Change is not good enough unless it comes from within.  And it has got to start right at the top, thinks V.K. Madhav Mohan, who has taken it up as a mission to assist this process. You’ve probably heard it from employees just out of a training or development programme, that such programmes would be better if they also included the boss.

But then, who can imagine a chairman or managing director accepting that he might also need to change? Meet V.K. Madhav Mohan, corporate mentor, who helps all those who just might want to.  

Everybody knows that they have to change, otherwise they will soon be nowhere.  But what that change should be, and how to bring that about, they’re not so sure,” says Mohan.

Who wouldn’t agree?  Isn’t that why they’ve invested such a lot in training and restructuring programmes towards change? “But,” stresses Mohan, “without change in the boardroom, any change down the line will be infructous, or even dangerous.”

Mohan had been undertaking the usual management training programmes for employees down the line for close to a decade, and he kept getting the feedback that “these programmes should be for the bosses.”  “That’s when I realized that I’ll have to get the chiefs to change,” he explains.

“There’s a lot of attitude.  People are still on a power trip.  They don’t realize that they’re carrying the vestiges of their past success.  Centralized functioning, not delegating authority.  Micro-managing, looking over their shoulders.  Not giving the second or third line of managers to grow.  In short, behaving like managers and not leaders,” Mohan points out.

“That‘s why I feel the change will have to come within the boardroom, personally as well as professionally, starting with the chairman and managing director, who generally think that having sent their managers and the others for such programmes is enough.”

But, how open have these corporate bigwigs been to his proposal? “The writing is on the wall.  They might not want to change from the heart, but they can see that if they don’t change, their business may not survive,” says Mohan matter-of-factly.  “Or, their best people might not stay with them.”

Empirically it has been found that a high-keyed boss reflects on the team, the health and survival of those working with him.  However, what is important is that the change should be done only if you want to and none of it can be done under threat.  “You got to believe that it will work, then you will see it work,” Mohan emphasizes. 

It’s an intense process that begins with establishing a very close relationship with the client.  Because mentoring, unlike consultancy is helping someone to change personally (attitude and behavior) as well as professionally (ideas and skills).  That’s why, he remarks, “it is so important to also ensure that I am already doing what I am teaching.  Otherwise there would be no credibility.”

So what have been the major problems Mohan discovered during his efforts to get the big guys to change?  The number one problem, he says, is teamwork in the organization.  “The board has to learn to work as a fantastic team.  In many companies this does not happen.”

The next problem that surfaces is conflicts and disagreements between members of the board.  “It’s also a very necessary thing for a company to be successful.  But this has to be channelised in order to be constructive.  That’s something I have got to get them to learn to do.”

“Basically,” says Mohan, “while climbing up the ladder, people seem to lose the ability to form and sustain relationships.  They need to get back the ability to form relationships, right from the top to the bottom.  People need to be more open to others.  They also need to read and to be able to assimilate new ideas and concepts.”

These are some of the major problems that mentoring addresses.  Tackling the issues through questionnaires that put the participants through structured introspection which enables them to learn about themselves.

Then more learning through a personal development programme, defining their roles as directors and drawing up a code of conduct, and related aspects that include how to manage time.

Mohan acknowledges that directors, burdened as they are with the big strategic decisions they have to make, are generally very alone.  Here too, he is ready with help, “as a sounding board, to assist  in working out strategy”.  Which is an area he is also well acquainted with, from his background in hardcore management.

Starting out as a probationer with State Bank of India in 1978, Mohan quit it in 1982 to join State Bank of Travancore as a director.

There has been a lot of other activity, a lot of learning along the way.  His experience as a tennis player, he says, helped him to handle defeat.  His background as a quizmaster taught him not to make assumptions.

A prolific writer and spirited lecturer on management, business and economics, Mohan’s interest has really been in conceptualizing ideas.  “All this gave me the confidence to get into this and the skills I acquired over the years have helped tremendously in my work,” he suggests.

Also foresight, which encouraged him to start off an NIIT center in Cochin, the first one outside the major metros, way back in 1987 “when very few were even talking about computers”.  It is perhaps this same foresight that has led him to believe in the necessity for mentoring.  “I think there is a great need for it.”  And his experience so far with the top bosses of a couple of family-managed companies he is working with, he says, confirms this belief.  “I think I have something to offer and I want to share it with others.”