasks associated with
their present and future roles;
Ÿ develop their inner potential for self and organizational
growth;
Ÿ develop an organizational culture where networking relationships,
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contributing to organizational growth and individual well-being.
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Key Contributors

Dr Pritam Singh Dr Pradnya Parasher

NHRD Network Board Members

Immediate Past President Mr K Ramkumar

Director General Mr Dhananjay Singh

Editorial Team Dr Asha Bhandarker, Guest Editor

Publisher, Printer, Owner and Mr Dhananjay Singh

Designed by Fulki Communications Pvt. Ltd.

About this Issue

Editorial Board Members

Editorial Note Dr Pallab Bandyopadhyay 1

2. Issue and Challenges of Leadership Development Mr S Y Siddiqui 10

3. Leadership Development : Issues & Challenges Dr Anand Prakash 14

4. Inspiration-The Magic Potion in Your Leadership Mr K Ramkumar 17

5. Future-Ready Leadership Competencies Prof Vasanthi Srinivasan

6. Changing Paradigm of Leadership Mr Prashant Pandey 30

7. The What and How of Leadership Development Mr S V Nathan 37

8. Leadership Beyond Competencies - What Really Mr Bimal Rath 48

9. Elevating Womens Leadership in India: Dr Meena Wilson 55

10. Career Progression of Female Talent: Prof Krishnan T N 66

11. Navigating Leadership Transitions: Dr Pradnya Parasher 72

12. Lost in Transition Mr Gurucharan Singh Gandhi 81

13. Why Leadership Development Efforts Fail Mr Devapriyo Ghose 85

14. Facilitating Development of the Leadership Pipeline: Mr R Anand 96

15. Productivity Tools: Dr Kamal K Jain

16. Leadership Competencies for Good Governance Dr Deepa Mazumdar 111

Developing Leaders for an Uncertain World Dr Veena Vohra 119

18. Talent Management Initiatives in BEML Limited Mr Deepak Hota 126

20. Building Leaders through Learning and Dr Sanjay Srivastava 136

21. The Leadership Odyssey Dr Jyotsna Bhatnagar 144

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Why Leadership development?

There is no sound that is not a mantra, no plant that is not medicinal

12 NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 8

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 9

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 10

12 NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 11

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NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 13

Dr Anand Prakash is a renowned Professor at the Department of Psychology at

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 14

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Q. What are the lessons out of this for corporate leaders?

Q. Can you speak about some other leadership archetypes in India?

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 16

Mr K Ramkumar is Founder, Leadership Centre Pvt Ltd, former Executive Director

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 17

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NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 19

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Prof R Srinivasan is a Professor in the Strategy Area. He received his doctoral

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 21

All the authors belong to Indian Institute of Management Bangalore.

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 22

NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 23

Changing Conceptualization of Leadership and Leadership Development

12 NHRD Network Journal | October 2017 24

9. Elevating Womens Leadership in India: Dr Meena Wilson 55

Rise of Customer Sophistication

Corporate opacity; Corporate transparency; Reimagining the language of high potential to

Indias Landscape for Womens Advancement

Why Indian Womens Careers Stall

The Five Ms

Powering-up Womens Leadership Talent