"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." - Theodore Roosevelt
Do you find it difficult to choose between two leaders Indira Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi? Do you find it tough to decide who is a better leader? Here is the response.
Both Indira Gandhi and Sonia are good leaders but their leadership styles are different. Indira Gandhi believed in hard leadership style which is all about believing more on performance than on people while running her government. In contrast, Sonia Gandhi believed in soft leadership that is all about emphasizing more on the concern for people than on performance. Indira Gandhi believed in transactional leadership style while Sonia Gandhi in transformational style. Although Sonia appears soft externally she is a strong woman who makes hard decisions with more concern for people. Above all, the times that prevailed during Indira Gandhi forced her to act like a hard leader while the current times demand more of a soft approach for resolving various issues.
Sonia’s Soft Leadership
Sonia is a cool thinker. She is against corruption and quick in making decisions especially against corrupt people irrespective of party affiliations. She proved herself more as a soft leader while her mother-in-law, Indira Gandhi as a hard leader. Probably Sonia is a soft leader as she runs a coalition government which needs lot of balancing act.
Sonia entered politics reluctantly like her husband late Rajiv Gandhi. She stood like a rock when her husband was assassinated. She brought her two children through right values and ethics. She did not get everything on platter in politics. She entered into the Congress party when it was getting disintegrated that too when the party was in opposition. She took the reins and rejuvenated the Congress party.
Sonia surprised her critics by bringing Congress government back at the Centre through her soft and effective leadership skills and abilities. She flatly refused to become the Prime Minister of India when everything was easy for her. She surprised her critics and opponents by sacrificing power and installing a minority Sikh and a clean personality - Dr. Manmohan Singh.
Sonia is a strong woman with great character who means business. She has become the symbol of women leadership and a role model for Indian women. The future belongs to the soft leaders like Sonia Gandhi.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I am specializing on soft leadership and authoring a book on soft leadership. I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s Tenacity - Professor M.S.Rao
"Any one can hold the helm when the sea is calm." - Publilius Syrus
Nara Chandrababu Naidu needs no introduction. Once known as the kingmaker of Indian politics, now he has been reduced to the status of an opposition leader who is struggling for his political survival. He has number of challenges within the Telugu Desam Party and within his family and within his home state – Andhra Pradesh. Can he survive the current challenges and stage a smart come back like many leaders in the past bounced back from failures like Phoenix and hold their ground? Only time will tell as nobody knows what happens next. Here is the brief profile of Naidu.
Nara Chandrababu Naidu is the President of Telugu Desam Party and is the longest serving Chief Minister in the history of Andhra Pradesh. He served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh twice. He has seen highs and lows in his life and become more mature with ground realities. He is a calculated risk taker and a visionary leader. He is a leader par excellence.
Andhra Pradesh has grown under his leadership and especially the present Hyderabad. Currently people are enjoying the fruits of Naidu’s efforts to shape and focus Hyderabad on global map. He provided a new direction to governance. He is a good administrator who has an eye for details and comes out with facts and figures on political debates in the assembly. Although he is not a great orator he has the ability to get the message across to the people.
Naidu is a master strategist. Although he is in opposition he has the ability to retain his flock together which is very tough especially for the leaders who are in opposition. Had there been any other leader the party would have disintegrated by this time. Although there is strong Telangana sentiment he retained his flock of Telangana intact. Although there are rivalries with the NTR clan to checkmate him politically he takes precautions to hold firmly on the ground. It is very tough for a leader like Naidu to stay in opposition for too long having tasted power at an young age. His political come back as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2009 was stalled with the entry of Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party and, as a result, he lost power narrowly. It is rightly said, “When the going gets tough, tough gets going.” I am sure he would bounce back as he is noted for his tenacity and resilience.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Nara Chandrababu Naidu needs no introduction. Once known as the kingmaker of Indian politics, now he has been reduced to the status of an opposition leader who is struggling for his political survival. He has number of challenges within the Telugu Desam Party and within his family and within his home state – Andhra Pradesh. Can he survive the current challenges and stage a smart come back like many leaders in the past bounced back from failures like Phoenix and hold their ground? Only time will tell as nobody knows what happens next. Here is the brief profile of Naidu.
Nara Chandrababu Naidu is the President of Telugu Desam Party and is the longest serving Chief Minister in the history of Andhra Pradesh. He served as the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh twice. He has seen highs and lows in his life and become more mature with ground realities. He is a calculated risk taker and a visionary leader. He is a leader par excellence.
Andhra Pradesh has grown under his leadership and especially the present Hyderabad. Currently people are enjoying the fruits of Naidu’s efforts to shape and focus Hyderabad on global map. He provided a new direction to governance. He is a good administrator who has an eye for details and comes out with facts and figures on political debates in the assembly. Although he is not a great orator he has the ability to get the message across to the people.
