Name: KG Mohan

Title: Management Consultant

Organisation: Multiple Organisations

Expert in helping organizations to solve issues, create value, maximize sales and growth, improve business performance and improve profitability using Business Process Transformation. Provide objective advice and help an organisation to develop any specialist skills that it may be lacking.

Concerned primarily with the strategy, structure, management and operations of a company. Identify options for the organisation and suggest recommendations for change. Seasoned leader with wide-ranging experience in all aspects of international and Domestic business process outsourcing operations. Proven track record of executing long term strategy, operational excellence, P&L management.

Strong capacity to deliver consistent progression in stakeholders’ satisfaction. Expertise in vendor management. Proactive approach to rapid expansion and change management. Proven ability to successfully manage within matrix environments. High analytical ability and strength in guiding teams to set up and deliver quality processes. Significant strength in people management and development of skills. Exemplary reputation for integrity and business ethics.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope KG's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

To mentor senior leaders is a challenging task. I always get reminded of the Zen story of the "cup of tea".

A senior leader went to visit, a Zen master, to ask him about Zen. The Zen master welcomed him and began to make tea. He filled the senior leader's teacup full and then continued pouring the tea, overflowing the cup. The senior leader exclaimed — “Stop! The cup is already full, no more will go in!” The Zen master responded: “Like this cup, your mind is already full of ideas and opinions. There is no room for anything new. To understand Zen, you must first empty your cup — open your mind and free it from preconceived notions.”

Many a time I have related this Zen story to convey the point subtly to my mentee that the only way to be receptive to inputs is to keep one's tea cup empty as far as possible.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

Becoming a leader is a path that is a combination of personal experiences (both failure and success), reading books on a plethora of subjects linked to leadership, seeking out senior leaders for guidance, watching and reading about leaders and lastly using the knowledge gained to share with others openly.

Learning from personal experiences is costly but among the most effective ways. Having been born before the social media age – reading books was ingrained in me by my maternal grandfather and have realised that technology has only aided in making my reading/listening habit easier – be it podcasts or videos. I have been fortunate to have worked with exceptional leaders and colleagues across the multiple organisations I have worked in and this helped me to lean on them to take a page from their leadership styles and success and failure stories.

But what I enjoy the most is sharing the knowledge gained with one and all in the story telling form.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Let me share this through a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuN9kUmKQZw Though time management really helps – I see to it that my day follows a simple structure. Starting with a morning walk around a lake opposite where I live which I use to hear Youtube podcasts for about 45 minutes. About 20 minutes is spent on a spiritual ritual of worship that involves reciting from the Vedas.

Post that about 60 minutes is spent on social media time – be it whatsapp, Facebook, X or Instagram. Once the work day begins and continues through the day – it again ends with an evening walk around the lake. Post that is dedicated to family time and TV before I head to bed. Intra week – I am conscious that I spend some time in blogging and serving society in some way.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Change management is a combination of art and science. During my consultancy assignment in a medium sized organisation, I put into action what I learnt in the early part of my career. Though bringing about change is critical - a leader must remember that each individual has both strengths and weaknesses and a leader has to play to an individual's strengths.

But if certain weaknesses are hygiene in nature – the leader must spend time developing the team member to meet the standards. If that is not yielding results then there is no alternative to find an alternate role for the individual and in its absence – the individual has to exit the organisation. My challenge always is making Business Heads and CEOs to understand the process – who invariably swing between accepting poor leadership or firing an individual without attempting to develop the person.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

“The Professional” - by Subroto Bagchi It touches many aspects of leadership like Integrity, and defines the qualities of true professionals and what differentiates them from those just competent. He explains the importance of saying “No”. True professionals understand that every action, decision, and relationship, no matter how small, can have a lasting impact.

Bagchi has very comprehensively classified the book into 7 broad topics which are 1) Integrity, 2) Self-Awareness, 3) Professional Qualities, 4) Managing Volume, 5) Managing Complexity, 6) New World Imperatives and 7) The Professional’s Professional. A glimpse into the book by the author: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4N25-_g8fnM&t=146s

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Nurturing and developing talent is critical to create great teams.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

I have learnt that many a time “process” becomes a bottleneck when “common sense” is discarded. I had moved to a new role within the organisation in 2001 and had to change my location of work within the city. I noticed that in my new location there were people inside the office whom I would not recognise.

On enquiring I was informed that they were visitors. This was during the era when physical entry was not controlled by access cards. What surprised me was that “Visitor” line yards were not being used for visitors. I requested a newly recruited Management Trainee from a prestigious B-School in the Human Resources Department to procure 20 “Visitor” line yards.

I waited for two weeks and then followed up with her and she said that they were not ready as the Finance Team approval was pending. I followed up again after two weeks and she said they were not ready as the design of the line yard had not been frozen yet.

At that moment I called up our Housekeeping boy at my previous work location whose educational qualification was that he had just passed High School. He arrived in about 30 minutes and I requested to procure 20 “Visitor” line yards and get it by Noon next day.

Lo and behold he came with the 20 line yards the next day at Noon. He had followed the due process of seeking approval for the spend and then speaking to the right vendor to procure the line yard and used his common sense for the design. This Housekeeping boy had never let me down in the past and even at this time he was my saviour.

I have used this experience of mine of “hiding behind a process for a failure to deliver” v/s “using common sense to deliver” over last 2 decades to emphasise the importance of “common sense” to “get things done” without breaking any rules of the organisation.