Flashlight Leadership

There is enough and more that has been written about differences between leadership and management and about leaders and managers. There is also a lot written about the purpose of leadership and about how to become a good leader. All the literature available also offers great deal on different styles of leadership - servant leadership (not a new concept, introduced in 1970) is one that's been in-focus recently...a.k.a. has become a buzzword!

Here are my 2-cents on the subject of leadership, where I introduce another style of leadership - flashlight leadership.

At the heart of leadership is "sense-giving"...i.e., helping people around you to understand what's going on, what are they expected to do, what can they do, what should they do, where can / will all this lead to, and the "why" for all of it. 

To begin with, a leader has to make sense, following that leadership is about providing guidance, finding a way forward and sense-giving. However, anyone who can make sense but not help others do the same (by sense-giving) may be a good problem identifier and problem solver, but definitely not a good leader. Helping, guiding and, at times, pushing people in the right direction is the role of a leader. Role of leader is definitely not to make / add more followers.

Leadership is not about providing answers, it is not about solving problems - it is an empowering tool that allows people facing problems to broaden their reach and perspective, use collaborative approach and work on problems to improve their scenario at the very least. Similarly, flashlight is an empowering tool when people find themselves engulfed in darkness, not knowing where they are, where can they find a path and what obstacles lie ahead.

Although it is not always understood - leadership is neither a position nor a designation. It is an attitude, a mindset. Thus, it is not necessary that flashlight leadership shall be displayed by people holding top-of-pyramid positions. In a scenario where top-of-pyramid gets too detached from on-ground reality - flashlight leadership usually crops up amongst middle / junior management. Using their experience, along with their understanding of nature of problem, and gathering others around them for counsel - flashlight leaders are able to throw light inside a darkroom and find the hidden solution (or a way to the solution).

Keith Grint has an interesting take on this subject. According to him, different type of problems demand different kind of problem-solving styles...and leadership is one such style. Keith has identified 3 types of problems - tame, critical and wicked. Tame problems need good management, critical problems need a commander and wicked problems need a leader.

Tame problems are almost like everyday problems, regular problems, someone has gone through such problems before and thus would know the solution, don't necessarily need creativity of mind - only execution of the plan. For all such problems, good management will suffice. Good management will find the right person to solve the problem, provide resources as needed and ensure execution of proposed solutions to the problem that needs solving. The requirement is to find the right answers to the problems - role of good management.

Critical problems are more urgent in nature, and can be understood as a "crisis". In such problem-scenarios there is usually not much time available for thinking, discussing, searching for alternative options. It falls on the shoulders of person-in-command to think of answers, give orders and get people moving as she / he feels is best in that situation. The requirement is to be a quick decision-maker, as there may not be enough time to find the right answer - role of a commander.

Wicked problems are easiest understood as the ones that have no obvious solution. Think: global warming! These are complex problems, which may not solved without changing the environment they exist in. Such problems are typically not only new for the people facing them, but also people facing such problems may not know anyone who has dealt with similar problems. It is thus imperative for responsible people to ask the right questions, because the right answers are neither obvious nor necessarily available. Requirement is of collaborative approach, bringing experts from different fields together to address the problem - role of a leader.

One can now link the two - Keith Grint's take on role of leadership when managing wicked problems, and what I call as light leadership style. A single beam from light is often sufficient to give hope and courage to those who are lost in darkness. A single beam from light can help in sense-making, which is sense-giving. A single beam from light can bring people together, working in one direction, each person bringing a different ability-set and expertise.

It is possible that all qualities could lie in the same person - good management when dealing with everyday problems, commanding ability in case a crisis hits and flashlight leadership when people find themselves in abject darkness, not knowing what to do, where to go or how to find a way out of this darkness. Also, it is possible that different situations demand different leadership styles -  few options are shared in the cartoon below :)

Life: As I See It

Life throws us off,

Challenges us to be better.

Puts unprecedented pressures on us,

To win our bread & butter.

Life is seemingly unfair,

Rarely giving us the reward we seek.

There are undeserving winners all-around,

Future often looks bleak.

Life is far from a smooth ride,

A constant bumpy-road ahead.

There are no short-cuts or u-turns,

No place to rest, not even a bed.

