Visty Banaji:How did your commitment and approach to learning differ from that of most other managers, Anil, considering that learning has been a beacon for you since your student days and throughout your career?

Anil Khandelwal: In my career journey, I kept learning as a high priority agenda and I was somehow able to create  a  ‘magical 25th hour’ for learning. I never allowed myself to be sucked by the routine despite pressures. This I could do because early in my formative days,  My penchant for writing kept me  going. 

I joined the bank in 1971 as a probationary officer soon after completing my chemical engineering and MBA. In the absence of any induction training and in the prevailing   turbulent environment at that  time on account of prevailing union militancy and restrictive practices, I was quite disillusioned about the work culture and made a pivotal shift to the Human Resource function. 

After a few years, I opted to join  as a senior core faculty, Human Resource at Bank of Baroda Staff College, Ahmedabad and stayed there for thirteen long years. During this period, I completed my PhD under professor N R Sheth, then Director IIM , Ahmedabad and also completed my three-year Law Degree. I also authored four books . This period was truly a learning period and brought me into contact with stalwarts like Udai Pareek, T V Rao, Pradeep Khandwalla. Thanks to the encouragement of Udai Pareek and T V Rao, I successfully completed the three-phase ISABS process facilitation program. During the ISABS program, I developed a close professional relationship with Professor Rajen Gupta who has been a friend, philosopher guide since then. 

I believe that learning is hierarchy neutral and one can learn from anyone. During my first operational posting at Meerut, I learnt banking operations from officers five levels below me. Post retirement, my habit of learning brought me in touch with several outstanding professionals. I realise that it is our curiosity for learning that broadens our perspective and helps us achieve success in our roles.   

The pursuit of learning has been ingrained in me to the point that it has become an integral part of my being. It keeps me on a continuous path of discovery, ensuring that there is no final destination in the journey of learning.

Visty Banaji: In Chapter 29, "My Personal Code of Leadership," can you highlight the three to five essential leadership prescriptions a reader should not overlook from the numerous options presented?

Anil Khandelwal: Your question is very relevant. Although, in this chapter a number of leadership skills find a place in my code, but essentially, they can be grouped into four critical traits. Leadership skills are often interconnected and if you have some basic traits and skills, they can help you become an integrated human being. To me, the following four traits are very critical and I have always tried to focus on these in my various leadership roles. 

Credibility: It's crucial to be trustworthy and authentic, because it sets the foundation for mobilising the confidence and support of various stakeholders and most importantly your employees.
Courage: Embrace the courage to enact change, confront challenges, take responsibility, and maintain accountability. 
Compassion: Balancing concern for high performance with empathy and compassion for your team is vital. As CEO, one needs to institutionalise compassion across the organisation as I did by establishing a direct helpline for 40000 employees and 30 million customers who reached to me directly in case of serious problems. Practical initiatives, like a direct helpline for employees, exemplify this compassion.
Character: Both intellectual and personal integrity are in a financial institution, it is much more crucial to preserve the trust of our employees, customers and the larger society.Each of the concepts I have described in my book fit into these categories.

Visty Banaji: You emphasise the importance of staying grounded by recalling your humble beginnings in Agra. How can individuals who have had more privileged childhoods maintain a similar sense of humility?

Anil Khandelwal: Humility doesn't solely come from hardship; it's also influenced by your upbringing and socialisation within the organisation. My own values, like empathy and discipline, have roots in my background. Difficult times instilled discipline, and the support of certain individuals fostered empathy. The values instilled by my  parents, teachers, and personal beliefs played a crucial role in my shaping as a leader. Conversely, a challenging childhood can also lead to negative traits like revengefulness—it depends on what values you embrace.

Visty Banaji: Among several HR initiatives, you created an HR committee of the Board though no such structure was mandatory.

Anil Khandelwal: I had always felt that human resource issues rarely engage the attention of the boards despite their criticality and the role during the transformation process. I always held a belief that architecting a new paradigm of human resources is a critical part of our vision to become a prime brand in the Indian financial sector. In this background, we created an HR Committee of the Board.    

Fortunately, we had exceptional individuals on the Board, such as Pradip Khandwalla (Ex IIMA Director) and Deepak Phatak (a well-known IT expert faculty at IIT, Bombay). We also brought in external experts, like Arvind Agrawal from RPG Group and Professor BL Maheshwari from the Center for Organisational Development. Occasional input from Professors Udai Pareek and T V Rao added valuable perspectives. Our HR Committee of the Board played a vital role in developing a long term HR policy document and a 5-year HR strategy and proposing multiple changes such as fast-track promotion system, meritocratic human processes, employee engagement strategies, succession planning for critical roles, and a strategic plan for developing 300 leaders for the future. Eventually, when the Government of India appointed the Khandelwal Committee, under my chairmanship, to suggest HR reform measures in the public sector banks, we suggested it as a reform measure and all banks were asked by the Government of India to introduce a HR committee of the Board. So, when in one bank you take an initiative, it can become an industry intervention. The HR Committee of the Board is one of the active committees in the bank even now and has turned substantive work to build the leadership at various levels.

Visty Banaji: You accomplished so much in the limited time you had as a CEO. What is the secret of your time management?

Anil Khandelwal:  Any CEO of a large, complex organisation would have the challenges that I had with time management. But I have always been a multi-tasker. People are critical of multitasking and for good reason, but I have always benefited from this. Multi-tasking has to be for routine work, and it worked very well for me.

Yes, I have been very conscious in managing my time. Without sacrificing my daily routine of morning walk and physical exercises, I restructured my work in a manner that every hour of the day was ‘a strategic time.’ For example, my General Manager heading credit function, who himself was a health conscious executive. During the morning walk of one hour he was on Marine would brief me about the credit proposals in the pipeline and  issues involved  so that I wouldn't have to read a 100-page credit proposal. In fact, one of the personal transformations I brought about as CEO  was that I started discussing the issues more than reading. And I would demand that, on anything which was lengthy ,I had a summary note about the background of the issue and the decision sought.

I had twenty five general managers reporting to me on different functions and some operational issues were very complex but I had to understand the core issues and then make decisions. So, even when I had  breakfast, I would have discussions with a general manager on issues concerning his function. Another would join me on my 40-minute car ride from my residence to the corporate office. And I reduced the number of meetings that used to take place. There was only one major omnibus morning meeting, which initially was agenda-less. 

In these meetings, we critically analysed the interdepartmental problems and our internal bureaucracy, that have been hampering the process of decision-making and eventually the growth of the bank. We collectively laid the foundation for agile decision-making and a facilitative work culture across the bank. The daily morning meetings became a crucible for culture change in the bank and contributed substantially to our technology led business transformation program.     

Visty Banaji:  Anil, would you like to add anything before we finish? 

Anil Khandelwal: In my various roles and specially at the top,  my emphasis has always been on building intangibles, encompassing culture, internal management processes, leadership development, governance, rebranding, technology, and an architecture of integrity. These elements harmonised like a symphony, yielding exceptional business results. Through this transformation journey, I reaffirmed my belief that intangibles are the driving force behind tangible business outcomes.

In essence, all your questions can be distilled to a single core principle: passion supersedes competence. While you can acquire competence, you must nurture and ignite passion, and this is the primary responsibility of leadership. The art of instilling passion remains an elusive yet pivotal aspect of leadership.