When a leader of a large, successful enterprise like Siemens shares perspectives, it’s valuable to listen, reflect and act. This is the gist of how Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch responded to the question, “What leadership qualities are most critical in the Intelligence age?”, during a LinkedIn event, from Davos on January 23, 2025. Coincidentally, I was discussing Growth Mindset and Psychological safety during a session with a group of experienced managers on the same day.
1. Growth Mindset – Constant learning, trying new things, keep on going even after failing, learning from mistakes. (Belief that everyone can learn and push the limits). 2. Collaborative spirit, build a network, especially important while working in a virtual world. 3. Empathy, with strong communication skills to communicate, connect with people. 4. Especially in management, Empower people. Let them do what they are good at, and that goes together with Accountability. Last but not least, having a solid set of values.
Couple of additional notes: * He also said in his experience, diverse teams deliver better results than those that are homogeneous. * Also, emphasised the importance of staying curious, open.
From the Siemens website: Siemens Limited is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, digital transformation, transport as well as transmission and generation of electrical power. Globally, Siemens employs 312,000 people. It had a revenue of EUR 75.9 billion in fiscal 2024. Siemens’ long-term commitment in India began in 1867, when the company’s founder Werner von Siemens personally supervised the setting up of the first telegraph line between London and Calcutta. Today, Siemens has a strong manufacturing footprint across the country, various Centres of Competence and R&D centres as well as a nationwide sales and service network.
There is a 2011 HBR article with the title, “We Need More Mature Leaders”.
It definitely seems to feel that way while seeing many news articles and discussions nowadays.
While we can say a lot about mature leaders, how do we observe immature leaders/leadership? Here are some notes from “Understanding Leadership Maturity (John Mattone Blog, July 2024)”. The list is not comprehensive, there are surely many more. This also indicates where getting leadership coaching early could be helpful. — “Recognizing the signs of immature leadership is crucial for addressing and correcting these behaviors before they lead to significant negative outcomes.
Immature leaders are often emotionally reactive and have poor interpersonal skills, which can harm their teams and organizations.
If a leader does not possess maturity, the below signs may show: * The impression that they simply do not care about the opinions or feedback of other colleagues. * Refusal to listen to others and remaining stuck in their own ways. * Constantly interrupting others without allowing them to speak about new ideas or feedback. * Leaning on emotions, rather than facts, during challenges or obstacles within the workplace. * Not paying attention to how they come off to others and how this impacts them. * Using unclear messaging and communication creates confusion within the workplace, which could lead to conflict and mistakes.” —
Some leaders don’t realise they need help and drive ahead, blissfully unaware. Others know but don’t care or use excuses, regarding why they can’t change but are still great/successful (while their teams suffer). There is much hope for the category of leaders (and their organisations) who are self-aware, identify the leadership behavioural gaps within themselves and work on getting better.
Another Christmas is nearing. While the world is evolving in many ways difficult to understand, there is valuable wisdom and reminders for improvement from the Bible.
Here are few selected notes, especially those with links to personal development. Personal development is continued work in progress, with a basic intent to become a better human being. There is no one perfect state, only continuous improvement actions and improving wisdom in life. It is valuable to take some time during the last week of the year to reflect on one’s own progress and evolution in life.
* “…So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another….And to all these qualities add love, which binds all things together in perfect unity.” (from Colossians 3)
* “If you give food to the hungry and satisfy those who are in need, then the darkness around you will turn to the brightness of noon.” (from Isaiah 58)
* “Get rid of all bitterness, passion, and anger. No more shouting or insults, no more hateful feelings of any sort.” (from Ephesians 4)
*”Pride leads to destruction, and arrogance to downfall.” (from Proverbs 18)
* “Intelligent people are always eager and ready to learn…” (from Proverbs 18)
* “…When you stop learning, you will soon neglect what you already know (from Proverbs 19)
* “What you get by dishonesty you may enjoy like the finest food, but sooner or later it will be like a mouthful of sand.” (from Proverbs 20)
* “He remembered that they were only mortal beings, like a wind that blows by and is gone.” (from Psalms 78)
* “We leave this world just as we entered it – with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us”. (from Ecclesiastes 5)
* “Be grateful for every year you live. No matter how long you live, remember that you will be dead much longer.” (from Ecclesiastes 11)
This is a revisit to a short, interesting 6 minute Ted talk video.
