How Do Exemplary Leaders Encourage The Heart?

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It takes much effort to achieve outstanding results in organizations, but leaders who encourage the heart do it quite easily and seamlessly. However, we see only a few leaders who encourage the heart in the corporate world. What could be the possible reason for that? Let's find out in today's episode of the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast.

Susmita Sarma: I am Susmita, your host, and I have with me our guest today, Mr. Shridhar Sampath. Shridhar is a motivational speaker, CEO coach, corporate educator, and facilitator on leadership, strategy, and finance at Motivaluate Consulting and Training, a free zone limited liability company. Welcome, Shridhar.

Shridhar Sampath: Thank you very much, Susmita.

Susmita Sarma: Okay, so before we start with the topic today, Shridhar, would you like to tell us a brief about your journey in the corporate world?

Shridhar Sampath: Sure. I started off as an accountant, basically many years ago, many moons ago, having completed my chartered accountancy articleship in a company in Dubai. So I had zero experience in India, but I've spent most of my career internationally. I climbed my way through the ranks to become a finance manager, and then I got the opportunity to work in interesting locations like Turkey, Egypt, Italy, Russia, and Kazakhstan. I finally became the Finance Director for the company's Eastern Hemisphere operations at a very large oil and gas services company. From there, I left after 25 years of service as a finance professional. Luckily, my chartered accountancy and my CPA qualification gave me a lot of support in making my career fruitful. By around 2010, I left the corporate world and moved into running my own consulting firm, focusing on leadership coaching, consulting, and financial re-engineering as well.

Susmita Sarma: Yeah, that's quite a turnaround actually. So what inspired you to turn into a professional motivational speaker and a facilitator on leadership?

Shridhar Sampath: I think it was my desire to make a bigger impact on people. When I was working in Egypt with an oil and gas services company, I noticed that there were some very smart engineers who somehow struggled when they had to lead an organization or make smart business decisions. I spent a lot of time trying to help them sort out their issues professionally. Subsequently, I noticed that in every organization I went to, you always have some skilled technocrats who struggle with business decision-making and leading people. I used to do public speaking, so it struck me that there was probably space to reach out to more people and inspire them to build their skills on leading people and making smarter business decisions. For example, in 2008, when I nearly decided to start my business, we had the global financial crisis, and one of the things I realized was that a lot of those decisions were avoidable. I said, what could the world have been if the decisions made by some very smart people were actually better decisions? A whole series of events motivated me to get into what I was doing. But probably the biggest reason for me was my dad, who was a brilliant engineer and started a business many years ago. Unfortunately, the business did not do well, and it wasn't because my dad wasn't intelligent, he was a very intelligent man. Looking back, I felt that if only we had known business leadership better, we would probably have succeeded. That's what motivated me to get into motivational speaking and facilitating programs on leadership and business.

Susmita Sarma: That's really nice, real-life experience, and that turned you into someone who's motivating thousands of people now. So Shridhar, coming to the core of the topic today, first of all, we'd like to know: what are the qualities that you think great leaders should possess and exhibit?

Shridhar Sampath: I'm going to base this conversation on some seminal research done by two great authors, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, who wrote the book The Leadership Challenge. Thirty-five years of continuous research has proven that most of us look at our leaders and want them to possess four characteristics. The first is honesty, most of us want our leaders to be honest. We want our leaders to be forward-looking, not static or focused only on what's being done today, but looking into the future and seeing how the world is going to change. We want our leaders to be inspirational, to inspire us into achieving greater things. And finally, we want our leaders to be competent, competent enough to build other leaders and take them forward. Consistently, across the last 35 years, research after research and poll after poll has demonstrated that these four qualities are what we all want our leaders to possess. It's surprising how these four have consistently stayed on top of that research, regardless of financial crises, wars, or pandemics. In every situation, people are consistently looking for these qualities.

Susmita Sarma: Right, so are these qualities the ones that make an exemplary leader?

