TALKING YOUR WAY TO GROWTH
Mastering the art of conversation could help individuals move up the hierarchy and become leaders
This is a confusing book. Its sole theme is to prove the importance of mastering the art of ‘conversation’ to move up the aspirational hierarchy and ‘Become’ the leader one wants to be. This unifocal content lends the book its name. The author needs 90,000 words to explain what he wants to say – tough reading even for ardent enthusiasts craving to learn, understand and master the art and science of using creative conversation to shape reality, mindsets, events and outcomes. Dua labours hard but not alone. Contributions by Bob Dunham, Umang Bedi and Sheeja Shaju are acknowledged.
The author says the path from where we are to where we want to be is one of conversations either with others or with ourselves. History, he claims, is witness to the fact that the genesis of ‘any’ result is prior conversations that shape its possibility, action and outcome. Frankly, I find these assertions incomprehensible. Dua states: “I will go one step further and state what I call a law.” Dua’s Law asserts: “If we feel disempowered or de-energised with regard to a person or a situation, then we are being victims and are not taking responsibility with regard to that person or that situation.” Q.E.D.
Unveiling a new management law apart, this book is exceptional in several respects. It is the only one I have seen where the author doesn’t urge each potential buyer to open her favourite portal and click it into her cart. Dua says: “This is not a book you must rush and tick off on your reading list.” He warns ‘Become’ is made of stern stuff. “This book will demand your time and patience. Engage with it as a conversation between you and me. Read it slowly and allow the conversations to settle in before moving to the next conversational domain... Read it as if you were the coach for members of your family and everyone else you interact with closely.” Oh dear, I say, he’s asking for a lot!
The giveaway word in the above narration is ‘coach’. It’s a primary role that more or less rules Dua’s career as consultant in ‘Generative Leadership.’ “One key role of a leader is to coach,” opines Dua while letting his favourite theme ‘conversation’ creep into the narrative: “It is through leadership-coaching conversations that leaders and managers enable their co-workers to take new actions that generate new results.”
Dua’s book belongs to the ‘how to’ genre. It links the down to earth, revenue generating activity of a coach to five leadershipconversational domains in an over simplified fashion: C for Care, O for Observe, A for Actions, C for Commitment, H for Holding space for conversation. He blatantly endorses and promotes coaching. He says, “In my assessment, a good leader and manager is first and foremost a good coach. The key role of managers is not to necessarily do everything themselves but to get things done by others...”
One of the best chapters isn’t written by Dua but by Umang Bedi, former managing director of South Asia for Adobe Systems and later managing director of Facebook, India and South Asia. An outstanding case study by Bedi titled ‘Re-Imagining and Reinventing Adobe Systems, India is reproduced verbatim as Chapter 9. Some insights are startling. It shows how hollow populist hoopla about IT in India actually is. The harsh reality is that even though India is a market with a lot of potential and promise, the business in terms of volume and revenue is no more than 2 per cent for any company globally. Also, for any of the MNCs in the tech space, India does not figure in their top twenty-five markets of the world. Maybe conversations will help India ‘Become’ truly IT savvy?