V S Das: Leadership, performance and transformation through personnel
management
Inaugural address by Mr V S Das, Executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India, at the
seminar on "Leadership, performance and transformation through personnel management"
held at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, 15 July 2012.
* * *
I thank the students of Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), Mumbai for
inviting me to this Seminar, aptly titled "The CATALYST". For me, being here, in my Alma
Mater, is special, and being the Chief Guest today is therefore doubly special. I am also
happy to be sharing with you my thoughts on a subject, which has been close to my heart:
Leadership. I remember having studied Transformational Leadership and its Impact on
Organisational Climate and Unit Effectiveness as a part of my MAM programme here several
years ago.
Leadership, Performance and Transformation through Personnel Management, at a time
when near-seismic changes are taking place, especially in our global economy is, to put it
mildly, a difficult and daunting task. What I would try today is to aim at putting into
perspective the theme as an integrated issue and prompting further reflection on this
significant subject.
Performance has long been a focus for organizations concerned with increasing efficiency
and productivity. The management of "leadership capacity" is, however, a relatively more
recent consideration. Organizations across all sectors now regard leadership as a key
enabler of organizational performance and competitive advantage and are investing
increasingly into leadership development activities. Many have now turned their attention to
how best to manage their leadership talent to ensure succession, progression and the
delivery of organizational objectives.
The present global scenario is so paradoxical, confusing and filled with contradictions,
dilemmas and ambiguities that, as someone put it, "if you're not confused, you don't know
what's going on". In these baffling times, predictability and certainty are being replaced by a
more relational concept of the universe, what was bad yesterday is often considered good
today and what worked for decades is suddenly old fashioned. There is a rapid questioning
of what is acceptable and what is not, driven by the values of today's changed structures. In
this relativist world, leadership styles too are necessarily relative to imperatives of the time,
the personality of the leader and the location of the institution in its growth trajectory.
Recent research in this area suggests that one must look beyond just the personal qualities
of a leader to understand what leadership is all about. Scholars broadly agree that some
major variables involved in leadership include: (a) the characteristics of the leader; (b) the
attitudes, needs and other personal attributes of the followers; (c) characteristics of the
organization or the movement, as the case may be, such as its purpose, its structure as also
the nature of the tasks to be performed; and (d) the social, economic and political milieu. This
basically signifies that though the leader may, indeed, be at the heart of the leadership
discourse, it is, in the ultimate analysis, a complex relationship among the aforesaid
variables. Since by definition each leader is unique, what he or she learns from the interplay
of these variables and how he or she uses it to shape the future is unique to him or her too.
Throughout our lives, each of us makes thousands of decisions or judgment calls. Some are
trivial like what vegetables you will be buying. Some are monumental like whom to marry or
what career to pursue. How many of these decisions that we make turn out to be good ones?
More importantly, did we make good decisions on things that really mattered? Our ability to
exercise good judgment determines the quality of our individual lives. And, as we rise to
positions of leadership, the importance and consequences of our judgment calls are
magnified exponentially by their increasing impact on the lives of others. The cumulative
effect of leaders' judgment calls determines the success or failure of their organizations.
For many organizations, investment in leadership and leadership development remains a
leap of faith, informed through gut instinct and the current rhetoric on the value and
significance of leadership in organizations. Few organizations articulate a clear "theory of
action" that argues why and how particular leadership development and performance
management activities will enhance leadership capacity, at individual, team and
organizational levels, and, in turn, how this contributes towards organizational performance,
however defined.
Scholars have often suggested that the effectiveness of leadership development is
determined more by "how you do it" rather than "what you do". Thus, when faced with a
proliferation of leadership development tools and initiatives, the effective organization reflects
on the purpose, principles and assumptions involved and how they relate to current and
future organizational needs and performance - opting for an integrated and holistic
approach, comprising a "bundle" of complementary practices, rather than a suite of poorly
connected initiatives
In today's times, the significance of corporate leadership vis-à-vis corporate performance is,
perhaps, best illustrated by the relative impact of the global financial crisis on major financial
institutions. The severity of the crisis has forced academics, regulators and policymakers to
do some serious rethink on the current financial system. Many have also seen this crisis as a
failure of leadership, both on the regulatory and participant sides of the financial universe.
Debates and discourses on the current regulatory architecture have also since got more
intense and louder. Much as the regulatory issues have become more and more complex
and nuanced, the role of the leaders in the system has also got increasingly in focus, both for
future financial stability, as also for efficiency and innovation.
