Game Changers Program is the Leadership Transformation Initiative to build next generation leaders in the organization. Each ‘Game Changer’ was carefully chosen by the organization and the program has been thoroughly customized to individual and organization needs.

Provide Hi-potential employees an opportunity to exhibit potential by enabling them to pursue Business impact Team projects

Create a pool of tested ready now candidates for succession

Produce tangible results that show return on investment

Profiling of the Participants: Identifying the participants’ developmental needs based on the assessment

People Business (PB) conducted 360 Degree assessment in April 2015, to assess the participants on the essential Leadership Behaviours required to perform effectively at their current and higher levels. From  360 degree assessment, a customized feedback report was created for each participant with specific inputs on their strengths and development areas.

For each participant, two development areas were identified through the  360 instrument and supervisor engagement.

Educate and Development Planning: Understanding the need to invest time &amp; effort for individual transformation

Orientation to the participants to Game Changers program was conducted to generate buy-in and commitment from them.

Country Business Leaders identified an opportunity for team projects and translated them into a sound business proposition (Business Impact Projects (BIPs)).

Action learning teams with4-5 participants each across geographies and functional domains were identified and BIPs were assigned to them.

Facilitated PB coach and participant conversation to understand and agree on developmental plan.

 Development Journey: Customizing the program with a relevant mix of knowledge acquisition, implementation &amp; reflection

Participants were provided with customized journals in line with the identified leadership behaviours. Each journal consists of a mix of Self Study, Self-Reflection and In-Place Activities

Throughout the entire course of the project, each participant was coached through regular one-on-one coaching sessions by PB Coaches and mentored by the organizations' Leaders. Participants were asked to pursue and analyse reading material, followed up with on- the- job Business Impact Projects (BIP),

The one-on-one monthly conversations with the coach were mainly be focused on:

o    Understanding the progress made on the two identified leadership behaviours through reflection

o    Understanding the project progress and incorporation of learnings in implementing the project

o    Work on certain behaviours identified by the participant’s supervisor

Project Review and Presentation: Measure the impact of the transformational journey by evaluating behavioural change &amp; its impact on business outcomes

Bi-monthly conversations with participant’s supervisor on development progress.

Monthly reporting of progress and Mid-year review for participants.

Final project presentation by each ALT on the Project and each individual on their transformation journey.

The final evaluation showed that more than 70 % of the participants achieved their business impact goals through the project and 80 % of them showed a visible transformation on leadership behaviours.

Leadership Transformation Through Business Transformation

Every year, bar-headed geese migrate thousands of kilometres from their breeding grounds in Mongolia to their wintering grounds in India, and back again. The bar-headed geese are one of the world’s highest flying birds, and have been known to cruise at altitudes of over 6000m (Mount Kilimanjaro is at an elevation of 5895m). They navigate through the mountain passes of the Himalayas, and there have also been unverified reports of them flying over Mount Everest.

They have incredible endurance – the amount of oxygen available even at lower elevations can fall to half of that at sea level. Humans are able to perform only mild exercise at that elevation, even after acclimatisation.

Because we are so bogged down by titles and definitions at the workplace of who is a leader and who isn’t, we miss out on opportunities where team synergy could be channelled towards accomplishing great feats that would be impossible for one person to do.

Individually, the geese are extremely well-built to achieve this aerodynamic feat year after year. However, that is only part of the story. Bar-headed geese are sociable birds that live in groups and large colonies. When they fly, they take to the sky in a V-formation of about 25 members. The birds help each other as they climb high altitudes.

As each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird that immediately follows. Because of the V-formation, the flock achieves a flying range of 71 percent more than what would be possible if the birds were to fly solo. When a goose falls out of formation, it feels the drag and the resistance of trying to fly alone. It quickly gets back into the group to take advantage of the lifting power of the bird in front and also passes this on to the bird behind it.

When a bird gets sick or is wounded by gunshot, and falls out of formation, two other geese fly down with the wounded goose to lend help and protection. They stay with the goose until it is able to fly again or till it dies. The birds then fly back by themselves, or join another formation, or try to catch up with their group.

The pressure of the drag is felt the most by the geese at the front of the formation. The birds at the back occasionally honk to encourage those up front to keep up their speed. When the head goose gets tired, it flies to the back of the formation and another bird takes its place.