Life is an inexplicable phenomenon,

We can neither explain nor understand.

No perspective can suggest otherwise,

No outlook can change the listed bad.

Life is an experience, at best,

Worse, it is a struggle and a pain.

In all this life-partner could be the greatest boon,

Or, oh-dear-lord, the biggest bane.

Life does give us glimpses and a taste,

Of the good and the bad.

We, via our expectations and acceptance

Make life's experiences happy-ones or sad.

Life is a journey,

Without set duration or destination.

Find good company and enjoy the ride, 

Without worry or question.

Life is a gift that not many get,

To be accepted graciously.

Whether with a smile or a frown

It is our choice, entirely.

Life is to be lived,

That in itself is its purpose - the "why".

To make the most of starry nights,

To smell the flowers, and enjoy the deep blue sky.

Acceptance: An Under-valued Gift

Doesn't the cartoon above describe it all? Don't get me wrong, I am not suggesting it is only the woman who wants to change 'her' man - acceptance (or lack of it) works both ways. I believe that acceptance is the biggest gift we could get (and give), yet it is the most under-valued.

I have been in a relationship for 21 years now - in these years there have been many instances when I have been asked (and have asked myself) that "why my life-partner is so important for me...why do I love her so much?". The more I think of answers to these questions, the more I push myself to drill down to multiple levels of "whys" - to reach the core of my reasons - the more I have come to realise that my reason is simple: because she accepts me for who I am. Period!

Think about it - how relieving and easy it is to be with someone who allows you to be you, with whom you don't (ever...at all) need to / want to pretend and whose life's purpose is not to change you (on the pretext of improving you)?

Once again, don't get me wrong - I am not suggesting that I haven't changed because of my life-partner in the 21 years that we have been together - obviously I have changed over the years. As the cliché goes - change is the only constant. My point is - I have always felt loved, wanted and most importantly accepted - with all my shortcomings and faults. 

Since acceptance works both ways - I have also come to understand my part in the equation. It is my responsibility to accept my life-partner as she is. When I looked at accepting my life-partner in toto, I came face-to-face with some changes that I needed to make in my way of life so that our life together could improve. Interestingly, this made me realise how much my life-partner must have changed her way of life in order to accept me. We both changed in our own ways - all the while adjusting our personal lives to accept the other person and improving our life together. If that's not love - then I don't know what is!

I would like to extend this concept to include accepting our own-self for who we are why we are who we are, and finding peace with it. Actually, acceptance starts with this - if one doesn't know self, understand the why of self and accept it - one cannot be accept another person in her / his life. It is silly to not accept our-own-self but still expect another person to. If the other person doesn't, then blame them of trying to change you.

Accept your-own-self, start with this...put in the effort by introspection, observation and reflection - then provide the best gift you can - accepting your life-partner (or who-so-ever you would like to give this gift to). If you are lucky, you will get this gift in return and you would have found your "perfect-match". It is as simple, and just as difficult, as this!

Finally - as another cliché goes: you two can live-happily-ever-after.

5Ps Model @ New Job

A new job, one of those rare occasions when we feel a combination of few (or all) emotions - excitement to anxiety, pre-joining confidence to post-joining imposter-syndrome, know-it-all to there-is-so-much-to-learn, confidence to dread, satisfaction to frustration and "this was a good decision" to "this is a huge mistake". This happens to all, even the best of us.

Why does it happen, and how to manage this?

I started a new job last month, which happened to be my "first" new job in 12 years. Everything changed for me - industry, function, location (well, city not country) and seniority - reason enough for all of the above emotions to run through me. During first couple of weeks, despite a warm welcome from everyone (actually, almost everyone) and comforting words from my seniors, I couldn't shake-off the nagging feeling that something was amiss - only to realise later that fear-of-failure and anxiety (due to enormity of challenges ahead of me) wouldn't allow me to settle-in.

This experience made me think deep and break down the problem, resulting in the following 5Ps Model that explains what externals we need to focus on and the internal aspects to use initially at a new job.

The first three - People, Process and Product are the externals that we need to manage.