Naidu is a master strategist. Although he is in opposition he has the ability to retain his flock together which is very tough especially for the leaders who are in opposition. Had there been any other leader the party would have disintegrated by this time. Although there is strong Telangana sentiment he retained his flock of Telangana intact. Although there are rivalries with the NTR clan to checkmate him politically he takes precautions to hold firmly on the ground. It is very tough for a leader like Naidu to stay in opposition for too long having tasted power at an young age. His political come back as Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in 2009 was stalled with the entry of Chiranjeevi’s Praja Rajyam Party and, as a result, he lost power narrowly. It is rightly said, “When the going gets tough, tough gets going.” I am sure he would bounce back as he is noted for his tenacity and resilience.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Do You Want to Become CEO Quickly? - Professor M.S.Rao
The Generation Y has high energy levels with proactive attitude. They want to grow rapidly in their careers as the current global economic ambience is conducive for quick career advancement. They have the inquiry spirit and often ask, “Why?” and that is the reason the Generation Y is often referred to as Generation Why. This generation has several advantages that neither baby boomers nor Generation X had. They are goals driven with a long view. However, if they want to scale higher position and reach the tipping point of their corporate career - that is CEO position, they must learn to work in line positions rather than in staff positions.
Line positions are key positions and functional areas within the organization while the staff positions are supporting positions and functions that mostly support line positions and functions. These positions are relative from organization to organization depending on its vision and mission. Employees must learn to differentiate these positions and plan accordingly to ensure quick career growth.
Now-a-days, almost all executives are competent in their domain and non-domain areas. Most of them are ambitious and driven. Therefore, the Generation Y must lay out their career plan well in advance and go by the road less traveled. Besides, most of the executives are knowledge workers with competitive spirit with an eye for top organizational slots. Hence, they must set goals with a long view by pursuing in line positions rather than in staff positions for reaching the tipping point in their careers – CEO. Hence, lay out your blueprint now itself and execute smartly.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Line positions are key positions and functional areas within the organization while the staff positions are supporting positions and functions that mostly support line positions and functions. These positions are relative from organization to organization depending on its vision and mission. Employees must learn to differentiate these positions and plan accordingly to ensure quick career growth.
Now-a-days, almost all executives are competent in their domain and non-domain areas. Most of them are ambitious and driven. Therefore, the Generation Y must lay out their career plan well in advance and go by the road less traveled. Besides, most of the executives are knowledge workers with competitive spirit with an eye for top organizational slots. Hence, they must set goals with a long view by pursuing in line positions rather than in staff positions for reaching the tipping point in their careers – CEO. Hence, lay out your blueprint now itself and execute smartly.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
“Business Acumen vs. Social Acumen” - Professor M.S.Rao
Now-a-days executives need both business acumen and social acumen. It sounds strange for executives as most of them think that business acumen is needed only for entrepreneurs. Of course, they are right to think in that way. However, for the executives who intend to reach top positions within the organizations quickly they need to acquire business acumen and blend both business acumen and social acumen proportionately.
The literal meaning of the word acumen is “keenness and depth of perception, especially in practical matters.” Hence, we can define business acumen as seeing the big picture by entrepreneurs and leaders. It is a rare quality that can be cultivated by people. Similarly, social acumen is all about gelling well with others through emotional intelligence and soft skills and networking with others.
Ram Charan says in Leaders At All Levels, “Leaders must possess both people acumen and business acumen. Anyone can improve his or her ability to select and develop people’s talents, but other aspects of people acumen are hard to teach. Leaders with people acumen have good instincts to anticipant problems among individuals who must work together and to get the resolved. When leaders are unable to make good decisions, or any decisions at all, it may be that their business acumen is not expanding. They cannot be considered to have CEO potential.” Therefore, blend both business and social acumen proportionately for quick professional success.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
The literal meaning of the word acumen is “keenness and depth of perception, especially in practical matters.” Hence, we can define business acumen as seeing the big picture by entrepreneurs and leaders. It is a rare quality that can be cultivated by people. Similarly, social acumen is all about gelling well with others through emotional intelligence and soft skills and networking with others.
Ram Charan says in Leaders At All Levels, “Leaders must possess both people acumen and business acumen. Anyone can improve his or her ability to select and develop people’s talents, but other aspects of people acumen are hard to teach. Leaders with people acumen have good instincts to anticipant problems among individuals who must work together and to get the resolved. When leaders are unable to make good decisions, or any decisions at all, it may be that their business acumen is not expanding. They cannot be considered to have CEO potential.” Therefore, blend both business and social acumen proportionately for quick professional success.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Monday, April 18, 2011
What is Emotional Infrastructure? - Professor M.S.Rao
Emotional Infrastructure sounds strange to many readers. I got this trigger from Vijay Govindarajan, the leadership guru who is a specialist in innovation. This concept is researched by both Vijay Govindarajan and Subrato Bagchi of MindTree Consulting who are coming out with a book on this. Basically Emotional Infrastructure (EI) sounds like Daniel Goleman’s Emotional Intelligence. But both are different. Emotional intelligence is mostly responsible for leadership effectiveness and it helps individuals gel well with others at ease and it is said that 80 percent of the leader’s success depends on emotional intelligence.
