Corporate Leadership

Corporate Leadership


It was indeed a reliving to note that the new Satyam Board has worked out a package for its ten thousand employees. It had been reported today that the 10,000 excess staff at Satyam Computer Services are set to be offered 40% of their salary for six months along with medical insurance and provident fund in what can be termed as a severance package being firmed up by the beleaguered IT firm. The above gesture of supporting employees by a company despite undergoing such a financial turmoil is reflected only in Indian ethos. The foundations of core Indian values of a considering even the employees as a family members and ensuring their well being speaks highly of the value system of the Indian companies. This is the reason that in time of recession Indians abroad are coming back to India. They know that even if the salary may not be high but there is a lot of stability and security while working in India . They have learnt it a hard way that the foreign firms will only look for profits and margins. For them employees can be hired and fired any movement. The foreign firms may be talking strongly about their value system, may be putting it all across their offices, have it printed on their cups and stationary but the only thing they lack is they are not able to internalize those values. There is a mark difference between words and action. It is a bitter reality that while working in a foreign firm your boss may ask for your resignation in a telephonic discussion at 6.10 pm and will expect it in his mail box by 6.13 pm (three minutes given for typing the resignation e-mail; unless an employee is not smart enough to have a draft resignation e-mail always ready in his draft folder. )

But if we look at the virtues which an employee looks forward in a company. I think the answer will be fulfillment of body, heart,mind and soul. By body (please keep off the dirty mind) I mean that an employee should get a good salary, by heart I mean that the superiors and juniors should have good relations. By mind I mean that there is knowledge growth for the employee and by soul I refer that the employee should be allowed to work with integrity. If an organization ensures that all above are fulfilled then an employee will never leave the organization. Having worked in diverse organizations I would like to share my experiences on the same. One of the company I worked in had many of us new joiners on bench. We were getting good salary but for a person like me there there was no growth of mind (no work). Another place I worked I experienced strong issues of soul. There were serious issues of malpractices in that organization. Another organization I worked was perfect in mind, heart and soul but was a little lacking in needs of body (salary). But for a person like me my longest tenure was with this organization only and I think it will be correct for most of us (atleast Indians) that while working we look for satisfaction of our heart, mind and soul. Another organization I joined was highest on the heart, good on the body (salary) , acceptable on mind (knowledge) but there was serious soul searching required there. One of my boss in this organization told me to go and give tickets to one of the clients. I had to oblige him at that movement but within a week my boss got my resignation, I do not think if till date my ex-boss realizes that what may have gone wrong. I could not also tell him as there were excellent rapport of the heart. Infect this was one organization where everyone was a kind of close knit family. Another firm I worked was excellent on body (salary), infect if I look back there were no parallel to that salary. But beyond salary there was nothing more – your boss will have rarely talked to you, you would be using your own limited knowledge to work and despite having a greatest value system there were serious issues of soul.

It is also rightly said that an employee never leaves an organization but he leaves his manager. Infect its is a manager drives people away. Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue. There are managers who always keep an eye on their subordinates,themselves or through their other juniors. But if an employer suspects an employees intension then employees will also do the same. Any ways any kind of monitoring on an employee signifies lack of trust. There are organizations which spread false and malicious information, which make an employee part of a false ecosystem, where employees live in false situations, with false people often developing illusions about themselves and their work. Such an organization which presents a total lie to its employees will always fail, because truth is so strong that it cannot be hidden. And a small mistake is good enough to discover the whole truth. In some organizations when an employee raises a point on ethics, he will be put to great scrutiny so that some vested interest may ensure his character assassination. But does the organizations believe that a person is so naive to understand what goes behind the scene.
N R Naryana Muthy in an article on Rediff.com says that “Do not think your employees are dumb and can be taken for any ride (even water ride). They are also thinking individuals. Set practical goals, not dreams that others of relatively less genius can relate to.”

There are other organization and many times the HR experts who may conduct fake interviews to know if a resource is leaving or is staying back. The term is often refereed to as the interview trap. Many a times existing employers also take help of consultants to interview their employees who may be showing inclination to leave. But one must imagine that an employee will never give an interview in broad public view in the office of existing employer. HR must be smart enough to understand that they are falling in the same trap which they had created for the employee. Such an organization quickly falls on the parameter of trust and ethics of an employee. A person may leave such an organization but he will leave after leaving a strong foundation of the need for change. It is essence of truth that it will always come out but what requires as a character is the strength in a person that he is able to speak truth. The hollow incidents will always make even a toughest of person as weak.

As of individuals there are many people in an organization who will be YES SIR, YES MAM. There will be others whose focus of all activity is pleasing their boss. I call them spine less beings. There boss tells them to bend and they will lay down on the floor. But a person who has strength to call a spade a spade is the true employee of the company. He may be thought as a stubborn, non flexible and what more. But it is this individual only who shows the truth to management. It is the organizations misfortune that if such a person is shown a door. An employee with strong value system may take time to shine but when he shines he will enlighten many. An organization must evaluate a short term gain or a long term loss.

Organizations also need to understand the concept of social inclusion in essence which is to have an approach helping the underprivileged by investing in them to bring them into the mainstream. The same is an excellent approach where everyone is considered as a potential wealth creator and any investment in them by company is an investment in their human capital. Indian organizations like Infosys, Tata, Wipro are succeeding because they have a strong value system (in practice rather than on paper) and they do pass this value system to their employees. And it is this value system that stays with the individuals for the lifetime. Organizations must look inside and realize that were they to truthful to an employee as to expect his best performance. An employee will always identify the mirage or the hollow values created before him. An employee will stay back in organization if he has to look up to his boss and leave the movement he has to look down to his boss

Vasudevan Thulsidas who was one of the key leaders in the merger of Air India and Indian Airlines always said that, “My employees are my greatest resources, not the aircraft”



Organizations must realize that the talented men will leave and the dead wood stays on. The talented few are never stationary. They are always on the move like the wind. One has to be “Truly a Narayanaa” who can ensure that the blowing winds stay calm. But if one thinks that one is the only “victorious prince” then the wind of course will blow him off. If one feels that he is only symbol of “advancement” then one will not realize how fast will the wind advance. If one feels that he is “gigantic” and others are small; one will not even realize when the under current passed over. If one is “born of dust” the wind will take those particles along and will leave those particles at its wish. And if one is the “tree full of fragrance” the air will further spread the fragrance. Or if one is a “honeybee” who instead of giving sweetness stings then the wind will blow off its nest. We must realize that wind has power to conquer even the “unconquered”. In case one is a boss who resembles “a song sung by the Supreme for the soul when the soul was in a state of melancholy and undergoing the stage of dejection” then such a boss becomes the founding principles of one's career. Only an honest boss can pass his honesty to his employees. All I meant was that the employee will always get the qualities of his employer. A calm employer will give his calmness to his employees, an egoistic employer will pass on his ego, an honest employer his honesty. The fact remains an employee will follow the standards set up by his employer. The combination of a “moon crest” and air is the most superior combination of all because its the situation where calmness meets calmness. Organizations must try to achieve that state of calmness for its progress. And an employer has to be a boss who “does not cause sorrow” and ensures that the employee lives in calm in the organization.

.Al said the organizations need to understand the two Sanskrit verses and they are Sathyannasti Paro Dharma (there is no dharma greater than adherence to truth); and Satyameva jayate (truth alone triumphs). These two verses are essence of good corporate leadership in my view.

(this article is also available at http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/vision-india/ )