Round Table Column

There is a strong consensus about developing Indian managers to become global leaders.This is because of several factors like projected futuristic growth of Indian economy, the confidence and enthusiasm of Indian corporates to become global MNCs as well the strong aspiration of Indian Millennials to work outside their home countries (In one of the latest PwC studies 93% of Indian Millennials agreed to work outside their home country during their careers).

All organizations would want their middle layer to be the fulcrum of operational excellence. In order to do so all organizations would need to focus on developing their middle managers, both to take on their current responsibilities and to take on senior positions in the future. Also, what the middle managers may have learnt at school or in their careers so far might not be enough for them to cope with the world of tomorrow. Dec 2013, Pune

Developing middle managers into senior leaders is seen as a business imperative by most of the organizations. The nature of work and learning preferences has changed significantly therefore ways of developing and also areas in which development is required needs to be reassessed. The power of technology and social communities is to be leveraged more meaningfully while creating a learning environment. Different forms of development including coaching needs to come up with new and innovative formats to meet the requirements of a new, success hungry, tech savvy and anxious middle management population. Oct 2013 , Gurgaon

Middle manager roles require a strong balancing act. They have many stakeholders to manage and therefore influencing and collaboration becomes extremely important skill sets for this layer. The notion of success in many of these cases is linked to past achievements which fosters a belief that they are ready for the next level. This notion may or may not be true; however for an organization the challenging aspect is to make a large segment of this population confront the reality and also keep them motivated and engaged along with shaping up career paths for the people who are considered to be [...]

Organizations in India need strong leadership capability to sustain the growth momentum and reach the asprational level in the future. Identifying, developing and retaining leadership talent has now become a strong business need.Executive coaching, as a development mechanism is in its incipient stage in India. There is a strong need to include it in the development charter of the organizations, however the first step is to educate the corporates about the process, benefits and value associated with it. Sept 2012 , Gurgaon

The talent landscape in India presents a mix of challenges and opportunities. On one side there seems to be a huge pool available, on the other side there are questions about whether this pool is or will be ready to perform at international standards. The efforts put in by the corporates and the government in this area are a testimony to the relative importance of this issue vis-à-vis many others that we face as a society. Jan 2012 , New Delhi

The role of HR has significantly changed over the decades, from being just the executor of internal processes, to becoming the trusted advisor of the organization leader. As HR moves from the mandate of operational excellence to the role of organization builder, the question we must ponder is: although HR is supposed to be subject matter experts, do HR people actually have the required expertise to gear organizations and leaders for the future? And can HR expertise itself get in the way of building culture? Nov 2011, Gurgaon    Read More