Leadership is an attitude. One that challenges established norms to reach new and challenging goals. Much beyond a boardroom, a podium or a battlefield, leadership lessons can be found in the unlikeliest of places. In the courage of a child’s first steps, in the relentless pursuit of a mathematical solution in school, in the innovative method to achieve an impossible deadline at work. The common factor is the conviction in oneself and an obstinate refusal to give up.
I’d like to share with you a short story that my mother used to narrate to me. An old man was walking on a beach after a stormy night. He saw thousands of dying starfish strewn all over the beach. At a distance, a little boy was picking them up one by one and throwing them back into the sea. He knew there were way too many for the child to rescue, so he walked up to the boy and said “Forget it son. There are so many, you won’t be able to make a difference.” The boy picked up another starfish and threw it into the sea. He looked the old man in the eye and said “I made a difference to that one.”
This is one simple example of leadership in action. I am sure you have come across several such instances. At this forum, I’d like to invite all of you to share shining real life examples of leadership. It could be a story about you, or another person in whom you saw leadership in action. Anything that made a difference. As I share my experience here, I will also invite other people who have displayed leadership to share their views, and certainly look forward to reading yours.
As participants in this experiment, all these anecdotes could be turned into a case study that might help others to look at things differently. They may even be turned into a book that we could all co-author together. Or the result could be something completely new and surprising. I don’t know yet just what it might be, but let’s make a beginning and find out as we enjoy treading this new path together.
(5 votes, average: 4.40 out of 5)
Loading ...
Vineet
this is a fascinating experience – and I am reminded of a leadership insight I gained while working in the consumer goods space in India. I would call it – Knowledge and Skills are irrelevant without insight. Two stories have always fascinated me from the Indian market. One was the story of S.M. Dutta (then Chairman of Hindusthan Lever) who during a visit to a remote village was told by the women there that they could not buy shampoo bottles as there usage was infrequent – and it would be more convenient for them if they could buy shampoo for each consumption. The shampoo sachet blew the category open. The second is the story of MM Kothari who was a simple cycle salesman in Lucknow. He observed customers queueing for Paan in shops and thought there could be a more convenient way. Thus was born Pan Parag – and Mr. Kothari built a large company as a consequence. The interesting thing was – in the first instance a man as knowledgeable and skilled as Mr. Dutta was able to generate breakthrough only by being in a small village. In the second instance, a gentleman with no formal knowledge or training was able to create business breakthrough because he was in the market. The truth is simple – breakthrough cannot be created sitting in ivory towers. Breakthrough is a function of insight – and this can only happen by being closest to wherever the action is in your business.
Hi Vineet: I noticed your recent tweet about a CFO (http://bit.ly/csEAcU) who said he sees regulation as the biggest threat to business. It made me grin! That threat however is not obvious to most who advise CXOs, as I also mentioned in something I wrote a few days ago (http://bit.ly/dcxegp). Regulation is a complex and dry area, and requires more than a passing interest in politics as a negotiation strategy in complex environments. Sadly amongst the educated elite as well as amongst business leaders, it is almost fashionable to say “I don't do politics”. Perhaps leadership in action needs a different perspective on their framing of problems? Thanks. (Just fyi, I am a product of HCL's SMT programme too. I still quote some of HCL's organisational and leadership inventiveness as examples of thinking that was ahead of its time.)
Rightly said- Leadership is beyond boardrooms, podiums, war & struggle for freedom.
I was traveling from Delhi to Chennai for the third time in TN express – It was a hot and sweaty weather and would be excruciating to most of people to travel in the sleeper compartment. I know people who travel in these trains would be having changes of 5 rupees coins just to give to the Hijras [members of third gender] – a social fear justifiable in its own way. These Hijras accumulate money from most of the people who travel in the train. I stopped one such person and asked 1.how many such trains they cover in a day – the answer was 5 to 6-
the next question was 2.Then you all must be earning [ accumulating might appear the right word] few thousands a day and more than lakh rupees a month- Yes 3.Your lifestyle does not need so much money – what do you do with that money – the answer was- “We give most of this to NGOs which fight against AIDS and you never know this might help to prevent passengers in this train from acquiring AIDS or help a passenger with AIDS to survive and support his family.”
The leader in action here is — The person who has seen and undergoing unfairness and discrimination of the society that comes with being bottom of India’s rigid social ladder, helping the same society by bringing the small change in whatever miniscule form
Smiles
Arun
To manage or to lead?
“Many of us have read, some have heard and few have realized that any institution in today’s highly competitive scenario requires leaders rather than managers” – I am actually trying to see how the statement looks as a “quote”. You may please like to visit http://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/leadership-quotes.html for quotes on Leadrship by all time great thinkers of the world.
