Leadership of every hue and cry has been covered in over 437, 869 book titles available on Amazon.com alone (Search for Leader). Not to speak of countless blog posts, magazine and newspaper articles on the subject.

Judging from the reams of material that has been written and from personal experience, Leadership is a tough topic and it is clear that we don’t understand it that well.  Therefore, it is seductive to boil leadership down to a set of formulae:

• Try this small exercise with me - think of any number N from 1 to 50 and search for N leadership traits and you are likely to find an article(s)/book(s) like the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,  36 traits of leaders,10 characteristics of leaders, 21 indispensable qualities of leaders …

• It is also inspiring to read about great leaders and insights drawn from their experiences.  Therefore, you get to read the leadership wisdom of people starting from Sun Tzu to Steve Jobs.

It is all about the Leader

The one unifying pattern that emerges from reading the popular leadership press is that it seems to be all about the leader and his/her skills.  There is some wisdom bandied about - on choosing the right people , making sure you eliminate the people who don’t fit your vision, etc.  But for the most part, leadership is about seeking to become the ideal leader with all the N qualities depending on whose N you believe in.  With all this talk about the Leader,  if becoming a leader seems like a Herculean task, you are not alone.

The 21st Century Leader

Having been in leadership roles for the past 18 years, i don’t think it was ever about the leader 100%. Now, in the 21st century, with the latest and greatest communication and management tools, the leader is much much less important. Only those leaders, who grasp this counter-intuitive insignificance of themselves, are going to succeed. John Chambers, The legendary CEO of Cisco recently articulated this shift:

“The CEO role at Cisco going back over the last five to 10 years has been very much ‘command and control’ and I think we do it pretty well, and if we say ‘turn right,’ 65,000 people turn right,” Chambers said.

“That’s very effective when you’re in a couple product areas or one or two major cross-functional initiatives per year. It is not an effective leadership style or organization structure if you’re moving into a lot of market adjacencies and you have a lot of major cross-functional priorities.”

This whole obsession with, who the leader is and what his/her personality is, is a vestige from the command and control era of management.  The 21st century leadership will be marked by a totally different style - which i decided to call UnLeadership.

Developing the UnLeadership Manifesto

I would like to engage the community on this blog in developing this manifesto.  The community has delivered the goods many times before including the mission impossible - can passion be taught?

Here is what i propose we should do - build a set of rules for the UnLeader and in the next pass recommend the tools that will be needed.

That would be my first one on the manifesto - 1. Instill passion in your team.

No Asshole Rule

One of my favorite authors Bob Sutton has written a fantastic book called No Asshole Rule recently.  This is a must read to understand what one should never do as a leader.  This would be my recommendation for the second rule - 2. Never be an Asshole.

Inspiration

In order to inspire you all to the task at hand, i would like you all to spend 1 hour and 16 min watching this video from Professor Randy Pausch, famously known as the Last Lecture. I will guarantee you that this will be one of the best 1 hour and 16 min you have ever spent watching a lecture. [Sadly he passed away yesterday]

Epilog

Now for the community to develop the rest of the rules - decision making, dealing with/developing expertise, empowerment, performance management (vision, goal setting, reviews etc) and any other category you want to add.  Numbered lists are seductive indeed, so let us keep our list to 10.  Most important thing to bear in mind - don’t be held hostage to existing models of leadership, let us rewrite the rules. I am also tagging bloggers that i know are passionate about leadership - Ganesh Vaideeswaran, Arun Sankaranarayanan , Ranjit Nair and Subba Muthurangan .  I am hoping other bloggers will also join in and help create the framework.

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Updated Oct 10, 2008 - Nirmala, a KM professional joined the conversation with several insights on her blog. Thanks for the link Nirmala.

Prolog:

Teaching passion is one of my favorite areas. I started thinking about this again because i felt we have not been able to package the superb discussion that this topic has generated. Lots of people contributed to the discussion, but the main sparks were - Larzini’s Viral Passion idea, Milind Sathe’s Trigger, Sujatha’s 3 categories of people, Priya Raju’s Big Picture , Ganesh’s Learnt Vs. Taught and finally Archana Raghuram’s passive passion.

