Sundar Pichai

CEO Google Inc.

“As a leader, it is important to not just see your own success, but focus on the success of others”

– Sundar Pichai.

In a world where organizations thrive on cut-throat competition, organizational politics, leg

pulling and profit making, Sundar Pichai has proved to be different. He believes in the success of

others, and wants people to be successful. Sundar is always willing to go to every extent to make

it possible. That is one exceptional quality in any leader, as the famous saying goes: “if you want

to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with a team”.

There have been instances at Google where Sundar has been able to share information about a

product that he did not directly manage, while the owner was himself not aware of these facts.

This highlights Sundar’s attention to detail, which is an exceptional quality among leaders.

Leaders are expected to know the KPIs, dashboard highlights and the underlying data they are

drawn from. Right decisions are based on insights gleaned from thorough understanding of data,

which a leader cannot ignore.

Social media is full of comments about how Sundar had the skill to tune his communication based

on the audience. He was at ease while talking to ICs, VPs, bosses, partners and customers; at

multiple levels. It involved both understanding the vision and cascading it suitably in a simple,

genuine, clear and crisp manner. Sundar was not naturally endowed with this skill but worked to

learn the trade and was successful. Leaders need to be adept at communicating, up, down and

sideways and learn constantly.

In a company filled with exceptionally talented people, Sundar was still able to inspire the team

with his work ethic, professionalism, integrity, innovation, risk taking acumen, enthusiasm and

brilliance – traits that the organization looked forward to in a leader, beyond Larry Page. A leader

should be able to constantly inspire the team towards the larger goals of the business.

At Google, the pressure and stress that Sundar was able to handle is beyond imagination. He was

a star cricket player during his school days in India and excelled there too, leading his state. His

ability to manage stress can be traced to this phase in his life where he played not to win but to

become competitive, to handle pressure and keep the mind and body agile. He must be practicing

this trade in some form today to continue the momentum. Leaders cannot avoid responsibility

but should find a way to effectively handle the stress and pressure thereof.

With his focused no-nonsense work approach, Sundar earned unmatched reputation at work - his

team worshipped him, the marketing team loved him, peers respected him, his boss appreciated

him, competition sought him, the markets welcomed his elevation and Googlers were happy and

proud. The hallmark of a leader is the urge to earn respect from team, bosses, peers, partners,

customers and even competition.

In spite of growing popularity and clout in the organization, Sundar maintained a low profile. As

the famous saying goes “work hard in silence, let your success make the noise”, Sundar is a perfect

fit. He let his work speak instead of his talk; his persona and demeanour were the same as his

inner self – affable, approachable and soft-spoken.