Empowerment – Incredible Leadership Stories

After two gruelling years of MBA from Christ College, one of the prestigious institutions in then Bangalore, I took my baby steps into the corporate world with Mindtree Consulting, the name by which the company was known those days. It was a mid-size IT company compared to the likes of giants in Indian IT diaspora such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro etc. My staff ID was just 4299.

I joined the Staff Operations department of Mindtree which was entrusted with the critical task of finding the right person for a job. Those days, Staff Ops department of Mindtree was designed to have regional teams taking care of staffing requirements of clients in their respective geographical areas with US being the biggest, followed by Europe, Asia Pacific etc. There was a Central Operations team as well to co-ordinate with these different regional teams to ensure that staff utilisation is effective and optimized. My boss and I were part of the latter.

While the structure worked, there were already talks about this model to be redesigned to match the planned growth of the organization. To facilitate this, the management decided to get a seasoned Mindtree Mind, how the staff was addressed in Mindtree, who managed a large client in the US.

The word got out and all of us in Staff Ops team were quite excited, as this man was to be our new boss. What was even more interesting was the rumour that he was going to consolidate Staff Ops function to achieve more synergies. Lot of improvements were expected. Little did we know that along with him a sea of changes were to follow, some of them we did not even anticipate. The man's reputation preceded him.

Dats, that was how our new boss was affectionately known in Mindtree circles. As soon as he took charge, he called for a combined meeting of all Staff Ops teams. We were quite surprised with his demeanour. The man who ran one of the biggest accounts of Mindtree in US, the man who had been tasked to consolidate the entire Staff Operations for the company had a remarkably calm way of going about with his business. We were impressed on day one itself.

The action then started!

His first ask was to get all the leads list down daily activities we carried out as a team. He reviewed the list and identified all those activities that did not strictly belong to Staff Ops. There were a bunch of tasks that our team performed on daily basis which in fact belonged to other functions in the organization such as HR, Quality, Recruitment etc. This was quite typical of young organizations, a learning that was applied over the period of growth. Dats immediately scheduled meetings with his counterparts in those departments and agreed with them to own their respective activities thereby freeing our valuable time to do more meaningful staff allocation specific activities.

We thought we were all set to start with our new life. That was when Dats broke the biggest surprise. It must be either the work culture he picked up from US or his methodical approach to everything that we came to appreciate in the days ahead or both. Dats noticed that some of the team members worked late in the evening in office for multiple reasons. He called the entire team into a meeting room one day and made a statement that still echoes in my head even after almost two decades of the incident. He said, ‘None of us are doctors and no one is going to die if you stop working at the prescribed end time of the day. I do not want to see any one of you staying back in office unless there is an emergency that you will be able to justify to me’!

Those were golden words, teams across the corporate world would love to hear from their bosses! He was incredible in not just saying that but to live a life and showed us how to really have a work-life balance. God bless bosses like you Dats! You are indeed a rare breed! 

The Paris Surprise

Year 2018, was when Ruby and I decided to take our kids for our first ever European trip together. Among the destinations we planned to visit, Paris was the last. As a sheer coincidence, that was the year of FIFA football world cup and as destiny would have it, France were the champions that year. It just so happened that the final match was two days before our planned date of arrival in Paris.

The city had gone crazy on the day France won. There was chaos and fights everywhere. It was as though Parisians were in a trance from the win. We were obviously a bit worried about reaching the city given this background. A friend of mine who worked in Paris in fact asked us to drop our plan if it was not urgent. Nevertheless, since we planned it long time ago and this being our last leg of the trip, we decided to go ahead. Fortunately, by the time we reached Paris, the commotion had settled down.

We had booked ourselves a hotel at a place called Clamart and reached the place on a taxi from the train station on the first day. The hotel booking was done based on our research looking at the accessibility via train. Little did we realize that this was the suburbs of Paris and though a train station was right next to the hotel where we stayed, it was not the metro railway network connecting the city directly. While it was a late realization for us, we were quite OK with it since all these contributed to our travel experiences.

The next day we decided to explore the city and headed to the train station near our hotel. As we reached the station, we looked for the ticket counter. While there was one, unfortunately no staff was present. The alternate option was to buy the tickets from an automated kiosk. We thought we will give it a try.

The kiosk had a catch. It only accepted coins. We had Euros, but as currency. While we were trying to check the tickets from the machine, a queue started building behind us. With the machine not allowing currency we were stuck.