This, indeed, is a time for transformation. There are, in fact, significant differences between
change and transformation. Change is the way things will be different, and transformation is
how you move people through the stages to make change work. Change is a shift in the
externals of any situation, for example, setting up a new programme, restructuring a
business, moving to new location, or a promotion. By contrast, transformation is the mental
and emotional transition that people must undergo to relinquish old arrangements and
embrace new ones. There are other distinctions too. Change is made up of events, while
transformation is an on-going process. Change is visible and tangible, while transformation is
a psychological process that takes place inside people. Change can happen quickly, but
transformation, like any organic process, has its own natural pace. Change is all about the
outcome we are trying to achieve; transformation is about how we will get there and how we
will manage things while we are en route. Getting people through the transition is essential if
the change is actually to work, as planned.
It is important to ensure that change management strategies are driven by the changes that
need to occur, but that they do not lose focus on the more personal transition activities
needed to ensure the success of the programme. Transformation occurs as a result of a
well-orchestrated and well-led change strategy and transition plan. The result is a
metamorphosis to the desired state in which there is a deep seated adoption of the changes
and the associated values, principles and/or processes. This leads to an embedded, and
marked, change in organizational culture and reinforces a journey of continuous
improvement.
Transformational leadership
Clearly, transformational leaders have a role to play in the today's organizations to effectively
cope with the rapidly changing environment. Transformational leadership allows dramatic
improvements in management effectiveness. Transformational leaders make subordinates
aware of how important their jobs are by providing feedback to the worker; enable
subordinates become aware of their own need for personal growth and development; and
motivate subordinates to work for the good of the organization, not just themselves.
Transformational leaders are charismatic and have a vision of how good things can be. They
are excited and clearly communicate this to subordinates. Transformational leaders openly
share information
with workers. Everyone is aware of problems and the need for change.
Transformational leaders engage in development of workers. These qualities make a
transformational leader an effective change agent to transform the organization in response
to the internal and external changes, both current and anticipated.
Given these aspects of transformational leadership, it can succeed only if people will follow a
person who inspires them, who has the vision and passion to achieve great things and are
willing to become enthusiastic and energetic. The typical aspects of a transformational
leadership are: developing the vision, selling the vision, finding the way forward and leading
the change.
Thus, the Transformational Leader seeks overtly to transform the organization, and promise
the followers that they also will be transformed in some way, perhaps to be more like this
amazing leader. In some respects, then, the followers are the product of the transformation.
My dear students! Before I conclude, let me suggest certain important steps to develop your
Leadership skills:
• Integrity means alignment of words and actions with inner values. It
Integrity:
means sticking to these values even when an alternative path may be easier or
more advantageous.
A leader with integrity can be trusted and will be admired for sticking to strong
values. They also act as a powerful model for people to copy, thus building an entire
organization with powerful and effective cultural values.
•
Dedication: Spending whatever time and energy on a task is required to get the job
done, rather than giving it whatever time you have available.
•
Openness: Openness means being able to listen to ideas that are outside one's
current mental models, being able to suspend judgment until after one has heard
someone else's ideas.
•
Creativity: means thinking differently, being able to get outside the box and take a
new and different viewpoint on things. Creativity provides the ability to think
differently and see things that others have not seen, and thus giving reason for
followers to follow
•
Magnanimity: Crediting the people with success and accepting personal
responsibility for failures.
•
Humility: Humility is the opposite of arrogance and narcissism. It means
recognizing that you are not inherently superior to others and, consequently, that
they are not inferior to you. It does not mean diminishing yourself, nor does it mean
exalting yourself. Humble leaders do not debase themselves, neither falsely nor due
to low self-esteem. They simply recognize all people as equal in value and know
that their position does not make them a god.
History books are filled with leaders who are soft-spoken, introverted and quiet. A
quiet and simple Gandhi or a soft-spoken peanut farmer named jimmy Carter, who
became the President of the United States and won a Nobel Peace Prize, have
been just as effective world leaders as a loud and flamboyant Churchill, or the tough
leadership style employed Britain's iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher.
•
Be a Giver: Leaders are givers. The more you give, the more you get. If you want
more love, respect, support, and compassion then give love, give respect, give
support, and give compassion. As Sir Winston Churchill once said, "We make a
living by what we get, we make a life by what we give."
In conclusion, let me leave you, with four types of knowledge that I feel are imperative for
weaving together the ideas subsumed in the theme of today's Seminar: (i) Self-knowledge or
personal values and goals; (ii) Social Network Knowledge that involves those who surround
you daily; (iii) Organizational Knowledge that extends to knowing and understanding people
at all levels at the work-place; and (iv) Contextual Knowledge which engages myriad other
stakeholders that your organization directly or indirectly works with.
Finally, you are the future captains of industry and I exhort you to be transformational leaders
and be the catalysts who will lead your teams and organizations to greater heights.
I wish the Seminar all success and compliment the MFM students for choosing a theme
which is so relevant today.
Thank you