Executive Vice President and the Group Head of Human Resource Development at Infosys. Krish has facilitated organizational transformation and building a strong talent pool. He is passionate about organizational development.

Krish-Shankar.jpg

Krish Shankar

<h4>
 KRISH SHANKAR is an Executive Vice
 President and the Group Head of Human Resource Development at Infosys.
 Krish has over 30 years of experience and has facilitated
 organization-wide transformation and capability development, and been
 instrumental in building a strong talent pool through a series of
 leadership development initiatives. He is an avid reader, and loves
 wildlife photography and trekking. A football enthusiast, he is
 passionate about teaching and exploring new ideas in Human Resources and
 organization development. In this exclusive interview, he speaks with
 V SRINIVASAN and
 SHARAT HEGDE in his hometown of
 Bengaluru, India.
</h4>

 Q: What is your understanding about the role and importance of
 character from a leader’s perspective?


 KS: Character is what I would call a
 set of values that are very strongly expressed. If you were to take
 three or four values that a person strongly believes in and
 demonstrates, then that really becomes his or her character. These
 values are basic, like honesty, transparency and trust. While skills are
 there, connection with leaders comes from their character, these deeper
 values. We build trust with people through these values, through the
 integrity and honesty that we show. And I think they are very important
 for building relationships, teams and long-term things. They are very
 important for leaders, because they describe what kind of leader we
 really are.


 Skills are also important. I think both go hand in hand, but if you look
 at really successful leaders, it’s their character that stands out. They
 may or may not be very successful at work, but they’re always
 well-regarded by people, they’re always the ones who people look forward
 to meeting. If they also have skills, if they are also good at strategic
 thinking, then they will be good at their jobs also.


 
 Q: A lot of conventional interventions in organizations emphasize the
 importance of building role-based capabilities and competencies, etc.
 Do you feel that the element of character, and its formation and
 development, needs attention, or is it something that you expect the
 candidate to have brought along with them?


 KS: A lot of character is formed
 early on: the family has a lot to do with a person’s character. But as
 people enter organizations, organizations can give them time to reflect
 on this, and give them good role models, because in the end all of this
 is through role models. If you look at it, the first job that you have
 in any company, and the first leaders you interact with, have a big
 impact on how you think about leaders and leadership. Exposing employees
 to role models with character helps them, and they say, “Okay, these are
 the things I want to see in myself.” So role models are very, very
 important.


 Character is not formed in a day; it is formed over time. It takes a
 long time to form, and even longer to change. Though the basic stuff is
 from your childhood, it can still be shaped as you go along, because
 your mental model is how you deal with people, your mental model is how
 you deal with adversity, your mental world can be shaped over time. It
 can be sharpened over time. I think character can be developed, and I
 think leadership development has to focus on the following things: role
 models, mode of mentorship, time for reflection, feedback, and giving
 people the opportunity to decide what they want to be, what is it that
 they want to be known for.

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing 
 then look for something else. 
 There is always enough to do, 
 but enjoying your work is more important.
</h5>
<hr />

 
 Q: What is your advice to young professionals who are at the start of
 their career today?


 KS: Wow, this is the mega question I
 think. We need to write a complete book on this! Well, I shouldn’t be
 giving you clichés or preaching here. It’s very tough, because the world
 is different today, and people are different. There are a few principles
 that I will share, and then we’ll leave the individuals to decide how to
 take them forward.


 Enjoy what you’re doing. 
 When considering a career path, I would say explore, decide, look around
 and enjoy what you’re doing. If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing
 then look for something else. There is always enough to do, but enjoying
 your work is more important.


 Have a measure of what will keep you motivated. What is it that you
 want to achieve? 
 A little bit of deeper thinking and road mapping your career is very
 important. It’s difficult to say what you will be doing by a particular
 time, but at least have a principle of saying: What keeps me happy? What
 is it that I really want to be doing? What is it in five years from now
 that I want to be doing for my community, for myself, and for my family?


 <img class="lazyload w-100 h-auto"
 src="https://cdn-prod-static.heartfulness.org/cultivating_leadership2_220a98788d.jpg?updated_at=2023-04-03T07:54:38.149Z"
 alt="cultivating-leadership2" />


 Take everything you do as a learning opportunity – every job and
 every activity.


