Leadership in Turbulent Times — Lessons from Mr Rajiv Podar (IMC President 2020–21)
“A president (read leader) doesn’t have to be brilliant,” US journalist Peggy Noonan wrote 25 years ago. “He doesn’t have to be clever. You can hire clever. But you can’t buy courage and decency, and you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those things with him.”
The importance of COURAGE + DECENCY and a strong MORAL SENSE in leading a public office became enormously clear to me when I landed as Research & PR Executive to Mr Rajiv Podar (IMC President 2020–21) and the way he brought these three traits to lead one of India’s legendary organizations.
As a 21-year-old fresh graduate with a proven multi-disciplinary academic & work experience, it felt like life prepared me to take up this role to assist Mr, Podar as he took over the reins of the IMC at the most uncertain times.
As I sat at the Churchgate office of the IMC watching with animated eyes the first day of Mr Podar as President, I could feel the waves of change that awaited him in this very exciting yet challenging and in retrospect definitely worthwhile journey. I could feel the magnitude of my role and tried to be agile enough to adapt and give my best. Let’s not forget, no past experience, past papers or past experiments could be of much use to lead during the pandemic, it was an unprecedented time. And Mr Podar as the leader demonstrated unprecedented agility every single day as we navigated through this crisis. As a 21-year-old, I was nervous but thrilled to be a small part of rebuilding the future.
Every day I watched Mr Podar lead with immense fortitude, his years of diverse experience as an industrialist and an astute businessman reflected in all his choices. He worked with a heart that never quaked and a spirit undaunted which inspired me every single day to give my 100%. Here I share my lessons from working under Mr Rajiv Podar while witnessing a leader navigating and building the future through an unprecedented crisis:
- Seek Clarity always
When the waves of unprecedented change hit the shore from every direction, it becomes increasingly important to think about the destination and a clear compass to get to it. Mr Podar was abundantly clear about working with the Government of Maharashtra in helping rebuild the economy and with a lot of collective brainstorming he developed a compass of Reboot-Reform-Resurge the Economy which became a critical anchor for IMC to go ahead with a clear direction.
It was enriching for me to internalize this shared vision and do my work in a way that it facilitates the vision. Working with Mr Podar with diversity in my work from communications, research and coordination, etc I had to be very clear about everything before things went to Mr Podar. But here I learned a key leadership lesson when I watched Mr Podar see how he continuously himself questioned himself, the way he self-assessed himself to be sure that he is true to the vision.
It can be indeed tempting when decisions are to be taken and when diverse stakeholders are involved, to bring out the best in teams and yet make the most and serve the best within a limited period and I realized seeking clarity on a regular basis was a key to remain on track. It is a best practice which was my foremost lesson in leadership from Mr. Podar.
2. People are a priority (Relationship Management and building your social capital)
Mr Podar is a super-connector. Period. I can draw endless relationship management lessons from Mr Podar and the value he has been able to add to countless people in all these years. This style of collaborative leadership of getting people together was the key to his extraordinary success as the President.
No fiery speeches or motivational talks were effective when we operated from our respective homes with utter chaos and this was the time Mr Podar was able to get people together and get things done with his brilliant interpersonal skills.
He meticulously prepared his meetings with 20 plus committees with eminent experts. Listening to each Chairperson, the committee members, the IMC team and all the stakeholders were critical to Mr, Podar. He always went out of his way and he always told me that always listen more to arrive at the right decisions.
One of Mr. Podar's underrated gifts is that he maintains very complicated portraits of the people he knows. What I mean is, he has accepted that humans are complicated. Therefore, he appreciates the full spectrum of strengths and weaknesses of a particular person. He’ll comment on a person — say, a person is distracted — but in the next breath note one of their unique strengths. I love this unconditional and indiscriminate acceptance he shows for people. It takes an empathetic approach to do and he does it beautifully. That’s how he brings out the best in people always, including me.
3. Strategic Thinking at all times
Winston Churchill once said, “However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.” One of the biggest challenges for Mr. Podar was not only to come up with a brilliant strategy which of course went through many iterations but to find a way to strike a balance between visionary thinking and daily execution. Especially when everyone was remotely working.
For those who know Mr. Podar well, he always has his notepad and his pen which I have often seen as a vast chessboard that gave him a 360-degree view. I often observed him carefully when he thought through and made his own strategy as well in strategic meetings.
Making the complex simple does not mean ignoring the complexity. Mr Podar is a nuanced thinker who does not shy away from detail, second-order effects, exceptional cases, and so on. But especially in a group decision-making process when he had to consult with all stakeholders where there are various points of view, he is able to distil and frame the option set with simplicity. He wrestles with complexity all the time, yes, but he can frame and commit to strategic decisions that are simple enough for everyone to understand and act on.
4. Proactive about change
While remote working the excitement in his voice on call and in-person his animated eyes when he explained new projects injected me with a renewed passion. By the way, it was every week. There were 20 plus diverse committees and there were hundreds of suggestions and endless ideas from each. Mr Podar took meticulous notes and sat late at night to form programs.
Under his leadership, we had back to back webinars which was timely and relevant and added tremendous value and were widely appreciated. I was thrilled to be a part of all the webinars, the fresh insights from each just accelerated my learning.
By gaining insights from all, creating quality programs, seeking feedback and ensuring robust execution, he brought in new changes, the multiple perspectives from committees allowed him to have a broader understanding hence he was able to proactively lead change.
5. Sense of Sevice
During the end of his tenure as the IMC President, Mr Podar hosted a ‘Dil Ki Baat’ virtual meet to express his gratitude to all. Everyone well appreciated his gesture and while he spoke his heart I could see the weight of these heavy responsibilities slowly lifting off his shoulders.
There was a relief and a smile of great satisfaction. This one year seemed like a really long time with everyday challenges to make choices and decisions with so much at stake. But Mr. Podar led by giving a sense of certainty to all. He often said the duty of the President is to serve and make sure we make informed choices. He often reminded himself to be righteous. One important lesson I learned from him was life is a daily practice. Every day I have seen him descending in the value of humility to rise to the heights of character. His commitment and his steadfast dedication inspired me every single day to give my 100%.
The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote that life must be lived with foresight, yet can only be understood in hindsight. When I reflect on this experience people + process and perspective are three broad patterns that emerge. Mr. Podar’s compassion, his ability to think through and design processes to make working seamless which I am benefitted abundantly and most importantly his willingness to sought diverse perspectives to enlarge his own mind has been my key takeaway.
The lessons I’ve described above are all good and instructive, but they are discrete and easily describe-able. They are finite.
Yet, when I take stock of my time working with Mr Podar, what I’ve learned from Mr Podar feels more all-encompassing than a tidy set of specific lessons. The learning feels more infinite. When you are fully enmeshed in another person’s life, when your job at one point is to look at the world from his perspective every single day — that person’s impact on you becomes so foundational that it’s hard to disentangle where his influence starts and stops.
And so, there’s one more final lesson learned: the people you spend the most time with will change you in ways you cannot anticipate or ever fully understand after the fact. The most important choice of all is whom you choose to surround yourself with.
I feel incredibly blessed to have learned so much from a visionary leader like Mr Rajiv Podar. Lastly, while generously writing me a LinkedIn recommendation Mr. Podar mentioned in the last line that Rahul is someone I could depend on to deliver always. This is very true I worked really hard with utmost sincerity but it was only possible because of Mr Podar with his disarming humility, inspiring leadership and with his encouragement and compassion at all times. He always has been thoughtful and that brought out the best in me.
These words from John Buchan encapsulates the role Mr. Podar played in my personal and professional growth: “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.”
