The ingenious leader

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The mood at the corporate headquarters of Mutual Benefits Group was upbeat recently. The company just opened a smartly equipped gym within the office premises for the use of the entire workforce.

Why a gym at this time when the economy is volatile, uncertain and complex? Different risks are showing-up in business and the times are so ambiguous and volatile. Things are so befuddling that the ingenious leader is paddling through the tough times with an unusual resilience.

However, it is worthy of note that good results are “speaking” for the organisation by way of favourable operating income and consistent profitability.

Steve Jobs of blessed memory pointed out that to guarantee personal efficiency and effectiveness, “employees must love their jobs and have fun doing it.” The processor system teaches us that “carrying out responsibility successfully is a task and leaders must consistently buoy employees’ mental state with enthusiasm and excitement.”

Harvard Business Review recently came up with a “New Way of Working” in order to ensure that organisations continue to thrive. Business owners and leaders were advised to “dive into insights and evolve employee value proposition beyond remuneration.”

Emplacing a gym within the workplace would no doubt, deliver fitness, relaxation and of course, personal discipline. Personal discipline as we all know is one of the most essential skills for achieving goals and overall life success. Smart organisations must fully integrate discipline into the self-image of employees to guarantee value-adding activities.

Now, let us go back to innovative insight as a critical requirement of ingenious leadership. Insight confers the power of acute observations and deduction, discernment, penetration and perception. That is, the ability to solve difficult problems or challenges in an honest, original and inventive way. The ingenious leader displays brilliance and inventiveness in decision-making. He is knowledgeable, original, resourceful in practical terms. He is also shrewd and sagacious.

Highly distinguished experts in strategy have explained that leadership could not just be a checklist of knowledge, humility, accountability and confidence. Today, we have conflated management and leadership functions in individuals, therefore, positions and college degrees would not create amazing leaders with guaranteed abilities to turbocharge teams to achieve satisfying results.

For instance, we need innovative insights to manage the risks that are showing up on a daily basis in businesses. We also need to increase earnings without over leveraging the cash flow. The bucket of risks could include: strategic risks (organisations must achieve competitive advantage), operational risks (uninterrupted supply chain notwithstanding prevailing uncertainty), financial risks (seamless cash flow), reputational risks and also regulatory risks.

The leader must find growth, mine growth beneath the surface and drive growth from the top. He must be at the vanguard of building the organisations’ sales DNA and must galvanize teams through personal examples. He must consistently challenge the status quo and regularly demand results.

The ingenious leader must re-imagine and create transformational growth goals. He must drive positive trajectory in satisfying customer needs (even the anticipated ones). Growth efforts must always be given top priority.

He must have the ability to balance and manage emotions while focusing on results. He must ingeniously sort out challenges and communicate with clarity, confidence and credibility. Like the CEO of Uber Dara Khosrowshahi, who was faced with the challenge of turning around a not-too-good business culture and very harsh criticisms, he said with conviction: “I think we have got the best team in the business and a competitive advantage in scale and in our partnerships. So, I will let the results speak.”

Entrepreneurship, the sure-path of the ingenious leader is the art and science of innovation. The leader must take a microscope to existing markets and identity the opportunities that others overlook. He must adjust and adapt to sell the ways the customers want. He must give the customers value for their money and always give them useful information. Engaging customers directly unlocks growth and is also a prerequisite for solution sales. It would also be useful if we blend remote and field sales. Also, integrate online and offline channels as well as orchestrate very vibrant direct and indirect sales teams. An entrepreneur does not just display brilliance, he is brave and daring in providing beneficial solutions.

There is no one-size-fits all model. Feedback loops would always impact assumptions. Look carefully at the big picture and framework to determine where to focus.

Let me conclude with these useful learnings from late Steve Jobs of Apple, Pierre Omidyar of eBay and Biz Stone of Twitter: “Without passion, you will give up. It is hard and efforts must be sustained over a period of time. You must love what you are doing and have fun doing it.” “Learn from mistakes and keep going. Gather experience along the way from your mistakes. Don’t be discouraged and manage discouraging opinions. You need courage. Often, they will tell you, it can’t be done.” “You must be emotionally involved in what you are doing to ensure commitment.”

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