20 Oct LeaderSpeak: So they spoke!
What’s the difference between a capable and an excellent leader? Apart from education, acumen and experience there is this subtle balance of business perspective and emotional connect that helps a leader scale from good to great. Many leadership frameworks highlight carefully selected traits and attributes that help a leader succeed. However, there are qualities that one needs to read between the lines of the frameworks to understand very subtle differentiator traits which re-define leadership.
Eminent leaders of today have spoken to TATE LC on key leadership traits. Here we present a synopsis of unique and very pertinent traits listed by some of the top leaders in our video series, LeaderSpeak.
The first guest speaker in our LeaderSpeak series was Honorable Minister for Culture and Founder of Ma Foi, Mr.K. Pandiarajan (KPR). In a very unique approach to the subject of leadership qualities, KPR says that leadership is not about traits. It is more to do with a process woven together by many moments of leadership. Great leaders have experienced moments of, what KPR refers to as `unleadership’. Therefore, leadership is in reality moments of leadership strung together. As he rightly sums up with a reference to the Upanishad– the underpinning quality of a true leader is the commitment and the capability to `sustain the spoken word’.
Mr. T. Krishnakumar, President, The Coca-Cola Company , India and Southwest Asia, touched upon 3 fundamental traits of a leader. Leadership is a privilege bestowed upon an individual by the people and 3 important traits that characterize an exceptional leader are: empathy expressed to people, ability to empower people to lead and, above all, providing guidance and mentorship to people for doing the right thing and not just things right.
The most critical aspect of leadership, according to Mr. Ashwath Ram, Managing Director and ABO Leader, Cummins India, is customer focus. Every leader needs to understand what he/she can contribute to the business and this is a major parameter to measure effective leadership. Mr. Ram stresses the importance of understanding not only the current organizational culture but the aspirational culture of the organization through interactions with the people. Another very pertinent trait of good leadership is diversity & inclusion. An experienced and capable leader will believe in onboarding a diverse set of people relating to gender, geography, religion and education and include them into the culture of the organization.
Mr. RaviChandran Purushothaman, President, Danfoss India Region compares leadership to a triangle consisting of the leader, the employees and thirdly the customers. For a leader to be successful, he/she needs to have a good understanding of own strengths and improvement areas. It is important as the entire organizational culture rests on the capabilities of the leader. To ensure an open, healthy culture, the leader should connect with the people in an honest and trustworthy manner. When asked about what he thinks are 3 critical leadership traits, Mr. RaviChandran mentions curiosity as one of the top 3 qualities. To keep track of where and how the dynamics of business is moving, one needs to keep un-learning and re-learning. Engaging in reverse mentoring for today’s young talent, will help keep the leader to date with the happenings in the industry. In tune with many senior leaders, Mr. RaviChandran too strongly feels that Emotional Quotient is more important than Intelligent Quotient. IQ is a given as leaders need to be smart, intelligent and well informed. Cultivating the sensitivity to reach out to people and understand their perspective is what will help create value for customers. The third trait is resilience which re-defines how leaders react to turbulent changes in the market place. And with the world going global, today’s leader has to be deeply cognizant of the global cultures and should have the ability to adapt to new cultures.
TATE LeaderSpeak has invited more CEOs to share their views on leadership qualities and the next article will present more perspectives and opinions on traits that set a leader to stand apart from peers. Stay tuned…
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