Promoters’ role changing, says Ram Charan

- The role of a company’s promoter is starting to include helping in drawing up leadership succession plans and generally evaluating the talent of a CEO

- One cannot generalise [about Indian companies] of course. But it is slowly happening…promoters are making changes at the top level. The average tenure of a CEO now is just 4.6 years, with a great proportion below three years...

...says the management guru, leadership coach. 

Often business leaders miss out the need to strike a balance between 'cutting & sharpening the saw'. For succession planning & leadership coaching (not mentoring!) is one of the key roles of a business leader.

In Indian context, we find there are many CEOs of companies, both well-managed & not-so-well-managed companies, holding on to the chair! Every such position should have a maximum tenor to enable new leaders, with fresh perspective to take over. The successor may not be able to fill in the boots of some of their erstwhile predecessors. But the system has to find ways to handle suitability, rather than allowing leaders to hand-on. 

Of course, everyone in the corporate, irrespective of the level, should consider himself to be at a leadership level. As such applicable to everyone. Just as we clamour for retirement of our senior cricketers, however great they were... 

Is corporate India ready? Are you ready to let go?

http://www.thehindu.com/business/Industry/promoters-role-changing-says-ram-charan/article5583034.ece?homepage=true

Want a promotion ? Then get a coach

Don't get misled by the heading!

For, Coaching goes far beyond getting a mere promotion! Indeed, it has a far greater impact than training and 360 degree feedback.

Coaching practice borrows, from not only sports and psychology, but also management, philosophy, art, science, et al.

Make 2014 a special year... get a Coach, Life/Executive/Leadership...


http://www.bps.org.uk/news/want-promotion-then-get-coach

I was briefly on air this morning on FM Radio

Was on a long drive with son, this morning. Monday, late morning,  not to office/work! 
Was listening to the interesting discussion on 'how to handle monday-morning-blues'(Sunday/Saturday morning blues for friends in Middle East) on FM Radio 104/Bangalore.  
When this question was posed on-air and sought feedback, I pulled the car aside and quickly text-ed: Stick to the weekly time schedule. Get extra physical exercise. And, Meditate...

The topic was a personal favourite and hence could not resist temptation to text.  Hence, this post too...

In less that 15 minutes the RJ was on phone!!! I was surprised & my son was delighted! He asked me what do I do, put me on hold and went-on-air immediately.   

When I mentioned, ' Executive Coaching & Corporate Training', he asked, 'what was Exe Coaching'. I knew there was no time to explain, hence quickly mentioned, 'just as you have a coach in sports, you have a coach for executives and others in corporate world'. 

 Then he asked for my thoughts on the topic. My response was:

• We tend to over-eat, over-sleep and mis-manage our time over week-ends. 
• The best way is to stick to the usual schedule to wake up early, use the extra time to jog/exercise, do things we love to do (spending time with family, friends, etc). And of course, spend extra moments with the self, Meditate !
• Would have loved to add, 'Spiritualise Week-ends'..

I have often seen, lot of friends in corporate world live from week-end to week-end. We tend to mis-manage week-end time and return to work, reluctantly. 

It was during my stint at Middle East, I got this great 'insight' to stick to the same time to wake up (and often sleep too). My alarm clock is thus permanently fixed at the same time. It has been a great experience. You wake up early on a week-end and suddenly you have a lot of time in your hands to do all those things you always wanted to... Try out & see for yourself.. Initially it may be difficult to shift, but once you & family get used to it, the experience can be not only healthy, but very fulfillling!

I have always been an early to bed/early to rise type. (Quite boring, right ?!) Partly blame it on the Fauji upbringing. But, no regrets at all... 

'Time is God' (kaalaya namaha) according to Indian belief. I guess, it is true, across all beliefs and cultures. Every moment is precious. Hence, it is called 'Present', truly a gift. 

If we make a small shift to manage our time better during week-ends, we could see the difference. Worth trying!

Blissfully!
The Coach 

PS:  I did not start, 'Good Morning Bluru....', Munna-bai style. Of course the discussion was good. He then played my favourite singer, Sri Jagjit Singhji's song... 'Hoshwalon...' !

Be A True Business Leader

--> I have not been blogging much, of late… Was busy with other things. Surely, less with work....! 

For me, writing/blogging is a matter of ‘mood’! Moreover, I did not come across topics that were 'blog-worthy', from my (limited) perspective and (narrow) interests! :)

Recently came across a thought I felt compelled to share… Hence, glad to be back, blogging!!  

Executive Remuneration… 

Had blogged  last year, on 25^th Dec to be precise, The Maya of Career !

