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MNGT 320 RETHINKING LEADERSHIP

SURBHI RAJAN BBA-BS-3 SECTION B 100192

CHANDA KOCHHAR A woman who sees opportunities in challenges.

Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. (Northouse's (2007, p3). Peter Drucker, consultant and writer says, "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Exceptional leaders have strong social intelligence, a passion for change, and most of all, a vision that allows them to look forward to the "things" that are really worth attention. There are two distinct factors that are taken into account by leaders before they decide how to act in an organization: Every organization has a unique culture. Culture is formed as a combination of the founders, past leadership, current leadership, size, history, crises, and events (Newstrom, Davis, 1993). All these together form rites: the rituals, routines, and in simple words the way we do things. The climate is the atmosphere in the corporation, the single and collective opinions and attitudes of the organization's members (Ivancevich, Konopaske, Matteson, 2007). While the culture is said to be the deeply rooted nature of the organization that is an outcome of its long term formal and informal systems, customs and traditions; climate is a short-term experience as a result of the current leadership. When we talk about leadership in the 21st century with a volatile environment, we see that women entrepreneurs have also made a big mark in the business world. A role model leader is Ms. Chanda Kochhar. Early Life: Chanda Kochhar (born November 17, 1961) is currently the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indias largest private and overall second largest bank in the country, ICICI Bank. She is also the head of the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank. Chanda Kochhar belongs to Jaipur, Rajasthan and has studied in Mumbai. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Jai Hind College, and then studied Cost Accountancy (ICWAI). She later obtained a Masters Degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. She remained an excellent student throughout and also achieved the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy for scoring the highest marks. Career & Awards: 1984 - Joined 'The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Limited' or ICICI Limited as a management trainee. 1994 - Became the Assistant General Manager of ICICI bank. 1996 - Became the Deputy General Manager. 1999 - Took over as the General Manager and became the head of ICICI's 'Major Client Group'. 2000 - ICICI began its retail business under Kochhar's leadership. 2001 - Became the executive director of the ICICI bank.

2004 - Awarded Retail Banker of the Year by The Asian Banker 2005 - Awarded 'Business Woman of the Year' by The Economic Times 2006 - Appointed as the Deputy Managing Director of ICICI bank. Awarded 'Rising Star Award' for Global Awards by Retail Banker International 2009 - Appointed as the Managing Director and the Chief Operating Officer of ICICI bank. 2010 - 'Transformational Business Leader of the Year' by All India Management Association, 'Outstanding Woman Business Leader of the Year' award by CNBC TV18 2011 - Awarded Padma Vibhushan. Featured in the list of '30 Most Powerful Woman Leaders' in business for 8 consecutive years from 2002 to 2010. Ranked 10th in the Fortune's List of 'Most Powerful Women in Business' 2010 Ranked 92nd in the Forbes List of 'Most Powerful Women' in the world 2010 'Outstanding Woman Business Leader of the Year' award by CNBC TV18 2010 Ranked 11th in the List of 'Top 50 Woman in World Business' by the Financial Times in 2010 Member of the Prime Ministers Council on Trade and Industry, the Board of Trade, the High-Level Committee on Financing Infrastructure, the US-India CEO Forum, and the India-UK CEO Forum Deputy chairperson of the Indian Banks Association First woman to be named by Economic Times as business leader of the year (2011) Ranked 5th by Fortune in the International list of 50 most powerful women in business (2011) Ranked by Forbes as 59th among the the worlds 100 most powerful women (2011) Named by Bloomberg Markets as one of the 50 most influential people in global finance (2011) Ranked by Financial Times as 10th in the top 50 women in world business (2011)

Chanda Kochhar has worked in one organization for more than 2 decades. She is well aware of the culture and climate of the organization and knows how to lead people to take out their best potential and maintain ICICI Bank at the top position. A leadership style refers to a pattern of behavior and actions leaders use to achieve the desired outcomes. Leadership style defines how to set standards for a team, develop the teams short-term and long-term goals, understand employees, motivate them, give them feedback, reward them as well as punish them. Chanda Kochhar faces all challenges and turns them into opportunities. As the country evolved in the last 20 years and so did ICICI as an institution, she adapted and moved with this evolution and grew into a leader. She completely reinvented herself as she moved from corporate banking to retail banking to international banking to supervisory roles. All this evolution helped her to appreciate challenges in

