Lessons from India

Employee First…Shareholder Second?

I’ve always believed, with the odd exception, that leadership and organizational culture are two sides of the same coin.  Whether staff is engaged or not is a reflection of the priority they are accorded.  Too often in North America, the maniacal focus on short term quarterly shareholder value all but assures that longer term efforts, such as creating a profitable and positive working culture, go by the wayside.

In contrast, the leaders of India’s biggest and fastest-growing companies take a more internally focused, long-term view and put motivation and developing employees higher on the priority list than short-term shareholder interest.  In Leadership Lessons from India (Harvard Business Review, March 2010) the authors uncover the priorities that make these Asian tigers roar.

Walking the talk…

While many western organizations pay obsequious lip service to how much they value their people, in reality, achieving numbers is often the overwhelming, if not sole, focus.  The alarming growth in disability claims due to mental health issues is only one of many symptoms we have of this here in North America.

In looking at the four top responsibilities of Indian leaders, owner and investor interests ranked last.  When asked to prioritize their key responsibilities, Indian leaders ranked them as follows:

1)  Chief input for business strategy

2)  Keeper of organizational culture

3)  Guide, teacher, or role model for employees

4)  Representative of owner and investor interests

This higher priority placed on keeping the culture and guiding and teaching employees underscores their focus on human capital development.  Again, a reminder that these are the views of the CEO’s of some of the planet’s most profitable and successful companies such as IT services giant HCL and the Tata Group.

Taking HR seriously

Two times as many Indian leaders as US leaders believe that human capital drives business success.  As a result the HR function in India has high visibility with senior management, and its strategy is closely integrated with the firms overall strategy.

81% of the heads of HR of Indian firms reported that the learning function (training & development) was essential to building competitive organizational capabilities, whereas, according to a 2006 survey by the American Society for Training and Development, an astonishing 4% of US chief learning officers held that view of their own operations.

Deep seeded engagement…

To engage employees, these Indian leaders create a sense of social mission that is central to company culture.  Like a growing number of their western counterparts, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is deeply embedded in Indian corporate culture and closely interwoven with strategy.  Employees derive from this a greater sense of purpose and meaning to their work, while providing real benefits to their local and national community.

Indian leaders encourage openness by developing and personally modeling systems that provide transparency, such as 360 degree reviews for all levels of management.  Empowerment is further boosted by enabling communication between all organizational levels and bottom up channels of feedback are encouraged.  Decision making is pushed down through the ranks and investment in training is heavy.

Imagine, if at your place of work, the real engine of business was not just seen as the human brain but also the human heart.  How would it be different?  How would your team show up differently? How would you feel? How much more enjoyable would Mondays be?