Friends,

In the world of work today, is it getting easier or difficult to give feedback?
It would appear that it should actually get easier to give feedback, is not it?

Why so?

Our vocabulary about behaviors seems to be much higher today than it ever was.
The availability of assessment data is significantly superior than it ever was.

We are bombarded with so much of popular psychology literature on a daily basis about traits, habits, behaviours and so on.

Organizations have invested so much in detailing behaviors, competencies, values, guiding principles and so on

All of us seem to be pretty good at going out and posting criticism on everything in the world, whether it matters to us or not

Therefore, all this put together, it would appear that it should be easy to give employees feedback and easier for them to accept it?

But, there are several challenges.

The most fundamental of these challenges I think there is a certain level of identity confusion among employees – at any moment in time, are they customers or are they employees? This whole celebration about engagement and employee care and well -being may often be leading to a certain confusion between rights and responsibilities. When you criticize, does the employee feel aggrieved as a customer or reflect deeply, as an employee?

As a society, we live in a place where everyone is extremely touchy and sensitive. It is also unsafe to say anything , without fear of some form of backlash.

Managers and leaders are ever petrified about demotivating an employee or fearful that the employee will stop doing even whatever that person is doing or even leave.

And at a more fundamental level is the fact that managers have a very fragile relationship with their employees and do not have the ability to really be themselves and be candid because of this fragility in the relationship. Managers are not sure how it will land and how they can manage it. Managers seldom earn the right to give feedback.

Therefore for all the cognitive advancements, there is emotional backwardness, if I should say so.

The crux of being able to give feedback rests on the emotional intelligence, the humanistic orientation, the authenticity and the skillfulness of the conversation.

Yes, feedback is harder to give and harder to receive!

Friends,

Have you ever heard the term “being professionally unreasonable”?

What does it mean for a leader to be professionally unreasonable with his team or one or more team members?

I’d like to first say what it doesn’t mean.

According to me, being professionally unreasonable does not mean making unreasonable demands on your team at all times, as a bad habit or unprofessional conduct.

To be professionally unreasonable is to ask of his team something which may appear to be unreasonable, very difficult, almost impossible, but given the circumstances, necessary for the leader to make that unreasonable demand.

Have you heard some leaders tell their teams:

“I do not know how you will solve this, but I want you to solve it”

“You find the resources, but I want you to fix this. I know this is difficult, but we have no choice”

“We have to make this turn around”

Now, why is it important for a leader to have the ability to be professionally unreasonable?

In a world of never-ending chaos and crisis, constant shortage of resources and disruptive competitive and environmental pressures, to believe that things can get done at all times without any pain or difficulty or brief personal inconveniences is unrealistic.

In fact, arising out of being professionally unreasonable are great stories that teams share about how they overcame some extremely difficult circumstances to deliver astonishing results. These become the folklore.

So, what is professional about being unreasonable?.

Given all the time, support and resources and lack of pressure one would have had no difficulty in fulfilling it. The ask itself is professional.

It is not an everyday habit.

It is done in the interest of overcoming a difficult situation for the team or the organization or in the interest of customers or for survival.

It is done in a manner that was respectful

It is followed with an offer to lead from the front and not abandon the team to fend for themselves

It is coming from a leader who has to his or her credit an equal number of stories of having stood by the team in their moments of difficulty

The ability to be professionally unreasonable on occasion is a sign of emotional and professional courage – a test for one’s true character.

I find this especially important to cultivate for those leaders who have a need to be popular, a need to be liked, who have a difficulty in taking a firm stand or be demanding of performance when needed.

It is also important because “hardship” is hugely developmental.

Therefore, the question I would like to ask is,

“Have you worked with leaders and managers who have been professionally unreasonable? What have you learned from it”?

“Have you had occasions when you have been professionally unreasonable and has it worked for you”?

“What do you think about being professionally unreasonable”?

Friends, I’d like to share with you a somewhat strange phenomenon that I’ve been observing in the last several months in terms of a specific ask from clients.

One of the things I hear many clients ask of us is if we coach their leaders to become more ambitious. They even use the term “growth mind-set” quite loosely to say, “they should be coached to be hungrier for growth”.

This has set me thinking and as we speak, my thoughts are by no means well formed, but there are a few possibilities that are emerging which I’d like to share with you.

