Name: Vidhya Abhijith

Title: Cofounder

Organisation: Codewave.com

Vidhya is a co-founder of Codewave.com, a Design Thinking-led Digital Innovation company, headquartered in Bangalore. She champions the idea that "Everyone is a creator," and advances Codewave’s purpose of Human transformation through a culture of radical transparency, autonomy, and self-management. Codewave is the winner of the global ZeroDX Awards 2024, for its culture of 'Zero distance' between customers and employees. Vidhya was named a 'Power 100 Women Innovators in India' by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and PwC. She is also a Future50 Honouree by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

We’ve gone through the interviews and asked the best of the best to come back and answer 7 MORE Questions on Leadership.

I hope Vidhya's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. As a leader, how do you build trust with employees, customers and other stakeholders?

Through truth, authenticity, vulnerability, and integrity. Be it employees or customers - when people see my human side, my authentic self, my awesomeness & flawsomeness, and my emotional honesty, they get to understand me and empathise with my position better. It also makes it safe for them to get emotionally honest with me. It's incredible how many long-term relationships Abhi (my cofounder) & I got to build in business, but just having 'nothing to hide'. I believe when you genuinely care, it shows. People can see what's in your heart. People can also smell a fake from a distance.

And Integrity is *everything*: Saying what you will do and doing what you say, over and over again, makes people feel safe working with you.

2. What do 'VISION' and 'MISSION' mean to you? And what does it actually look like to use them in real-world business?

I see many businesses first build a business and then figure out their why. Unlike them, we started with a "Why" (one that we'll be proud of talking about, no matter the revenue). When we asked ourselves - why, why, why, why, why should we exist - the subtle answer was - 'coz we feel happy when we see people transform. "Human transformation" remains our Purpose, over 11+ years.

For me, vision means vividly seeing a future in your mind, before it happens. Back in 2013, India was largely popular for two things - IT and BPO. Most creative jobs like UX or Product design were outsourced to the UK or the US, and even funded Indian startups outsourced 'thinking' jobs to the West at hundreds of dollars an hour. We wanted to change that. We wanted to bring Design thinking back to India and make creativity a part of everyone's job.

We saw a future where titles and JDs won't matter, only people's ingenuity and collaboration will. We knew we'd need a culture where people have the freedom to do their best work. We wrote down our core values, which will not just be on our walls, but will be practiced every day through our actions and behaviors. Those values are - Transparency, Empathy, Self-management, Authenticity, Teamplay.

So, Purpose > Vision > Values > Mission(s) is how I'd put it. We've had multiple missions like "Crossing 1 mn ARR, bootstrapped", "Empowering 10k entrepreneurs through foundery.org". But all these missions were always aligned with our overall vision (the future we're creating) and the ultimate purpose (what makes us truly happy), and were carried out by practicing our values.

3. How can a leader empower the people they're leading?

The first important thing is not to give all the answers. As a leader, I used to feel the urge to have all the answers and feel responsible to give 'solutions' in any situation.

But I realised, real empowerment means resisting the urge to talk and instead asking a question to make people think for themselves. I believe everyone has all the answers (often even better ones), there are just not enough people asking questions. The first step to empowerment is to let people think independently and make informed decisions together. Empower people with the information and tools needed to think independently and act collaboratively, with transparency and consent.

At Codewave - no matter the meeting, you're invited. There are no secret decision-making rooms. Everyone can join a discussion and change the course of it. Creating an atmosphere where it is safe for people to participate in conversations and making it easy for them to understand how they can bring change through participative leadership is key.

If people don't know HOW they can get involved and bring change, they may not fully appreciate the autonomy and powers available for the individual. To sum up, leaders need the courage to step back, ask questions, let people find answers, and make it simple for everyone in the organization to bring change.

4. Who are some of the coaches or mentors in your life who have had a positive influence on your leadership? Can you please tell a meaningful story about one of them?

Many people who have offered timely insights and advice, who really felt like the universe is talking to us and giving us signs. One of the incidents I hold close to my heart is meeting a wise, old gentleman whom we met in a business network, a well-wisher. He was always generous enough to invite us for lunch. One day, Abhi & I were feeling a bit low (sometime in the 3rd year of our Startup when we hit our first big financial crisis). Demand was dropping, and we had excess supply; revenues were dropping like a platelet count, and we had to pay salary hikes.

We decided not to fire anyone to cut costs, instead delaying the hikes for everyone. This didn't go so well with many high performers, and we received resignation emails every day for the next 30 days, which felt gut-wrenching. We happened to meet him; we were traveling near his office, and he greeted us with a big smile as usual.

We shared with him what we were going through, and he philosophically replied: "You have a smile, even when you have a lot going against you. That's your success. If everyone wants to work with you, that's what you want. If no one wants to work with you, that's what you want."

I was a bit confused by what he said - it was quite unusual, why would I want no one to work with me? But reflecting on the line, as I headed back home, the line reflected my ultimate purpose being achieved, that is, when you're no longer needed for the purpose you started, you've succeeded anyway. With a paradox, he reminded us that there's nothing to lose and we're on a 'no-regret' path.

5. Leadership is often more about what you DON'T do. How do you maintain focus in your role?

One big thing we don't do is judge people. Be it a negative review from an employee or a taunt from a customer, we think analysing people is a waste of precious energy and attention. Instead, what we do is cut the noise, and catch the signal - the point that's important for us to learn as leaders shaping the future of the organisation. We don't jump on every byte of information that is floating around us, but rather see the core message and leave the noise, like how a duck would drink only the milk mixed in water (leaving the water aside).

Another thing we don't do is use force to get things done. We believe in having friendly, equal conversations with employees and customers, and there's no need to dominate anyone to get something going our way. Instead, we believe in negotiating with empathy, making sure everyone feels heard, and we're not winning at the cost of making others feel unheard. Relationships are everything in business - relationships can't be sustained with force, but only with love. Yes, not all relationships are meant to be long-term, which is okay.

I bring back my focus to my Goals I have set for myself and have committed to progress on. Be it revenue targets, launching new products, or bettering my health - my goals bring back my focus on what I want most from my life.

6. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Everyone plans differently. How do you plan for the week, month and years ahead in your role?

I set ambitious, long-term goals (like a 3-5 year goal) and also break them down into smaller goals that are specific and easy to measure. Like what would I do towards that goal, in 4 weeks, 3 months, and in 1 year? Then I timebox activities that will move me towards achieving that goal, into my daily calendar. I believe strongly that every goal needs to become a "tiny habit" on your calendar - unless it is scheduled and reminded, it won't happen.

I generally plan my week (like my next week) to say about 60%, and leave the rest for spontaneous/unplanned interventions and events. I love to pay attention to situations that need my presence and contribution every day - no matter the department, I jump in, help ask critical questions and sometimes roll up my sleeves if needed. (There's nothing I would ask people to do, that I'm shy of doing myself.)

7. What advice would you give to a young leader who is struggling to delegate effectively?

Stop being a "perfectionist". Don't assume something will be perfect only when you do it "your way". Have the courage to let people take chances and fail, even if these are public failures (I know this one's hard). But listen closely to customers. Step in when needed, ask important questions, and let people find their own answers to solve it.

Shed all your assumptions about what people can and can't do. Instead, explicitly share what outcomes you're expecting and hold space for people to rise up to the occasion.