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!.

How to destroy a Career!

This is a story about a young professional, a star performer, a potential future leader and how he destroyed his career...

He joined the company when he was fresh out of college. He was enthusiastic, quick witted, lively and knowledgeable. He joined the company with 14 others, within a week, they voted for him to be their representative, they gave him a nickname "Captain". This incident was noticed by the company management.

Captain topped in all assignments during the Induction Program and quickly grew in popularity. All the Project Managers wanted Captain in their teams. At the time of Project Assignments, the Resource Allocation Team gave him the option of choosing his own project, a rare distinction. Captain evaluated all available projects and chose his project.

Quickly Captain won accolades from other team members, he was faster than most others, would take just about 60% of the allocated time to complete an assignment, would move on to the next one as soon as he would finish his current task. The Project Manager was having a tough time keeping Captain "busy" with interesting assignments.

The next 3 years went by quickly, Captain was promoted to be a Team Leader.

One fine day, a senior in the team asked Captain, "why are you working so hard? Are they paying you too much?" --- this got Captain thinking. He was flabbergasted. The question made a lot of sense. He starting seeing other people around him, they were leaving at 6:30 PM, they were enjoying their lives, he realized that he was one of the first to come in to office, and the last to leave. He was doing almost 40% of the project all by himself, while people who were senior to him and who were getting better salaries than him, were getting away by contributing much lesser.

Captain started losing interest, his work hours were getting lesser and lesser, his efficiency suffered, he would come in at 9:30 AM and would be out the door at 6:30 PM. He was only doing what was being assigned. He was able to finish the assignment in 60% of the time, but never reported the completion of the task to the Manager before the deadline. In the spare time, Captain would chat with friends, browse the internet and while away time in the cafeteria. The story does not end here. Captain's interest fell further and his tasks were averaging a delay of 25% each time.

The Manager stopped giving interesting assignments to Captain, he stopped relying on him for delivery, his team was now reporting to someone else, Captain was reduced to a team member's role.

Captain started bad mouthing the company policies, he said that the Management does not know how to take care of loyal employees and his "own version" of the story of why he was demoted to a team member's role, he said it was because, his Manager was considering him a threat and so on.

Captain was fired after 4 years of service with the company.

Summarizing Captain's story;

Step 1: Captain listened to and more importantly, believed a manipulative senior, 
Step 2: compared his contributions and salary with others', then lost interest in the work, 
Step 3: started wasting time and subsequently introducing unnecessary delays in the task, 
Step 4: lost out to others in the team for being more reliable, was demoted, 
Step 5: then he started bad mouthing the Manager, the Management and the Company Policies. 

This is how Captain initiated and architected his own downfall, but somehow, it was the Manager's fault.... he did not realize that his career was his responsibility and not his Manager's or the Organization's.

What captain did not realize is that;

• A negative talker has a ulterior, sinister and selfish motives. He should have reported the incident to the Management immediately.
• By working harder, he was the one who was amassing experience, what others taking 1 year to achieve, Captain was achieving in 0.6 years.
• It is unfair to compare one's salary to some one else's in the company. What one gets is what he/she deserves. One who is "underpaid and more productive" has a better chance to survive a layoff than the one who is "overpaid and under-productive". The same applies to getting a new job as well.
• Wasting time and introducing un-necessary delays on a task is a sin!, it is our duty to report the completion of a task as soon as it is done and move on to the next task.
• Bad mouthing the Management and Company policies is a crime. If one has a problem with a policy, then one should contact the Human Resources Department Representative or the Project Manager and not vent "feelings" in the Cafeteria with other employees. 

Where's "My Life"?

One evening, I sat down thinking how long I have come, what "I was" and what "I am" and stopped at the question --- "Am I doing what -- I -- want to do?", the answer was "not everything I do is what I want to do", which led me to another question, "Where's -- My -- Life?". To seek the answer, I started out evaluating my life 5 years at a time, starting from the day I was born. Here's the train of my thoughts...

Age 0 to 5 -  For the first 5 years of my life I slept when I wanted to, ate when I wanted, played when I wanted. My home was my world. Everyone I knew, my parents, my grand parents were all special, the person I was with, was the most important at that moment in time. I tore up news papers, broke my toys, learned to stand and walk, learned to talk, learned that I can attract attention by throwing a tantrum, realized that I can melt mom, but dad was tougher. I learned to use my mother's lap as my bed, learned to make a mess, I learned that I can pinch my younger brother to make him cry and I could quickly run to the other room and run back in looking all concerned as my little darling brother was crying . There was nothing I cared about, and I was not expected to, I did what my heart said, I guess, my brain was only helping me with instant non sense.

