In this edition of CEO Insights, we have Mr. Ravi Valecha, the Chief Executive Officer of India Factoring and Finance Solutions Private Limited. In his conversation with Mr. Rahul Mahajan, Country-Lead of Great Manager Awards, he shares his leadership thoughts with us

 Who have been some of the significant mentors in your life?

I look up to my erstwhile managers, starting right from my first job with ICICI Bank, N Sivaramakrishnan, a veteran banker. As a fresher, I did not have a great sense of understanding of the banking sector until I started seeing it from a banker's point of view than that of a consumer. My previous managers had been quite helpful from all perspectives as I spent a few years under their guidance to build a strong understanding of the banking sector.

. He was the head of the department and brought global leadership to the forefront of the organization.

I also learned immensely about people management from my predecessor in the current organization, Sandeep Mathkar.

“It is essential to be humble as a leader while bringing people together on board and accommodate their views to help them move forward.”

 How would you describe your leadership style? Furthermore, what would be some of the do's and don'ts when working with you?

I prefer empowerment. When a task is given, I expect the people to deliver it in time, abide by the commitment and work independently, but I also encourage them to ask for help when in doubt. So, I believe in building a strong culture that supports empowerment. I trust that in a team, individuals should be empowered enough to make their own decisions.

I would not like to label my leadership style as it depends on the situation which urges me to act and lead the team in a certain way, but I like to make a feasible balance between autocratic and democratic styles of leadership.

 What would be some of the critical qualities you would look for if you were to find a successor for your role?

To assess correctly, I would split qualities into two types- functional and non-functional qualities. The functional part should include qualities related to the expertise of the individual which aid the system while the non-functional partserves as constraints or restrictions on the design of the system.

I would say that the most important quality I would consider isadaptability. I would also assess the decision-making capabilities and see how quickly the individual is able to make decisions in this VUCA environment. However, a fast decision-making process should not lead to rash decisions but a balanced and weighted decision-making process.

“Discretion is the most important aspect because the information overload is so much that you can easily get lost in a labyrinth of information that you have.”

Also, I would seek a people-centric person who understands human values and is goal-oriented.

 What is the most common piece of advice you find yourself giving to the Gen Z entering the corporate world?

What I see is that the younger generation is loaded with a lot of information from many backgrounds. Therefore, rational decision-making is critical for them to learn and they should get used to it in their daily routines.

"To know about something is a small part of knowledge, while how you apply it in real life proves your knowledge and ability to move forward.'

So, I would suggest that they see the bigger picture when making any decision, learn and respond rationally by weighing the pros and cons.

 What are some of the leadership qualities that have helped you over the past year of COVID?

Ravi: We always talk about the "vision or mission" statement and other such things, but how much we execute these is what matters the most. This is something I realized now in hindsight.

"I suggest that if you have a goal in your mind, pen it down on paper. Work towards your goal, reaffirm it every day, every moment, be accountable for it and share your progress with your stakeholders and then celebrate if you achieve it".

The key to leadership is execution of goals than merely defining those. You will realize that when you have decided your personal goals and achievements, you will make better progress in your life. As I learned this, my team has also realized the same and we are doing wonders together.

What is your approach to defining the vision and cascading it down to your employees, making sure they are aligned to it?

 Effective communicationhelps the team to contribute to the organization while having a collective vision. It is futile to have a vision in mind without an execution plan as it will not lead to the desired results; you have to walk the talk.

When you create a vision, it comes with specific terms and conditions, and it relies on the amount of energy the team members bring to the table. The energy and level of confidence one brings to the discussions helps decide better upon what is achievable and what is not. I observed that such energy and enthusiasm are also transferrable to other team members and drive passion within teams. 

“You have to walk the talk because when the team sees you as a leader, it imitates you as their role model.”

The team always get inspired from a methodical and detail-oriented approach of a leader to make decisions. So as a leader, you are being looked up to in all aspects. And that is something that drives me, and that is what I would push across to my teams.

What according to you is the most critical quality or competency for a Great Manager?

 One trait I would consider in a Great Manager isemotional maturity, which calls for the ability to stand firm and handle challenging situations with a calm mind and humble heart.

"Beyond a certain point, just delivering on your objectives will not lead you to the highest leadership level; it is the emotional maturity you bring to the table that proves your leadership."

Emotional maturity again requires rationality and balanced decision-making because, as a leader, you have to look at possibly all the aspects, that is, a 360-degree view. So, you have to incorporate a holistic way of problem-solving.

"Maturity does not come with age; it comes from exposure and experience which acts as a fuel to the aspiration and energy of a Great Manager to drive an organization towards success."

Effective Communication, Emotional Maturity, and Agile Decision Making: Keys to Managerial Success

In this edition of 'CHRO Insights,' as part of the 

, we have Mr. Krishna Raghavan, who is the Chief People Officer at 

 his conversation with Rahul Mahajan, Country-Lead of Great Manager Awards, he shares with us his experience as a CHRO.

