Feature

Dealing with leadership crisis

Leaders are the torch bearers and the glue that bind the company. Renuka Vembu finds out about reasons plaguing leadership crisis in an organization and the best processes of dealing with it.

Nurturing and having a pipeline of effective leaders in any organization is of prime importance. While the top management is responsible for chartering the vision of the company and preparing action plans for its people to adhere to, it is the middle level that bridges the gap and acts as the communication channel between the top hierarchy and the junior level employees. So it is of utmost importance that a company does not ever fall into the leadership crisis trap. But if and when such a situation occurs, the company should have a contingency plan in place to tackle it effectively.

Suresh Reddy, MD, Ybrant Digital, asserted, “Sometimes crisis gives way to positive changes. While no plan may manage a crisis, a practical plan and general preparedness may go a long way in resolving any that may arise.”

Skill gap, rapidly advancing technology, changing dynamics of the corporate world, stringent competition leading to better and myriad opportunities, are some of the factors that can plague a company of potential leaders. For every job role, there is a pre-defined skill set and knowledge base that is expected from people occupying the said position. Just like the roles and responsibilities for the top and middle level managers are different, so would be the job functions and the requisite attributes. While the top management needs to link the business interests with organizational vision, the middle level needs to align individual interests with the broader organizational goals. The former role demands a strategic approach while the latter is more concerned with day-to-day operations.

Sampath Shetty, VP, Permanent Staffing, TeamLease Services said, “Today organizations are heading towards an enormous shortage of qualified leaders with the knowledge needed to run global businesses. The leadership dearth is caused by a combination of factors like the pressure to transfer knowledge to new generation leadership, leadership succession department, coping with the changing global economy with business teams operating at multinational locations on a virtual basis.”

Shankar Velayudhan, Executive VP (India, Europe), Mindteck, said, “Reactive leaders often find themselves in the middle of chaos due to their shortsightedness. Visionary leaders not only crave a road map for the company, but also motivate fellow employees to give their best to achieve a seemingly impossible task. Decision making and people management are prerequisites to become a successful leader. Additionally, possessing a strategic vision about the business and spotting new opportunities for the company are two key assets.”

Requisite attributes

A decision maker, a path breaker, a visionary, an out-of-the-box thinker, a team player, etc. are some of the phrases associated with a good leader. While some qualities are in-built, some attributes can be polished by providing apt trainings. Vijaylakshmi M, Senior Manager, HR, EmPower Research Knowledge Services, listed three qualities needed to lead modern commercial organizations: flexibility and ability to respond to change, ability to say what you feel and think, and emotional resilience—the ability to take knocks and bounce back.

Sudhir Narang, MD, BT India, added, “A great leader is a ‘dream merchant’ for his team as he helps them build and live a common vision. The second important quality is to focus on operations and execution. Hence, he should be in constant touch with ‘individual contributor’ to get regular feedback. Management should be one part strategy and nine parts delivery. While building a customer focused organization, leaders should focus on people followed by process.”

Building a team on trust and loyalty, valuing ethics and integrity, nurturing employees—their lives and careers, with a focus on overall development, furnishing them with meaningful opportunities and a long-term path catering to their ambitions and area of interests are the virtues of a mid-layer manager.

Nirmala Behera Udgata, Director, iVitesse Technologies, said that the distinguishing factor between senior leadership and middle management is the ability to handle exceptions. In a knowledge industry such as IT, a leader must focus his energies on the extremes of the continuum, i.e. factors leading to outstanding results and those leading to poor outcomes.

Virendra Dharwadkar, Head HCM, Corporate of Quinnox Consultancy Services, said that they look out for people who are dynamic, energetic, innovative, responsive, self motivated and a team-player with the ability to command respect and trust from fellow colleagues. There must be an alignment of personal value system to organization value system, he felt.

Importance of leadership

Leaders are important to pave way for people to follow the course of action and also to take them through it. The middle level is the bridge between the top hierarchy and the people who are at the bottom of the ladder. They bridge the gap, carry the communication channel and keep the flow of information alive. They are imperative because they are viewed as the potential top leaders of tomorrow. Mona Gupta, Senior Manager, HR, Cincom Systems India, reiterated the significance of the middle layer, “Middle layer is what gets groomed to become the top. Its absence would mean that the next layer is not getting ready. Also generally, the junior layer is too raw, and the senior layer is too ‘top view’ oriented. It is necessary to have someone in the middle to transact and make it smooth. Mid-level brings a balance that is needed for the interaction between two extreme levels.”

