Leadership: Evolution & Adaption

Learning & Leading: A Journey to Sustainable Growth

Almost a decade back, just a few years into a team leader role, I penned my thoughts in a LinkedIn article Love What you Do!. Now I find, the perspective at that time, while all relevant in general, was still primarily that of an individual contributor. Over years, the aspect of leadership has given it a whole new outlook for me.

Most corporate careers, irrespective of titles, often follow a remarkable leadership evolution: starting as a learner, growing into a problem-solver, maturing as a collaborator, advancing into team leadership, transitioning to collaborative leadership among peers, and as a leader who drives transformation. I believe I have just begun on the last one of these aspects, known to me so far, and still looking for opportunities to improve earlier ones. I am sure there is more.

The leadership aspects evolve over time and hence may seem chronological. What's worth noticing is that once acquired, each of the previous ones all co-exist together. It's then the awareness — the ability to adapt & display any of the needed aspect as per the presented context — which elevates one. Above all, it's the (volunteer) willingness to bring larger impact for a purpose, which finds opportunities to exemplify.

The attempt in this blog builds on the 2014 attempt, to explore aspects of leadership, key practices, capturing my reflections over the years from learning and observing! Rather than comparing my work to that of legends, the intent is to highlight the aspects, the feelings, the characteristics with some well known examples already available for everyone to learn and appreciate.

1. Mastering the Craft: A Strong Foundation

The first step in any professional journey is developing the expertise to do the work for the customers — and to do it well. This is characterized by continuous focus on customer needs, learning, apprenticeship, attention to detail, and building a deep understanding of the domain.

My own career reflected these attributes between 2005–2009, whether in my relation with a co-founder who was more experienced, career start at GE with many mentors, or in 2012–2014, when I became youngest system design engineer.

Key Practices

• Invest in learning from seniors, observe, build credibility.
  My TL, Dan Predmore, used to say "Reward of good work, is, more work"
• Seek mentors who can guide your technical and professional growth.
  Bibhuti, Vinod Kumar P, Dan Predmore, Bhaskar, Upendra, Jim Stagnitti, Pramod Amancharla, Mark Donne, Apurba Debnath, Sanjay Singh, Praveen Gali… the list is endless.
• Regularly reflect on feedback and use it to refine your skills.
• Invest in ongoing education through courses, certifications, or self-study.

— Satya Nadella

2. Becoming a Problem-Solver and Collaborator

In this aspect, you tend to invite yourself to tackle more complex challenges faced in fulfilling customer expectations profitably.

I personally correlate this for a period during 2010–2012 as TL in GE, then again during 2016–2018 as someone becoming "Go-To" for some of the most complex problems directly with customers in the Power utility industry and then building the Digital Account for GE.

Key Practices

• Identify impactful problems. This is a key differentiator. Cultivate curiosity to uncover interesting problems in your domain. Have an ability to prioritize and quantify the impact.
• Work collaboratively across diverse teams. Real collaborations come out of shared values, complementing roles and trust to bring an impact together.
• Propose innovative solutions. New back-to-basic way of applying existing tech to solve existing problems breeds innovation.
• Execute projects effectively while overcoming challenges. Build resilience to navigate challenges and setbacks.

— Steve Jobs

3. Leading Team: Scaling and Diversity

While having stood firm for technical role during campus interviews, and then deferring the managerial career, I was quick to notice there is a limit to impact as an individual contributor, hence moved to system level roles, and eventually, scaled my own exposure by mentoring a team to handle project engineering. My career from 2013–2016 and 2018–2021 had this aspect, starting in GE, then in ALSTOM and followed by a rotation in IT for Engineering team in Mercedes-Benz.

The aspect of leading a team is pivotal in scaling impact. It involves learning to appreciate the diversity of team members to a whole new level — their levels of maturity, ambitions, and contributions. This stage is about building a unique team identity driven by excellence, bonding team members together, creating harmony, and fostering a shared sense of purpose towards customers.

Key Practices

• Recognize and celebrate the unique strengths of each team member.
• Develop emotional intelligence to navigate team dynamics effectively.
• Foster an environment of trust and collaboration.
• Creating clarity in uncertainty. In a team I took responsibility, within a year there was great uncertainty — from 4 releases in a year and over 2.5Mn in budget, to no releases planned and 0.8Mn budget, with a change in leadership at 3 levels. Navigating this to give the team confidence was a task I cherish.

— Simon Sinek

4. Collaborative Leadership: Leading Beyond Your Team

In this aspect, leadership transcends the immediate team. It involves "you" as leader of a team, collaborating with fellow leaders and their teams — personally first and then engaging with your team — to solve complex business and organizational challenges. Managing competitive spirits and establishing mutual respect among peers becomes crucial, as does building a strong presence within the leadership circle.

The revelation of this aspect came as a surprise to me, as I assumed I was already exhibiting it. The test came during each period when I was given an opportunity to perform one level above my existing responsibilities, without formal positioning. A great peer friend Sanjib Ghosh, in a similar boat, made the journey of evolving together better.

Key Practices

• Cultivate relationships with peers based on mutual respect and shared goals.
• Balance competition and collaboration to drive overall success.
• Develop a strategic mindset to address broader organizational challenges.

— Amit Ray

5. Leading to Influence: Drive Transformation

The coveted aspect of this journey in leadership is influencing key stakeholders in the present, to look beyond the structures of the org (influenced by the past) to navigate existential challenges and evolve into future ecosystems with efficient operations offering exciting customer values.

I believe, while I had streaks of this in 2017–2018, I have started to scratch this aspect of leadership a bit more deeply since last year once again.

Key Practices

• Build strategic vision and strong relationships with stakeholders by listening to their perspectives.
• Ability to communicate effectively using data and storytelling to drive buy-in for your vision.
• Building the right organizational structures to support sustainable growth.
• Prioritize long-term transformation goals over short-term wins.
• Be able to steer through current mindset and org structure.

— Robin S. Sharma

Bringing It All Together

The journey is not from learning to leading — it's learning, adopting & leading. It certainly is not a linear but a dynamic process of growth. By focusing on:

1. Mastering your craft with dedication and continuous learning.
2. Becoming a problem-solver who collaborates and executes effectively.
3. Leading and scaling with team leadership to bond diverse talents.
4. Embracing collaborative leadership to address organizational challenges.
5. Growing into a leader who influences sustainable transformation,

…you can navigate the complexities of modern leadership careers and drive impactful change.

Call to Action: What aspect of this journey resonated most with you? Name a leader and associated aspect you take inspiration from in your life. Do so in the comments @LinkedIn!

PS: None of the links in the blog are promotional neither do I have any affiliate relations with authors or the platform referred. They are shared solely for quick reference.