Given the fiercely competitive business environment, organizations today require teams capable of swiftly adjusting, generating fresh ideas, and delivering exceptional results. High-performance teams not only contribute to increased productivity and efficiency, but they also help foster a positive work culture that attracts and retains top talent. To build a high-performance team, you need the right leadership and communication in place. CEO Insights interacted with top industry leaders, and they shared their thoughts on building a winning work team and their leadership approach.
Kishore Jayaraman, OBE, President, India & South Asia, Rolls-Royce
“I believe leadership is largely about a collaborative approach, encrusting a few foundations, including hiring the right individual for the right job, enabling them to perform, and creating an environment wherein people 'want' to work. The companies that get this right will have the highest productivity levels.”
Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director—South Asia, NVIDIA
“A leader's primary role is to create conditions where in people around them can succeed in the respective ecosystem and accomplish their life's work. I always believe a leader is a coach who sees the conditions against an objective that needs to be achieved. A leader brings talented people in to create a team and enable them to find their best version. It's like the symphony like how the conductor of the symphony brings together experts of different instruments toward a common objective. The harmony helps you to produce the desired outcomes. More importantly, it also facilitates growth on an individual objectives level. This is precisely where a coach comes in, and it is something that highly inspires me. As a coach, I believe one of my key strengths is my ability to understand the present and what is required to make that transition to the future.”
Sanjay Netrabile, Chief Technology Officer, Pepperfry
“As an IT leader, I look for strong problem-solving skills, the ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, creativity, and enthusiasm in fresh candidates. Coding skills come with experience, a hunger for learning, curiosity about the system ecosystem, and an innate ability to be not afraid of asking questions trumps experience in an environment where people work together towards a common goal.”
Dr. Amit Verma, Founder & CEO, Dr. AV Cancer Institute
“I believe in leading by example and creating standards of excellence for others to follow. I have been told that I am good at inspiring people to see the possibilities of the future that lie ahead of them. Moreover, I believe in empowering everyone working with me to strengthen the team dynamics and working culture. I also ensure that I experiment and take risks to make meaningful improvements in the journey of growth while also celebrating the accomplishments of others, and hence keep the motivation level high and positive.”
Amitabh Ray, The former Managing Director of Ericsson Global Services India, Author, & Keynote Speaker
“I always try to walk a mile in the other person’s shoes and understand things from the other person's perspective, which makes me non-judgmental. All my career, I have tried to behave with my teams the way I would like my boss to behave with me. I align my aspirations with the organization’s goals. Finally, I have focused on delivering my best every day and kept on repeating it without thinking of success or failure.”
Ankit Mandholia, CEO – Retail, FINDOC
“Firstly, I encourage thorough market research and analysis by gathering and analyzing data from industry reports, customer surveys, and competitor analysis. Secondly, staying informed about the latest industry news and trends is crucial for identifying emerging opportunities and staying ahead of the competition. Additionally, conducting customer research and analysis helps us understand their needs and preferences to improve our products and services. Lastly, collaboration and sharing insights within the team help generate innovative ideas and identify new growth opportunities. By leveraging these methods, my team can draw key insights from the market and identify new growth opportunities.”
Ramkumar Narayanan, VP- Technology & Managing Director, Vmware
“I like to hear a lot of perspectives and encourage my team to disagree with me a lot of times. Hearing the contrarian point of view helps a lot in effective decision-making. At the end of the day, I have a strong perspective on how to move forward. On the other hand, once you have formed a solid vision for the future, you have to get people to believe in your vision and bring them along. There is no shortcut to achieving this. It takes intact and frequent communication, explaining to people why we need to move forward in a specific direction. Your strategy and execution need to go hand in hand.”
Dr.Om Manchanda, Managing Director, Dr. Lal Pathlabs
“I follow a certain philosophy toward my leadership approach. As a business leader, you have only two things to do. One is leading your business and making the right decision to help you achieve your financial and social goals. The second thing is the most important thing for a leader: leading people from the front. You need to earn the trust of your people. You might make an extremely demanding boss, but you need to be trustworthy."
"You may demand work, but you never mean harm, even remotely. In business, people only genuinely accept an honest, trustworthy, transparent, and, most importantly, fair person as their leader.”
Rishi Chhabra, Managing Director & Country Head - India & Sri Lanka, FISERV
“I believe in three major aspects. One is leading with complete transparency and honesty. I am strictly forthcoming and honest with all the employees, ensuring they understand the bigger picture. Secondly, I believe in empowering and backing my team to make decisions and telling them it is ok when they are sometimes wrong. It helps them be more confident. At the same time, my doors are always open when they need to pick my brain.
"The third is my belief in a culture of a cross-functional workforce. I believe no single person or team can get the job done end-to-end. Success comes out of the collaboration of different teams. Being a leader, ensuring teams work together in harmony by understanding each other’s perspectives and complementing each other is a big part of my job.”
Raghavendra C Swamy, Managing Director, Concentrix
“With my style of working, our team always extends to include customers, partners, and other technology practices within my company. I not only take pride in the achievements of my team but cherish the strong bonds we build along the way. One should possess strong programming skills and a solid understanding of operating systems, databases, networking, and other technologies relevant to their specific roles. They should also be thorough in their approach, have a basic understanding of Agile methodologies, possess good communication skills, and show an understanding of the importance of documentation and testing.”