Working for a Tyrant Boss!

My 1st Boss was a Tyrant, 2nd one was Friendly Back Stabber, 3rd one was Heartless Task Master, 4th one Hands off Delegator and I don't want to talk about my 5th and current boss for obvious reasons!.

1st Boss: Very loud, everything he says has to be done or someone gets yelled at. He gives me my first assignment and asks me how I will to go about it!, I had no idea where to start, no idea what I should do, people tell me that I will be torn apart. I sat thinking how I will solve it for about 30 mins, could not find the answer, had to close the task on the same day, so I mustered up courage, accepted martyrdom and walked into the Lion's den, I said, "Sir, I don't know how to solve this problem". Boss smiles, sits me down, explains step by step from fundamentals... a lesson I have not forgotten till date. From then on, he was my favorite. I was awed by his practical knowledge. No one dared to challenge him, because, he was never afraid to roll up his sleeve and complete the task without any help. He was fearless and would never buckle under pressure, because he had "been there and done that".

Lesson:

• Knowledge is power!. 
• Never show resistance to do what you expect from your team members, when you lead, you lead from the front. If you expect your team to put in 16 hours to complete a task, you be ready to put 20 hours, be available to them, just in case they need anything.
• When team members come to you for help, spend time to mentor them, if you are able to help them, they will be independent soon, which will give you some spare time to add another skill and grow.
• Never be afraid of approaching your boss and saying you don't know or I need help, he cannot take your life, worst case, he can fire you, but you can always find another job...

2nd Boss: Young, soft spoken, diplomatic, understanding, he was a role model to me. I liked working for him from day 1. He made me feel comfortable, he said I have great potential!, he allowed me to fail, there was always someone else who would pitch in to help me complete my task because he could not afford a delay, don't worry he said, all is well, you'll learn to get the tasks done faster as you spend more time. When the time of the appraisal came, his rating for me was "Below Expectations", when I asked why?, he said, you are not up to the mark, there is a lot of scope for improvement!, I said, "you said it was ok!, you said, I will learn in time". I was quite surprised with his behavior, but I had no one but myself to blame, I had failed, and I was foolish to take his re-assurances literally and take it easy.

Lesson: 

• I failed because I did not work hard enough and took it easy.
• It is not ok to fail, never be carried away with re-assurances that tomorrow will be a better day, there is no tomorrow if you don't make the best use of today. Don't go to bed if you know that you are going to fail tomorrow.
• You get paid for performance, not potential.

3rd Boss: Middle aged, assertive, tough task master, very aggressive. He was an expert at delegation and empowerment. He was teaching me and throwing responsibilities at me, one at a time, watching me, when I was getting a reasonable handle of the task, he would throw one more at me. Each responsibility was adding an hour or two extra to my work hours, but I did not break. When I went to him with my problems, I always came back with solutions to my problems and a few of his problems to solve. He knew how to make people work, he was a master at chess!. One day, one of my Technical Leaders came to me with a complaint on an under-performing Team Member and that he needed a replacement. I took this matter up to my boss, he calmly said, "I don't have more people to give you, your performance appraisal depends on this Team Member's success, now go and get to work". I had no choice but to make this guy work out, I was able to turn this guy around.

Lesson:

• I learned to find my own solutions to my problems, not go running to my boss for solutions, I learned that by owning up the problem, by thinking hard and trying really hard, we can find solutions to any problem. 
• I learned multi-tasking. 
• I learned to prioritize. 
• I learned to observe how my Boss thinks and be prepared with answers ahead of time. I was careful not to make assumptions using "my bosses' thought process" as a shield.
• Learnt the difference between Aggression and Assertiveness and when to use each.
• To win, you need to set a target better than the current record.

4th Boss: Middle aged, very easy going, not quick to take decisions, was ok with whatever I said or did, never directed me. I went with my proposals for improvements, he agreed, he never challenged me. I liked this person. He was responsible for the department, but I was doing all the work, taking decisions, choosing directions and strategy. There was no real contribution from him. He used to proudly mention that he had "empowered" me, while he had actually "delegated" all tasks to me.

