Cover Stories
Leadership
Anil Sachdev in Conversation with Sabyasachi Bhattacharya
"The leader's role is to build the capacity for people to ask questions, not just give them the answers."
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Jun 2024
2 min
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"The leader's role is to build the capacity for people to ask questions, not just give them the answers."
In an engaging conversation between Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, President - Group HR, and Anil Sachdev, entrepreneur, trainer, and HR professional, the focus was on evolving leadership paradigms, particularly in the context of recent global changes.
Anil Sachdev opined that true leadership is fundamentally about self-leadership. According to him, effective leaders focus on their own development and inspire others by example rather than directive control. He spoke about self-awareness, emotional regulation, and alignment with inner values as crucial to this process.
Further exploring the traits of effective leaders during the pandemic, Anil Sandev cited research led by Harvard University, which identified compassion as the most impactful leadership quality observed during the crisis. He said compassion in leadership extends beyond kindness to fostering an environment where individuals can realise their potential and engage meaningfully with their work.
Transitioning to organisational strategies, Anil Sachdev cited examples from large corporates for their proactive approaches to talent development, particularly their efforts to empower younger employees and promote diversity within leadership roles. He also shared insights from Schneider Electric, which actively pushes young talents into significant roles, and discussed the company’s successful drive toincrease female leadership, surpassing initial targets ahead of schedule.
On the topic of leadership development, Anil Sachdev mentioned a model from the Centre for Creative Leadership, known as the 70-20-10 rule. This model stresses the importance of learning through experience, making sure leadership training fits well with the company's goals, and putting what's learned into practice. He emphasized that company strategies should support leadership growth, and highlighted how important it is for CEOs and senior leaders to create a supportive environment for learning and development.
The conversation also covered how valuable it is for companies to have their own tailored learning programmes. In these programmes, leaders teach and learn from each other by sharing their experiences. This method makes learning more relevant and effective because it is directly connected to real challenges and achievements in the workplace.