There is a lot to be learnt from the intuitively collaborative bar-headed geese. Years of evolution have taught the geese to fly in V-formation, get the right uplift, gain advantage of group synergy, and support one another as they fly thousands of kilometres navigating the mighty Himalayas. Like the geese, we collaborate and work with others in our respective teams, but the degree of collaboration may differ.

The V-formation forms a nice analogy to showcase the intuitively collaborative team. Some rebellious team members may on occasion try to drop out of formation, but the drag of working solo eventually gets to them and they fall back in formation to take advantage of group synergy. Other team members are naturally helpful and when things go wrong for one person, they immediately make themselves available and help out until the issue gets fixed.

The most interesting behaviour is probably that of the head goose. As leader of the flock, it is required to lead from the front and does so with great energy. It lets its action speak louder than any honk (message) that it might want to pass on to the flock. The head goose and others in front are egged on by team members from the back as they all fly higher and faster as a team.

However, the head of the flock is also replaced every so often by others. The burden of facing the drag is shared among team members, and others step up when called to action. The success of the team is placed above individual success.

Collaboration is as important for the solitary leader as it is for individual team members. The leader must constantly make space for other team members to showcase their genius when the opportunity arises.

At the workplace, the leader is required to keep the team motivated at all times. However, like the head goose and the frontline geese, our leaders also need an occasional, reassuring honk from other group members to let them know that they are doing great. In the V-formation, every goose is a leader. This ‘shared focus’ helps build group dynamics. The whole is much, much greater than the sum of its individual parts.

Leadership and Group Synergy

As managers, we're often torn between the competing priorities of achieving results and fostering an engaged, motivated team. Conventional wisdom says you can't have it both ways - a hard-driving results focus comes at the expense of interpersonal connections. However, a study reveals that the most effective leaders are those who excel at both driving performance and engaging their people.

What sets these well-rounded leaders apart?  Identified are the six "behavioral bridges" that enable top leaders to drive performance through people:

1. Communicating a clear strategy and direction

4. Exhibiting high integrity to inspire trust

6. Remaining coachable and open to feedback

These findings align with the holistic approach we take in our Certified Program for Leadership (CPLP). Through this exclusive 4-month certification, co-developed with IIM Bangalore, participants enhance their management prowess across multiple dimensions.

The program starts by establishing a clear foundation through our R-OPTI™ Model for Managerial Effectiveness. Guided by this model, participants learn to set a compelling organizational vision while inspiring commitment in their teams.

Complementing this results-focused skillset, CPLP also hones "softer" leadership capabilities through workshops on emotional intelligence, coaching others, managing conflicts and more. These modules equip managers with techniques to build trust, motivate individuals and develop their direct reports - behaviors identified as hallmarks of well-rounded leaders.

The program's blended format of workshops, group coaching, peer learning and applied projects ensures that participants don't just learn concepts, but practice integrating results and people skills. As one past participant shared, "The skills learned here will help me throughout my career to analyze my capabilities and understand how to create a high-performing team."

In today's experience economy, employees want more than just a paycheck - they seek meaning, growth and camaraderie at work. By developing managers who harmonize a focus on results with a commitment to enriching their people's experience, CPLP empowers organizations to drive sustainable, engaged performance. The path to becoming a top 13% leader is a challenging one, but the rewards make it worthwhile.

Driving Results and Engagement: The Power of Holistic Leadership Development

Creating Employee Experiences

2025 Ranking

Leadership Lens

The Great Manager Digest

Competency Framework is Dead; Long Live the Competency Framework

The role of the HR function has evolved over the last decade and a half to keep pace with business realities. A number of definitions of the HR function and its roles has been put forth by business leaders and researchers alike. For example, a simple typology of four groupings of 

 that follow the processes central to organizational success are:

The role of HR has also been defined through the lens of strategy, wherein the HR function is actively involved in both the creation and implementation of the overall strategic direction of the organization. HR no longer has to worry about working doubly hard to convince leaders that it is central to the business and about achieving the proverbial “seat at the table”. In this context, HR is a Strategy Architect, looking at organizational challenges through the lens of both business and people. This leads to the HR function facilitating strategy creation, clarifying and articulating the strategy, ensuring timely execution, aligning leadership behavior to strategy and bringing the view of the outside customer into the organization.