As we were wondering what to do, I heard a tiny voice from behind us in the queue, asking in a French laced English, if we needed help. It was a petite lady who was patiently waiting for us to finish our turn at the machine. We tried to explain the situation to her. Without even thinking twice, she took out her purse and paid for all our tickets.

Soon we were on our way to the city. At the station where we all got down, we paid her in currency and she promptly returned the change. The train moved on and all our concerns about friendliness and wellbeing in Paris also went along with it.

Santhosh George Kulangara, one of the most widely travelled person in the world had once said, ‘most of the people across the world are good, unfortunately we get influenced by negativity expressed by one person’s experience and make the mistake of generalising that for all.’

Let us remember to have an open mind during our trips, all the while being aware of our surroundings.

Happy travelling!

 

When Arundhati pushed Obama away…

I hail from the state of Kerala in India where people speak the language Malayalam. While all my schooling and college education was in English medium, the influence of native language on me was quite deep. Having said that, by the year 1997, I had started with my second year of Pre-degree, the equivalent of grade 10 + 2 today. While authors who wrote in Malayalam was a clear favourite, English authors were not that alien to me.

Incidentally, this was the same year the world was surprised to see Arundhati Roy, an Indian born, Kerala woman who authored an English novel, her first, and bagged the Booker Prize! For someone who stayed away from English writers for most part, I had no clue what Booker Prize was. So, I took an effort to find out how big a deal it was and was indeed impressed with the author for the win.

Everyone seemed to talk about the book, ‘The God of Small Things’. While it was a fact that Arundhati had her roots in Kerala, what was even more appealing to me was that the story in her novel happened at a place called Aymanam which was near my hometown, Changanacherry in Kerala.

I was thrilled and really wanted to get a copy of the novel. As luck would have it, I came across the book in the library of one of my uncles. Since he was quite particular about not letting people borrow his books, I had to attempt to read the book at his place. Attempt I did, but after a couple of pages, the novel turned out to be a tough nut to crack for me. I just could not understand the plot. It was the language perhaps or my limited exposure to English novels during those times. I promptly placed the book back in the library and walked away. The next time I was to touch that novel and buy a copy was almost three decades later. Even then, I simply added that to my collection, planning to read it one day.

Life moved on. Obama came to power in US. He got re-elected as well. I was totally at awe by his speeches and the videos showing his surprise visits to local eateries. Without Obama even knowing it, he had a huge fan in me, and I started following anything related to him. Close to a decade after Arundhati published her book, Obama’s book came out, ‘The Audacity of Hope - Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream’. Blinded with idol worship, I thought this was the autobiography by the man and decided to buy a copy one day. 18 years after Obama published his book, I picked up a copy from a local store in Dubai.

I was reading a Malayalam book at that time. Soon after I finished with that, I picked up ‘The Audacity of Hope’ in eager anticipation of knowing all about the man I admired. I was in for a shock that the book was more of a Political Biography and had little to do with being an autobiography. I persisted. Afterall, I was no longer the young boy in 1997 to drop a book just like that. Patience is a virtue, or so I thought. First page gave way to the second, with great difficulty though. Page three seemed far away. Nevertheless, I pushed myself to reach page fifty somehow. By the time I was experiencing the feeling of self-betrayal and finally decided to give a break to Obama.

As I replaced Obama in my library, my eyes got stuck at the name Arundhati Roy. ‘The God of Small Things’ looked at me and smiled. I obliged. It had been two days today, since I picked up the book. I must say what a relief it was from traversing through American history and political philosophy to enjoying the simple landscape of Aymanam, a village in my dearest state of Kerala. Arundhati was beckoning me this time, with an almost seducing clutches to revive my interest in reading! And I must say, she was able to push Obama away that, ‘The Audacity of Hope’ seemed to have lost all hope forever.

Everything has its own time. When it is meant to happen, it will happen.

ജീവിതങ്ങൾ ജന്മങ്ങൾ

ജയ്സൺ, വിനീത് സോണി. മൂന്നു വ്യത്യസ്തങ്ങളായ ജീവിത പശ്ചാത്തലങ്ങളിൽ നിന്ന് വന്ന് ഒരേ ക്യാമ്പസിൽ കണ്ടുമുട്ടിയവർ. അവരുടെ സമകാലികരെ പോലെ കേരളത്തിൽ ബിരുദം എടുത്ത ശേഷം ഉപരിപഠനത്തിനായി മൂവരും എത്തിപ്പെട്ടത് തമിഴ്നാട്ടിലെ പ്രശസ്തമായ ഒരു കലാലയത്തിൽ ആയിരുന്നു. ഓരോരുത്തരും ഓരോ കാര്യങ്ങളിൽ ഒന്നിനൊന്നു മെച്ചം. വിനീത് അസ്സലായിട്ട് പാടും, സോണി പഠനത്തിൽ അഗ്രഗണ്യൻ, ജയ്സൺ ആവട്ടെ ഒന്നാന്തരം ഒരു സംഘാടകൻ.

