About the Book
This book is a collection of 25 inspiring stories about the unique and personal developmental journey of 25 senior leaders towards the corner office. Seen through the eyes of their Executive Coaches, each of these stories tell us how they found answers to critical questions such as ‘Am I ready for it?’, ‘How do I prepare to get there?’, ‘How do I learn to succeed once I get there and how can I enjoy the journey while I am at it?’ The term ‘corner office’ is really a metaphor for anything significant that these leaders wanted to achieve in their professional careers and personal lives.
This unique collection of coaching stories is meant to inspire, help and educate many other leaders who are on a similar quest.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Introduction
I: THE CORNER OFFICE SEEN THROUGH THE KEYHOLE OF EXECUTIVE COACHING
Executive Coaching in the Indian context
The Human Side of Leader Development
II: ENHANCING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
The Place of Emotional Intelligence in Leader Effectiveness—B J Prashantham
The Importance of the Emotional Side of your Personality
When the Flaw Turns Fatal
Low Self-Esteem Can Derail a Leader’s Career
III: SHAPING ATTITUDES AND BELIEFS
Why Attitudes and Beliefs Affect a Leader’s Effectiveness—Zahid Ganjee
Transporting the Winning Attitude
What Makes People Miserable
Executives Succeed When They Refuse to Become Victims of Their Circumstances
Celebrating the Feminine Side of a Woman’s Leadership Style
IV: DEVELOPING NEW SKILLS, STYLES AND BEHAVIOURS
Why Skills, Style and Behaviours Make Such a Huge Difference to a Leader’s Effectiveness—Santrupt Misra
Catching Up on Missed Managerial Learning Milestones
Developing This Mysterious Thing Called Executive Presence
Growing a Business through Disciplined Leadership
Helping the Chosen One Claim his Succession Space
V: ACQUIRING GLOBAL COMPETENCIES
Why Global Competencies Are So Critical Today—Anil Sachdev
When Indian Executives Must Measure up to Global Benchmarks
It Takes Innovation and Effort to Crack the Competency Code
VI: MANAGING CAREER TRANSITIONS
Why Career Transitions are Always Challenging—Aroon Joshi
Waking Up and Smelling the Coffee
The Anxiety of Not Having a Position of Authority
Revisiting Functional Leadership
The Need for a Coach-Mentor Partnership to Facilitate Radical Career Shift
VII: GRAPPLING WITH EMERGING EXECUTIVE AND ENTREPRENEURIAL AGENDAS
How Do Executives and Entrepreneurs Grapple with Their Compelling Agendas—R Ramaraj
When a Young Entrepreneur Has to Make a Life-Altering Decision
Coaching Principles Applied to Peer to Peer Business Mentoring
The Importance of a Thinking Partner
VIII: ENHANCING COACHING EFFECTIVENESS
What Contributes to Coaching Effectiveness—R R Nair
The Power of Public Accountability in Influencing Change
It Takes Trust, Time and Team Work to Succeed
The Pygmalion Effect in Coaching
An Introduction to Typical Coaching Processes and Some of the Frequently Used Terms
About the Author :
Pradipta is a business leader with over three decades of experience in managing large Indian businesses as well as British, American, and Japanese Joint Venture companies in India. He pioneered India’s foray into modern organized retailing as well as early digital media and e-commerce.
He has experience in managing businesses in IT, Telecom, Entertainment, Pharmaceuticals and Biotech Businesses. He sits in the board of 20 publicly listed as well as private companies in India, Sri Lanka, Japan, China, UK and USA.
Pradipta has led Industry and Businesses of Southern India by Chairing Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). The CII members represent about 50 per cent of India’s businesses and industries (www.cii.in). At the national level, Pradipta significantly contributes to assisting industries and government in policy formulation by being members of CII’s National Committees on affirmative action, ethics and governance and corporate social responsibility. Pradipta co-founded Coaching Foundation India Limited (www.cfi.co.in) that pioneers coaching of entrepreneurs and business leaders, as well as Chennai Business School Limited (www.cbs.org.in) that assists young professionals to study management post-graduation in important industry verticals. Pradipta also assists and coaches a large number of first-time CEOs and young entrepreneurs to succeed in their businesses. He co-authored India’s Global Power Houses (2009). He did his under-graduation in Chemical Engineering and Management at Bombay University and Harvard Business School. He was invited to be a Fellow of Chartered Management Institute, UK, and was president of Madras Management Association. Pradipta travels extensively around the world and represents India in many global forums and conferences. Ganesh Chella has, in a career spanning over three decades, come to be acknowledged for his contributions as a practitioner and thought leader in the field of Organisation Development, Human Resources and Executive Coaching.
