The Future India business leader

Conference Board report

This report is the India leadership 2.0 project. It is about understanding and developing a global mindset in an era of complexity and international expansion.

You have to be energetic yet patient and find opportunity in adversity in India.

Developing a leadership pipeline is a challenge.

Future India leaders need to be triathletes –able to operate seamlessly in the private sector, with government, and within civil society. The ability to influence policy will be important.

Eight six percent of participants in this study say it is ‘difficult’ or ‘very difficult’ to find , deploy, and retain local leaders.

There is a rising tide for good corporate citizenship and a breakdown of trust.

The personal attributes required for future business leaders in India :Courage, collaboration, self awareness, comfort with ambiguity, independent thinking and integrity.

The future competencies required of an Indian leader are : global mind set, cultural sensitivity, ability to lead change, communicate with others, tell stories, manage global virtual teams, nurtures and develops talent, the ability to listen and make the opinion of others truly count.

The Indian workforce will see young people demanding more autonomy, freedom , empowerment and flexibility.

A lot of Indian companies are going local on leadership development, to reflect diverse perspectives.

Companies are in a hurry to make leaders out of managers. It is not easy to find inspirational leaders that can motivate people in good and bad times. We see great managers who are poor leaders.

Leadership is a business issue and an India Inc issue. If we don’t define this, India cannot grow.

Human capital Challenge

Top 5 Global concerns Top 5 India Inc concerns

1 Human capital 1 Human capital

2 Customer relationships 2 Operational excellence

3 Innovation 3 Global political, economic risk

4 Operational excellence 4 Innovation

5 Corporate brand and reputation 5 Customer Relationships

India will need to develop leaders in a compressed time frame.

India is a land of opportunity and confusion.

An important skill in a complex world is articulation. Leaders should say it in a way that others understand. Getting to clarity of thought in ambiguous situations is important.

We have tried to predict an individuals future based on past performance and demonstrated skills and abilities. This is flawed, research shows that fundamentally different skills and behaviors are needed at different levels.

Learning agility is one aspect of leadership that is missing in India. Indian leaders don’t believe that they need to invest in themselves. They do not believe in continuous learning.

Challenges for leaders

Global leaders

• Collaboration

• Change leadership

• Driving innovation

• Resilience

• Adaptability

Indian leaders

• Collaboration

• Change leadership

• Global awareness

• Driving Innovation

• Ethical decision making

In India we value being argumentative, therefore we don’t have listening skills. There is no attempt to understand where people are coming from. Because Indians are bad listeners , they miss many good ideas.

The problem is arrogant leaders don’t understand the impact this attitude has on an organization and its people. In India, this issue isn’t addressed head on so nothing ever changes.

Rising above and staying pure

• Self awareness

• Learning agility

• Authenticity

• Doing what is right

• Collaboration