 You can keep doing the same things, but if you step back and say, “Okay,
 what did I learn from it? What can I do better?” then the next time it
 will be something very different. With every mundane thing that you do,
 consider it as a learning activity and see how you can improve.


 Career is not just work, but a set of mentors, a set of friends, a
 set of people with whom you want to interact. 
 Build this right from day one. Have mentors in the company, and mentors
 outside the company. Have friends in the company, and friends outside.
 It will give you a fuller understanding of what is happening.


 In this day and age there is no one career that you will
 follow. 
 I would say that everybody will go through two or three different
 inflexion points in their career. You may be doing something for five to
 ten years, and then you may move and do something else. So you’ve got to
 be learning and ready for those pivot points, moving around and doing
 something different.


 
 Q: Can you give one example of any initiative that you have launched
 in a company, for example Infosys, which has had a profound impact on
 people in terms of any of those values we have discussed so far?


 KS: One of the things we thought
 about in Infosys was: How do we get people to connect with their
 purpose? So about a year or two back we came up with the concept of
 ‘power teams’. It was a small experiment. We got people to come together
 as a team and think about what they’ve loved doing; what they’ve
 enjoyed; what they’d like to see for their own learning and development.


 We talked and brainstormed, and at the end of it we asked them to give
 feedback to others in the team on: What are you good at? What will make
 you great? So the others would say, “Yes, you are good at this, this and
 this, but by doing this you’ll be greater,” which created a real bond
 among them.


 Many of our HR people ran this program across the organization. The idea
 was to give people time to reflect on what they want, their own
 development and the purpose of their team, but also at the same time
 bond with the team. They were exploring how they could really help each
 other, which they had never done before. It was a small thing that we
 did to bring a little more focus on themselves, their teams and their
 purpose.

<hr />
<h5 style="text-align: center">
 There is a cognitive surplus, 
 so they want to do something more. 
 That’s why so many people are writing blogs, 
 because they want to express their interests; 
 their minds are working and they’re not able to 
 really utilize all of their capacity.
</h5>
<hr />

 Q: You mentioned that individuals have to reflect on balancing their
 individual work life, family, serving humanity, and developing their
 own interests, hobbies and things like that. Do you see organizations
 taking these ideas and enabling their employees to contribute to
 social and community causes outside their work?


 KS: Well, there are many! If we just
 take Infosys, there are many people who are doing things other than
 work. We have something called Samarpan, which is all about giving
 people opportunities to do CSR projects. They go to nearby schools and
 teach. They’re part of various clubs. We also have the Samaritans
 Counseling Network, where people are trained to be counselors. They
 learn, they’re trained, and they can identify when people are in
 difficulty.


 We found that many people are interested in things other than work.
 Generally their minds are not fully occupied. There is a cognitive
 surplus, so they want to do something more. That’s why so many people
 are writing blogs, because they want to express their interests; their
 minds are working and they’re not able to really utilize all of their
 capacity. Many organizations are using CSR, and they also have internal
 clubs and various other initiatives. For example, at Infosys there is a
 running club. Many people are members, and some are organizers. They’re
 trying and doing something. Many companies are starting clubs and
 activities in their organizations, because they get people together,
 remove some of the stresses of life, and build a stronger social
 bonding.


 Q: Finally, would you like to speak about someone who has been your
 role model?


 KS: I have had many role models
 during my career. When I was a student at Xavier Labour Research
 Institute, Father McGrath, one of the founding Fathers, was one such
 role model. An American Irishman who came to India at an early age and
 stayed in India for 50 years, he embodied many admirable human qualities
 and did a lot for the community. He was respected and trusted by the
 workers of Tata Steel and the local villagers. He was a great listener,
 not at all pretentious and he valued people.


 I also remember one of my first HR Directors at Unilever. When my mother
 was going through an operation within two weeks of my joining Unilever,
 he empathetically listened to me and granted me leave with an open
 heart. He became a mentor to me and even today we are connected and
 meet. Such people make a big difference to us. They stand out in their
 humanness, empathy and the fact that they are prepared to invest a lot
 of time in us.