My discussions with various leaders at various stages of their careers leads me to believe that there are three important voices to pay attention to:

1. I am not convinced about my organisation’s plans

While everyone wants to grow 5X or 10X in 3 years or 2 years, leaders and managers don’t seem to see how that is possible. While they may have said yes nominally, they have not bought into it.

Unfortunately, very little conversations take place around this. One way communication is seen as buy-in.

2. I am not excited about your plans

Even if people have bought into the plans, many may not be excited about these plans. They do have aspirations but for other things. Their purposes may not be reflected in these aspirations. Their life circumstances and life agendas may not give them the mind space to engage with these lofty aspirations, in the manner in which the organisation wants them to.

How much does anyone care about what the employee wishes for? Do we want him or her to aspire only for those things that are good for the organisation?

3. I don’t think I can do it

This is perhaps the most critical one.

Just paying someone more money, giving someone more stocks, giving someone a larger position and title does not necessarily make that person more competent. The gap between demands and resources to meet those demands has never ever been wider that it is today. This situation when prolonged can lead to burn out.

Who is taking the effort to help employees become competent and feel competent to join the organisation in its ambitious journey?

I think we have reached a crucial point in corporate India today, where we will really need to ask what we can do more and differently to take employees along with us in our journey of growth. Until then, employees may not seem ambitious to us.

Friends, I am delighted to let you know that on 11th of June, 2000, totus consulting, my boutique HR consulting firm was born.

Today marks the start of our 25th anniversary. I’m grateful for many great things that totus has managed to do over these years.

As I look back, there are three perspectives I would like to share about the function and its functionaries, based on my experiences.

First, if HR is not doing what it is supposed to do, Business Leaders will need to ask what their contribution has been, to that situation. Managing people is part of the larger approach to managing relationships and that flows from culture. HR is not just HR’s job.

Second, HR has to strike the right balance between advocating employee causes, championing their needs and forwarding business agendas. It is true that HR has swayed too much towards business and in the process alienated itself from employees. That is one reason for employees to sound angry about HR.

Three, it is very hard to prescribe how HR should be structured and what roles are critical for the function in such a diverse and complex world.

However, it appears that there are five critical competencies that will help HR professional stay relevant and do the right things. I call it the five Cs.

HR professionals need to be great at consulting. Their ability to diagnose and define problems and offer the right solutions is critical. While “buying off the shelf solutions” is tempting, it is consulting that will lend credibility.

HR professionals need to be counsellors. The challenges of mental health and well-being are becoming acute and there is need for those in HR to have a high level of literacy about matters of mental health and be competent in making resources available as needed.

HR professionals must be good coaches. They need to support performance, development, career growth and forward the aspirations through a strong coaching approach. They need to be the champions of a coaching style.

HR professionals must be able to offer wise counsel on critical matters relating to employees, the Law, pay, performance, good practices, people management and so on to managers and leaders.

HR professionals must of course be good at managing chaos. Chaos will be inevitable and helping the organisation navigate it will be critical.

If HR professionals master these 5 competencies, they will thrive irrespective of where they are, what roles they are playing and what structure they are part of.

I thank all of our clients who have reposed faith in us over the past 24 years and our team members who have made us proud.

Dear Friends

CFI believes strongly in the power of journaling as a daily habit and tool to promote reflection, deep contemplation and inward focus. Our Coaches have for long encouraged their coachees to practice journaling.

I am pleased to announce the launch of this little book to serve as a gentle nudge to make journaling a daily habit and enjoy personal growth.

I thank Archana Edward Madhavan Sri Krishnan and Ramkumar R for helping curate this book.

A few days back, I had announced the launch of MeHR, a Mentoring program for HR professionals who are on the pathway to leadership positions.

We are delighted with the responses we have received this far.

It is our dream and vision that this mentoring program offers a life altering experience to at least a few keen and interested HR professionals every year.

If you are an HR professional with around 12 – 15 years of experience and aspire to lead the function as a generalist or specialist and see value in working with a Mentor Coach through an eclectic mentoring program, hurry and register using this link. : https://forms.gle/5Cb2mxRYNABefvRn9

Our intent is to offer plans to suit the diverse needs of HR professionals. Mentoring will be offered by CFI Coaches who are all seasoned professionals with deep business and functional experience.

Ganesh Chella, at work since May 10, 1984!

40 years ago, on May 10, 1984 I started my career as an HR professional.

18 years ago, on May 10, 2006, CFI was born!

Today, on May 10, 2024, I am pleased to announce MeHR, a Mentoring program for HR professionals who are on the pathway to leadership positions.