That insightful comment of hers has been ringing in my head for a while now. A few days ago, the proverbial light bulb went off in my head.

3 levels of passion

Where does being passionate about something lead you? It makes you better in that chosen area and depending on the degree of passion you have, you can truly become a world-class expert in that area over time.   The light bulb moment occurred to me, when i realized the connection between expertise and passion.

1. No passion - you just like music or cricket or dance or whatever, but the liking is not strong enough to even be at the passive passion level. In this case, the expertise over time grows at a snail’s pace. This is the lower most trajectory in the diagram above.

2. Passionate Consumer - you are passionate about something - you have a strong/distinct liking for the topic. You start gaining expertise. This is the second trajectory in the middle. Expertise grows more rapidly over time compared to the no-passion category.  For instance, i am passionate about music, and due to that i know a bit about music. I could not call myself an expert, but i know enough to separate the wheat from the chaff.

From Larzini’s comment, you can say that people that are virally passionate are also at this level. They are passionate about something, they do produce, but not yet that passionate - thanks to the infectious passion of the leader or a friend or a trigger or a powerful goal/vision.

3. Passionate Producer - You are so passionate about something, that you actually start producing/practicing. If you are passionate about paintings you start painting etc. The act of doing something/producing something that can either be self-critiqued or critiqued by others creates a powerful feedback loop in your brain pushing you to a greater and greater degree of excellence in that topic.  This is the third trajectory in the diagram above which shows expertise growing much more rapidly.

How to become passionate?

If you integrate all the 3 categories, you can see that exposure to new topics can help build passion, immersing yourself in that activity can increase the passion to the 2nd level and starting to produce can take the passion to the next level.

Ambition can provide the fuel for passion. In the corporate context, setting a powerful goal or creating a powerful vision can be that fuel to create viral passion. In all 3 levels, associating oneself with passionate people can have a great impact. Even if you are an expert, associating with other passionate experts can increase your expertise further.

A sense of competition can help create powerful goals/visions. As long as the competition is healthy, competition is a great driving force.

Although, technically you can become an expert in anything you choose to apply your passion to, making sure you have the aptitude for the topic, is important. Again a wide-ranging exposure may help you determine the things that you have the natural flair for.

Career

Recently we did some surveys inside our company and we found that passionate bloggers and passionate musicians (our Euphony band that i talked about) are top performers in the company. Once you are a passionate producer in something, that rubs off on everything you do including your job. If you look at it from another point of view, you have figured out how to build world class expertise. So you can apply that ability to gaine expertise to your career.  Career progresses when your expertise in the job improves.

If you are a leader, you can use this insight to make your team passionate about any type of producing activity (may not be business related) and then transfer that passion onto the company’s business. Aside from this, also explain the big picture, ambitious goals/vision to light the fire.

It is this fire that can launch the rocket ship as indicated in the diagram above.

Conclusion

In sum, passion can be taught, scratch that, it can be learnt. And once you are passionate, success follows.

Epilog:

I am sure there are some gaps in this. What do you think?

Notes & References:

1. The diagram above is an attempt to summarize this post - inspired by Kathy Sierra - Creating Passionate Users.

2. How to become an expert

3. Why effort/practice is more important than talent.

4. Are you an expert? - Charlie Munger’s wisdom on the topic.

5. For a neuroscientific rationale for why feedback improves performance/expertise - ABC Theory.

6.  To be accurate, each of the 3 lines in the above diagram should be an S Curve. I chose straight lines for making the diagram simpler.

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Last night we had the privilege of listening to Vishwanathan Anand - arguably amongst the greatest sportspersons from India if not the greatest. He singlehandedly put Chess on the national sporting agenda. Unfortunately, in a cricket crazy nation his accomplishments are often overlooked.