 How did you get into the HR field given that you are not from this domain?

I have a background in math and computer science, but I think the first sort of exposure for me in this domain was when I did my undergrad in the US from a liberal arts college. They have a rule that everyone must take one course from every discipline; otherwise, you cannot graduate. So, I sort of got intrigued by the multidisciplinary and multifunctional approach to how you look at people or how you look at life in general and the realization that it is not bucketed into one space.

I was on the technology bandwagon for 20 years. However, over the last four or five years, I started to spend more and more time in the arena of the efforts required in terms of building a strong workplace culture in an organization in a team and nurturing people in a truly meaningful way. Even as an engineering leader in Flipkart, I have been privileged to have the opportunity to build several teams numerous times over and understand the things that go into building effective teams.

It piqued my interest, and I started to partner with HR over the last three years in terms of drafting various policies and practices. About two years ago, I enrolled myself in a coaching course, and was particularly intrigued by the methodology of providing people a way to help themselves in a safe environment. These two universes intersected for me to create my own personal journey in coaching, and I am extremely fortunate to have been given the opportunity to leverage my learning, experience and passion for this role. .

"When you look back, you can connect all the dots to figure how you landed up where you did."

In fact, the pandemic has been an incredible learning for me as an HR professional. As an organisation, Flipkart has focused on helping people in very troubled times and finding a way to take care of the workforce. I feel like it was the universe’s way of nudging me to use my interest and passion to be able to make a difference.

 What have been your key learnings over the past year?

: One of the key learnings has been about people centricity. It means keeping people at the center when you are making those tough calls. I will cite an example. While we were completing our annual appraisal cycle in Flipkart in April 2020, we were faced with tough choices as there was no clarity about the business outlook. We could have deferred all the increases and the campus hires, but we had the conviction that employee centricity could not be sacrificed. And I think that paved the way for our employees to rise to the occasion and to go beyond the call of duty.

“We went ahead without having any clear knowledge about how the business is going to play out and promised to honor all the increments and new hires.”

Another learning we had was that when you are building a policy—it is important to ensure that it is customizable to different types of employees and get consensus on whether all the groups are on board with the new policy. Given the diverse employee base at Flipkart, we have been conscious that all the factors like demographics, age, gender must be considered before drafting any employee-related policy.

“You cannot paint the entire employee landscape with one broad brushstroke.”

What should be an ideal relationship between a CEO and CHRO?

 The ideal relationship is one where you trust each other, have each other's back t, and challenge one another. CHROs are not just HR leaders; they are the leader of all the people. They need to understand where the business is headed and proactively tackle business challenges and opportunities on the horizon. When you start doing these things, then automatically, you have the trust and the credibility, you become a thought partner to the CEO. Then you are no longer an administrative and support function, but a strategic function that can drive a cultural transformation.

“With respect to the age-old question of whether HR should have a seat at the table or not, HR will have a seat at the table when it earns the trust and credibility of the business.”

 According to you, what has been the board's role in terms of driving the cultural transformation in Flipkart?

It starts with defining what your employee value proposition really is. Where do you want to take the company and its people? The core of every company remains the same, but there are certain aspects that you want to heighten in a particular environment/context.Defining the culture becomes important. For instance, in Flipkart, three principles of autonomy, mastery, and purpose by Daniel Pink are major drivers. These are three things that also reflect our values which are audacity, a bias for action, customer-centricity. Integrity and inclusion were added last year.

“Define your EVP and align the CEO, the leadership, and the board, on the strategy and your differentiators.”

Defining a very clear strategy and aligning the board on the focus is critical. It is often said that culture eats strategy for breakfast, so getting the culture right and treating it as a strategic focus area with the Board’s buy-in is critical.

If you could ask one question to someone, and basis that decide whether to hire that person or not, what could be that question?

 It would be to know what their primary purpose is. What is the reason for them to even come to our company and apply? I think most often than not, this depth of a question also brings about ideas, thoughts from the candidate and allows them to express what really motivates them. Their answers could vary from monetary stuff to title to the work culture, and that's okay. However, that answer for me gives a lot away in terms of the candidate.

What is the most crucial competency required for a great manager who is at mid-level?

 The biggest thing for mid-managers would be about how they empower. Because when you grow from being an entry-level manager to a mid-level manager, there are points that you will need to step back, and it is not a skill that naturally comes to people but something which needs to be developed. It is a delicate balancing act between empowerment and detail orientation. You need to have both because the more you empower and delegate, trust starts to build between you and your team. It creates a virtuous cycle that is self-reinforcing.