After a successful corporate career in Human Resources for 16 years, Ganesh founded totus consulting, a strategic HR consulting firm; Coaching Foundation India Limited, a pioneering institution for coaching and leadership development and totus HR School, an HR capability-building institute.
He has authored the book Creating a Helping Organisation: 5 Engaging Ways to Promote Employee Performance, Growth & Wellbeing and co-authored the book Are You Ready for the Corner Office? He has a very large body of published articles and blogs to his credit.
Ganesh is an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, a professional member of the India Society for Applied Behavioural Science and trained and certified as a Coach by Dr Skiffington, Australia and Coaching Foundation India.
Review :
Leadership coaching is gaining growing acceptance in India as an important input in preparing senior business leaders for the top jobs. The authors’ unique approach of presenting real-life case studies is very effective in providing insights into common issues that leaders deal with, and how they can be handled.
An engrossing account of real-life cases that highlight the complex situations of leadership development. It is enriched by the fact that it is put together by accomplished professionals who have been on both sides of the table. Told in a narrative that is engaging, the book is a great ally for mentors and aspiring leaders alike.
This book is the ‘Panchatantra’ of Executive coaching. The authors, who are pioneers in Executive coaching in India, have developed keen insights into the challenges facing aspirants to the corner office, and have presented real-life case studies to illustrate the core tenets, distilled from their insights. The stories themselves are very absorbing and the underlying truths are even more so.
These cases are stories of our everyday professional lives. We see, in each one of them, a bit of our own selves, a slice of our context, and shadows of our colleagues. Leaders aspiring for the ‘Corner Room’ need to be able to style flex, as one dominant style will have limitations.
When it comes to developing global leadership competencies, our ‘world view’ and what we choose to give attention to, from a contextual intelligence perspective becomes important—how we use language, how we demonstrate nonverbal behaviour, our communication style, our attitudes and values towards groups and community and our time consciousness. All these aspects define and shape our leadership. These cases illustrate how coaches with credibility, senior leadership experience and global exposure are able to help enhance the contextual intelligence of their coachees.
This book takes us through twenty-five enriching journeys of personal and professional development. The authors distil very valuable, experiential, insightful and practical insights from these narratives, relating them to the Indian context, and presenting them in a creative and very engaging format. A book with immense value, not just for aspiring leaders, but for all professionals looking to make an impact and a difference.
A path-breaking book set in the Indian context that wonderfully blends key coaching insights with reinforcing case studies. The authors’ deep understanding of coaching comes alive in this easy-to-read book that distils the essence of typical leadership challenges encountered by persons aiming for the C-Suite. A must-read for coaching practitioners and senior leaders!
Most often, development of leaders is left to chance—but this book shows how transformational changes in behaviour can be obtained by focused coaching inputs. A must-read for all CEOs to understand how they can develop their future leaders. Equally, a must-read for all aspiring CEOs to gain insights into the barriers to realizing their leadership potential and how they could overcome them.
Behaviour is the ‘vehicle’ through which we deliver what we know and can do. These behaviours are shaped by our attitudes and beliefs towards many things we encounter. While these attitudes and beliefs are useful aids in our life journey and allow us to ‘fit in’ and grow, when the world around us or our context changes significantly, these beliefs can become obstacles to effectiveness. The case studies in this book illustrate how leaders’ attitudes and beliefs need to be worked with to bring about sustainable behavioural change for greater effectiveness.
While more and more leaders seem to be realizing the need to leverage coaching to improve their effectiveness, the cases in this book raise important questions about some of the conditions that need to be present for such coaching interventions to work. This includes searching questions that the coach and coachee need to ask themselves.
Each of the 25 vignettes captures different situations and addresses challenges that CEOs would encounter as they grow and make a difference to their organizations. The stories focus on getting people to bring about change by themselves, which is the true secret of effective coaching. A must-read for all aspiring leaders since it helps anticipate potential challenges in their own evolution as leaders.