Shridhar Sampath: Well, becoming an exemplary leader requires a certain set of consistent practices that each person should follow. These four qualities are just the basic minimum we expect in leaders. Being an exemplary leader requires each one of us, and the basic premise is that each one of us is a leader. However, some are good leaders and some are great leaders. The difference between a good leader and an exemplary leader is someone who puts leadership practices into deliberate, daily, consistent practice, not waking up one morning and saying "I want to be a leader today," then forgetting about it for two months, and waking up on day 61 saying "okay, I choose to be a leader today." No, it has to be something you do every day. And those practices are actually very simple, but at the same time they're not simplistic, they're definitely a challenge to practice. But the leaders who practice those behaviors on a regular, daily basis are the ones who stand out as exemplary leaders. For example, we all know Gandhi was a great leader, and the moment you talk about him, two things stand out: truth and nonviolence. He didn't just speak about them, he practiced them. He was criticized for it and also honored for it, but it became clear that those were aspects he held true to himself. So when you look at any exemplary leader, you'll notice they consistently practice certain behaviors that become their hallmark. It's more about practice than what you have. We are all born leaders. The question is whether we practice what we speak about often enough so that people can actually see it in us and distinguish us from other leaders.

Susmita Sarma: Yeah, so basically it's a commitment that every leader should have.

Shridhar Sampath: Absolutely. In fact, leadership research consistently shows that leadership is an aspiration and a choice. We need to aspire to be a leader and be willing to stretch ourselves. At the same time, we need to make a choice on a daily basis. We wake up every morning with a choice: do I want to be a leader today or not? And this is true regardless of profession, industry, or where you are in your stage of life. It applies to all of us equally.

Susmita Sarma: While committing to exemplary leadership, it does save a lot of time and energy, and it reduces workplace frustration and makes the entire workplace healthier, isn't it?

Shridhar Sampath: Yes, it does. But you actually have to walk in every day ready to work on your leadership, and it takes a lot of hard work. It takes a lot of commitment and strong, decisive choices. But most importantly, it's about practicing it on a daily basis. Take any great sportsperson, they're great because they practice every day, they sweat it. They make sure every little step, stroke, or jump is practiced and perfected. It's the same with leadership, it requires a lot of sweat.

Susmita Sarma: Exactly. So talking about the five practices of exemplary leadership, as we're discussing: modeling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and finally, encouraging the heart. That's what we want to discuss today. Can you describe what encouraging the heart exactly means?

Shridhar Sampath: Sure. Jim Kouzes boiled down all the top behaviors that leaders demonstrate into five practices. Modeling the way is about establishing and practicing shared values. Inspiring a shared vision is about getting people to share a vision and inviting them to participate in it. Challenging the process is about consistently looking for ways to improve whatever we do. Enabling others to act is about empowering competent people so that they become leaders themselves. But most importantly, all of these practices are held together by the last one, encouraging the heart. Encouraging the heart is about recognizing people for their individual contributions, but not only recognizing them, it's also about building a sense of community around them so that everybody feels they belong to a larger purpose. Sometimes a simple thank you can encourage somebody's heart, but sometimes you need more than that. You need to recognize people's contributions, and to do that, you need to establish very clearly what you expect them to do. Encouraging the heart is about believing that people will do their best, and expecting the best from them. Take most of us as adults, some of us have children, and we know that when you expect mediocrity from your child, you get mediocrity. But when you expect excellence, you get excellence. At the same time, if you expect excellence but don't encourage and recognize excellence, and instead recognize or encourage mediocrity, you won't get excellence, because you're encouraging mediocrity. So it's very important to align your expectations, to expect the best, but also recognize and reward the effort behind it. To get that excellence, it's important to give regular feedback. The question is, do leaders give feedback? Yes, many do, but do they do it well? Is their feedback uplifting, or does it make people feel powerless? Wherever mediocrity prevails, it's most likely because the leader doesn't encourage the heart, or does so in a way that makes people feel powerless rather than powerful. Encouraging the heart is about celebrating the values we hold and our victories, while making people feel amazing about it, so they continue doing what they need to do.

Let me give you an example of how some leaders have actually encouraged the heart. Imagine an organization with 400 people, and imagine the CEO making sure that for every team member's birthday throughout the year, she has a card, handwrites a "happy birthday" and "thank you for being part of our team" message, signs it, dates it, and sends it to that employee. What do you think the employee would feel?

Susmita Sarma: I would personally feel really happy and special to receive that, because a personalized handwritten card is a rare thing these days.

Shridhar Sampath: Yes, and if you were that person, I'm sure you'd go around showing it to people.

Susmita Sarma: Yes, definitely, to all my colleagues for sure.

