Leadership musings from Kerala's Small &Medium Enterprise Ecosystem

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I have to say I loved reading this article by The Economist about Leadership and the way it' s perceived by majority of followers - you can ready the article here
Ever since I commenced my own entrepreneurship stint with SS Consulting, I have had the opportunity to watch leadership role players who were Founders / Co-founders from close quarters. These leaders come from the companies which came to us (we take referred clients mostly) to enable their organisation's growth journey. So I could relate quickly to the examples referred in this article. Here's what I learned from past 4 years of interactions with leadership role players in Kerala.
  1. Assessment of Quality remains a challenge - Oratory skills, Charisma, Position, Caste and background comes in the way of relevant metrics for assessing leadership skills.
  2. Miss realising that Leadership is 'different' by itself - Most leadership role players get elevated to their roles due to pre-disposition or proven Technical strengths and hence miss connecting to the basic tenet that Leadership is about beyond 'self' and more about influencing others.
  3. Leaders miss upgrading their own skills - most feel that they have learned what it takes to lead based on past experiences or by following another individuals. These can be Parents, Relatives, Friends with Charisma / oratory skills. This prevents connection to the context of their current organisation / Startup and ends up alienating employees / followers.
  4. Role of a leader is misunderstood by Investing community - Kerala startup scene is reasonably well funded by a variety of investors. These investors, having made their mark in an era which was very different from current scenario are highly likely to miss the nuances that a leadership role player will face in today's entrepreneurship environment. Such investors therefore, are prone to making hasty decisions about placement of Talent to leadership roles.
Signing off with a video about a result oriented style of leadership as practiced by Richardo Semler, whose approaches helped his family owned company, Semco stand out. He did this over 25 years ago.

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