Walking into the Sunset when your time is up is a sign of good Leadership

When I joined Tata Steel in 1988 as a Management Trainee, Rusi Mody was at the helm as the CMD. He was larger than life. He appeared less as a CEO and more as an aged ‘Rajah’ of Jamshedpur and all the Tata Steel townships in the mining belt. He was the first and the last CEO who was also the Chairman of the Board. There was an aura of indispensability. He didn’t seem to be bound by any retirement age. None of the executive directors who reported to him had any serious understanding of steel making. They were all typical administrators picked for their charm and regal style. The layer underneath these executive directors were the engineers who ran and expanded the steel plant. The management style was very ‘clannish’ and ‘patronizing’. Subservience and cliques were the norm. Mody had managed to create an aura of indispensability. Many, especially those professionally inclined, were unhappy with the current dispensation. One of the executive directors, Aditya Kashyap, who was his protégé shared a home with Mody. This open favoritism didn’t go down well with anyone but no one ever brought this up. But when Rusi Mody positioned Aditya Kashyap as his successor, the knives were out. The cavalier manner in which this announcement was made, without prior consultations with the Board, added fuel to the flames. This swiftly led to a series of events where Mody was first stripped of his CEO role and very soon fired from the Board as well.

Somehow I always saw a fatal flaw in the leadership styles of people like Yogi Deveshwar, AM Naik of L&T, and all the old Tata satraps like Rusi Mody, Darbari Seth, and Ajit Kelkar etc. Everyone in my generation were in awe of these individuals! However, in retrospect (and even then) it is quite evident that each of them clung on to power. None of them knew how to leave gracefully. They manipulated everything to appear larger than life and created an illusion of their indispensability! They created beholden boards that endorsed their every move, and an obligated media amplified their larger than life image.

This does not mean that the companies they managed did not do well or that their decisions lacked business sense or were wrong. Many of their decisions were good and helped create shareholder value. But the question is whether anyone else could have done the same or done it even better. The point is that at a time and place in your life, destiny offers you a leadership role. It is important to play the role with a sense of detachment and professionalism. The problem is when greed takes over and there is a desire to hang on at all costs. Remember the concept of a ‘Level 5 Leader’ from ‘Good to Great’ by James Collins! A level 5 leader is someone who is focused on building a great company, displays exemplary humility, assiduously avoids the limelight, and moves on when her time is up.

The reality is that no one is indispensable. And no one, repeat no one, is so great that they can't be replaced. The world is a truly talented place! Leadership is a short role you are given to play on the stage of life. Great leaders always move on. They try and create successors before they leave. Sometimes, in spite of their best efforts a single successor may not emerge. They still move on because they know that their presence is coming in the way of a strong alternative from emerging; and in the strong belief that the system is strong enough to identify a leader after they move on. Nelson Mandela walked away into the sunset. So did Gandhi. And many great companies saw CEOs move on when their time was up!