The Hindu Business Line : A coach for the CEO

Training to be a coach: Ganesh Chella of Totus Consulting and member of the Coaching Foundation of India’s governing board speaks at the convocation ceremony. At the table are (from left), Aroon Joshi, HR professional and honorary fellow of CFI, M.V. Subbiah, former Chairman, Murugappa group, and P.K. Mohapatra, Chairman of the CFI Board.

Vinay Kamath

When you’re the CEO of a large company and it gets lonely at the top, who do you turn to for guidance or inspiration? Who can help the CEO see the big picture, navigate complex business challenges and help provide the perspective to their leadership? Help is at hand through the Coaching Foundation of India Ltd (CFI) which aims to work with top leadership in organisations to enhance their capabilities and effectiveness through the use of executive and business coachin g.

Last week the CFI’s governing board and senior executives from top-draw corporates gathered to celebrate the convocation ceremony of its maiden accreditation programme.

Members of the governing board, P.K. Mohapatra, the President and CEO of the technology business of the RPG group, and Ganesh Chella of Totus Consulting, explained the objectives of the CFI as one of offering CEOs the services of accredited coaches who can coach them and other top management members of their organisations and secondly, create a cadre of competent coaching professionals capable of coaching the CEOs through its accreditation programme.

Present too at the gathering were other members of the board, Dr Jairam Varadaraj, Managing Director of Elgi Equipments, R. Ramaraj, a venture partner at Sequoia Capital, while a message from one other member, Dr B.J. Prashantham, Director, Institute for Human Relations and Psychotherapy, Vellore, was televised.

However, it was M.V. Subbiah, former Chairman of the Murugappa group, and the chief guest of the evening, who gave the session an edge with his witticism and sharp statements which challenged the tenets on which the CFI has founded itself.

In his opening remarks, Subbiah said he wished that the CFI existed over 10 years ago so that he could have availed himself of its services when he was in an active corporate career. Then, tongue firmly-in-cheek, he wondered why he was asked to be the chief guest. “I’ve been through the portals of many colleges but never graduated; so my failure in various programmes is why I am here,” he said, raising a titter from the audience.

The root cause

Leadership, he said, was to be learnt from the roots. “Everywhere I failed, I dug into my roots to see why I failed. My family made me understand where I failed.” He talked about the time he was despatched to group company Carborundum Universal, which makes abrasives.

Taking a dig at himself, he said that’s why he came to be called ‘abrasive Subbiah!” A reference no doubt to the time he was perceived to be a tough manager; “one had to be abrasive at times to get the best out of people,” he explained.

Subbiah, who spends his time now delving into family management practices and its efficacy, gave those anecdotes to illustrate the fact that the Indian system of grooming leaders has broken down and “we now concentrate on the Anglo-Saxon methods of learning rather than look into our own culture.”

He dwelt on the role of the kartha in the Indian family structure and how important it was to the growth of businesses, especially the blossoming of Chettiar business families such as his. The kartha, he said, was not a leadership role but a situational role in a family.

He drew from the Mahabharata to illustrate his point: while Yudishtra was perceived as the head of the Pandavas, it was not him but Arjuna who led in the war with the Kauravas, likewise Sahadeva was the expert negotiator.

Indian leadership model

“Situational leadership is already prevalent in Indian culture so one needs to understand the role of the kartha,” said Subbiah.

A different kind of leadership developed in India and he urged a fledgling organisation like the CFI to delve into this aspect. “We need to research our own ethos to understand what Indian leadership training and coaching is all about,” he emphasised. Concepts like shadowing, he said, were already prevalent in Indian business communities as a powerful learning method and those coaching today’s business leaders would do well to understand it.

Members of the CFI’s governing board pointed out that with the average age of the CEO in today’s organisations and their leadership teams much lower they often need guidance to navigate today’s complex business environment and want to partner with someone who can help them overcome business challenges and realise their full potential. This programme is not about life skills but to fill a leadership and wisdom void that organisations are facing.

The first batch of 12 participants who successfully completed the requirements of the programme in August 2007 were handed their certificates as professional executive and business coaches by the chief guest M.V. Subbiah.

More Stories on : Management | Education | Events

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Small steps to success

Knowledge-driven, not power-centric

Workplace strategies

A coach for the CEO

Negotiating the best salary package

Work-life balance: The crux of time management

Winning complex negotiation