October 24, 2008

The first day of the Conference was essentially about igniting the ‘Leader’ present in every one. The theme of ‘Leadership’ was examined through the lenses of wisdom, science, and management principles. On the panel were thought-provoking speakers and successful leaders, who shared the principles and practices needed to ignite the genius within.

The morning started with a reflection and enquiry session where participants were encouraged to share their views about the theme of the day. Prasad Kaipa, Executive Director, Centre for Leadership, Innovation and Change (CLIC) said that the day will be a thought-igniting session, more of a conversation, where speakers will generate questions and participants will explore them and find answers for themselves.

“Igniting the genius is a process of igniting hearts and actions and spirits. After the three days you will go away with original questions to which you would have found original answers. And that alone will take leadership to a whole new level,” he said.

The participants seated at various tables were ready with some soul searching – “How do I keep my mind ignited with excitement as I grow old?”, “Shouldn't aspirations go beyond one’s resources?” were some questions put up for all.

Speakers during the first session on ‘Wisdom Perspectives on Leadership’ were Debashis Chatterjee, Dean, SP Jain Centre of Management, and Neerja Raman, Reuters Fellow, Stanford University. The session was chaired by V Krishnamurthy, Former Deputy Director, BITS Pilani.

Chatterjee shared a presentation on ‘Timeless Leadership’. “The twig that grows from a seed is already a  whole tree,” he said, explaining what it means to grow from the source. Contrasting the growth of a  building to that of a tree, he pointed out that while the former’s power is in its inertness, the latter’s power lies in its  fluidity. “Businesses should grow like a tree,” he said. The three seeds of wisdom, according to Chatterjee, were “concentration, contribution, and connection.”

The presentation concluded with a track ‘On Silence’, through which the speaker wanted to convey the power of silence in communication – “Speak, but don’t stand in the way of the music of silence.”

Raman shared her views about Wisdom Leadership. She presented a ‘personal framework’ on how to move towards powerful decision making.  What is leadership? According to Raman, it is “influencing people to do willingly, and to do well, that what has to be done. She said that decision making is a genius or a skill that lies within all of us, and we just need to align our hearts and mind to make a decision with conviction. “Conviction comes from developing and understanding your values, and in turn values  give us confidence in action." Raman also cued in about some ‘win- win behaviours’ like  curiosity, being positive, honesty, etc - which helps in achieving excellence in action.  “Keep decisions simple and actionable, and don’t fall in the behaviour traps and emotion traps which are nothing but barriers in the way for others to understand you,” she concluded.

The second session examined the theme of Leadership under the fine lens of  scientific principles. Chaired by Professor Kaipa himself, the  session saw Sudhanshu Palsule, Visiting Professor, Helsinki School of Economics and the ISB, and  Manoj Pawar, Adjunct Professor, University of Denver,  talk about the topic of  ‘Neuroleadership’.

Pawar explained briefly the basic principles of how the brain works, and how to become better leaders. “We have a much better understanding of the brain today, but we often work against our brains, for example multi-tasking, and our leadership capabilities suffer if we work in a way that is contrary to the brain,” he said.  Pawar, through his presentation,  explained  the ‘anatomy of fear and stress’ in the brain. “ In daily organisational life we interpret many things as crucial to  life, while they are actually not. When in threat there are two ways to react - the shoot first ask later attitude, or the let’s think about this mode,” he said. Stress impairs memory, Pawar noted, and then he finally shared some strategies to sharpen awareness and memory – “Sleep is most essential for memory,” he added.

Palsule shared with the audience the findings of his empirical research on ‘What effective leaders do that is right, and why it is easy for some’. He addressed a ‘Leadership Recall  Framework’ which consisted of characteristics of a good leader, as summed up by people across continents. They were  universally  the same – articulate, visionary, humility, listening skills, putting others first, being some of them.

Palsule’s survey also indicated  the factors which came in the way of making a great leader. They were - lack of self confidence, being a poor listener, getting frustrated easily, etc. “ My conclusion from the research is that Leadership is simple, not easy,” he said. The mark of an effective leader, according to him, was one who “delivers all objectives and promises, one who influences others by actions and thoughts, one who develops other leaders, and finally one who leaves behind a legacy.”

The third session of the day focussed on Management Best Practices in the area of Leadership. Prakash Apte, CEO, Syngenta India and Kirk Hanson, Executive Director, Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University were the panellists at the session, with V Kovai Chelvan, Senior Vice President, TVS Motors, acting as the chair.

Apte started the session with a presentation on the transformation of Syngenta through a programme called ‘Sankalp’. He said the company started Sankalp in January 2004 when the Indian economy was booming but the company was under intense competitive pressure. “Let us go back to our people and ask if they are ready to transform themselves completely,” he said. He said that all the objectives of Sankalp were achieved by December 2007. He added that the biggest lesson that he learnt from the success of the programme was the importance of connecting to the inner self. “People who have courage can only win,” he added.

Hanson then continued the session with a presentation on ‘Leadership, Spirituality and Creativity’. He explored the themes of global context of leadership, need for global norms and standards, spirituality needed to create global norms and spiritual leadership. He added that global norms would need to be developed in these areas: governance, accounting, environment, ethics, and poverty alleviation. Hanson stressed that strong spiritual leadership would emerge in India because of its democracy, diversity, and spiritual tradition. “Spirituality is the breeding ground of creativity,” he added.

Chelvan then concluded the session with a talk on ‘CII Best Practices in Leadership Management’. Some of the issues that he covered were taking families along in the transformation process, opportunities for India, leadership development practices and India Inc., going global. He mentioned that some of the best practices were focussed personal development plans, creating development opportunities, creating high performance culture, holding senior management accountable, diversity in leadership pipeline, and setting up leadership institutes. He concluded his talk saying, “Leadership is not about processes or practices. It is about reflections and experiences”.

A world café session, in which participants shared what inspired, touched, stretched or surprised them during the day’s session on leadership followed the panel discussions.