Leadership lessons I’ve learned from past experience

Listen to your team

When it comes to communication with your team, fluency in the language they are communicating is not what you should concentrate on, but rather the core idea.

Good leaders listen to their teammates and try to understand the core of the idea that they are trying to express. This encourages teammates to raise their suggestions which could ultimately improve your business

Weak leaders focus on the communication style instead of understanding the core. They do not listen to the team and think they are always correct. Ultimately ended up building a team of people who do not raise their suggestions and follow what their leader says (even if it is correct or wrong)

Listening is a good quality of a leader. Even when someone raises a really stupid suggestion first listen, then try to provide feedback in a constructive manner.

Neither of us is perfect or always correct. There’s room for improvement for anyone. Encourage everyone in your team to speak. Don’t let them think it’s like playing the violin to a deaf elephant. Value their ideas and action them. That’s the only way you could keep those coming.

Promote ‘What is right’ instead of ‘Who is right’

Usually, arguments are made to find out who is right and the best debater always wins. Instead, promote a culture where team members do not feel ashamed to withdraw their opinion when they hear a better suggestion. Ultimately best idea should win rather best debater.

Loyalty isn’t Stupidity

There’s a saying ‘Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care’ which is undoubtedly true. Loyal employees are very rare and a great asset for any team. You can buy talent but you cannot ever buy loyalty.

Usually, when an employee works hard and loyally without trying to highlight the workload they are carrying out, companies tempt to expect the same output over and over again from him/her but fail to understand what company could appreciate his/her effort. When loyal employees realize that they were being used they leave companies.

Be Creditable

As a leader, you should be creditable. You should keep your word and earn the trust and respect of the team. Take responsibility when the team fails and pass the credit to the team when there’s a win. Do not share whatever comes into your mind, think about the validity of the content before you share.

Be Transparent

Employees do not trust leaders who are not transparent. A closed person who doesn’t express their true feelings to others can never be a good leader. Be open with your team as much as possible. Tell them when they are going under the bar and appreciate them when they are performing well.

Adjusting to different cultures is critical

When working with a globally distributed team most important fact is adjusting to different work cultures and this should be two-way. The needs of the employees can hugely differ from country to country. As leaders of the company, it is highly important to understand cultural diversities and adjust — you cannot change the cultures all you could do is adjust.

Use the Magic Hat

You do not need to be the most knowledgeable or experienced person on the team to lead a team. It’s all about how you identify the talents of each member and use the talent cleverly in the game.

I’m a great fan of Cricket. In 1996 Srilanka won the cricket world cup coming from nowhere. Arjuna was the captain and he was the fattest and oldest member of the team. He had great cricketing knowledge and an in-depth understanding of all the players. Sometimes when things were not going well he used to roll his hat analyze/think for a while and pass the ball to a new bowler. A 7/10 new bowler took a wicket.

It’s all about playing your cards smartly. You don’t need four triumphs to win a game. Well if you do, it's a luxury.

Remember your roots

No matter how big you grow remember the roots. Even a big tree could die when the roots are removed.

Know where you are heading and set your milestones

As a leader, it’s highly critical to know the company’s vision and mission. Without knowing the long-term vision you cannot build a sustainable team. Routine work is important but planning long-term is a key dimension of a strategic leader. Winning battles is easy but what matters is winning the war!

Risk Management

When it comes to managing a team your highest performing/dependent team member is always your highest risk. What if she/he doesn’t appear tomorrow? Are you sure that there’s a backup plan to conduct the work with minimum interruption? It’s always important to identify the key dependencies and proactively set backup plans.

“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough, so they don’t want to”

Show resistance to ‘Jerks’, on the spot

In one of my earlier jobs, the Sales guys were asked to fill out some surveys about the accounts owned by them. There was a question asking the reason why clients like that our company. One of the sales guys answered saying that’s because of account manager (himself) is great.

Our CEO replied via an email copying the entire company requesting him to answer the question correctly without being a jerk, which I think is great.

Talking about something is easy but making it happen is hard. Identify your silent warriors and treat them well

Working culture matters

Managers cannot build team trust — trust among each other, but they can support it. Trust has to be built within the team itself. Let me share a short story. I worked for a small startup company and we used to play one-bump cricket inside the office often. My managers didn’t see it as a waste of time or an overhead (unless when we broke a glass or two). Within a few weeks time individuals started to work as a single team, and the office became a happy place to be. productivity went high during working hours

That’s probably the best period of my entire career. It’s not just that we had freedom but we had an awesome team who worked for a common goal and the office was just another home for us. During that period we even didn’t have budgets for any outbound team-building activities but still we managed to build a great team.

Within the game, there were no hierarchies. Individuals in different functional teams got a chance to work together for a common goal. We could easily identify the characters of individuals.

With great power comes great responsibility

When you climb up the organization hierarchy you get more authority and power. Always try to use them for the benefit of your company not your own. True characters are explored when they are given the authority.

Career != Job

Your current job role in the company does not define your career. Always learn new things, be up-to-date and move with the trends. As Steve Jobs said ‘be hungry be foolish’