the business on a much more rational level. A person who can take on a challenge and maintain equanimity and turn it into an opportunity -- according to me, that's the biggest leader (Chanda Kochhar). Chanda Kochhar followed various distinct leadership styles to lead people in ICICI. She was a democratic, authoritative leader. Democratic leadership- Let's work together to solve this . . . A leader using this style makes decisions with the help of employee participation. However, the leader maintains the final decision making authority. This style is mostly used when the leader does not possess complete information and he employees have other parts of the information. This style does not only allow the employees to be a part of the team but also helps the leader in making better decisions, leading to mutual benefit. The employees should be self-sufficient, competent, and have relevant information. Using this style is not a sign of weakness; rather it is a sign of strength that your employees will respect. Applying this style to your leadership skills creates a group commitment to the goal. Though this style has a positive impact on the organization, it is not a favorable choice in an emergency situation, or when the environment is fast changing and the decisions need to be made immediately. This is often more of an art than science and requires the leaders to use their emotional intelligence, empathy and communication skills. In 1998, Chanda Kochhar was heading ICICI's 'Major Client Group that conducted relationships with the top 200 clients of the Bank. During this period she followed the democratic style of leadership. At that time, ICICI was a bank, a securities company and various other companies, and all the departments were going to the same customer to market different products. Then a team was formed to conduct relationships with clients and grow relationships internally among different departments. Kochhar was a pure corporate banker with no experience in investment banking. So she created a team of eight members from different segments of the ICICI group: the securities business, investment banking, commercial banking, and etc. The approaches of all the members were different: the way a commercial banking-oriented person meets and talks to a client is completely distinct from the way investment banker talks to a client about a product. She organized the work in such a manner that while each member of the team handled clients, all members met every morning and evening to exchange notes. This resulted in a multi-faceted leadership. According to Kochhar this was an easier way to share knowledge and ideas then just ordering the employees what to do. There is also a formal scenario planning process and stress testing in the organization. Whenever Kochhar sees something happening to another bank, she calls the team and they discuss and brainstorm the situation asking for suggestions. Authoritative leadership- I want both of you to . . . Leaders use this style when the team needs to be mobilized towards a common vision. The leader focuses on end goal and the means are left up to each employee. The leader tells the employees what work has to be done and how without taking suggestions from his/her followers. In this case the leader has all the information needed, time is short and employees are motivated toward the vision. To sum up this

style in a phrase, it would be Come with me. The authoritative style works best when the team needs a new vision because environment has changed, or in case explicit supervision is not needed. Authoritative leaders inspire innovative spirit and enthusiasm for the mission. The authoritarian style is usually used on rare occasions. It is not the best leadership style when the leader is working with a team of specialists who know more than the leader. In February 2008, Kochhar was the CFO of ICICI. The bank was growing at an amazing rate of 30%. At that time she told her colleagues to stop and reassess the way they were proceeding and be cautious in future. Though the bank was known for its ambitious and aggressive growth, Chanda saw some unknown risks in the coming future. She saw that the global environment was developing and evolving in a way that would pose severe consequences for the organization. Therefore they were required to pause and realign their mix of assets and liabilities. She called this disciplined expansion. This was a very gutsy move for a leader and the organization but it eventually saved the organization billions of dollars. Affiliative leadership- People come first . . . The affiliative leader works to create emotional bonds and harmony among the followers which helps solves conflict. This also brings a feeling of belonging to the organization. The affiliative style works best in times of stress, when teammates need to recover from a strain, or when the team needs to rebuild trust. By making sure followers feel connected to each other, this leader is adept at building teams. People share ideas and inspiration and this increases flexibility, innovation and risk-taking ability. This style should not be used solely, because a sole dependence on praise and encouragement can promote average performance and a lack of direction. Chanda Kochhar believes that a leader should be like a sponge that absorbs all the stress in itself and does not let I trickle down to the team members. According to her the managers attending to the customers should not look stressed or confused but pose an impression of composure and confidence. She makes regular visits to all the branches unannounced for the past 2 years and holds scheduled employee discussion meetings. These are not performance review meetings. They are just meetings with different sets of about 20 employees picked on random basis. The talks are about organizations environment, gender issues, customer satisfaction, transfer policies, etc. She also puts premium on teamwork and continuously develops leaders to execute strategies successfully.

The major leadership qualities that helped Kochhar to grow within ICICI were her continuous learning at each step. She faced her challenges with confidence, created a strong teamwork and in return gained experience to become a successful leader. She inspires others by directing them in assertive voice. She also debates to view other perspectives of current knowledge. She takes full accountability and responsibility for her actions, conduct, words and behaviors etc. According to her there should be a balance between vision and execution, dreaming and at the same time being close to reality. And that made her leader.

Words: 1947

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