Leadership for re-emerging India

Change is constant, we all know that. It's the unbelievable complexity that creates the anxiety, the uncertainty. In my work, as an Executive Coach, working with Senior Executives I sense a fair degree of fragility with clients - the belief, that if one breaks, one would not be able to put back in place ever again. This fragility of 'self' coupled with perceived 'insensitivity' from the other (no one really understands me) creates the havoc. This havoc becomes the new normal, and taken as given.

It is not enough for the individual to manage the change, nor is it enough, for work groups to transition across such volatile times. At a systemic level, the pressure is intense on the 'actors', exerting pulls and pushes on the multiple actors. Seeing things from multiple perspectives is vital to increased awareness.

It is not enough to manage change, just at the level of the individual, though quite a lot can be achieved there. Systems Thinking and its application needs to be applied. The western world has for several decades now harnessed this well - individuals working in collaboration, in virtual groups, to create dramatic changes to the landscape. A path is forged, initially by the adventurer, later by early followers, then by others, till it finally becomes the default route. The time now, In India, more than ever before, is to tap on the collective will of commercial collaboration. It would be useful to have at the skyline, a vision of nation building!

In order to exploit the demographic dividend, of a re-surgent Asia (barring 1700 - 1900 AD Asia was always resplendent, both commercially and culturally), we perhaps need to focus even more on 'eternal truths' that have stood up for us. Given this, we need to focus on building TRUST, the essence of all brands, and in everything we do, both in relationships as well as in the products and services we sell. We need to be even more CREATIVE to be on a continuos learning journey, to adapt to new paradigms, and shift our thinking, feeling and modes of acting. We need to be even more respectful to ourselves - our well-being, as well as respectful to others. This includes respect for beliefs, traditions, culture. Ever more, Inclusion and Diversity needs to be lived with. We will continuously face the new, confusion and ambiguity will reign, but we must continue to believe that 'this too shall pass'.

Rather than START doing, something new, I would advocate, we STOP doing several things. That we stop doing all the things that act as barriers to our more deeper capacity to grow and enrich. The shift that we seek is not out there, but within.