What will be the two or three guiding principles while designing a robust 

 The first thing to do would be to understand the overall business context, key roles in the organization, and understanding what those roles look like in the future. The next step would be an assessment of the current talent. Then comparing the current talent, contrasting it with the future roles, and assess the development needs. Looking at the technical side, it is important to gauge leaders' people skills, self-awareness, strategic acumen and thinking, multidimensional approach, enterprise thinking before designing any leadership development program. Another factor to look at is the pace of volatility in the industry and determining the volatility index. We need to stop trying to cast leadership development into a square box. Focusing on a few key competencies of the leaders in the development program and harnessing them to the fullest is what matters the most.

“Your ability to harness the spikes is what you need to focus on.'”

If you were to choose a successor, what qualities would you look at from a CHRO perspective?

 It would be the ability to build and connect with a variety of stakeholders effectively. Secondly is having courage because you have to deal with various important matters alone. There will be times where your courage and decisions will be tested, and you will have to stand firm with your belief as you prioritise people.

The next important quality would be business acumen because earning the credibility and the trust of business partners depends on your understanding of various functions' business strategy, and finally, you need to have the ability to hold the organization to a certain set of ideals and cultural tenets.

Rahul: What is the most common piece of advice that you find yourself giving the younger generation?

 My advice would be not to constrain yourself in a particular role. Keep your options very open and fluid, and explore as much as you can. The second piece of advice would be to develop the ability to do detailed work and not get distracted easily.

'Sample and test as many roles as you can in your early career.'

At a personal level, indulge in physical activities, be it running, sports, or anything which gets you out in the world. It is important to practice something daily to develop your ability to do deep work. You need to have an undistracted quality time where you are focusing on one thing and one thing alone. That is a skill that can probably differentiate you and set you apart in the times to come.

Rahul is the Country Lead of Great Manager Awards and has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Great Manager Awards program in partnership with The Economic Times over the last 6 years in India.

Rahul closely works with Business HR leaders to help them identify and develop successors for their organization.

Great Manager Awards Program is an initiative by ‘People Business’ to identify, recognize and reward “Companies with Great Managers" in India.

This program enables the participant organizations to compare and benchmark themselves and their managers across the industry. It helps organizations create real competitive advantage through its managers.

Always do right by your people

In this edition of the ‘CEO Insights,’ we have Mr Ankit Nagori, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Eatfit. In his conversation with Mr Rahul Mahajan, Country Lead of 

, he shares with us his key insights about his journey and leadership.

 Like anyone else’s style, my style has also evolved over the past decade. If I talk about some of the things which I really believe in and which worked well for me, one of my first strategies, growing talent internally

“My strategy always has been and will continue to be is to hire at one level lower than what no one should actually hire at and then give that headroom for the person to grow.”

Because hiring a person at a higher level is always possible if you have good talent and pitch. If you’re able to get someone at n minus one level and give a three-year roadmap to grow into level n, the motivation and the passion which the person dedicates or shows is unbelievable, because they always continue to see that empty slot right above them, and they don’t feel that there is any need to be stifled. It also gives them an opportunity to not be under daily supervision or daily micromanagement because if you are working at an n minus one level, then n minus one to n plus one gap is significant for the manager not to have daily supervision.

The reason that I believe in this model is that my journey at Flipkart is exactly the same, I was hired at an (n-3) level and was always playing ‘n’ level roles. And the bar kept going higher. I got the opportunity to grow on many levels. So probably, I grew five levels in a period of three or four years because there was no one above me. I got a lot of opportunities for independent risk-taking and got chances to correct my mistakes. So that’s how I have personally grown, and I continue to believe in that model very aggressively.

 If I ask some of your minus ones to point out what are some of the do’s and don’ts when it comes to working with you, what would they say?

 I think, post the pandemic, a lot of changes happened, which I’m still trying to understand. I think, a lot of frameworks, structured things have gone away, and there’s a lot of chaos. One thing that you have to follow if you have to work with me isyou have to have a very structured approach. Like before the meetings, you have to have a very clear agenda, minutes of the meeting, tracking of minutes of the meeting on a fortnightly level.

Also, I am a big believer of lists. I make a list for every single thing and make sure that it is struck off and that too on a hard copy, unlike a digital list.

Now, with the pandemic, because the number of meetings has shot up, this whole thing went away. And I can’t expect everyone to follow this. So now, a lot of conversations have moved to WhatsApp chats, and I personally am a very slow WhatsApp user. So now chat as a channel has come up, which has made it less structured. But if I have to say, what works for me is structured thinking like doing lesser meetings, but sending a pre-meeting note, minutes of meeting and if we finalize on certain action items, sending reminders on updates, etc.

The other thing which I really used to value, and I think it’s gotten better with the pandemic, is punctuality because now people don’t have to physically move around for meetings. Previously, people would have to travel between buildings or floors. So, there was inherently a 5-7 minutes delay in the start of meetings. That is something the pandemic has solved for us, and now we literally have to just switch between windows.

