Dear Friends,
A few days back, I came across a very interesting quote from Mr. Gurudutt Mundkur, who was once in charge of training at Parke - Davis (now a part of Pfizer). He says “If businessmen managed their money as poorly as they managed people, they would soon be bankrupt”.
What a profound thought. In this issue we shall be discuss a leadership style which corroborates with this thought. It was given to the world by India many years back, by Chanakya. The nomenclature given to this style by the western management gurus is – ‘Servant Leadership’.
Leadership style is the manner and approach of providing direction, implementing plans, and motivating people. There are many ways to lead and every leader has his own style. Some of the more common styles discussed for years together include autocratic, bureaucratic, democratic, the command & control and laissez-faire.
But how many of us have tried this ‘Servant Leadership’ style? It is certainly worth considering.
There are many benefits of using this leadership style. Servant leadership seeks the best for the poor, lonely medical representatives. We can become focused on the interests of medical representatives, which will eventually allow our organization to grow. Medical representatives will know that they matter a lot to the organization they work for. First-line managers will thus be able to build an effective team and make success long lasting.
Please do let me have your views and comments on this.
With warm regards,
Vivek Hattangadi
079-26601479 / 937610041
Servant Leadership – The new managerial style
Which is the most common management style in practice today in India? It is the Command & Control style of leadership. The Command & Control form of management is based on military principles. Primarily, the idea is that people do what we tell them to do, and if they don’t, we shout at them until they do, and if they still don’t, we throw them out. This we all know is counterproductive. When a manager takes an unnecessarily authoritative or commanding position with a subordinate, the employee feels humiliated, and will have a decreased desire to contribute. Eventually, the flow of information to the manager will weaken and will reduce his ability to make sound decisions. It can also stifle creativity. This style will only serve to demotivate people. Command and control is an obsolete managerial style and those who use it ultimately fail.
‘Servant Leadership’ on the other hand is a form of leadership that recognizes the value of people. It is becoming the fastest growing trend in leadership and management circles. Servant leadership puts the well-being of the followers before all other goals. Serving others basically means helping people (in our context, medical representatives) to achieve and improve.
Although it is generally believed that the modern concept of “Servant Leadership” belongs to Robert K. Greenleaf, in reality, it has its origins in India. It was conceived by Chanakya. Chanakya said: “The king (the leader) shall consider as good not what pleases himself but what pleases his subjects (the followers). The king (the leader) is a paid servant and enjoys the resources of the state together with the people”. Greenleaf in fact corroborates with Chanakya on this subject and says “True leadership emerges from those whose primary motivation is a deep desire to help others."
How can we as First-line managers in the pharma industry in India serve our medical representatives and become Servant Leaders? Here are a few tips.
· Commitment to develop people: Let us pledge to be a developer of people and make it our prime goal. As the business world is continuously changing, we need to provide people with new skills through continuous training. If we do not to continuously develop the skills of our medical representatives, we will find it difficult to stay ahead of the competition. Training can create positive attitudes by elucidating the behaviors and attitudes that are expected. The benefits of training may not be tangible in the short-term, but will certainly manifest themselves over a period of time.
· Effective joint field work: Make it purposeful and effective. The medical representatives can benefit and learn from our knowledge and experience during joint work. Create a situation where the medical representative would like to welcome us during your visits. Follow the techniques mentioned in my book “Roadmap to Effective Joint Work”. Set SMART Goals. Follow through on the goals at regular intervals. If he has any difficulties in achieving the set goals, address the problems immediately. Our main objective during joint field work should be to develop people. There is no higher purpose than imparting on-the-job training during joint work.
Servant-leadership for First-line Managers
- Empathy and emotional intelligence: Have empathy and develop emotional intelligence. Identify with the feelings of our medical representative. Emotionally put ourselves in his place while communicating. Our ability to empathize depends on our ability to ‘feel our own feelings’ and identify them. If we have never felt a certain feeling, it will be complicated for us to understand how the medical representative will feel. If, for example, we have never put our hand in a flame, we will not know the pain of fire. Reading about a feeling and perceptualising about it is very different than actually experiencing it for ourselves.
- Aggressive listening skills: Listen to medical representatives. He is basically a very lonely person. For more than 20 days a month, he works alone. He has no company. With whom will he share his feelings? He needs to have good listener. And who is that? God has given us two ears and only one mouth so that we listen twice as much as we speak. Become an aggressive listener! If we think we know it all, we will be too busy listening to ourselves. We will have no time to listen to anyone else. When we listen to our medical representatives, we discover many things and find out more, which can help us in our decision making. We gain respect.
- Foresight: It is our ability to foresee and prepare ourselves astutely for the future. We need to develop our insight to enable us to see the future problems and needs of our medical representatives. Remember that we are the face of the organization to all the medical representatives and customer s. If we do not have foresight and vision, the morale and work performance of the medical representatives can diminish! This apart, foresight will help in better sales forecasts, which in turn will help us to manage our business with greater confidence.
- Stewardship: Stewardship stems from medieval times in Europe, when a ‘steward’ would be assigned to hone the skills and development of a young prince — to prepare him for his reign. Servant leaders are often characterized by a strong sense of stewardship. Today it refers to the way in which we utilize our talents, skills, wealth of knowledge and information for the development of medical representatives. The long-term success of an organization depends on the stewardship of First-line managers
- Awareness: It is the ability to be conscious of events. Robert Greenleaf said awareness "is a disturber and an awakener. Able leaders are usually sharply awake and reasonably disturbed". Servant leaders have a keen sense for what is happening around them. They are always looking for cues from the environment to form their opinions and decisions. They know what’s going on and will rarely be fooled by appearances.
Think it over
· Which is the style I have been using the most?
· What are the advantages and disadvantages of my current style?
· How is the Servant-Leadership style likely to help you?
Quotable quotes
· “Good leaders must first become good servants.” - Robert Greenleaf
· "True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not to enrich the leader." - John Maxwell
· “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” - Lao Tzu
· “When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” Ernest Hemingway