HR as a profession has given me an identity that I cherish. It has helped me discover myself and grow as a person,. It has helped grow businesses but most importantly touch the lives of other people.

40 years on, as I continue to consult as an HR and OD practitioner, lead CFI, a coaching and Leadership company, share my ideas, support important causes and do much more, I am grateful for all these good things that have come my way.

Above all, I am most grateful to the many people who played a crucial role in my growth as a professional and person, in my ability to discover my potential and give expression to my ideas.

As a small gesture of paying it forward, today, May 10, 2024, I am pleased to announce MeHR, a Mentoring program for HR professionals who are on the pathway to leadership positions.

It is our dream and vision that this mentoring program offers a life altering experience to at least a few keen and interested HR professionals every year.

If you are an HR professional with around 12 – 15 years of experience and aspire to lead the function as a generalist or specialist and see value in working with a Mentor Coach through an eclectic mentoring program.

MeHR will be built ground up based on your inputs and feedback. Our intent is to offer plans to suit the diverse needs of HR professionals. Mentoring will be offered by CFI Coaches who are all seasoned professionals with deep business and functional experience.

With your participation, we can learn and build a great platform that can contribute to the excellence of the HR function and its functionaries.

Is communicating effectively a critical leadership competency?
At first glance, one may assume that by the time one reaches a leadership position, one has mastered the art and science of communication. But that is not always true.
The complexity
Communicating effectively has become a rather complex skill for at least three reason:

1. The attention span of stakeholders is extremely low, especially at senior levels – so your window to deliver your message is very short
2. People are becoming increasingly “touchy” – so we need to use semantics that are very responsible
3. Leaders are expected to influence and obtain support for their ideas and proposals without relying on the hierarchy, so communication is business critical

The confusion
Adding to the complexity is the confusion of what effective commutation is. Everyone throws loose terms and forwards pet theories on what is effectiveness, leaving leaders quite confused.
If you are factual, you are accused of not being able to tell a story. If you tell a story, you are accused of obfuscation, if you jump into the specifics, you are accused of not being inspiring. If you are understated, you are accused of not having executive presence and if you have presence, you are accused of being too full of yourself. So, what should I do, people often wonder.
The hard truth is that communication is not about knowledge, it is not so much about spoken English, it is not about you. It is about the goal, the context and the other people.
What is coachable
Having said all this, there are three things that coaches can do to help someone enhance their communication effectiveness:
Conceptual dexterity
Help the leaders become aware of their conceptual preferences and pay attention to the less preferred but much needed dimensions. (analysis vs synthesis, birds eye vs worms eye, definite vs ambiguous)
Emotional Intelligence
Help the leaders become aware of those dimensions of their emotional intelligence that are strong, less developed, overused and under used. (Self regard, Emotional self awareness, Emotional expression, Assertiveness, Interpersonal relationships, Empathy, Impulse control, Flexibility Stress tolerance)
Personal Truths
Help leaders become aware of those things that they believe to be absolutely and irrevocable true and how these rigidities are causing them difficulties in their communication.
While training can address the external behaviors and skills, coaching can help address underlying dimensions of one’s preferences, emotions and beliefs and through that enhance communication effectiveness.

In continuation of my efforts to demystify some of the critical leadership competencies, I focus on the subject of Risk Taking.

Risk Taking is frequently seen as a critical managerial and leadership behavior today. Business leaders and Boards are expecting their managers and leaders to take more risks.

While this need is often well articulated, not everyone is clear about what it really means and if we are all talking about the same thing.

Having listened to a large number of sponsors and coaches, here is what I have understood as the real need around risk taking.

In my view, when organisations ask for risk taking, they are most often referring to the need for their leaders to take “professional risks” and not “business risks”.

In other words, business leaders are not expecting all of their managers and leaders to take entrepreneurial decisions, start new businesses, launch new ideas, commit capital and so on.

They are really expecting them to take risks in the way they carry out their professional work.

So, what would counts as professional risks?

1.      At the most foundational level, it is the risk of doing what one is doing in new and different ways – learning and using a new approach, style and method and doing one’s work in new and different ways. It is about moving away from old well-trodden paths and time-tested ways and trying a new approach or embrace a disruptive wave.

2.      The second layer is the risk of putting oneself out there and trying or creating something new, outside one’s comfort zone. It could be about volunteering for a new project, a cross-functional assignment, a new initiative, a role in an external forum. It is about stepping sideways. The risk is that one may not like it or one may need to work with unknown people, or do things that one believes one may not like.

