An Uplifting Story

It was a normal day as any other. Like some days, I picked up breakfast from our office cafe on the ground floor and headed back to the lift lobby. There were three elevators and my desk was on the fourth floor. 

As I swiped through the gunnebo gates to get to the lifts, I could see four people getting into the first lift that arrived. Two of them were my teammates. They offered to hold the lift for me. Since the lift was a bit crowded and I was holding my breakfast with a cup of tea as well, I requested them to go ahead without me. I did not want anything to spill on anyone in a crowded lift. I waited for the next lift while their lift door closed and they went up.

Soon, the next elevator came. I reached the fourth floor and got out of the lift. The lift which my teammates took was still on its way. I decided to wait for them and as soon as they stepped out, I told them the first thing that came to my mind. 

'Sometimes life makes you wait, but you may be surprised that you scale heights faster than the rest who started earlier than you'!

Good day folks...

PS: This is not always true in corporate world 😉

Murder in Sansville

A loud cry cut through the calm night of Sansville! Someone shouted, ‘Murder’! They found a dead body floating in the river which was the ultimate heart of peace in the small town of Sansville. The body was found at the same spot where during the daytime, scores of families with young children gathered to play. It was a town where nothing bad ever happened and was a picture-perfect place which boasted of peaceful days that you could scoop happiness out of the air.

The news spread like wildfire. The police swiftly arrived at the crime scene. Considering the seriousness of the situation the mayor was woken up in the middle of his sleep and was informed of the tragedy. He rushed to the place where the body still was floating on the river. Strange was the sight that it was hugging a clumsy bunch of other plants that were supporting the corpse.

This was the first ever such incident in the long history of Sansville. The mayor did not lose another moment and called for a meeting of his town committee. They were instructed to get into the depth of the matter and figure out the details. Questions were galore. Who died? Was that a man or a woman? Was it indeed a murder? If so, who was the murderer?

Even in the frosty night of November, people who gathered around started sweating. The palpitation among the team was quite evident. Some of them could not even manage the pressure and fainted! The mayor started losing his patience started thinking of calling the Home Guard or even military if required. Such was the frenzy in that tiny town which had never ever seen anything like this in the past.

All these were happening upstream the river and at the townhall. While the heads of the town where frantically jumping up and down, the town folks managed to get a few men to go down the river and figure out more about the dead body so that they can report back to the mayor. These were the brave souls of the town who dared to wade the freezing waters of the river and reached the corpse which was mangled with other plants and their branches.

The men tried to figure out the body among the contorted mix of things in the river. Since they were unable to do that, the whole bunch was brought to the river shore. With the help of others, they tried to untangle the mess and as they progressed reality hit them!

There was no dead body! It was just someone’s shirt which must have freed itself from a clothesline and ended up in the river. The shirt then got stuck in a branch of a small tree and ended up looking like a dead man floating on the river hugging a tree!

So much of noise, for nothing! The mayor was soon back at his bed. The townhall was locked till the time someone else finds another body. And the people of the town went back to their peaceful lives as usual.

But just when they were heading back, they noticed that someone made a slight correction to the name of their town. It now read, Sans-brain-ville!

Disclaimer: If the story reminded you of the meaningless escalations you see in your office, it must be merely incidental.

Tale of a Bridge

Once upon a time two large cities flourished on the valleys of two mountains. There was a vast lake that separated these mountains. The administration of these two cities decided to build a ten kilometres long bridge that was to connect these two cities. It was a mega project predicted to catapult both the cities to exceptional levels of progress.

Plans were drawn, preliminary work started and the dreams for two cities getting merged into one big city started taking shape. Esteemed members of city councils visited the location regularly. The top brass from the government bragged about their vision and the benefits, the bridge project was going to bring to the region.

As the calendar progressed, one day a junior-most engineer while going through the plans, noticed a significant anomaly. One of the many pillars of the proposed bridge was short by a few inches in height. That was at a critical point in the design of the bridge which could pose a grave threat to the very existence of the structure once built.

