I was once invited to participate on a Pan Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) panel focused on the topic of leadership. IITs are the most prestigious engineering institutes in India, and the panel consisted of five successful leaders from prominent consulting firms and technology companies in the US—all IIT alums like myself. I was honored to be the only woman on the panel, and eager to share my experiences with the audience and my peers.
I shared that in my experience, effective leadership is learned by walking a tightrope. Unfortunately, my co-panelists did not share my view. They argued for leadership being a talent which you either do or don’t have — it is innate. The other panelists were also perhaps more articulate and relatable to the predominantly male audience. My responses fell flat. Perhaps if I could have expressed myself more effectively things would have gone differently. But at the time I did not have the skill to defend my own experiences to my peers and audience that seemed unwilling to understand me.
Fast forward twenty years, while serving on several not-for profit boards, in diverse areas of Healthcare, Mathematical research, US-Asia Geopolitical Relationships and its economic impact, and Fostering Entrepreneurship in Silicon Valley, I get to rub shoulders with prestigious men and women who are invited to serve on these boards for their demonstrated leadership in their professional journeys as heads of divisions and CEOs. Their perspectives are learning moments for me.
Part of our fiduciary responsibility as board members is to evaluate the CEOs of these complex institutions. In doing so I have realized that day-to-day leadership begins by hiring a team you trust and managing time and resources wisely by and delegating effectively. But leadership is also much more than simply making sure things get done. Effective and successful leaders know how to take risk, how to balance focus on tactics vs strategy, and how to streamline their organizations for maximum efficiency. It also means conducting with clarity, and how to deal with market changes. Balancing empathy, communication and transparency are the underpinnings of successful leadership.
All of these skills are learned through experience. It is not enough to simply have the “innate leadership skillset”, whatever that means I had learned how to be a leader often by making mistakes. I recall a time when we had promised a delivery of new product to our largest customer, Worlcom. To motivate engineers to meet the deadline, we offered them financial incentives. However, because of engineering challenges, it was impossible to meet the deadline, We lost six months. By the end of the project, morale was incredibly low on the engineering team. The incentives meant nothing compared to the disappointment. We as leaders had focused on productivity, doing what we could to ensure quick delivery on our promise to Worlcom, when we should have slowed down to ensure our teams had what they needed to get the job done.
The lesson I learned through that experience was: that leadership is about juggling priorities, making decisions, and finding balance. It involves leading, being a follower, and becoming a teammate. It means commanding and listening-– knowing when to instruct and when to learn. The most challenging aspect of leadership is to be clear as well as kind. It also mandates clarity, communication, and conciseness.
As a budding entrepreneur on the panel, I had an intuition about what I now know to be true: Leadership is all about walking the tightrope, holding two things at once:
Humility with confidence.
Vulnerability with boundaries.
Decisiveness with collaboration.
Direction with flexibility.
Compassion with distance.
High expectations with grace.
Productivity with humanity.
Walking a tightrope takes skill and hours of dedicated practice. It requires a willingness to fall, readjust, and try again. The people you lead need the same from you: a willingness to show up everyday, knowing you will falter, and step out on that tightrope again, and again, and again.
11 responses
Best Blog yet! Turn this into a TED Talk
Thanks, Lizz.
Vinita while I may be no match to your success – I believe as a Leader of an Enterprise the main skills needed (and you need to be born so):
1. Expert Knowledge to the Context or Subject;
2. Passion around both the Vision and Mission;
3. Leading always with huge optimism and employ persistence;
4. Engage in Contrarian Thinking mostly and defy odds;
5. Be an outstanding Mentor and Zig when others may Zag;
6. Understand wholly that Success and Losses must be handled with equanimity;
7. Handicap and Mitigate Risk;
8. Under Promise and Over Deliver;
9. Do not BET only on People, and almost never chase any Government Idea, Scheme or Plan;
10. Always engage in a Product and Service;
11. Always cannabilize your own Product or Service so you best your pursuit for the long term – innovate always;
12. Understand the Difference between luck, destiny, fortitude and thus endurance and perseverance;
13. Accept that NO meaningful Business can be stabilized ever any sooner than Five (5) years;
14. Never focus on expenses yet always focus on Revenue and EBITDA Margin;
15. Lastly – no matter what the odds – ALWAYS follow the LAW and Teach so;
Those are very profound qualities and observations, Sunil. Thanks for adding your thoughts.
I agree with the writer’s views totally comparing my experience of 35 years with AMERICAN EXPRESS BANK!
SREEDHAR MENON
The main philosophy to use for marked success is:
“Always possess or define your enterprise with a unique sustainable advantage embedded wholly in superior knowledge”
&
Cash Flow is “king” – while Capital Gains are for the “Birds”.
&
Wealth is almost always made if you do not elect or select to “time@ the markets;
Lastly:
History is almost a never reliable predictor of the Future. A leader pretty much makes their own Future. So never look back in the Rear View Mirror.
Such has been my own pathway to leading significant and material Global Enterprises now for 47-years.
Thank you for your penmanship!
Bravo & Kudos
Leadership basically means leading a group of people to collectively accomplish a well-defined and non-trivial goal. A person who guides/motivates a group of people to climb to the top of Mt. Everest is an example of a good leader.
A political leader who wins a war is another example of a good leader. However, a leader who is effective in times of war may not be as effective during peacetime. Thus one needs to define the context of leadership. In the business world, a CEO that is effective in leading a startup may not be as effective in leading a large company (or vice-versa).
Moreover, the CEO of an enterprise is much more than a leader of people. Like some individual contributors, he/she is also very skilled in understanding/analyzing finances, market trends, technology trends, competition, legal issues, and so on.
Because different contexts demand different sets of skills and styles of leadership (and use different metrics of success), there is unlikely to be a consensus around what makes a good leader. Very often, a good leader/CEO is simply the one who succeeded–like the politician who won the war.
Your commentary reminded me of “Different strokes for different folks”. Thank you, Vijay.
Vinita
If leadership can’t be taught, why are there so many books on the subject and why are there executive coaches?
As a coach to many young entrepreneurs, I see the difference in success rate if they are open to learning new
Frameworks
A learning mindset combined with learning new skills results in a change of behavior. This idea that leadership and management can’t be taught is a very old mindset.
Linda, may be you are right. We can talk more over our lunch.
Excellent thoughts on leadership. Very nice and helpful summarization of walking the tightrope with examples of holding two things at once. Thank you for sharing.