Topic:  Emerging Trends in Leadership and best Practices in HP/ Industry

Date: March 16, 2013

Speakers Profile:

Mr Surya Prakash Mohapatra has over 17 years of experience in training and development in various leading IT and ITES organizations which includes setting up and running training functions, defining and implementing training strategies and methodologies. During his tenure in Wipro BPO, he was the global training head for finance, supply chain and HRO horizontals. He had set up the global training function in Wipro BPO which spanned across delivery center in Brazil, Mexico, Romania, Poland, China and India. He also had set up a Center of Excellence for knowledge aimed at enhancing people‘s organizational capability in the area of  finance.He developed the training models for rural and tier III BPO in Wipro. In Hewlett Packard Mr Surya Mohaptra played a key role in setting up the business training function in its BPO wing. This was for the purpose of trade account as well as HP’s internal controllership and shared operations accounts. He was a key contributor to HP’s charisma program as the global lead for the training tower. Currently he is the India head for training and knowledge management for HP’s global business services group.He is also engaged in evolving strategies for career development and talent management for the group in India.

Details:

The National HRD network organized a session by Mr. Surya Prakash Mohapatra, the India Head for Training and Knowledge Management for HP’s Global Business Services group on 16^th march, 2013 hosted by School of Management, KIIT University. The focus area of this session was to explain the true meaning of leadership, essential aspects of leadership to sustain in the corporate world, the various leadership styles and a few of the cognitive traps that a leader might fall into.

Mr. Mohapatra began his talk session elucidating the characteristics of a leader in true sense. He stressed on the onset of leadership with self management with the belief that one cannot control others but can control oneself. Another important attribute of a leader is that they are fearless of the unknown and are confident in each and every step they take which helps in contributing positively to the society. To support this he enumerated examples of famous leaders like Henry Ford, Albert Einstein and Mahatma Gandhi.

A leader in order to be accepted and respected by their followers need to build credibility and trust amongst his followers for which they need to have competence and character.

He also discussed about the five essentials qualities required for a leader such as discipline, ownership, hard work, humility and time matrix. The most essential quality for a person to be an influential leader is, to be disciplined in terms of his thoughts and behavior, to have a sense of ownership, to have the courage to take responsibility for any new initiative and completing it without worrying about negative consequences.There is no place for for rudeness and ruthlessness as these traits portray weakness in a person which is unfit for a true leader.He stressed that humility is the biggest strength for any leader. To support it, he once again gave examples about Jamshedji Tata and his establishment of Taj group of hotels.

He briefly discussed about the various leadership styles as to how leaders use different styles in different situation with different type of followers in order to be able to achieve the goals and vision for the  welfare of the society or organization.They help other grow and develop by knowing their needs, their source of motivation, creating a positive environment for them, giving them the feeling of self worth by assigning them challenging task etc. A leader is expected to create a high performing motivated workplace by sufficiently and adequately challenging people to accomplish the goal, meeting their aspirations and making them more customer responsive.

He further discussed about few cognitive traps a leader might fall into such as overgeneralization and mental filter.He explain on the ways to escape from this and concluded with the discussion on black swan theory which is applicable to all those who aspire to be a leader.