However, there is also a third, and extremely crucial function with respect to strategy implementation. This ‘missing link’ is only now beginning to be understood by HR practitioners and business leaders. The link assists in seamlessly integrating the four crucial groupings laid out above, and is sometimes seen as the ‘soft side’ of management. However, experienced leaders will tell us that it is actually the hardest, because it deals with attitudes and behaviors which seem vague, but are critical to the firm. This missing link is Culture.

What then is organizational culture? The concept of organizational culture has been defined from many perspectives in the literature. There is no one single definition. The topic of organizational culture has been studied from many perspectives and disciplines, such as anthropology, sociology, organizational behavior, and organizational leadership to name a few. Deal (1999) defines organizational culture as values, beliefs, and behaviors that differentiate one organization from another. Simply put, culture defines the proper way to think, act and behave within an organization.

This simple, yet accurate definition of culture gives us scope to ask several questions about the nature of firm culture. What is our current culture? Who creates culture? Who sustains it? Is it always aligned to firm strategy? Is it well aligned with the firm’s vision, mission and values?  What leads to changes in firm culture? Is it always managed top-down? And most importantly, it leads us to the question: What role does HR play in shaping firm culture?

Leveraging Firm Culture for Competitive Advantage

Human, not financial, capital must be the starting point and ongoing foundation of a successful strategy. Significant advantage accrues to companies that encourage open communication and that know where and how to break down barriers to honest feedback. Risk management programs at large companies tend to be finely tuned to financial and compliance risks but rarely focus on cultural sources of risk7.

If the collective attitudes, perceptions and behaviors of all employees in an organization shape its culture, then alignment of culture with the firm strategy is imperative to firm success. It is common to talk of an organization’s culture as if it is simply “the way things are”. But no culture is static8. It is continually reinforced and balanced by internal and external events that drive the organization.

How then can HR play a pivotal role in shaping firm culture? Would some of the traditional tools of pay systems, performance management, recruiting, selection and training &amp; development suffice in this endeavor? Or is something more required?

The Role of HR in Shaping Organizational Culture and Strategy

One of the crucial components of the learning function, which proves its importance to the business, justifies learning spends and helps managers measure progress is Learning ROI. This tool may either be viewed as an enabler or a constraint by stakeholders. At times, measuring ROI may be a creative process (behavioural programs may produce fuzzy outcomes); other times, the metrics may be clearly defined and the measurement is straightforward (tracking usage of a specific tool after training participants on its features). Whatever be the desired outcome, it is essential for everyone involved to agree on the relevant metrics early on, during the planning phase, to leverage on ROI as an enabler, rather than as a constraint. Without exception, the starting point for any learning intervention must be business metrics.

Asking a series of ‘whys’ proves to be useful here: let’s assume that the Training Need Analysis (TNA) process has thrown up the following requirement – a particular set of employees need to be trained on ‘Taking Initiative’. The learning expert, along with the business manager, could now go backwards through the TNA process with a series of whys.

Clearly, the business manager is in a Catch-22 situation: she cannot let go of the external vendor until her team takes more initiative, and develops internal capabilities. Thus, this function has an identified business metric – eliminate delay in project timelines. The business manager believes that by taking more initiative (a behavioural metric), her team would be able to overcome the ‘It’s not my job’ syndrome (another behavioral metric), develop internal capabilities (a project-specific metric), and ensure timely completion of the project every time (business metric). Another outcome would be to gradually reduce dependency on the external consultant (a project-specific metric). Every so often, the link between the behavioural and business metric gets lost in translation – which needs to be kept in focus by the learning manager. Through the course of the intervention, if the participants end up taking more initiative, and this leads to gradual improvement in project submission timelines, this is evidence of Learning ROI that can be documented and presented to relevant stakeholders. The intent of taking initiative is a positive one, and if implemented well it may also result in outcomes beyond what was initially forecasted by the Training Need Analysis (TNA). However, all of this needs to be documented clearly as evidence of Learning ROI by the business and learning managers.

The Strategic Learning Process has a total of six simple, iterative steps. From defining outcomes in terms of business requirements to documenting results, one can plan out the complete process in an iterative loop. Because learning is a journey and not a destination in itself, it is important to build on all that was learnt in Step 6 (Documenting Results), which feeds back into Step 1 (Defining Business Outcomes) of the next learning cycle.