3.      The final layer is about signing up for significantly higher responsibilities – a new position, a much bigger job, a new city or country or a new role. There might be fear of failing, of one’s track record being tarnished and so on.

As businesses get disrupted and models pivot, managers and leaders need to partake in the risk of doing business only to the extent of making changes to what they do and how they do it and the levels of complexity they are willing to take on.

The question is this: Can risk taking be inculcated? Can individuals be coaches to take more risks?

Absolutely. Enhanced self-awareness is always the starting point, especially awareness of their strengths. Equally, challenging their mind sets and personal truths around risks becomes critical.

Their managers can help in exposing them to small experiments and celebrate failures in the interest of their learning to take professional risks.

The ability to network and engage meaningfully with diverse stakeholders within and outside the organization is seen as a critical ask of today’s leaders.

This is understandable. More and more businesses rely on network orchestration as their model. All organizations in general are expected to rely on external networks for mutual gain and benefit. Therefore engaging with networks is fast becoming a critical organizational capability.

It is in this context that networking as a competence is being demanded of leaders.

Time to therefore rest some of our antiquated notions of what networking is.

Some of these notions include spending endless evenings wining and dining, hanging out is seemingly pointless networking events, trading favours for short-term gains, courting influencers or even being on someone’s LinkedIn network.

While some of these may yield short-term gains and have speculative benefits, these do not constitute the heart of what I believe are networking behaviours for the future.

This is what my life experiences have taught me about networking:

A genuine interest in others, their well being and growth is a foundational value for networking

Being genuine and authentic in each interaction, in each exchange can help us carve a place of respect for ourselves in the network.

Taking a long term view of our relationships helps transcend momentary judgmental inclinations

Overusing one’s altruistic tendencies can burn us out and even leave us biter because we believe we did a lot

Doing because you care about the person or the subject is what matters

I do not believe that gender has a role to play in one’s inherent networking abilities.

One’s preferences of introversion and extraversion also do not ifluence networking abilities.

However, what we value deeply and dearly does inform our networking style.

So, we should do it in a way that is congruent with who we are.

Behind every leadership hiring move and every talent management move is a significant
transition for the leader involved. What is less understood are the travails that these leaders
experience in going through these transitions. No wonder, not all of them succeed.

Transitions are tough

Transition are tough for many reasons. When a leader is hired from outside or promoted from
within for a large role, the view about that leader’s potential to succeed is at best a hypothesis.
Making that a reality is seldom simple and seldom the job of the leader alone.

What makes a transition (from one organization to another; one level to another; one function to
another; one business to another; from a function to a Business leadership role; one culture to
another) difficult? The sources of transition pressure are many:

• Integrating with a new team
• Aligning with new manager
• Aligning with new stakeholders
• Managing cultural differences
• Prioritization in the face of multiple expectations
• Developing new skills
• Style shift

There are many things that can add to the difficulty:

• Stepping into the shoes of an illustrious predecessor
• Superseding peers who are now team members
• Stepping into a jinxed role
• Stepping into a new role and unchartered waters
• Stepping in to turn around a business or change strategy or drive hyper growth

Missed deveopmental milestones

As if these are not enough, the Leader may enter the new role with what I call missed
developmental milestones – competencies that one should have mastered a while ago but did
not and the new enlarged role is likely to magnify these competence gaps. (one’s communication with persuasion was average but in the last role, tenure gave them credibility but this new job demands loads of it with no equity yet)

Preexisting conditions

Add to this the last twist of trouble. One may have carried on in one”s work life with a bunch of
preexisting behavioural challenges like

• Emotional regulation
• Inability to receive and work on feedback
• Inability to build and nurture relationships
• Interpersonal insensitivities
• Unhelpful ways of thinking about self, others, the system
• Poor learning ability

Given one’s track record, maybe one got away with these. But now this role is huge and the
context is new and unforgiving.

Why Transition coaching

While organizations spend a lot of time and money hiring or assessing before making a career
decision, they do very little to set the leader up for success. This is despite the fact that so much is at stake for the business and the leader.

This is where transition coaching can offer a huge advantage in setting the leader up for success.

So, if you are planning to hire a leader from outside or promoting from within and the stakes are
high, consider finding a transition coach. This is the best way to assure success.

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is “Inspire Inclusion”. We therefore believe it is only appropriate that this women’s day, we take some time out to celebrate the men, our allies.