Remembered this when I noticed a LinkedIn post about someone’s death last week. An ex-colleague from years back had also passed away couple of weeks back.
Reflection – * What would you want/like to be remembered for? Or not? * What would your connections (at least the people who crossed paths with you) honestly say about you?
Steve Jobs famously said, “..Almost everything-all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important…”
I’ve been following leadership frameworks over the years. Leadership frameworks are quite interesting to study because they tend to highlight the critical elements and expert thinking about effective leaders and leadership.
This new framework shared in IMD (Switzerland) seems to reinforce the fundamental elements and bring together nicely (with case examples). According to the article, Patrick Flesner who developed this ‘Leadership House’ framework, has experiences in top-level sports, roles as a partner in prestigious German law firms, leadership position in a publicly traded company, partner in a venture capital fund and author. Probably, bit of the European context as well.
Selected Notes: * The Leadership House is built on a solid foundation of trust. Trust provides a strong feeling of safety. In trusting relationships, it’s about the issue, not the person. * A strong team is the first pillar. It’s about more than hiring the right people and putting them in the right roles. * Having the right people has two dimensions: the first is functional fit and the second is cultural fit. A strong culture is a competitive advantage and separates the best teams from the rest. * Purpose and vision are important but almost always intangible. It is vital to clarify what must be done to achieve your company’s vision and turn it into reality. We should invite team members to the goal-setting process and ask them about what they believe must be done to turn purpose and vision into reality. In this way, our team members will become the owners of the goals and do whatever possible to achieve them, which is psychologically very powerful. * We must ask our teams to translate shared goals into “joint plans”. We must show what each team and its members must do (and, importantly, deliver in terms of results) so we achieve our shared goals. Joint plans are more granular and make execution possible. * Team members are held accountable for both the tasks and the results they achieve. This is why it is so important that joint plans also show the results to be delivered. * We can only hold team members accountable if we empower them. * Without execution, there are no results; without results, there is no effective leadership. Execution is where leadership shifts from theory to practice, yet it’s often where leaders struggle the most. One of the key challenges is finding the right level of involvement – too much oversight risks micromanagement, stifling creativity and independence. Too little involvement leads to confusion and a lack of direction. * No leader has all the answers, and that’s fine. Leadership isn’t about knowing everything but about creating the conditions for your team to find the answers together. In life and business, outcomes depend on external factors, and, often, a bit of luck. What we can influence and control is building a great team, setting it up for success, and working together toward shared goals.
Source: I by IMD; The Leadership House: Building solid foundations for leadership and business success; Patrick Flesner; 18 November 2024
I came across a very relevant and interesting opinion piece in the Business Standard today, titled “Startup Fever” by Ajit Balakrishnan.
Some important notes from the author that got me thinking: — “…what gives me sleepless nights is that in India, amid all this clapping and cheering abouts startups, at policy making level we need to dive a lot deeper into the startup process…
Statistics from the United States and India show that nine out of ten startups don’t make it; ie. only 10 per cent survive and prosper. A further analysis shows that 20 per cent of startups fall apart after a year, another 30 per cent close down within two years, 20 per cent shut their doors within five years, and the remaining 20 per cent dissolve within ten years… Which conveys learning to deal with failure in a startup venture appears to be as important, if not more important, than learning to celebrate success.
…Statistics reveal that the most important reason for failure among startups is that the product/service created does not appeal to the market (market fit). Second – initial funds startup had at its disposal are used up too quickly. Third – failing to hire the right people. The founders should complement each other’s skills. The final reason for failure – something that could happen in the environment beyond your control but damages your business…” —
The opinion piece starts with a reference to an individual suicide scenario, potentially of a startup founder. Our world tends to celebrate only the few startup successes. Is there a way to cherish the learnings and journeys of those that fail?
Startup founders and teams live through constant high stress and pressure. It is critical to work through the challenges together as a team, and build a healthy internal environment that supports each other during times of both success and failures. The impact of leadership mental and physical health could roll over into many areas, including health of the organization. Don’t leave people hanging, and share graciously during success as well. In the larger context and meaning of life, the universe seems to have a way of balancing. There are various aspects of the organization that can be analysed and improved.
