Corporate version of 15 aliments

This is one exception to my rule of never publicly commenting on views of religious leaders.

But what to do when the leader happens to be the Leader of the Vatican?

Here is the corporate version of the leader's message * to his team to improve.

1. Feeling immortal, immune or indispensable: Your role is valuable only if you continue to generate revenues, add value to your team's success and develop new products/ services to your customers.
2. Working too hard: You must take vacation to recharge and reenergize to reach higher goals.
3. Being spiritually and mentally hardened: Strive to keep your emotional and intellectual outlook young and fresh without developing a dinosaur attitude to business, organization and culture.
4. Planning too much: Enough said. I have seen some 'leaders' take 14 months to share the goals for her team.
5. Working without coordination: Working hard to undermine the other team's progress !
6. Having "spiritual Alzheimer's": The corporate equivalent is forgetting what it means to be young and energetic and fresh on the job/ role.
7. Being rivals or boastful: You have to work to not fight turf battles or promote yourself at the expense of other teams.
8. Suffering from existential schizophrenia: Do not devote yourself to building an empire, but connect and reconnect with customers, products and your team members.
9. Committing the terrorism of gossip: About internal politics. It is better to indulge and gain insight into markets, what the customers are asking/ saying about your products and services; about what rivals could be building and delivering better than you. It is good to gain market insights rather than political insight of your organization.
10. Glorifying one's bosses: Some people survive only because of this.
11. Being indifferent to others: Coach and help team members and support other teams across the organization rather than letting them fail.
12. Having a funereal face: Be enthusiastic about your team, their day and their work. Some people creep into leadership/ managerial roles with the mindset that they have to be somber and serious at all times. Build skills to energize the room with your presence.
13. Wanting more: Stop building your turf and your empire (in your mind).
14. Forming 'closed circles' that seek to be stronger than the whole: A fist is stronger than five fingers and many hands coming together is stronger than fists fighting each other. Break silos in your organization to build stronger companies that acquire more customers and more markets.
15. Seeking worldly profit and showing off: Some managers and 'leaders' spend more time in PR and building an outsized profile than quietly delivering results. Just look at the 'personal profiles' on business magazines of individuals. That is almost the kiss of death of the company.

My apologies to anyone hurt by these comments.

Fear works. Motivation is overrated

This was the pithy summation that I had to agree to my colleague's observations as we neared the completion of a major program. Across the board, in a culture that was driven by collegiality, comfort and acceptance of the average lead to subpar business performance on every metric.

When we embarked on this transformations program, every measure to educate, enlighten and motivate this group to improve the operations did not succeed. 

A very demanding manager succeeded only because he  instilled a complete reign of absolute fear of missing a deadline. I had to applaud his success when all other techniques of keeping the focus on goals did not penetrate.

Fear works. Communication, convincing techniques of change are overrated.

Of course, since the team did not buy into the common benefit of the program, they are ready to go back to their old habits of internal strife.

Leadership or Pursuit of power

Observing the immense display of infighting in the Indian Parilament and the voices of the pro and anti-state division factions, you have to ask a basic question.

1 who wants to be called an Indian vs who identifies himself or herself as belonging to a particular state?

2. What does the identity of a residency or heritage of a state mean in India today?

3. All the current 28 states and Union Territories are identified by either geography or language.

It is futile to assume that duration of residence or origins of ancestors dictates the regional affiliation.

A Bengali will be a Bengali anywhere in the country. A Malayalee will always be a Malayalee. 

A Telugu will always be a Telugu.

If the investments of a few individuals can be protected only if they have  a state to back them up, then no investor can ever set up investment projects anywhere except in his or her backyard.

Every district is practically destined to become its own state!! And it's own country!

When regions start figthing among themselves to control limited resources, it marks the end of collective growth and beginning of collective destruction of all.

There is no voice to be heard of what the future unity of India is supposed to look like.