What should tomorrow's leaders be like?

We all are witnessing one of the biggest global recessions. Hopefully, it will be over in few months or more. However, current situation raises a vital question, "what should tomorrow's leaders be like"?

Recently I read an article detailing Marshall Goldsmith's views about tomorrow's leaders. Marshall Goldsmith is author of management-related literature, professor, consultant and executive coach. He is author of 24 management books. He also has a personal website that hosts over 200 free resources for visitors across the globe. Marshall said that leaders of the future must listen, learn and make mistakes.

I would like to outline some of the essential traits that tomorrow's leaders should possess.
(1) Everyday is a new learning and that is how a leader needs to develop himself/herself. Today's environment is very challenging and competitive. A leader need not be afraid of committing mistakes and should be ready to accept those.
(2) Leaders need to keep long term vision in mind. Ignoring long term vision can have adverse impacts on growth of the organization. I remember NRN Moorthy saying that there was a time when all the board members were in strong favor of selling Infosys, but NRN opposed it and today Infosys represents IT face of India in many ways.
(3) In future, CEOs/leaders will need to manage to people who have better IQ than leaders themselves. So, managing people and learning on the go is going to be very important.
(4) Willingness and desire to learn will play an important role. Good thing is that most of the Indian leaders/CEOs have attitude to learn more. In this challenging environment, one needs to challenge himself/herself and set higher goals to remain on the top.
(5) As CEOs grow their organizations, integrity needs to be maintained.

As we move forward to build a nation of leaders, let's groom ourselves as strong and true leaders. Continuous learning, people management and ethics are going to play an important role in this process.

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Are we prepared for test of Leadership?

Current recession poses challenge for the corporations and each one of us. When times are good, everyone comes aboard happily, but in bad times we suffer. Current situation is test of the leadership in a way and also presents opportunity to find innovative ways.

Corporates today are busy taking cost cutting measures, and making an effort to retain the best talent at the same time. Though it becomes absolutely necessary to take strict cost cutting measures at times, I feel that it is equally important to keep employees in the job as far as possible. If a company has to lays off or fire employees, the better option perhaps could be to reduce salaries of all the employees, including senior management of the company. We need to remember that in most of the companies, senior management of the companies draw a huge sum of salary. I agree that they deserve good returns for their hard work, but it is equally important to accept lower wages in bad times, for benefit of all employees. That would result in more faith by the employees (and their families) in the company, in long term. Still in many cases, companies have to take steps of reducing the workforce.

I would like to cite an example, which is on the same lines as my thoughts mentioned above. Japan Airlines is one of the top ten Airline operators in the world. Recently I read about CEO of Japan Airlines reducing his salary to lower than pilots of the company. You can see the video below on CNN about this.



If leaders of the organizations take remarkable steps in benefit of the workforce, then it has unbelievable positive impact on the mindset of the employees. On the other hand, any negative emotions taken by leaders get passed on to entire organization, like a chain reaction. Any fear shown by them can spread pretty fast. I feel that it may not be possible for you as a leader to change the world, but you can certainly change the way you look at the world. Being calm and thoughtful really helps.

As we get groomed to become future leaders, we need to learn carefully and calmly. Today's learning is going to be the foundation for tomorrow's leadership and will help each one of us in good or bad times again in future. Each of our actions should be taken, with long term vision in mind. If you display kindness to other people, that also spreads.

So, let's bring out our leadership skills from within in this test of leadership. Our steps can show the path to others and we can emerge even stronger. Let's build a nation of true leaders, who can sail through all times.

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Changing trend and opportunity for us to contribute for growth of India

Few days back, I saw Nandan Nilekani on "The Dailyshow" hosted by with John Stewart. You can see the video as well below. The show was about discussion on the book titled Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani. Being in Infosys for past five years, I know a lot about Nandan Nilekani. However, I would like to highlight some points from Nandan's discussion. Nandan says that getting the education right in India is going to be the key for next 20 years. There are many young people in the working age group in India, who can shape the future of India. At the same time there are many people, who are not getting the right education. There is one thing that makes me feel glad every time is that Nandan chose India as the place to grow in long term. They were seven enthusiastic persons with only $250.00 in hand and built a huge organization that represents the IT face of India today in many ways, if not all.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
Nandan Nilekani
comedycentral.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Economic Crisis Political Humor

As a result of current slowdown in USA and the globe, many students are coming back to India. According to a recent report, about 100k students are expected to come back to India in next 3-5 years. Recently I read an article about Indian students saying no to American dream. The number of students willing to study in India or planning to settle in India is increasing. Recently I talked to one of my friends who has completed Masters in USA. He was of the opinion that USA is no more an attractive place for him in long term. I am sure that he phenomenon of reverse brain drain will bring benefits for India.

