Lead with Compassion
Deepthi Rajan is Head Market Research, Supply Chain Services at Royal Bank of Scotland. The primary focus areas for her work is digital strategy, customer experience management and business analytics.
Deepthi Rajan is an #EverydayLeader!
I recently had a conversation with Deepthi on the phone and what follows is a summary of our discussion.
What are you passionate about and what do you do to deliver on your passion?
I really enjoy mentoring. I really enjoy coaching people to succeed and that’s something that drives me. I set up my own website where I help people who want to get into a leading business school. So that’s a thing that I am really passionate about because it’s a larger purpose, it’s not just about a transactional relationship, it’s more like a transformational relationship. That’s something that I do in my personal life. It’s the same philosophy I extend to my workplace as well when I interact with my team. How do I ensure that the people I interact with derive some value? That they manage to elevate themselves to a different plane post interacting with me? That is the driving force behind what I do.
What are the benefits you are seeing from mentoring that you can take back to your day job? You have a pretty intensive day job, right?
I used to think that I needed to have all the answers to be mentoring people effectively and I realized over time you just have to actively listen to people. I am often pleasantly surprised to see the kind of ideas that my team members come back with. I don’t have to do anything — just ask the right set of questions. I think that’s what mentoring is really all about, not having the answers all the time but being able to ask the right set of questions to make people think in directions they probably wouldn’t have done had you not asked those questions. I think that is the power of mentoring.
How do you lead, and how do you use your passion for mentoring to align people to your vision?
There is a lot of leading by example that happens. I am a very hands-on person I tend to set an example. The same thing applies to my personal mentoring as well. When I want someone to create something that is part of their Business School applications, it could be essays –if they are unable to come up with the right set of ideas to talk about a post MBA course, I have to sit down and say, “this is the way you need to structure it, this is the way it needs to be sequenced.”
I can’t just be talking and listening to them all the time, I sometimes also need to get down and show them how it can be done. A lot of it is not just verbally directing people or mentoring people, it also means that you do something that is concrete, that is tangible for them to learn from as well.
“…those willing to work very hard, who are smart, who are capable of pushing their own boundaries, who challenge the status quo, who are willing to break those barriers in their minds — I think that these are the people I work very well with as mentees.” Deepthi Rajan
You gave two examples one from your personal life and one from your professional life. Do you consciously make a decision to lead in one context differently from in the other?
When I start with any relationship there is some conscious leading which is setting the context and setting the boundaries. Once it civilizes and once I can understand the capabilities and competencies of those I am interacting with, I tend to let them do the leading. That is how a leader should be. I cannot be indispensable all the time because that would hold me back from planning ahead.
Let’s say you are searching for a mentee. How do you go about selecting the person you would want to work with? How do you go about figuring out if there is a good fit?
This is where I really have a choice, particularly in my personal life. When it comes to having a very productive, fruitful relationship which really works for both the mentor and the mentee, what I look for, and it could be an element of unconscious bias at some levels, I tend to mentor people who are a bit like me. I am an introvert so I can relate to those who are introverts.
In a relationship where your mentee is very laid back, not very keen to really do things, I don’t think that relationship is really going to work. If the context is set, I tend to be a very open communicator. If the mentee is not very responsive or is not keen to rise to the expectations, then the relationships don’t really end up in a way that is beneficial to both parties.
These are some of the attributes I look for:
- those willing to work very hard,
- who are smart,
- who are capable of pushing their own boundaries,
- who challenge the status quo,
- who are willing to break those barriers in their minds
I think that these are the people I work very well with as mentees.
How do you go about building your team at work? Who do you search for, how do you select people and how do you go about managing them?
I think I did struggle quite a bit with the hiring part at first. But one of the things I’ve learnt, a simple rule that I have started to follow, is that I give them examples or case studies that they can solve. In those situations, I can observe not just the technical competency, whether they will be able to meet the expectation set by the professional environment, but also how well their communication skills and attitude get tested. I’ve seen that if people are very thin-skinned about things, it tends to come out. I have this really rigorous interview process where I tend to have 5–6 rounds and if someone has some little glitch or chink in their armor it does show up, at least towards the end. People don’t manage to sustain a façade for too long.
In my workplace when I get to mentor people, one of the things I look for are people who are very passionate about their work. I learn a lot from them, it's never a one-way kind of flow or exchange of knowledge.
What type of data do you use to ensure that you are leading effectively?
Data is based on observation. My head is like a database with a lot of processing happening there. I think I need to figure out a way to do it more scientifically. With year-end appraisals, I struggle with trying to remember what is it that really worked for someone and what is it I really need to talk to them about. One of the things I think I do reasonably well is that I give regular feedback. I give instant feedback to my team when it can help them to do any course corrections. Regular feedback, regular coaching is something I absolutely believe in. I don’t have a formal framework.
How would you respond if I say that the annual documented performance management process is management feedback and not leadership feedback?
I completely agree with you. I think it is a major administrative burden. There has to be a better way. I remember reading an article about some of Deloitte’s managers that have done away with the annual appraisal. One of the questions that sort of stayed with me was, “If I had to pay a team member or employee from my own pocket, would I do so.” I think that is a test that I always use. If the answer is no, I definitely have ways of communicating it, telling them to improve their performance or maybe their behavior. That’s management.
Management has got a bad wrap. Many people say leadership is way better than management. Sometimes you need management as well. Leadership is very strategic in some sense, and management at so many levels is tactical, it's operational; you need both of them. The only thing you need to understand is how you strike a fine balance between the two.
What do you see as some of the biggest mistakes today’s leaders are making? How would you suggest they fix them?
We talk a lot about customer experience, about personalized customer experience –I somehow don’t see the same kind of focus in our workplace, in our corporate setups. We really need to treat our employees, our team members with that kind of attention.
What do you think are the opportunities for leaders over the next 3–5 years?
I think the education system in the US really encourages people to ask a lot of questions. Whereas in India, they tend to believe what they are told by a teacher. We don’t ask too many questions. It’s changing of course, but not on a massive basis. I think that also reflects the attitude that my team has. I am managing a relatively young team between the age of 26–29, and I still see that people don’t question their assumptions. They tend to accept what is being told to them and they may have a lot of doubts, but they don’t really openly ask.
One of the things that leaders will have to do is to start developing this quality or attribute in people — which is inquisitiveness. That could be a very cultural thing. We don’t often question the “why” of doing something. Someone tells us something, we take it, we just run along with it. Leaders need to be willing to lead teams who ask questions, who are very inquisitive, who are willing to engage in very open conversations. For that, leaders will need to provide a very safe environment.
Do you have any final words of wisdom for other #EveryDayLeaders?
Lead with compassion. It’s very good for the person.
Don’t judge people harshly. Try to figure out what it is that you can do to help them.
I’m a big believer in karma these days so that’s also sort of informing my thoughts here.
What type of leader are you?
Leaders and managers must strike a balance between people orientation and task orientation.
Too much people orientation? Bad.
Too much task orientation? Bad.
Not enough of either? Really Bad.
Makes me wonder… How do #EverydayLeaders strike a balance? What mix of people versus task orientation is effective? So I created a quick easy and fun quiz to help you understand your preferred management style.
