THE WISE LEADER

If company boards or citizens of a nation do not welcome variation, their eventual homogeneity can pose an existential threat. This can be asserted through both corporate experience and history.

Many crises are leadership failures rather than technical ones. Leaders focus so intently on an agenda that they fail to factor in their team’s social context. A dose of healthy humility and empathy can mitigate the resultant humiliation.  

Transformational leaders chart the four stages of start, roadmap, time plan, and end point. The former are planned, while the latter are flexible.

I reviewed three transformation risks—demyelination risk (28th January), subsonic sounds (25th February) and capacity for change (25th March 2021).

Recently, there have been some commentaries on legality versus morality. The Securities and Exchange Board of India Chairman Ajay Tyagi bemoaned that the regulator and independent directors have failed to mitigate the influence of promoters.

Corporate governance depends on checks and balances among four institutions--Board, Management, Stakeholders and Regulators—just as political governance depends on the four estates of Legislature,

Directors on boards have two distinct roles: a ‘map’ role and a ‘compass’ role. The former is the traditional role. It is about overseeing the short-term with a horizon of a few years.

Wisdom is born out of controlling lower ground thinking by the discipline of higher ground thinking—the word discipline is noteworthy.

Before you think that Shashi Tharoor has been language-tutoring me, let me explain that a myrmidon is an unquestioning and subservient lackey of a powerful leader. Myrmidons are around everywhere and become the leader’s Achilles heel. Achilles’s body became invulnerable, excluding his foot, and hence the expression, Achilles Heel to signify an inherent weakness.