Lesson:

• I did not grow in this set up, I was contributing all my knowledge from my previous jobs into this one, and was not adding any more.
• I was working very hard to ensure that all was well, while someone else was walking away with the credit, it's glory and the accolades.

~o~o~o~

From my experience with all the bosses I have worked for, I hated the demanding bosses the most, but I got to learn a lot from them. They challenged me to do more, and do better, they were never satisfied with what I said or what I did. All suggestions I made were "wrong" and there was always a better "solution" that I was not aware of. Result was that, I was getting better and better and I was growing.

I have also had the opportunity to work for very capable and demanding bosses who used to insult, humiliate and waste time by conducting 8 hour meetings to punch holes in a 5 slide presentation just to demonstrate their power. I got a lot to learn from this type too, but what I learned was what "Not To Do".

Under the "not so demanding" bosses, life was stagnant, I never grew, I never learnt and I failed.

I have realized the value of my demanding bosses long after I left them, but deep inside my heart, I am grateful to all my bosses who pushed me hard, demanded more than I could deliver, it is because of them I am where I am and I do what I do...

Thank you my Tyrant Boss!.

Staying Competitive: Experience Vs Expertise

"Staying Competitive" means, staying in the business, adding skills to enhance or maintain a competitive advantage. Every professional must stay competitive to be able to deliver consistently, earn raises and bonuses year on year.

I have always heard people I meet, telling me that they have N years experience at work. I have heard candidates talking about their "experience" during interviews. They passionately state what they have achieved in their work life.

On deeper interrogation, I find that most candidates I meet are "kinda" shallow. I find that they are able to answer questions that are "straight out of the book" and they are able to answer questions to situations that they have faced during their careers with ease. When I ask, if there is any other way to solve the same problem, they don't have an answer. For argument's sake, when I twist the situation a bit, they are unable to find a solution or an answer.

Very few candidates, have demonstrated the ability to think differently and find a solution to a "twisted" situation. I am constantly on the look out for these kind of people for my organization, because these are the kind of people who are potential leaders.

What makes the second type of candidates different from the first type? For one, they are more in demand, for two, they are are better suited because they possess a special quality of thinking differently and three, these type of people are simply more fun to talk to during an interview.

The difference is "Experience" and "Expertise"

Experience is the number of years of service one has put in at his career.  For example: in a bank, there is a certain standard process that the people are used to, in an automobile assembly line, the people are used to working in a certain way, in other words, process B follows process A, and process D follows process C and so on. People know the sequence of activities to be carried out to get the job done.

In the above situation, we see a phenomenon, "History repeats". Experience comes in hand when history repeats.

Now look at the possibility of a BRAND NEW situation that can stare at you at anytime, a situation that has never occurred before in your life, no one you know of has ever faced this situation, you read all available books and search the internet for a solution, but fail to find one. What do you do when this "situation" strikes? Who will come to your help at this point in time?

There is something that can help you, something called "Expertise"

Expertise, in my opinion, can be defined as how efficiently you handle a situation that you have faced for the first time.

Expertise cannot be studied in classrooms. It is a quality that a professional develops over time. A professional spends times to gain experience, reads books/attends classes to gain knowledge. It is the application of this knowledge and prior experience with other situations that helps the professional develop expertise. Experience tells a professional where to apply a certain technique. An expert seems to have an answer to every situation that someone brings up, he/she seems to know how to handle a problem, even though the problem has never occurred before.

Professionals are made thru' education, but how many of them stay educated? Very few I admit.

Stay competitive by reading good books, understand new techniques. Don't be in a hurry to implement any of these tricks, wait for a time. In time, you will face a situation where you will have to apply the knowledge that you have a gained to crack the problem.

When I interview candidates, I filter candidates by experience in a certain process. When I meet them, I search for the quality of expertise thru' their answers to "twisted questions", alternative answers and solutions. I meet 1 in a 100 candidates, who actually fit the bill, but are very hard to find.