1P: People - this could be our immediate supervisor / manager, our team, the team that we are a part of, employees in other divisions / departments, suppliers and clients / customers. For many different reasons, which reside inside of us and outside, people-management is the biggest challenge faced by most in their new jobs. It is not a matter of extrovert vs. introverts - not that extroverts will have it easier just because they are considered to have gift of the gab - it is about understanding people and responding to them as needed. This does require a level of maturity and high emotional intelligence.

2P: Process - lack of knowledge and understanding of processes followed at the new organisation often becomes frustrating. From small things such as how do I get coffee to more serious issues such as organisational culture - is Friday a casual dress-day or formal / is humour acceptable during meetings / should I speak my mind freely etc. Process is what gives us the framework for our behaviour, our actions and how we do our work - thus focussing on this in initial few weeks is going to be extremely helpful in the long-run. Here, under Process, I am not referring to work-processes, such as how reports have to be completed and submitted or how orders are fulfilled. Speaking with colleagues, not getting stuck to our chair (moving around the office just to say hello), asking for help when stuck - these are some actions we can take to get clarity on processes of the new organisation. Keeping to ourselves and the work given to us - well, that is not going to help for this.

3P: Product - what are we selling (we = new organisation), whether it is a product or a service, and how? It can also be looked as: what am I supposed to deliver? My deliverable is the product / service that I am selling. This is what I call as Product in my model. In case we change industry - as I have done in all my 5 jobs (having sold newspaper, auto-loans, broadband, home-accessories, and now bathroom solutions) - lack of product understanding is the single largest roadblock to our performance. Unless we understand what we need to sell / deliver, we won't know how to and finally, we won't find a successful way of completing our tasks efficiently.

4P: Positivity - with not many things going our way, or in a manner that we think they should, we could lose confidence in ourselves and / or interest in work or even feel lonely and lost. We need to dig-deep inside and reach for our positivity reserves. We need to remind ourselves of our past accomplishments, of the fact that we were chosen to be there, of our reasons to join...we need to constantly remind ourselves to remain positive.

5P: Patience - Following positivity closely, is patience. We need to remain patient in our new job - well, until such time at-least that we stop calling it a "new" job. It is important to realise that it is ok not to hit every ball out of the park, it is ok to not know everything about the job, it is ok to miss a few opportunities...it is okay, be patient! In time, things will fall in place and we will be where we want to be (at least be on our way to be where we want to be).

As per my experience, almost all challenges that we face in any new job will fall under one of the three heads - People, Process and Product. It is critical to focus on these three, all the while remaining positive and patient - to give ourselves time to settle-in and find our footing.

For those who are interested in more - we can extend this 5Ps model to 7Ps, by adding Persistence and Power-dynamics.

Yes, we need to be persistent...we need to be at it, learn and overcome our shortcomings and work towards always-improving. Power-dynamics is not for all to dabble in, but still a key feature in most cases (beyond a certain level of seniority). With a good handle on new-organisation's power-dynamics, we are likely to overcome some other battles with little to no effort towards those battles. However, I do believe that persistence is a subset of positivity (if you are not positive, you cannot persist), and by understanding People and Process - you are likely to get some understanding of Power-dynamics. That's why I have kept my model as 5Ps @ New Job.

This model is helpful in keeping the most important things in our focus, helping us aligning our actions and priorities and ensuring we don't lose confidence or hope. It is absolutely essential to break down problems we face, in some sort of understandable buckets / groups - this will not only help us identify a common-factor to our problems but also provide us with clarity about why those problems occurred and how to approach them going-forward.

Another way to look at this model is to associate the "Ps" with "Ws and H": people are the who, processes are the how, product is the what, positivity is reminding us our why, and patience is giving us confidence to play the long game - the when.

Purpose of Life?

Why am I living? Why am I living the life that I am living? Is this all there is? Where am I headed? What is the purpose of my life?

I have often asked one, or all, of the above questions, and will take a guess that most people ask the same / similar questions. From time to time, either in short-bursts or over an extended period, I lose my focus and feel lost. Especially immediately after, either completing a major task or achieving a long-held goal. The feeling of, “what next” hits me, along with the feeling - "is this all there is to do, to work for, to achieve, to look forward to - is there more to life?".

