What I learned from an incident shared by my friend Neeraj Gupta

Continuing from last week, today I will share a lesson I learned from a dear friend Neeraj Gupta. He currently works in telecom space and has had experience of working in various profiles over last 25 years in India. He shared with me one of his experience that is equally applicable to all and is really worth emulating.

Humility is Golden

He shared with me that different leaders behaved differently as they moved into the corner office. He shared experience with two different leaders and told me that one of the leaders, when he came into the CEO position started to act with a little arrogance. He re-tuned his old relationships and started make them feel that they now work for him and that he controlled all favors that he could bestow upon them based on his own whims and fancies. People around him felt bad but had to curry his favor because of the position he held. Although all noticed the change and felt bad about it. They felt humiliated a bit and tried to avoid him as much as they can. People did only what was necessary and what was asked for. They did not care much about success, because the CEO claimed it anyway.

In contrast, he once had a chance to work with another CEO, who treated everyone with respect and would acknowledge and respond to greetings from all, irrespective of levels. This CEO was very well grounded and always appreciated people for going the extra mile and worked on motivating and empowering them. This CEO made others believe that they all built the success together and that each has to play a part. Everyone liked this CEO and went an extra mile to achieve results.

You can imagine that for the first CEO, things went downhill quite fast, as people never gave their 100% and he had to be more ruthless to get results, burning his bridges with all. When he finally left the office, he was left alone, with no one responding to his calls and people generally ignoring him. He realized that people had flocked to him because of his position and not because of his qualities. But I guess it was too late.

I hope that the leaders do not become arrogant and ruthless, the best results are always delivered together as a team.

Stay tuned for more next week.