Why Training Doesn't Work

“Nitin, I have some issues to discuss. Can we meet sometime this Friday? I have called Mr. X also”. This call was from Mr. A, training head in an organization, who I had got to know some time back. Mr. X was also a fellow trainer working as an independent consultant.

We met that Friday. I could see that Mr. A was upset about something was not willing to talk till Mr. X arrived. Finally when Mr. X came in, Mr. A came straight to the point. “I have been put on notice. Both the Managing Director and the Operations Head are not happy about the effectiveness of what my team does. I have been asked to pull up my socks or look for another job.”

This was serious. “Is there something specific that has happened or is it a general comment?” I asked. “We have a huge order from an American client. To make sure that nothing goes wrong, a cross functional team was created. We pulled out the best people from manufacturing, services, maintenance and sales teams to form a group exclusively for this client. I was given the job of building a cohesive team of these people. We spent three days in a training workshop with them. But it has not worked. They are not working as a team, and it is affecting the order. The client is unhappy and so my Managing Director is unhappy!”

Mr. X: What did you do with them in the three days?

Mr. A: We talked about the importance of working in a team. We gave inputs about skills required. We talked about communication skills and conflict management… the works!
Mr X: Maybe that was the problem… Your inputs.
Mr. A (Exploding): What?! What do you mean the inputs are a problem? That was the finest workshop you could ever have on team work! Even you couldn’t have designed a better program!

Even I was surprised at Mr. X’s comment. The workshop did seem to have all the right ingredients. Maybe the problem was in the delivery. I was about to ask, but Mr. A pre-empted me.

Mr. A: We got excellent ratings from the participants. They loved the program. Everyone was so charged after it was over. No, the problem is that my Managing Director has unreasonable expectations!

Mr. X: If asking you to assist in bringing about a change in people is unreasonable, I disagree. Isn’t that what your job is?
Mr A. (A bit defensive now): We did what we could do to the best of our abilities. If people refuse to practice it at work, what can we do?
Mr. X: Exactly… that is the issue… They don’t practice what you teach at work.
Mr. A: Yes! I said that! And that is not my problem!
Mr. X: Maybe it is… Tell me, do the team members know how important this job is for the company?
Mr. A: Of course they know!
Mr. X: Do they also know that working as a team is critical to their success?
Mr. A: Yes they do…
Mr X: Do they also know the cost of failure?
Mr A: Yes they do… What exactly are you getting at?
Mr. X: The point I am trying to make is that they know all this and yet they do not work as a team… Why?
Mr. A: How do I know? Maybe they are just dense!
Mr. X: Maybe you should try to find out and maybe that’s what you should have focussed on in your workshop.

 Silence... It made a whole lot of sense.

Mr. X: I have seen this in a  number of situations. Ask anyone if team work is important, or is customer service important and they all say yes. Yet it doesn’t always happen. The issue is not about their knowing, the issue is deeper than that.

Me: What could the possible reasons be?
Mr. X: It could be anything… it could be attitude; it could be some biases or even insecurities. Sometimes it could be cultural issues. The idea is to target the deeper issues and the desired outcome will happen.
Mr. A: What about skills… Those could be an issue too.
Mr. X: Sure, but you won’t know what exactly is the real issue that you have to work on, unless you do some research with the audience.
Mr. A: I don’t know how I am going to find the time, what with all the other work I have.
Mr. X: Don’t you understand? That is your work, rather the main part of your work. The effectiveness and success of your training initiatives depend on that!

I could see Mr. A mull over what he had heard. Yes, it made sense. How often had I similar experiences as Mr. A. If I looked back on all those training initiatives which had failed to make any difference at the workplace, it was because the core issues had not been addressed.

Then Mr. X winked and smiled. “If it still seems a lot of heavy work, you could always hire me….”

Gurukool - The Design

Word had gotten around. The training function was doing something different. Everyone in the  function wanted to be involved in designing the  workshop, irrespective of whether they were part of the project or not. I got a call from the head of HR. He and a couple of his team members also wanted to be a part of the process. “We deal with the front line people on a daily basis. Being a part of your process might give us some insights as to how to deal with them.” Then some people from the operations team wanted to be involved. Same reason.

I was getting a bit apprehensive. To me it seemed that the whole thing was getting out of hand. Never before had any training program generated so much interest, nor had so many people shown such keen desire to be involved in designing a workshop. Were we setting ourselves up for a disaster? What if the whole thing doesn’t take off?  How will it affect the credibility of the training function?