ജീവിതം അങ്ങനെ മുന്നോട്ടു പോയി. മൂന്നുവർഷം പോയത് അവരറിഞ്ഞു പോലുമില്ല. അതിനിടെ എന്തെല്ലാം തമാശകൾ. എത്ര എത്ര നുറുങ്ങ് നിമിഷങ്ങൾ. എന്തിനും ഏതിനും അവർ ഒന്നിച്ചായിരുന്നു പരസ്പരം കൊല്ലാനും ചാകാനും വരെ തയ്യാറായിരുന്നു എന്ന് പറഞ്ഞാൽ അതിശയോക്തിയാവില്ല. ഹോസ്റ്റലിന്റെ വരാന്തകളിൽ വിനീതിന്റെ പാട്ടിൻറെ ഈരടികൾ മുഴങ്ങിക്കൊണ്ടിരുന്നു. സോണി ആവട്ടെ പരീക്ഷകൾ എന്ന കടമ്പ കടക്കാൻ അവരെ സ്ഥിരം സഹായിച്ചു. ജയ്സന്റെ നേതൃത്വ പാടവം പല സന്ദർഭങ്ങളിലും അവർക്ക് ഗുണകരമായി ഭവിച്ചു. കലാലയത്തിലെ പല പ്രശ്നങ്ങളും അവർ ഒന്നിച്ചു നിന്നാണ് നേരിട്ടത്. മൂവർ സംഘം എന്നൊരു പേര് തന്നെ അവർക്ക് ഉണ്ടായിരുന്നു. സന്തോഷത്തിന്റെ അലയൊലികൾ ഈ മൂന്നു വർഷക്കാലം അവരെ ചേർത്തുനിർത്തി. 

ജീവിതമാകുന്ന കപ്പൽ മുന്നോട്ടു സഞ്ചരിക്കവേ മൂന്നുപേരും മൂന്ന് ദിശകളിലേക്ക് പറിച്ചു നടപ്പെട്ടു. അപ്പോഴും സുഹൃത്ത് ബന്ധം മുറിയാതിരിക്കാൻ അവർ ശ്രമിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരുന്നു.

പിന്നീട് എന്നോ ഒരിക്കൽ ഒരു തെറ്റിദ്ധാരണയുടെ പേരിൽ ജയ്സണും വിനീതും തമ്മിൽ അകന്നു. ഇഴപിരിയാത്ത ആത്മബന്ധം എന്ന് കരുതിയിരുന്നതൊക്കെ വെറും ചരിത്രമായി മാറി. സോണി അവനെ കൊണ്ട് കഴിയുന്നത് പോലെ മറ്റു രണ്ടു പേരെ ഒന്നിപ്പിക്കാൻ ശ്രമിച്ചെങ്കിലും ഫലം കണ്ടില്ല.

കാലം വീണ്ടും മുന്നോട്ടു പോയി. ഋതുക്കൾ മാറിമറിഞ്ഞു. ഒരു ദിവസം വിനീതിനും സോണിക്കും ഒരു ഫോൺ കോൾ വന്നു. അവരുടെയും ജയ്സൺടെയും സുഹൃത്തായിരുന്നു അമൽ ആയിരുന്നു അത്. ഫോണിൽ വന്ന വാർത്ത കേട്ട് ലോകത്തിന്റെ രണ്ട് അറ്റത്തായിരുന്ന വിനീതും സോണിയും നിശബ്ദരായി ഇരുന്നു പോയി. ഒരുകാലത്ത് ആത്മാർത്ഥ സുഹൃത്തായിരുന്നു ജയ്സൺ ഒരു വാഹന അപകടത്തിൽ പെട്ട് അവരെ വിട്ട് പോയിരിക്കുന്നു. 

