LEADERSHIP IMPRINTS

written by Arindam Kunar

2014 – 2018 Mr Shantha De Silva, then Head - SWA, IHG – Shantha was the most positive person I have interacted with in my career. He always saw the brighter side, the light at the end of the tunnel. Born into an illustrious preacher family, Shantha embodied everything about being a good human being in character, spirit and action. What is most endearing is that he climbed the ladder of success from a humble beginning in Sri Lanka to some seriously critical leadership roles in multiple locations around the world in IHG. This proves that you don’t need to be a “Rambo” to succeed in the corporate world.

The LEADERSHIP LESSON – “EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE” – and it all starts with 1) Getting to know the person on a personal level before you know him on a professional level 2) Value based relationship building rather than KPI based 3) Emotional control of self in the most trying circumstances 4) Appreciating the trigger points of your team and using them rather than abusing them 5) Learning when to let go and when not to 6) Solution finding approach rather than fault finding 7) Process orientation rather than person or personality orientation 8) Having the courage to not hide his vulnerabilities 9) Influence, coach & mentor others and innate ability to resolve conflict with common vision and the most loving of them all qualities – 10) He understood and appreciated the role families played in people’s lives. 

The other thing that I admired about Shantha is that he knew how to effectively utilize every member of his team and his/her strength. He always found something that was of value in everyone, that was of use to the organizational goal. Shantha’s success as head of this region year after year in my view can be attributed to this one most important quality.

The LEADERSHIP LESSON – “EFFECTIVE DELEGATION” – and he was a man who excelled in 1) Building frameworks of success. His ability to have an 2) Overarching goal and focus for the organization and then 3) Break it down into aligned functional tasks was always based on his 4) Assessment of the talent and aptitude available in his team. He spend 5) time, effort and resources to 6) Bring the teams/functions together so they understood their role in the game and 6) Celebrated success together leading to 7) Continued team work and cohesion.

I am not sure if we realized then, but each one of us was playing to our strength, and contributing to the overall carefully thought out plan.

THANK YOU SHANTHA

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