A critical business function which may require learning interventions is Sales. This vertical has a clearly defined variable to measure progress – revenues. It is tempting to create an all-encompassing sales learning program which tries to improve many things all at once: cold-calls, Key Account Management, negotiation skills etc. However, one needs to thoroughly analyze all aspects of the sales cycle to understand pain-points and opportunities. The sales cycle may be broken down into stages like: Suspecting, Prospecting, Pipeline, Decision Pending and Closing the Deal. At each stage, there are clearly defined business and behavioural metrics. For example, at the ‘Decision Pending Stage’, a business metric may be defined as ‘Likelihood of Deal Conversion’, which can be expressed as a certain percentage by the sales rep. A relevant behavioural metric may be ‘Negotiation Skills’. If a particular sales team generates a strong pipeline, but is unable to close out on deals (low deal-conversion ratio), an intervention which focuses on their negotiating and relationship abilities may be useful.

Application of the Strategic Learning Process

If applied to this particular example, the six-stage Strategic Learning Process may look something like this:

The last stage is critical for measurement of Learning ROI. If the deal conversion ratio improves by a certain (at times pre-defined) percentage after the intervention, leading to more deals won in the process, this clearly shows the success of the learning program.

Measuring Learning ROI: Linking Training Outcomes to Business Results

Many of us aspire to be executive coaches, and some of us have got ourselves certified under different agencies. Based on my journey as a coach, I have found that organizational experience gives you a good sense of understanding others, while a 

 you with a framework to work with coaches.

The following pointers may help you in becoming a more effective coach:

 It is important for coaches to understand the larger perspective of the organization from the business and the coach's point of view. There is a tendency to jump into a coaching assignment purely on available reports and finalizing the goal of the coaching assignment. While this is essential, a good sense of the business and organizational challenges would help in establishing the comfort level of the coach to open up and seek ‘coaching’ from the coach.

The coach needs to be able to go beyond the obvious & help the coach draw insights for development. In doing this, the coach is able to see things in perspectives that have not occurred to them earlier. It also helps the coach to see ‘true value’ being provided by the coach. Focus completely on what the coachee is saying and is not saying, to understand the meaning of what is said in the context of the coachee’s desires – hear their concerns, goals, values and beliefs about what is and is not possible.

 It is critical for the coach to take ownership and keep the momentum in the coaching assignment. Apart from the value that the coach adds, the coach needs to be able to consistently empathize with situations of the coach. A stronger commitment to change happens, when the coachee is able to see changes

happening in their approach or behaviors through 

and get feedback of positive change from stakeholders – which motivates the coach to put in that extra effort for transformation.

The coach needs to clearly understand the coach's passion, purpose and personality. The coach also needs to understand the coach's coping strategies and life aspirations, while looking at the impact of this on their current role. This helps take the coaching relationship to the next level.

Overall, you can be a more effective coach if you are able to help the coachee connect the dots and ignite the spark for the coachee to transform themselves.

4 Tips To Coach Effectively

A brand symbolises a few messages. Just like a popular brand of customer product expresses certain qualities and images, an employer brand represents the corporate identity to its current and prospective employees, headhunters, and other stakeholders who get associated with the people's side of the corporate.

A brand of a product expresses two aspects — first would be the real benefits like skin care, dressing, safety. The second aspect would be the image which it carries — for example youthfulness, futuristic, newness, stardom, respect which gets transferred to its users. An example would be driving an up-market car.

While the real benefit is transportation, a user having an up-market car represents a certain image in the society. An employer brand has a similar effect on its current and future employees. Research speaks about a corporate brand in terms of its awareness, culture, personality, and image. Awareness is signified by responsiveness among stakeholders about the employer. Examples would be companies like IBM or Ford which are known for their corporate brand. What is critical is how the brand is identified.

This is through the culture, personality, and image. Culture broadly represents how it is to work in a company. Personality and image represent the mental image that people have about any organisation. For example, Google might represent a youthful, technology driven individual. It may also symbolize freedom, enterprise, and innovation for current or prospective employees.

