Regional Leaders – Global outfits

• As the Asian business grows in size, relevance and complexity I see organizations struggling to choose the right profile for the head of the geography position.
• The early days of Asian business development could well afford the ‘man from the mother-ship’, who had worked at the Headquarters and was a source of comfort to all within – a person who could be trusted to run the business many thousand miles away
• While the corporate comfort associated with this model was obvious, life for the individual (despite the lucrative hardship allowance!) was hardly a privilege. From having to cover a widespread unknown terrain band-aid(ed) by creaky infrastructure that was just about evolving, to struggling with the local business culture that varied radically within the continent itself (not to mention the differences with the west), the social challenges and the local cuisine, seductive but treacherous to the body! Business volumes & expectations were minimal and the Asia presence was largely considered a ‘rounding error’ in the worldwide revenue roll-up. Japan, the second largest economy in the world perhaps was the only exception!
• Then came the Asian revolution. Taiwan, Hong Kong & all of South East Asia started the momentum in the early 90s that continued to ramp despite the slow down of 1996 & 2001 and gathered further momentum as China & India joined the fray. Asia and Asian business would never be the same again! Along with this the model for Managing Asia would also need to change big time…
• So what does it take to develop and put in place not one but a string of successful regional leaders who successfully take the organization through its different stages of evolution? Do not assume that the profile of the leader who sets up the first beachhead is consistent with the one who builds the team & the run-rate business or the one who drives tier 2 & tier 3 growth initiatives while building a real organization. The skill attributes, personalities and individual competencies of these individuals are very different & they thrive in very different worlds. Once in a while, we do come across individuals who scale through all these levels, possess a different mindset and end up building their destinies very differently than most mortals all the way to the corner office!
• An effective Asian leader needs to use the distances and diversities of the geography to his advantage rather than succumb to them! He takes a ‘big picture view’ and determines the unique moving parts, uses them, leverages them (be a great user of Kotler’s 5Ps) and drives competitive advantage, revenue, margin & share for the organization while providing value to customers and partners! Tall order but hardly undoable!
• All initiatives have to start & end with people. Leading more than ten nationalities, speaking different languages, subscribing to different religions & business practices does not help! So how does one get this diverse band together??? Building a powerful vision that stands for success, commitment, value & integrity while clearly explaining the ‘Why’ is a great starting point. Communication therefore is key – regional leaders have to be ‘Great’ communicators with strong abilities to feel the business pulse. They need to be able to keep their troops in the geography motivated and on message while being natural marketeers of their geography with credible business acumen and dependable vision of the future to the home office.
• Building a strong leadership team is the next big step. Thankfully talent is plentiful but finding the right fit can be tricky within a situation of high demand. A leader with a strong track record and effective local network can put together a productive leadership team by quickly earning the trust and respect of his direct reports based on established credentials & reputation from past positions. He can also delve into past trusting relationships and draw talent into the organization. Good leadership teams not only bring in good quality talent who are familiar with each others work style and are capable of quickly producing results. These early movers also effectively sculpt the reputation and the local culture of the organization – so these guys better be good!
• This high quality leadership team consequentially attracts more high quality people. As the team builds the region head needs to ensure that people quality is never compromised. No leader (worth his salt) should be worried about hiring people stronger than them – I understand and appreciate the paradox here. A smart team makes the leader’s position strong and provides the leader with the bandwidth and the platform to further strengthen the geography both externally and internally, especially within the HQ. A weak team leaves the leader scrambling to meet the tactical goals of the business and provides him with minimal options and bandwidth to strategically build the business
• Assuming the leader does have the right team in place, it is very easy to stifle top talent if they are not provided a conducive environment to thrive in! I have personally benefited much by following a simple set of procedures with the talented teams that I have been fortunate to lead: establish a common understanding & agreement regarding ‘why we are doing what we are doing’, setting agreed upon goals, determining & providing what is needed to get the job done, setting the right expectation of what latitude is available (you cannot obviously give everything that you are asked for!), provide adequate authority and hold the person hugely accountable for the results. I firmly believe that authority & accountability go hand in hand. One does not work without the other!
• A leader while supporting and standing by his team also needs to make the tough calls – be fair and equitable. Good leadership does not necessarily mean getting along with everyone and keeping everybody happy. Very often leaders forget that they are being watched, their every action scrutinized by people within and outside the organization. Self awareness therefore is a major attribute of all leaders – they are very aware of the impact of their behavior & actions on others. I have made many wonderful friends through my career. Some of them are part of my team – I share a honest but unwritten code with them – friendship is friendship and business is business, we never mix the two. This simple rule has paid great dividends over the years and has help deepen both relationships.
• Able leaders do not just focus on driving business. These are obvious. They spend time contemplating the Infrastructure that needs to be put into place to sustain & support their growing businesses. Communication skill and internal credibility is key to make his happen. The leader needs to step out of his comfort zone and communicate with non-sales functional groups, market his team’s ideas and garner support for infrastructural investments and support from the headquarter. Failure to do so not only leads to unutilized opportunities but also causes de-motivation and loss of credibility within the team.
• I am sure by now you are looking for the shopping list, the attributes of these successful leaders. Well, its common sense really – impressive and sequentially growing contribution to the organizations top and bottom line (this is a ticket to entry to the Hall of Fame), growing faster than competition, the geography and the rest of the organization garners additional respect. The icing involves doing stuff that would not have happened if the leader did not drive it – new market or segment entry, strategic initiatives, conceptualizing and driving new segments, strategic partnerships change the playing field, methodologies that strengthen the organization and people development activities that create a ‘winning’ workforce and a slew of top quality leaders. Do these and you will surely build your legacy where you are. You will look back with pride at what you have left behind when you choose to walk away.