Talking about the don’ts, there are two things which do not go down well with me, and it’s very clear to all the people who work with me. One is bringing bad news first. It is a very important mantra for me because it’s very easy to sugar-coat all the good things and keep delaying the bad news; it happens a lot, where managers or senior managers actually delay the bad news with hope that they would rectify it before it goes up. But in 90% of cases, this doesn’t happen, and the bad news actually reaches much later. What I tell my team is to bring the bad news first. There is a quote in medical terms, “if you have any ailment if you reach the hospital within the first 60 minutes, then the chances of survival are very high”.

The last thing, which I think the team would definitely know, is that I don’t like problem-solving in a third-person mode. So very often, it happens that person A will come and say that person B is not doing the job. As soon as I hear this, I would say, wait, let me call Person B. And let’s resolve it. I do this because I know I am not needed in such situations; person A is only doing this because they don’t have the courage or energy to have the tough conversations with person B.

: What is your vision for your organisation? What is your approach towards achieving it?

 So, for any company, and for all set of people to come together, there has to be a common goal, a common vision. We call it purpose. And the purpose of Eatfit is tomake honest food that customers love. So, every single day people show up to make honest food.The idea is to have an umbrella statement, something which has a long shelf life. We then have core values; core value is how you achieve your purpose. Our core value is to ‘act like an owner, do more with less, and love for food.

If youreally love food, then you will make the food honest. It’s a shortcut to put chemicals, colours, artificial ingredients to make food look good.

Do more with less  food is a very low margin business. If you want customers to pay less, you have to have a very frugal structure. You can’t have frills.

And act like an owner: When you operate 10s of kitchens across cities, and every kitchen is a secluded area, are you able to build a culture of ownership in that distributed model? Tomorrow when you have hundreds of kitchens, the kitchen manager should still operate in the same fashion.

If you were to hire someone for a senior leadership level, what will be that one question you will ask that candidate?

 I would ask them which is the most impactful project they have been a part of to date. It’s because people have very long careers and you don’t need in a 10-year period to be successful; you don’t need 40 quarters of success, you need 25 good quarters, 15 bad quarters. A person shouldn’t be asked about his last two years of experience. People should be measured by their spikes, not by averages or troughs. What was it that he could deliver during a purple patch? You know that is the most important aspect because for people to be successful timing of the product is really important.

One more thing I would ask them is, why do you want to work with our mission? We are here to make honest food that customers love; suppose you are a social media marketer, how will you contribute to our purpose?

If you’re to find a successor for yourself, what are the two or three qualities that you look at?

I think I’m also learning in that area. The quality I would look for is the ability to take a 5 to 10 years view of life and have that patient way of building business. I believe even successors or CEOs should be hired with a minimum five years term. It’s very difficult in the start-up world because it’s very dynamic. But in larger companies, I really believe that anyone who takes up a CXO role should be given a 

 What is the most common piece of advice that you find yourself sharing with the young generation?

 I think I often use the word sponge; I tell them that they should be like a sponge; they should just keep learning. Learning can happen in various ways. My biggest way of learning is by observation. Another piece of advice would be to read a lot. I believe that if I read versus I watch, I retain a lot more while I’m reading.

One new piece of advice that I give to young people on the basis of my experience in the corporate sector is 45 minutes of workout and meditation. There is no doubt that there’s 10x better productivity if you’re able to dedicate the first 45 minutes of the day to yourself.

What is the most crucial competency of a manager, according to you?

Ankit: Work allocation. How you are able to break down the goal into a 7–10-member team is key. In most cases, managers end up having favourites or permanent enemies because of perception. I think the equitable distribution of work is the most important aspect of a successful manager.

 What are the most common challenges you face in people management?

People’s motivation is a unique problem. We work with a unique set of people, all of them in different, are in different phases of life. And to be able to get a sense of their motivation is super tough. And you don’t want to be pressing on the wrong side. Like you don’t want to tell someone that you could not finish a task and later find out that her mom was in the hospital. So, it is super tough to get everyone on the same motivation level throughout the week. It’s not a new-age problem. It must have existed forever. I feel human emotion itself is not designed for such a competitive world where your competition is the same every day, but your variables change on a daily basis.

If I take you ten years back, what advice would you give to the younger you in terms of your learnings till today?

: I would tell myself that it’s a very long journey. There are so many cliche quotes about life being a journey where the destination is not important; the journey is, and it’s actually true. Like when my son was born, I was working 12-15 hours a day. And now I realized that probably I could have worked three hours lesser. So, somehow in life, we all end up prioritizing work because it is something that others have given us. And whatever you have, you will always trade that for a responsibility given by someone else. I think there is a balance to be made. So, I think being able to take regular breaks is super important.

Rahul is the Country Lead of Great Manager Awards and has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Great Manager Awards program in partnership with The Economic Times over the last 6 years in India. Rahul closely works with Business HR leaders to help them identify and develop successors for their organization.

