Leadership Lessons: A Plan for the Future
It is hard to accept that Leadership is still a lesser-known and poorly understood subject in the corporate sector. Even with a lot of theoretical information available on both print and online platforms; developing, practicing, and implementing leadership qualities practically is a different task altogether. With the constant change in demands, resources, and industry expectations, the phenomenon of Leadership also takes rebirth to fit into the changing environment. At Vinyas, we constantly exercise to understand how leaders along with their teams succeed or fail based on opportunities and constraints as well as set the case study to encourage continuous improvement.
With all this in mind, we reached out to a few of our veteran employees and our leadership team on what leadership lessons can be picked from the past year that can be put into practice in the coming year. Given their vast experience and diverse backgrounds, our team came up with numerous insights on how leaders at all levels in an organization can commit to caring, foster supportive work cultures, and forge new paths in 2023-24.
"Reorienting the road map and building shared understanding"
The future of work and our life is upon us. According to my understanding and learning, I feel direction and balance in work, as well as our lives, are vital to deepen and nurture existing and new relationships. Going further, it is the responsibility of leaders to cultivate healthy relationships to enable every team member to do their best both individually and collectively. After all, walking on the tightrope of leadership demands attention and care to reach high performance standards and I persist that actively managing a culture that supports adaptability and learning is the need of the hour.
— Narendra Narayanan, Founder & Managing Director
"Articulating the importance of every team member and showing genuine concern"
Being a leader, harnessing every team member’s creativity, talent and skills is what needs to be focussed in the coming years. We ensure that our people are cared about more than the work they do, and we commit to supporting them during any crisis by always being ready to break the barriers for them.
— T R Srinivasan, Director
"Making people a priority and seeking feedback"
The past experiences have embarked us to focus more on our people and their emotions rather than just spending most of the time focused solely on business, its goals, and its revenue. I also feel that seeking feedback from my team members and asking for their suggestions has bettered our engagement as a team. I would like to continue to build strong engagement and belongingness that will help all of us to get better at what we are as well as aid in self-evaluation and improvement.
— Deepashree Narendra, Vice President – Corporate Affairs
"Reviewing and celebrating small progress"
An important lesson that I have learned from previous years is that leaders should do their best to stay appreciative of everyone and everything that they have. Appreciating the small things, and celebrating the small success is very important to keep up the enthusiasm and energy of the team. I wish to apply this learning in future days too.
— Leelavathi D, Senior Manager – Quality Assurance
"Grounding with an intention and being proactive about change"
I strongly feel that change is inevitable and it is vital to accept that we are all living in a dynamic system. While embracing the unexpected, going further, leaders should learn to be grounded with the set objectives and be on course to achieving them. To be able to effectively lead a team in this competitive world, they should be adaptable as well as resilient at the same time to embark on a continuous growth journey.
— Sumukh Narendra, Director
"Taking up a true stakeholder view"
We believe that it is very important to have an effective Leadership Development Program in an organization to replace all the “I”s with “We”s and it is a proven channel to achieve positive organizational outcomes. Following a consistent process of grooming leaders in our organization has not only helped us to develop a succession pipeline but also has an impact on attracting and retaining talent pool, improving the bottom-line performance, enhancing productivity, belongingness, and creating a healthy work culture. In turn, this motivates our employees to take up a true stakeholder view to look beyond the organization for the greater good.
— H S Yashwanth, Senior Manager – HR, Admin & Legal
Final thoughts:
The comprehension provided by our team at Vinyas has not only helped us to understand that now is the time for leaders to stay strong, remain calm, and be connected to create stability for the people they lead but also to work as a team to translate concerns into actions and solutions. It is always that small appreciations, celebrations, love and care, flexibility, and support from the leader that inspires the team to give more and make progress towards achieving the set target. Let’s put these learnings as a foundation for the future and be prepared for the next one!