Q: Thank you so much.
KS: Thank you!
<hr />
<h4 style="text-align: center">
 Interviewed by V SRINIVASAN and SHARAT HEGDE
</h4>
<hr />

Cultivating leadership values - part 2

<hr><h4 style="text-align:justify;">KRISH SHANKAR is the President of the Bengaluru Chapter of the National Human Resource Development Network, and Executive Vice President and Group Head of Human Resource Development at Infosys. Krish has over 30 years of experience and has facilitated organization-wide transformation and capability development, and been instrumental in building a strong talent pool through a series of leadership development initiatives. He is an avid reader, and loves wildlife photography and trekking. A football enthusiast, he is passionate about teaching and exploring new ideas in Human Resources and organization development. In this exclusive interview, he speaks with V SRINIVASAN and SHARAT HEGDE in his hometown of Bengaluru, India.</h4><hr><hr>Q: Krish, as an HR leader, you have served in several eminent global organizations. What are the values which you have deeply cherished as an individual and which have really helped you to serve at the highest levels?KS: Over the last 30 years, the best thing is that I’ve learnt from a lot of people, a lot of leaders, and when I really look at the best people, some of their values are the ones I have internalized and applied to my life and built around.The first value is all about being genuine and authentic. It is not always easy, but if you can be genuine and authentic, and people know that what you say is what you mean, I think that’s the first step.The second value, which is behind all of this, is transparency. I have found that whatever the difficult problems or tough things, if you’re transparent about your intent – why you want to do it – and if people see the purity of the intent coming across, then even the toughest problems can be managed. For example, when you have a tough performance conversation with somebody, by telling them, “Listen, I know, but this is something that is important for you and for the company and so we want to give you…”, they accept it. So being transparent about why you are doing something is very, very important.The third value I learned when I was at Unilever. It has stayed with me right through. We called it ‘self-confident integrity’. It was actually a mix of a couple of values. One is self-confidence, in terms of why you’re saying something; you need conviction. The integrity is all about professional integrity. If you’re an HR professional, or whatever field you are in, there has to be some integrity to what you’re doing as a profession. So there has to be conviction, and you have to be true to the values of the profession, true to the values of the role you’re playing.These three values – authenticity, transparency and selfconfident integrity – I would keep as the base of how I define myself. On top of that, I found that one thing that people valued in me was what I call the ‘helping relationship’. They liked me to be a mentor, they liked me to talk, they liked me to help, and they liked me to be a coach. So I found that trying to help people is something that they valued, and they thought I was good at it. Therefore, that’s something I have built upon.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">I have found that whatever the difficult problems or tough things, if you’re transparent about your intent – why you want to do it – and if people see the purity of the intent coming across, then even the toughest problems can be managed.</h4><hr>Q: How do you resolve moments of conflict between the mind and the heart at work?KS: Well, it’s a tough thing. Maybe it’s easy to say but difficult to do, but I believe you’ve really got to see how they can work together. Because if you think that the mind and heart are in conflict, then you’re not going to make things work. Somehow we’ve got to integrate the mind and the heart. Therefore your mind should think with your heart, in the sense that your mind should look at emotions, people, this and that. As you start processing those things, your decisions will become more relevant and more correct.There could be decisions where your heart is saying something, but the mind or the compulsion of the mind says something else. That will always be there, but if you really discuss and explore emotions at that time and say, “Okay, what emotions are there? Why are we feeling that?” then I think your decisions can be even better. So a little bit of reflection is what I would suggest; a little bit of using emotions and empathizing at every situation. These are the two tools that you can use to ensure that both the mind and the heart work in tandem.The reflection is always, “Why am I feeling this? What is happening? What are my fears?” And putting yourself in the shoes of other people, empathizing with them: What do they feel? How do they feel? Why should they do it? So those are the two things. Reflection and empathizing are two strong practices, which will help you to get both your mind and your heart working together.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">Reflection and empathizing are two strong practices, which will help you to get both your mind and your heart working together.