Life Lessons in Leadership

Being the CEO of Synechron for over 17 years now has given me the unique opportunity of being in the leadership role through its various stages of growth - from a new born startup to a thriving 8,000 person strong firm operating at a global level. Over this period, I’ve tried to understand my unique style of leadership as well as study others who have been in similar journeys. 

What I’ve learned is that leadership is much more than being the decision maker in charge of budget, people and projects. Leadership is the ability to see a vision with the ability to inspire others to achieve it. Leadership is the ability to develop clarity from complexity. It is the ability to develop a high-performance culture which lives beyond the CEO. 

Vision and Inspiration

It all starts with the vision or “the dream” - the ability to imagine something that does not exist today and others do not see. The vision should be big enough and should be a result of one’s passion so that it can inspire others. A leader must be a very good story teller and have the ability to “sell the dream” to customers and employees.

Team building and a high-performance culture

The ability to build/assemble a team of high-caliber individuals that can allow the venture from start-up to scale-up is crucial. Some people, not very successful ones, believe that they have all skills, and they are the best. These type of people do not hire others who are potentially smarter than themselves. True leaders are those who seek out others that are the best in their fields and are not threatened by it. 

Developing a high-performance culture that makes people test their boundaries and “push-the-envelope” is necessary to building a high-performance company. Making people push the boundaries because they want to rather than being pushed to is even more important. 

Tolerating mediocrity and sub-par performance is the surest way to end up as a failed organization. 

Execution and the art of "getting-things-done”

Whoever said "Execution eats strategy for breakfast” could not be more right. Not to say strategy is not important, but the ability to get things done and change course quickly when needed (agility) is more important. It is the leader’s main responsibility to make sure that things get done in the organization. This all starts with decision making. If decision making takes a long time, then execution will most likely take long. Many companies suffer from an analysis-paralysis situation, and no one is more responsible than the person at the top of the company for this. 

Hard decisions 

Integral to every leader’s role is the responsibility of making the tough decisions. These could be related to personnel, parts of the business and even customers. These are decisions that are uncomfortable, unpleasant and painful but are in the larger interest of the business. A leader carries a lot of responsibility on his or her shoulders and never it is more visible than the times when hard decisions need to be made. 

Humility, Humbleness and staying calm. 

The rarest and perhaps greatest quality of a true leader is to maintain humility and humbleness during times of success and maintain calmness and a cool temper when the seas are rough. A leader who engages in hubris will never generate the inspiration and loyalty of his/her team. Similarly, a volatile leader who looses temper and calmness will make for an uncomfortable environment with unpredictability.

As a company grows, it will need more leaders than just the CEO or founder. It will need a leadership team (+1’s) and beyond (+2’s and +3’s). The ultimate feat of leadership is to create an organization where the above qualities have been institutionalized rather than person dependent. This is ultimately what makes an organization last beyond its founders. For this, the founding team has the responsibility of teaching the culture to others and creating new leaders in the organization. 

Though it is almost two decades in my role, I continue to seek new ideas and thoughts about what it means to be a leader. We should not only think about leadership in the context of business. One can be a leader in our families and communities and society at large. We all have a responsibility in adding value to the world in which we came.