Filter Coffee #012

On leadership and work-from-home

Dear Readers,

Let’s get right into today’s edition of Filter Coffee!

This day, that year

September 20th, 1904: Wilbur Wright Makes the First Circular Flight

In 1904, the first circular flight in an aeroplane was made by Orville Wright at Huffman Prairie, near Dayton, Ohio. He travelled about 4,080-ft (1244-m) in about 1½ minutes in the Flyer II. The Wright Brothers' first Flyer, which made the historic flight, and three more in North Carolina, had been overturned by the wind and damaged after those flights. The Wrights chose not to repair it but to start with a new, heavier and stronger machine with a more powerful motor, constructed where it would be used, at the Huffman Prairie Flying Field. On September 15th, Wilbur was able to fly a half-circle. As the brothers improved control of their airplane's flight, a few days later, on September 20th, a complete circuit was accomplished.

September 20th, 1973: Billie Jean King Wins the Battle of the Sexes

The mixed-gender tennis match between top tennis player Bobby Riggs and Billie Jean King was held in Houston, Texas, after Riggs won another mixed-gender match against Margaret Court earlier in the year. The match was prompted by Riggs’ comments that even at the age of 55, he could beat any female tennis player. King beat Riggs and took home the $100,000 prize money. The match was and still is one of the most viewed tennis matches on television —  it was watched by about 90 million people around the world. It was also the basis for the recent movie starring Emma Stone and Steve Carell.

These are just two examples of ‘guts & glory’ to demonstrate that leaders in any field of human activity have shown that determination and resilience are required to lead a team and accomplish even the most formidable task. These qualities push leaders forward, even in adverse circumstances, overcoming the hurdles thrown at them by adversaries and at times, by sceptics from within the team.

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Leadership during COVID-19 times

Remote Leadership or Virtual Leadership is perhaps the most challenging form of leadership. In these COVID-19 times, it has become the norm to lead or to be led remotely. If you imagine a general leading an army, she is unlikely to be on the battlefront, but typically directs the operations from what we refer to as the ‘war room’.

Leading people and businesses during the pandemic seems like a daunting task. Yet the industry in general has demonstrated resilience and the resolve needed to stay afloat and keep its flock together. What drives this self-preservation process? Is it just survival instinct, or a case of inspirational leadership?

In order to get some answers and to understand Corporate Leadership during COVID-19 times, I spoke to Shashi Maudgal, the former Chief Executive of Novelis Asia, in Seoul, South Korea.

Pras: Shashi, how has this pandemic affected businesses big and small?

Shashi: The pandemic has thrown up a new “Work From Home” paradigm. This has worked surprisingly well, on the whole. Technologies developed fairly recently have enabled reasonable effectiveness of operations.

Pras: Are there areas that could be bolstered by specific attention from senior management?

Shashi: Yes, there are several, but I will focus on three such areas.

1. Visibility of the Structure: 

For senior management, the visibility of people in their structure and what they are doing is important in order to have an integrated team working together towards common goals. In normal times, physical communication happens not only through structured meetings but also with people dropping by, a quick corridor or elevator chat or a brief drop-in on other people’s meetings to say hello and a bit more.

These unorganised meetings are not taking place now. It would be a mistake to regard them as ‘non-essential’ —  when normal office hours resume, senior leadership might find themselves working with many “strangers” who have felt neglected.

I suggest regular (if infrequent) meetings with people lower down in the structure to retain contact. Occasional e-meetings even with office assistants and canteen staff will also do a lot of good.

2. Virtual lunches, dinners and drinks: 

Company agendas move forward and fresh ones are created not just through meetings but on informal occasions when people feel freer to critique ideas and to bounce new ones. Indeed, I worry about this agenda-generating and refining process suffering the most in the current construct.

It would be useful to organise virtual gatherings with different colleagues every now and then. Ask people to have deliveries made to each other from their favourite restaurants and have a drink and a meal together while on-screen. Creative juices will flow better — and it is this creativity that makes companies move forward.

3. Fun occasions - Birthday parties, Family get-togethers and Musical Evenings:

Such occasions have often been part of ‘real-life’ work culture. Try and make them part of virtual contact as well. Send a birthday cake and cut it “together”. Play dumb charades with each others’ family members. Invite musicians to play for colleagues and their families.

All these activities have increased team bonding in the past and they will do so now virtually, during COVID times.

Pras : What about business after COVID? What thereafter?

Shashi: There will indeed be a ‘new normal.’ Less travel, more virtual meetings. But in my view, there is danger in making this new normal ‘too new’. Virtual meetings and contact have worked well under the circumstances but not as well as real meetings and contact. Fresh agenda-setting and tweaking can never be as good as when people are physically together and engage with each other thoroughly, with gestures and eye contact. There is a ‘let’s get this over with quickly’ feel in today’s e-meetings, with frequent glances at incoming emails and messages even while colleagues are saying important things.

Pras: How do you suggest we move forward instead?

Shashi: Don’t give up your office spaces. Get back to the old normal, with some changes. There is a competitive advantage in vigorous face-to-face debate, in reading body language and in thumping a colleague on the back. 

Don’t throw it away.

Pras: Thank you Shashi for those insights. This interview done remotely would have been much better had we sat across the table. The ‘in-person’ meeting is more open-ended than the e-meetings, which, as you say, are time-constrained and full of distractions. One last comment from you on the transition from ‘take office home’ to ‘take office back to office’.