Whether correctly, or incorrectly, we feel the need to define our purpose, and then work towards fulfilling the defined purpose. Well - we do live in a goal-oriented society, everyone around us seems to be chasing goals and many manage to achieve set goals. To live in this society and live in a manner where an individual lives a goalless life attracts negativity towards this individual from people around. This individual is labelled as lost (at best) or careless (usually), with a few other terms in between this spectrum of lost and careless (lazy, for example). 

This post is for all those who want to find the purpose of their life but have not been able to identify it yet. Most likely, such a person would be doing something in life - whether studying or working. Most likely, such a person is either dissatisfied with where she / he is or unsure about where her / his life is headed (or both). For those who seem to have identified and defined their purpose of life - continue on the path, but do think what will happen if you were to fulfil that purpose and you are still alive?

Fact is - we don't know our purpose...even the ones who claim to have figured it out. We don't know why we were born, why in the family that we were born in, why in the circumstances that we were born in, what our inherent talents are (I believe everyone is born with some inherent talents - and then some other talents can be developed over the course of life), and when are we going to die. When we don't know the why of our start and then when of our end, what tells us that we should know or define what are we supposed to achieve during this journey called life?

So - what is the purpose of life? Here is the answer to the question, in its simplest and most honest form: "to live" is the purpose of life!

Give it a moment, allow the above to sink in.

My view is philosophical on this entire question of purpose of life. It started with worrying about what am I supposed to do in this life - mostly worrying about my professional life, and not getting any answers for the same. Constant worrying and not getting answers only led me to believe that I was missing something from my life. It appeared as if I was wasting away my time, by not doing what I was supposed to be doing. The only problem, I didn't know what I was "supposed" to be doing, what was supposed to be my purpose.

In my search for my purpose, I read many books, consulted many people - including astrologers, and thought long & hard about this - only to realise the simple fact that my purpose of life was to live - period! Interestingly, the more I thought about it, the more I realised this fact is not only true for my life, but also for everyone else.

What does it mean to say that purpose of life is to live?

For this we need to broaden our perspective – probably a lot. Think of the yourself as an individual, then as part of a family, society, culture, country, world…and finally this entire cosmos. Does it strike you that you are a small (infinitesimally small) part of this cosmos, yet a significant part. Everything, and I mean every single thing, in this cosmos is there for a reason, in the manner that it is supposed to be and when & where it is supposed to be. This means – so are we. We are where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to be doing, and that means – we are serving a purpose.

Just because either others can’t see the value we bring, or claim that we offer only a limited value, doesn’t mean that is the only value we have. By delivering value, we seem to convince ourselves that this must be our purpose. In this sense – what is the purpose for Sun to exist? If Sun is required for life on Earth, is that all there is to Sun’s purpose. Probably – probably not. We don’t know. It wouldn’t be a surprise for me if Sun doesn’t know its purpose as well. But that doesn’t stop Sun from doing what it does – tirelessly, endlessly. Sun is there because it has been put there. Sun neither limits its value by thinking it is life on Earth that is its purpose, nor worries about how this is not enough of a purpose for something of its size and stature.

With this example, I postulate that much like Sun continues to live, neither knowing its exact purpose nor worrying about its exact purpose, yet fulfilling the duty entrusted to its best, we humans have to do the same. And this would mean – live without worry and without doubt.

Is this it, then? Is there nothing more to life?

Yes, this is an acceptable question to follow the understanding that purpose of life is to live. And this is where I bring in the concept that we build and define our own purpose. Thus, we feel fulfilled or unfulfilled basis what we set as a purpose for ourselves.

Consider this: you are walking down the road when a stranger stops you to ask for time or directions, and you are able to help out that stranger. Unless something extraordinary happens during this interaction, you are highly likely to forget about it and move on. However, this is where I ask you to take a moment and stop to think – why were you stopped and asked for help, and realise in that very moment, during this seemingly small and insignificant interaction you were fulfilling your purpose. Every smile you cause, every little help that you offer to others – on its own might as well be insignificant and forgettable, but when summed up – the total of it is definitely significant.

