Being Shepherd
Leadership
lifestyle for the new-age CEO
This blog has now shifted to : http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in/
Find the subsequent chapters on the link above.
This blog has now shifted to : http://manavdhanda.blogspot.in/
Find the subsequent chapters on the link above.
Are you ambitious about your
career?
No matter if you are an entrepreneur,
a mid-level manager or a CEO, you realize that your success is tied to that of
your organization.
As a leader, you also are
aware that you are only as good as your team. Thus, as the person in-charge,
you believe in leading your team from the front.
Because you have been taught
that if you lead from the front, others will follow. Well, I have bad news for
you. You are making a big mistake.
Greater success will ensue when
you ‘stop leading from the front’.
Puzzled? Then how else do
you lead?
To answer that, we need to
understand exactly ‘who are being led’ by you.
The attitude of the people
in your team is not what it used to be five to seven years back. Employee
attitudinal shift is now a constant & rapid change process that needs to be
observed very closely. The people in your team today are getting increasingly
independent, highly vocal, recognition hungry and they believe that they are
highly creative, which they are. Yet, the greatest drawback of today’s
generation is impatience.
Their attitude is influenced
by the realities around them. Never before in history of mankind have we heard
of so many twenty and thirty year olds raking in the millions. Never ever,
until recently has the six degrees of separation rule been challenged, perhaps
now it’s down to two or three degrees and some enthusiastic ones constantly put
it to best use while seeking new job opportunities. Today so many kids in their
college have the opportunity to attempt an entrepreneurial stint and actually
succeed to garner support from their peers and parents.
The smallest of achievement
is ‘liked’ by dozens on social media and then they wonder why the bosses are so
miserly in praise. The pace of information and knowledge transfer is unmatched
to ever before which whets the aspiration of every second person on the bloc to
dream ‘Yes I Can’. Or to topical-ize it, when we read the news of yet another
‘no one’ making it big, each one of us thinks ‘ab ki baar, its my turn yaar’.
And then you my friend, have
been given this monumental task to manage a large herd of this unique creation
of mankind and have them listen, understand, agree and execute as per your
directives. Yet you continue to lead the same old fashion… from the front. Alas!
You need to change the way
you lead. Still ask why?
Because people are your most
vital asset. It is not about how you use them to achieve the organizations
objectives but about how they offer
themselves with complete free will to elevate
the organizations objectives.
It is about providing the
human resources with the most conducive environment to perform up-to their
fullest potential. While they do so, it’s critical that the manager is in a
position to evaluate not just the key performance benchmarks but also gauge the
individuals capabilities as a worker, chart the potential to grow both
vertically & horizontally, in addition mapping the individuals desire to
align to the chosen plan. Also to observe the dynamic and reactive peer-to-peer
relation, separate the leaders from the followers, the consistent performers
and consistent under achievers amongst others.
Hereon, in each issue, I
would share with you insights of a management approach essential for a
technology soaked environment, that has been derived from that of a Shepherd;
one of the first known ‘employees specializations’ in mankind.
This leadership style can be
encapsulated in a single line :
Lead from behind as the shepherd does to his sheep; align only those
who go astray.
 |
| 1880 painting by Anthonij (Anton) Rudolf Mauve (Renowned for his work on flocks of sheep) |
A simple sentence that seems to say very little. However, within this
line lies a world of wisdom that New Age leaders can learn from to not only
create winning organizations but also create self-equity that will have a far
greater pay off to their careers than simply achieving annual targets.
In the subsequent few
additions I will make an attempt to break this sentence down to minuscule bits
across various cuts and highlight insights that will help you imbibe a new form
of ‘leadership lifestyle’.
The specific positive
payoff’s can be briefly outlined as:
- Build a self-motivated high performing team
- Understand peer to peer dynamics and the performance triggers or blockages therein
- Gauge each individuals strengths and weaknesses in relation to the constantly changing environment
- Seed culture of constant innovation and thought leadership
- Create time for the leader to get free from operations and invest the same for future mapping
- Achieve a work life balance
Indeed, after all being a
shepherd is not an easy job and there is a lot to learn from one.
But for that, until next
edition.
Keep leading :-)
