HR Conclave 2011 – Great Lakes Institute of Management – Part 2 – Panel Discussion

Shortly after the tea break, HR executives from diverse industries indulged into a candid discussion with the media and the students of Great Lakes Institute of Management about the various structures one follows with the development of leadership in various organization, after a frank informal discussion the event prepared itself for the second session of the HR Conclave 2011 – the panel discussion, With Mr. Anand Bhaskar (VP – HR, Sapient) as the moderator for the first panel.

“They say a talk is only worthwhile if it has been explored deeper than the depths of one’s imagination.”

Mr. Bhaskar started the panel discussion with an instilling story of a priest starting a gurukul to teach people, with which he emphasized the judgment of fairness to think if a student should be as smart as the teacher to be a successor. An indeed a provocative thought to start with, the panel discussion further took course to a reflection of producing leaders is what separates winners from losers by Mr. Mali Mahalingam (CPO, Symphony) he emphasized on the four results a leader produces, they being People, organization, customer and Investor. Delving more into the result oriented performance he specifies leadership brand with result base, competence, style & situation and traits. Further concluding his talk Mr Mahalingam identifies the importance of leadership brand finding a connect between employer brand & customer expectation.

“Great leaders are not people who are successful; leaders need to be nurtured, having values as organization”

He encapsulated the key factors which enable nurturing leaders such as Values, opportunities, rewards, development plan, safety net and mentoring.

Further the discussion introduced Mr Ashit Ranjan (VP – HR, tecnova),

In an interesting insight Mr Ranjan identifies the flow of nurturing leadership by a picturesque relevance with swimming, he explores a 1 meter diving board as a platform to teach skills and values in an organization, a 3 meter board to encourage performance and attitude, a 5 meter board to help overcome fear, a 7 meter board to empower – share responsibilities and a 10 meter board to facilitate and become change agents. With such a significant contour of leadership mentoring he further explores the critical factor for successful leadership they being tolerance for mistakes, encouragement, mentoring, structural support and trust.

Mr Venkatesh (Head, HR – Educomp) ,concludes the panel discussion over the ability to perform best when the focus is on pressure induced by challenge, knowledge of importance, freedom to work and team achievements.

The moderator Mr, Bhaskar closes the discussion with a dialogue over popcorn leaders where the term enable to those who are pushed to leadership rather than people who have been carved to leadership. An extensive discussion amongst the panelist lead to the successful conclusion of the panel 1 discussion making way for more to seek ahead.

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By

Debashree Chatterjee & Divya Monga

Photographs: Shiva & Dagar

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