The Anatomy of the ‘Leader’

• Firstly, I believe that everyone has a Leader within and it is the individual’s responsibility to demonstrate that leadership in everyday life.
• Leadership does not mean having to lead a group of people – on the contrary, leadership starts within an individual and its manifestation then spreads rapidly and subsequently has the ability to touch thousands, millions & more
• We are promoting many people into leadership positions every year. I am very happy for them, especially if they grow from within the company, through the ranks and exemplify their accomplishments and the organization’s trust and people philosophy
• I enjoy personally communicating with these newly minted leaders, congratulating them and spending a moment sharing their happiness & celebrating their success. I also communicate to them with all honesty that the expectations from them from here on are very different from the past. Qualities that have brought them thus far are not necessarily the ones that will take them to the next level
• I like using the word ‘Leader’ rather than ‘Manager’ – to me the connotations are very different. A Leader is a superset of a Manager. A leader demonstrates all the characteristics of a Manager when needed but the archetypical manager need not be a ‘leader’
• In my readings & observing people behaviors I mainly see leaders painting the vision, energizing & inspiring the team, helping them set extended goals & achieving them, personally & professionally growing the team members & generally inspiring everyone with a positive outlook of life and the future. A manager manages the team towards metrics, focused more on the ‘What’ than the ‘How’, largely tactical in approach and mostly uses positional power & coercion to get the work done
• While sounding paradoxical, a leader might need to behave like a manager in certain situations. Having the credibility & trust within the team and taking time to clearly explain the ‘Why’ to the team often cushions the behavior
• Being a leader is about playing many roles – guide, coach, friend & others. While playing these roles, the leader takes difficult but fair decisions, demonstrates tenderness & firmness, leads by example where needed but allows the spot light to be on the people rather than on himself. He does everything with the interest of the organization, team and the individual in that order.

Hiring “Great” … Hiring “Right”!

• Organization & team success and failures are mostly driven by collective set of people
• A leader’s capability mostly starts with the quality of people she can bring into her team and organization
• Hiring the right skills and attitudes not only gets the job done while exceeding expectations but also frees up the manager/leader to use her intellectual bandwidth on incremental more impactful matters.
• Consequentially, inappropriate skills & people end up being high maintenance, taking up more of their leaders’ time, delaying schedules & lowering the performance of the entire group
• General education, skill and awareness levels have grown but is not enough to meet the growth in skill demand – all organizations are competing more than ever before for a relatively small talent pool
• Hiring top talent requires the organization to get into the shoes of a prospective employee – differentiation is key! Differentiation can take many forms… offerings that are not common place & may not necessarily be linked to the function – recreation, work-life balance tools, education support, flexible work hours often end up being crucial differentiator between competing offers
• Given the supply crunch of top talent, I encourage my team to interview people as a habit not because there is an open req for a position. You will meet people you would like to keep in view. If you are lucky you will come across outstanding talents where it makes sense to ‘create’ a position just to get them in. Never pass over these opportunities..
• Leverage your current employees while seeking talent. Its cheaper and more reliable to hire through internal references rather than looking out. Make internal referral bonus attractive financially for the employees and internally market the initiative actively. I have seen many organizations where employees are gloriously unaware of this ‘easy money’ and are not being leveraged enough! If an internal reference leads to hiring, make sure that the employee who referred gets paid on time. Organizational credibility can be built or destroyed depending on how long it takes to respond to its 'reward' commitment
• Make a ‘first class’ impression about yourself and your organization the moment you meet the candidate. Most candidate perceptions about organizations and individuals are made in the first 30 seconds following an introduction.
• Treat the candidate like you would treat a top customer .. watch the magic of the chemistry unfold
• Most hiring managers forget that the interview process is a two-way evaluation & are too intent to ‘interrogate’ the candidate – I do not think this is terribly smart! The best interview results & candidate analysis are obtained when both the people are relaxed and at ease – the environment brings the best out of both the participants. Ideal, is’nt it?
• Once you have hired ensure that you have the ‘right’ on-boarding procedure right from the time the employee shows for the first day at work. I have seen and heard of many established organizations with absolutely pathetic on-boarding procedures. Many do not have one at all!! There are many instances of “excited” new hires who turn to mediocrity or worse just because of the way they are treated during the first couple of week at work
• Do ensure that the new hire understands the on-boarding, is guided through it by a nominated internal ‘buddy’ and the whole process is reviewed through a 2-way communication at predetermined stages of the journey & right at the end

