THE PSYCHOLOGY OF LEADERSHIP
Motivational speaker Anand Chulani tells CHRIS HANRAHAN why, in a time of uncertainty, leadership success is 80 percent psychology and 20 percent mechanics
11:30 on a weekday morning in the Semarang Room at The Hermitage hotel in Menteng and 25 members of the international Entrepreneurs Organization’s Indonesia Chapter are dancing. Some are bopping with their spouses, some gyrating alone, others boogying in groups of three or four. Anand Chulani is prowling up, down and across the elegant room, scrutinising the action and yelling encouragement. “That’s it!” he yells. “Let it all go! Breathe into the heart. Feel the power of your heart.”
Once a miserable public schoolboy in England, once a stereotypical “geeky Indian” bit-part player in American TV soap operas, once an improvisational stand-up comedian, 40-year-old Mumbai-based Chulani has found his life’s purpose as a motivational speaker who labels himself a “legacy advisor and peak performance coach”. Prompted by recommendations of his talents, EO’s Indonesia Chapter has brought him to Jakarta so that its members can learn firsthand about his unique approach to leadership. Priscilla Yee, Education Chair of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) Malaysia, has described Chulani’s impact on gatherings perfectly: “When he walks into the room, in his presence, the entire audience just gets energy. This guy is like a battery full of energy, he charges you up every single time.”
Chulani spends much of his time working with small-business owners. He understands how they think, and what they need to have and to do to succeed. Starting with umbrellas, his father founded two successful manufacturing companies in Nigeria. “I watched my father work very, very hard to build his business,” Chulani says. “I hated it, and never wanted to be involved in it. We fought when I was young. Later, I realised that when you forgive your father, that’s when you become a man.”
Dancing done with, the motivational speaker tells his relaxed and receptive audience “how to leverage uncertainty to maximise results”. “In business change is automatic, progress is not,” Chulani declares. “The question goes beyond being able to handle change and uncertainty. You have to ask yourself: How do I leverage uncertainty to yield maximum growth and productivity?
“Today, you and your team will learn how to handle change effectively and proactively deal with uncertainty in your business and organisation. You will learn how to influence and motivate yourself and your team, so that all of you can trigger your strongest, most productive, decisive selves in any given situation. You will learn strategies on how to optimise your own leadership style to solve any problem.”
Following an unhappy time at the famous Harrow School in England, where he was bullied, Chulani went on to Georgetown University in Washington DC. He graduated with a double honours degree in History and English, and a double minor in Psychology and Theatre. After leaving university, he stayed on in the US and tried his hand at acting, as a script writer and as a stand-up comic, before discovering his talents as a motivational speaker while working for Tony Robbins, the author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and life coach. In addition to organisations like the YPO and EO, Chulani has gone on to present seminars to execs at Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, Google, Disney, Accenture, ExxonMobil, Credit Suisse, Cisco Systems, Toshiba and Turner Broadcasting. He has been a guest speaker at Stanford University and the Global Youth Leadership Summit.
Chulani says he is “personally invested in creating champions of tomorrow”. To enable this, he has been “closely working with the young game changers of today in order to keep them inspired from a young age.” He has created the “Peak Performance Pyramid”, a system designed to “empower leaders, teams and organisations in business, sport and entertainment to perform at their peak consistently, create a lasting legacy and achieve success on their terms”.
“Since the key to any organisation is the psychology of its leadership (success is 80 percent psychology and 20 percent mechanics),” declares Chulani, “I offer organisations a chance to create leaders who have the tools to get the best out of their talent, raise the leadership intelligence and standards of their team and take the organisation to the next level.”
How does Chulani define successful leadership in today’s world? “Leadership is about being certain in the face of uncertainty,” he replies. “You must create a level of inner certainty to find a way to communicate certainty to those who work with and for you. Faith is a muscle that’s very weak in today’s world. Whatever you think about him, Donald Trump won the US presidency because he speaks with certainty. He believes in what he says. Today, above everything else, people want authenticity.”