</h4><hr>Q: In today’s fast-paced business environment, which is very demanding in terms of results and dynamism, how do you keep your own journey joyful and also vibrant?KS: In everything that we go through in life, we always go through ups and downs. Especially over the last couple of years, there’ve been lots of instances where I have been through a lot of pressure personally. How to manage this?I look at it from the perspective of three principles that I’ve tried to use. I’m not a master at this; I’m also learning and I don’t claim that I’ve reached the stage where I can manage everything. I also go through problems, and sometimes it’s tough to really pick myself up. But there are three practices which I have seen others using, and I’ve also tried to use them:Always try and take some time off to reflect on a problem and see it as a learning opportunity. For example, suppose there’s an issue, ask yourself, “Okay, what can I learn from this?” Try to separate yourself from the problem and look at it objectively. That always helps, and sometimes I see that these issues could have been managed differently.Ensure there are other parts of your life that you want to really work on. For example, I do a bit of fitness training and running. I do a little bit of reading and writing and working for the community and writing a blog. You’ve got to keep some time so that your mind is really working on different elements and not just one type of work. Then there is family. Working and spending time with family and being there. So those are the other elements of your life to invest in.Put things in perspective. When you go through a tough situation, put the whole thing in perspective, acknowledging, “Yes, there it is.” There are others who go through even tougher problems, and there have been times when you’ve survived a tough problem, so revisit how you went through it.Also, look at where you want to be in the future: “Wow, I know all this, but this is what I want to do. This is what I want to be. This is what I want to see in the future for my team or group.” So by putting things in perspective you can look at any problem from a larger context. If you put your own journey into perspective – what you’ve been through, your tough times, and the things you’ve overcome – then you see that the issues don’t become so big. So change your perspective, and identify where any problem fits in the larger journey or objective.These three principles will definitely help you to keep going. Even if you go through ups and downs, you will move forward. I don’t say that I’ve mastered this. There are others who’ve done much better, and we should learn from them.I would say that by nature we’re all adaptable, we’re positive, that’s how we’re wired. So we’ll grow, we’ll adapt, and move on and develop. But if we spend just a little bit of time reflecting to see how we can be better, it really helps.Q: You mentioned the importance of giving time to family. Is family time compromised for most professionals in today’s business environment? What has been your own experience and insight on this subject?KS: There are two things: family and friends. Both are important. Over the last few years, spouses are also working and traveling, and to get time together is tough. But I think it’s very important. Given all the pressures that we are going through, we have to find time for this. Our family members are also going through the same thing. They’re also going tough times, and sometimes they want us there.Q: As a leader at the helm of your organization, are there any specific techniques you practice or methods you apply to stay emotionally composed and poised? The organization looks up to you, they observe what you say, they observe your body language, and they see your moods. How are you able to maintain that centeredness?KS: My experience over time has taught me two things. If you suppress all your emotions, if you don’t recognize them, that may not be the best thing in the long run. You’ve got to understand the emotions you’re going through. And some of them are okay to express also, because people also want to see a genuine human being. It is inconceivable for somebody to go through life and still be emotionless. Not many can do that; it needs a high level of nirvana to do that! But most people are not like that. Where appropriate, a little bit of emotion helps. Therefore, I believe that we’ve got to show it.Now, while I’m showing how I feel, there’s also a role I’m playing. In addition to the emotions that I’m facing, I need to also show certain emotions needed in the moment. While I may be angry about something, I can express that anger but equally I have to immediately change to show an emotion that gives people a little more hope and optimism. I have to keep both in mind. While I express emotions, I also step back and say, “Well, I feel it. But listen, we’ve got to move forward for the good of the company, for the good of the group, for the good of the team. These are some things we need to do, so let’s do this and see how we can move forward.” You have to enable that.&nbsp;<hr><h4 style="text-align:center;">As an organization grows, the whole thing about managing yourself becomes very important. First, in your role as a leader there are many more things that you’re doing. You owe a lot to your team, you owe a lot to your people. That realization comes, and therefore you start thinking about your teams, you start thinking about others.</h4><hr>Q: Conventional management wisdom and the journeys of leaders seem to be hinting that a great deal of leadership is about how you manage your own self. How does managing yourself really fit into the overall equation of leadership?KS: As an organization grows, the whole thing about managing yourself becomes very important. First, in your role as a leader there are many more things that you’re doing. You owe a lot to your team, you owe a lot to your people. That realization comes, and therefore you start thinking about your teams, you start thinking about others.And you also have to manage how you are coming across. Therefore, an understanding of the role of self is very important. It’s a discipline you have to build from early on, but it’s also something which you can do by making space for the right moments of reflection and mentoring. More empathy, and more understanding of where you come from and what you’re doing, help you to be a better leader and also help you develop a perspective of more people.<hr>To be continued.<hr>&nbsp;