Unravelling the ‘ORANGE’ Continues…

Mayur Kalbag is an Indian corporate leadership coach, corporate trainer and author who regularly does corporate training for businesses in Fiji. He can be contacted via email: mayurkalbag@ hotmail.com

In the previous column, we had a thorough look at the first three aspects of the term orange and these were, opportunistic; being restpectful and developing an analytical mind.

‘In today’s column, we will closely look at the remaining three aspects namely:

■ Nurturing

■ Groomed, and

■ Expansive.

Nurturing is as simple and beautiful as developing the attitude towards helping someone grow, and then growing along with that person.

Why would you need to nurture and who would need the nurturing.

I

I believe that along with skills and competencies the leader or manager must also be involved in the development of positive and proactive attitude of his team members and junior colleagues. Remember, just as after planting a seed we water it and enthusiastically take care of its growth, in organisations too we must do the same.

What the manager or leader must always understand and remember is that each of his or her team members or junior colleagues need to, on an ongoing basis, develop themselves in terms of two important aspects.

The two aspects are attitude and competencies.

Many team members would have joined the organisation with great enthusiasm and zeal.

But then with time, they also could begin to lose their motivation especially with work pressures that keep growing.

They also could realise the need to develop new and relevant skills or competencies.

It is here that the manager or leader must play the role of a mentor, and begin to sincerely guide the team members and develop these skills and competencies in them.

This process of offering sincere guidance and development with the honest intention to help them grow is called nurturing.

I believe that along with skills and competencies the leader or manager must also be involved in the development of positive and proactive attitude of his team members and junior colleagues. Remember, just as after planting a seed we water it and enthusiastically take care of its growth, in organisations too we must do the same.

Grooming

vividly remember one time when I entered a conference to attend a presentation on a new software programme, which was to be implemented within our organisation.

My chief executive officer called out a name, and then the person got up and walked towards the podium.

He was wearing a shirt which not properly tucked inside his trousers.

Very honestly, his shirt looked un-ironed, and to make it worse he had a very unkempt beard as well.

“I would

Jones.

“He is the senior general manager for software solutions and he will be making a presentation to us about the software programme.”

I just could was hearing.

“He is the senior general manager.”

I exclaimed to myself.

I could see some of my other colleagues a bit taken aback by what our CEO had just said. like to not introduce Mr believe what

Why were we shocked.

The answer is simple.

Mr Jones was extremely

It was apparent that he had not taken the effort to shave or at least properly trim his almost wildly growing beard.

What was also clearly visible was the casualness in his dressing. It gave a very negative picture to many of us.

I must admit that his presentation illgroomed. was excellent and we were truly impressed by his brilliance. Having said that, I was at that point in time, able to understand and be convinced about the importance of grooming.

I realised that a truly successful leader is he or she who not only grooms his thoughts, but his ‘outer attire’ too.

I have shared this particular perspective because I have come across a lot of young executives who do not pay the necessary attention their dressing and other outer grooming aspects, which I believe is significant in helping these executives in creating positive and an inspiring impact.

Expansive

Leaders and managers must be expansive in their thought process.

You may wonder what kind of a word is expansive.

Well, it actually means expanding your thinking process.

Trying to think beyond boundaries in some sense.

In a way, I would believe that being expansive is becoming a person who thinks out of box.

He or she who tries to inspire innovation and creativity not just within him or her, but also within his every team member.

Leaders like Mark Zuckerberg have been expansive in terms of trying to think beyond the ordinary, and that is how he was able to create something as amazing as Facebook. the

Mayur Kalbag

Can we, as managers and leaders in our own respective organizations also become expansive.

I believe the answer is a big yes! I wish that you take some time to think how you could try and spread your thinking process in regards to developing innovative ideas to help your team, your department and your organisation grow faster and higher.