Respect The Hierarchy

Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of Airasia says he makes it a point to be accessible to his staff. He recounts how a flight staff came up to him at Bengaluru and said,”Hey look,I have some issues. Can you look at it?’

Insight
In 2011, Airasia's employee force was 5000+, it may be more now. If every employee looks up to the CEO, and not his immediate superior for sorting issues, not only does he get overburdened with operational matters, but more critically, senior managers become less accountable, they also lose their morale because the dignity and sanctity of the hierarchy have not been respected.

Leaders Lead the Way

Both Actor Salman Khan and film director Sooraj Barjatya are the same age, yet the actor addresses the latter as Sooraj babu. Asked why, Salman say he realized (Sooraj’s) calibre right from the time of their first film together, when both were 19-year-olds. He had then noticed that people were taking Sooraj for granted, and he had not liked it. So he’d started calling him Sooraj babu so others would respect him.

#MyLearning
Every action and communication of a leader has the power to shape the perceptions,as well as behavior of his people. Use the power well.

Picture source: brettlsimmons. com

Leaders as Role Models

One of the most important components of leadership is to be ambassadors of the values the organization stands for. In these day of a powerful media, where everything that prominent leaders do, gets either flashed on TV, or splashed in print, leaders have an especial responsibilty to symbolize the values of the organization they lead. Three prominent leaders, who, according to me,  manage to do this most effectively are; Vijay Mallya of the UB group, Rahul Bhatia of Indigo Airlines and the Dalai Lama, who needs no introduction.

Vijay Mallya, calls himself the King of Good Times and he symbolizes this image to the hilt! He owns - among other things -  a luxury yatch, a personal aircraft which boasts of a Picasso as part of it's beige and cream interiors, and a fleet of classic and antique cars. Wine, Women (his Kingfisher calendar featuring a bevy of beauties is well known) and Wealth sums Vijay Mallya's lifestyle. It also aptly reflects his moniker as the King of Good Times and pay huge dividends to his companies - liquor company UB, Kigfisher airlines (now in dire staits, financially) and FI and IPL teams, among others.

Rahul Bhatia is the founder of low cost Indigo Airlines.  While Mallya personifies a high flying lifestyle of luxury, Bhatia does the opposite  - he lives up to his companies values of a low-cost functional airline. At a recent meeting of owners of airlines and their CEO's with the Prime Minister of India, he drove down in a Santro driven with his CEO at the wheel. All the others came in expensive chauffeur driven cars. At the recent Economic Times awards for Corporate Excellence (he got the Entrepreneur of the Year Award), in a sea of suits, he was the only one dressed in a waist coat.

The Dalai Lama, the much respected Buddhist leader says his religion is 'kindness'. His ready laughter and child like quality help to reinforce the image of a benign soul. Both in his actions and utterances, he comes across as a simple person and the very epitome of kindness. He was the recipient of the1989 Nobel Peace Prize and his acceptance speech clearly reflected his values. "Although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, even for those we consider our enemies", he said, "I am convinced that everyone can develop a good heart and a sense of universal responsibility with or without religion."

Being a Role Model to Your Organization's Employees

By the very nature of their high profile roles, leaders such as Mallya, Bhatia and the Dalai Lama have the overarching responsibility of living up to their image more to their external customers. But how about leaders whose compulsions to role model are different? What can leaders whose responsibility lies primarily with their own people and organizations do to fulfill their responsibilities? They can reflect their own and their organizations desirable values with actions such as: 

1. The goals and performance standards they establish.
2. The values they establish for the organization.
3. The business and people concepts they establish.

Successful organizations have leaders who set high standards and goals across the entire spectrum, such as strategies, market leadership, plans, meetings and presentations, productivity, quality, and reliability.

Values reflect the concern the organization has for its employees, customers, investors, vendors, and surrounding community. These values define the manner in how business will be conducted.

Concepts define what products or services the organization will offer and the methods and processes for conducting business.

These goals, values, and concepts make up the organization's personality or how the organization is observed by both outsiders and insiders. And it is this personality which defines the roles, relationships, rewards, and rites that take place, that the leader has to role model.

Useful resource: Sample chapter from the book The Leader as Role Model http://tinyurl.com/bnv2jz8

The Rewards of Paying Respect

A recent cartoon by Salam in the Economic Times shows a manager telling his boss, " We have arrived at a respectable compromise with the employees...they have given up their demand for a raise...in return for being treated with respect." The cartoonist neatly captures a profound workplace truth - that employees value being treated with respect more than money.

A variety of surveys show that workers want more than just monetary compensation. In their article in the  Journal of Economic Perspectives, Ellingsen and Johannesson  observe that "in particular, workers want a sort of appreciation and recognition from their employers that conveys respect" As a matter of fact, they report that, "workers sometimes respond negatively to  what they perceive as signs of disrespect, including intrusive managerial control and even, in some cases, monetary incentives." However, inspite of a substantial body of evidence to the contrary, employers insist in their belief that monetary compensation out beats any other form of reward. 

Dilip was one such client of mine who, inspite of my efforts to convince him to the contrary, insisted that monetary rewards were the best form of rewards for his employees. To find out just where the truth lay, I decided to conduct a survey of his employees which evaluated their ratings of five workplace factors; Self-fulfillment, Esteem,  Belongingness, Security, Physiological/Basic. To my no great surprise (but to Dilp's great astonishment), the majority of his employees top rated Esteem and Belongingness.

The lesson for employers - those who treat their employees with respect may find themselves in the situation depicted in Salams cartoon. But those who blend it with monetary rewards, are in store for even greater rewards- a highly motivated employee force!

Ref: Tore Ellingsen and Magnus Johannesson, Paying Respect, Journal of Economic Perspectives-Vol 21, Number 4-Fall 2007-pages 135-149