Organisational Leadership Lessons – L:VMR

During my second year at IIM-Ahmedabad we had a subject called ‘Leadership Vision,

Meaning & Reality’ which we fondly named LVMR. This course was an elective and possibly
had the highest number of applicants due to its reputation for not only the subject but also
the instructor. More than 20 years later, this LVMR as an acronym stands out to me as a
connect between the top leadership and the rest of the organisation. This connect is critical
in shaping an organisation for its future, to create an industry leading organisation. This
connect is also critical in determining whether the top consist of quality leaders who can lead
and build an organisation.
Taking this forward, let me define this L:VMR as per my concept. To me its stands for
Leadership is all about defining a Vision for the organisation, giving it a Meaning to the people
down the line and converting it to Reality. So now, let dig a little deeper.
A leader essentially has followers. If you do not have followers who believe in you then you
are only a manager who have people working for you just because of your line of authority
and of course their pay-check at the end of the month. And to make followers you need to
sell a dream or a Vision in an organisational context. Gandhiji became a leader as he gave the
dream of Freedom to his followers. A leader (or the leadership team) in an organisation needs
a dream about the future of the organisation which he needs to articulate to get his people
to work for towards its fulfilment and this dream is his/their Vision or the Organisation’s
Vision. Now let me be clear that I am not talking about a long Mission and Vision statement
that organisations’ make and hang it at very wall of the office for various certification
purposes. Yes, some may be a little vociferous about it but to me it really means nothing to
the people and therefore to the organisation in the long run. “We will become the market
leaders with over 50% market share in next 5 years” – that’s a Vision to be sold internally. Or
“We want to be recognised as the most innovative company in our industry” is another Vision.
Vision is NOT that we want to grow by 20% CAGR every year!! If the Vision of the top
leadership is limited to growing by 15 or 20 percent and everybody is pushed for those target
numbers, you would have people who would just be in your chain of command and working
for their pay check and increments/bonuses and not for the organisation till they find another
job with better pay check! To be a leader and have people follow you and look up to you they
require a dream rather than pure simple number chasing. And believe me best of people
come out when they all live and work towards a dream called a Vision.
The next step after creating a Vision is to give it a Meaning! A meaning which is not only clearly
articulated in simplest of terms without being lengthy and complicated, but also can provide
a reason for working (and extra effort) in the organisation by each and every person, other
than the regular pay check! This is probably the most difficult part for any top leadership in
an organisation of substance. Its about creating a narrative which is easily understood by all
and can be related to by all in the organisation irrespective of what levels they are at or what
job they are doing in the organisation. How does the dream of being recognised as the ‘Most
Innovative Company in the Industry’ be given a meaning and relevance to the Shop floor
worker or the Admin Manager? So, for the shop-floor person it may mean the ‘pride’ to
produce a product which is unique in the market or to put extra effort to produce quickly and
accurately a new product given for commercial trial every time.
The final word in this is ‘Reality’ and it is the one which can make or break the Vision and its
Meaning. Reality is on one hand creating an operating model in the organisation which
reflects the Vision and on the other hand the attitude of the leadership towards events which
showcase its belief in the Vision. Thus, taking this Vision of being the most innovative
company, how is your operating model in the company designed to help this vision. Do you
spend enough money on R&D? Do you have dedicated teams working on the generation next
product as soon as a new product is commercialised or do you as an organisation have the
courage to kill your own revenue generating block-buster product at its peak with the next-
generation product to replace it? The other part is the attitude. So, if your team or someone
loses a few hundred thousand dollars in an attempt to develop a new concept/product, how
does the leadership react? If its reprimand or discouragement of any kind then surely your
‘Reality’ is far from your Vision and its Meaning and sure enough your people will not believe
in you and your company cannot consistently remain the most innovative company for long,
assuming somehow you manage to become labelled as the most innovative company for
some time.
Reiterating, Leadership is all about creating and selling a Vision by giving it a Meaning for
every person in the organisation and creating an environment and attitude that in Reality
supports this Vision and its Meaning.

Available for Leadership Trainings/Coaching & Management Consultancy Engagements