The danger of an adventure is worth a thousand days of ease and comfort -- Paulo Coelho (@paulocoelho)

“Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinion drowned your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” – Steve Jobs

"First they ignore you. Then they laugh at you. Then they fight you. Then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

[He who can turn difficulties into opportunities of growth, has learned the art of spiritual transformation. -- Spiritual Truths (@TheGodLight)]

A fearless Mind ready to Lead - Vineet Nayar

Hi Fellow Travellers,

I have been travelling quite extensively for past few weeks (Have been home only for a week) and feel extremely good about what you guys are doing for our customers. Everywhere I go I hear a story of how group of HCLites made the customer win and every time I hear this story I feel so proud of all of you –what a fantastic team you guys are and how lucky I have been to walk shoulder to shoulder with you.

Last week I flew to NY just for a day to deliver a lunch keynote address to a large group of CXOs. My flight from Delhi landed late and I went straight for the meeting from the airport just making it on time feeling quite tired and low. As they introduced me they shared three very interesting insights .They said that they took a poll of all the CXOs in the room and discovered that HCL has not lost a SINGLE bid in the last 3 years. Second, wherever we had won, that CXO is our biggest advocate in the group. Third, they could not come up with any other company with similar track record. If you were watching carefully I had a tear on the edge of my eye-of pride, of satisfaction and of gratitude to all the HCLites who make such stories a reality.

That evening I caught the Continental flight back to Delhi wondering what makes these heroes in HCL set such high benchmarks of success and what does it take to develop a fearless mind ready to lead in each and every HCLite? My thoughts lead me to another story.

In a year, I would meet over 200 customers/Prospects (Yes I keep a count to stay relevant). However the highlight is never the meeting itself, but the car ride to the meeting when I am briefed on  what is expected of me.These drives a typically an hour where the brief would last half the time and the rest of the time is for me to ask questions and learn a lot about HCL from the eyes of an aspiring sales/Delivery leader. Most of this feedback is sharp and blunt and it is a great place to start the process of making the company more relevant for the people who create the most value -the guys who face off with our customers. However the most interesting part is  different attitudes I get to observe amongst my fellow travellers on how they approach this interaction and my habit of trying to predict/correlate that with how fast they will grow in life. Let me explain.

Some will try and brief me on phone to avoid this interaction while some others will travel miles to ensure they grab the opportunity. Some will ask me how I would approach the meeting and some others will tell me what they want me to say and ask me if I have understood just to be sure. Some will get foxed with my unexpected and blunt questions -like why are you in HCL- while some others will come prepared with their own agenda and drag me over coals with questions I don’t have answers to. Some will focus on making a good impression on me while others will sharply focus on learning by asking me specific questions on specific situations. Some will ask if they should join the meeting and some others will “tell” me that they are joining the meeting. Some will watch from the side as the meeting progresses and some others will “ensure” it goes as per their plan. Some will thank me after the meeting for my “effort” while some others would like few minutes to ask me why I approached the meeting the way I did and what could they have done better at this stage of the relationship.

I always get nervous when I have to predict which of these young aspiring leaders would succeed-frankly I am more wrong than right most of the times but I keep on predicting (Only for my own analysis) as I am keen to learn what makes some of these leaders so successful. For me, leadership is a state of mind, that of an explorer for whom the unknown is a lot more exciting than the known. One who is simply not obsessed about getting to the top but about what he would do after he gets there. It is a state of mind which is not afraid to stand apart from the crowd, to be different, to step out of the comfort zone and risk all for what it believes in.That state of mind is reflected in these interactions-the stretch is visible and so is the intensity and passion to succeed.

I am a student who is keen to learn everyday on why some youngsters go on to become successful leaders, while others who may work even harder at achieving leadership roles, do not. It is my view that finally it all comes down to you. So pause and shut out all the noise that surrounds you till all you can hear is your heart beat reminding you of your true calling and the sound of each breath screaming for you to stand up and LEAD… Once you hear that sound clearly, you will not need to hear anything or anyone again and you would be the one whose story will be told again and again for years to come.

Have a great weekend and Chennai-I will see you in the coming week. I also hope I will see some of you in November as part of  8 city workshop series I will host “Unlocking potential for high performance managers” fulfilling my commitment to train now that I have some more time.

Wishing you and your families a million smiles.

Smiles

Vineet

"All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream"

- Edgar Allan Poe

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent
- Eleanor Roosevelt