Crisis-time leadership

First of all, A Happy New Year to you.

I wrote about leadership last week as a follow up on the previous week's post. Leadership positions sometime come early if you display the talent. But this talent, I said, gets overexploited. In the run of the daily target the young leader is utilised for his skills but not enough may get invested in developing him further. This often leads to the ripe-from-the-outside-but-raw-within syndrome.


Now there's an interesting blog by Jack Zenger of the Harvard Business Review which takes this thought further. He believes in starting them young but stresses on the criticality of training and the damage possible without it. Do read it at: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/12/why_do_we_wait_so_long_to_trai.html


It is difficult not to look at the leadership issue in the wake of the recent happenings: a gang rape bang in the middle of the capital and nobody from the government stepping forward to take charge and show leadership. Sundeep Khanna writes a super piece in Mint about the leadership of listening; the leadership that needs to have both ears to the ground; the leadership of accountibility. You could read him here: http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/3qqdxxcCKHX9MNhK1bAVZM/Leadership-lessons-from-the-mishandling-of-the-Delhi-protest.html

From the last POST

Can you enjoy the luxury of sauntering up the learning curve when what you have to do is to climb up a steep pyramid?

The responses to my previous blog post have been thought-provoking. A plethora of subjects have popped out of the stimulating discussion and I hope to keep your attention by turning the spotlight on each one, one post at a time.

But first let me draw your attention to leadership. There’s no end to material available on this one, I know. But it seems to yet be the missing link in the evolution of many an organisation. While large organisations of traditional industries have their in-built patterns of developing leaders through well-oiled processes, it is the younger industries that draw my attention. Since liberalisation we have been witnessing the rise of industries like IT, ITES, asset management and insurance. These are all people intensive. Their pyramids are very steep- the bases are very broad. Hundreds of hands are required to be at the service counter. These first level jobs are a plenty and need very basic qualification. But on the flip side these businesses are characterised by high attrition. So keeping these teams going, giving them the basic training required and meeting the needs of a huge customer base, all at one time is a trying task. Anyone with a spark can become a manager in a short time. This spark however works against him or her eventually because the seniors think he can handle it, so he may have to chew much more than he can bite.

Take the story a little ahead, a lot of managers climb up with excellent task related skills- where ample training is provided. As they take bigger and still bigger responsibilities the chinks in the armour start to show up. This is more often than not related to their dealing with people. For e.g. a senior manager in an MNC consulting firm says “I find it very irritating when people are slow” or another says “ how can they challenge what I say?”

My observation is that everybody agrees that people skills are most critical for a leader. Ironically the investments in this area are rarely commensurate with this criticality.



The question then is: does building of effective leadership require a certain amount of time? Won’t the required maturity be compromised if the roles change vertically too fast? Does it help the individual himself in his long- term growth?

After all, how sweet can that fruit be that has been ripened in haste. Its colour on the outside may be perfect but its taste may leave a lot to be desired.