Mirror Mirror on the Wall … for Organizations & People

• Todays fast paced world requires speedy execution. It is virtually impossible to succeed with a 100% baked plan – the required time to execution will not permit that luxury
• Successful individuals & organizations approach an initiative with the end result in mind. The steps to the end result are carefully considered in terms of priority by impact to the end result and each step is then provided an appropriate amount of time & effort based on its priority – this will never be uniform
• When the execution trigger is pulled every plan goes in with inherent risks. This is fine and acceptable & has no negative bearing on the planner. It is the checks and balances that the planner subsequently puts in place that determines the quality and class of the planner
• Nothing teaches us better than our mistakes and failures, provided we know how to catch them, accept them, "fix" them & ensure they are never repeated while spreading our learning to those around us.
• Most people or organizations have not figured out how to leverage their failures .. very unfortunate!
• I have seen organizations implement solicited feedback mechanisms from employees on organizational changes, product ideas, customer experiences and used this learning as a huge leverage
• I have been involved in processes of sharing best practices. These ideas are free and as long as our egos do not prevent us from ‘not inventing the wheel’ all over again, it makes absolute sense to borrow these ideas, tweak them if needed and implement them in your environment
• Please do not be a miser!!! Share your ideas with others & they will do the same with you. As people communicate & collaborate, the overall value grows much faster than a sum of hard thinking individuals. Look at how Metcalf’s law spurred on the entire Computer Networking industry that generates hundreds of billions of dollars every year
• I know it is hard for achievers to talk about failures. That said, failures often teach better lessons than successes and should be therefore shared especially within organization. That is one way of building a knowledge based organization that thrives & grows using its collective wisdom in the face of any adversity
• A similar rationale applies to individuals as well – My workplace is like a suction pump that just draws me in the moment I start my work day. So I know how difficult this is. I have learnt to deal with it though through some great advice from friends, family and well wishers…
• A solo morning walk, meditation, listening to music followed by Journaling (a key skill that I will talk about separately) helps not only to reflect on the previous day, week or month but also enables to plan a micro period like a day or a week, a major initiative or a career action.
• Once you have reflected, learned and then planned your actions you know exactly why you are doing what you are doing. Then go ahead and run your day or week with confidence
• I always take time out in December & use part of the holiday season dedicated for general downtime and on reflecting on the year gone by while planning for the year ahead. This plan involves my personal, family, intellectual, professional & philanthropic goals. Come 1 Jan, my sight is crystal clear ... I am set to execute my plan

The making of ‘The Independent Professional’

• As the service industry expands the world of opportunities for the independent professional has exploded – mostly in the Financial Services, media, technology and other niche verticals
• It is never easy to leave a familiar comfortable professional setup & sail into the unknown world of going solo – change is painful & human nature will always resist it!
• What matters is where your heart is – go with your heart, always! Do not start something till you are ‘totally’ committed irrespective of potential rewards, hearsay or advise from friends & family
• After listening to your heart – research the field inside out, understand the pitfalls & dependencies, judge your potential abilities & skills and determine if you have what it takes to succeed. In general I see most successful independent professionals as disciplined, focused, self motivated, extremely organized besides being great communicators just as ALL other successful people!
• Test the waters first before fully committing yourself. Reality often is not what it seems when viewed from the outside! Doing the right due diligence will save you time, money and lost opportunities. Its best if you do this diligence with other people’s money, work for an organization in a similar capacity before going in on your own
• The buck will stop where you stand. The independent professional’s success or failure depends solely on the individual – there is no organizational support. The individual IS the organization
• Clients and networks from the past make up the initial prospect base for a new independent professional – not ‘burning your old bridges’ holds a whole new significance
• Being an independent professional is about being ‘independent’ – independence in terms of time, effort & earnings. Professional discipline is therefore key! Countless talented independent professionals have gone down because they lacked work ethics & discipline
• The commonest barrier to entry in the profession is (not having) a client base. While old networks can help jumpstart the journey, cold-calling (however painful J) is a MUST. No one likes to do it but if you are serious about succeeding, you will need to grind on and spend time cold-calling through out your professional life.
• Your addressable market needs to continually grow to enable you to grow your results. Smart usage of web & messaging technologies can help in accomplishing this. Just be aware of the privacy laws!!!
• Ability to handle rejections is key to a successful cold-calling process. If you are unable to handle rejections, then do not be in any ‘people’ interface business – go back to my point on determining where your heart is and be honest in judging your ability & desires
• Once you have a client, the challenge will be to keep the client for ever. Empathy, sensitivity, knowledge, trust & quality of service are often the primary factors here. Very often providers are more intent in selling what they have in their bags rather than what the customer wants to buy. Understanding customer needs and providing a suitable solution that addresses them sounds like a Sales 101 cliché but is often ignored even by experienced pros
• Once you have wow-ed the customer you will begin to generate a revenue flow that will become more predictable & will require lesser effort provided you do not forget your customer retention skills
• You will still need to continue to cold call though… growing your customer portfolio is like providing lifeblood to your initiative. As you start to build the right skills and begin to see success, even cold-calling can become fun…