Even the Indians who have been in USA for many years for job, are now planning to come back to India. Actually some of them have already returned back to India and are in process of starting their own ventures in India. One of my colleagues at Minneapolis has spent fifteen years in USA and is now planning to settle in India, after seeing the current job situation in USA. He feels that he has been far from his roots in India for bright future, but in current times it does not seem to be right choice to stay away from family in India. Also, the demand for becoming OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) is increasing.

I feel that we all can make a difference. India has shown tremendous growth in past few years and it became possible because of effort from each one of us. Let's use our energy and talent to make this country the superpower. Each one of us can do a little to provide education to a poor child. We need to make sure that the next generation of India emerges with much better percentage of literacy and growth. Let's join our hands together.

I conducted a poll in my blog with question: "Do you think if given an opportunity, you would like to make positive impact for growth of India at grassroot level". Eighteen people responded and 94% of them said "Yes". I would like to thank all the respondents and mention here that I am working on some of the projects to benefit poor children in India for their education etc. If you want to help with your time, effort or financial assistance to make a difference, then I invite you to join me in growth of India. You can email me to take it further.

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Is recession really closing doors for us?

It is official now, with Obama saying that it will take years to recover from recession. The problem of recession started with subprime crisis in year 2007, but a recession was declared much later and what followed after that, everyone knows.

Few days back, I read an article by Professor Jagdish Bhagwati, international economist and Professor in Economics Department at Columbia University, USA. He argued that the provision to restrict hiring of H1-B visaholders would deprive the US of the best global talent which comes in the form of highly trained and talented people. To quote his words: "In terms of broader considerations like the people who are coming in on H1-B visas - they're frequently highly trained and talented people and a lot of our progress and prosperity depend on having such people". He stressed that it is not appropriate to blame H1-B workers, as many of them eventually settle down in US, form new IT companies and provide job opportunities to American nationals as well.

I agree with thoughts of Prof. Bhagwati to a some extent. At the same time, I feel bad about millions of people loosing their jobs or business globally. I also understand that it is right of every country to protect it's own benefits first. Even Canada is gearing up for reducing immigration to reduce the impact of financial crisis. After having spent twenty one months in America by now, I can say that Americans have provided a great environment for growth and that's why individuals from all over the world see it as right place to work and grow.

In past few weeks, I read many news articles about increasing problems for H1-B workers in USA. With US stimulus bill in place, the US Congress has barred firms receiving government bailout from hiring Indians and other foreign workers through the skilled US visa worker visa (H1-B) programme, if they are replacing American workers. As a result, H1-B workers will have some impact, and that will impact Indian nationals too. Why I am saying "some" here is because of two reasons. First one is that the stimulus bill bars companies from hiring H1-B workers, but does not seem to stop companies from having H1-B contractors (not employees). Second reason is that not all the companies have opted for bailout package. Since it is global recession now, the overall business scenario of companies in US and across the globe is getting worse everyday. Whether we are in US, India or any other country, there will be impact on many of us. We all can see that everyone is sticking to their current job somehow. Attrition rate in companies has gone down.

I can write much more about the recession and the impact, but here is another way of looking at it too. We all have seen India growing at a very fast pace in last few years, yet there is lot more to transform things at grass root level. May be that this recession has brought some hidden light for us, or has given us a way to re-think about our priorities. Today, with almost every country having dependency on other countries, it is nearly impossible for a country to be isolated from impact of global meltdown. However, India still holds a good financial position comparatively. A lot can be done in India, whether it be in professional career, or for the growth of unprivileged society. Why not we realize our power within and take a step ahead to projects/ideas, to take the nation forward? Let's not be afraid of failures on the way. Failure is one of the very powerful ways to learn. In today's world, it does not matter where you are located. What matters is your thought and actions to make a difference. Many professionals like us have already starting working on related projects. You can find information on such projects in my earlier posts. Let's join our hands together to make India a better place for everyone.

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