Excerpt
Who is a leader? What are his or her attributes and responsibilities?
Prosperity in a community, corporation, society or a nation comes from economic
progress, stability, peace and harmony. Progress is positive change.
A leader is first and last a change agent.
Progress is his agenda.
His responsibility is to raise the aspirations of his people,
to make them more confident, energetic, enthusiastic, hopeful,
and determined to seek a glorious future for the community and for themselves.
Leaders obviously have to walk the untrodden path, the road less travelled, and they have to take huge risks. Robert Kennedy summed up the leadership challenge best when, borrowing the words of George Bernard Shaw, he said, 'Some men see things as they are and ask why; I dream of things that never were and say why not?' To me, this is perhaps the best summation of the leadership challenge. The challenge is to see what most people do not see, to accept what most people wonder about and are scared of, and then say, 'I will take up this challenge because it is aspirational, honourable and the right thing to do.
What is the first task of a leader in energizing his people? It is creating a grand vision—a purpose which is noble, lofty and aspirational. It is a dream that should excite and energize everybody in the community or corporation. The leader has to craft and articulate a vision in which everybody sees a better future for himself. The vision has to be powerful enough to make every tired mind and body that leaves the office in the evening come back early the next morning, saying: 'I am proud to belong to this company and I will work hard to make it a better company.'
When seven of us met in the small bedroom of my apartment in Bombay in May 1981, we had a four-hour-long discussion on what the dream for the company should be. We started off with the dream of becoming the software services company with the largest revenue. I rejected it. The next idea was to become the largest job creators in India. I said 'no' to that as well. Then, we moved on to whether we should strive to be the software services company with the highest market capitalization. When I rejected that too, there was considerable consternation among my colleagues. Finally, they got tired, and asked, 'What do you want to do?' I said, 'I want this to be the most respected software services company in the world.' And I continued, 'If you seek respect, you will not short-change your customers, you will be fair to your colleagues in the company, you will be transparent with your investors, you will treat your vendor partners with care and understanding, you will not violate the laws of the land in whichever country you operate, and you will live in harmony in whichever society you operate in. My conviction is that such a pursuit will bring revenues, jobs, profits and market capitalization.'
I was happy that all my colleagues accepted the idea. They perceived this vision as something larger than life, and something more inspirational to go after than mere profits, revenues and market capitalization. Thanks to this dream of seeking respect, revenues have come in, jobs have been created, profits have accumulated and market capitalization has been achieved. And this has all happened in an environment of energy, enthusiasm, happiness, joy, satisfaction, and confidence amongst all my colleagues—fifty thousand Infoscions today. Similarly you, as leaders in whatever area you operate in or whatever function you are in charge of, have to define a vision which transcends the mundane day-to-day challenges to get the best out of your people.
Leaders obviously have to walk the untrodden path, the road less travelled, and they have to take huge risks. Robert Kennedy summed up the leadership challenge best when, borrowing the words of George Bernard Shaw, he said, 'Some men see things as they are and ask why; I dream of things that never were and say why not?' To me, this is perhaps the best summation of the leadership challenge. The challenge is to see what most people do not see, to accept what most people wonder about and are scared of, and then say, 'I will take up this challenge because it is aspirational, honourable and the right thing to do.
What is the first task of a leader in energizing his people? It is creating a grand vision—a purpose which is noble, lofty and aspirational. It is a dream that should excite and energize everybody in the community or corporation. The leader has to craft and articulate a vision in which everybody sees a better future for himself. The vision has to be powerful enough to make every tired mind and body that leaves the office in the evening come back early the next morning, saying: 'I am proud to belong to this company and I will work hard to make it a better company.'
When seven of us met in the small bedroom of my apartment in Bombay in May 1981, we had a four-hour-long discussion on what the dream for the company should be. We started off with the dream of becoming the software services company with the largest revenue. I rejected it. The next idea was to become the largest job creators in India. I said 'no' to that as well. Then, we moved on to whether we should strive to be the software services company with the highest market capitalization. When I rejected that too, there was considerable consternation among my colleagues. Finally, they got tired, and asked, 'What do you want to do?' I said, 'I want this to be the most respected software services company in the world.' And I continued, 'If you seek respect, you will not short-change your customers, you will be fair to your colleagues in the company, you will be transparent with your investors, you will treat your vendor partners with care and understanding, you will not violate the laws of the land in whichever country you operate, and you will live in harmony in whichever society you operate in. My conviction is that such a pursuit will bring revenues, jobs, profits and market capitalization.'
I was happy that all my colleagues accepted the idea. They perceived this vision as something larger than life, and something more inspirational to go after than mere profits, revenues and market capitalization. Thanks to this dream of seeking respect, revenues have come in, jobs have been created, profits have accumulated and market capitalization has been achieved. And this has all happened in an environment of energy, enthusiasm, happiness, joy, satisfaction, and confidence amongst all my colleagues—fifty thousand Infoscions today. Similarly you, as leaders in whatever area you operate in or whatever function you are in charge of, have to define a vision which transcends the mundane day-to-day challenges to get the best out of your people.
