Let’s try to decode the secrets of effective leadership in these uncertain times.

At first let’s talk about the context of our work indicated by the word “karma”. Contrary to popular belief, karma is not about fatalistic action. It is the broader and invisible context in which work takes place. Karma includes will, thought, intent and acts of omission as well as commission. They all create the large ecology of karma in which we find ourselves.

The second part is “sutras” or insights. In Sanskrit, sutra means thread. These sutras provide deep insights into the art and practice of leadership from several thought leaders and spiritual traditions of the world.

Blueprint for success

My Karma Sutras is for high-potential managers and leaders who step into the world of work, sometimes without knowing how to work. These talented men and women seem to scurry through workspaces like children playfully running their fingers over the keyboard of a piano, making discordant noises. They learn on the job through unforced errors and sometimes severe trials. I can’t quite blame them as I did so as well when I was on probation in my first job. I fumbled and faltered in the first couple of managerial roles that I had in the beginning of my career. I understood precious little about organisational politics and became an unwitting victim of it. I did not know that jealousy was not just about sibling rivalry but a part and parcel of corporate life as well. I also had the misfortune of getting one of my bosses fired. How I wished then that I had a mentor who would guide me along the way!

The new wisdom

Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you. So you must be wondering what the first step towards it is like.

“The first step is the most critical, as the first button of your coat, if you get that wrong, the whole alignment of buttons is gone for a toss.”

“The first step is to be conscious of the old mindset about leading your enterprise that you are carrying inside your head. That is the old normal.” “And what is the new normal?”

“The new normal is not sitting there like a target you have to hit. The new normal is what you create through your karma — your thoughtful and conscious action.”

For a moment, imagine a new generation of youngsters who have graduated through the Covid-19 world. This kind of graduation through the school of life has taught them many things that they wouldn’t have learnt in a classroom. It has taught them the virtues of essentialism — emphasis on using minimum resources, conserving energy, saving more and consuming less. This new attitude that Generation Z will bring to the enterprise will shift business thinking from consuming to caring. The new generation will see attitudes shifting from the egocentric managerial world towards a more eco-centric, purposeful business.

Leaders don’t hit targets

In business, there is no escape from hitting targets. Most young managers experience their first job as a relentless exercise in target-hitting. Leadership is much more than hitting the bull’s eye. There is a large human component in leadership behaviour. Young managers have to explore hitting deeper chords in human nature rather than just hitting targets.

Leadership is about mobilising the energy of people towards strategic goals and tactical targets. Moving people is vastly different from moving paper on a desk or a cursor on a computer screen. Moving people demands that you learn to decode human psychology of high performance. Leadership is about getting people to hit targets not when they are told to but when they are inspired to. This makes the difference between a mechanical and a magical performer.

Followers, not subordinates

It is crucial to understand that leaders and managers do not inhabit two different worlds. They do not come from Mars and Venus, respectively. They come from each other like an integrated and interdependent whole. The word “management” has been grossly devalued to mean “manipulation” while “leadership” has come to mean power and status. In the age of uncertainty, organisations need a dynamic interplay of both. Organisations of the 21st century need the managerial attention to an endless swarm of information as well as a leader’s vision of the big picture.

If you look at today’s social media, you will recognise that leaders from all walks of life have a follower fixation. Whether it is Twitter or Facebook, the reputation of a leader is established by the quantity and quality of their followers. The network of followers establishes the credentials and shapes the career of the leader. Facebook’s chief operating officer (COO), Sheryl Sandberg, describes the career paths of contemporary leaders in a powerful sentence in her book Lean In: “Careers are a jungle gym. Not a ladder.”

That’s how leaders grow in their careers. They take on unexpected challenges and co-evolve with their people. It is the energised and empowered followers that make a leader, not the other way around.

Karma yoga: deep work

Deep work is the ability to focus on a chunk of a job for a sustained length of time without any distraction. Deep work is the ability to focus

on a chunk of a job for a sustained length of time without any distraction. If you are able to lend your entire attention to solving a problem in your organisation for one hour of uninterrupted time, you will develop the ability to plug into a space of deep attention in your neural structure.

A true performer’s work, fortunately, is deeper than what is demanded by a stereotypical job. Someone aspiring to lead by example will need to set aside specific time to engage in deep work. They have to clear up digital-free time and stay away from smart devices that fragment attention. This will help them not only in doing high-quality but also more efficient work. In short, deep work will help you turn into a leader who creates better work in less time.

Cal Newport in his best-selling book, Deep Work: Rules of Focused Success in a Distracted World, writes: “Human beings... are at their best when immersed deeply in something challenging.” This is verily the definition of Karma Yoga expressed in Indian wisdom traditions. In my book Karma Sutras, I argue that this is nothing but vintage Indian wine in a new Western bottle.

Karma Yoga is the total immersion of our thoughts, emotions and will at one point of attention without a bubble of self-centredness. In short, a deep focus on work without distraction or dependence on external motivation yields great dividends.

Excerpted from Karma Sutras: Leadership and Wisdom in Uncertain Times; Published by SAGE Publications India Pvt. Ltd