Manthan: Art & Science of Developing Leaders

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Leaders, who only live in the present and respond to its special pressures and demands, would fail to achieve quality of leadership and the change required in the future. In today's digital age of the millennial, transparency and social awareness have to be the cornerstones of any organization. Leaders and their HR need to align their current values accordingly. Some fundamentals like truth, humility, courage, energy, edge, equity, social justice will have to be brought back into the organization leadership DNA.

All of us are aware about the spurt in leadership development activities in India over the recent years. There have been frantic efforts in Indian as well as foreign companies to develop leadership quickly across all levels in the organization. The reason of this recent surge lies in the current growth trajectory of Indian companies. Many Indian companies are growing at a rate which is mind-boggling. Companies which grew at 3 to 4 percent per annum for the first 30 years of their history, grew 10 fold or more since the advent of the new millennium. There are examples of several companies which have expanded phenomenally during the last decade, from Pan-India operations to manufacturing in 5 countries and doing business in 30 countries, increasing their manpower five times more than the number of people they had ever hired. This has put tremendous pressure on companies to develop leadership at all levels in the shortest possible time.

So the natural question that comes up is: what kind of leaders do we need today in India? When we explore our own past, we expect our leaders be it in the form of god, king, or entrepreneur, to be 'Sarva Guna Sampanna', i.e. one who has all identified competencies and qualities required to be the 'right' leader. Today the imperative for senior leaders is to keep actualizing the talent in themselves and also in the band of leaders all over, whether leading from the front or middle or behind.

At the turn of the millennium, the world started examining and exploring the challenges of an uncertain future. One of the major challenges that have emerged is that with the rapid change happening in all spheres of life- including technological, economical, political, social, and cultural, there is an acute shortage of right leadership. In a growing and transforming world, it is essential to develop the right types of leaders, who steer, inspire and guide their people through challenges.

In the Davos Business Summit, one of the issues that emerged as a major concern was the crisis of Leadership in all walks of business and governance in the new millennium. The world would need to actually work in a focused manner to meet this crisis. We are already experiencing the Leadership shortage in the business, highly accelerated today by ever-changing business realities like globalized market, demanding customers, availability of capital, regularity shift, changing work force profile, rapid technological changes etc. Under the circumstances, corporates particularly need to identify and innovatively work not only on critical success factors like cost, quality, speed, delivery, learning and innovation, social responsibility,etc., but also primarily on development of talent and leadership.

Leaders, who only live in the present and respond to its special pressures and demands, would fail to achieve quality of leadership and the change required in the future. In today's digital age, transparency and social awareness have to be the cornerstones of any organisation. Leaders and their Human Resources teams need to align their current values accordingly.

I am happy to write this Foreword for a number of good reasons. First, Leadership has an important role to play in all organisations. An injunction in industry has been-Lead; don't just manage. In the armed forces, it is-Lead; don't just order'. In politics, it could be-Lead; win elections; and transform. Second, good Leadership is in short supply, almost everywhere. Especially, in business enterprises, where Survival/Continuity is essentially the first objective, before the other Corporate Objectives, like Growth, Profitability, and Image/Reputation, can be achieved. In the global management thought, there is the talk of two wars-war for the customer and war for the talent. The longer the strategic time horizon, winning the war for talent is even more important. The importance of winning the war for talent is directly dependent on the length for strategic time horizon. Good talent will attract the customers, and earn their delight. Leadership talent is the prime mover amongst the pool of all talents. Third, Leadership development is even more critical for corporates in India, which is currently the fastest growing major economy according to international comparative data. If infrastructural and administrative constraints are reduced, the economy could even grow by 9 per cent for a decade or more.

In the above context, books on Leadership act as perfect reads for professional managers, teachers, and trainers. This particular book has a number of strengths, which makes it even more applicable. It is set in the Indian context and the majority of contributors are Indian managers. They come from pan-India and in some cases from other parts of the world and belong to organisations which have grown from local to regional. To begin with, they have been grappling with their own role-specific leadership challenges. The seniors among them would appreciate how far we have come from the earlier debates on leadership in the Indian Management scene, since at least the 1970's. I returned from the Unites States in 1967, after studying management at Stanford and Harvard Business Schools, to join the faculty of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. We were confronted with basic questions like-'Do we even need managers under the license-permit raj?' The debate progressively shifted to more and more significant questions. Do we need leaders rather than managers? The answer was that we need people with all the managerial competencies, in addition to Leadership skills. If a 'leader' came into industry from the armed forces or the civil services, he needed to be further equipped, on the job, with the relevant management competencies continued. Are leaders born or made? Well, it is an advantage to have some personality predispositions towards leadership but not a precondition. With a high motivation to succeed, people from various backgrounds turn into leaders. Even the 'born' leaders need to develop some managerial leadership skills. Depending on varying potentials, some leaders may find their level at local, functional, divisional, or similar arena of leadership. Only a few will make it to national and global level of business leadership.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages