E-LEADERSHIP in
the E-MILLENNIUM
By Dr.Anil K Khandelwal,Executive Director,Bank of Baroda

The amazing rate at which the methodologies and technologies are changing in the new millennium has put immense demands on businesses to remain better connected with their customers. The focus of all progressive organisations has shifted to reinventing their internal systems and procedures so as to attain cost effective yet productive tools for profitable operations. Progressive thinkers are shaking off their feudal attitudes and adopting the new business culture. The e-millennium has thus put tremendous pressure on organisational leaders.

The definition of leadership has undergone remarkable metamorphosis in the new millennium. Leadership is now not only about raising corporations, but also spearheading them with a bright spark and leading them to becoming vibrant and flourishing entities. It involves planning the impossible to making it possible. Attach premium on innovation, cherish and nurture creativity of people. Spearheading imagination and its execution is the name of the new leadership game. It does all about making people in the organisation believe in themselves. The leader who stifles creativity will end up stifling not only its people but also the organisation. Alongside, the spotlight should also be on proactive endeavours and pursuits, which require continuous focus and attention lest the business outfit manifests it into archaic obsolescence. In fact, organisations that proactively obsolete their own innovations instead of waiting for others doing it foster a faster pace of progress.

Focus on profitability coupled with increasing pressures for derisking businesses is making hair-raising demands on the corporate leaders. There are no shortcuts and the challenge is to aim for higher revenues while trying to lower costs. It's a tight ropewalk for the leader against adverse blowing winds. Leadership also lies in the art of dreaming and thinking about it. Strange but true. Practicing "mental digestion" and mulling over newer ideas yield productive strategies. However, competitive strategies not only involve planning but also have a lot to do with insights. Scenario planning and anticipating the future hold the key. However, planning and boardroom discussions cannot be termed as strategy formulation for achieving success.

No leader is a "know-all". No leader is an "expert". Simply put, the leader does not know it all. But he must eternally have the fundamental curiosity about the product or service. The leader who migrates from a solitary mind to a mastermind of pooled up brains gives a strong foothold to participative leadership styles in the organisation. A true leader values the differences yet has the ability to survive in a lonely spot.

Identify key people and smarter people, groom and empower them, motivate and retain them. This is the new age mantra, which ensures that organisations remain throbbing with accelerated action. There can be no two opinions that people like to work where things happen. Attracting intellectual capital and retaining them poses a hard challenge. And yet the bigger challenge to the leader is to establish systems that leverage the human capital and facilitate individual and collective excellence.

Money is not always the motivator. The leader who sets motivation by example can set the ball rolling down in the hierarchy to follow the dictum of motivating the workers. Traits of transparency and honesty respected by a leader motivate people in the organisation to operate and function in an atmosphere of confidence and trust. Being an unfair boss is a damning quality. The aura of trust-worthiness and fairness exuded by the leader, makes the people feel safe and ensconced in a cocoon of self-confidence.

Being approachable and having an unassuming behaviour has a salutary effect on the morale of people. But never be hypocritically humble. People are sharp enough to perceive any inane or charlatan action or behaviour on part of the leader.

The bulk of a leader's work is reliant on listening to others. The leader who always insists that the others listen to him is in for a major fiasco and catastrophe. While self-assurance is really good, but excessive self-assurance leads to egotism. Don't leave the mind slightly ajar. Keep it always open. Open mindedness and active and attentive listening never hurt any leader.

The Ostrich approach has had many an organization come crumbling down. Never underestimate the external threats. Groom the people to efficiently handle disruptions, to be proactively resilient towards problem prediction and solving and above all to manage change. The leader must develop the organization's capacity to respond and manage change effectively. In today's world, recognise the dictum of globalisation and information technology and either change or die. This is the hard reality, which the leader must counteract through structured and proficient transformations. But the more bench marking you do, the more you look alike others. Build unique competencies.

Sometimes a "win" is possible if you change the rules of the game. The leader's winning attitude builds a winning team, which in turn leads to a winning organization. The best way to predict the organization's future is to invent it today. Bravely face risky propositions with hard-hitting strategies and it are these strategies that invent the future. Enhanced corporate governance and building a responsive chain and structure of customer relationship management are the ingredients for prolonged survival in the corporate world.

Building an organization is like building a brand. A brand that has a distinctive stamp of your leadership ability. Managing expectations, managing diversity, managing performance, managing growth, managing technology et al but above all managing self decides upon the success or failure of your leadership.