It is in our control to define our world, our meaning, our purpose – all of which need not be validated or even agreed upon by anybody else. For as long as we continue to judge ourselves from other people’s eyes – we will live a false life, whether others see us as a success or a failure. Simply put, if we are alive and living as per the values that we believe in, then we are succeeding in life. Thus, purpose of life is to live.

If you cannot find purpose in your life, for yourself, try finding your purpose by what you do for others. You don’t know when, where and who might need you to help them with directions, to help them reach their destination, to make their life slightly easier and less worrisome, to add value by bringing a smile to their otherwise mundane moment. Live like the Sun – living its life without worry and doubt.

As my favourite author Richard Bach (as per me, a great philosopher) says in his book, Illusions: 

“This is a test to see if your mission in this life is complete, if you are alive, it isn't.”

Purpose Of Business: Solve Problems

There have been many thought leaders, economists and management gurus who have shed light on the question, "what is the purpose of business?". Adam Smith, an 18th century philosopher, and Milton Friedman, a 20th century economist, suggested on the lines of profit maximisation. According to Peter Drucker, arguably the most revered management thinkers of 20th century, purpose of business is to create customers. More recently, Michael Porter (no introduction required) built a case that business should create shared value by connecting business' success to social progress.

Reading the various views on purpose of business (more than the ones mentioned above), as an employee and then as an entrepreneur, I have often wondered how such profound statements impact my business, and more importantly impact what I do. I had to simplify the answer to the question - "what is the purpose of business?" (and as an extension, what is the purpose of me working in any business?).

At the start of my career, I was responsible for selling newspapers through independent vendors and a field-sales team. It didn't take long for me to realise my job was smoothest when I could solve problems faced by these independent vendors and my sales team. The more unsolved problems between these two groups, the more difficult it was for me to perform my task (which was limited to increasing sales of my organisation's products).

As an entrepreneur, I had a similar realisation - and I would say in a more wholistic sense. Dealing with designers, photographers, web developers, manufacturers, agents and finally the customers - there were variety of problems to deal with. The more unsolved problems among this group, the less successful I was at solving my problem of growing and improving my business.

After years of professional experience and continuous reflection on my actions (and outcomes of my actions) - I have come to believe that purpose of business is simply to solve problems. And as an extension, role of any business executive is to solve problems.

Interestingly, this rather simplistic view towards purpose of business seems to fit with some of the views stated in first paragraph. If I as a business owner decide that the problem I want to solve is my own income, then I will work towards business' profit maximisation. I may quickly realise that more customers I have, the higher my profit - thus I may decide to solve the problem of getting (creating) more customers. However, if at a later stage of my business I realise social set-up has changed and that there is a new problem on the horizon - longevity of my business (continued support of customers, through changing values and needs), I may solve this new problem by creating shared value.

In their HBR article - Reinventing Your Business Model, authors Mark W. Johnson, Clayton M. Christensen, and Henning Kagermann introduced the concept of "job to be done" under Customer Value Proposition (CVP). Essentially, asking business executives to define the customer problem that their product / service is trying to solve.

I think the aspect of problem solving should be extended beyond CVP, to the whole business spectrum.

Irrespective of line of business, each business is trying to solve problems. A school solves illiteracy issues, a hospital solves medical issues, a restaurant solves hunger issues (hunger for food / experience), a builder solves roof over the head issue, an author solves ignorance amongst readers, and a management consultant solves problems that other businesses find difficult to solve for themselves.

Keeping this in mind, it is important for new businesses to know exactly which problems are they going to try and solve. If there is no problem to solve to begin with - well, don't launch the business. If the current solution isn't solving the problem, change / innovate. Problem solving ability is a good measure to know relevance of a suggested business, especially for first time entrepreneurs.

Problem solving is a call to action - giving sense of value to each member of the organisation, irrespective of role, function, hierarchy. When problem to be solved is defined, performance measurement will be against the defined (and stated problems)...not against a subjective measure that may have been in use out of legacy. Problem solving attitude can help give appropriate direction to effort of action and effort of thought separately.

Needless to say - by focussing on problem solving, business executives will need to sharpen their skill of defining the problem. When the problems are correctly defined, solutions will not only lead to desired business results, but also possible innovations (in both, products & processes). However, when the problems are incorrectly defined then results will be far from desired and this scenario may become fatal for the business.