Employer branding has external and internal aspects. The internal factors are the culture, HR practices, and the overall employment experience that a current employee has. The external factors are what a prospective employee feels about the organisation.

It is important to have consistency between your internal employer brand and external employer brand. If what the organisation promises to the external world is inconsistent with what is happening in the organisation, it can create conflict with the new joinees who expect what was promised through branding. While the current employees on the other hand might feel cheated by the practices followed. Instead of supporting the

organisation in retaining and attracting talent, it will leave both the current and future employees unhappy.

In developing and managing an employer brand, the critical aspect would be the development of “Employer Value Proposition”. Employer Value Proposition speaks about the direct and indirect benefits of working with the brand. It also speaks about the core aspects of the association.

RPG Group which is a conglomerate with interest in more than seven sectors defined its employer value proposition in the year 2006. Having companies like CEAT, SaReGaMa, Spencers Retail, KEC International, Zensar Technologies, CESC, PCBL, and Harrisons Malayalam which has varied interest from tyres to music, the key was to understand what the brand really symbolised for current and future employees. Extensive research was conducted with media, current and ex-employees, new and highly experienced employees, headhunters, and campuses to understand what RPG Group as a whole represented. Research found that the key value propositions are “Respect for people,” “Diverse opportunities for growth”, “Empowering performance”, and “Forward looking”. This meant respect, growth, freedom, and futuristic development for both current and future employees. The second stage of branding was to reflect this in all the messages to the external world and have 

 aligned to the value proposition. The various employee touch points should be analysed in this regard.

For example in an interview process it is expected that the candidate is treated fairly and with respect. Similarly, in a performance 

, the key is to show employees their potential and provide them with more avenues to showcase their potential which reflects the proposition of empowering performance. These propositions need to be reflected at all levels in the organisation.

Managers should embody these values in the way they treat their employees. Employer branding is a holistic process once the core value propositions are clear. Myriad possibilities exist for spreading the employer brand. Current employees are clearly the first brand ambassadors. Your website and the career section should convey the brand. Advertisements related to jobs or careers should reflect the brand. Web 2.0 media including social networking tools like Facebook or Linkedin are an important face of employer branding.

The physical infrastructure should also reflect the employer brand. Imagine an organisation which talks about treating people equally and about its free communication culture, having their executives sitting in closed cabins!

The first step to creating a positive difference in the employer brand is leadership mindset change. For example if an organisation is planning to project a youthful outlook to its employer brand, the very first step might be leaders accepting that young people are required for progress and their inputs are valued. The second step would be tweaking processes to have more young people and creating a work environment for them.

For example instead of age as a factor for hiring for senior management positions, competency should be given precedence.

The average age of people working might have to be reduced and also instead of years of experience based promotions, performance based promotions can take over. Any change like this would be a constant process and required focused long term efforts and hence strategic in nature.

The benefits of having a right employer brand and conveying them effectively are many fold. First we will get the right talent to join the organisation and the right talent to stay.

The clear measure of a better employer brand would be the ratio of the number of offers given to people to the number of people who finally joined. The recruitment costs and time will come down as the organisation becomes more lucrative to join and lesser effort is needed to recruit people. In the long term the right brand will definitely help people stay and the reasons will be more than monetary considerations.

The employee engagement measures will also have higher scores as the organisation itself embodies the image they want to convey resulting in a better psychological contact with the employer. The other outcome could even be that your organisation is featured as one of the best places to work!

The key aspect of employer branding is to understand that it is not just about advertisements or communication collaterals — it is the reflection of what is the reality — present or future — that the employees experience in the organisation.

Importance of employer branding

People Business partnered with a TOP 4 Global IT consulting firm to create a performance coaching culture in the organization.

The intervention focused on supporting the new managers, experienced managers, and leaders in creating a culture of coaching.

The program consisted of four phases - Profile, Educate, Develop and evaluate.

A qualitative profiling was done in the first phase to understand what are the needs of managers at different levels. This was categorized into skill and will issues. We also understood some of the underlying assumptions that are not supporting managers to be effective.

This was followed up with a 360 degree assessment based on the leadership behaviors of the firm. The 360 degree assessment provided us with the strengths and areas of development of each of the individuals.

The development journey was customized for the levels.