The man who celebrates the birth of his daughters.

The man who stands up for his sister and supports her in getting out of an abusive relationship.

The man who encourages his niece not to give up sports.

The man who calls out his wife for being more focused on their son.

The man who covers for his female colleague as she takes her aged in-laws to the doctor.

The man who role models respect to women so the rest of his family does so too.

The man who makes other men understand that what they think is funny is actually disrespectful to women.

The man who rolls up his sleeves and decides to be as adept in the kitchen as his wife so she can focus better on her career.

The man who sees what a woman colleague is capable of and ensures she gets the opportunities she deserves.

The man who celebrates the economic independence of his wife.

And fortunately, the list goes on!

Many liberate themselves as they reduce their dependence on women for the basics!  This Women’s Day, we would like to celebrate these genuine allies who ensure that women’s day is not restricted to just one day in a year.

Happy Women’s Day Everyone!

When a leader undergoes coaching, especially to address some aspects of his or her style or behavior based on feedback, one of the biggest challenges that the leader faces is this:

The people around the leader have a certain image or picture of the leader, which is quite strongly engraved in their minds. Now, as the leader works with a coach and genuinely begins to take efforts to make changes respecting the feedback received, it is quite likely that the people around him or her may not be willing to refresh what I call the profile picture that they have of the leader in their mind.

In that sense, many can be quite unforgiving in holding on to their past experiences, past impressions and judgments of that leader. This can often make things very difficult for the leader who is genuinely attempting to change.
So, what can the leader do in such a situation? What can the coach do to help this leader face these inevitable challenges in this journey of change?

There are a few possibilities.

Firstly, as long as the changes that the leader is wanting to make are private and secret and others around have no visibility into what the leader is attempting to change, they are less likely to take an empathetic view towards these efforts. I encourage all my coachees to share with their stakeholders what they are trying to change as well as the efforts they are taking in this direction. Announcing their intention is the first starting point.

Secondly, I suggest that they enlist the support of this group to give them real -time feedback as they are attempting to make these changes. Now, enlisting the support of your friends and well-wishers is often easier than enlisting the support of your greatest critics, but it is the greatest critics whose support one needs to enlist because they are the ones who are likely to hold on to past experiences much more strongly than your dear friends. Letting them know about the genuine efforts you are making can help heal the relationship and also get good feedback. Of course, this calls for real emotional courage.

Thirdly, sharing and disclosing some of the struggles and dilemmas in the journey of change with the community around you can make it easier for them to empathize, respect and hopefully start looking for evidence of what has shifted rather than looking for evidence of what has not shifted.

Finally, it is not about whether you changed or not. It is about whether people are beginning to perceive that you have changed. That perception is not as factual as we would like it to be, but is colored by the past experiences and impressions of you. So, while it is important to change, it is much equally important to take the support of other people around you when you’re changing.

Only then can we hope that others will refresh their profile picture of you!

Mentoring as we all understand is an at-will collaborative value-adding relationship, traditionally between someone who is older and has more life or work experiences and a younger person seeking it.

The underlying assumption being that:
a. experience and age contribute to wisdom and the ability to offer perspectives
b. the past and having been there helps us prepare for the future

Against this context, the term “reverse mentoring” is often used to describe the openness exhibited by older people to allow younger people to add value to them. Such a “privilege” is often associated with content associated with technology, use of social media and so on. It is also positioned as a fashionable thing to do by an older person!

I believe that in the world that we live in today, “mentoring” is “mentoring”. There is no such thing called “reverse mentoring”.

Age, experience and wisdom are not necessarily corelated.

History does not always inform how we can do things in the future.

a. To mentor someone, I need to have a strong appreciation of the seeker’s context. The context in which that person is and seeking help.

b. To mentor someone, I need to have content that will be of value to that person, given her or his context.

c. to mentor someone, I need to use a style that is open and flexible to suit that seeker.

Anyone who fulfills these three criteria can be seen as a valuable mentor to anyone who can benefit from those three criteria.

As more and more organizations grapple with unprecedented challenges to walk into the future, who better than someone who is thriving in that emerging context to mentor those who are struggling in that context?

Who better than someone who has first hand experience of having faced those challenges and difficulties to mentor someone in need?

Who better than someone whose style is likely to be informal, power-free and flexible?