Great Manager Awards Program is an initiative by ‘People Business’ to identify, recognize and reward Companies with Great Managers in India. This program enables the participant organizations to compare and benchmark themselves and their managers across the industry. It helps organizations create real competitive advantage through its managers.

Act like an owner, do more with less, and love for food – Core Value at EatFit

In this edition of ‘CEO Insights’, as part of the 

, we have Ms. Farah Malik Bhanji, who is the Managing Director and CEO of Metro Brands Limited. In her conversation with Mr. Rahul Mahajan, Country – Lead of Great Manager Awards, she shares with us her experiences as a CEO.

How would you describe your leadership style and what are some of the do’s and don’ts around you?

Metro has been an integral part of me for years. When I started my career, I had to prove that I was worthy of the job that was given to me. So I used to prepare myself far better than anyone else, to ensure that I was clear in my mind, as to what I need to do before I walk into a meeting. Now, 20 years later, I’m more collaborative in terms of decision making, allowing my people to build capacity for themselves, because the more they grow, the more I develop. Secondly, I enjoy and would prefer working with people who are enthusiastic and are excited about their work. It’s important for every leader to enjoy working with their team.

‘Evaluate everyone in your team and ensure that you’re excited to work with them, because that’s 

If you’re not excited, it will be difficult to get work done from them. They will drain your energy as well. The company is focused on intrapreneurship. We encourage each person working for us to have an ownership mindset. They should be able to scale and grow or disagree freely and openly. The next thing which I appreciate the most, is integrity. We work in a retail organization and cash transactions happen constantly, but we never compromise for any cash-related situations. We have an open office concept. The idea is to enfosterr transparency and reinforce integrity in the entire organization. Communication and team alignment also plays a very important role. This instills passion and ownership.

‘I believe that when you’re in a growth stage you need to have an authoritarian style of leadership. And as you professionalize the company to a larger degree, the leadership style tends to become more collaborative’

What are some of the X-factors that you would like to have in leaders who work with you?

A passion and excitement for their work, integrity, being good listeners who think independently, aggression and being able to make decisions quickly weighing all the pros and cons. These are essential traits in the leaders who work with me. I like to work with people who challenge the status quo, are receptive and don’t hesitate to question me if they have a valid point to make. In retail, you need to be adaptive, agile and nimble. The customer is ever changing. Yesterday’s wow is today’s now so it is important that leaders are able to evolve to keep up with changing times and customer preferences.

If you could go back in time, let’s say 10 years, what advice would you give to the younger Farah?

 Honestly, it would be about working with the right people. Being a family-run company, we have an emotional bond with the employees which is a big part of our culture. But it has its pros and cons. Sometimes it stops us from taking harsh decisions and not getting infresh talent when required. I believe that it’s good to have a balance of both.

So, being excited about your team would be one piece of advice that I would give to a younger Farah.

Whenever you have a new concept or an idea, it has a lot to do with people management. 10 years ago, even I wasn’t aware of it. From failures and mistakes, I realized that any project is almost 90% change and people management. I would also have told a younger Farah to aggressively adopt technology and digital.

What is your long-term vision and how do you go about cascading it down?

 We believe, we have a strong foundation which makes it easy for us to expand. Our vision is to be the most innovative footwear, footcare and accessories company obsessed by customer delight delivered by passionate people.

We don’t want to grow vertically. We want to keepthe organisationrelatively flat. In order to get our teams aligned, we do a lot. Recently we did a complete restructure of our supply chain team. It’s easier when you make the team, a part of the decision making . We give them the right tools to help them, come to a decision As a result, they will be as passionate about it, like you.

When you give people the framework and the freedom to run it their way, it brings in a sense of ownership, which will help them make decisions similar to yours. If there is ownership in decision making, then you don’t have to infuse passion.

‘If you have a passionate team who strongly believes in your vision, and is fully aligned with where you want to take the company, then nobody can stop you from attaining success’

In addition, we set very clear and measurable goals and ensure that the Company Goals cascade into every employee’s KRAs. This way, through clear communication about expectations, the teams are aligned towards achievement.

 What is that one piece of advice that you find yourself giving to the younger generation?

Here’s my piece of advice to the younger generation – ‘Choose an organisation wherein the value systems are aligned. Personal satisfaction is most important. Enjoy the experience and maximise your learning’

 If you have the opportunity to ask only one question and basis that determine whether to hire a candidate or not, what could that question be?

 Well, that’s a tough one. However, I would ask ‘Tell me how you’ll spend the first 90 days in our company?’ My expectation would be, the activities, questions, and people with whom they will be interacting.This will help me understand, whether they have the right mindset or not.

However, there is never that one question that determines the decision. It completely depends on the interaction. If someone interprets any question differently, I will have to come up with a different line of questioning. We give a lot of importance to reference checks. We do a three-tier reference check, where we check with people under them, at their level and above them. It’s like a 360-feel of the candidate.