For the senior leaders, inputs were given on 

and followed by a strengths finder workshop. The workshop also focused on how the leaders would be leveraging their strengths to coach the team members. The key action items based on the 360 degree feedback was also discussed with leaders through a feedback session from an external coach.

For the experienced managers, the focus was on building mentoring skills. A two day workshop focusing on team engagement, feedback and mentoring skills was provided to the managers. This was followed up with a six month intervention. Each of the experienced managers were asked to mentor a junior manager and was also supported with an external coach. The coach helped the experienced manager to build mentoring skills and also helped in their own behavioral transformation with the help of a reflection journal.

The new managers were provided with more basic inputs on performance management and employee engagement. They were also provided with reflection journal and monthly group coaching. This helped the new managers to have more confidence in the role.

The nine month journey helped the firm to create a pool of managers who are more aware and engaged with their team members. This also led in a 14 % increase in the engagement survey results essentially with the focus on the items related to "Me and My Manager"

Performance Coaching at a Top 4 Consulting firm

 Initiative to build next generation leaders in the organization. Each ‘Game Changer’ was carefully chosen by the organization and the program has been thoroughly customized to individual and organization needs.

Provide Hi-potential employees an opportunity to exhibit potential by enabling them to pursue Business impact Team projects

Identifying the participants’ developmental needs based on the assessment

Step II: Educate and Development Planning: 

Understanding the need to invest time &amp; effort for individual transformation.

Customizing the program with a relevant mix of knowledge acquisition, implementation &amp; reflection 

understanding the progress made on the two identified leadership behaviors through reflection,

understanding the project progress and incorporation of learnings in implementing the project

Work on certain behaviors identified by the participant’s supervisor

Step IV: Project Review and Presentation:

Measure the impact of the transformational journey by evaluating behavioral change &amp; its impact on business outcomes.

It’s not often that we write a book review here. But this one is a must read. New York-based 

 shows us how to turn a boring workplace into an exciting, productive, fun-filled environment in a fascinating book called. The XYZ Factor: The Dosomething.Org Guide to Creating a Culture of Impact.

The book is written by employees of the organization and edited by the CEO. That counts for something. Collaboration is a given, and this is reflected in the way the book itself is crafted.

The book opens with a gripping introduction that lists the seven secrets that drives the Millennial mindset:

1. Valuing Choice – giving your employees the freedom to choose.

2. Moving fast – Decisions are made at lightning-fast speed

3. Being Nomadic – “Job Hopping is the new normal”

4. Measurable feedback – Receiving instant feedback is ingrained in the millennial mindset. Does your org provide this?

5. Starting over – Millennials are a bit insecure when it comes to failure, and expect a push-restart button in all that they do. Do you give them the space to experiment and fail safely?

6. Always wired – Millennials can juggle over nine devices at any given time and are always plugged in.

7. Life is public – with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, technology has ensured that privacy is a thing of the past. Social media is the present and the future.

The book gives fascinating insights on how to successfully run an organization that values its young workforce. Anyone over 26 years of age at Dosomething.org is considered ‘old’. What’s more, HR is passe. The Head of Employee Relations is rechristened the Head of Fun Approximately 90 employees (which includes about 30 interns) handle a variety of social campaigns and work alongside young members from across the world.

Here’s what they do, in their own words: 

DoSomething.org makes the world suck less. One of the largest global orgs for young people and social change, our 3.6 million members tackle campaigns that impact every cause, from poverty to violence to the environment to literally everything else. Any cause, anytime, anywhere. 

How they do it is the secret sauce. And you know what? It ain’t no secret no more. Because they just published a book on how to do it. Pick it up 

Book Review: The XYZ Factor

The XYZ Factor

In this‘CEO Insights’session, as part of the ‘Great Manager Awards’, Cisco President APJ Service Provider Business, 

 discussed the evolving role of leadership with 

 What are the qualities that you look for in a leader?

I believe that every individual has more potential than what they think they have.

If you take a professional and put him on a pie chart, you will there are 3 sections – the arena, the greyscale, and the blind spot

The arena is what you know others know as well about your strengths. The grey area is the potential you have that you are unaware of. And the blind spot, which you think you’re good at, others see as the opposite of that.

So, for me, leadership is about understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, because a good leader always surrounds himself with people that complement him.

