Leaderati

Of late, it seems to me that the only people who whistle while they work are the security personnel in Infosys's Mysore campus trying to get us 'deviant' trainees to walk on the pavements :) And that whistling isnt necessarily because there's a song in their hearts either, is it?!

At a recent conference of industrial/organizational psychologists, I had the good fortune to sit in on a session about happiness at work. There were researchers from several countries, presenting studies on work-family crossover and spillover, the relationship between goal-setting and self-determination theory and other esoteric but immensely interesting (to a geeky organizational scientist like me at least!) research. The one I'll discuss today is on the crucial role that leaders play in ensuring their employees whistle at work.

Continue reading ""Whistle while you work" and other scientific musings on happiness at work" »

Posted by Dr. Aarti Shyamsunder at 2:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I had the opportunity to meet David Peterson, PhD - Director, Executive Coaching and Leadership at Google. I spend much of my day on Google and love its speed in getting me what I want quickly and in a way I can use swiftly.

David's reflections on the difference between a good and a great coach were just as quick to understand and easy to follow. One among his thoughts was what all us coaches need to do all the time and really well - help those we coach to hit the pause button and reflect. His four basic directions of reflection for us to ask questions to get the coachee to think on -

1. Look inward: What is most important to you? What values matter most and how are you manifesting them in what you are trying to achieve?

2. Look outward: What matters most to others? What expectations do they hold that you need to address in order to be successful at your endeavors? How do they perceive you?

3.Look back: What have you been trying to learn and what new things have you tried? What has worked well and what hasn't worked? What have you learned?

4.Look ahead: What will you do differently? What do you need to keep learning? Where are your opportunities to try new things?

If we commit these four to action, then they can spawn off several questions that will help us think every day, week, fortnight, month, quarter and year. I will leave you to discuss what follow-on questions make meaning to you and how often will you think about them. One that has worked for me on a quarterly basis is -

If I was to summarize my learning in the last 6 months into my CV, what would it look like?

In our pace of life, we think time has to be saved and not spent by admiring the bud that blossoms into a flower or the birds chirping. I think that's the wrong thing to do. It's taking a few milliseconds to enjoy such little pleasures that push us into the trap of being so overwhelmed with our current moment we have no time and effort to examine it in the context of the past and the future in terms of our personal and professional development.

What would your questions for yourself be? How often will you ask them and how much time will you give for yourself?

Reference -

 Hernez-Broome, G., & Boyce, L. A. (Eds.). (2010). Advancing executive coaching: Setting the course for successful leadership coaching (pp. 83-101). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Posted by Pradeep Chakravarthy at 5:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

To say that building strategic partnerships is critical in sustaining competitive advantage in today's business environment is to state the obvious. At Infosys, we have, through our Infosys 3.0 strategy, underlined the importance of building strategic partnerships with our clients.

In our recently concluded strategic planning meeting (STRAP 2012), we had the privilege of listening to the CxO of one of our longest standing clients, Nordstrom. Coming from a very senior executive of a highly respected corporation, and one of our most steadfast clients, his insights on what made Infosys a trusted partner should be considered invaluable. He spoke about three "pillars" necessary for a strategic relationship.

Continue reading "Towards building a strategic relationship" »

Posted by Prakash K. Nair at 8:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Throughout history, philosophers, scientists and laypersons have been intrigued by the question of who we 'really' are. Rosenberg (1979) for instance, talked about the self as the sum total of our thoughts, feelings and imaginations as to who we truly are. Some sociologists (e.g. Cooley, 1902) take a more other-centric approach. C.H. Cooley's theory of 'the looking-glass self' for instance, is a model of how we shape our self-identity. In this view, we basically build a self based on how we believe we are perceived by others. Cooley, the proponent, is said to have summarized his theory thus: "I am not what I think I am and I am not what you think I am; I am what I think that you think I am".

Ok, now that you've scratched your head raw, how about taking a step back and thinking about why this all really matters to leaders and leadership??