Yesterday, I was flying into Delhi in a leading low-cost airline, doing great business, rather I would say, managing their business effectively resulting in growth at an above-industry pace. I reached the Airport approximately two hours in advance and I did let go my analytical senses do their job and utilize the available extra time in meaningful(To me) exploration. The young Ladies and Gentlemen at the Check-in counters are customer-friendly, sweet faces, soft-spoken, effectively and efficiently handling the over-booked flight on the ground. I just reciprocated “Good Afternoon” and I was through with the Check-in formalities in no time. As usual, I asked for an Aisle seat, she expressed a wrong understanding of my question, I repeated my question and she nodded. I took the boarding pass and a happy passenger went away from the Check……
Dear Vineet
Your blog posts and videos are inspiring. Thank you. You say, “The common factor is the conviction in oneself and an obstinate refusal to give up.” I would like to tell you a story of an obstinate nurse who refused to give in to chaos.
My professional passion is helping enterprises to discover the talent and deep knowledge hidden within frequently overlooked people in their workforces, to the benefit of both people and the business. I am writing my first (and probably last book) at the moment.
One of the case studies I will be writing about is my sister, who is a senior nurse in a hospital in the west coast of Scotland. The town and surrounding areas have many social problems, including a high incidence of alcohol and drug abuse. The National Health Service is a sprawling, complex organisation. Her work is not easy.
She took responsibility for a new ward some years ago. It was chaotic. Rather than let the situation overwhelm her, she decided to confront the situation head-on. Without any formal qualifications in change but with lots of practical experience of managing people, she set about implementing what turned out to be a change in performance culture. First she enlisted the support of people higher in the administration, who she knew would be sympathetic to what she wanted to do and who would not feel threatened that the initiative was coming from the front line.
Having got her support in place, she began to confront the culture of absenteeism. This required courage. As can be imagined, her efforts were met with conflict and resistance. She stayed resolute but behind the scenes it worried her when so many people started to leave. Her supporters reassured her that the ward would be better in the long-run without without these disruptive people. Leading by example, she built a team that looks out for each other and their patients.
To cut a long story short, she now has the ward with the lowest infection rate and lowest rate of absence in the hospital. She also has a list of people wishing to transfer to her ward because the reputation of the ward is that it is a friendly and caring place to work.
The last conversation I had with her some months ago, she said her concern now was to be able to work with other senior nurses across the hospital to share their learning; she wants to see what best practice things her peers are doing.
My sister did this for several reasons. One was self-survival. Mainly though, it was a determination to create a better working environment for those for whom she was responsible, and with a happy staff she knew she would have happy patients.
Changing the culture on the ward cost her dearly in emotional effort. I asked her if she would have found it useful to work with an external facilitator, someone like myself who has worked with many organisations going through the transition to new ways of working. She said she would – she would have known for one thing that the resistance and emotional conflict she was experiencing was normal.
She, to me, is just one example of many hundreds of thousands of heroes and heroines who make a difference in their workplaces every day. I hope you find this story a useful addition to your collection.
Best wishes, Anne Marie
Leadership itself is a thought process, A good leader is as capable to change the curve of probability . They always say about Mr. Nadar as the Dynamic personality and charismatic leader not because of his first generation entrepreuneral skills, but for the fact of having turned many loss making scenarios in commendable for a empire like HCL to grow in size and shape.Likewise there are many, I appreciate that leadership though in business schools and after are stone age principles,The leader of tomorrow calls for more innovation as it’s going to be driven by services .besides to rightly say services at the doorstep in a simple and easy accessible manner for any one who needs it .A leader should alos be willing to bend his back to generate pace with skill and accuracy in order to be effective and agile to his competitors, employees, shareholders and also to the board. As the responsibility grows , he need to be simple and lead by example more than oration which is predominent in todays corporate world
“Leadership in action,not in position”
Mission ” ROBOCON-09″ India.
About ROCOCON’09-”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYC5KA87D9M”
I am Ganesh Shankar.
My experience to be leader.
Me and my friend (Kannan) planned to participate in ROBOCON’09. After reading through the brochure of the event we found that ” Mission Impossible”. In that brochure we found that the reg fee was itself Rs 9,000. After discussing with my hod, She said that its a great initiative to participate but the college wouldn’t fund us.
I was going through a negative half cycle that day but my intention to participate increased. Me and my friend invited other friends to our mission. 3 of my classmates namely (Kalai,Balaji,Aslam) came forward to start the mission.
After couple of days we met in kannan’s house and made a plan to start the work. We 5 men started the work. Our first goal was to register for the event and after nearly 2 weeks we reg successfully.
The real problem started..
In the design of the ROBOTS we require 3 robots as per the rules of robocon ,out of which 2 automatic robots and 1 is manual robot.
I and Aslam are good in embedded design. so we started on it. Meanwhile the other group started building the mechanical parts.
After nearly 15 days from the day of reg we where successful in developing the main boards of the ROBOTS and the mechanical structure.
We have invested nearly Rs 20,000.. (4k each) for building the above parts but we then want to buy sensors etc .for that we didn’t have money and was in a very pathetic situation.
