Free Conquering the Chaos: Win in India, Win Everywhere by Ravi Venkatesan Page A

retroactively, so
     the company is technically now a tax evader. That’s a criminal offense, and the legal
     notice holds you personally accountable as CEO.
A state government takes nine months to refund local taxes and headquarters wants
     to write it off as a bad receivable. Unfortunately, the sum represents 4 percent of
     annual revenues.
Your public-sector business has come to a standstill, with fear of corruption scandals
     and investigations paralyzing officials.
A builder who is also a prominent politician refuses to refund the deposit on an office
     the company had leased.
Massive power cuts follow a weak monsoon, and captive generation capacity is inadequate.
     The wait time for new generators is six months.
Politicians call for a bandh or twenty-four-hour shutdown. The employees in the 24/7 support center can’t get
     to work, so customers in the United States won’t be happy.
When a popular movie star dies of old age, people go berserk with grief. A city of
     7 million grinds to a halt, and the windows of your corner office are smashed.
    Given such extraordinary uncertainty and volatility, learning agility is an essential leadership competency in India. Organizations such as the Center
     for Creative Leadership and Korn/Ferry describe learning agility as the ability, when
     thrown into a situation unlike any a person has ever encountered, to learn quickly
     from experience, succeed, and then apply the learning to perform successfully in other
     radically new situations. It is the ability to learn quickly in real time, combined
     with resilience and tenacity to work through big challenges.
    Instead of becoming intimidated, agile learners thrive in difficult situations. They
     are critical thinkers who examine problems carefully and make fresh connections between
     causes. They are reflective, self-aware, and curious. They like to experiment with
     change, can deal with the resulting discomfort, and deliver results through team building
     and personal drive. Humility in success, courage in the face of failure, and willingness
     to learn from failure are hallmarks of such leaders. There is compelling evidence
     to show that learning agility, rather than past performance, is the best indicator
     of leadership potential. Warren Bennis says: “The signature skill of great leaders
     is the ability to process new experiences … and to integrate them into their lives.
     They look at the same events that unstring those less capable … and see something
     useful.” 3
    In dynamic environments like India’s, it becomes critical to assess leaders’ learning
     agility. Firms like Korn/Ferry have developed assessment tools to measure this ability
     on subdimensions, such as mental, people-related, change, and results agility. These
     assessments are quite accurate in their diagnostic and predictive powers. I recommend
     their use both during hiring and for leadership development. Learning agility is a
     capability that can be strengthened by experience, by repeatedly throwing young leaders
     into ever more complex and difficult challenges, a point I will pick up in a later
     chapter.
    People skills are the second competency country managers must have. Academics like Daniel Goleman
     define it more precisely as emotional intelligence . People skills are important for every manager, but the country manager in India
     has to be, frankly, pretty amazing at handling people. Focusing just on business is
     unlikely to produce great results; taking the time to get to know people well matters
     for success.
    India is a country where an enormous amount is done on the strength of relationships
     with customers, with government, and with suppliers and dealers. If there is a personal
     relationship, miracles happen. Customers will place an order to help you meet your
     budget or release a payment despite a cash crunch. A supplier will prioritize capacity
     in a time of shortage. Government officials might go out of their way to help