An impactful leader is known to be focused, responsible to bring out higher levels of engagement, driving peak performance and ultimately helping their team to achieve their goals while working towards the growth of the company. And it’s mostly about managing people and the company in the best possible way. Leadership, if we think about it, is how one perceives it. It can be about having a vision, growth oriented approach, ability to influence, risk taking ability, and much more. And all these traits of a leader are true for both – leader at an established firm or head of a large conglomerate and an entrepreneurial leader who is running his/her own business. Leadership is about experimenting, learning and iterating and it is gender agnostic, said both Shiv Shivakumar, Group Executive President – Corporate Strategy & Business Development at Aditya Birla Group, and Purvi Sheth, CEO, Shilputsi Consultants. They were speaking at Express AWE Masterclass.
What is leadership?
While leadership means different for different people and the definition also changes from situation to situation, Shivakumar said, “There is no big or small leader and one basic trait of a good leader is bringing the sense/ feeling of inclusion among his/her team, ability to engage with them for the desired impact.” He also maintained that a leader is not a copy of others and has their own way of doing things. While they should learn and adopt good qualities from others, it’s extremely important that they are original. “A good leader must also be authentic in praise and tough on the shortcomings and authenticity also requires consistency; your praise or criticism should not be dependent on the situation or your mood. I feel the need to be consistent is also true for when you need to strategise for complexities big or small. Planning out strategies and executing them in the right manner is important in all situations,” he added.
Meanwhile, for Purvi Sheth, entrepreneurial leadership, like all leadership, has no algorithm, it sure is more chaotic and an entrepreneurial leader needs to do everything – from managing the vision of the firm to taking risks for it to trying to bring right talent onboard and making everything happen, etc. “Its like being in a relationship, in a marriage,” she said. Purvi Sheth also summarised what entrepreneurial leadership is really about with seven distinct qualities/ traits. “An entrepreneurial leader should know to institutionalise the talents and build culture, values and ethos that survives you and the objectives of the institution; one must not just think of the top line or the bottom line but as talents building up the organisation.
A leader should be self aware and not be influenced by the company’s success or even its fall. Being self aware while also continuing to believe in yourself is of utmost importance. One also needs to build great teams and create succession in the process. Also, there should be continuous process of strategic transformation wherein you know when do you need to move to the next phase. While all this is important, one should always be open to criticism, advises and diverse views so that there is always checks and balances in the overall process of running the firm. Learning and communication is also a vital trait. And finally, a leader needs to learn to let go of the e-ego and understand that it not not all about them but various stakeholders of the company,” she explained.
Separately, Purvi Sheth also discussed a few lessons she learnt along her entrepreneurial journey as a woman entrepreneur. These are: a woman should not try to emulate men and bring their authentic self to work without being fearful of getting judged. There should be resilience in what you do and while at it, a woman entrepreneur needs to understand that there is no need to overcompensate for their mistakes; mistakes are part of the learning process. Perfection, as she pointed, is an antithesis of authenticity and there is no need to run after perfection. A woman entrepreneur should ‘lean in’ for advice and help but on ‘lean on’ for they are capable of making things right. It’s always a trait of a good and positive leader to show assertion rather than aggression. Furthermore, she talked about the ‘3H factor’ and said that fellow women entrepreneurs need to look after themselves and be aware about their happiness and wellness. And lastly, she talked about failures and said that if you take lessons from them, failures are nothing to be worried about.