At Pragati Leadership it has always been our endeavour to cultivate the best leadership strategies and inculcate the principles of Purpose, People, Planet, and Profit that are the basis of ‘Wholesome Leadership’. In keeping with this objective, we launched the Pragati Leadership Inspiring & Successful Leadership Awards 2022 to acknowledge corporate leaders taking extraordinary steps towards growing their businesses. Our experience with the corporate world has helped us connect with trustworthy experts who picked out truly inspirational leaders deserving of recognition.
The industry experts on our jury panel were stalwarts like Vibhas Joshi (Coach, Facilitator, Author, and Former Board Member, SAS Research & Development, India), Dr. Shikha Jain (Director – IMDR), Dr. Ganesh Natarajan (Chairman at 5F World, Lighthouse Communities & Honeywell Automation India Ltd.), and Tarun Sharma (Founder of Yodda, Former CEO BMC Software India, Board Member, Global Logic India). Their efforts in short-listing the winners of the 2022 IT Industry awards are truly commendable.
Mr. Krishna Raghavan (Chief People Officer, Flipkart) was bestowed this prestigious award for his exceptional leadership qualities and strong administrative strategies. A movement after two decades, from a role in Technology to a role in HR, has allowed him to see both sides of the coin. In his acceptance speech, he mentioned that he was really happy to be in the presence of so many motivational business leaders and could learn a lot from them, as they shared their experiences. Further, he thanked Pragati Leadership for honouring him and recognizing his contribution.
He spoke of the three C’s of leadership that according to him make the inspirational leader – these are Connect, Communicate and Catalyze. He found that these qualities were true across domains as he spoke from his personal experience of two decades in technology and then three years in HR.
Expanding on the three C’s of leadership, he emphasized that how you connect with people, is the first pillar. Connecting is important while you diagnose the problem and when you connect, it should be with active listening and without judgement. This trait will hold you in good stead for the future as it’s like a coaching space that can be provided to anyone. So, it all begins with connecting. Secondly, how do you communicate? How do you close the loop? How do you inspire through purpose? Many organizations including Corporates and NGOs have fantastic purposes, the question is, are they relevant? And are they felt by every employee in the organization? Inspiring through purpose is a very powerful way of communicating. The ‘why’ is more important than the ‘what’, as the ‘what’ keeps changing.
Finally, catalyze. Each one of us has been endowed with unique skills, almost like a fingerprint or DNA. So, how do we bring out the best in every individual? No two individuals are the same so how can we bring out their best qualities so that they flourish and maximize themselves? Strategic leadership skills are all about making a person the best version of themselves.
In his opinion, being an inspirational leader in an HR function provides an amazing opportunity to be able to shape people’s lives within the organization. Each one of us spends a significant portion of our waking hours at the workplace therefore we should make it a fulfilling arena for our employees – this is essentially what the HR function is meant to be.
And with those profound words, Mr. Raghavan ended his speech.
