Rajesh Varrier of Infosys: Why Stopping the Pursuit of Universal Happiness is Essential for Modern Leaders

We are living in the Renaissance of Work. Just like great artists know that an empty canvas can become anything, great leaders know that an entire organization — and the people inside it — can become anything, too. Master Artists and Mastering the Art of Leadership draw from the same source: creation. In this series, we’ll meet masters who are creating the future of work and painting a portrait of lasting leadership. As part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Rajesh Varrier.

Rajesh is a business leader and IT professional with over 30 years of progressive global experience in delivering outcomes to customers. He has unique and comprehensive experience of having built global consulting business, played role of a Chief Digital Officer and been a successful entrepreneur. At Infosys he is currently the Global Head of Digital Business and the Global Head of Microsoft business. He is also on the Board of Blue Acorn iCi and Wongdoody — Infosys Subsidiaries. He is responsible for growth of the business, managing client, partner and analyst relationships.

In his last assignment he was the CIO and Digital Officer for a large life insurance firm. In this role he was responsible for crafting and executing a digital transformation strategy for the firm over a three year period. Prior to this Rajesh took his entrepreneurial plunge by boot-strapping an analytics firm based out of Bangalore, before selling the firm in 2015. During his earlier stint with Infosys from 2000 to 2006, he played role of Head of PeopleSoft Practice and HCM Practice.

Thank you for joining us. Our readers would enjoy discovering something interesting about you. What are you in the middle of right now that you’re excited about personally or professionally?

I am in the middle of relocating to the US. I am based in Dallas now, getting set up. Exciting times both personally and professionally. I have moved to the US to work closely with my team and customers here.

We all get by with a little help from our friends. Who is the leader that has influenced you the most, and how?

There are many leaders who we read about and admire at a distance, both in our own country and globally. And then there are leaders around you who you work closely with and learn from. Some of the leaders are in my team, they have exceptional capabilities and I have an opportunity to learn from them. Some of them are in the family whose leadership skills, ability to take charge of situations and solve for them, you see these play out at different points of time in life and you learn from it too. Then there are corporate leaders who set examples on how to lead teams, business and manage customers. If you keep your eyes open there are so many people to learn from, demonstrating leadership traits in different circumstances in life. We without realizing are enriched by many of those who are in our lives.

How has your definition of leadership changed or evolved over time? What does it mean to be a leader now?

Over the years I have learnt to take more accountability towards outcomes. I have realized that you cannot take refuge in the effort when outcomes don’t materialize. All businesses around you are run by smart and hard working teams, if you and your team are putting in inordinate amount of effort so is your competition, efforts and hard work are table stakes. What matters end of the day as a leader is to deliver the outcomes you have been entrusted with.

To me leadership is about several things, top of mind being delivering results, its all about the team without them you are no one and value systems.

Success is as often as much about what we stop as what we start. What is one legacy leadership behavior you stopped because you discovered it was no longer valuable or relevant?

Great question. Success is about what you learn and change. One of the things I used to be quite keen on doing in my early days is making sure I kept everyone on the team happy about the decisions we took. Keeping everyone happy with every decision you take is impossible to achieve and not of value. I have learnt to seek opinions, give your team chance to speak the mind, take the inputs, arrive at a decision, explain the same to the team and execute. It may not please everyone, but that’s ok.

What is one lasting leadership behavior you started or are cultivating because you believe it is valuable or relevant?

Focus on outcomes, I have often seen people talk about the immense effort that they have put into the task, and all the activities they did, while that is important, I have learnt what is more important is to get the team to focus on the result delivered. Conversations often meander away in to narratives about the effort, constantly bringing back the focus to outcomes, help.

The other non negotiable is sticking to your core the value systems.

What advice would you offer to other leaders who are stuck in past playbooks and patterns and may be having a hard time letting go of what made them successful in the past?

Most leaders I know of are super smart and have moved on with time, there is very little I could teach them. We talk about similar aspects of Leadership, about value systems, carrying the team along etc. I am a huge proponent of rising above the noise and getting the team to focus on outcomes, which often gets lost in the emotions that people get carried away relating to the effort that has been invested.

Many of our readers can relate to the challenge of leading people for the first time. What advice would you offer to new and emerging leaders?

This can be a long list of advices. Where to begin, your team sees you as a representation of the organization you work for, so everything you do or say should be seen in that context. Your team observes every action you take, most important are your actions with respect to your value systems, ensure you never let your guard down on that. Pay attention to what your team has to say, you will benefit significantly, often they have insights that you will not have. Keep focus on outcomes, else we can get carried away by stories of. End of the day make friends, today they are your team members, tomorrow they could be lifelong friends. Number of my best friends were at some point part of my team, we may not work together any more, but they have enriched my life with their friendship.

What is the legacy you aspire to leave as a leader?

Leadership is about inspiring teams to driving outcomes. A successful leader is one how has delivered desired results I hope to leave a legacy in small ways of some one who often delivered the results.

How can our readers connect with you to continue the conversation?

I am reachable on my Twitter handle @iamvarrier or LinkedIn.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to experience a leadership master at work. We wish you continued success and good health!

About The Interviewer: Karen Mangia is one of the most sought-after keynote speakers in the world, sharing her thought leadership with over 10,000 organizations during the course of her career. As Vice President of Customer and Market Insights at Salesforce, she helps individuals and organizations define, design and deliver the future. Discover her proven strategies to access your own success in her fourth book Success from Anywhere and by connecting with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.