Leading in 'Modern' times using 'Ancient' Wisdom...!

'The Sphinx &The Pyramid of Giza' has always amazed me. The purpose behind its existence is even more appealing than it’s beauty. Essentially a Pyramid protects a prized possession and it is the responsibility of the Sphinx to guard them both.

Drawing inspiration from this philosophy; I have always thought that my role as 'Leader' is same as The Sphinx’s where I am responsible for my 'Team' (The Pyramid) and together we are protecting the 'Brand' (The Prized Possession) of our team.

Breaking Down the Philosophy.....

'''Once you spend some time ogling at the diagram above, it is important to understand following 3 parts which are the key to this philosophy:

Part 1: The Prized Possession (The Brand)

“Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.” – Jeff Bezos

A leader’s and team’s focus should be in defining, enhancing & maintaining the team’s brand. Ultimately it defines how the team gets treated within the organization, how fast its people can grow and get promoted, how smooth you can navigate within the organization for driving a change. If you don’t define it yourself somebody else would happily do it for you and most likely you wouldn’t like it.

No matter what Brand your team decides to build – through credibility, recognition & growth you can protect & enhance it.

Part 2: The Pyramid (The Team)

The pyramid must be solid to protect the prized possession. That emphasizes the need of quality material & a solid building technique. So essentially to build a solid team, you need to have great talent and a well thought out team building 'technique'.

Here is the 'technique' that has worked well for me.

• The Foundation: "Holistic Performance" drives Credibility: Every team performs. But how holistically it performs determines it’s credibility in the organization. A holistic performance is the one which keeps business’ interests ahead of it’s team metrics (it's easier said than done). As you could tell, earning credibility is very hard and you must keep doing the right things in the right way. Losing it on the other hand is simple as well as subjective. When your team earns the reputation of thinking & delivering bigger & broader – trust naturally walks in, resulting into enhanced credibility.
• The Body: "Maximized Potential" drives Recognition: A team should own all that’s in its control. The best way to unlock a team’s potential is by holding it accountable & challenging it for more. Such 'stretch' is never welcomed at first by the team but eventually becomes a habit which then never goes away. In fact, the increased focus results into confident actions which builds an empowered team. Such team would never be afraid of walking the extra mile. Most likely it’s that one extra mile that earns you the recognition. When you strive for more and drive hard to get there – recognition follows you.
• The Tip: "Solid Perception" (& Credibility & Recognition) drives Growth: Perception is reality, today ! Having a solid perception is very important because your organization’s growth (promotions, raises, bonuses) is heavily dependent on it. When it comes to perception everybody has a say and everybody’s say matters. Especially the senior leadership team members who are pressed for time will heavily rely on perceptions. As a team – you should be always ready to improve and ready to fight for having the right perception about your team. Absorb all the constructive feedback and act upon it. Pass on all the good feedback that will enhance team’s morale BUT equally important to be ready to fight any wrong assumptions being made about your team. Solid perception is not just 'good to have' anymore but a 'must have'.

Part 3: The Sphinx (The Leader)

As Leader, I have always thought my biggest priorities to be my team & my team's brand. Obviously the team & it's brand are good indicators of how a leader is viewed in an organization. Thus a leader should -

1.   Assess the Needs: with the team & all the stakeholders on expectations from your team and be on the same page across the board.

2.   Define the Brand: which you & the team are craving to build in accordance with the assessment above. Put a metric system in place to measure & compare your improvement to the baseline that you assessed.

3.   Boost the Brand: by focusing on the 3 most critical levers for a brand:

• Credibility: Via broad & clear objectives, needed operational rigors, focus on doing the right thing, high say-do ratio & frequent and clear communication of metric &/or performance.
• Recognition: Via pushing team reasonably harder to deliver more, recognizing their success publicly, raising the overall team's bar higher so that going above & beyond becomes new norm and which also helps you identify your strong & weak players and then improving &/or upgrading talent.
• Growth: Via being the loudest cheerleader for your team by telling its story in the right format and at the right forums. Rewarding strong people with growth & increased responsibilities and portraying them to be the face of the team, empowering this energized team to take charge of the brand and back them at every step.

Wrap Up

Remember, the strongest of the sphinx(leader) with a weak pyramid (team) can't save the prized possession (brand) and a weak sphinx with strongest of the pyramids will fall short in protecting the prized possession. Thus, it is a joint responsibility of the leader and the team to safeguard the team’s brand and both need to play their relevant parts 'cohesively'. Passion, transparency, communication, friendships, respect and trust will always make the 'cohesion' possible.

“We become what we think about.” – Earl Nightingale

When you & your team believe in its brand, constantly think about it, speak of it, breathe it, embody it and protect it – the brand, the team & the leader will garner similar admiration that 'The Sphinx & The Pyramid of Giza' has been garnering for the last 45 centuries.

Akshar Awalgaonkar