September 23, 2013

Leadership Assignment
Khanjan J. Hathi
MEP 4

Reflection on ideas:
The first lesson I learnt during the class was that leadership is situational. Neither it is
a function of personality nor is it dependent on authority. Anyone can lead. It is said
in our ancient scripts that the guru emerges before you as soon as you have desire to
learn and become a true disciple. Same applies to leadership. In each situation you can
lead provided you have desire and commitment to lead.

People and a situation are the pre-conditions to an act of leadership. Whenever the
situation demands, if a person can lead the group clear from a dangerous situation or
towards a desired situation, he is a true leader.

Groups exist to achieve common objectives. Armies exist to protect societies,
organisations to maximise shareholders wealth and families to lead happy life and so
on. On a brief look at the situations these groups deal with, be it favourable or not, we
can understand that they arise due to two factors: internal dynamics of the group and
the environment of the group. Leaders as we established, deals with the situation.
Hence, to deal with it, he needs to first understand the origin of situation. He needs
get on the balcony. Then, the picture becomes clearer and dealing with it easier with
favourable outcomes for the group.

However, it is easier said than done. As problems that emerge have different origins
and different ways to solve, every situation demands different skill-set and frame-of-
mind to lead. That is how different persons in a group can be leaders in different set of
situations. Conventionally, we have seen authoritative figures as the only leaders.
General is the leader for army, CEO for organisation and father for family. Now it is
widely understood that it is not so. Voices of leadership can emerge from anywhere
from the rung. It is the authoritys duty to allow these voices to become actions and let
groups benefit from it. We get another property of leadership here: leadership is
action!

With above learning in background after Leadership Session in June, I went back from
Lonavla and observed as well as implemented some of them. My reflections on those
situations are described from the following page.

Situation 1: Idle time for the departmental employees
Since last few months, employees in our Marketing & Proposals
department of Gas Based Power Projects are having idle time quite a
lot. New power project construction business is slow to come by due
to economic slowdown. The management also halted plans to venture
abroad due to higher perceived risks during construction phase.

View from
the Balcony:
Although it is pretty normal to have cyclic work-loads from too much
to a period of lull, idle time is expected to be prolonged in this cycle.
Employees without any particular directives started to resort to
detrimental activities like computer games, gossiping and laziness.
The problem was of change in organisational culture. More
importantly, time for performance appraisal has also coincided which
was expected to be not so encouraging in lenient words.

Action of
Leadership:
I have learnt from my own experience that idle time can be
rejuvenating if utilised. One can plan about ones goals, develop
hobbies and skill-sets. However, convincing employees (Moreover,
when I am only their colleague and no one reports to me!) may be a
difficult task. Modes to implement should not be too philosophical it
should engage them without supervision and motivating to self-sustain.
Luckily L&T HR has devised one online training portal called Any
Time Learning, ATL in short. I reminded everyone through e-mail
with a link to this portal and list of probable certificates they may get.
It offered something to interest everyone!

Results and
Learning:
As I know, three to four personnel out of 15 who took those free
courses and were delighted by sense of achievement! Learning plan in
the portal also helped them to know which skill-sets they are lacking
in and where they can excel. I, too, took two certification courses and
developed myself in the process!
Situation 2: Dealing with disappointment
My immediate superior says being in Marketing; we are customers
representative while in our office. We also represent customer to
management and vice versa. In July, 2013 our top management took a
decision against bidding for a project in Malaysia just a few days
before submission deadline. Entire team had worked their hearts out
on the project since preliminary development started in 2011!

View from
the Balcony:
Taking a broad view from balcony itself was extremely difficult for
anyone in that team. Even our vice president was seemingly
disappointed. My colleague, Mr. Chinmay Acharya, however could go
up to the balcony. He assumed the role of devils advocate and tried to
look for what reasons management could have denied approval at the
last moment. Views he came out with were logical.

Action of
Leadership:
When everyone else was disappointed and no mood to work for other
international project, he knew, there will be no other way out of this.
Management was not going to come and explain the reasons. At the
other side, team morale was at its lowest. Although to a limited
people, Chinmay tried to persuade people on the probable reasons and
risks associated with the project if we bagged it.

Results and
Learning:
Team was not going to have any choices in the end, but to live with
the situation. It was up to them that if they wanted to feel
disappointed and work or be at peace and then work. Those who
understood the situation could quickly came out of it and pay better
attention to the job at hand. I learnt that it is better to choose second
option but re-double your efforts to avert such situation in future.
Early and seamless communication with management could help.


Other smaller aspects which I have imbibed are following:
Raise a flag when someones monkey jumps on your back: I always try to think
about a task on hand and who and how it will be done. This makes roles and
responsibilities clear. When the monkey jumps at me, I can show why it is not
mine and who its real owner is.
Although we dont think on ethical issues consciously, it is better to do so. I
liked the way this is explained in the case The Parable of the Sadhu: we cannot
quit our jobs over every ethical dilemma, but if we continually ignore our sense
of values, who do we become? A sadhu may be there on our next ascent. Are we
prepared enough to take care of him?
I think from my superiors perspective on tasks he does. I determine should he
decide himself, delegate, facilitate or consult. I make my assessment on task at
my hand, too.
I took Leader Effectiveness and Adaptability Description (LEAD) questionnaire
again last week and following were the outcomes vis-a-vis the one we took in
the class:
o Total score of alternative actions went up from 2 to 14. I may conclude
that I have become more flexible in my management style.
o I have shifted from sell dominated style to participate. This I think is
due to increased interest in people related matters as I want to learn
how in various situations they are thinking. The balance also has
become flatter for tell, sell, participate and delegate.

Ultimately, as I progress through the MEP program, I am realising that tools provided
by each course shall become habit by practice only. Soft skills are to be practised
everyday to inculcate the habits. During various stages of growth it is important to
look back at these fundamentals to refresh the knowledge.