If you want to reach the moon, aim for the sun. It creates a bit of a surplus. But when you’re in that situation, innovation kicks in. You start looking to the left and the right of your responsibility, and it forces you to go beyond your arena into the grey area. And that’s where net news gets discovered. When you motivate someone to move into their grey area, you are helping them discover their unknown potential and when they put that into an execution motion, they end up doing more. And that’s the recipe for executing beyond what you think is possible.

The next most important quality is the ability of a leader to understand how people are reacting to them, whether it creates a positive or a negative impact.

To be a leader, you have to be a self-leader first

I’m a virtual leader. I have teams in Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, ASEAN and Korea. As a leader, you should have a set of values and a moral compass. Cisco has a set of core values, and as an individual leader, I subscribe to those and they reflect in my every action.

The last one is the ability to be vulnerable. In an environment where you’re leading people digitally, your ability to say, ‘I screwed up’ or ‘I’m terrible at this’ and be comfortable with revealing something that you’re uncomfortable with, is very important. Because once you do that, you create an atmosphere of trust.

According to recent research done by Hopkins Medicine, 26% of American ages between 18 and older suffer from some sort of mental health issue

What are the things leaders need to know?

I call them 4C’s of leadership. The first one being an effective communicator, being able to translate your vision and strategy into tangible actions that make people believe Oh, I can get there’ is key to being a successful leader.

The second one is critical thinking, which is all about thoughts and innovations and coming up with new ideas, connecting the dots. You need to devote time to thinking. I put at least 2-3 hrs a week in my calendar. It’s called MWMS – ‘Meeting with Myself’, and I force myself to do it. The third one and an important one, is collaboration.

It’s not about you, it’s about bringing in the best to the party

In business, you have to be selfless as a leader in the journey of cross-collaboration, where you’re working with teams, partners, suppliers, etc.

And then the last piece is ‘creativity’. Even though Cisco is nearly a US$50 billion company, we still feel like we’re working for a start-up. One has kept inventing and solving for market transitions proactively. Cisco won Best Place to Work in the world, 2 times in a row. That tells you a little bit of our culture and how blessed I am to be leading in ca ompany that is so amazing in its people deal

How do you go about inspiring leaders to fulfil the vision of your organization?

I believe as a leader you have an accountability to set an audacious goal, and back it with a tangible execution plan. I also think leaders should use vulnerability as a leadership tool. You have to be honest and transparent with people. When I set a goal / north-star, I paint a picture for my team and ensure they buy into it and are motivated to execute it. My belief is when you aim high and go after that target with full conviction, you will find many supporters along the way to make you successful.

Vision without proper execution is a myth

In my business I set up a very aggressive goal a couple of years back. Which was backed with thought through the execution plan. Our strategy is further broken down into 6 execution programs, one being our ‘People Deal’. This program is all about telling people to do extraordinary things. We, as a company, have our own value system, but for our team, I have added another 3 values.

Be Collaborative, be Bold and be the Best

When I say we have to be the best, it means that we have to be better than the customer we’re selling to. That means you have brought value in every engagement and interaction with customers.

In our industry if you’re not learning every day, you’ll be obsolete in 6 months

Vision, goal, strategy and execution are what make people fall in line. You’ve to make sure that your teams have line of sight between what they do and the overall goals of the unit. You have to ensure teams have the ability to hone on to their strengths and lastly are empowered to make an impact. The second value of being collaborative means bringing the best together from your teams, partners and customers to create value and lastly, being bold is about creating a culture of empowerment, ability to take risks and having the gut to make the decisions when needed.

 What are the qualities that you look for from senior leaders

Senior Leaders must display certain qualities in order to be effective. Firstly, leaders must have great passion for what they do. When in the presence of a truly effective senior leader, their passion exudes out of them and is infectious. Secondly leaders must have emotional intelligence, which means that they are strong communicators and are able to expertly handle interpersonal relationships with an awareness of their own emotions and the emotions of those around them.

Thirdly they have toResilient, so they are able to withstand difficulties and get right back up again when the going gets tough. But more than that, having resilience also means that they are able to take criticism onboard without letting it knock them down or result in confrontation.Fourthly senior leaders must be proactive. They plan well and make space for potential drawbacks ahead.Fifthly they must be creative, in order to succeed with an ability to come up with new ideas and initiatives. They must breed a creative atmosphere in their workplace, encouraging staff to try new things instead of getting caught up in a hidebound routine.