1. Came across this interesting post, Executive Remuneration: Time to rein in the rewards, on Linkedin. There was not much info in the article, per se. But the headline was thought-provoking. Also, this topic was debated extensively in Middle East, at the height of the financial crisis, my karma-bhoomi then. There was a fear of this cap on exe remuneration in G20 countries!

I have seen, more often, we chase money, instead of a fulfilling career. Even if aware of the fact, we just drag on...hang on!

The frequently-aired SBI Home Loans TVC during IPL reminded me of how most of corporate executives end up ‘hand-to-mouth’ living. The lady in the ad said, 'there was no money for vacation after paying EMI', till the protagonist shifted his H/L to SBI! Of course, the lady of the house looked low on nutrition, may be due to cost cutting at home! 

Even as urban living becomes riskier by the day (pollution of water, air, noise, etc), difficult (commuting) and expensive (cost of living, rent vs own home), we still continue to move to cities in search of professional ‘greener’ pastures! At what cost?! 

2. Came across another interesting article, ‘Lord of The Rings’, in ET - Corporate Dossier.  
Prof Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharyya was part of the team to select successor to Mr Ratan Tata. 

He shared in the article, what clinched the decision in favour of Mr Cyrus Mistry, over ‘candidates from both sides of Atlantic’:   
‘he’s got passion, he’s intellectually very bright and he doesn’t need the money’.
Interesting, is n't ? 

‘Passion’ is a no-brainer! But was surprised by ‘intellectual mind and being wealthy’. For Tata group head, surely intellectual bend of mind should be a key leadership skill. Being rich, is quite relative. Rich have shown only more desire for more wealth. But then, theoretically a good set of parameters to select the head of one of most respected business groups, not only in India, but world-wide…

Sharing with friends, many of whom are aspiring CEO’s. Don't want to be judgmental here. But worthwhile to pause and do some professional & personal introspection. Taking the liberty to say this, also based on my recent coaching sessions.

Be Blissful!

Biblio!

• The Maya of Career:  http://mecarblog.blogspot.in/2012/12/the-maya-of-career.html
• Executive Remuneration: Time to rein in the rewards: http://www.iias.in/specialreport.aspx

-->

Time@Work Counts - Study

We all know the eternal conflict of quality vs quantity @work ! It is  obvious more working hours do not usually translate to improved output. But we conveniently ignore the truth. 

This trend is rampant in India. I hear so many managers who prefer to work late and 'end up in office just because the system/boss believes'! 
Of course, we tend to flow with it and not pause to think the impact it has on everything - time/energy/family/wellness. It impacts not only on our work-life balance, critical to our productivity at work, but also on environment (energy, water, etc.)

Coffee/smoking breaks, apart from 'social-media breaks' take bulk of our precious time at work. 

Everything finally boils down to our personal choice! Let us not blame the system. We have a choice for everything. Whether we believe in Doctrine of Karma or Newton's 3rd Law.

If at all we needed statistical evidence of the malaise, check out this report in ET :
Article Window

And... I Danced With My Client

The coaching journey, over the last few months, has been a beautiful experience!

• First it was blissful ignorance of the art of coaching :)
• Then it was the thinking 'I knew it, having done it all along', during my corporate journey. (If all of us genuinely practiced coaching at work, corporate world would have been very different!)
• Later, the awareness of the level of knowledge, or lack of it! The only silver-lining was 'it was after all the beginning of wisdom' :)
• Intense learning at the next phase: Face-to-Face (F2F or classroom) sessions, tele-classes, assignments, reflections and a lot of extra-reading. 
• Along the way started trying out the process, with a lot of humility and self-awareness. The beauty of the process was all we need to do was to stick to it, as we always knew, with any process! Mentor-Coach would emphasise. But he kept adding new 'twists' to the process, as we learnt. The learning was intense and very powerful. 
• Active listening, Powerful Questions, Coaching tools/models, etc became integral part of the armour. 
• The learning was tested at every phase through actual coaching, monitored, and otherwise, as few friends signed up for coaching (big thanks to all of them). 
• Somewhere the expressions, 'Be with the client', 'jugalbandhi', 'Dance with the Client' became the   aspirational coaching-goals. 
• The final round of coaching practices also were not reaching the levels of Enchantment for Client. I was experimenting, thus not on target! (Chk out earlier post: Push Boundaries)
• Then the final round, with external evaluator and the increased pressure, not to miss the target in the final 'test'. Self-imposed pressure for high performance :)
• I had tried to focus on the 'impending' evaluation, from the previous evening! 
• Then it happened. The session......
• I stayed with the client... tried a couple of relevant tools. Tested my model. Stuck to the process and the learning. 

Outcome: It turned out to be one great coaching experience for the client, and hence, for yours truly. And... I danced with the client!

Blissfully :)