In search of leadership- Finding the Vital Ingredient

In Sri Lanka people tend to think of a leader as someone who can map the DNA of the company or set the agenda. But the real value of leadership according to my experience lies in the execution. It is not only about practicing but also about scoring. The key difference is not only being strong in terms of ideas but also putting these ideas into action. Ideas can be generated by individuals but the execution lies with the team.

The competencies of CEO’s are to be able to create a compelling proposition. The ability to build scenario’s through the recognition of patterns, being street smart, emotional intelligence and marketing savvy .these competencies are imbedded in good leaders as key qualities more than managerial traits.

As sales manager and brand manager working for many blue chip and multinational companies one recognized the importance they place on developing the secret ingredient for good leaders.

I find some of the key qualities which need to be highlighted, include good character, passion, the ability to influence, the commitment to develop leaders from the bottom and what I call consistency in actions , signals and words that represent the key ingredients of great leaders with whom I worked over the years.

Good Character: Do we have it

Today the roadmap for ethical behaviour includes areas such as, intellectual integrity, openness and honesty and consistency. For some of our Corporate leaders these mere table stakes. If one takes the example of CSR, many companies practice CSR as a cosmetic exercise. For me CSR starts at your own office where, some leaders preach ethics, but have morally questionable actions. It is all about how much you spend as a percentage of your P&L on CSR and more about what you do and not what you say.

My definition of leadership style is more fundamental, working for many terrific leaders over the years in various corporate cultures. Some of these leaders were Commanding and intense, other more logical; some were relaxed, supportive and directive, others inspirational and radical or even collaborative.

As a young manager and lecturer, I found it very stimulating to be attracted to so many diverse leadership styles. However when years went by I realized that style had little do to with it. The common ingredient all good leaders possessed was the substance of their character. To be able to count on your leaders to be open and honest even during testing times and to take a stand regardless of personal risk. My experience tells me that there was a great balance between the ROI aspect and the social aspect.

Passion: Managing Energy

Passion for a particular job is hard to manufacture, but when present in organizations this can be contagious. The enthusiasm that comes out of passion can sustain employees through demanding times. It is difficult to be great at something you don’t enjoy.

Leadership Development: The Key problem in Sri Lankan companies

Organizations are seldom led by a single person. The team at the top determines the environment and the culture of the company. There are many local blue chip companies who are, stuck in the past and are unable to reinvent the future .Developing leaders would mean that you need to articulate the requirements in clear and thoughtful way, for example, Innovative thinking, openness, integrity, management by facts and data and reward and celebrate. Constructive Feedback needs to be given continuously not at the end of the year. The leaders need to make the investment in sustained leadership development.

Staying the course: The ability to influence

Many leaders have positional power, where radical change demands people to depart drastically from the ‘Status Quo’. If one look at persuasion theory and practice, people resist change specifically when its radical. Persuasion research indicates them choosing to comply rather than being forced into leads to longer adherence. I thought its much easier and less time consuming to just tell my direct reports what to do. However the secret lies in spending time to explain direction in giving employee’s perspective and helping them understand the ‘why’ behind the decision.

It is s difficult to arrive at a clear formula for leadership competencies next we will look at the competencies required win at your game.

Challenging the Leadership Model: Sri Lankan Context

In Sri Lanka the management model is being challenged. The weakening economy, inflation, escalating cost of funds and the rising price of oil will lead to market jitters and the departures of CEOs of major organization more specifically affecting the highly geared orgarnizations.

It’s time that we question the traditional assumption of leadership’s fundamental purpose. The text book account focuses on the leader/ role in maximizing employee performance. The decades of writing about leadership style beginning over fifty years ago focuses on how different styles affect the motivation and productivity for employees. When we question the conventional purpose of leadership and offer a different foundation, we tend to get a different conception of leadership. Until we recognize the need for a radical shift in this perspective, our vision of leadership will remain stuck in the past.

In the old days an internal focus on employee performance was acceptable for leadership, where businesses were not so competitive. Today, there is also the need for businesses to be constantly re- inventing themselves, to be continuously creating new futures. For leaders to be successful they must have an external focus. Based on Hamel and Prahald Sri Lankan firms lack the ability to escape the past and reinvent the future.

Why the need to Evolve: Can Sri Lankan CEOs do it

My experience and insights gained interacting with many CEOs of companies tell me that the Sri lankan CEOs can be categorized or have evolved into three level. Level 1 is the Celebrity CEO-executive who strode the local landscape like titans. Level 2 are the Fix-it CEO who can take an organization in distress and turn it around. Level three is the Collaborative leader . Gary Hamel in his new book The Future of Management , in an interview he said : “ the outlines of the 21st century model are already clear. Decision making will be more peer based; the tools of creativity will be widely distributed in organizations. Ideas will compete on an equal footing. Strategies will be built from the bottom up. Power will be a function of competence rather than of position.”

And therefore the new model of management is evolving with less emphasis on hierarchy and more encouragement of team in order to stimulate creativity and front line decision making. For Sri Lanka leaders however this would be a stretch. If one takes a look at the top fifty companies in the country, one can find a very few who could put this in to practice. The challenge for local CEOs is to build power based on competence rather than on position this would enable the company to successfully re invent it self and build a competitive advantage. Of course there are many so called specialist who preach the mantra , without having clue on how it actually works in practice, one needs to look at the local MBA topic list to identify the core problem.

More on Collaboration and Situational leadership

The theory of Situational Leadership was highlighted many years ago. Managers are responsible for systems and detail; leaders are responsible for people and direction. Although the functions are distinct as the detail goes, Managers get the right things done; leaders get things done right, where leaders need to look at the emphasis of for the people and in the best interest of the organization and now society. Within the construct leaders may play multiple roles- servants, coaches, team players, visionaries and sometimes even followers. Their role is as Hersey believes, situational.

Some roles to Consider: Sri Lankan Context

Leader as a Collaborator. Dr Hans Wijayasuriya, is the model of collaboration. Taking over as CEO when things were not that good, he tuned around Dialog not through the power of his personality but by working collaboratively with employees of every level. He had to make tough decisions, but he believed that if Dialog was to ever succeed, it would need the commitment of everyone in the company not just the senior leaders.

Leader as an Innovation spark. Let the sparks land where they may. This seems to be the model for leaders who commit themselves to innovation. Creativity however, should not be the sole responsibility of those at the top – it belongs to everyone. There is a greater need for local CEOs to spark innovation, this means moving out of their traditional domains and getting to the frontline. The question needs to be asked “what investment have we made in teaching our employees how to innovate?”

Leader as servant. This is all to do with leading by meeting the needs of others. To Shepard teams by letting each player shine .I saw this with Suren Amarasekara CEO of Mobitel, although interacting for short period I saw him put his employees in strategies, schemes and position where they can maximize their skills for the good of the team maintaining a low key but knowing his role very well.

Leader as deliberator. A leader needs to take his own counsel as well as seek it form others. Thinking ahead and considering the options well and reflecting on what has happened- are essential leadership skills, to accomplish goals and objectives, the leader needs to grasp the situation and create opportunities from difficulties.

The Importance of Character

This is one aspect that is without dispute. “Character,” wrote Abraham Lincoln “is like a tree and reputation, like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it: the tree is the real thing.

CEOs are often pressurized to please capital markets and would go ahead and launch a product even if it had glitches. It’s important not to play to the street, but to play to the customer. The leader’s behavior should not be larger than the performance,

We live in world where change is the only constant, however what cannot be allowed to change is the leader’s personal commitment to the integrity of the work and the well- being of the organization he leads.