അന്ത്യകർമ്മങ്ങൾക്കായി സോണിക്കും വിനീതിനും എത്താൻ സാധിച്ചില്ല. ഏകദേശം ഒരു വർഷത്തിനുശേഷം ഒരു അവധിക്കാലത്ത് അവർ രണ്ടുപേരും കൂടെ ജയ്സന്റെ വീട്ടിൽ ചെന്നു. അവൻറെ അപ്പനെയും അമ്മയെയും സഹോദരങ്ങളെയും കണ്ട് സംസാരിച്ചു. പിന്നീട് അവനെ അടക്കിയിരുന്ന പള്ളി സെമിത്തേരിയിൽ ചെന്നു. 

ജയ്സന്റെ കുഴിമാടത്തിൽ കുരിശിന്റെ താഴെ ഒരു കൽഫലകത്തിൽ ഒരു വാചകം എഴുതിയിരുന്നത് കണ്ട് അവർ രണ്ടുപേരും ഞെട്ടി. പെട്ടെന്നാണ് അവർ ഓർത്തത്, വർഷങ്ങൾക്ക് മുൻപ് അവരുടെ ഹോസ്റ്റൽ മുറിയിലിരുന്ന് ഒരിക്കൽ അവൻ പറഞ്ഞിരുന്നു, ഞാൻ മരിച്ചാൽ എൻറെ കുഴിമാടത്തിൽ ഒരു വാചകം മാത്രം എഴുതി വയ്ക്കണം, അത് ഇങ്ങനെയായിരിക്കണം,

'അകാലത്തിൽ പൊലിഞ്ഞ ഒരു അപാര ജന്മം'.

ജീവിത നൗക ചലിച്ചുകൊണ്ടേയിരുന്നു. പുതിയ തീരങ്ങളും പുതിയ ജന്മങ്ങളും തേടിയുള്ള യാത്ര.

Galley to Gallery - A Cabin Crew Magic!

Ever since I had an opportunity to work with Service Delivery department of Emirates, I had been a huge fan of Cabin Crew operations. The Cabin Crew community in EK belonged to this department. While aviation in general had always been my passion, crew operations in particular, found its way into my heart.

So much so that, every second example I quoted to my teammates since my Service Delivery days was about how this department excelled in everything they did. At times, people had even been a bit jealous about my loyalty that remained deeply rooted in Service Delivery, though I now worked on another equally exciting initiative in the ground handling world, the flight information system.

As I wrote this piece on a flight the other day from Dubai to Kochi, I was privy to the orchestration of efforts by our very own cabin crew. It was nothing short of a magical experience! I was seated at a location right in front of the forward galley. As soon as the flight took off and the aircraft reached a certain height, the captain signalled the cabin crew with a ping and the crew promptly sprang to action.

From that moment onwards everything happened with split second precision. The galley operator started to make the food warm, the serving crew prepared the tray with glasses and cutlery, the cabin supervisor oversaw every action was executed to perfection and the whole show unfolded right in front of my eyes as if I am watching a well-oiled machinery at work.

What we as passengers usually see is the well laid tray all set to make us enjoy a gourmet meal on board our favourite airline. What we don't realize probably is, how meticulously do these magicians perform in the air at 35000 feet, with a team that is quite new on every flight considering the sheer number of crew, this awesome feat of bringing in all these different pieces of puzzle together and lay them in front of you in a manner that make you feel like dining at a Michelin Star restaurant!

No wonder, my passion for this area of airline operations continued uninhibited. I will be at remiss if I do not mention that considerable credit to this picture-perfect experience delivered went to a well planned and executed rigorous training programme by the Crew Training department. Kudos to the whole team behind the scenes.

My love for Service Delivery remained unscathed. Perhaps this was my true love, the only one perhaps my sweetheart won't be jealous about 😉

Thank you, Emirates. Thank you, Service Delivery. Thank you, our dearest Crew community, for making me feel like a part of an excited audience in a gallery cheering for a team with unparallel joy!

You definitely made me feel “Fly Better”!

Circle of Life

It was the Millennium year. The calendar in my room displayed the magical number 2000. Way before the world knew about social media, there was a large hue and cry about a potential massive computer meltdown nick named Y2K. The acronym stood for, Year 2000. 

Technology evangelists across the world spoke about a possibility of all computers going crazy a.k.a stop working altogether. This was expected to happen when the clock struck twelve at the midnight welcoming year 2000. Banks, financial institutions and every other entities that relied on computers for their operations were breaking their heads on how to solve the predicted doom.

On New Year's eve everyone held their breath for a catastrophe and the whole digital world to crumble along with millions of people getting affected since the world was already quite dependent on this magical box called computer. Time ticked. Clock did strike twelve. Nothing happened. The Nostradamuses of the world went back to their cocoons, never to come out for another Millennium.

