Continue reading “Leadership Lessons From Chanakya’s Arthashastra”
Category: Corporate Leadership
Program
Reed Manch Exhibitions | Leadership Development
Objective
To take the whole team through an immersive learning experience that would help all participants answer the question: “What is Everyday Leadership” and how does one exhibit it in their behaviors?
Solution
The workshop was carefully designed keeping the profile of all the participants in mind. We were clear that we did not want to introduce any esoteric Leadership model that participants wouldn’t relate to. Hence the whole intervention was designed around
The Leadership Challenge construct.
Instead of introducing a new theory, we started by asking participants to list down their own “Best leadership experience ever” regardless of whether it was in their corporate work at office or anywhere else – at home, school, college or public life. From the stories that naturally emerged, we put brought to life the “Five behaviors of exemplary leaders.”
The workshop brought home the point for participants that – Leadership is for everyone. It is not the private reserve of a few charismatic men and women. Leadership is actually a process ordinary people use when they are bringing forth the best from themselves and others. It highlighted to everyone that they could make extraordinary things happen by liberating the leader within themselves.
Through an immersive workshop experience that involved a mixture of introspection, discussion, debate, sharing of experiences, stories from around the world and experiential activities, FocusU brought to life the paradigm of Leadership in a language so simple that it made a difference to all participants who embarked on this enthralling journey.
Impact
Here is what Anuj Mathur, the Managing Director of Reed Manch Exhibitions had to say about the whole intervention:
“The Leadership workshop helped all of us to take a step back and analyse ourselves on the kind of leadership traits we have and that we don’t have. How we could all become better leaders and help others grow along with us. It has been the most effective workshop for multiple levels in our organization. It helped our Leaders shine. It focused on how leaders can put their thoughts together in a more efficient manner, take ownership and be united with the team . The training has been extremely beneficial, our people are more oriented and have a clear vision on how to work with their teams seamlessly to deliver best results. We got coached on “One Team One Dream” vision which really helped the staff to be on the same page while performing tasks. The fun quotient mixed with the tasks made it an enjoyable and knowledgeable experience.”
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Program
HUL North Regional Leadership Team (RLT) Journey
Objective
Charting a journey for the regional leadership team to help build a bond between each other (strengthen team effectiveness) and align the larger team towards a single goal
Solution
The team had a new leader who had just returned after a stint overseas. Some of the team members had also joined the team recently from various parts of HUL. There was a clear need to bring the team together and strengthen alignment.
Working closely with the HR Business Partner and the Leader, we first agreed on a few things:
1. Bringing the team together would not happen through one intervention. We agreed that this would be a “Team Journey” to be done through a series of interventions spread out over a period of time.
2. The journey of aligning the entire team should start from the top
The first workshop was a 2-day intervention done in an informal setting. The journey was kicked off with a session using the MBTI tool – since every journey starts with a better understanding of self. The tool also helped in understanding team dynamics, blind spots, conflict zones, communication preferences. All this is a safe, light atmosphere that encouraged exploration. This was followed by a self-disclosure exercise using the Johari construct. The intent was to build trust based on vulnerability. The session was kicked off by a truly authentic and heart touching sharing by the leader – who put forward his vulnerabilities in a candid manner. That set the tone for the rest of the day, with each story coming from a similar authentic core. By the end of the day – a web of connections had been built between the team members, without them even realizing it.
The next day, the team was introduced to Lego Serious Play. Through the immersive methodology that lends itself to stories and conversations, the team talked through its challenges and strengths. By the end of the day, they had arrived upon a 2 year vision for the team and also a guiding mantra and inspiring identity for themselves. The foundation for the team to succeed was perhaps set firmly on that day.
Through the next two years, we conducted a series of 6 different interventions. These included team cascades, further interventions with the RLT, cascading these team connect interventions deeper down into the managerial team, fun team experiences to create shared memories and team feedback sessions. To be with this team through their entire journey of Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing & Adjourning has been one of our most satisfying experiences as Facilitators.