However, emotional infrastructure is the emotional component of employees that helps organizations achieve excellence and effectiveness. We often talk of infrastructure in physical terms. However, there are also other infrastructures such as intellectual infrastructure and emotional infrastructure where intellectual infrastructure involves people and their competencies and capabilities while emotional infrastructure involves the egos and emotions of the people working in the organization and their emotional contribution and bonding with their organizations. It is rightly said that physical infrastructure can be built easily but it is very tough to build both intellectual and emotional. To some extent you can build intellectual infrastructure, not emotional infrastructure. That is the reason although management is defined as managing people I would like to define management as managing people’s egos and emotions which is a tough task. However, the good news is that emotional infrastructure involves no costs except giving a human touch while the physical infrastructure needs lot of capital to build.
To sum up, emotional infrastructure is all about employees and their egos and emotions. It is about their emotional attachment towards their organizations. It minimizes attrition as people are attached with organizations emotionally. It helps organizations survive any eventualities as employees are emotionally attached with them. Hence, organizations must emphasize on this intangible element for achieving growth and prosperity.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
However, emotional infrastructure is the emotional component of employees that helps organizations achieve excellence and effectiveness. We often talk of infrastructure in physical terms. However, there are also other infrastructures such as intellectual infrastructure and emotional infrastructure where intellectual infrastructure involves people and their competencies and capabilities while emotional infrastructure involves the egos and emotions of the people working in the organization and their emotional contribution and bonding with their organizations. It is rightly said that physical infrastructure can be built easily but it is very tough to build both intellectual and emotional. To some extent you can build intellectual infrastructure, not emotional infrastructure. That is the reason although management is defined as managing people I would like to define management as managing people’s egos and emotions which is a tough task. However, the good news is that emotional infrastructure involves no costs except giving a human touch while the physical infrastructure needs lot of capital to build.
To sum up, emotional infrastructure is all about employees and their egos and emotions. It is about their emotional attachment towards their organizations. It minimizes attrition as people are attached with organizations emotionally. It helps organizations survive any eventualities as employees are emotionally attached with them. Hence, organizations must emphasize on this intangible element for achieving growth and prosperity.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Takeaways from Marshall Goldsmith’s “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” – Professor M.S.Rao
When I was asked to conduct a workshop for senior executives of a prestigious global company on Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There” I felt excited as he wrote foreword for my book titled “Soft Skills Enhancing Employabilty” and also for my son – Ramakrishna Sayee’s upcoming book titled “Script Your Success Story”. I personally admire Dr. Marshall Goldsmith for his humility to respond to my all mails. Although Marshall is a very busy man he takes time to reply to my mails. Therefore, I thought it is a privilege to share about this humble global leadership guru and also about his book and his lessons to people. I quickly glanced through the book and decided to share with my bloggers as well.
There are several lessons you can learn from his book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There How Successful People Become Even More Successful.” The book is divided into 4 sections: The Trouble With Success, The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back From The Top, How We Can Change For The Better, and Pulling Out the Stops. It contains total 15 chapters providing valuable takeaways to readers. Here are the takeaways in a nut shell.
People often take their success for granted. Those who reached to top positions think that the strategies that worked in the past to reach to the top positions will work again to reach further higher positions. It is a myth as the needs, aspirations and expectations of the clients and customers are changing rapidly with the changing times and technologies. Hence, those who reached to successful positions have to be careful and they should not take their success for granted. They need to constantly learn and upgrade themselves and change their ways and means to reach further higher positions.
The book unfolds that people are often obsessed with their past strategies to reach success and don’t adopt new things leading to stagnation and preventing further career growth. Marshall says that there are 20 habits that become barriers for their further growth. People must identify these barriers and overcome to reach their next higher level.
Competition gets stiffer and tougher once the executives reach into senior leadership positions. Almost all senior executives are intelligent, smart working, charismatic, but very few reach to the CEO level. What differentiates senior executives from CEOs? At times it is the thin line that separates highly successful and just successful executives. The book helps the successful senior executives to cross the thin line and become more successful paving the way for CEO positions. To reach the tipping point in your corporate ladder you need to equip certain tools and techniques that you find in this book.