Now, the junior engineer was a simple and straightforward girl who promptly presented her finding to the top executives and even proposed an alternate course of action to correct such mistakes in future. 

As soon as the authorities, heard her out, all hell broke loose! The young girl was severely reprimanded for highlighting such a major mistake which put the whole project team in a bad light. She was even given an ultimatum to do only what was asked to do and nothing more. The backlash was so harsh that she even wondered why she even bothered to highlight the anomaly! 

Another sincere employee died a painful death that day.

The above story is a pure work of fiction. But if it did remind you of any experience, you had or heard in the corporate world, do not be alarmed. There will always be bridges that are built with design flaws. There will always be sincere junior engineers who highlight the anomalies. And there will always be corporate martyrs.

Learn from the mistakes of either yours or others. Diplomacy is an underrated skill, especially if you are unaware of the power of it.

Life goes on. So does the corporate world.

Equal (In) Justice!

Jane is a mother of three adorable little ones, Ben, Stacy and Keith. As is the case with many households across the world, their home is always filled with cries and laughter from the games and fights by the 'darling devils', a name Jane calls them occasionally, half serious and half fun!

Usually when one of the darling devils crosses the limits of fun, Jane reminds them about the rules of the game and generally they fall in line. Rarely when the reminder did not work, she usually bestowed them with minor disciplinary actions such grounding for a day with no access to TV, games etc. But these actions were limited to the culprit which helped in directing the action to the one who committed the mistake. It also acted as a serious reminder for the rest of the kids that their mother meant business and they better get their act straight. The strategy worked all the time.

One of those days, there was an incident when the limits of fun was trespassed by Keith, the youngest of the kids. The offence was committed with the greatest margin of naughtiness till that date. Jane was furious! She was so mad that, shortly the announcement about grounding came through with new set of rules. No tabs, No TV and No games for an entire week. Her fury did not stop there. She declared that the grounding applied to all three kids. No questions asked! Jane even went beyond and got her rules framed and hung them on the wall of kids' room.

Keith tried to revolt but soon accepted his destiny. Ben and Stacy could not initially comprehend why they were getting punished for a mischief by Keith. They raised their voice of dissent. But their concerns died a painful death when their voices hit a solid wall of resistance erected by their mom. They retreated with great pain and a deep feeling of betrayal, something they never experienced before in the family.

Life moved on. Jane found her new way of reprimanding, quite easy and effective. The intermittent voices of dissent were suppressed with authority. Little did she know that her 'darling devils' were slowly drifting away from her. Soon a day would come when they all stopped talking to her. The house was no longer filled with cries and laughter from the games and fights by the darling devils. Only muffled wails and faint sobbing rippled across the walls of once vibrant home.

The rules remained hanging on the wall.

The End.

After story: If you felt a connection to the above narration to what is happening in your office environment, it is not merely incidental. An office is a logical extension of a family. The nature of decisions and its impact on people, are quite similar, whether at home or in office.

Hence if you are in a leadership role, may you be blessed with the cerebral prowess laced with emotional intelligence to take decisions that will unify the extended members of your family at office, than driving them away. Always remember, rules are meant to follow, but if you are the one who is setting them, ask yourself if they make sense, not just logically, but emotionally as well.

Brave, not stupid!

Stand tall, the world tells you.
Corporates speak the same, but do they mean it?
Now that, is a priceless question!

Speak your mind, the world will sit, listen and applaud.
Do that in a boardroom, they may sit, listen, but applaud, will they?
Now that, is a priceless question!

Go the extra mile, the world will walk with you in gratitude.
Try the stunt in office, and without perceived value, will your sponsor even take a step?
Now that, is a priceless question!

Challenge the wrong, the world will march along, with righteous ones next to you.
Similar stories in corporate world, do you not see such people around you with growth stunted?
Now that, is a priceless question!

