Corporate Life - Leadership Blog 1

Having been a "Corporate" man for most of my working life I must say that the more I look at the workings of major MNC's, (at least the ones I have been associated with), I wonder with what miracle they continue to flourish. There seems to be no logic or rationale that explains their success.

Take the example of Leadership - every organisation worth its salt wants to cultivate leaders. However you will notice that people who have the least understanding of leadership, talk about it the most. Everyone is touted a leader in his or her own right, and that is supposed to motivate you to act like one. If I were to translate some of the "leaders" actions into words - I would take leadership to mean :

1. All directions / instructions from the top are to be followed without question
2. The latest strategic direction / organisational upheaval is the best one yet and makes absolute sense.
3. Targets set (however flawed) are absolutely correct
4. Focus on strategic issues and a helicopter viewpoint of business etc are more indicative of leadership, than delivering results and operational excellence.
5. Rules apply to you but not to me.
6. Your ability to rise in the organisation is in inverse proportion to your ability to get the job done.
7. People are our biggest asset is a phrase oft repeated but never meant.

I for one have realised that I respect more peers, co-workers and staff in the lower echelons than I do at the higher levels. This is sad, and I fervently hope, not a widespread phenomenon.

It has been years since I have met a leader in my current organisation, that inspires me with his vision, and his grasp of business fundamentals or has been able to galvanise me. Poor leaders fail to recognise talent unless it conforms to their mould of the right fit. Poor leaders are also the ones with a huge scarcity of opinions. They are like empty vessels filled up with other peoples views. They are too buzy "lazy" to get to the root of issues, and will wander around in a cloud of ignorance, oblivious (or not bothered) of the fact that they change their views with the wind.

Ignorance breeds aggression and in corporate life serves quite often as the springboard to success. You leave the irrelevant things like understanding business models, value chains and underlying processes, to less deserving individuals, thereby freeing your own mind from the clutter of knowledge.

The current crop of leaders set behavioural patterns which the youth will follow. The more impressionable youngsters will fashion their work ethics and viewpoints, on the current generation of leaders.

What type of future leaders are we then grooming ?