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Recognizing the need for grooming leadersin the Indian IT industry, Infosys

Technologies Ltd. has emerged as the first

Indian company to setup an institute

- exclusively for the purpose of developing

leaders to sustain Infosys' legacy...

Early200l sawthe birth ofInfosys leadership Institute

IL!with thevision tobe a globally recognized institution

thatnurtures leaders and advances the field ofleadership

development. Over thepast decade the growth wimessed

at Infosys coupled with globalization, provided Infosys

theimpetus to focuson developing leaders for the future.It was in keeping with thisvision that NarayanaMurthy,

the founder and chairman of thecompany, carefully puttogether a management council, which is an advisory

body that took strategic decisions about the company.During the management council meetings Murthy

noticed that young achievers in the company were

hesitant to come forth with their suggestions. Onencouraging them to speak, Murthy found theirsuggestionsandthoughts had alot of substance and could

help the company significantly. These people had notcontributed to the discussions for the sole reason as they

were afraid of transgressing hierarchy. This botheredMurthy and front this concern was born his grand planto build a leadership institute that would groom and

develop leaders from promising Irifoscions, irrespective

ofhierarchy and give them the opportunityto shape thefuture of the company they were helping to build.

The institutesmain objectives are jotted aroundthesame,which includes preparing thecompanyto manageits global growth anddiversificationobjectives; to prepare

employees to face the complexities of the market and

the rapidly changingenvironment; and, to create higher

customer-value through thought leadershiparoundboth

the science and practice of developing leaders. In fact,

The charter of IL! is to create a formal, defined system

to develop leadership and management capabilities in

Infoscions by enabling the immediate execution ofcurrent strategy, andto ensure a high probabilityof board

succession," says, MathewBarnec the headofleadershipdevelopment of IL!. Thus, the institute focuses only on

the senior-most and high-potential leaders called Tier

Leaders and striveto help these leaders realize their goals

and ultimately succeed the board of directors, IL! is

committed to both relevanceand rigor in equal amounts."We work toward helping execute the business strategy

Infosys pipelines its leaders

through Infosys Leadersh:

Institute that grooms,

develops andprovides leaders

the platform to growfora

globalized environment

and ensuring thatInfosys has appropriate bench strength

ofleaders to take on senior leadership positions," assertsBarney.

To start creating a robust leadership developmentprocess lnfosys defined leadership cornpetenciesbasedon itsvision andcore values and defined along fourbroaddimensionsviz.Work. People,Technologyand Business.Each of these was further amplified into smalleroperational elements. Further, a nine pillar dimension

model of leadership was developed that describesleadership effectiveness in behavioral terms. The ninepillars were 360 degree feedback, developmentalassignments, Infosys culture workshop, developmentalrelationships, leadership skill training, fedbackintensiveprograms, system processlearning,community empathyandaction learning, "All nineand Infosys' leadership traitsand values are assessed annually, using multi-source or

360 degree feedback approaches. Multi-source surveys

ask each stakeholder about the leader, includingsubordinates, peers, managers, mentorsand customers,'

explains Barney.

Recently, ILl began using computer adaptive 360degree assessments known as the Leadership Journey

Series. While computer-adaptive tests have been used

for over 30 years in physician certification and academia,

IL! is one of the first institutes to use thesemethods that

ensure short, but highlyaccurateandprecise information.

"Importantly, all are based on the most practical method

for giving feedback, to better focus leaders on the area's

most potent for growth.All action plans are documentedin individualized personal development plans that are

discussed with assignedmentors including chiefmentor,

Narayana Murthy,' adds Barney.

ILl has continued to evolve over the years, with a

significant shift in strategy in 2009, when it was

restructured to focus exclusively on the senior-most

leaders and high potentials with advanced leadershipmethods. In 2009, the Inlosys board of directors launched

a new 360 survey for themselves and unit heads, which

was used successfullyto plan development ofthe senior-

most leaders, role modeling the importance of leader

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360-degree feedback: Systematically data is collected about a person's

performanceand

capabilities from a wide range of co-workers including

peers, direct reportees, the manager and customers both internal and

external. ILl uses a comprehensive toot that is aligned to the Leadership

competencies. The feedback received from this 360-degree process is

used as the basis for the preparation of individual personal development

plans PUPs, which are the blueprints that guide the individual in acquiring

new skills and enhancing existing skills, all aligned to the basic Leadership

cornpetencies model. Each individual is assigned an ILl faculty member

to help prepare the PUP and put it in action.

Development assignments lAs: High-potential employees are given

experience in diverse functions through internal job rotations and cross-

functional assignments. OAs enable employees to gather practical

leadership skills outside his or her zone of experience.

Infosys Culture IC workshops: These workshops help participantsunderstand the core values, purpose and processes followed in the context

of leadership development. The design of these workshops allows forextensive interaction among participants leading to reinforcement of the

Infosys culture, and ensuring enough empowerment to guarantee

adherence and refinement to the culture of the organization.

Development relationships: These are one-on-one relationships in worksettings that facilitate the sharing and transfer of knowledge and

experience between individuaLs. The Infosys leadership development model

views mentoring as a developmental relationship in the context of

leadership development. A `mentoring for Leadership pilot program is

operationaL and earnings from this program will be used to refine and

extend this element of leadership development across the organization.

Leadership skills training: EmpLoyees go through a series of learning

interventions on topics of relevance to leadership. XLI has started the

process with the `Leaders Teach Series'. These are workshops conducted

by the board of directors with help from the III faculty. This series

includes workshops by the chairman and chief mentor, the managing

director and CEO, and other members of the board. The `Leaders TeachSeries' resulted from the belief that the company is the campus, thebusiness is the curriculum, Leaders shall teach".