When all seem to be lost, the world tells you to hang on to the last resort, eternal hope. Strange, is it not?
Now that, is not a priceless question, because corporates tell you the same, but do they mean it?

Ladies and gentlemen, now that, is another priceless question!

Priceless stories galore...

Fearless in Darkness

Picture this. It was well past midnight, and you were at home, the same place where you had been living for the past eight years. You were enjoying a sound sleep, with your sweetheart sleeping peacefully next to you and your kids sleeping in the other bedroom. The time on the clock displayed half past two. You woke up feeling thirsty. The room was pitch black. 

You realized that you forgot to place the water bottle in the room before hitting the bed. This meant, you had to head to the kitchen where the bottle was kept. You had to walk a few feet from the bedroom to the kitchen. The big question is what would you have done? Would you sacrifice the need to quench your thirst or defy the darkness, walk to the kitchen, drink water, come back and continue sleeping as if nothing happened in the world during those moments?

Personally, I never found it difficult to navigate in darkness. While the initial moments after I woke up in the middle of a night were always a bit of challenge, my brain usually got used to the dark environment quite soon. I could then make myself go around the house and helped myself with a bottle of water or anything else I needed at night. 

But one day we had to rearrange some items in the house. Some of the furniture had to be changed places, so were a few plants. That night, around three in the morning, I woke up thirsty. As always, with my usual confidence, I headed to the kitchen. Little did I remember that some of the items around the house changed their locations. Before even I knew, I tripped on a small table and hit my head on the wall after losing my balance. It served as a good reminder not to take anything for granted, even when you are in a familiar environment, with the same set of items placed around you.

Now think about your office space. The corporate world is a big bad jungle. You will see all kinds of people around you, who have different behaviour traits, just like the animals in a jungle. Over a period of time you may develop a level of comfort with many of your colleagues. You may think the same, when it comes to your engagement with senior leaders in your organisation. You may find it quite easy to deal with all of them any given day.

Having said that, just like a jungle, you may suddenly come across a danger that was lurking in one corner that you never noticed before. All of a sudden, that one friendly colleague may reveal the personality of a traitor. The boss whom you deeply trusted may transform into the worst bully you had ever known. The executive leader of your department whom you admired and even revered may display the true colors which really turned out to be nasty. All of these may suddenly sweep you off your feet. Just like how the rearranged furniture made me trip one night, when I thought everything was normal.

All of us, being humans, naturally tend to trust people over a period of time. That is how we are designed. But always remind ourselves that someone whom you considered as a known angel may truly be an unknown devil in disguise. 

Hence, while being fearless in darkness may make you feel like a knight, be aware of the presence of predatorial instincts in the corporate jungle, so that you do not trip yourself and become a prey. You do not need to wait to learn this from your own experience. Watch your seniors, listen to their stories and adapt your own course of journey. This will help you detect potential threats, fight those battles you could win, but more importantly retreat from others which is not worth the fight to win another day. This will ensure that you do not end up on the wall-of-sympathy in your organisation for being the unfortunate prey, who chose not to be careful about the changing dynamics of the office environment. 

Watch out and be safe! They are all out there...

PS: Inspired by Stranger Things and real-life experience of seniors.

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.

Mother Hen Managers

If you were lucky enough to grow up in an environment where you saw how a hen raised her chicks, I shall say you had been privy to one of the greatest lessons you could ever learn from mother nature. Do not be surprised, if I say, the learning from this experience applies to all managers across the corporate world and, closer home, to all parents as well, irrespective of your gender.

Soon after the eggs hatch, the mother hen takes the chicks along with her and searches for food and feeds them with what she finds. The process continues for a while until a day arrives when you will see a significant behavioural change in mother hen. Instead of keeping the chicks closer to her, finding and feeding them with food she searched for, she now appears to mercilessly drive them away. The action is not to be considered as a lack of love, instead one that is intended to make the chicks self sufficient so that they can find food and feed themselves. That is the only way they will survive the big bad world out there.