 What’s the most crucial question you would ask a candidate during an interview?

 Honestly, there isn’t one, it depends on how the interview went. People write great CVs. I would like evidence of personal contribution. Be it in any context, at the end of the day it’s what you did, the impact you created that matters.

What would you say is the most critical competency of a Great Manager?

I think it’s their ability to communicate. Ability to communicate a great vision into tangible actions.

The more vulnerable you are as a leader the more trust you’ll earn from your people

Ability to create a line of sight to the top goal for every individual in the organization

We have this routine called ‘TASK’. It’s a one-pager that has four quadrants. The right two are the income statements, where they mention their goals for the next 3-4 years, and how will they go about achieving them. On the left are the balance sheets that talk about strengths (Assets) and Things that need to change (Liabilities). In Cisco, we encourage leaders to give feedback on individual and team Strengths so we can leverage them for better outcomes. This inculcates positivity and creativity. We review this one-pager twice a year, to examine where we are in our execution journey. This creates a personal bond between the leader and the individual that works for him.

Creating a line of sight between vision and aspiration to the last actions that a person is doing is what you need to do as a leader

Rahul is the Country Lead of Great Manager Awards and has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Great Manager Awards program in partnership with The Economic Times over the last 6 years in India. Rahul closely works with Business &amp; HR leaders to help them identify and develop successors for their organization.

Great Manager Awards Program is an initiative by ‘People Business’ to identify, recognize and reward “Companies with Great Managers" in India.

This program enables the participant organizations to compare and benchmark themselves and their managers across the industry. It helps organizations create real competitive advantage through its managers.

Strategic vision and laser-focused execution go hand in hand

In this edition of the ‘CHRO Insights’ as part of the Great Manager Awards, we have Mr. Udbhav Ganjoo, who is the Head HR - Global Operations, India, Emerging Asia and Access Markets of Viatris. In his conversation with Rahul Mahajan, Country-Lead of Great Manager Awards, he opens up about his life as an HR Leader

 You’ve been a veteran in this space, tell us about your journey as an HR professional.

 with Kelvinator (now Whirlpool) and moved towards plant IR/ HR. In my first year, we were exposed only to the top layer of the organization. After that I was placed in the plant operations, here I got exposure to all labour/ IR issues. I spent 4 years with Kelvinator, it was an interesting journey and provided exposure to different facets of people management, lockouts, union-leader interactions and so on. As I started understanding the HR function more, I adapted my personality and working style to meet the needs of the role.

After that I moved to ITDC, which was a completely different sector. I spent 6 years here and had different roles within the corporate HR function. I had the opportunity to learn and work with different businesses of the company.

My next movement was to Turner Morrison Group (part of TOI), which was a conglomerate of different businesses from textiles to engineering to financial services to infrastructure, where I was in the corporate HR role at the group level. I was here for 5 years and delivered various HR initiatives and programs here for multiple businesses.

It was after this that my stint with the pharmaceutical sector started and is still continuing.  For 18 years I was with Ranbaxy where I joined as a Global R&amp;D HR Head. I was in different HR leadership roles here and eventually became the Global Head of HR.

Presently, I have been with Viatris (formerly Mylan), a global pharmaceutical giant since the last 7 years. So, this is a summary of my professional journey over the last three decades, helping various organisations in supporting and building their people, culture, and leadership pipelines.

 Who were some of the early influencers in your life?

During my professional career I have had lots of mentors. My first mentor was a well-known Automobile Manufacturing expert. He was the first leader who had a big impression on me in terms of how to deal with people; while this may appear simple, it is quite nuanced and a very important aspect in HR. Observing him deal with difficult situations and taking hard, smooth, and quick decisions was a big learning for me

When I was working with Turner Morrison Group, it was the Chairman and MD of the group who was my mentor. He was a great leader who helped me develop risk taking ability and seeing things outside in.

I have been in pharma for almost 25 years now, and there have been many professionals, leaders, and CEOs within my organisation and outside who have influenced me as a professional. During this journey, I have also been a mentor to many professionals from business as well as from HR and many of my mentees are holding leadership positions across various organisations. It’s been a learning as well as a sharing experience.