The evening before we were to begin work on the design, I shared my concerns with T8, who was, although, a new addition, but was the most experienced in the team.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: I am a bit worried about this whole thing

T8: About what whole thing?
Me: About the kind of interest that this project has created.
T8: What’s wrong with that?
Me: Are we not raising expectations a bit too much? What if this doesn’t work out? We have worked so hard to earn some credibility for the function. It will all be over!

 There was silence for about a minute, where T8 was just staring at me. Then,

T8: So you are afraid of failing?

Me: Of course not! It is just that this thing has gone too far. Suddenly it is way beyond a normal training program…

 T8 was silent and still staring at me.

 Me: No really… I am not afraid… You have got it all wrong!

 The silent stares continued

Me: Listen, understand what I am saying…. (Silence)…. OK… Maybe a bit apprehensive… (Silence)… Fine damn it! YES I AM SCARED!!

T8: Scared of failing?
Me: Yes I am scared of failing.
T8: Why are you scared? We have done training programs that have not worked. You weren’t scared then. Why now?
Me: I don’t know. Maybe because there seem to be too many hopes attached with this one program. Something that has never happened before…
T8: I wish you had also visited some of the locations along with us.
Me: What has that got to do with anything?
T8: I will explain that later. But I don’t understand one thing. You have always said that involvement of business in training is important. Now that we are getting that involvement, why are you apprehensive?

 Good question. Something that I always hoped would happen with the training function was actually happening. So why was I apprehensive? I wish I knew. This was crazy! After all this was just another training program. Why was I behaving like this?

Me: Maybe I am over-reacting… Let’s just forget this conversation and go ahead with the actual work.

T8: No Nitin. I am not going to let you get away so easily. You have to deal with some things before we start work. Otherwise I suggest that you stay out of this project.

What was happening? I was supposed to be the boss and T8 reporting into me! I was too stunned even to react. It was my turn to stare at her.

T8: I know you are the boss… and I am overstepping the line. But please understand what this project means to us. I need to explain…

 I was still dazed. So I only nodded my head.

T8: Our experience with these people has changed a lot of things for us. They have hopes and dreams. But they get bogged down with the difficulties of surviving day to day. All they need is to believe that they have it in them to get out of this rut. We have got this opportunity and we can’t let them down!

Me: I understand and appreciate that. But you also have to understand that at the end of the day, we work for a business organization which expects business results. What we are doing is only a means. We can’t afford to get carried away just because you all have had a different experience!
T8: And what about that statement that you always make about training being all about touching people’s lives? Is it just something you say or, do you really mean it?

 Yes I used that statement quite often. But I had never had this situation which would put me to test about it. Did I really believe in that statement?

Me: Go away! I need to think about this whole thing. We will meet tomorrow for the design meeting.

T8 (Getting up): Anyhow, if it works, it will benefit the company. So I don’t think there is any cause for concern...)

I sat alone in my office till quite late in the night. Alone with my thoughts. I had been quite reluctant about joining the training function. I had been cynical about it even when I was a part of it. The only thing that kept me going was this desire to do well in every assignment that was handed to me. When I joined the function, I would tell my team members about training being all about touching lives of people. I believed in it, but I also believed that such an opportunity would never come. But here was such an opportunity in front of me and I was scared. Scared that perhaps it may disprove my belief about touching people’s lives. Or maybe we would fail. The fear was not about other people. It was about me.

It was almost midnight when I left for home. One thing was clear – I had to take this plunge, Irrespective of the outcome. I was committed to it. I also knew another thing. There would be a lot more turmoil, not just within me, but within a whole lot of people, before this project was over.

The next day we met for the first program design and content development meeting. Normally there were three or four trainers assigned to the project who would meet. I would attend the first meeting to give a briefing and thereafter leave the team to work on the project. Once they had finished, I would meet them again to sign-off the design.  But this time there were eighteen people in the room. All my team members were there, along with people from HR and operations.  Something had to be done, otherwise we would accomplish nothing. I opened the meeting, “Thank you for being here. I understand your desire for being a part of this project. But it will be difficult to work like this. I will let you all be present in this meeting to understand the concept. Thereafter, as and when we need to involve you, we will either call you for the meeting or come to you. Meanwhile, if you have any thoughts, please mail them to us.” I saw heads nodding. So far so good.

 T4 explained the issues that the workshop would be dealing with. “The challenge is to mesh three seemingly unrelated issues in a single workshop and deal with them at a personal level.” she concluded. Thereafter lot of thoughts and ideas flew around.