Be it seeking help for mental health, or dealing with generational differences or being flexible, or adapting to rapid changes, understanding emerging societal dilemmas or influencing without authority or modern approaches to parenting or work life balance or the ability to be open and direct – hundreds of otherwise successful leaders are struggling with these challenges. Who is likely to have greater contextual understanding on these themes? Who is likely to have relevant first hand content to offer? Who is likely to do it in a flexible manner?

You may have found the answer.

The term reverse mentoring is somewhat patronizing. We never know where wisdom can come from. That may be a key to the future!

Disclaimers:

AI in my lexicon is Appreciative Inquiry, not Artificial Intelligence.

I am a student of Leadership and Organisation Development, not an expert in the Information Technology business.

As I look at the Indian IT Services industry today, I see a dire need for its leadership to demonstrate a positive and appreciative approach to driving change and shaping the narrative in the minds of the millions who are dependent on them. This is where I hope they look to AI (Appreciative Inquiry, not Artificial Intelligence) for inspiration. (Appreciative Inquiry is a positive approach to championing Organisation Development, change and appreciative leadership.)

Let’s dial back in time.

First, the founding leaders in India’s IT service companies created a huge sense of anticipation about the future which served to inspire so many young men and women to embrace this industry. They held out the hope of honest Indians being able to build businesses, the vision of careers which offered respect and dignity. The promise of an egalitarian society without pay disparity. The vision of global career opportunities. Of investment in development.

This is what in AI is called the Anticipatory Principle. The conviction that Images inspire action. That human systems move in the direction of their images of the future. That, the more positive and hopeful the image of the future, the more positive the present-day action.

Second, despite all the challenges that existed in those pioneering days, they chose to engage with and talk about things that elevated the narrative. There was talk about the customer coming second. About the world’s largest campuses, sharing wealth, about great food, about employee friendly policies, open culture and so on.

This is what in AI is called the Poetic Principle. We can choose what we study. That teams and organizations, like open books, are endless sources of study and learning and what we choose to study makes a difference. It describes – even creates – the world as we know it.

Cut over to the present day.

Where is the anticipatory principle in play? Which leader is sharing an inspiring image about the future? What is the hope?

What are we choosing to study today? I only see reports about quarterly earnings, about job losses, about employees not wanting to return to offices, about hiring scams, about lawsuits, about AI (the other AI) threatening to take away millions of jobs, about sports stars being signed up to be brand ambassadors and so on.

Are we saying there is nothing to anticipate and only endless pathos? That is serious.

This is where real Leadership matters. And I see little evidence of that right now. I really hope it changes, soon. Remember, millions are anxious and waiting.

We keep listening to leaders of organizations and teams lament about the fact that there isn’t enough collaboration among all or some of their team members. They may ask HR to conduct training programs and workshops on collaboration or ask coaches to coach specific leaders to be more collaborative.

Like many others things, our language often betrays the true intent we have in mind about an expectation and “collaboration” is a great example of this.

In order to promote greater clarity, I would therefore use the term “collective efforts” to describe the five levels of expectations in this area:

Level one is competition. I do not need to emphasise the importance of a competitive spirit within organizations because competition is a reality in the larger world and winning is so important. While the need to win is important, how does one ensure that it does not vitiate collective efforts is often the dilemma of leaders. To that end, competition between individuals is seen as detrimental to collective efforts.

Level two is coordination. A lot of everyday work in teams requires coordination of efforts. In other words, the efforts of one person need to be coordinated with the efforts of another person so that they together produce great results. Lack of coordination leads to wasted efforts. Be it a company picnic or the delivery of a service or completion of a project, coordination is important.

Level three is cooperation: There are many occasions when one member of a team or an entire team is leading efforts on something that is important for the team or the organisation. Finance may be closing its books of accounts or Quality or Regulatory affairs may be filing for a certification or HR may want to get performance appraisals done. This can happen only when there is cooperation from all involved.

Level four is compromise. There are occasions when there are conflicting positions on several substantive issues. It could be about policy conformance or a contentious decision that impacts margins but satisfies customers or one function wanting to concessions and another not wanting to agree. The ability to display commitment to the “collective” and compromise without one’s ego coming in the way is a huge sign of maturity.

Level five is collaboration. There are times when organizations and teams may be driving transformational change or launching breakthrough products and services and it may call for the bright minds to come together and give their best, build on each other’s ideas and challenge each other and together create something terrific. This is collaboration.

Given the very nuanced nature of this ask around “collective efforts”, some of the work in building this competence needs to be done with the individual leader and and some of it with the intact team.