My Leadership Pre-510: Leading In The 21st Century

My Leadership Profile
Raghavendhra Rao
Jack Welch Management Institute
Dr. Paul Katsampes
Course Number: JWI 510: Leading in the 21st Century
Date: October 26, 2014

Abstract
LEADERSHIP is the buzz word in today’s world. Everyone aspires to be a leader. However there is no magic formula to become a leader or a blood test to know if we have become a leader. It is an evolutionary process. This paper tells the story of some of the defining moments that shaped my ongoing leadership journey. The list of attributes for a leader is endless. Most importantly, moral and ethical integrity should be at the core of every leader. Influencing and Collaboration are my primary strengths. In my decades of experience, these qualities have
empowered me to set the direction of change and align teams to successfully deploy solutions domestically and internationally. Leaders not only need to have the necessary technical competence but also need to have the right mix of emotional intelligence and behaviors to adapt to the fast moving competitive environment. My emotional intelligence has helped me build stronger relationships and achieve my goals. Leadership is a privilege that has to be earned and their accomplishments depend on the success of their followers.

Introduction According to a Talent Management (2010) survey of Fortune 1000 companies, there are not enough leaders coming through the ranks to fill in open and future leadership positions.
Leadership development is the single biggest challenge and the biggest opportunity facing organizations today. My aspirations are to professionally build my effectiveness as a leader to be seen as someone others want to work for. There are many different ways to become a leader. Having a good role model shapes our vision of great leadership. Jack’s principles and eight essential rules provide a framework and professional guidelines to help aspiring leaders grow leadership skills. The following sections explore my strengths and areas of development helping me develop a realistic evaluation of my strengths and limitations resulting in an informed understanding of my unique leadership style.
My Leadership Strengths At the beginning of my career, I had assumed leadership was only reserved for supervisory roles in top management. I soon recognized the importance of good leadership at every level of the organization including individual contributors. Fresh out of college, my first big moment arrived within a few months of starting my first job in India. I was entrusted with the responsibility of managing an offshore project and came to America. This was an icebreaker and set the ball rolling on my leadership
journey. Our first assignment was to design the topology and routing plan for the global IRIDUM satellite network. The system was developed by high-tech skilled professionals in the world’s premier telecommunications company, Motorola. In my first meeting, the next day after landing in America, still weary from jet lag, my heart trembled thinking about sharing the table with the industry’s leading scientists, all with PhDs. Regaining my composure, I greeted them and thanked them for giving us the opportunity to work with them. I then gave an introduction of our company and its work, and explained how we could benefit them. My experiences provided me insights into the various roles of leadership and adapt to the lay of the land. I soon realized the importance of good communication and teamwork. Informal candid communication was a must. This experience enabled me build self-confidence that fueled my drive to a strong sense of leadership. I used this opportunity to coach our team in India on the shifting trends in the industry and impacts of the globalizing landscape. This benefited our team to hit the ground running as we travelled to different parts of the world. We managed all our dealings with transparency and candor which allowed us to develop the trust of our customer, leading us to bigger wins. This sowed the early seeds of my leadership principles. I learnt that the success of a leader not only depended on the best technical competence, but to a larger degree depended on teamwork and managing people. I realized the importance of building collaborative relationships and aligning teams. These projects spanned across 12 different regions across the globe which gave me a huge insight into the different cultures and global perspectives. Most of my initial roles were as a system engineer developing solutions for turnkey telecom projects. In this role, I had to work closely with many teams in the product development lifecycle including marketing, product line managers, software development, testing and operations to develop the system architecture and requirements. My role as a system engineer provided me an excellent opportunity to tie the different pieces together and develop the end to end solution, which enabled me to see the big picture. As a result, I was able to successfully align every team and drive the direction of change to introduce new functionality. I quickly realized the importance of understanding the bigger picture and need for continuously instilling the company’s mission and values. In my current role, I am responsible for developing the strategy and technical roadmap for the company to meet government regulations. I partner with various teams including vendors to evaluate new solutions and research new technologies. I also represent the company on industry advisory committees and standards workgroups. New regulatory mandates have huge impacts and changes across every organization. The target population not only involves my direct team, but also other cross functional teams and business units, in other parts of the organization, as well as, suppliers, government agencies, standard bodies, public safety organizations, and customers. As noted by J.P Kotter, today’s teams are complex and involve many different players in the mix. I always make it a point to reach out to all stakeholders and strive for