Shridhar Sampath: Yes, and that's probably one of the most difficult things to do, but it works when leaders personalize the recognition. Let me give you a simple example. Many years ago, I worked in an organization that had a monthly reward system. A lot of organizations have an "employee of the month," and that month, two of us got a McDonald's voucher. It had a value attached to it, I remember it was around 50 dirhams, which could get me about three meals. However, the challenge was that I did not like McDonald's, so what was the value of that gift to me? I received it, I thanked them for it, but it didn't really warm my heart. At the same time, instead of that 50-dirham McDonald's voucher, or even a much larger one, if my leader had said, "I want you to take two hours off and go spend time with your family," because we were going through a very difficult work scenario at the time, I would have valued that a lot more, because for me, time with my family was far more valuable. This distinction of personalizing recognition for a team member is very powerful, and it's probably at the basis of encouraging the heart.

Susmita Sarma: Right. So is it difficult to put encouraging the heart into practice as a leadership strategy, because we don't see a lot of leaders using it?

Shridhar Sampath: The beauty about anything in this world, Susmita, is that it's difficult until we do it. As a person, I never knew I had this human side of me, for many years as an accountant I was focused on numbers and delivering results. But as I started practicing leadership myself, I realized I needed to do things I wouldn't normally do, I needed to move out of my comfort zone. So to answer your question, is it easy to put encouraging the heart into practice? No, it's always difficult initially, but over time, I've learned how to do it better and better. Why do so few leaders use it? Because like anybody else, as human beings we're afraid of being criticized, ridiculed, or judged. We always worry about what other people will think. But as long as we're clear as leaders about what we intend to do and why, and we actually execute it, starting in small steps, experimenting with small things, it becomes easier and easier. My experience has been that the newer generations, millennials and beyond, actually find it easier to encourage the heart, because the whole ecosystem around social media has made it easy for people to do it. It's easy to demonstrate encouraging the heart with a simple thumbs up, a heart, or a smiley on social media. Some leaders from earlier generations aren't as encouraging, because, I don't know about you, but when I was young, my parents found it difficult to encourage me openly, because they believed that if we praised children in front of others, they'd become spoiled. That stayed with us for many years. But nowadays, the generation is such that people are more willing to encourage the heart, so I see that changing. However, the challenge is that a lot of industry leaders today are from a generation where encouraging the heart wasn't something that was inculcated in us. We were told that if you praise somebody too much, they might do something poor with it. That needs to shift, and it comes from a leader's confidence that if they encourage the heart, take a chance with their people, and learn to trust them, it will do more good than harm. That's exactly the essence of it. So what can leaders do about it? Take a chance with encouraging the heart. Yes, it will be tough initially, but as you take small, incremental steps, it gets easier and easier.

Susmita Sarma: Beautifully explained, Shridhar. I really love the way you explained that. Moving forward, it would be great if you could cite a few examples where corporate leaders have learned the lasting value of exemplary leadership, or you could say the lasting value of encouraging the heart.

Shridhar Sampath: Absolutely, there are many great examples. The example I gave you about the small card is actually a real-life story about one of the leaders I work with, who makes it a habit. Let me give you another simple example. I worked at an oil and gas multinational, and one of my managers, one of our team leaders, had a daily ritual, if I may use the word. First, he'd have a huddle with all of us, but more importantly, after the huddle was over, he would walk to everybody's desk and have a conversation about something he'd noticed the previous day or the previous couple of days, something he felt was important to point out, encourage, and recognize. He made it a point to note simple things we did that demonstrated how we were committing ourselves to the organization. For example, he'd come up to your desk and say, "Shridhar, yesterday I noticed you picked up a small piece of paper on the corridor and threw it in the bin. I just wanted to thank you, because I noticed it, and I know how important it is for us as a team to keep our workplace spick and span, and you demonstrated it in such a simple way." The first time I heard that, I was shocked. I thought, this man not only observes, he also appreciates. So what do you think happened? The next time I saw something lying somewhere, I'd put it away, and that became a habit. It took him probably 30 seconds to communicate that to me, but it left a lasting impact on my mind.

I'll give you another example. I told you my dad had a small business, we ran a foundry manufacturing iron and steel castings, and having anything flammable on the factory floor was a safety risk. My dad kept encouraging all our workers to remove any cleaning material or flammable material from the floor so we wouldn't have a risk, but somehow it wasn't sinking in. So my dad did a simple thing. One morning, while everybody was working, he took a bucket and walked around the whole factory floor, picking up flammable waste material, putting it in the bucket, and throwing it away. By day ten, we had two more people who, before my dad even came to the floor, would already be walking around cleaning up. What was my dad doing? He was demonstrating exemplary leadership by leading by example. Whenever he noticed somebody doing it, he immediately praised them, because it was a very important thing, a small fire in a foundry with molten metal is a huge risk, not just to the business but to the people around it. It was very important to instill that behavior in people by demonstrating it through example and by encouraging them. So a combination of leading by example and encouraging the heart, within about a month, my dad no longer needed to carry the bucket himself, people would just turn around and say, "I'm so happy, the bucket is empty." So instead of searching for exemplary leaders all around us, I think we ourselves can be great, exemplary leaders in our daily lives.

