At a highly unlikely venue of a conference entitled Symantec Vision 2007, I had the pleasure of listening to Dr. Arun Shourie speak on lessons in “Leadership and Driving Change”.  The seminar was organized to educate IT practitioners about the looming Threat Landscape of the Information Technology world, and Dr. Shourie was its Guest of Honour. 

For those of you who don’t know Dr. Shourie, he has had the distinction of having served as the editor of one of India’s prominent dailies – The Indian Express – including during the Emergency.  He’s also managed various portfolios in the Central Government including Disinvestment and Communications & Technology.  During his tenure as a Minister, he has also been responsible for some of the most liberal-minded and controversial policy roll-outs in highly regulated industries like Telecom and Energy.  When Dr. Shourie started speaking on the lessons he’d learnt, it did not matter if you were a VP in an IT company or a system administrator, every one in the room listened with rapt attention.

According to Dr. Shourie, when you’re trying to go against the grain… rock the boat, so as to say… it helps to keep in mind the following:

1. Get your facts right – It will make it difficult for those who oppose that change to find the weaknesses in your arguments and target them.  And, there will be many who will want to do just that.

2. Conduct yourself impeccably – Give no opportunity to others to raise a finger against you, and you will find that it is difficult for them to focus on any thing else but the task at hand.

3. When difficulties come, put them to work! – This was explained with a few examples, but the gist of it was to think creatively about the obstacles that you face, and make them a part of the solution instead.

On Leadership, he added:

A good Leader is one who anticipates future problems and has the team begin working on possible solutions well in advance, keeping in mind the gestation period required for the solution to bear fruit! 

A good Leader is also someone who exhibits a “core” that is non negotiable – The world at large knows that there are some things that you will do (no matter what happens) and there are other things that you will not do (no matter what happens), and that’s what defines you as a Leader.

In the end, he went on to narrate an oft-repeated incident that Dr. APJ Kalam – the ex President of India – loves to share when asked about his own take on Leadership.  Instead of trying to reproduce the story here, I will let you read the original narrative (PDF) in the words of Dr. Kalam, himself. (Search for “Satish” in the PDF that opens up).

At the end of the speech, it was evident that the “honour” was entirely the pleasure of the audience which was left mesmerised by his words…