28th Naval Tata Memorial Lecture There is Normal, there is disruption and then there is Never a Normal. Disruption destroys. There is no one new paradigm. It is a state of constantly emerging paradigms changing at short intervals. 'Never Normal' is the only way forward in the emerging paradigm. Short term, no sets, no extendables, no predictions, unbelievable patterns - unseen and unheard of before. That is the way the new future will unreveal itself and emerge. Shekhar Bhand

'ALICE IN WONDERLAND' the first set of Never Normal' themes. First published in 1865, Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was an immediate success and has remained one of the best-known English children's books. ... I treat it as one of the best Management books. Alice's world is a bizarre, disparate and a peculiar place and so are the various places and palaces that Alice accidentally finds herself in. The closures to these stories are beautiful and interesting as little Ali

The ‘Talent Think Tank’ of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry met on April 12, 2019 for its second provocative thought nurturing session. This White Paper is on the basis of these deliberations. The theme identified for discussion and thought ideation in this session focussed on : Critical Role Interdependencies: CEOs and CHROs for Value Creation through People In an integrated world where ‘silo’ thoughts and behaviours do not yield results or create value, a positiv

Was discussing with a young family business CEO (mentee), the Cost of Exits in a Co. Whilst he was generally tracking basic Exit data of his Co benchmarked with industry etc , clearly, he had not understood the real implications of the total cost stack-up of Exits. So we began listing on White-Board, all the heads of direct & indirect expenses triggered by a good performer exiting the system 1.Attraction /Recruitment Cost 2.Gap - Time Wasted cost 3.Selection Cost 4.Pre-em

Often, leaders randomly promise rewards, incentives & benefits to their people upon their achieving certain predetermined targets, performance milestones or their reflecting certain desirable behaviour. However, thereafter these leaders become conveniently amnesic. They remember but outwardly pretend that they have forgotten that the promise needs to be fulfilled. Well it does not matter, they feel. Small thing! Isn't continuing to get their main salary the larger elephant of

Being in Power is relative. It has relevance in a given context, to a particular situation and in a pre-defined time frame. No one can imagine to be in Power for all times and in all situations. Unfortunately, Power intoxicated and leadership appears to get blinded to this reality. Even if dubiously an attempt is made by leadership to place on board some plastic successors who are actually sycophants and thus continue remaining in power by proxy, does not work in the long run

Driving the Bus is a beautiful analogy used to explain our life. We are in the drivers seat. Right behind us, in the first few rows we have seated our chosen navigators. These represent the articulate and compassionate parts of our personality that we are proud of and want the world to see. When the road is tough and maybe paved and if the Driver is distracted, he calls upon the proven navigators sitting in the first few rows to guide and keep us on course. The few rows behin

Within each one of us a leader, we have powerful abilities that are also by themselves hidden impediments to our success. A collective polarity of two competing characters BUT only one leads to greatness. Each leader has a distinctive leadership 'archetype' ( and there are 7 predominant archetypes of leadership ). All of us have that one as his archtype our predominant style. That is the good-news. The bad news is that each such archetype of characteristics brings along wit

Organisations that thrive in complex times are ones that are Agile & committed to a culture that enjoys wholesome wellness. It is an age where the leader's kind & clever virtues thrive. A leader needs to build a wholesome organisation that insulates & fights back. Very much the same way that a healthy body fights strains of unknown viruses in an epidemic. A leader does not have to give up his committment to enhance productivity & efficiency merely because he values civility

A leader does not have superior sight. It would be equally erroneous to believe that she is blessed with magical powers that help her see a clear path thru the chaos and confusions that lie ahead. However, what would be right to expect based on her learnings through experiences, knowledge gained through her exposure and deep insights honed thru roles performed during her career that she has developed a keen sense of judgment that helps her safely guide the CO through such amb

He who falls and remains fallen is the loser. He who falls and rises again to win the race is the Hero. Falling is built into the thought of running. You can't be running and imagine that you would never fall. Infact, even before you start running capture the fear of falling and the guilt of losing..for fall you will but you cannot give-up and lose because of that. And when you fall, do not consult the demon of your falls, faults and failures. Rather immediately reconnect

Effective Leaders are astute and discerning whilst being courageous and displaying fortitude all at the same time... Leaders are expected to demonstrate fortitude - 'courage of conviction' once a decision is taken and that is a virtue. However, they also need to be flexible enough to change directions and even abort projects should such a need arise. No sense in being rigid and holding on to something purely because of an ego to merely uphold ones decision. Flexibility is wis

Give your customer an exhilarating experience once & he will be your loyalist for a month..Give him a bad experience once & he will never be back again. Excellence has to be sustained...you cannot give it up after a while. But the downward spiral slides down. Once is enough...you dont need to try hard !!! #Leadership #Organisationalskills

Most managers find them ill-equipped to manage the strain of serious conflicts within their teams. Conflicts are inevitable in a work context but sometimes they become damaging to the purpose of the team. The leader needs to step in. But often one finds some leaders conniving. In their minds they believe that to resolve a conflict means siding with one at the cost of the other. Doing this would erode their power base. Hence they ignore the situation and become conflict barrer

If each Manager show-cases culture of the organisation to his team.....and if team members generally mirror behaviours of their Managers...then Culture is about the patterns of behaviour that People in the organisation are generally expected to reflect !!! It is therefore necessary that each Manager be closely observed and coached to reflect correct behaviours at his work-place ! #Leadership

Communication is that art of Leadership without which not only battles are lost, leadership fails and Army sinks... #Leadership

A hundred demotivating unconscious episodes in a day can be off-set by one conscious experience of motivation...an effective leaders job is easy !!! #Leadership #Organisationalskills

Stress Management.....the leader needs to leave his team 'Stirred but not Shaken' ! (James Bond) Only wisdom can tell you how to manage the precarious balance...too much stress and the person chokes.Too little challenge and it leads to disengagement thus underperformance in the team. Performance preassure during times when market is behaving strange and unpredictable is very high. Only very close observation and vigilance by the leader backed by his insights arising out of ye

Each leader has his own predominant style of working. No one style is all time best. Depending on the nature of challenge to the purpose, resources available, level of maturity of the team etc, a suitable leadership style needs to be adopted. However, irrespective of the style adopted, charter of leadership as perceived by his followers actually determines the emotional connect that he would enjoy with his followers . Stronger the emotional bond, stronger the binding and thus

The problem with prescriptive models of leadership is that it tends to influence people to start adopting external manifestations and behaviours (which they themselves clearly do not believe in). Their belief is that external manifestation of such behaviours would somehow make people they deal with actually believe that they actually are the embodiments of these desirable best practices and behaviours. However, these behaviours being inauthentic, it will not be long before su