Now let me take you to the corporate world we are in. We see two kinds of managers exhibiting behaviours you read in the above statements. There are those who constantly feed aka nurture the people who report to them. These are the managers who feel it is easier if they get things done for their team so that it is helpful for the team to finish the pieces of work. This is a behaviour, that is expressed, at times, due to fear of incompletion and other times from an obsessively compulsive nature which do not let these managers delegate their work. Then there are others who constantly challenge their direct reports to go above and beyond their capabilities so that one day they become equal or even better than the managers themselves.

I have been fortunate in my career to have worked with both kinds of managers. While the first ones may appear quite regressive, in the initial years of your career, getting a manager like that helps you as a shield from the wrath of some of the senior executives, when you make mistakes. But as you grow into senior positions, you may want this shield to be broken and learn to fend for yourself, in which case, a manager of the latter kind is better.

Interesting enough, closer to our families, these behaviours resonate well with each of us as parents or children. Parents who help their children with everything always, may think they are helping them survive. But the fact remains that the parents who are like the mother hen who wanted the children to be self-sufficient will be doing a great deal more of a service to their children in the long run.

We all don the roles of either the children or parents. Like it or not, these roles are inadvertently laced with our corporate personas. On this Mother’s Day, when we celebrate mothers, what else can be a good reminder than the mother hen and her strategy to empower those who work with us.

Happy Mother’s Day to all managers out there, irrespective of your gender, who learned from this simple yet powerful lesson from mother hen!

Tale of Two Knights

The war was on. King summoned both his Knights. They had pledged their allegiance to the kingdom in their blood. Off they went, two powerful Knights heading East and West since the attack was from both sides. 

K1, the first Knight waged an epic battle against a mighty enemy. He applied all techniques of war learned over time and came out victorious with not even a single scratch on any of his men. It was a flawless display of brilliant strategy and skill. History named it, the Battle of Usual.

K2, the second Knight had to face the fiercest attack in his whole life. He lost hundreds of men and suffered severe damage to the troops. It was a total bloodbath. Nevertheless, fight he did, a battle that went down in the history of the kingdom as the one that was fought by the bravest Knight ever. Victory finally was with him, while the chroniclers turned a blind eye towards the lives lost. History named it the Battle of Extraordinary.

Centuries went by. History students still learn and speak high of the Battle of Extraordinary while the chapter on Battle of Usual was forgotten and eventually removed from the annals of History. The reason: Usual brilliance was underrated than extraordinary mediocrity. 

Power of Unknown

Last weekend, Ryan, my son, came up with a suggestion for a game we never played before. It quite a simple one in fact. All what we had to do, was to recollect names of movies we know. There were no rules other than limiting the movies to a specific industry, for example, South Indian movies only. Since it was a random recollection of movie names, I thought it was going to be quite simple. But as soon as the game started, realization dawned on me that it wasn’t that easy.

As the game progressed, even the names of some of the greatest movies I had watched somehow eluded me. It was quite a strain on my brain to dig deeper and recollect some of the well-known movie names from the past. Not that, the more recent ones were easy to remember. They were equally challenging. Nevertheless, we kept playing and had a good time.

Next day, Mia, my daughter came up with an improvement to this game. She suggested playing the same game, but instead of movie names, it will be characters from movies and TV shows. My first reaction was that it was going to be a boring game. What was the point in stating the character names randomly? I was certain that we will be playing only for a few minutes, and we would switch back to the original version of the game.

The game started. One by one, the character names started coming out. That was when magic struck! Each of the characters identified not just became a part of our game, but literally started doing a parade in our minds. We were living through the movie scenes with the character and many times were overwhelmed with the emotional outbursts.