Shashi: Each transition is an opportunity to ask: “What can I do that makes things better than ever before?” So when you get back to the office, think about how your interactions, your focus, your empathy, your time management and much more, will all be better.

Thank you, Shashi for taking the time out to have this conversation. Readers are welcome to post their comments or ask any questions they may have regarding this topic, in the comments section.

For a leader, getting a team to perform and deliver during normal times and to achieve that performance and delivery during ‘work from home’ regime can be a very daunting task. Much depends on what kind of a leader she is and what kind of a team she is leading.

Readers will find this quote attributed to Alexander the Great providing an insight into leadership and team interface:

I am not afraid of an army of lions, led by a sheep; 

I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion

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The normal “new normal”

Whether you are working in an office or running your own business, the challenge ahead lies in resuming normalcy. Working from home, running a business online, going to school online, or, for that matter, coming to terms with virtual courts — each of them helped acquire new skills of communication, rediscover discipline and overcome domestic distractions. In the early stages of the lockdown, taking office home seemed like a bizarre move. Personal space has become the workplace. It seemed like an invasion of privacy. My own and many of my friends’ experiences were that we ended up sitting in front of the computer for longer hours than we would when we were in office. Teams, Zoom and Webex became household names. Families too learned to use these virtual mediums to talk to each other. Doctors offered video/audio consultations like telemedicine.

Now that rules have been relaxed, people are venturing out to offices and other workplaces. I asked a friend, “Why do you want to go to the office when it is still considered unsafe?” His reply was indeed interesting. He said “I just cannot function from home anymore. I feel stifled and I miss the interaction with my colleagues. People may think I get to see them on Zoom. But bandwidth becomes an issue and everyone is asked to switch off the video and go mute. The domestic scene is getting bad. I have to run three to four errands every day…”. He would have gone on and on but I got the drift. His final take was, home is not a workplace, and he is at home in his workplace, surrounded by the clatter of keyboards.

I, too, am eager to get back to my office, which I haven’t been to for over 6 months, and if my wife has her way, I will continue doing ‘homework’ for another 6 months. She says, “You can do as you please after you have had the vaccine. Until then you are grounded.” The kids in my building think I disobeyed her and that’s why I am ‘grounded’. Ha!

On a more serious note, I recommend that all office-going people who are still homebound read “Work From Home Policy: A Definitive Guide For Managers” 🔗 Please click on this link.

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Potpourri

Idioms have a history

I would now like to engage with my readers ‘idiomatically’ by talking about an oft-quoted idiom: “Discretion is the better part of Valour.”

Let us go a long way back in literary history. Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part-1 features Falstaff, a companion of Prince Hal (who later becomes King Henry V of England). To cut the narrative short, in the scene, Prince Hal finds Falstaff dead on the battlefield and leaves the stage without realising that Falstaff had pretended to be dead to save himself from being killed. After the Prince exits, Falstaff says “The better part of Valour, is Discretion” His logic would be that it is foolish to act brave and be dead. Perhaps he wasn't familiar with the phrase “cowards die many deaths”. That came later in Julius Caesar, Act II Scene 2 when Caesar said, “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once”.

Falstaff thought he was being intelligent by pretending to be dead but his ‘intelligence’ was at best quick thinking, and in reality it was cowardice. Some hold the view that discretion is a form of escapism or withdrawal. For them discretion is not a part of valour at all, let alone a better part of it, and it is so easy to convince oneself that it is better to duck than to take it on the chin.

The phrase is also intended to be used when someone does a good deed or rescues someone from a difficult situation but makes no effort to publicise it. Here, discretion would mean ‘self-effacing’ or maintaining a low key. Since valour could well mean boastful, discretion is about not boasting about a good act, like making a charitable donation or rescuing a person from a difficult situation.

The other kind of brazen valour on display on the roads is going around without wearing the mask or wearing it on the chin. I am tempted to ask, “Are you telling the virus that you will take it on the chin?” This is indiscretion at its worst.

Speaking of Shakespeare…

A friend forwarded a set of questions and answers that link up all the Shakespearean plays. Though I’m not sure where it originated, I’m certain you will like it:

A SHAKESPEAREAN STORY (if you have seen this before, feel free to skip or read through and chuckle again)

Who were the bride and the bridegroom?
Romeo and Juliet.
When did he propose?
Twelfth Night.
What did he say?
As you like it.
From where was the ring obtained?
The Merchant of Venice.
Who were the chief guests?
Antony and Cleopatra, Troilus and Cressida.
Who were the bridegroom's friends?
The Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Who prepared the wedding breakfast?
The Merry Wives of Windsor.
What was the honeymoon like?
A MidSummer Night's Dream.
How would you describe their quarrel?
The Tempest.
What was their married life like?
Comedy of Errors.
What was the bridegroom's chief occupation?
The Taming of the Shrew.
What did she give him?
Measure for Measure.
What did their friends say?
All’s Well that Ends Well.

Indian Premier League 2020

IPL season commenced on 19th of September with a match between Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings. The two captains were in the news recently. Dhoni the ‘vadhyar’ or ‘Thalaiva’ was in the news when he announced his retirement in his usual self-effacing way. We will miss his helicopter shots — at least we have his best ones captured on video! Please watch:

Until next week, take good care of yourself. COVID-19 is still out there — even if things seem to be shifting back to normal!