External support networks and the systemic support could be game changers for leaders who may feel lonely. Sometimes, for those who have not faced any previous major failure in life, a major failure like this can be debilitating. Finding ways to cherish the journey and experience, relationships, building personal and organizational resilience (including learning to work through failures), and connecting the dots to larger context (seeing it as part of evolution) can add to the meaning of work and life.
This also reminded of a famous quote from Steve Jobs.
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever”.
I wanted to share some useful notes from the book, “The Psychology Of Fear In Organizations” by Dr. Sheila M Keegan, a Chartered Psychologist, and Fellow of the Market Research Society and Bath Business School. A lot of these play out in organizations every day and it helps a lot for leaders to be aware.
*Business psychologist and coach, Chris Welford identifies five telltale signs of a fear-based culture. 1. There is a preoccupation with status and conformity, and where rules have precedence over common sense. 2. Distinct in-groups exist and there is little opportunity to cross the boundaries between them. 3. Everything is measured but nothing is questioned. 4. Appraisals are only ever one-way. 5. The accent is on pace but short-term gain is known to be at the long term cost.
…Not surprisingly, in a fearful working climate, employees tend to mirror the behaviour of their managers. Management over-control generally has the effect of discouraging risk-taking, squashing initiatives and dispelling creativity and novel thinking.
… Feeling fearful, threatened or undermined at work can have a major effect on our work performance, as well as on our mental and physical health. Fear impacts our relationships with our colleagues and managers. We bring fear home with us…
How To Develop Personal Resilience, A Critical Element For Working Effectively Through Fear …On a personal level, developing resilience is an ongoing process that involves a mixture of adjustments. Resilience can be developed by: * having supportive work networks and healthy relationships. * focusing time and energy on things we have some control over, rather than expending energy on aspects that are outside our control. * actively looking for opportunities for self discovery and broadening our perspectives. * practising cognitive restructuring: changing the way in which we think about negative situations. * paying attention to our body as well as our mind, paying attention to one’s own needs and feelings. * keeping a long term perspective, and considering the broader context. * taking decisive actions. * maintaining a hopeful outlook… — These are only few perspectives on a much broader topic.
There’s been a lot of attention and discussion related to the unfortunate recent death of an employee in a large company in India, related work environment and practices. The fact that this is being shared, discussed heavily on social media and the media, indicates this topic has touched many people deeply.
* As business founders, leaders, managers and HR professionals, it is important to be proactive in ensuring healthy work environments in your organisations. This includes the focus on work, organization culture, policies and practices, leadership behaviors, health and wellbeing of your team members. * All of you have important, shared responsibilities which impacts lives of your employees and their families. * Doing nothing or staying silent never helps and most times, silence encourages toxic behaviours. Psychological safety is a core element of a healthy work environment. At a minimum, it is critical to initiate constructive discussions/dialogues with the long term interest of your people and sustenance of your organisation in mind. Do not brush the uncomfortable discussions away. Start with few fundamental steps that may hold high impact and visibility. Figure ways to manage stress proactively, actions to take when the red light indicators show up (they will show up in some form). When groups of managers and leaders work collectively with their support teams, get support and help (internally or externally), things will improve. * In larger companies, it’s easier to lose sight of individual cases and stay hidden. The stress threshold levels can be different for individuals. Team members play a key role here in identifying, awareness and support.
Don’t let toxic elements/aspects linger and grow till it becomes too late.
For many leaders and organisations, the key learning here is to be proactive and not wait for worst case scenarios (irrespective of direct or indirect causes) to play out.
On the other side of the coin, many professionals and companies have high ambition and drive (that’s normally the path to quick growth) but that needs to be balanced with the constant reminder that the work is similar to a marathon, not a sprint. One needs to be prepared for the marathon. The growth process, and speed will be continuous and one needs to adjust the pace. Companies always are in a race to keep growing. The alternative is gradual decline. It is very important for the individual employee to be equally focused and responsible for safeguarding one’s own health and well being – to ask for support when needed, get help and figure ways to stay healthy physically and mentally. If the organization culture is not supportive, find personal ways to stay healthy. If that doesn’t work still, it is completely okay to find another workplace that works better for you.