Impact:
The first intervention we conducted was seen as so impactful that internally, for the next two years, those days were referred to as, “Historic Thursday- Friday”. It makes us blush but it makes us extremely proud too.
The team had a dream run of achieving outstanding business results and a complete turnaround in execution metrics for all functions across the region. They also picked up a majority of the internal awards across the organization.
Here is what Aanchal Grover, the HR Business Partner of the team had to say about the whole intervention, much after the journey: “This definitely has to be the most fulfilling stint of my HR career till date. Using people engagement, leadership and team effectiveness to fuel business turnaround and results upped my faith in the power of the ‘more human approach’ that I have always believed in.
That ‘historic Thurs-Fri’ truly created magic for us! That web of deep connections that we established then grew over time, and we saw what a group of united, committed and intelligent individuals can achieve as ‘One Team’. The FocusU team were true catalysts in this journey, they made a huge difference without making their presence felt. Their support, understanding of our requirements, empathetic approach and deep desire to make a real difference to us sets them apart and makes them truly unique players in their field. They are crusaders for the ‘more human approach’ in everything that they do which the world so needs at this point in time.
Most of us have moved on from that stint now, but the web of connections still holds strong, beyond roles, organizations and even country borders! We are proud of what we achieved together and to me personally, that’s a demonstration of the power of a truly engaged and connected business unit.
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To say that the past few years of working in a start-up environment has been exhilarating would be an understatement! There have been ups and downs, some good decisions and some which make us cringe when we think back – but if someone were to ask if we regret this move, then the answer is clear – “Not a chance!”. One of the perks of our job is the opportunity to interact with excellent senior leaders in different verticals as part of the leadership workshops that we do – and we have come away richer from each such intervention! One of the other aspects which we enjoy is the opportunity to have conversations with people who have undertaken similar journeys as ours and learn from their stories. However these days, we are also getting to meet people who are poised to take a leap of faith into starting something of their own and want to connect to seek our counsel. While the conversations differ (and we are nowhere qualified enough to advise some of these industry stalwarts), there are still some aspects of our journey which have translated into useful leadership lessons for us, which we do share with them. We hope some of these would be useful for others venturing into a similar, unfamiliar territory.
From the slums of Katwe, Uganda to a journey of becoming a chess champion – this is the story of Phiona Mutesi. She would have never dreamed that Disney would be making a movie on her life and would name it “Queen of Katwe,” which is now a motion picture (2016). She would have never thought that someone would be so interested in her life that she would be a part of a book, but it happened. In 2012, Tim Crothers wrote a book “The Queen of Katwe: One Girl’s Triumphant Path to Becoming a Chess Champion.” Her life of transformation is a lesson for millions of people facing daily challenges in life. Leaders can learn a major lesson about how to thrive in the current business environment from this movie too. Here are the three powerful lessons you can’t afford to miss.
Continue reading “Leadership Lessons From The Queen Of Katwe”
“Have a bias toward action – let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first step right away.” –Indira Gandhi
Continue reading “Why Having A Bias For Action Is Important In Leaders?”
What comes to your mind if we were to ask you about the philosophy of leadership?
Continue reading “A Beginners Guide To Leadership Development : 10 Things You Need To Know”
Some movies you like to watch, while some movies you like to experience. Kung Fu Panda 3 was an experience for me. I connected instantly with the characters in the movie and received a few life lessons too. A blend of animated characters and a meaningful story made the movie phenomenal, but it was all possible because of the web of words connecting all of the story elements. Here are a few dialogues that made a mark in my memory –
One of the most satisfying elements of our work is being able to watch at very close quarters how different leaders work with their teams. And, we have been fortunate to see many remarkable leaders and their different styles in handling their teams. At the same time, in the course of our interaction with various teams, we do come across leaders who are perhaps still growing into their roles.
From our experience in handling several diverse teams, I would like to point out a few things that you as a leader must watch out for. Avoiding these common leadership mistakes will certainly go to great lengths in firmly establishing yourself as a leader.
Continue reading “4 Common Leadership Mistakes”