A year later I was to become a graduate in Commerce. Just like many of my classmates, I had started to wonder what next? While there was a frenzy around computers in the world, our small town had still not embraced much of computers. While we had a Personal Computer (PC) at home bought by my dad from his brother, my first ever laptop was a good four years away. Internet connection required a dial-up modem and the noise made by that tiny white box was music to our ears! Google was founded just two years back. We used Netscape Navigator as a browser. At the risk of sounding like a cave man, looking back, the world those days felt quite archaic!

We were in an age where information overload was still limited to multiple rows of library books. Nevertheless, we tried our best to figure out from our professors and elders in the family about post graduate courses which were potentially good for our career. Two options that stood out were Masters in Computer Application and Masters in Management. Most of my batchmates chose either of these. A few ended up doing both! We did not really have lot of options. Even with all that, getting well paid good jobs were still a challenge for many of us.

A decade and a half later, I was speaking to my niece who worked in Australia in a gold mine. I was quite interested to know the nature of her job. Along with her team, every day she took an elevator at her work site, deep down into earth. After they reached a level ground, she got into a car that followed a monstrous truck as it proceeded to chew out the earth in front of it. My niece then inspected the loose earth to validate the presence of gold and assess the quality and quantity of the precious metal. What a job! 

I was equally surprised to know that this was not a one-off case. There were many girls and boys in this generation who discovered exciting career options and followed it with as much heart as their brain. I was stunned to see career options in plenty parading in front of these Gen Zs for their consideration. Probably Google and other unlimited source of information on career possibilities available at their fingertips literally helped. Interesting times indeed.

Another half a decade went by. I was recently invited to a joint session on AI Governance in a school in Dubai where stakeholders included students as well as faculty along AI / IT professionals. Among other things discussed, one point that stood out was a response from Gen Alpha students that they were worried about AI taking their jobs away. They expected to face challenges to find a job for themselves in this digitally emancipated world! 

That was the exact moment when the world took a full circle and stopped right in front of me with a grin that laced the border of sarcasm. 

Proximity Leadership

It had been three years since Alex joined the multinational company which is primarily into manufacturing. They had two major divisions, one dealing with products for businesses and the other had a range of end consumer items. There was a president each, Bob and Jim, heading these divisions. It was a hierarchical organization. 

For someone at Alex's grade, he never interacted with either president, not even to their reportees up to two levels below. While both the presidents had charismatic personalities, the chances for Alex meeting them remained as remote as ever. Having said that, Bob was known to be more jovial and took occasional rounds across office floors greeting people. Jim on the other hand was least spoken and rarely seen in public around office but was revered by the powers to be of the industry. He was considered as one of the most influential presidents in the world of manufacturing giants! But to meet him was next to impossible. It was even said that the top management usually took a private elevator to the nineteenth floor of the corporate headquarters, which housed the offices of both the presidents.

One fine day, Alex was waiting at the general lift lobby to go up to his floor which was on the fifteenth. The elevator arrived and along with three other waiting colleagues, he got into it. The door was about to close when he saw a quick movement outside. Soon enough, the door opened again. A man stood outside. Alex looked at him and felt like his eyes were deceiving him. 

The man entered the lift and greeted Alex along with the other three in the elevator. He had such a towering personality that Alex felt dwarfed in front of him. That was none other than Bob, the president of the division Alex worked for. This was the man Alex never thought he would meet in person ever! Bob looked at the ID tag on Alex, called out his name and had a quick chat about his department and how he liked his job. The few moments Bob spent with them in the elevator, turned out to be a defining moment for Alex. He did not even know what got him. But he knew one thing for sure, he was motivated beyond anything else ever in his three years in the organization. Alex returned home as a highly charged up employee and remained that way forever. The aura had its effect on him!

I am sure we all had been in the shoes of Alex, one way or other in our organizations at some point in our lives. Proximity, when it comes to leadership, plays a significant role, especially in an era when we see offices becoming more distant than ever. 

Now, the big question here could be, who do we think is right? Bob or Jim? Is this even a topic of discussion? For both, there is something right in their own ways of working. Eventually, it boils down to the personality of the leaders. Each one of us needs to have a clear understanding of our personalities and build ways of working that suits us. Else we may end up as someone who tried to get into the shoes of others which did not even fit us, not to even mention how awkward it looked.

We may work for organizations where we see Bobs and Jims of the world. Learn to appreciate them for what they are. All what is required from us is, when it is our turn, ensure that we adapt a leadership style that fits the best for us.