The Hindu Business Line : We need leaders who can transform

THE curse of democracy is that we have too many netas and too few leaders. While netas are good at talking and wheeling-dealing, effective leaders have the ability to influence, achieve results and give purpose, clarity and direction to an organisation and its members. Shivganesh Bhargava puts together essays on `value-based management' in Transformational Leadership where contributors stress the need for corporate leaders to be armed with human values, confidence and professional commitment. A few picks:

To thrive in the fast-shifting 21st century business realities, organisations must become flatter and mimic the network structure of the spider's web: in touch, flexible yet resilient. Being flatter will enable organisation's members to be in greater contact with the ground realities. Decision-making will be faster and all ideas will have a fair chance of being shared and utilised.

Leadership of change does not depend on the circumstances; rather, it depends on the attitudes, values and actions of the leaders. Leaders who understand why change is resisted and are willing to make the personal investment required to overcome the resistance are likely to achieve their goal.

They break this chronic and inevitable patter of resistance in only one way — by building an alternative system of belief and allowing others to adopt it as their own. This is the essence of value-based leadership.

Knowledge workers have more power than owners and managers, thus meeting their expectations has become a new leadership requirement. Bennis reports that subordinates seek four things from their leader: meaning or direction, trust in or from the leader, a sense of hope and optimism, and results.

Working at Wipro gives every individual an opportunity to listen to his or her inner voice. They gain intrinsic satisfaction by doing things the right way. As Premji says, `There are personal benefits. You sleep better. You wake up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror and feel good.' The absence of inner conflict helps individuals de-stress.

Zack classifies knowledge into three levels: core, advanced and innovative. Core knowledge is that minimum required to just play the game. Advanced knowledge makes the firm competitively viable; it provides the firm with sufficient competitive advantage to `win the game'. Innovative knowledge enables the firm to lead its industry and competitors, and even change the rules of the game.

Great information on transformation.

Getting different

LARGE-SCALE downsizing, both in the private and public sectors, has become so common that when lakhs of employees get the sack order one fine morning, in one go, there is little shock that such news evokes. While enterprises are in a tearing hurry to cope with globalisation and technological change, an oft-ignored point is that real change can take place only with the active participation and involvement of employees at all levels of the organisation. Kuriakose Mamkoottam writes in his book Labour and Change that change is not possible unless organisations are equipped with adequate knowledge, appropriate skills and, most importantly, a suitable attitude. There's more:

All successful attempts at managing organisational change have two basic elements in common. One, there is a strong change agent or change manager to initiate the process of change. Two, the change process covers four key areas — its culture, operations, structure and strategy. However, the biggest factor in managing change is the management of the people involved in the process. Yet, one of the factors that is largely missing in today's global organisation is trust.

In response to technological changes, organisations have been developing a two-tier, segmented labour force. The workforce often consists of a group of flexible and multi-skilled workers, who are clustered around a stable core functioning as the permanent workforce, and another group of workers who are hired on a contractual and temporary basis.

The workers, in general, have always been doubtful about the usefulness of strikes, but recently, they have become aware of their ability to assert their will against those leaders who do not keep their interest in mind. There are indications that the centralised trade union is losing ground to the independent enterprise union, which might be the union of the future. What is required today is a new model of cooperative bargaining, based on an approach of continuous problem solving, rather than the model of conflict.

It is generally held that trade unions find it harder to increase their membership during times of economic recession, under competitive conditions (both in the domestic and international markets) and in situations in which there is a surplus of labour and unemployment. In today's situation, trade unions are in an even more difficult position, as firms are bent on reducing production (including labour) costs due to the effects of globalisation.

When new and unfamiliar course of action are necessitated, a mechanistic organisation will find it difficult to break down and reorganise jobs within its hierarchy of specialist roles. In an organic system, however, the methods, responsibilities and powers associated with a job are not so formally defined. No definitive and enduring demarcation of functions is prescribed. Organic systems can be more adaptable in unstable conditions.

A book that can help one to relate to HR better.

EQ is not for ETs

YOU know EB, EC, ED, EG, EO, ET, EX and EY. What is EI? Emotional intelligence. This consists of emotional competency, maturity and sensitivity. EI is a key determinant to professional success, argues Dalip Singh in Emotional Intelligence at work, and EQ is not a special railway accommodation but emotional quotient. Read on:

For most of the 20th century, scientists have worshipped the hardware of the brain and the software of the mind but the messy powers of the heart have been left to poets. The theories of IQ are unable to explain certain perplexing questions: why some people seem to have a gift for living well; why the smartest kid in the class may not end up as the richest; why some people are liked almost instantly and others are distrusted. The marshmellow experiment established that emotional intelligence matters more than anything else in determining success in life.

The typical IAS officer displays a curious crab-like attitude; he dawdles over the simplest of decisions, vacillates when it comes to taking the big initiative, and displays a keen sense of self-preservation. At the first sense of danger which he can sense rather well, he dives into his shell and shirks all responsibility.

All managers are by definition leaders because they can attain their goals only with the support of their team members who must be inspired or persuaded to follow them. Thus, the leader's aim should be to build a team which is cohesive, self-supporting and knows where it is going. Leadership is an emotional bond, sometimes even a passionate commitment.

Anger makes you a `reactoholic', that is, reacting to other people's `push buttons', it makes you a powerless reactor rather than a powerful actor.

Emotionally intelligent people not only know their own answers, but also those of the company they work for. Knowing the answers helps them find out whether they are compatible with the company they are working for. But how many people really have a clear vision and mission of the organisation they work for?

The book has enough cues to push one to a better EQ.

(Book courtesy: Sage Publications; www.indiasage.com)

Tailpiece

"I have seen good times and bad times."

"What about in-between?"

"That is when I stopped buying the paper."

ReadingRoom@TheHindu.co.in

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