collaboration. Influencing and Collaborating are my primary strengths. These attributes have enabled me to forge relationships, build trust and successfully drive the team for results. These skills have also helped me lead industry groups and facilitate standards organizations to develop industry standards and recommendations. In today’s complex ecosystem, collaboration is the key to work cooperatively across all global sectors of the industry, including various stakeholders having competing goals. Leaders need to deliver results by working across organizational boundaries. One of my key responsibilities also includes evaluating new technologies to verify potential benefits and operational impacts. These activities involve a lot of probing and pushing and performing lab and field trials to validate claims. Rather than being rooted to my desk, I spend most of my time working with the operations and network compliance teams. They are my eyes and ears into the network and assist me get first hand information of the challenges. Based on my DiSC profile I am an Influencer and enjoy relating to people. I am passionate, believe in empowering others and encourage people to collaborate.
Leveraging My Leadership Strengths I plan to further leverage my strengths of influence and collaboration to remove barriers and silos across organizations. I hope these efforts will remove boundaries and create flatter organizations fostering greater collaboration. I will take initiatives to develop a structured leadership training program and also coach new employees and mentor managers. This will enable me sharpen my leadership skills and develop well-rounded leaders. I also plan to obtain feedback from supervisors and leaders in the company to develop my leadership profile. In addition, I plan to find out the collective strengths and DiSC profiles of every member in my team and cross functional teams. This will assist me identify different behaviors and develop better bonding between teams.
Leadership Areas for Development For anyone to grow as a leader it is equally important to know his or her strengths and weakness. Reflecting on my professional experience, one area I could improve further is celebrating success. Jack states the importance of celebrating moments of achievement and making a big deal out of them. Many people exhibit leadership qualities, but are not energized and motivated. I feel if each one of us took time to acknowledge and highlight their efforts it will go a long way in nurturing leadership talent and encouraging them. This in turn exudes positive energy and optimism and inspires people to become leaders. I plan to make a concrete effort to highlight their leadership efforts and express my appreciation. I will start a monthly newsletter and celebrate team events acknowledging their specific efforts encouraging them to build on these qualities. I look forward to grow as a leader in Jack Welsh Management institute management program and acquire business and management skills to complement my technical depth. This shall help me evolve fast enough to respond to the dynamic business world. In addition, I also plan to sharpen my communication skills by participating at my local toastmasters club. Based on my DiSC profile I empower people and trust them. I have also realized that a particular leadership style does not work in all situations. To better improve my understanding in different situations, I plan to partner with leaders having different DiSC profiles to help me master many different leadership styles. Over the years, I have tried to better understand diverse situations and apply the best leadership style addressing the demands of the given situation, even if it means stretching outside my comfort zone. I also started a new meditation journey which has tremendously helped prepare me mentally and emotionally and transform me to an effective leader and become a better human being. (http://www.sahajameditation.com/).
Conclusion
Everybody has a unique leadership style.
Jack offers proven methodologies to become a leader. Leadership is an evolution and not a revolution. Having the right emotional intelligence and balance gives an effective leader discretion and wisdom to apply the best logic according to the situation. These qualities set great leaders apart from the rest. My personal connection to developing leadership extends beyond my professional experience, to volunteering at community events and conducting free meditation programs. I meet with various local community leaders and get a unique perspective of the challenges facing today’s world. Volunteering provides me with a platform to organize public programs and gives me a unique opportunity to transform people and connect with the community, realizing my passion of making the world a better place. In my opinion practice is more important than the precept. Leaders need to walk the talk. In closing I feel a good balance between physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being kindles the art of perfection and drive to great leadership. Leaders focus on a holistic view of the whole ecosystem including people who form the heart and soul of an organization. These leaders create a spirit of harmony and steer the ship forward for the benevolence of the collective teams. Becoming an effective leader no longer needs to remain a dream. With a better understanding of one’s own leadership style,
one can become an effective leader with commitment and dedication.

References
Jack Welsh with Suzy Welsh (2005). Winning. NY: Harper Collins.
Jack Welsh with John A. Byrne (2001). Straight from the Gut. USA: Warner Books, Inc.
Patrick Lencioni (2002). The FIVE DYSFUNCTIONS of a TEAM. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones (2006). Why Should Anyone Be Led by You? Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
John P. Kotter (1999). What Leaders Really Do. USA: Harvard Business Review. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
Kouznes & Posner (2007). Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley &Sons.