The role of leaders in ensuring a healthy work environment is critical.
Chairman of multiple companies, and former CEO Douglas Conant recently said, “Surprisingly, I find that I cannot say it enough.” …” leadership comes from within, from our humanity. We cannot be “artificial” in any way in our leadership; we must be authentic, true to ourselves, and true to the people with whom we live and work.”
There is a need to reaffirm, remind constantly about the fundamentals of a healthy workplace, and the critical role of positive, healthy leaders. When people spend most of their lives at the workplace, that could make a huge difference.
Some of us have seen this happen few times during our lifetimes. A highly successful, global company with thousands of employees and the darling of the press and management books gets into trouble slowly and loses its shine eventually. Thousands of jobs are cut, announced in phases over years and the decline become more visible gradually. Issues become too big to ignore, other companies start taking over market share and breakdowns become more frequent with increasing number of unhappy customers. Few revered corporate names have been visible in the press for these reasons, even during the last week. This has happened to non-profit organisations as well.
The golden mindset to protect dearly during success is conscious humility.
A 2016 HBR Article (The Scary Truth About Corporate Survival) noted that 80% of the companies that existed before 1980 were no longer around. Professors Vijay Govindarajan and Anup Srivastava looked at all companies that listed on U.S. stock markets from 1960 to 2009 and confirmed that longevity is decreasing. Companies that listed before 1970 had a 92% chance of surviving the next five years, whereas companies that listed from 2000 to 2009 had only a 63% chance. They wrote that the bad news for the newer firms is that their days are numbered, unless they continually innovate. In short, even seemingly successful and rich companies can fall into a fight for survival sooner than expected.1
From a behavioural perspective, a consistent common pattern is noticeable. As companies become more successful, arrogance tends to creeps in. When this happens at the leadership levels and manifests in decisions, judgment calls and cultural elements, the damage can be enormous. Most times, the degradation is not evident quickly. This may show up in the form of increased ignorance of contradicting views and potential risks, lack of openness, increased feelings of invincibility, sometimes even translating to visible disrespect. For leaders, even listening to varying perspectives from internal stakeholders goes down. There is a rigid focus on “our approach, our process and we know what is right” thinking. Stakeholders outside the organisation most times see this degradation earlier than those inside. Even at this stage, the general feeling is that nothing could go wrong. Leaders can also become overly focused on themselves. While some leaders may seem to be humble at a personal level, it’s important to watch out for reduced humility at an intellectual level (eg. openness to discussing varying and contradicting perspectives, disregarding others quickly).
The mindset of conscious humility and curiosity are closely related. Genuine curiosity comes from being humble about one’s own views and openness to others. Conscious humility are also related to compassion and empathy. Behaviours are consistently leading indicators of organisational unhealthiness and degradation, while the slowing business results may show up much later. Once the negative impact on business results indicates a pattern, it becomes hard to turn around the ship quickly. The focus then shifts to cost cutting and prevailing phases of uncertainty, leading to complex environments. Does this sound familiar?
Professor Jim Collins (Good To Great) wrote about the Five Stages of Decline, in the book, How the Mighty Fall. He called Stage 1 the “Hubris Born of Success”. “Great enterprises can become insulated by success; accumulated momentum can carry an enterprise forward, for a while, even if its leaders make poor decisions or lose discipline. Stage 1 kicks in when people become arrogant, regarding success virtually as an entitlement, and they lose sight of the true underlying factors that created success in the first place. When the rhetoric of success (“We’re successful because we do these specific things”) replaces penetrating understanding and insight (“We’re successful because we understand why we do these specific things and under what conditions they would no longer work”), decline will very likely follow. Institutions can be sick on the inside and yet still look strong on the outside; decline can sneak up on you, and then-seemingly all of a sudden-you’re in big trouble. Stage 3 is Denial Of Risk And Peril. As companies move into Stage 3, internal warning signs begin to mount, yet external results remain strong enough to “explain away” disturbing data or to suggest that the difficulties are “temporary” or “cyclic” or “not that bad,” and “nothing is fundamentally wrong.” In Stage 3, leaders discount negative data, amplify positive data, and put a positive spin on ambiguous data. Those in power start to blame external factors for setbacks rather than accept responsibility.”2
While sometimes organisations may be truly unlucky in their journey to get hit with factors outside their control, most times, the start of organisational failures can be traced back to the hubris of success and lack of humility. Leaders play a very important role in protecting and ensuring humility in day to day operations. This starts with role modelling related behaviours and incorporating conscious humility mindset into the heart of thinking, decision making and organisation culture. Ignoring these elements can invite serious repercussions.