Susmita Sarma: Absolutely. Okay, so what are the top leadership trends that you see coming into 2022?

Shridhar Sampath: So I think empathy is one of them.

Susmita Sarma: Yes, that's something you've already mentioned in our podcast. So what other trends do you see coming?

Shridhar Sampath: Yes, definitely, with digital transformation and the human disconnect we're experiencing, empathy is powerful. However, my experience has been that even to be an empathetic leader, the key trend I'm noticing leaders struggling with, and making a sincere attempt to overcome, is their ability to challenge the process, to break empathy down into small aspects, because empathy is a huge word, and we don't realize how big it is until we really start practicing it. So the question is how one practices it: you need to break it down, challenge the process, and take risks, especially in a digital world. So empathy is one trend, and challenging the process to make sure you build small shifts every day is critical. But in my opinion, the biggest shift I see coming up is how we as leaders adopt technology on a daily basis to make sure we're making a difference to people. Why is that a leadership trend? There are many organizations that have succeeded in bringing about transformation through technology, but my experience also shows that we're exploiting that technology only to a limited extent, we're not really seeing its full power and benefits. So if there's one top leadership trend I see coming up in 2022 and beyond, it's the leader's ability to inspire people to exploit technology as a tool and not let it become a runaway problem, while knowing fully well that this tool can be used very well to lead and direct other people. So it's about having the mindset to adopt technology and digital initiatives, but use them powerfully for the betterment of people.

Susmita Sarma: Yeah, so not just for the remote work structure, right? In an in-office work structure too, this or any other technology has a great role to play today.

Shridhar Sampath: Absolutely. And the other challenge we all face when we talk about technology is that we make it sound bigger than it is. Technology is an enabler. Accepting technology is a human behavior. Bringing the two together is our competence. The moment we're able to see technology for what it is, an enabler, and exploit it, we can actually drive organizational capability and core competency to a much higher level than by letting people resist it. If there's one thing leaders need to do well, it's to empathetically support their teams in adopting and adapting to technology. As an enabler for the future, we'll see a huge transformation.

Susmita Sarma: Brilliant. So any HR resource you'd want to suggest to our listeners, any book or podcast maybe?

Shridhar Sampath: Well, one is obviously the podcast you guys are doing, you're doing a great job with it.

Susmita Sarma: Thank you so much.

Shridhar Sampath: Yes, it's amazing, I've been listening to those podcasts. There are many other resources too, we now live in a world where information is available at our fingertips, so there are many resources online. What I'd like to recommend is, I don't want to specifically mention any one resource, but what I'd like listeners to take note of is that sometimes less is more. So focus on one thing, one resource area, listen to everything in it, and then expand your knowledge from there. I had a coach who used to tell me, "I would rather have you an inch wide and a mile deep than a mile wide and an inch deep." That's very important, because we have a lot of people who know a little about a lot of things, but very few people who know a lot about one thing.

Susmita Sarma: Great. Okay, so what would be your end note to our listeners?

Shridhar Sampath: My end note is very simple: lead from the front. Build your leadership skills, because as Jim Kouzes says so nicely, "the legacy you leave is the life you lead." So if you live a life of leadership every day, the legacy you leave will also be fantastic, and it doesn't matter where you are in life, what position, what part of the hierarchy, whether you're a homemaker or a professional. Each one of us has the capability to make a huge difference, but it all depends on the life we lead. And if we define that clearly, the legacy we leave will also be lasting.

Susmita Sarma: Okay, so how can our listeners reach out to you, Shridhar?

Shridhar Sampath: Simple, I'm on LinkedIn. If you search for my handle, you should be able to reach me there. If you look for me on Google, you'll find ShridharSampath.com, you can reach out through that too. But I think the best place to reach me is LinkedIn, I respond quickly there.

Susmita Sarma: Okay, thank you so much for the conversation, Shridhar, it was great talking to you. And once again, thanks for joining me on the Vantage HR Influencers Podcast.

Shridhar Sampath: Thank you so much, Susmita. Have a great day.