What do you think is the most critical competency of a Great Manager?

For our front-end managers, I believe, that people who are super motivated and have an equally motivated team under them perform the best. We have a morning huddle at the stores, where the manager recaps the previous day and motivates their team, sets targets, reviews inventory, etc. 65% of motivation should come from within and 35% is from the way organisation works, learning, growth, promotions.

For our backend, it’s important for a manager to be to be a good listener and a quick decision-maker. It’s important to take data driven and well informed decisions.

Encourage and listen to new ideas that come from the team and put it forward, to ensure that suchinnovations and ideas are notkilled at the lower level.

The Great Manager Awards Program is an initiative by ‘People Business’ to identify, recognize and reward “Companies with Great Managers" in India.

Self-Motivated, Good listener & Quick Decision Maker : X-Factors of a Great Managers

In this edition of the ‘CEO Insights,’ we have Mr. 

, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Aviva India. In his conversation with Rahul Mahajan, Country-Lead of 

, he shares with us his approach and vision he looks forward to as a leader.

Who have been some of your influencers and mentors in life?

 When it comes to mentors, there are people who I have worked with, and there are influencers I’ve read about who inspired me a lot. So, the first person to come to my mind is Mr. P Dwarakanath, who used to be the Head HR for GSK Consumer Healthcare. As I started my corporate career, he advised me that, it’s easy to write a cheque, but as an HR person, you need to understand how much revenue we have to earn to be able to write that cheque, and that has been a philosophy that prodded me to understand business.

There are other personalities that I look up to, like Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela, who have inspired me with their perseverance and grit. Their ability to let go and move on and not holding on to things really impressed me a lot. If you look at Nelson Mandela, despite being held captive for 24 years, he had never held on to any grudge against the white population. And if you look at Mahatma Gandhi, his ability to let go and move on with his own mission has been a great learning experience for me.

I’ve also been influenced by a lot of young people. I seek the company of young people who I want to talk to, understand, and who challenge me to build a mindset that pushes away the feeling that ‘I have been there and done that, and ‘I know it all.’ It’s about where I can learn and get challenged. Their conversations give me the opportunity to think differently and to challenge my own perception.

 What advice would you give to other HR leaders who aspire to become CEOs in the near future?

 I believe that to become a CEO is a very individual aspiration, and I don’t think everyone has to have that aspiration. So, becoming a CEO should not be the ultimate aim for any HR person. It should be about what they want to do in life.

Secondly, if you want to become a CEO irrespective of whether you start in HR, finance or marketing, you need to understand the business. I think we are in an age where we need to understand the business starting from the customer and should be able to link it to how you can influence those customers. A lot of HR professionals underestimate the opportunity that they have in the organization to be able to link and influence the customer. Secondly, they have to see HR as leadership or a driving function and not as an enabling or a support function. HR is as much as a support and an enabler as finance is to distribution. The third thing that I always tell the HR people is to not shy away from metrics as it always helps. If we cannot measure something, we should be the first person to stand up and say that it is intangible and cannot be measured. But on a scale of 10, 7-8, things should always be tangible and measurable.

If you have an aspiration to do something other than HR, seek that opportunity early in your career, as it’s easier to do that and then come back to HR rather than doing it later in your career. The higher you go up in the hierarchy, the more difficult it becomes for you to have a parallel move outside of HR.

 What is your approach towards defining the vision and ensuring that your leaders and employees are working towards it?

 think the tone is set at the top. Many a time, we just explain what we need and leave it to the people to drive the project.

‘If the customer is your focus, then you should ensure that you ask about the customers at the executive level and should also understand how to deal with the customers at the executive level.’

Secondly, the team should concentrate on developing the 2-3 things which the organization will need to get behind the focus. Now, whether they are drivers or business goals, it depends on the organization and the leadership team. But whatever those two or three things are, the leadership team is committing to stand behind and drive, that has to be woven into the fabric of everything you do. Just like the organizational values, your key areas for your strategy for your vision need to be focused on.

And the third one is communication. You need to communicate to everyone how they will be contributing to that vision to build the linkage, as a lot of people often forget about what they need to contribute as a leader towards the vision. I agree that it becomes difficult and fuzzier as you go lower down the hierarchy. But at my level or at a middle management level, it gets clearer because the organization goals and individual goals start to overlap far better at a higher level and far distant at the junior level. For example, a call center executive may have a very different goal than my goal to increase the profitability and growth of the organization. Growth can come from two parts – from acquiring new customers as well as from retaining the existing ones. And as leaders, we should be able to ensure that linkage.

If you had the opportunity to ask only one question in an interview and decide basis that whether to hire the candidate or not, what could that question be?

