I have always been fascinated with leadership , specifically what individual leaders can accomplish by the power of their intellect , level of their unique skill , force of their personality or effectiveness of their ability to persuade. It is said that leadership comes in many forms. Leaders get people moving. They energise and mobilize. They take people and organisations to places they have never been before. In uncertain times , problems change , technologies change and people change. Leadership endures. Without leadership there would not be extraordinary efforts necessary to solve existing problems and realise big opportunities.
It is said that transformational leadership brings immense success in the organization. John Wooden quotes that ‘The most powerful Leadership tool you have is your own personal example.’
Mr.Narayan Murthy , is a living example of a leader who has extraordinarily demonstrated transformational leadership in Infosys and brought IT revolution in India. Infosys is, today, a highly-innovative software services global company listed on NYSE in the US and on the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Under Mr. Murthy’s leadership, Infosys became the leader in innovation in technical, managerial and leadership training, software technology, quality, productivity, customer focus, employee satisfaction, and physical and technological infrastructure. The domain of leaders is the future.
The leader’s unique legacy is the creation of valued institution that survive and grow with time. The most important contribution leaders make is the long term development of people and organization so that they can adapt , change , prosper and grow together. Leadership is a relationship between those who aspire to lead and those who choose to follow. It is the quality of this relationship that determines in getting extraordinary things done. A lot of research has been done to understand this relationship better and to interpret all the expectations that people have for the leader they aspire to follow.
After a thorough analysis , the top 4 characteristics are honest , forward – looking , competent and inspiring. These top four characteristics have remained constant in the ever-changing social , political and economic environment of the past three decades. The relative importance of each has varied somewhat overtime , but there has been no change in the fact that these are the four qualities people want most in their leaders.
Transformational Leadership
A trained leader makes things better for people. A transformational leader makes better people.
Transformational leaders are described as mentors and role models as they lead by example. Transformational leaders are able to achieve higher levels of productivity from their followers because they seek to meet the demands of personal motives. This leadership style excels at recognizing existing needs or demands , especially in their followers. Such leaders are known to create enthusiasm. These leaders do an excellent job of incorporating a new vision into their current situation.They are extremely good at recognizing gaps or problems in the process of a vision , which allows them to make adjustments or recommendation to correct the situation immediately.
This makes sure that everyone in the respective organization are on the same page. Transformational leaders gain energy from their ability to implement new ideas and inspire others. Transformational leadership is an attempt to bring our best human selves into leadership. The idea is not to create a separate self from which to lead. The idea is to develop your best human self as a way to lead. Transformational leadership is not about strategy. It’s about human development, the leaders’ as well as the followers. Transformational Leadership Requires Transformational People.
Transformational leaders are also known to be excellent communicators. That is why it said that they know how to translate vision to reality and getting things done. Transformational leaders share vision. One of the hallmarks of transformational leaders is that they not only have a good sense of the big picture, but they help team members to see themselves within that vision. Know what your mission is, and be ready to show your employees how their work fits into that vision.Transformational leaders create a long lasting impact and inspire others to be a life long learner. Transformational leaders are always learning. Investment in ongoing education and industry awareness is a key habit of the transformational leader.
Mr.Narayana Murthy, full name Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, was born on 20th August 1946. Narayana Murthy Success Story has captured many hearts. He is an Informational Technology industrialist and a co-founder of the IT giant Infosys. Narayana Murthy along with six other IT professionals established Infosys in the year 1981. The initial capital investment was of Rs. 10,000 only. His wife Sudha Murthy provided this fund. Mr Narayan Murthy handled the position of CEO of Infosys for around 21 years.
Infosys is an MNC which is involved in providing engineering solutions, business consulting, and technology, and outsourcing services. It was he who introduced the global delivery model, built India’s first software campus, made Infosys the first Indian company to get listed on Nasdaq, got certification to CMM level 5 and issued one of the world’s largest stock option plans. His company was applauded for everything — from its business model, delivery excellence, leadership to corporate governance ethics.