We laughed our hearts out recollecting some of the comedy scenes played by the characters. Happiness gave way to fear when characters from horror movies took centre stage. Excitement, Amusement, Gratitude, Pride, Anticipation, what not?! It was an avalanche of emotions that took us through an awesome journey as the game progressed. Little did I anticipate a seemingly simple game providing us with truckloads of entertainment. Both the games were a huge hit in our family!

A quick thought flashed my mind. Isn’t this exactly what happens in our workspace? Sometimes we are offered a new piece of work. Without any hesitation, we assume that the work is not going to be interesting. More than once, I have personally experienced, how exciting the new work is after a few days of committing to it.

Being unprejudiced is not an easy human nature. While it is quite a challenge to overcome this trait, the least we could do is to try and give a chance to the unknown. Who knows, we may be pleasantly surprised by the power of emotions that get kicked in with the unknown. You may even end up thinking, why you didn’t do this much earlier.

So next time, we get presented with an opportunity, let us embrace the power of unknown and surrender ourselves to the mystery and tell inertia to take a hike!

PS: I strongly recommend exploring the above, both in your family and workspace. If you find it amusing and want to thank my kids, do let me know. Rest assured, I shall pass on the compliments to Ryan & Mia.

Arrows & Ribbons

It was early 17th century. Christina, the Queen of Sweden was charting a plan of attack on the neighbouring states who seem to have gone berserk with their new-found weapon, a canon that can spit fire. Her kingdom was split into three regions for administrative purpose. She had appointed three of her most trustworthy people as the Generals of regions, Geith, Juan and Tresa.

All three were now standing in front of the Queen with a large map of the area laid in front of them on the grand old table made from English Oak. The war strategy was finalized together, and Christina gave them one final command. At any cost, do not surrender. The tactical plans were left to the Generals to deploy.

Off they went, to join their respective troops who were kept on high alert ever since the incursions from the enemy were announced. Tresa and Juan had a perfectly synchronized understanding of the attack, but history will not say the same about Geith. He was an unusual character.

As the Generals led their troops to the borders, they passed through multiple small villages, many of them within the confines of forests typical to the region. Tresa and Juan ensured that the villagers were well cared for and kept them informed about the plan. Both knew very well about the importance of having the villagers on their side. Geith just marched on, ignoring the wishes and occasional requests from the villagers he passed by.

Once they were way past the villages, a deep and dense forest stood between them and the border. Geith could not help but notice both Tresa and Juan shooting their arrows to the trees enroute. These arrows had coloured ribbons tied to their tail end. It never occurred to Geith to ask why they were doing so. Halfway into their journey the three had to split ways and agreed to meet up at a common point further ahead. Little did they know that the enemy troops were much more advanced than what they thought!

The three Generals went further ahead in their respective paths. But before they could merge the troops at the crossroads, the enemy struck. Tresa was the first one to face the brunt. The brave young lady she was, did her best to defend the attack along with her soldiers. After a while they had to retreat though. Similar story unfolded for Juan. Two hours later his troops along with their General met Tresa at a common point, the casualty was minimal.

Unfortunately, the story was different for Geith. His men faced an ambush attack at another crossroad deep in the jungle. While they tried their best, the army took a heavy toll. They could not withstand the attack for long and decided to retreat to safety. They looked at their General for the return path. That was when Geith realized that he was totally lost. Without the help of the arrows and ribbons he could not figure out the way they came.

He tried his luck asking a few of the villagers, but with an attitude of rejection they experienced earlier, it was no surprise that they chose not to help Geith and his men. That unfortunately was the last the world ever heard of Geith and his troops.

Juan and Tresa along with their army were guided by arrows and bows as well as the villagers and returned safely to the Queen where they planned subsequent course of action. The legacy of Sweden lived on.

PS: If this story has any resemblance to anything you see in your office, it is purely intentional. The biggest lesson Geith taught us is not to forget your past and the people who helped you become who you are.

The Boiling Point

Have you ever boiled fresh milk on a stove? If so, have you always taken the pan out right on time, so that the milk does not spill over? If you have not experienced this, I suggest you stop reading this now and get into your kitchen, try boiling some milk and experience these things for yourself first. This is important for you to understand what I am going to say next. Else you better have a solid sense of imagination.

