Leadership and Mindfulness

I recently read this article by Dalai Lama on leadership (https://hbr.org/2019/02/the-dalai-lama-on-why-leaders-should-be-mindful-selfless-and-compassionate) where he talks of leaders being mindful, selfless and compassionate. These are all qualities that are admirable and create a difference in the way teams perform. However, there are occassions when these three can pull a leader in different directions, creating a situation where one of the three has to be given a higher priority to ensure that the collective benefits. 

A few years ago, I was in awe of a much younger colleague. She was shouldering the responsibility of the family. It took a lot of courage to have travelled her journey and be enthusiastic and happy always. While I admired her accountability to her family, soon I began to notice that she was not as responsible at work. In order to help her deliver I had an open conversation with her and spoke to the team to ensure that they supported her as well. A significant project was being led by her and that was also a key audit requirement. I sat with her to allow her to select her deadline within the available timelines. I also encouraged her manager to review the progress and highlight any surprises to me promptly. 

When the first deadline was missed I kept calm and allowed her to deliver at a new mutually agreed date. That too was missed. Her manager came complaining about her inefficiency but he was unwilling to take any action. He did not want to "damage her career" and be the "bad boss". All this meant was that the team was becoming sluggish due to one person and the manager of the team was not ready to take corrective action. As the leader of the function this meant that I had to intervene so that the organisation's and all stakeholders' interests were protected. 

I called her to have a discussion and gave her a deadline by when the deliverables needed to be complete. Lo and behold, she had decided to take an "overseas family vacation for two weeks" despite knowing the sensitivity of the task and having not delivered on three occasions. Her manager was aware of this, was not ok with it and still had approved the leave. I was flabbergasted. In my mind, both the individuals were equally at fault and I was not sure what my next step should be. So I decided to sleep over and find a solve the next day.

Thinking of being reasonable, compassionate and mindful I called the manager and her. I told her that while she could go overseas as tickets etc had been booked, she should carry her laptop and ensure that she worked from there to be able to deliver the timeline. It would mean sacrificing some fun time with the family but if she delivered early all the remaining time would be hers. The manager was not happy with the compromise but remember he had approved the leave. Her reaction was something I could not comprehend. She flatly refused to deliver the project and said that her family was more important. That meant she would not even carry her laptop and be available for calls. I was shocked and was now mindful of the implications of such behaviour on the performance culture and the company reputation. Knowing that I needed to be a leader with consequences, I told her that was my final offer else she was welcome to resign and look for another job where such poor performance, lack of ownership and no accountability would be acceptable. She found my stance to be harsh and selfish. The manager, who had problems and was not ready to tackle them himself, found me to be heartless. And yet after a lot of mindful consideration I decided that my unsympathetic and seemingly high handed decision was right for the organisation, the collective. She chose to leave. I still admire how she rose to the occassion when the family needed her but I still cannot fathom her unprofessionalism. 

The manager did not learn his lesson even with this incident though. He continued to defend the team's underperformance regularly and sometimes in group meetings. He was just not able to be tough as it was more important for him to be liked. After a couple of such instances I decided that I had to tackle this situation too else I would have taken a corrective action only in part. The next time he defended the team's poor performance in a group meeting, I declared that any manager not being able to get the deliverables from their teams in the required timelines and with the required accuracy would see the impact on their appraisals. While this is an implicit measure of a good performance management system, calling it out was what was needed. It created an impact, different from what I had expected but it improved the the team performance. 

The manager continued to be wanting to be liked, but one of his team members decided to take the accountability of ensuring the team delivered. This was such a blessing because not only did the deliverables start coming through, we had identified a high potential who was hidden till then. 

An arduous journey, the above has taught me that as an officer of the company, my duty is to the stakeholders of the organisation. That is what I am mindful of. If with that context there are difficult situations when compassion for an individual would compromise the interest of the organisation then surely the organisation will take precedence. Of course then there are cases where tragedies happen and we may need to carve another solution that is compassionate and keeps organisational imperatives in mind as well. However, I do believe that it is not always possible for a leader to only be thinking about their teams. To be fair, they need to look at their larger responsibility and then take decisions even if they same uncompassionate, selfish and harsh. Mindfulness is the biggest ally of leaders in my view thus.