The book helps you realize your shortcomings to reach senior leadership positions. It makes you humble. Marshall advises you to take feedback as feedback is the breakfast of champions. He counsels to listen carefully to others, apologize if you have made any mistakes and follow-up thoroughly. Most of the senior executive may be aware of certain things written in this book. However, they still lack something that Marshall provides and enlightens them to read and succeed in their senior leadership positions. The book is a good read for ambitious executives who like to reach senior positions.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
There are several lessons you can learn from his book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There How Successful People Become Even More Successful.” The book is divided into 4 sections: The Trouble With Success, The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back From The Top, How We Can Change For The Better, and Pulling Out the Stops. It contains total 15 chapters providing valuable takeaways to readers. Here are the takeaways in a nut shell.
People often take their success for granted. Those who reached to top positions think that the strategies that worked in the past to reach to the top positions will work again to reach further higher positions. It is a myth as the needs, aspirations and expectations of the clients and customers are changing rapidly with the changing times and technologies. Hence, those who reached to successful positions have to be careful and they should not take their success for granted. They need to constantly learn and upgrade themselves and change their ways and means to reach further higher positions.
The book unfolds that people are often obsessed with their past strategies to reach success and don’t adopt new things leading to stagnation and preventing further career growth. Marshall says that there are 20 habits that become barriers for their further growth. People must identify these barriers and overcome to reach their next higher level.
Competition gets stiffer and tougher once the executives reach into senior leadership positions. Almost all senior executives are intelligent, smart working, charismatic, but very few reach to the CEO level. What differentiates senior executives from CEOs? At times it is the thin line that separates highly successful and just successful executives. The book helps the successful senior executives to cross the thin line and become more successful paving the way for CEO positions. To reach the tipping point in your corporate ladder you need to equip certain tools and techniques that you find in this book.
The book helps you realize your shortcomings to reach senior leadership positions. It makes you humble. Marshall advises you to take feedback as feedback is the breakfast of champions. He counsels to listen carefully to others, apologize if you have made any mistakes and follow-up thoroughly. Most of the senior executive may be aware of certain things written in this book. However, they still lack something that Marshall provides and enlightens them to read and succeed in their senior leadership positions. The book is a good read for ambitious executives who like to reach senior positions.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Public Speaking Techniques – Professor M.S.Rao
Public speaking is an art, craft and a skill. If people want to hone public speaking skill they must have passion to learn the ropes. Here are the few nuggets you can learn to connect with your audience quickly and for effective presentation.
• Use humor as an ice breaking tool to connect with your audience. Humor breaks the tense situation and helps connect with the audience quickly. But avoid using excessive humor as it compromises with the content and you will be labeled as an entertainer rather than a professional speaker.
• You can rhyme words as they sound like music to your audience and help them in retaining the important information for a longer time.
• You can also tell tales as tales connect with audiences quickly. People are excited to listen to stories. Besides, tales help connect the reel content with real experiences.
• Research reveals that one out of seven messages gets across to audience in any communication and the rest fall flat. Hence, the speakers must use visuals while speaking with audience as people remember visuals more. If possible, you can also interact with your audience if it happens to be small to ensure effective takeaways.
• Research also unfolds that audiences often lose touch with speakers when it exceeds seven minutes. Hence, it is essential to gauge the body language of the audience periodically during presentation to change styles accordingly. If speakers find that audiences are losing interest then they must share anecdotes or short stories related to the topic.
Hence, when you go for public speaking next time, keep these techniques in your mind apart from doing lot of preliminary research about the topic well in advance.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
• Use humor as an ice breaking tool to connect with your audience. Humor breaks the tense situation and helps connect with the audience quickly. But avoid using excessive humor as it compromises with the content and you will be labeled as an entertainer rather than a professional speaker.
• You can rhyme words as they sound like music to your audience and help them in retaining the important information for a longer time.
• You can also tell tales as tales connect with audiences quickly. People are excited to listen to stories. Besides, tales help connect the reel content with real experiences.
• Research reveals that one out of seven messages gets across to audience in any communication and the rest fall flat. Hence, the speakers must use visuals while speaking with audience as people remember visuals more. If possible, you can also interact with your audience if it happens to be small to ensure effective takeaways.
• Research also unfolds that audiences often lose touch with speakers when it exceeds seven minutes. Hence, it is essential to gauge the body language of the audience periodically during presentation to change styles accordingly. If speakers find that audiences are losing interest then they must share anecdotes or short stories related to the topic.
Hence, when you go for public speaking next time, keep these techniques in your mind apart from doing lot of preliminary research about the topic well in advance.
Professor M.S.Rao
Founder and Chief Consultant,
MSR Leadership Consultants, India
Blog: http://profmsr.blogspot.com
Where Knowledge is Wealth
Email: profmsr7@gmail.com
Dear readers,
I would appreciate your comments about this article.
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