According to Mr Narayan Murthy, Basic Ingredients of a Successful Organisation:
Honesty, hard work, integrity, transparency, fairness, accountability, austerity, leadership by example and austerity, these are all universal features which improves the probability of success. However, if someone wants to build a great company the other requirements include the understanding of conducting an inexpensive test marketing exercise. Also, every entrepreneur must know the principles of finance and sales to be successful. By following these principles you are only improving the probability of your success because every entrepreneur requires four attributes, counts Mr Murthy.
“First is competence, second is character or good values, third is commitment and fourth is chance. Nobody in the world can guarantee an entrepreneur, they can only see that if you follow these, then the probability of getting successful will increase.”
“ I want to be known to our shareholders as an honest person first and then as smart person, so let us give them full details of our losses, we went to the shareholders and said we lost this much money by investing in the secondary market, this was a mistake, we have learnt our lesson , we will not repeat this mistake , many of my friends in the indian corporate world were surprised by this , but the shareholders were happy about our transparency” – Narayan Murthy , Founding CEO , Infosys.com in his book , Better India Better World
Success Lessons to be Cherished Given by Narayana Murthy in his Biography
- A leader should have the capability to inculcate a great value system in his organization.
- Be trustworthy of your stakeholders, employees, and society. The stakeholders or shareholders will appreciate and will invest in those companies who share every detail with them. Never hide the true picture from the stakeholders because they are the ones who are running the name of the company
- Always believe in yourself no matter how the situation is. Always have an alternate plan B if in case you’re original plan fails. If you will have faith in yourself and your dreams you can definitely achieve them.
- Mentoring is the very important factor of a leader. He should constantly mentor to develop a successive generation of future leaders. Consider your teammates as equals. Give equal opportunity to everyone. Let them speak their mind and take initiatives.
- Be courageous in order to go against the conventional methods. Never get afraid of the challenges lying ahead of you. Make sure you are well informed and well educated about the current market trends
- Have a good mental state and positive approach towards life
Real Life Encounter
An important lesson by Mr. Narayan Murthy. It was 8.30 pm, Thursday evening. Mr Alok Taunk landed at Bangalore airport for his leadership training that he was going to deliver the next day at a tech company.
Mr Alok Taunk was waiting at the baggage counter and all of a sudden I realized that he had not packed his headphones. He got into an electronic shop & to his surprise he saw this gentleman. He just couldn’t believe, It was Mr. Narayan Murthy!
Mr Alok initiated a conversation , “Sir, can I have 2 minutes of yours?” & he was generous enough to say “Yes, gentleman what’s your name? How can I help you?”
Mr Alok then introduced himself & asked him.. “What message do you have for the managers & leaders? I have my training tomorrow & I would love to share your advice”
Without taking any time, he said “Be flexible” That was his short yet extremely POWERFUL advice. If you see, corporations today are super rigid with their ideologies, strategies, systems that they don’t consider adopting different methods or technologies. This is one of the reason why some giants have seen a terrible decline.
Even in the pandemic, flexible ideologies have survived & thrived compared to rigid mindsets. What I truly believe in is “Be strong headed about your goals but super flexible in your methodologies
This inspiring incident is a live example of how real transformational leaders think and execute. Even after being one the top successful business leader, Mr .Murthy said “Be flexible“. This clearly shows how wise and visionary he is !
You become a star not because of your title; you become a star because you are adding star value to the company. – N. R. Narayana Murthy
Mr.Narayan Murthy is a transformational leader par excellence. He is an inspiring mentor and role model for all aspiring entrepreneurs. He brought IT revolution in India.
Infosys Technologies is one of the few Indian companies that has changed the way the world looks at India. Inspite of running a successful organization , he still adapts change and believes in being flexible with changing times.
We must all try to implement his advice of becoming flexible for surviving the post pandemic situation.
Mr.Narayan Murthy’s life journey has been the inspiration for many…