Operations Representative 1 (OR1): What will be the duration of the workshop?

T2: We don’t know yet. Depends on how we build the content.
OR1: But it will be difficult to release sales people for the workshop for too many days. It will affect work.
Operations Representative 2 (OR2): I agree. It should not be for more than two days
T2: That’s like putting the cart before the horse! How can we decide the duration without knowing the content!
OR2: We are just telling you the constraints. You need to keep them in mind.
T2: That’s your problem. You will need to find a way to release them for training!

Twenty minutes into the meeting and we were heading for a showdown. I had to step in.

Me: Look let’s not get into execution constraints at this stage. Let’s focus on the content and flow of the workshop. We will deal with the constraints later.

I don’t remember how many such conflicts came up during the design process. Too many to count. Never in my experience in the training function had I encountered so much passion and involvement in the design of a workshop. It was almost like everything else had taken a back seat. Nothing else mattered except getting the right framework for this program.

At the end of six weeks we had the outline ready. The workshop was based on the concept that every person’s perspective is limited by his/her life experiences. Yet every person has the potential to break free from constraints and achieve his/her dream. This would happen through self-exploration and getting in touch with their own hidden strengths. The workshop would provide such an opportunity through an experiential process. The underlying theme was a belief in one-self that if one really wanted, one could fly…

It was the last meeting before we would present the design to the managing director. I had invited the HR and operations Heads to the meeting. T2 explained the program philosophy and flow.

Operations Head (OH): Looks good! What will the duration of the workshop be?

T2: If we are to do the complete job, it will have to be a five days residential program.
HR Head (HR): Five days! That’s impossible! And think of the costs! Why does it have to be a residential program?
Me: Anything less will not do justice to the workshop flow. We need that time to connect with the participants before we can even begin to give any inputs.
T4: And it has to be residential because we need to cut them off from their world for that period to enable them to take an objective view of things.
HR: But no one will approve of costs. We are talking of about 4000 people!
Me: yes but it’s not going to happen all at once. Each batch will have 25 participants and look at a per-head cost.
HR: Still, it’s way too expensive.
OH: Let’s talk about the cost a bit later. Help me understand the concept first. What’s going to happen at the end of the workshop?
Me: In a nutshell, we hope to have a group of people who are self-confident, self-assured and a better outlook towards life.
OH: So in a simple language that I understand, you are converting zeros to heroes…

Zero to Hero! That’s it! So simple and yet it explained it all. I nodded vigorously. 

OH: In that case, count me in. And if you need any assistance in selling this concept to the bosses, call me.

I looked at the HR Head. He nodded. If the operations boss, who had a direct responsibility for frontline sales, was in, then he too had no objections.

Me: So that about wraps it up.

T8: Except for one thing…
Me: Yes?
T8: Why should they believe us?
Me: I am sorry?
T8: For the participants, we are just company trainers who are going to talk about things that are too personal for them. Why should they believe us?

Stunned silence. No one had thought about that. It was just taken for granted. But T8 had a point. Why indeed would anyone just accept anything from us? If anything, there would be a lot of suspicion about anything we said.

Me: You have a point. And obviously you have given this some thought. So let’s have your thoughts.

T8: You said the program has to be residential because we need to take them away from their world for a period. But then they have to go back to the same world and deal with the same issues. While I agree that it has to be a residential program, but the conditions have to be similar to what they are used to. And we have to be with them all the time, living in the same conditions for the duration of the workshop.
OH: And what are those conditions?
T8: They are used to four or five people sharing a room, without ACs. That’s what we have to provide. And we have to live in the same type of accommodation. The food that they eat is pretty basic, nothing fancy. The same type of food should be provided, and we as facilitators also have to eat the same food. Whatever they do, whatever conditions they live in, we have to do the same. For those five days we have to be as they are.

I looked around the room. I could sense the apprehension in my team members. Truth be told, even I was concerned. We had never done anything like this before. I was not sure if we could handle it. But T8 was right. There was no other way.

T8: I know this is going to be difficult for us. But if we want this to be successful, this is the only way. We have to give it a shot!

 Reluctant nods from everyone, including me. It would be very difficult, but this was really the only way.

HR: So what are you going to call this program?

OH: It’s almost akin to the old gurukool where the teacher and students lived together in the same conditions. So why don’t you call it just that, Gurukool?

The name stuck. That is what it would henceforth be called.