In that situation. I was nearly in the state of crying,was not able to concentrate in studies etc.. but still my intention to complete the project got increased .
My friend kalai found that Vinoy,Domnic two other classmates of mine where interested in joining us. I invited them to join us but on 2 conditions they must commit themselves to the development of the project both technically and DABU(Tamil Slang for Money).
Then we “7″ made a plan.We went to chennai ( richie street ) and purchased the necessary things for the project work and returned to pondicherry.
We started the final phase of the project i.e. to integrate the mechanical parts and to interface the sensors etc. We completed the project nearly 1 month from date of reg.After completing the project.We then wanted to test the real time application of the project. The test was a failure. The automatic robots failed to perform.
Mean while we booked the tickets for the event.We booked normal sleeper class in train for the to and fro journey.It was close to Rs 8,000. Then started on the corrections to be made in the robots.
At last we made the test successful.I was very happy that day.
We started from Chennai reached pune ,where the MIT van was ready to pick us to the arena of technocrats.We stayed in MIT hostel.
“The day of Rejoice”
Nearly 42 college teams from various renowned institutions in India came to participate. We found that only 2 teams from south have made it to MIT. One of the team from IITM.
I was really happy that we as a team have made it to the ROBOCON’09. We got qualified officially by the Referees of the event which gave me a double joy from our technical input.
“Successful failure”
We won the 1st round but lost to IITB in the super league.
The total expenditure was arround 1.5 lakh
I am very happy and proud that we began from level 0 and completed the project 100%.
My college which refused to fund.. recognized us after ROBOCON’09 and I got the “BEST OUTGOING STUDENT AWARD” and kannan “BEST INNOVATOR AWARD”.
According to me leadership is a quality which everyone has by nature but it all depends on them to explore the leader within them ” self realization “. and also proactive nature is a basic ingredient to a successful leader.
Ganesh Shankar
Dear Vineet,
I have been very curious to learn about leadership since long and have been reading around regularly. Different tag lines from different school of thoughts like – Leaders takes you to new destination where you may not have gone by your own or Leaders do right thing whereas managers do things right. Leaders are born and gets more effective with further skills and many more such things. I was deeply touched by concept of Authentic Leadership explained by Bill George during “HCL Emerging Leadership Development Program” at Harvard Business Publishing. This is something which can allow each leader to carve out their own unique way of connecting with people for a lasting value.
I believe that leaders have ability to forsee trends in events/ impact of present actions and are capable of influncing present acts for a better future later.
I have been practising some of these traits in my own way by helping teams to do what they are capable of doing (The best which they can be). As a person, I am passionate to get technology products aligned to business needs to provide value which is visible to business stakeholders. During my 16 years journey in IT industry, I have handled various roles in getting something offtrack to back on track or got complex solutions simplified.
I work with clients to better understand what they are looking for and help devise an effective, efficient & sustainable solution which can allow them to take their business to next level. Recently I led such an initiative of delivering a web application to client after a year delay. During this difficult but enriching journey, I kept my team motivated to face the challenge while also bringing client onto this journey to reach our destination together.
Balancing interests of multiple stakeholders has been one of the key challenge during execution of this assignment. I have practiced some of the lessons learnt during my leadership learning during this assignment and finally one more such assignment is getting towards completion and that’s very satisfying exprience for me personally.
My journey to help teams to create some new business solution or to simplify an existing complex solution continues….
Leadership for me is always an act of selflessness that makes difference to the society. Leader leads from the front with vision to uplift his/her surrounding. One inspiring account is of Mr Anand Kumar. He run free coaching, Super 30, institute for IIT-JEE (One the most reputed and toughest entrance exam in India) for the socially and economically disadvantage IIT aspirants. The idea is to select 30 talented students from poor backgrounds and impart free coaching and lodging facility to them at Super 30. Mr Kumar’s initiative has so far been credited with producing 212 students who emerged successful in IIT-JEE. It was only in 2008 that the Super 30 managed to earn cent per cent success. It repeated the feat in 2009 and has scored a hat trick in 2010.
When Mr. Kumar’s colleagues choose to coach for commercial purpose, Mr Kumar is making difference to the life of 30 odd students and their families.
Leadership as somebody famously remarked is the most commonly observed and the least understood of all phenomenon. Today, we understand leadership as something that is not only about leading a nation, a corporation, or an entity, but more about influencing and guiding others. It is about helping others find their true potential and purpose. However, it is not possible to become an effective leader if the leader does not understand his or her own self. This underscores the importance of self-awareness and the fact that our true potential and purpose can be realized by understanding our true selves- the quantum level of our existence. The potentiality of our quantum self is analogous to the scientific developments we have witnessed in the past century – science was able to achieve much more when scientists were able to understand it at the quantum level- , The same principle applies to leadership. We can become effective leaders if we understand our quantum self. This insight to me is the very essence of ‘Thought Leadership’, which has become so very important at this juncture in history, when every ideology and every system has fallen short , in some way or the other in creating an egalitarian society.