LEADERS, BEWARE!!

Everybody makes mistakes, right? And leaders are no exception. Priya C Nair discusses a few behavioural traps that most leaders fall prey to

Albert Einstein once said that anyone who has never made a mistake, has never tried anything new, thus making it clear that mistakes occur when you try something new or when you try to break the conventional way of doing things. Many of our leaders fall under this category of people who break the conventional modes and try to achieve success through newer models and thought processes. However, many a times, the mistakes that leaders make are overlooked or neglected and this could hamper the organisational growth, say experts. Here are a few errors that leaders must avoid:
1 LACK OF COMMUNICATION:
Clarity in communicating one’s or the organisation’s vision and goals is important or else leaders will not be able to provide direction to their employees and the intended communication of vision will get diluted in the process. “This is very critical, as employees want to know what their organisation is trying to achieve and how that direction affects their personal objectives. Clear communication aligns their personal goals in line with that of the organisation, thus bringing about a focused path of progress for both,” suggests Anil Kumar Puthumana, senior VP – HR, Ness Technologies (India) Pvt Ltd.
2 INCONSISTENCY IN BEHAVIOURAL PATTERNS:
According to Sudhanshu Pandit, director, HR, Symantec, leaders sometimes become too conscious about their position and try to make “artificial” changes to their behaviour. They may become less accessible/reduce informal interactions with their teams to demonstrate leadership. Employees usually see through these changes and are likely to feel distanced from their leaders or lose respect. Leaders need to remember that they were given the opportunity because they demonstrated leadership traits, many of which may have been their natural personality.
3 FEAR OF DELEGATION:
Pandit feels that some leaders think it is easier to complete a task himself/herself than delegate. But this denies the team member the opportunity to learn, grow and develop. Also, in the process of doing the team’s jobs, leaders miss out on focusing on their own key deliverables.
priyac.nair@timesgroup.com

HR, The TASKMASTER

Is HR equipped with the requisite skills to face India Inc’s many unprecedented challenges head-on?

In the life of any nation, company or individual, movement is life and stagnation is death. So, as long as companies are growing, they are fully alive. Organizations must move continuously from one process to another; from one strategy to another strategy and from one structure to another. So as long as we are renewing these kinds of things and re-looking at them, that’s where growth and achievement comes in. If you see the analogy of a rocket, as it moves form one orbit to another, two things happen - it discharges used fuel and adds new fuel on its way. Even organizations must believe in creative destruction. They must destroy something to create something. Today, you will see the growing importance of the power of innovation and the power of thinking for the first time ever. These two things can provide much more accelerated growth. If you look at all the great organizations, it shows that ideas are going to be the real engine for growth. Unless you have got the ideas, the resources cannot be mobilized. Resources are no more the issue. Ideas are the issue.
   Also, conducting and managing a business is now like fighting a war. It’s a very different kind of war; it’s very complex. In a war, you usually know who your enemy is. But here, you don’t know your actual enemy and actual territory. This means that we don’t need managers now. We need managers with a streak of a warrior. HR is the only function where building capabilities takes place – building capabilities of the organization and individuals. And that’s why HR will have to build organizations and continuously move from one curve to another. Building people, grooming people, preparing them, building different kind of mindsets, defining roles and making them understand what kind of society and landscape is going to emerge, become extremely important.

The author is Padmashree Dr Pritam Singh, conference Academic Director, Professor of Eminence, MDI Gurgaon and former director IIM Lucknow and MDI

The HR industry has been growing by over 30% in terms of employment….