That evening I went back home a troubled man. While my team members were very enthusiastic about the whole thing, ultimately the function was my responsibility. What right did I have to ask so much of them? And of course the old fears still haunted. What if this doesn’t work?

 I couldn’t get any answers. So I did the next best thing. I would let the managing director decide. I would present the concept to him and then it was up to him to say yes or no.

Next week I had the meeting with the managing director. He had called other department heads also. I presented the concept and program design. The usual thing happened. A minute of stunned silence. Then the managing director spoke.

Managing director (MD): Has something like this been done before?

Me: To my knowledge… No

He looked around the room. Everyone shook their head.

MD: Do you think this will work?
Me: Frankly sir, I don’t know… But given the issues this is the best way we could come up with.
MD: On a scale of one to ten how sure are you that this will work?
Me: Five, maybe six…
MD: (After a long pause) I can live with that. When can you start?
Me: Logistics planning will take a little time. And we also need time to prepare the facilitators. We could start in three weeks.
MD: Then get started… All the best… You are going to need it.

To be continued… 

Gurukool - The beginning

Gurukool: A system of education in ancient India where in students lived with their teacher during the period of education. The bond thus created between the students and their teacher wend beyond the conventional relationship.

 By now readers of this blog will have concluded that though being part of the function, I have always viewed training with a (un) healthy amount of cynicism and scepticism. And rightly so. However there is one instance which forced me to abandon my cynical approach and actually see the power that a properly designed and executed development initiative can unleash. A development initiative called Gurukool.

 As I sit down to write about Gurukool, I am experiencing a block. Writing about the events that led to creation and execution of this initiative is fairly simple. But how does one write about the emotional upheavals that we as the training team went through? How does one describe the personal growth that the facilitators experienced when delivering the workshop?  It was indeed a rollercoaster for we practically participated in lives of more than a thousand people in the three years we ran the program.

 It is also difficult to write about Gurukool in one single blog. The events, experiences, realizations and associated learning are too many to fit in a single article. I have therefore divided the entire experience in three parts. How it all began, how the design was created and lastly about conducting the workshops. While writing I also realize that it will be impossible for me to convey all my thoughts and feelings related to Gurukool. I accept this limitation and ask you, the reader to please bear with me.

 It all began with annual business review in the company I was working for. Ours was a retail organization with a large number of frontline sales personnel. In fact these sales people constituted nearly 70% of the total workforce in the company. Typically they were high school pass outs in the age group of 18-24 years. Unable to continue further education due to family reasons, economic and otherwise, they found this as an opportunity for gainful employment as the job required no particular prior skills or experience. We provided them with on-the-job training for about a month before putting them on the shop floor.

 One of the issues that was discussed in that review was to do with high turnover and poor service delivery among the frontline staff. All kinds of retention and performance bonuses had been announced, but they didn’t seem to work. Very often the sales employees just didn’t turn up for work leaving the poor manager completely clueless about manpower deployment and work planning.

Discussion on the issue was like a hockey game. “This is serious. You need to find a solution to this problem.” said the managing director, as he passed it to the business head. The business head did not keep it with himself for long, as he deftly deflected it to the HR Head. “You need to come up with some plan to solve this problem”. The HR Head was equally adept at the game. She passed it on to the recruitment head, “Is proper staffing an issue?” The recruitment head expertly deflected it back. “No, there is no problem with recruitment and staffing. The issue seems to be of retention.” Back to HR head, who now passed it to where there would be no comeback. “I think we need to find a solution to this problem through training.” “I agree”, concurred the managing director looking at me. “Nitin, please come up with a development plan to address this issue.” Every one nodded. The issue had been discussed to every ones satisfaction.

Every one’s except mine. I was upset and angry. How come such issues always seem to land at my doorstep? If it works, it’s someone else’s great idea. If it doesn’t, well, training didn’t do a good job. And it was with this frame of mind I met my team of eight trainers (T1, T2, T3……….. T8) the next day. After I had explained the situation, the conversation went something like this:

T1: I don’t understand… what are WE supposed to do?

Me: Find a solution to the employee turnover and service quality issues
T3: We could do service training, but what can we do about employee turnover?
T4: Yes that’s an HR problem. Why has it come to us?
Me: Doesn’t matter whose problem it should be. It’s our problem now. So let’s have some suggestions
T3: We first need to find out why the problem exists
Me: Great! So how do we do that?
T6: We should conduct an employee engagement survey
T2: That will only tell us what is the level of engagement, but it will not answer the why.
T5: We will have to do some kind of research to find the root cause of the problem
T6: What kind of research?
T5: I don’t know… there must be something
T4: Why us? It’s not our issue!
T1: Because someone out there hates us…

 We weren’t making any headway. And then T8, the newest member of the team came up with an idea

 T8: Why don’t we go out and find out?

