In the current environment of global uncertainty, what is the ideal profile of business leaders and what should their key role be?
The usual leadership training is for future leaders to develop a long-term view, stay calm, envision determined steps forward and seek efficiency. In chaotic times, future-ready leaders need to rewire to do the opposite.
Without losing their attention to the long-term, they must additionally deploy a short-term survival view, stay active and adaptive, and take careful steps forward (cross the river by feeling the stones) and seek effectiveness.
What advice would you give the CEO and the leadership team?
Conduct an offsite with your leadership team to assess whether you are building a future-ready team or a maintain-yesterday team. What is good for the elephant is not necessarily good for the fruit fly!
Many companies, especially those in the IT sector, are downsizing overnight. Is there a more humane way of doing this?
Yes, of course. In the heat of action or tormented by deadlines and schedules, leaders may fail to practise humaneness.
Tata Steel took three-four years to devise and implement a workforce reduction in the 1990s.
To save Tata Steel in the wake of economic liberalisation, CEO Jamshed Irani and his leadership team showed how leadership behaviour can combine ‘harsh decisions’ with ‘humane implementation.’
What can mid-to-senior level managers do to keep themselves relevant?
The potential failing of mid-level managers is their assumption that tomorrow will be like yesterday… until they get a rude, wake-up call.
When I began my career in 1967, the advent of mainframe computers was both a threat and an opportunity.
Through my career since then, desktops, laptops, hand phones, the internet, and now artificial intelligence, have all demanded that managers learn to adopt, adapt, and learn constantly.
That should be the mantra for all: adopt, adapt, and learn.
If a chunk of the middle management is taken out from organisations, how can we still build a pipeline who can take up senior leadership roles?
Organisations and leaders must adopt and implement forward-looking practices. Human resource development should explore ideas like Work Levels, Organisational Layer Reduction, ‘Real’ decision-maker charts, and so on.
