Column: Leadership Secrets

LEADERSHIP SECRETS
People, They Matter

By Harish Bijoor, COO, Zip Telecom

Leadership is all about people-orientation. During my long and exciting years in the areas of commodities, FMCGs, and now in technology and telecom, my people-centric style has never let me down.

As I have grown through functional hierarchies, moving through the tumult of systems-organised, disorganised, and yet-to-be-organised-I have seen myself as thoroughly human-oriented. While everything else is pretty clonal, be it technology, logistics or systems, the one thing unique in any management system is the way a CEO deals with his people.

Management guru Shiv Khera once asked me what my management style was, and why I was considered a successful manager. He was looking for an analogy to explain my approach to management. I looked around the hotel where we were talking, opened the mini-bar in the room, and whipped out a bottle of soda from the fridge. No! I am not the bottle of soda! I am the bottle-opener. I have believed myself to be the bottle-opener that prises open the crown to let out the fizz and potential of the liquid in the bottle.

People form the problem as well as the solution. The fine art of management hinges heavily on how you understand people and stand with them in times of trouble and challenge alike. If your people trust you as a leader, they will give you their best. If they don't, they will pretend they are giving you their best. This is corporate charade at its best. Going beneath the skin of it is essential for success.

Being genuine is essential in this day and age when there is so much of distrust and game- playing at the workplace. People automatically gravitate towards the leader who is honest and straightforward. People are looking for the truth. If they find it in you as a leader, they will come to you... and perform. Honesty is not old-fashioned anymore.

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