Speak IN leadership Speech

Good Evening ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you Speak In and Deepshika for the kind invite. It’s wonderful to be here. I have five minutes for my speech this evening.

I want to share with you learnings from business leadership - my own experiences plus what I have seen as good and bad leadership behaviors.

In my experience Business leadership is about two things:

a.  The ‘Common Good’ and

b. Knowing the role of the common enemy -  Money 

Let me start with ‘Common Good”. Common Good is our shared values that we owe one another as citizens bound together in society.

Good business leaders work beyond the boundaries of their firms and industry and look at impact on society. As leaders, we often believe that power and authority will get people to do what we want as leaders and that’s not true at all. I have learnt that the power of a leader does not get him results as much as reaching out and working with people from different streams.

‘Common Good’ ensures that we are all shooting for one goal and more important we have one version of the truth.

I have seen the following leadership behaviors when they go for the ‘common good’:

a.  They are Authentic and not arrogant

b. They are Balanced and not biased

c.  They show Courage and not cowardice

The three behaviors are interlinked and work in tandem to build trust.

Being authentic is about being who you are and not being what others want you to be. Authentic leaders are proud of their abilities but not arrogant. Pride is inward directed while arrogance is outward directed with an intent to prove that someone is inferior. Most subordinates know whether a leader is authentic or not but don’t tell the leader, always choosing to remain silent.

No leader is smart enough to know everything. Leaders get a ton of information and different points of view every day. Much of the information a leader gets is contradictory because it is colored by the perspective of the information provider. A good leader keeps his balance in the face of contradictory inputs. When a leader is biased, then people stop telling him the truth and that’s a vicious trap. A leader with balance will get a good debate in his team which will help them win.

We live in a hyper quick world. In the past, we saw a slow world, a slow world of the past was more black and white and gave leaders time to decode and act. A fast world is much more grey in nature and needs leaders to act more in the grey zone. This needs courage to decide and act. Nelson Mandela said it best when he said ‘courage is not the absence of fear but the ability to overcome it’. The nature of a hyper fast world has blurred the dividing line between short term and long term. Business is now one continuous time zone and is relentless.

Knowing and dealing with the common enemy - Money is important for leadership. Money has become a contentious issue. 

Gordon Gekko said “Greed is good” and then “money doesn’t sleep pal”

Money has raised the number of white-collar crimes and greed seems to have no limits. The business press and everyone in business is associating money with status, capability and performance. Equating money with leadership is the wrong measure of success. We tend to think that a company which makes more profit is inherently better than a company that makes lesser profit.

Power and money have dropped our commitment to ideals and principles. Often, weak leaders offer money as a motivator to buy loyalty while good leaders offer culture as a motivator.

The Beatles said this best – ‘Money can’t buy me love’

Money also doesn’t buy happiness. If you have money it doesn’t mean you are good, if you are good, money will follow you.

Working for the common good is what leadership is about. And knowing that money isn’t everything. Leadership legacy is hard earned and lifelong.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for this honor.