 Everyone can talk a lot about their achievements. But it takes a lot of courage, vulnerability, and authenticity to be able to talk about your failures and your learnings. I can go on for three hours talking about my achievements in 22 years of my experience and would still need more time to think about my failures. Often people confuse failures with regrets. But those are two completely different things. So, I would ask,

‘What are your top three failures, and what have you learned from them?’

And if you have a person who is able to do that, it tells you about the amount of risk that the person can take, and also their quality and ability to deal with adversity. It also tells you about whether the person has learned from his or her failures as well, and that’s the reason why I said three and not 1. So, the learning ability is what I look at. It’s okay to make a mistake, but it’s what you do after that, matters the most.

 What, according to you, is the most critical competency of a Great Manager?

The first and foremost one is achievement orientation. Do not confuse it with ambition because achievement orientation is your willingness to own a task and do it.

Second, I think, is courage and conviction. Because while a lot of leaders are expected to develop this, I believe that it has to start from the fabric of an individual. Courage and conviction to be able to talk to your superior and to disagree with them are important because if you don’t build on it now, then you’ll never be able to build it up as you’ll start getting a feeling that you won’t be needing this to grow, and it will gradually stop you from developing on it.

The Third thing would be to understand your team and getting them to deliver. As a leader, I need to understand each one of my teampersonally, what thier individual goals are, and how do I go about having a conversation with them individually to help achieve that goal.

What are some of the leadership lessons that you have learned in the last year?

I believe that this was the first time that we all experienced VUCA in our professional lives. But imagine the world coming to a stop one day; you are enclosed in your house, having to run a business with everyone in your house. I think that’s the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that we looked at. The economy was going down, people were losing jobs, and we were staying at home and running business.

During this crisis, I learned a lot about resilience. I believe in ourvalue called ‘never rest,’ which is ‘I will never rest until I do more for our employees and our customers

‘When in crisis, you need to look at the best person to do a job, and you should be able to cut across the hierarchy if that person can take responsibility, irrespective of experience and age.’

Sometimes it is important to not have the baggage of the past. How soon you can shed the baggage of your past becomes very important in a crisis. I think empathy becomes a big leadership trait that has manifested itself as a need for leaders to be successful. In a crisis, empathy is equally important to your achievement orientation, drive, and execution. It has to be balanced by the right amount of empathy.

What is the most common advice that you find yourself giving to the Gen Z population?

 The one piece of advice that I would like to give is to understand and accept the consequence of their choice. They have a lot of choices that my generation did not have, be it in career, personal or a profession. But they must understand that once they make a choice, they have to deal with its consequences. This will help them become more mature and stable. Be it good or bad, try to understand the consequences, and you should always try to stand by your choice.

What is the challenge that you face as a leader when it comes to people management?

 A lot of people believe in ‘I look good because someone else looks bad.’ I think that understanding of ‘I look good because I am good’ solves a lot of problems when it comes to teams. And if you get this together, then you extrapolate it to say that we all look good as a team because we are good as a team. And I think that full understanding across all levels of hierarchy is something that I always want people to have, and that is what I always communicate to people.

Rahul is the Country Lead of Great Manager Awards and has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Great Manager Awards program in partnership with The Economic Times over the last 6 years in India. Rahul closely works with Business &amp; HR leaders to help them identify and develop successors for their organization.

Great Manager Awards Program is an initiative by ‘People Business’ to identify, recognize and reward “Companies with Great Managers" in India. This program enables the participant organizations to compare and benchmark themselves and their managers across the industry. It helps organizations create real competitive advantage through its managers.

Achievement Orientation, Courage & Conviction are essential to being a Great Manager

In this edition of ‘CEO Insights’, as part of the Great Manager Awards, we have 

Raheja QBE General Insurance Company Limited

, Country-Lead of Great Manager Awards, he shares with us his experience as a CEO.

 What’s your leadership style, and what are some of the do’s and don’ts around you?

For me, it starts with our people. My core competency is building businesses and I do that by recruiting the best talent, establishing a clear vision, inspiring them to reach their full potential and then empowering them to lead the company’s future growth. As a business guy, I connect more with the relationships and skills build on the ground more than the strategies made in the board room. My very first leadership role started with leading a team of 12 people across two functions. What clicked the most was my ability to really connect with people and that’s something that has stayed with me over the years.

My personal philosophy on leadership is best described by the relationship between a coach and his players, it is not the job of the coach to put greatness into players, but rather getting the player to believe that greatness already exists inside of them. The role of a coach is to reach for a goal with vast challenges, develop the playbook and invest time/resources in the player so that greatness emerges.;;I follow a participative model, where I initially lead by setting direction and sharing that playbook, motivating people around a set of principles and then stepping back to let them do their best work. I let them capitalise on my experience with their ability to bring in the millennial innovation to arrive at a combination which works best in the interest of the organisation. I'm a big believer in defend your people to the death when you have to so that they feel secure in their own ability to challenge conventions.