In the book, Trillion Dollar Coach, the traits of coachability Bill Campbell sought were honesty and humility, the willingness to preserve and work hard and a constant openness to learning. Honesty and humility, because a successful coaching relationship requires a high degree of vulnerability.3 Openness as well cannot exist without humility. Humility can be developed consciously.
References
The Scary Truth About Corporate Survival, December 2016
Five Stages of Decline, Jim Collins
Trillion Dollar Coach, Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
Dr. Edith Eger, a well-respected psychologist, has written two books, The Choice and The Gift, and has specialized in treating people with severe trauma.
These are some valuable notes for awareness and wisdom.
* Awful things happen to us and they hurt. These devastating experiences are also opportunities to regroup and decide what we want for our lives. * Healing comes from freeing ourselves from certain thoughts and feelings that keep us trapped in the trauma.
* Freeing yourself from victimhood – “Suffering is universal but victimhood is optional.” …instead of asking “Why me?” we can ask “What now?” * Freeing yourself from unresolved grief – It is important to let yourself grieve. Neither denying it nor being totally absorbed by it is healthy. Resolving grief means to release our sense of responsibility for all the things that weren’t up to us and to come to terms with the choices we have made that cannot be undone. * Freeing yourself from resentment – Often the anger and resentment we have toward another may have more to do with our own issues resulting from unresolved grief or unfinished business. * Freeing yourself from paralyzing fear – Many of us live a fear-based life. Our thoughts and behaviors are rooted in fear…living in constant fear keeps us from growing. Sometimes fear does not go away, but the best we can do is keep it from totally dominating our lives. * Freeing yourself from judgment – We should look inward and examine the judgments we hold for ourselves as well as others. If we are being judgmental, we are unable to be compassionate. * Freeing yourself from hopelessness – There is always hope. What we hope for may change with time, but hope is always there. It helps to remember that we have survived difficult situations before and that we can do it again. * Freeing yourself for not forgiving – Forgiveness is something that we do for ourselves, not for others. When we do so, it frees us from the past. Releasing our anger and the people who have harmed us in the past can help to set us free.
* The search to make meaning in my life by helping others to make meaning, to heal so that I could heal others, to heal others so that I could heal myself. * Suffering is inevitable and universal. But how we respond to suffering differs. * The truth is, we will have unpleasant experiences in our lives, we will make mistakes, we won’t always get what we want. This is part of being human. The problem—and the foundation of our persistent suffering—is the belief that discomfort, mistakes, disappointments signal something about our worth. * Self-acceptance was the hardest part of healing for me.
Sources: 1. Twelve Steps for Healing Trauma..from Dr. Edith Eger’s “The Gift”; Psychology Today, Nov 2020 2. How to cope with grief..; Business Insider, Nov 2020 3. The Choice, Dr. Edith Eger
Leadership Coach, Consultant, HR Leader with diverse, global experiences (U.S.A, Europe, APAC).
Master of Human Resource Management from Rutgers University, New Jersey, U.S.A. Recipient of the U.S. Garden State Council SHRM HR Leadership Scholarship.
Bachelor of Technology in Civil Engineering from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, India.
Certifications: MBTI, Hogan, RBL Leadership Code, SHL 360, Team Management Profile, NeuroLeadership Results & Team Coaching.
Facilitated coaching sessions, workshops and programs with multicultural teams in Helsinki, London, Berlin, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kerala, in addition to multiple Global/Virtual sessions.
Mission: Enable healthy, purposeful, and impactful organizations, through leadership knowledge and wisdom.
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