Continue reading "Others know best?!" »

Posted by Dr. Aarti Shyamsunder at 9:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Research shows that faulty decisions can be avoided in groups with a moderate amount of collective self-efficacy, a can-do mindset and they solve problems more vigilantly. I was recently reading an excellent book by I L Janis Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological study of Foreign Policy Decisions and Fiascoes the book was published in 1972 by Houghton Mifflin, Oxford.

The author looks at how when groups stifled the power of organized dissent within teams, they created horribly wrong errors. The Vietnam War and Pearl Harbor are two examples the authors go into great detail.

I suppose this ability to be comfortable with and dialogue with others who dissent from our thoughts must be very difficult. It certainly is easy for me to like people who agree with me all the time! It's even more tempting for me to work in teams of people like me all the time. This book however, shook me up on that.

I remembered a commentary on a famous debate that took place between two Hindu saints who were from different philosophical streams of thought. The commentator after discussing each sides arguments, reminded the reader on who the real victor in the debate was. It was the one who did not stick to his (or her) stand but amended one's own opinion to reflect shades of the other side as well so that the final solution had a greater appeal to a larger group.

This is easier said than done and I will be excited to hear your thoughts and experiences and of course you can disagree with me but do read the book!

Posted by Pradeep Chakravarthy at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

There have been reams written about the idea of women in leadership positions, almost always speaking of the benefits of having more women in such roles, producing research results of how women in leadership have helped improve a company's bottom-line, employee connect or client engagement levels. And therefore the reasoning goes, that companies need to have more women friendly policies and do what is needed to bring them into these positions of leadership.

Various studies of women leaders comment on the 'communal' characteristics of strong interpersonal skills, inclusiveness, persuasiveness, concern for the welfare of others, ability to handle adversities, being honest and realistic, being collaborative as the desirable qualities that they get to the workplace leadership roles (which are otherwise replete with leadership styles that are more 'agentic' - assertive, controlling, ambition driven). Remember the concept of the Level 5 leader proposed by Jim Collins - characterized by above all, humility and fierce resolve? To say that women leaders embody all that may be a stretch, but studies show that they are certainly better candidates given the right environment.

So that makes it somewhat simple isn't it? If these desirable behaviors were suitably recognized and rewarded, there would naturally be a greater representation of such women leaders at the top! So what accounts for the less than 3% women CEOs and less than 12% women on boards of companies across the world? That these same qualities that organizations desire at the helm of affairs are what derail a woman's career somewhere mid-journey? That these same qualities render them unsuitable to the competitive corporate race for success? That organizations are not quite ready to dismantle the traditional scaffolds of management and leadership ways for newer ways of accommodating such styles?

Even the best of our women's initiatives crafted carefully to support the career woman, focus on readying the woman for the intensely competitive, visibility seeking, network driven, individualistic corporate world - telling us how to overcome the odds, to sail through the challenges, to have faith and to persist, showing us examples of women (the handful) who have done it, and exhorting us to live up to the challenge! Showing us ways in which to 'adapt' ourselves to the demands of the leadership challenge. The irony of it.

Are we shining the torch in the right direction then? What are we doing about preparing the workplace for a better tomorrow, which has balanced perspectives (not through the affirmative action type of initiatives) and is welcoming of greater diversity in the (selfish) interests of bettering ourselves?

Posted by Smita Chimmanda Potty at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Continue reading "Play, Games and Leader Development " »

Posted by Chitra Sarmma at 8:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

"The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer."

-- Henry David Thoreau

You have heard this before. Listening is important. Listening is necessary. People in your life, both personal and professional, have extolled the virtues of listening.  In the event that you have heard them, you might have put listening in that "things to learn and develop" bucket for most of your lifetime.  If you have not, it could be that you do not consider listening to be that important, or perhaps you do have the tools or resources to be a good listener.

Continue reading "Listening - Can you Hear Me Now?" »

Posted by Dr. Jayan Sen at 11:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)