People Management Skills

Leadership is all about managing and extracting the best results from the people working and reporting to you. Every leader has their own style of functioning – some of them are participative, others delegate, some others are in a constant stage of evolution and few of them are autocratic.

What sets apart a good leader from an ordinary one?

I have always imagined a good leader to be an assertive boss with a human touch – professional in approach at work place, but concerned and caring. He must be able to extract answers from his team members and tune them to be high on initiatives, drive, energy and participation. He must be able to train them, work with them, instill confidence and support them in difficult moments of their professional careers.

I am fortunate to have been associated with one such leader in the most trying times of our lives and that of the organization. External factors completely uncontrolled and unsubstantiated had impacted our business, brand and image. Given the gravity of the situation and it was important for the leader to stand up and take charge of the external environment and also comfort the internal organization.

In a multi cultural society like ours and given the uneven economic, social and literacy levels – images and impressions of a product could get adversely impacted through baseless charges – we were in a similar position in 2003 and we were based in one of the most literate, culturally sound, politically difficult, and a traditionally rich society/region of the country. The task at hand magnified exponentially and it needed someone with tons of perseverance, patience and sanity to survive the charges and at the same time work on rebuilding the organization.

So, what did he do differently?

He went about the task of revitalizing the internal organization without any fuss – he did

Re-energize the team, bring in the passion
Speak about the team’s achievements, show who comes first
Interact, more town hall meetings
Seize every opportunity to teach, train
Work with the teams, get the first hand view
Revisit the business model, get the thinking hats back
Remain personally responsible

And with the external environment

Conducted in a dignified manner without diluting business ethics
Spread awareness about the product, the core philosophy, values of the organization
Meet and meet more frequently with the external stakeholders and explain our position
Participate in public speaking forums
Continue and consolidate responsibility towards community and environment

For a number of his immediate subordinates the task were equally daunting – given that we were also lead teams and had a hand in dealing with the external world in our own work spaces. But, it is here that we relied heavily on the learning from our supervisor.

The character traits that I have mentioned above is not uncommon with leaders – in fact, on the face of it, these resemble pretty basic skills. But it is important to know that very few actually internalize these skills. To appreciate and continuously portray positivity around requires immense faith and belief in their action – honest action and very passionately demonstrated. Very few leaders actually “Walk the walk” and “Talk the talk”.

I must also admit that, it is also a skill that is natural and inherent in an individual and not many people can display a similar flair. And in situations like the one mentioned above, leaders like this individual, actually seize the opportunity to stand up and control his own little fiefdom.

And, for subordinates, these are practical lessons, very few text books and classes would demonstrate - but valuable experience by simply being there. Now, it looks to be seen how many of us have been leaders in trying circumstances and what have we done to keep the team motivated and positive.