 What’s the most common piece of advice that you find yourself giving the younger generation?

 For me, leadership starts with a more human approach to business. I place huge value on sharing opportunities with the team and showing my constant passion for the brand whilst operating a complete open-door policy.;I want our employees to feel as excited about Quintessentially as I do, and strive for them to feel empowered and inspired by me and the company, as ultimately it is a passionate and engaged team who will help drive our business success. Hence;my advice to them would be to stay humble. The higher you go up the ladder, the more humble one should be. Once you lose your humility, arrogance kicks in which can be detrimental to your success and growth. You won’t notice it until you hit rock bottom with that attitude. So, stay humble and stay grounded. Try to learn from every conversation that you have as learning comes from everyone.

‘No matter how successful you’ve become, always keep your feet on the ground’

Another piece of advice that I would like to give them is about trust. My boss always used to say that for every 10 people that you would bet on, one will always prove you wrong. But that doesn’t mean that you should stop trusting people.;;Be the force beneath their wings and let them fly.;This will help in building loyalty and strengthening emotional bonds, and will eventually foster a;culture that nurtures employees and puts the people first.

Also, whenever there is a crisis, I immediately get involved and help my team by giving them the required support. I’m a firm believer in small experiments. So ‘Experiment fast and fail fast if needed’ has been my motto. So, another piece of advice that I always promote is

‘Take small risks from a mundane thing that you do, and try to add value’

 If you were to choose a successor, what qualities would you look at from a CEO successor?

 For me, it’s not just about the skills, but also their ability to see the bigger picture and to convey what each leader will contribute towards it, matters more. My role, as a CEO, is to identify the vision and to cascade it down the line. At the end of the day, it’s your responsibility to achieve what you’ve promised to the board and the stakeholders. So it is important, to understand what actually the priority is and what is important. And if that person has the wisdom to look at it holistically, then he can monitor around well.

Another major requirement is their ability to manage the stakeholders. Because, at this level, there will be tons of stakeholders who will be very demanding. So understanding the requirement and getting back to them in a timely and appropriate manner is also a key factor to be kept in consideration.

 In an interview, if you have the opportunity to ask one question and based on that determine whether to hire the candidate or not, what could that question be?

 So, I would ask, ‘What value add will you bring to the table’. We can always train people to develop skills, but what additional value add that person brings in, matters the most. It will also help me gauge thementality,openness, andpositivityin that person. These are the skills that I look for while hiring.

 How do you go about cascading down your vision to the leadership team?

 You need to set up a vision in terms of what you want to do as a leader and where you want to reach as an organisation. Cascading it down to the leadership team is very crucial. It depends on the quality of leadership that you have built. As a result, selection of the team becomes very important. In my career, I’ve always picked people with positive attitude, who are willing to go an extra mile. I have looked at people who have proven themselves in smaller brand names, because their zeal to prove themselves is far more than someone who’s been working in a larger brand name. I look at people who can work and build process in a chaotic environment. Coincidently I have worked a lot in start-ups where I had to create an organisation and this skillset becomes very handy.

Once you have a well-defined leadership team that is aligned with your thought process, half your job is done. Post that communication plays a key role. We conduct company-wide townhalls and team meetings to focus on each vertical. Having said that, I dive in only when required, as I leave it to the leaders to drive it.

 If you had the opportunity to go back 10 years in time and advice the younger Pankaj on leadership behaviours, what could that be?

I have always been a very patient leader. Because I have always believed in people, I would often give long ropes to them and sometimes it would get into wrong hands as well. So if I have the opportunity to go back in time, I would take corrective actions sooner than I did to reduce the damages that were caused due to that. In a group of 100, 90 would have done it exceptionally well. But even after identifying the remaining 10, I should have held back the ropes immediately rather than delaying it. So, to take actions sooner, is one learning that I always carry with myself.

According to you, what is the most critical competency of a Great Manager?

 The most critical one is people management. As a manager you need to be a people’s person. It doesn’t mean that you should please everyone. But you should be able to know what to and how to get things done, and still have a good hand in dealing with people. The second one is the ability to understand the vision. As a manager you need to understand the expectations, the organisation has from you as well as your team. It is important for their performance as well. And the third one, which applies to all, is the willingness and the ability to learn. Learning should never stop. You should always have the will to learn more.

‘Bringing in the small things that you learn in your day-to-day activities into your work life is very critical’

Rahul is the Country Lead of Great Manager Awards and has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Great Manager Awards program in partnership with The Economic Times over the last 6 years in India. Rahul closely works with Business ; HR leaders to help them identify and develop successors for their organization.

 Program is an initiative by ‘People Business’ to identify, recognize and reward “Companies with Great Managers" in India. This program enables the participant organizations to compare and benchmark themselves and their managers across the industry. It helps organizations create real competitive advantage through its managers.

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