“This article is not aimed at highlighting a specific leader, rather to highlight a leadership trait ; any similarities are purely coincidental.”

So many times in my career across geographies, markets and cultures, I’ve come across stated values embellished in steel and Gloss Letters ; the most common of them, Integrity. The second ; Respect. Yet in those same environments, there are always the “so into myself”, mover and shaker, rattle the status quo reputation, hard talking Leaders who use the same values as their first few doormats to define their personal success, as they have stopped learning.

There is an interesting anecdote, at one of the global organisation’s subsidiary. Such a Leader arrived to take over a Business, carrying a few suitcases, and a container full of over communicated success stories. The agenda was to Transform, even though not much, or rather anything was really broken. Yes, it has to be aligned to the corporate views. First Learning : The mistake of the Corporation: The leader was told she was going to fix things. Most times, post an acquisition, you’ve paid a premium for whats good. Positioning alignment as “needs fixing” sets the wrong context with such a leader.

Within 48 hours, all existing processes were reviewed ( hardly giving time to even absorb) and many declared useless (The same processes had won Industry accolades), past leadership decisions challenged, ( Leadership Decision making is always in a point of time ; I’ll be writing separately on that topic), some decisions condemned as wrong decisions ( When communicating to masses, that is a big leadership mistake as it can bite you too some day) without spending time on the dynamics of the decisions. Interestingly these were tough decisions taken to save jobs and enhance revenue and had delivered on both measures,but were obviously not popular considering people had to work harder in more complex and demanding circumstances. So the second issue and Learning that was observed ; You have to build a connect with what works well, and openly appreciate that. Possibly that gets a Transition Leader more respect than decision bashing.

So, along with setting the correct context for a Leader, learning about an environment and sharing the real picture with employees is the need of the hour for a Transformation Leader ; Transformation and integrating an acquisition is not a popularity contest. Unfortunately, for many leaders, the focus is on defining success of the transitions by a measure of self popularity and populist decisions, not prudence built after learning.

This is also where, Integrity and the value systems get in the way. In the speed of ensuring change, and making change, even known areas where change is not needed, get whitewashed knowingly.

Thirdly, people are watching the Leader. No, not just the corporate, the people whose lives you are touching and expecting them to follow you. In continuation of the Anecdote and analysis, this leader, post the “Surgical” changes, was expected to deliver savings. Of course, all lean, Six Sigma, Process improvement methodologies were tapped, but what broke the value system was “Retagging” of savings already being driven by various parts of the company. Imagine retagging saving of millions of dollars, simply by retagging the leader of the team that led that to herself, and adding those millions to delivered savings on a ppt.

This example is and can be seen replicated in multiple organisations between leaders,teams, even peers everyday at different levels in organisations. However, in a post acquisition scenario, it raises significant integrity questions in the minds of Leaders expected to follow this change leader.

My journey of multiple markets, industries, countries and cultures has taught me only one truth about leadership. A Leader has to lead, but a leader who is unwilling to learn and be honest, only leads fools or breeds similar leaders.