R M Vishakha

Managing Director & CEO, IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd

Vishakha took over the reigns of IndiaFirst Life Insurance 3 years ago as Managing Director & CEO and grew her company a stupendous 200% in that period.

Personal Leadership Habits
 
Her foundational success habit is wanting more and more and more challenges, always looking for ‘how can I do more’. Challenges are what fill her with energy and this habit of doing much more than before landed her in the corner office. She doesn’t wait for the energy to tackle the challenges; she derives her energy from embracing the challenges and working her way through them.
 
Looking at her, you wouldn’t guess she is a mother of a 27 years old son and a 24 years old daughter. She looks a lot younger than the 54 years she says she is. She could be 54 and yet look 45, primarily because youthfulness is really about having the energy, passion and the deep connection with what one does.
 
Her kids are frequently complemented on their work ethics. That is because of her value-based parenting, which she imbibed from her parents. She gives credit to that for her phenomenal success –

1. Work is worship
2. Standing up for oneself, Self-belief
3. Self-discipline, being able to stick to a regimen
4. Determination to keep going, will-power
5. Dharma - delivering on what one’s role is, irrespective of external circumstances or inner chaos
6. Karma – being in positive action that contributes
7. Giving your best as an outcome of your commitment, instead of being a function of other people or circumstances

 
It is interesting to note that the 4 key values that her organization stands for –

1. Do more
2. Be honest
3. Think new
4. Be helpful

 
And, the organizational culture of Happy, Passionate and Connected are in complete sync with her personal values and way of being. Even more interesting is that she hasn’t defined or redefined the organizational culture and values, on taking over as the CEO. They were already in existence prior. It does validate that people flourish in organizations where there is harmony between the organization’s and one’s own personal values & way of being. The starting place to inquire into both organization and family dysfunction is the absence of values.
 
In her view, her being a working mother supported her to imbibe values in her kids and in that sense, supported her to become a better mother than she would have been if she weren’t working. Being effective both at work and at home was a challenge that she loved taking on.
 
She does see a bias against women at workplace with limiting beliefs as below -

1. Women give preference to home over work.
2. They don’t need a job. It is not a necessity for them; therefore, they will not be committed.
3. They will be looked after by their father, brother, husband; therefore, they won’t take responsibility.

 
She pushes it all out of the window. Beautifully articulating that the Driver of Want is far more powerful than the Driver of Need. And, that is valid for both men and women. People who have an intense burning desire, a deep want to do something create a much bigger impact than those who may have a bigger need. Isn’t that true for customers too? Isn’t profitability about finding customers who have the want and not just a need?
 
Success habit of writing a journal to pour out her emotions before transitioning to the practice of meditation, regular yoga and participating in half-marathons has supported Vishakha to slow down on the inside to make the big impact outside.
 
She says she is blessed with high energy. For her, respecting herself means taking good care of all of the four bodies of her Being (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual). This does point in the direction of the path that we need to take to optimize our own energy levels.
 
Business Leadership Habits
 
A. The biggest leadership habit that has supported her in business is to be build a strong team below her, which works more like a Mastermind with each leader in her team being

1. Strong, independent minded
2. High on ownership
3. High on competitive collaboration, holding each other to account to be the very best

 
Not surprisingly, her team mirrors her own leadership strengths.
 
B. Having crystal clear clarity on the WHY, which simplifies matters and makes it easier to execute. She calls it Defining the Objectives. Once the objectives are clearly defined, it is easier to place the organizational benefits above individual agendas. That is how she has cohesively led her team forward from success to success.
 
C. The one habit she focuses on inculcating in her employees is to encourage them to ask questions of each other – Why you are doing what you are doing? For her, an organization is like a big canvas and each employee as a player in the game of organizational greatness needs to be able to see that big picture to transform themselves from cutting stones to building a cathedral. That is her way of ensuring her people work with a sense of purpose, that leads to greater organizational performance and productivity.
 
D. Her humility in embracing all that was working well, prior to her taking over; and steering away from ‘Not Invented by Me’ syndrome helped her to move her organization forward with greater velocity than otherwise.
 
E. She understands that the customer experience is a function of their interaction with the frontline. She personally acknowledges the call-center brand ambassadors, re-iterating the values that the organization stands for through her action of personally engaging with them and her words.
 
What supported her the most, in her 3-year journey as a CEO, is her conviction in her strategy because of which she didn’t keep changing it.
 
What comes in her way is to be perceived as clinical because of her practical and rational approach to running her business. Also, the detail-orientation that supported her to reach where she is now makes it difficult for her to step back to take decisions. Self-awareness of these aspects helps her to go beyond and be effective.
 
The biggest challenge for her are the external macro-economic factors. Her strong belief that whatever changes may happen, will never be anti-customer supports her to lead her organization forward with confidence.
 
Women at Work
 
She observes that for women, work is their identity and therefore, it is important for women to hold on to their jobs through the thick and thin of life. The habit that supports women at workplace is their pre-conditioning to use their power of influence rather than the power of authority. What works against women is that they don’t recognize their self-worth and are self-deprecating. She would encourage women to respect themselves; look at themselves as human beings and live in the expansiveness of that, instead of feeling limited by their gender.
 
Dressing is a non-issue for her. She observes that even men make a conscious decision on what to wear, appropriate to the occasion. She defines appropriate dressing as that which does not make it a topic of discussion and does not distract the audience from what you have to communicate.
 
A Question
 
What is your biggest INSIGHT from Vishakha’s Leadership Journey that would support you to accelerate your own journey towards professional and personal fulfillment; and what action would you take as an outcome of that?