You would have noticed that when you boil a pan of milk, unless you take the pan out at the right time, a considerable amount of milk will spill over on to the stove. Getting the stove cleaned is a herculean task. The spilled milk stains the pan as well which poses a big challenge to clean the pan properly. You could only wish that you had taken the pan out on time so that you avoid all the hassle.

What I am going to say next is not something I have invented. But this will definitely be a good reminder for all of us, including me, so that if we ever go through such a state, we will remember these words and hopefully will act accordingly.

Now imagine this. The pan we use is nothing but our life itself. The milk we try to boil is the bunch of emotions we go through daily. The stove is the society where we live and the environment around us.

Just like how the milk will reach a boiling point, our emotions too have an upper limit. The more we refuse to address the fact that we are reaching a tipping point of an emotional churn, the bigger will be the impact. The earlier we acknowledge that we need to take out the pan of emotions, the better will be our mental situation. Else just like how the spilled over boiled milk leaves us with a nasty job, we will be gifting ourselves and people around us with quite a difficult challenge to solve, a twisted life of ours.

Now the bigger question is, how do we avoid this situation? This is where we all need to consciously build a support system for ourselves. This could be someone we are closer to at home or a friend, with whom we could speak about the emotional turmoil that we are going through or someone at our professional environment with whom we could disclose some of these experiences.

Please note that I mentioned both personal and professional contacts. There is a reason for it. There are topics or incidents involving our emotional wellbeing that are personal or professional in nature. The support system we develop needs to cater to both. We can't be addressing only one of them. Hence, we need to have a healthy mix of both personal and professional support system in place so that whenever we need to express our emotional concerns, the party on the other side understands and empathise with us.

So much is spoken these days about mental health and emotional wellbeing. These are not magical words, instead as humankind we are capable of ensuring these to our fellow humans. All that is needed is being a good human and live the spirit of what humanity stands for.

Let us all take out our pans of emotions on time and like how we enjoy a well-prepared cup of coffee, let us lead a life that is beautiful, how it is meant to be!

The Tea Team!

Year 2006. I joined my first corporate job with Mindtree in Bangalore. Soon after my induction days, I was taken to my seat and in a matter of time I got settled at my desk.

I started going through some of the documents provided to me to understand the process in place for the department I joined. A few minutes later, I heard a friendly voice from behind saying ‘Tea’. I turned around and saw a young man holding a large tray with a bunch of white porcelain cups rimmed with golden paint and filled with piping hot tea. With a smile, full of genuine care, he placed one cup carefully on my desk and went ahead with his job of serving tea for the rest of the staff.  

That was the day I learned the wonderful story behind the team who served tea on the various floors in our office.

Apparently, when the new campus came up where we were placed, there was a proposal to install vending machines at the pantry which could make coffee or tea for the staff. That was when one of the founders of Mindtree intervened and said that was not a people friendly decision. Instead, he wanted to employ a bunch of young people who will work as a team of tea makers whose job was to make fresh tea during morning and afternoon and deliver them at the desks, of course with a smile!

As a person who experienced this first hand, I must say it was possibly one of the best decisions taken by the management. It not only provided job opportunities for scores of people, but also brought in the much-needed people touch in an industry where tremendous amount of brain power was consumed daily. You really needed the human touch to bring the balance.

True leadership is not only about targets or profits. It is also when we learn to realize that businesses exist because of people. We need to do our part to give back to the community we benefit from.

Let me also reiterate that great experiences gained from organizations leave a lasting impression on employees. These will be fondly remembered and most importantly reflect on them in their interactions with colleagues in the same organization and in future as well.

I do remember with gratitude the truly amazing leadership team we were blessed with at Mindtree!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart, for not just giving me a job, but empowering me with an experience of a lifetime!

