The thirst for leadership is a constant narrative in our lives, a plague of sorts. A glorified Achilles would have remained just another obscurity if he hadn’t led the Myrmidons to Troy. The moment our cognitive abilities start functioning, we are told to be the best and best others.
In this race for glory, power and everything else a leadership role brings with it, we tend to forget the importance of following. According to Raj Raghavan, Director and Country Human Resources Leader, Amazon India, a good leader is also a good follower. “They are two sides of the same coin,” he said at the 15th MMA All-India Management Students’ Convention.
Speaking on the topic ‘Followership, the other side of leadership: why effective followers make better leaders’, Raj said that from a young age, we are brought up in an environment that is ‘obsessed with leadership’. In an attempt to connect with the young audience, he took the example of social media: “Whether you’re on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, it’s about how many followers and friends you have, and ‘likes’ you get.” This constant need for approval and validation, he said, makes it easy to forget and dismiss the other side — following. “At Amazon, we are obsessed with our customers, more so than other companies, for this very reason.”
And just like leadership, followership is also a skill that has to be honed. “Good judgement, work ethics and honesty are some of the qualities of a good follower. It’s important to trust your intuition without getting carried away,” explained Raj.
This session helped many management students understand hierarchy in the corporate world. “I lead the HR department of Amazon India but I report to someone in Seattle. This doesn’t mean I’m only following someone else’s orders.” A good leader finds a way to balance the two, he explained.
Importance of influence
In another session, Ganesh Chella, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Coaching Foundation India Ltd, spoke about the influence that leaders wield. “Anyone who can have an effect on people, their behaviour, thoughts, and emotions is a leader,” he said.
Qualifying this further, he added, “A leader doesn’t need titles or positions to influence people. When someone wields enormous amounts of influence, what they do with it matters. There is something like good and bad influence since shaping beliefs is central to leadership. In a world that is so connected and has access to all kinds of information, empathy and the ability to influence are the most important traits to have.”
But how does one influence others on a large scale? “People aren’t born leaders. You need to understand the source of power to leading: track record and presence. Track record includes your performance in a company, knowledge of subjects you deal with, anecdotes and experiences that shape you and courage. Presence includes professional demeanour, empathy, temperament and confidence,” said Ganesh.
Ranganath NK, Managing Director, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd, who moderated the discussions, quoted management consultant Peter Drucker — ‘Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things’ — to tie up the two sessions for students. “A good leader does the right things when no one is looking. They instinctively take decisions based on gained knowledge and enable others to become leaders as well. The world is a jungle; there are different kinds of people you’ll have to deal with. A leader is someone who survives and pushes an organisation to do better under such circumstances,” he said.