Dear Reader,
Few years back, I co-founded a corporate training
firm, Rejoiss to help leaders transform their attitude and create winning
teams. After interacting with thousands of leaders and managers in our
workshops, I am now writing a book called Hi Conflict, Bye Conflict.
The objective of the book to help leaders
empower their teams to collaborate despite conflicts free themselves to focus
on bigger goals. We have developed a step by step method of doing so using with
Empathy, Authenticity & Respect (E.A.R.). This framework has helped a lot
of our clients convert conflict into collaboration successfully.
Apart from my own insights, I am also
interviewing other people who have successfully led teams. The idea is to bring
their unique perspectives to the readers on handling unresolved conflicts to
build self-managing collaborative teams. One of my first interviews was with Rajiv
Sabharwal, Managing Director & CEO of Tata Capital Limited.
Rajiv has over 30 years of experience in
the banking and financial services industry. He was a Partner in True North
Managers LLP, which was mainly involved in building and managing businesses
with a primary focus in the financial service sector. He has served as an
Executive Director on the Board of ICICI Bank where he was responsible for
several businesses including retail banking, business banking, rural banking,
financial inclusion business and digital banking technology. Rajiv also had
successful stints with Sequoia Capital, Godrej Group, SRF Finance, GE Capital
and Times Bank.
While the book will have a relevant excerpt
of the interview, I found the entire interview very insightful. It was
interesting to note that he kept on acknowledging his bosses for the
accomplishments, for guidance and for listening.
I am sharing the interview excerpts here:
Rohan: What is your first
proud moment as a Leader?
Rajiv: I have many proud moments to reflect upon. My
career started with consumer durables industry and some of my initial wins of
that period stand out. The task of neutralizing the effect of single
distributor holding sway in multiple markets and securing company’s long-term
interests was a sweet victory. Receiving
a call to join the board of ICICI was another proud moment.
Rohan: Any mistakes you made
along the path of being a great team leader?
Rajiv: Mistakes
are part-n-parcel of every leader’s life. Mistakes
mean you are taking decisions. My first mistakes and lessons learnt were
also in consumer durables industry. Once, I was to gather evidence of a
dealer’s unfair practice of dumping goods in another territory. A courtesy cup
of coffee with the dealer allowed just enough leeway for him to wipe off the
evidence.
A leader should have confidence in one’s own position
and not give in to temptation to making decisions just to prove a point. If you make a mistake and
you get more information, admit it, correct it and change your decision and
move on.
Rohan: What was
the key factor that made an exponential shift in your leadership?
Rajiv: It would be my ability of working excellently with my peers. India growth story over past decade had helped too. Most people
would work well with their teams, although not all. I was fortunate to have
superiors with whom I could express myself fully.
Rohan: What is one X factor that made you work well
with your peers, team & superiors?
Rajiv: It is my fundamental belief that everyone has best interests of the organization at
heart. No one is bad at heart or has bad
intentions. Everyone wants to do well and grow.
I recall one of
my bosses telling me that “you will grow when we believe that there is
somebody ready to replace you.” Therefore, one should actively grow people
around oneself. That makes you ready to take up something bigger and more
challenging. I always felt confident
about my position. I took concrete actions supporting others’ growth. Fortunately,
I also had bosses who responded well by finding me bigger and better
opportunities.
I also make it a
point to express and upfront communicate with people if there is something that
is not right in my view. That allows me
to start the next interaction
with a clean slate.
Rohan: What pitfalls a leader should avoid, while
managing teams?
Rajiv: Criticizing in public, although it is easier
said than done. Doing quick remedial actions in
private, in case of slip up is what I find to be practical.
Rohan: Now we are moving into
topic of Conflicts in Teams. How do
you spot unresolved conflicts in teams?
Rajiv: My
approachability certainly helps. Also, my focus towards attending skip level meetings. It is very difficult to meet people one on one as one grows higher.
Hiring right people should be the focus
for a leader over anything else. The right team in place is 90% of battle
won.
Rohan: How do you
empower the team to solve conflict by themselves?
Rajiv: In my
view, the leader should avoid the pressure of having to be the person who
resolves the conflict due to the kind of precedent it can set. I let them know
that I know it is going on. People are smart. They know that self-resolving
will save embarrassment. Settled in private with the party directly is much
better than settling in public.
I let people go with what they think best and learn
along the way. The exception to this is if the
matter is within the top 2 decisions and critical success factors where I
certainly step in. In situations where you are expert in seeing scenarios very
fast compared to others, it is very difficult to not step in, there also it is
worth pausing and letting it be for some time.
Rohan: How did
you learn to handle conflicts?
Rajiv: By nature, I am not a kind of person who
gets into conflicts. I never get flustered or lose my
cool. Even if someone upsets me, I prefer to sleep over it and attend to it
next day. I don’t react in the heat of the moment. Avoiding acting out of impulse during my upsets have
served me well, it is also due to
my core belief that no one fundamentally is a bad person.
Rohan: How do you enable your direct reports to give
you critical or negative feedback?
Rajiv: I believe
that a group in inherently more intelligent than an individual. Whenever I am unsure of something, I
actively solicit others’ views. My approachability is communicated loud and
clear by that behavior alone. It encourages people to be honest and forthright
with me and which I reciprocate fully. However, getting people to trust my way
of doing things and being comfortable does take its own time.
Rohan: How do you decide which leader is
leading better?
Rajiv: Imagine two teams with
leaders A & B; if A is hitting 120% target and B is at 90% of the target.
And more people want to work with B, I will prefer B. Attrition in B’s team will be lower, B will be able to attract more
talent from the market, and more leaders will get produced in B’s team.
Rohan: Your message for first-time leaders?
Rajiv: Be a good listener. Actively seek out alternative
points of view, but then ultimately take your own decision and stand by it.
As long as you
believe the decision is right continue with it, but as soon as you realize you
made a wrong decision you need to take people into confidence and start on
corrective measures.
Everyone is allowed to make mistakes. Continuing on a course despite knowing that decision made is wrong is
very hurtful to the team as well as organization. The damage is very high when
leader is unwilling to admit the mistake made.
Look out for more such excerpts in future.
Each leader I am interviewing seems to be a goldmine full of practical wisdom!!
Warm
regards