Maturity, it isn't just age...

Picture this. You are in a meeting with your own colleagues and two of the team members from the vendor team to discuss a critical showstopper for a go live. The topic was discussed multiple times in the recent past with no solution sighted in the horizon.

The situation rapidly escalates with discussions spiralling. Temperature levels in the meeting room rises with sparks of arguments flying high. After a lot of deliberations, an agreement on the way forward is reached.

A day later, when you catch up internally, you have a major realisation. While one of the two team members from the vendor side, who was equally senior, was boiling and reacting, the other was handling the situation in a calm and composed manner, topped with a subtle smile. Though his conversations were cut through many times, he remained patient. He even changed his strategy mid-way through to buy time by promising to stop talking exactly after ten seconds. De-escalation was definitely his cup of tea.

Colleagues like these serve as a constant reminder that professional maturity is not just about the age. It is a skill that we need to gain and grow over a period of time in our career.

Some get it, others remain a pain, you know where...

 

Specialisation – Really?

Eighteen years back, today’s date was a fancy one. The calendar said 06 / 06 / 06, the sixth day of sixth month of year 2006. More than being fancy, it was probably one of the most important days in my life, the day when I started my corporate life with Mindtree in Bangalore!

Two years before that day, I stepped into the beautiful campus of Christ College in Bangalore. As a first year MBA student I was quite sure that I’ll be specializing in Marketing as my core subject. HR wasn’t that interesting; Finance was not my favourite and since I already had an IT background, opting for Systems would’ve been an overkill.

After two years and officially becoming a ‘management specialist’ in Marketing, I joined an IT organisation as a Business Analyst in the Staff Operations department where part of my profile required me to allocate Business Analysts and User Experience Designers for various projects across the world. Little did I realize that the department I was associated with, will give me a tough time during my catchup with my college friends.

In all subsequent gathering of college mates, I started getting my legs pulled for doing an HR-kind-of-job all the while being a Marketing specialist. Each time we met, I got worked up with the joke and every time I vehemently defended my position citing the Analyst part of my profile. Nothing seemed to work and the teasing went on for a couple of years.

On the third year of my job, I got into a full time Analyst role where I was assigned a client and started doing none of the HR-like job for which I had to endure all that mockery. My Marketing days finally arrived.

A few months into the job and I started asking the question. Being a Business Analyst in the Travel & Transportation Industry, figuring out solutions for challenges faced by renowned names such as SITA & Travelodge, wasn’t this more of Systems than Marketing. Little did I realize that behind every conversation I was having with a client, my HR skills combined with my Marketing dexterity was helping me to solve issues for my clients with the help of technology of course.

A few more years with Mindtree and it was time to move to Dubai to be associated with one of the greatest brands in the world of aviation, The Emirates Group. One of the biggest realizations that dawned on me was what they say in Spiderman, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. In my earlier avatar, it took weeks to finalize Use Cases especially working with legacy customers. On the contrary, Emirates as an airline with the growth trajectory facing North, had an unsatiable appetite to expand and develop. The time required for finishing a couple of Use Cases in my previous job is what I got to prepare a fully completed Requirement Specification Document. The scale was exhilarating.

Soon enough the last standing specialization which I kept at an arm’s length started peeping at me. Estimations were something which I never laid my hands on. It all started with smaller ones and as days went by, it was no more testing waters. Before even I knew I was neck deep into numbers. I still use a life jacket though.

Long story short, the close to two decades has taught me one fact of life. Earlier days of your career, you may fret about specializations or core competencies that you think will differentiate you among others. While on the short run it holds some value, on the long run, none of those matter. As you climb the metaphorical ladder, your number crunching along with people skills ably supported by the technological prowess, completely enveloped with how best you can market your idea or product, all come together as an inseparable bond which makes you a better professional and a person with whom your colleagues love to work with.

Remember, the big picture is not something you can see from day one, but it is out there for you to see for yourself. Just keep an open mind.