Leadership and
Culture Shift?
"There is a tearing of the
cultural fabric in India that will rip the heart out
of what has been a docile and tranquil culture."
Here’s
what I think is happening in India…more
specifically, and in the developing world in
general, as the “engine of commerce” begins to roll.
The
“structure of culture” is beginning to shift out of
a traditional design to a more commerce-driven set
of parameters. As it begins to make this “memetic”
shift, the fabric of the traditional design is
beginning to tear because it can’t stretch far
enough…you might even see it as fabric that when
stretched, even though it’s holding together, there
are holes being created that are allowing fairly
large piece of society to float into the “cultural
soup” that before was contained.
Practically, this means that the structure is
becoming more flexible which is shifting the means
of the ends. With greater flexibility, those
person’s who are inherently (karmically you might
say) motivated towards expedience do not have the
cultural boundaries imposed on it, and these people
are allowed to act more naturally.
While the
culture has had a more traditional design, it held
in check most of the individual motives through
structure…what is happening now with the cultural
structure shifting, we are seeing more individuality
and less adherence to the “old” ways. I see this
happening almost everywhere in India, big and small.
With 1
billion people, a shift of this size is absolutely
monumental and will bring with it significant
destabilizing forces (accompanying these memetic
shifts)…including where young people no long “honor”
their parents out of tradition, but move into ways
which allow an expression of their own motives, if
they are different.
Perhaps
this helps explain the underlying issues that are
going to challenge the structure of commerce as
well, as more people reach a point where they begin
to be released from tradition…we’ll begin to see
much more difficultly in hiring the right people for
the job because people are becoming differentiated
through a cultural shift.
In other
words, people who once could be counted on to do
their duty and to perform even when it wasn’t in
their individual best interest…may grow restless in
their search for appeasing their individual nature
and not being held by a tradition that is being
supplanted by an engine of growth and commerce.
At this
time, silicon India is now approaching 20 years old,
most of these people who have rode this wave are now
in midlife, another natural point of demarcation…I
look for what I see as a trend in HR, where your
good people are now becoming much more mobile and
will be floating to and from companies based on
“other” than traditional reasons, and those reasons
will stem from individual freedoms and individual
opportunity.
HR in my
view, will have to become more flexible in
understanding what keeps people in the company and
are they getting sufficient opportunity to become
individuals and meet individual, not alone group
goals.
Two great
issues are on the horizon, in my opinion:
-
In India, there is no
“salary-cap” (as we have in sports teams who
trade in “Stars”) and therefore world-class
salaries will soon be paid to MANY more Indians
if you intend to keep the best and brightest in
your company.
The
fallout of this will be a distancing of the salary
from the non-stars and stars, which will tear at the
fabric of the organization, even small organizations
who are growing rapidly.
-
Since leadership is going
to be in such incredibly high-demand, we will
see an outflow of the best Indians to the
developed world because of the shear nature of
demographics in the developed world. In 2020,
more than half if not more of the developed
world will be over 50 years old…at 50, most
people are not go-getters they were when they
were in their 20s and 30s…and with the demand
around the world for this kind of bright
leadership, the pressure to keep your stars, who
drive the engine of commerce and the engine of
growth will be very high.
So, there
are several things that rise up here.
-
Better try to start
understanding how to create a company where
people feel motivated to work and not obligated.
-
Best invest in leadership
development, succession and bench talent to
replace the high fliers as they move around with
young, bright, engaged talent that has been
seasoned.
-
Notice how your culture of
obligation is shifting to a culture of
opportunity, this is huge for HR which must find
ways to manage what can be a devastating tear in
the cultural fabric of India.
Hopefully,
some of that helps provide insight, albeit from an
outsider, but from one who has many wonderful Indian
friends and colleagues.
I have written extensively about coaching and all
the items that I mentioned above. If you wish to
read more intensively about any of the topics I
mentioned, feel free to visit my personal
website, or
join us at Leadership
University for coach training.
Until
then,
Still
time to reach my inner circle….
Purchase my new
book in private launch:
http://www.cprforthesoul.com/private
mike
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