Nina Nair, VP, HR Manager, 24/7 Customer, opined that the importance of middle management is seen by their change in roles, from a focus on planning, monitoring and controlling, to becoming centered on strategy and innovation. He is engaged in managing people and enhancing their value performance, extracting optimum level of work, maintaining a personal touch, solving everyday issues and keeping an updated track of the daily activities.

Two sides of a coin

While the absence of the mid-layer can have a reasonable impact on the organization and its employees, there is also a different view provided on this front. Just like all aspects have their pros and cons, so do the absence of mid-level managers. Rajesh Athihalli, CEO, Metis ERC India, listed them:

Pros

• Result time/ duration will come down.
• The probability of an open door policy is higher.
• It flattens the organizational structure; hence providing for better quantifying of individual contribution to the overall goal.

Cons

• The degree of disconnect will get higher from the strategizing phase (top level) to execution phase (lower level) due to the absence of the implementation phase (middle level).
• Lower levels see no growth option for themselves.
• Very little help and time will be available for the top management to concentrate on strategizing.

Handling leadership

Handling leaders of the company and constantly brushing up their skill-sets according to the industry needs and demands is an indispensable factor and a continuous process. Providing trainings, varying from leadership development and personality development to risk-taking approaches, are leading the pack.

Chetan Shah, MD, Synygy India, added, “Training is insufficient to develop leadership capacity. No amount of planned succession management investment will be successful when leadership gaps are handled with only training programmes. Organizational resources are additionally squandered with one-size fits all development approaches. Talent is a corporate asset that needs to be optimized for the corporation’s long-term interests. Best practice organizations serve those long-term interests using multiple development methods.”

Rajkumar D, Head HR, RIMS, Microland, gave few tips on polishing the skill-sets of individual leaders. He said networking with similar leaders in the industry, being a part of professional forums, getting into knowledge sharing sessions and lectures, white papers, attending professional conferences, mentoring new managers and gaining cross-functional knowledge, etc. will keep them abreast of the industry workings and happenings.

Continuous learnability, learning from other leaders, amending ones mistake, reading books on leadership, setting a positive example, extending hands and seeking suggestions from experts, expressing thanks and also a token of appreciation, being visible and accessible to employees, and an enthusiast and a cheerleader, Natrajan Iyer, VP, HR, QuEST (Quality Engineering and Software Technologies), said would enables leaders to augment work to the best of their capabilities.

Abhay Valsangkar, Senior Director, HR, Symantec Corporation opined that learning is enabled by two simultaneous factors: one is self-initiated learning, which could be through e-learning modules, certification exams; and the second is training imparted by the organization.

Assessing individual strength and weakness, leveraging it to the optimum by exploiting the potential that lies within every leader, cross-functional training and job rotation, measuring the effectiveness of such programmes which gives an insight into the possible flaws and the necessary amendments that need to be made to make the undertaking a success, are all the steps that will take leaders to the next ladder.

Rajan NV, Senior VP, HR, Infinite Computer Solutions (I), said, "Have regular 'Open House' session with all employees. Ensure any major event activity in the organization is first shared with employees before it is made public. The best ways to train on leadership skills is to have periodic 'Outbound training' programmes where potential leaders are tested to evaluate their skills in handling the unknown."

Proactive measures

Just like there is a need for a contingency plan in place in the wake of unforeseen circumstances, the company needs to take proactive steps as well so that these emergencies or situations are avoided. Sanjay Agarwala, CEO, Eastern Software Systems, gave three factors that can avoid a catastrophe:

• Effective planning for handling organizational goals.
• Process maturity and process-based leadership as opposed to so called ‘charismatic leadership’ which is great while it lasts, but leaves a tremendous void once it is gone.
• Effective delegation to second line managers, clear anticipation and planning for crisis, strong team of ‘Number 2 people’ which can offer depth of management thinking and vision when it is needed the most.

Conclusion

In the competitive market space, leaders hold the prime slot. It is necessary for companies to focus on developing leaders within the organization, as also bringing in a wave of fresh creative minds from outside to attain the right balance. Having a leadership plan will give a view of the touch-points that will help avert crisis as also dealing with it when it occurs.

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com