Feedback intensive programs: These are intensive behaviouralinterventions, which are based on formal and informal feedback received

from individuals that the employee interfaces with. They are structured

in a manner so that the participants receive and give feedback in a non-

threatening environment and yield a workable plan for setting goals for

continued personal and professional development and strategies for

attaining them.

Systemic process teaming: This is an intervention that enables participants

to view an organization as a whole system comprising innumerable

interacting sub-systems. It yields plans for continuous improvement in

systemic processes and details how an individual will initiate suchimprovements.Action learning: This is a team-based real-time experience used to solve

real, systemic and unresolved organizational problems. It is a pragmatic

process aimed at yielding a resolution to the `problem' or `issue' that has

been identified, and a workable plan for setting goats for continued

development, with strategies for attaining them,

Community empathy: ILl aspires to create, on a regular and structured

basis, opportunities for high-potential candidates to enroll themselves

in causes outside Infosys that contribute to the greater good of the less

fortunate. The importance of community empathy in overall leadership

development is in line with the fundamental belief of the organization

that social conscience needs to be nurtured and enhanced in each one ofits present and potential leaders.

development to the rest of the organization.Also, last year, each tier leader was assignedan IL! expert to be their individual counselor,

andsinglepointofcontactforall ILlofferings,including thenew Leadership Journey SeriesComputer Adaptive assessments.

On grooming leaders, says Barney, "Our

approach is holistic; to ensure the full rangeof leadership development interventions areboth necessary and sufficient to grow junior

leaders into board members.' These includeformal classes with external experts, talks bytier leaders called Leaders Teach', books, and

feedback from assessments. The `Leaders

Teach Series' are workshops conducted by the

hoard of directors, executive committee and

tier leaders with help from the ILL faculty

Some of the areas under development

include advanced virtual leadership scenarios,which allow leaders to practice the mostcomplicated leadership behaviors in a sale,simulated environment.

Also, IL! is accountable for appliedresearch that is both rigorous and relevant to

I! Infosys business problems. "We have begun

to establish relationshipswithworld renownedleadership scientist-practitioners, such asProfessor David Day of the University of

Western Australia, for a 3 year program of

research and teaching related to accelerating

individual leader development," updates

Barney

Apart from imparting knowledge, the topmanagement of Infosys, including thechairman, the CEO and the board of directorsare closely involved in the design and roll out

of programs forthenextgeneration ofleaders,making this initiative a unique blend ofpragmatic expertise and professionalexperience. In addition, ILl faculty consists of

stall members with global experience in the

science and practice of leader development;senior leaders from Infosys and eminent

academicians. LU, currently, has three Ph.D.

faculties, including the head, Dr. Barney one

in training and the third one is masters-trained. However, ILl is a very small team of

six, one external consultanta former Infosysemployee, and two support staff to support

750 leaders. To increase the ILl team, saysBarney, "We are activelyrecruitingleadership

experts in a hot labor market."

The institute has dished out several leaders

who have been successful in implementing

their knowledge in various interventions that

aid in solving real business issues. Vorexample, ILl worked closely with Infosys'

successful Finacle unit on their plan to growto sIB dollars, from its current !JSD $250M.Finacle, Infosys largest and most successful

software product has received the highest

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ratings from analysts, and has significant marketpzesence

in dozens ofcountries around theworld. "The challenge

however, was to scale globally, including new markets

with leaders,,who could sell, and implement Finacle's

banking solution to banking boards. IL! worked closely

with the entire Pinacle leadership team on a series of

interventions to improve theunit head and his topleaders'

on time management skills; empowerment and

delegation; organizational process improvement using

Lean Six Sigma and Dr. Barney's Cue See model; and

organization design," illustrates Barney

As he describes, "This resulted in a powerful business

case to investinFinaclethatwas recognized byonelnfosys

board member as `The Big Bet' for the company. ILl's

first patent, now pending, was developed in response to

specific leadership challenges faced by Finacle's

leadership team and leveraging original IL! intellectual

property IL! demonstrated that its early interventions,

such as our `Time Quadrants' intervention was effective

through formal Rasch Measurement Analyses; and

ultimately our work in collaboration with Finacle's

leadership team demonstratedour relevance with rigor."

A second example oflU's success is, in thisyear, with

Infosys' I3IJS unit head and senior leadership team to

define their strategy to grow past$1B. "Using Dr. Barney's

Cue See Model, including self-paced learning, theentire

leadership team identified their bottlenecks, and set

action plans that set the tone for the leadership team's

action plans, and team coordination for the next fiscalyear. The unit head was pleased to recommend this

approach to his peers, as a useful model to ensure ILl

relevance and rigor," elucidates Barney.

Since the new ILl was finalized at the end of 2009,

and is finalizing governance measurements, including

measurable impact with Infosys' chief risk officer, withencouragement from the risk subcommittee of the

boani, "We will he systematically collecting and reporting

on these data to ensure internal operational excellence,

de-risk succession and providing appropriate

measurements to academic research partners," states

Barney.

On future plans of IL!, Barney shares, "We are actively

creating development roadmaps that include advanced

simulations for leaders to practice difficult and riskyskills

in a safe environment. One research area includes

advanced psychometrics in virtual environments for

better feedback to learners, mentors and managers that

are less tedious than alternatives. We are continuing to

expand our network of expert academics to teach, and

publish with us. Our first book will come out later in 2010

entitled, `Authentic Leadership at Infosys', designed to

teach Infosys leaders and to provide a platform to get

closer to customers and prospective customers with

Infosys thought leadership."

"IL! wants to beknownfor evidence-basedleadership;

and for using lnfosys strengths - software - as a significant

lever to grow leaders. Besides, we welcome dialog and

partnerships with others who embrace authentic

leadership with measurable impact," he adds.

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