 Everyone looked at her incredulously.

T2: And how are we going to do that?

T8: We are eight of us. So we can cover eight cities. Let’s spend time with the frontline staff and find out from them
T3: And what makes you think they will answer our questions?
T8: I wasn’t thinking of asking them… more in terms of working with them.

 Total silence. Work with them? No one had done that before. But it made a whole lot of sense. So at the end of some resistance and further discussions it was decided that they would spend a week on the shop floor in different cities. I was to hold fort at office. At that time I was not sure what would come out of it. But I was certainly sure of one thing. At that moment, T8 was definitely the most unpopular member of the team.

 One week later

 We met in office on Monday morning. Something was different. Everyone was subdued. No bantering or jokes, as was usual in our meetings. I waited for them to open up, but there was silence. I had to prod them.

Me: So how was it?

T2: (After a long pause) It was different.
Me: How so?
T2: I don’t know how to explain… but it was different
Me: And how has it been for the rest?
(All together): Different!
Me: Have you people discussed this before coming in?
T3: No, we just met in office
Me: But you all will have to tell me more about this ‘different’. Just saying it was different doesn’t help!

Another long pause

 T4: Let me try and explain what I felt. I felt that all things that I worry about, everything that I get stressed about are so meaningless.

Me: Please elaborate…
T4: These youngsters are fighters. They have such a tough life, and yet they manage to laugh and smile…
Me: Anything else?
T1: The  most amazing thing for me was that in spite of their origins, they have dreams to better their lot. And in spite of hardships they are not willing to give up their dreams.
T2: But it’s sad to see them get bogged down with their day-to-day struggles. Some of them are intelligent enough to be in the top colleges.
Me: Anything else?

I knew I was provoking them While they were sharing their feelings and emotions, I was sounding like an emotionless b*****d. But I was doing it on purpose. I somehow knew that the answer was in the feelings that they were sharing, and not the experiences themselves.

 T4: One customer came in with his wife and son. They wanted to shop for their son’s birthday. After they left, this sales guy cane to me and said, ”you know they spent more in 15 minutes than what I earn by slogging for a month.” It was heart-breaking.

 Aha! The first clue was here.

 T7: I went with one sales girl to her home. The entire family of five people live in just one room. They don’t have much, but they made me feel so welcome. I doubt if I can ever match their hospitality.

Here was the second clue..

It went on for some time. Finally I had to conclude.

 Me: I hear three things. One, dreams, and a desire to rise above origins. Second reconciliation with the fact that they work in an environment where people are spending more money in minutes than they earn in a month and third, adjustment to the reality of working in an environment which is more luxurious than where they live. Have I missed something?

T4: No that about sums it up.
Me: So now can we work on an initiative that can address all these three issues?

Normally when we designed any development initiative, there always was a certain amount of excitement. But this time it was different. It was almost like a missionary zeal. It was like suddenly they had an opportunity to do something about a situation which till then they had just helplessly observed. This time the excitement and energy was unbelievable. I guess each one of them had also grown through the experience.

Our Gurukool journey had thus begun.

 To be continued

 

 

The training that did not happen

“I don’t want managers in my organization, I want leaders”! I had heard this many times. In fact this was a kind of joke we had laughed about. Only this time I was not laughing. When the managing director of your company says it, looking pointedly at you, it is no longer a laughing matter.

 I had joined this company about a year back as head of HR and Training. The occasion was the six-monthly business review. All the business and functional heads were attending. In spite of difficult economic and business conditions, we had managed to achieve 87% of our targets. So the mood was quite upbeat, although there would be some recriminations from the managing director (Why only 87%... why not 100%). But that was ok. After all that was his job.

 Normally the HR function had almost no role to play in the review meetings. Unless some business head wanted to use the function as a scapegoat for non-performance (They did not give us the right manpower at the right time) or for moral support (Our competitors are paying better incentives… ask HR, they have collected the relevant data), my contribution was negligent. But since the convention was that all business and functional heads should attend, it also fell on me to be an almost silent spectator in the day-long sessions twice a year.

 The meeting began in the usual fashion. The Finance Head presented his array of spread sheets giving data about the (non) performance in the last six months, the business heads started readying their PPTs and arguments and I settled down to a long and slightly boring day.