He spoke about his life’s lessons. The words may not be accurate but i have tried to capture the essence. Please read this as if he is speaking:

“I learnt chess at the age of 6 from my mom. And within a few months after that i went to a tournament and promptly lost the 3 games i played. I had a lot of enthusiasm which is an easy thing to do for a 6 year old. Then i went again and again and even won an award for perseverance. I started winning slowly, became the subjunior champ, junior champ, got the IM title and then the Grandmaster title with the requisite 3 norms.

I was in 10th grade in 1987 when i became GM. I was extremely happy. Felt on top. I was staying in the top hotels, playing in top tournaments etc. But suddenly, life was feeling empty because it seemed like there was nothing left to do.

Then i decided to try for the world championship and that gave me something to look forward to. I was also beginning to get used to the trash-talk and other psychological tactics my competitors were using. People used to say i had “great talent” which is an euphemism for saying i am not a champ yet. That told me that people were afraid of me and that i have truly arrived.

I achieved the world champion title in 2000, somewhere on the way beat both Karpov and Kasparov. Again i felt the same emptiness. I was getting into some sort of a routine and then i had a disastrous tournament in 2002 that forced me to rethink everything. I changed a lot of things, tried new openings, dumped my permanent coach etc. Kept at it and finally couple of years later i again won big in a tournament in Mexico.

What i learnt is this - i should not have waited for a disaster to change myself, adapt myself. We have to keep changing all the time proactively.

Last year i again made the goal to try for the world champ. This time an open tournament. I prepared hard but i was a bit detached. I was going to give it my best and try to win and not become too attached. I managed to win.

In sum, my lessons are - be enthusiastic/passionate, do things you love doing, be perseverant, don’t get into a rut, keep challenging yourself and keep adapting.

Hope that helps a bit. ”

Then he took a few questions:
1. Who is the toughest player you encountered?
Kasparov. These days this Carlson boy is a big challenge.

2. Why were the Russians so dominant?
Soviet Union was the only country that played professional chess. It was them versus all the other amateurs from the different countries. They had the system and the seniors trained the juniors. Untill Bobby Fischer came no one could challenge the Soviets.

3. What about India and Indians? What holds us back?
Indians are very creative. But when it comes to getting something done as a group we don’t do it consistently. Our public leadership is seriously lacking. With so many people in poverty we have to do something seriously. We have a long way to go.

With that his session ended. It was amazing how well he simplified and
presented the learnings.

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Here are his key insights and his explanations why:

1. Entertainment orientation - there used to be a time when listening to the news was a serious affair. All of us remember the - Shhh! Father is watching news - episodes from our childhood. Today news is entertainment. It is being presented as such. Discovery channel presents animal life by weaving them into stories complete with names etc (Monkey by name Tina is doing this or Tiger by name Pintoo is doing that etc). Gone are the days  when we could simply talk about the features of the product. Today the same features have to be packaged with entertainment mixed in.

2. Reality Orientation - our movies have always been escapist. Usually the same love triangle stories with the song/dance sequences as the spices. Today the Indian consumer is confident of facing reality. Movies like Black or Taare Zameen Par or Rang Der Basanti are released for the mainstream audience and are huge hits. If you compare Indian Idol and American Idol, Indian Idol shows a lot more about the background of the contestant. The stark reality seems to inspire and instill hope in the minds of the Indian consumer and it sells.

3. Upgrade orientation - in the past when we bought products it was all about how long it will last. I bought this watch 20 years ago etc. Today the consumer wants to change the cell phone every 18 months with the latest and greatest features. Clearly the consumer wants to make a statement.

4. Promos are not harmful - there is a general tendency to feel that promos harm the brand. That is not true. If the brand promise is strong, the promos actually enhance the brand. Shows several coke, mastercard promo ads to make the point.

5. Digital revolution - the internet is changing a lot of things. Eventhough the internet penetration is not that high. Consumer generated content can be a big tool. But for that to happen we need to create compelling content that the consumer will feel like playing
with. He shows the spoofs of Dove ads done by consumer and also his own chlormint (du bara math poocho) ad that was spoofed.