 But this time it was not to be the usual manner. After the Finance Head finished his presentation, the bombshell dropped. The managing director, who, normally would remain silent throughout the meeting except when asking those uncomfortable questions suddenly butted in. “I am aware of the economic conditions and difficulties that we are going through. And I know that all of you will give this as the main reason for not achieving targets. So let’s not waste time. What I want to talk about is what can we do different to make sure we achieve targets in spite of the conditions. I don’t want to go through your presentations. I want us to discuss this one issue.”

 You could hear a pin drop in the silence that followed. No one was prepared for this. One of the business managers tried to get the meeting back on track. “Sir, if we analyse businesswise monthly regional performance, we may be able to understand what we can do better”. But the managing director cut him short. “Don’t waste our time. I will tell you where the problem is. Our team heads behave like managers and not like leaders. We have too many managers in the company and not enough leaders”. Then looking pointedly at me, “I don’t want managers in my organization, I want leaders. And Nitin, being the head of training, it is your responsibility to create leaders in this company. Please interact with all business heads and come up with a plan. I am also available for any discussion, if you feel the need.”

 With that he stood up and walked out. The meeting had ended. The rest of us just sat as if paralysed. After some time, one of the business heads looked at me and smiled, “Good luck to you”, and walked out. Another one tried to be helpful. “Perhaps this is a passing fad. Give it some time. Something else will come up and this will be forgotten”. One by one they all walked out leaving me with my own confusion.

 Managers to leaders? What did that mean? And what’s wrong with being a manager? Even if we are, by some miracle, able to convert all managers into leaders, what would happen then? How would it impact business? And what would they do differently if we began calling them leaders instead of managers? And just because I happened to be the training head, how was it my responsibility to convert managers into leaders? Well actually the answer to this last question was easy – because the managing director thought so!

 I sat there alone for quite some time. All I was getting was more questions and confusion. I had to do something. Perhaps the best way was to talk to the business heads. That might give me some clue.

 I met the first business head. “What do you think is the difference between a manager and a leader”? I began. “I don’t know. Isn’t it your job to find out”?

 I tried another opening. “What if instead of managers in your team, you had leaders”? “Why do I want leaders in my team”? He replied. “I am the leader of my team. The rest have just to do what I tell them to do.”

 Another business head revealed his thoughts. “A leader has to do all the thinking. If we have too many leaders in a team, it will lead to disaster. Everyone will be thinking and no one will be doing.”

 Yet another had this nugget, “A leader leads and a manager manages. There can be only one leader, which in our case is the managing director. The rest of us are managers”.

 It wasn’t helping. Perhaps the managing director would be able to help. After all this was his great idea. So I took an appointment and finally met him. I have tried to pen down the ensuing conversation verbatim:

 Me: Sir, I need to get your perspective about the difference between manager and leader.

Managing Director (MD): There are no different perspectives. Everyone knows the difference between the two

Dangerous grounds. I could not show my ignorance, and at the same time I needed answers.

Me: Yes Sir, but your verbalizing will help me understand it better in our organizational context.

 Lame, but that’s the best I could do at that moment

MD: Well leadership is about leading. It is about giving direction, about motivating people to give their best, about achieving results.

Me: And a manager is not capable of doing that?
MD: If a manager is able to do that, then he becomes a leader.
Me: And what is being a manager all about?
MD: It’s about managing. It’s about making sure that things happen as they should and nothing is out of place. It’s about planning and organizing and executing.
Me: Isn’t a leader supposed to do all these things also?
MD: Of course he does, but he also needs to lead his team members
Me: And isn’t a manger, in order to make sure that things happen as they should, supposed to give direction and push his people to do their best?
MD: To an extent, yes…
Me: Sir, then, I still don’t get the difference between the two.
MD (Now a bit exasperated): Well the main difference is that a leader will always achieve his targets while a manager will not!
Me: Aah, I understand now. Then sir, you will be glad to know that nine out of our twenty six managers are already leaders, because they have achieved their targets.

 A long pause, where both of us were just looking at each other.

MD: I have another meeting coming. So we will carry on with our discussion at another time.
Me: Sure sir. Do let me know when you are free so we can conclude our discussion.

 I walked out of the managing director’s office. Something caught my eye on his secretary’s table. I paused to take a look. It was a brochure for a talk by a motivational speaker entitled ‘Leaders deliver results, Managers don’t’.

The meeting to conclude our discussion never happened.