6. Real is Virtual - virtual is all that most people have seen. Most people have never been to a cricket match or an awards show in person. All they know is how it is seen on TV. We are headed towards an age when kids are asking “mom, how come you don’t look like the moms onTV?”

7. The “And” Consumer - Indian consumers are not satisfied with this or that, they want this and that. This maybe due to the increased confidence and buying power of the consumer.

Then he took some questions -
1. I asked him about whether entertainment orientation and reality orientation was conflicting? He said no. He said even reality has to be packaged with entertainment.

2. Someone asked - sprite always spoofs pepsi isnt that bad? Prasoon said - coke never retaliates directly but uses sprite to do that. Since sprite is positioned as an irreverent brand, the spoofs are part of its character.

Overall, Prasoon Joshi is a great example of the kind of world beating talent that India has today in many fields.

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Please welcome Sridhar Iyer back after a long time. He is a financial industry expert, working for the company that loves urban landscapes - Sukumar

“It’s mayhem out there,” cries the CDO trader to a fat cat investor on a long distance phone line. We could get 20p to a dollar if we are quick and lucky. The client shudders “ I am already down 20MM, and this will wipe me out ”. “Things could get worse. It is best to close positions now. DB is offering 18.6, MS 19 and Merrill only 17.2. 20p is a great price, given the state of the market ” pearls of wisdom on recorded lines travel through fibre optic cables across continents. The trade is booked, the deal is done and the market crashes even further.

And as if to console that far away investor, FT headlines cry out the next day “ Chuck(ed) out - Citi fires CEO ” followed by another lyrical one “O’Neal exits Merrill ”. New phrases are added to the financial services lexicon and bandied about by every expert worth his salt – credit squeeze, liquidity crunch, the balance sheet impact of a low tier one capital, sovereign funds …… . .. If you are not predicting recession, you are definitely not in vogue. Fed cuts interest rates, stock markets plummet, job cuts all over.

Given this scenario, you would think that the financial services industry was in deep turmoil .It is time to tighten belts and see through this difficult period. Well, not quite. That , certainly is not the signal if one were to go by the bonuses that have been handed out to the big shots this week – both to current and former bosses.

Chuck made $94 MM as farewell gift from Citi and O’Neal showed what a good negotiator he was by plucking out $150MM from Merrill. Chuck’s successor, at Citi made a healthy $28MM for 2007 , and the new head of the of Citi’s fixed income division ( which caused all the write downs) a cool $22MM.

But surely, a whole bunch of traders and analysts were fired and they bore the pain. Fired, yes. But pain ? That’s a different story . Look at this career model - a crisis like the present one, occurs once in 5-6 years and lasts at best for a year. The last one occurred in 2001 and was followed by 5 years of undiluted prosperity. In a decent year, an average trader makes a modest $0.5 to 0.7MM. So while the good years last , the kitty fills up pretty quickly. Will s/he complain, if in order to calculate the new average pay for all 6 years, nothing incremental is added to the numerator ?

But what about their reputations, loss of face? Here is a secret – a trader’s worth in the job market goes up with the number of down turns he has managed – whether in the job or out of it. And if nothing else, most top business schools offer great 1 year programs, which will help change career paths.

So who lost out and who gained? – Consumer banks, that wrote off substantial portions of mortgage loans to the sub-prime segment (an estimated 200$Bn) especially in the US made big losses. The CDO crisis, though, is a zero sum game. There are winners and losers who balance each other out. Citi, Merrill and the other big banks, which betted on sub prime lost heavily while Goldman Sachs and numerous hedge funds profited to the same extent. The hedge fund owners who made billions, must be wondering what this furore is all about. One thing is for sure though, the traders and investment bankers, who precipitated the crisis certainly did not lose out. They never do.

So why are you not a trader? Well, that is another long story.

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