Age 5 to 10 - I went to school, don't know what was happening, teacher said "A for Apple" and "Two Times Three is Six", and I believed it. Learnt to make friends, learned to complain, learnt that there is a variety of food beyond what my mother cooked. I learnt to use a fork to eat noodles. My teacher helped me discover the world, various continents, cities and it's peoples. When I came home to tell my dad that we live in a continent called Asia, he said he already knew about it!.

Age 10 to 15 - Learnt that I had stage fear, realized the friends can be enemies too, dad said "work hard and be competitive, you got to top the exams", I liked literature, I liked art, dad said "no way, there is no money in it, how are you going to feed your family", teachers told my parents that I was a good student, but I must work harder, dad said, "10th standard is the most important milestone and you get only one chance at it, so don't waste time". I wanted to learn to play the guitar, my dad wanted me to get trained on vocals, issue is unresolved to this date!. This was my initiation into Peer Pressure and the Rat Race.

Age 15 to 20 - "What are you going to do now? Engineering? Medicine? you must take up Science and prepare for the Entrance Tests", I told dad, I want to be a mechanic as I love automobiles, dad completed my admission formalities to study Electrical & Electronics Engineering in an Engineering College. New life, new friends, new freedom, professors are not bothered if I am present or absent in their class, they were there to do their job, i.e., deliver their lecture and get going. It is here I learnt that "teachers were working for money too", the picture of a teacher, a Guru who was preparing us to change the world was shattered. Staying in a college hostel, I realized, I have to live on a budget, bills had to be paid in time. I learned how to make five hundred rupees last for a month.

Age 20 to 25 - "Hey, you know this great IT company, they pay a big salary, they depute you around the world to work, you get to earn in Dollars, we should get IT jobs", another line of thought, "who cares for a job anyway, let's get done with Engineering first and then think what next", get a CV ready, do a software course and be ready when Companies come to the Campus, got a job, realized that it takes 10 days of work to earn Rs.1,000 and I have pay 10% of my earnings to the Government as Tax, but in college, all it would take is a phone call to dad, a cheque would arrive in 3 days. Learned that there is something called "Job Satisfaction" and I also learned that I was not satisfied!, learned to switch jobs, learned that interviews are just meetings where my interviewer is telling me that I am unfit for the job and I am trying to convince him otherwise!.

Age 25 to 30 - Have to earn more money, have to buy that cool red bike, just like my friend's, need a bigger room to stay, need a computer so I can browse the net when I get home. Have to try out swanky restaurants, watch movies, "Friday Dressing" sounds cool, I need a new wardrobe, hey you checked the new mobile phone? need that as well. How do I fund all this, it's easy, switch jobs. I wanted to make a statement that I had arrived and I needed a lifestyle to prove it. "Dad, I earn more than you!", I said, dad smiled.

Age 30 to 35 - Got married, disposable income got multiplied by 2. Need an apartment now, buy one, get a promotion, buy a car, daughter is born, watch her grow. Wife is busy taking pictures, making albums and shopping for the kid, while I tagged along figuring out what it would take to keep up with the expenses. As new parents we are trying to teach the kid to walk, to talk, to behave and what not, I now realize what my dad did for me. It's time to settle down, my outlook changed from a "Job" to a "Career", I am looking for stability, I am looking for work-life balance.

Age 35 to 40 - Which school is she going to go? Planning for my daughter's education, buy insurance polices, save for her education, plan for our retirement, "spread the risk", said the investment consultant, he said I should invest in stocks now, wife wants to buy jewelry because prices of Gold dropped by Rs.20 per gram, "what the hell? you want me to spend over Rs.100,000 to save Rs.800!, it's ridiculous", man will this ever end? Where's "my life"?

~ o ~ o ~ o ~

I don't know what life has in store for me. For once I have concluded that I won't have "my life" again, at least not in the next 3 decades or so, that is if I live that long!. The only time I did what I wanted to do was when I was less than 5 years old, I was living "My Life", but I didn't know it then!, after that it was predominantly doing what my parents wanted, what my teachers wanted, what my friends wanted, what my boss wanted. what my wife wanted, now it is what my daughter wants...

Now that I realize that "My Life" is my family, my friends and my work, then why complain? I should try to be happy to live for others in my life...

We have Qualifications, Are we Educated?

Education is the act of imparting knowledge to an individual, which results in better behavior and actions that contribute to improve society. 

Nowadays people spend a lot of money on Education of their children. I see kids going to tuition and classes to learn various skills outside of their curriculum - tremendous amount of learning and exposure. Truly, we have come a long way with our Education System.

Interestingly, In India, the Literacy rates have increased from around 5% in 1911 to 65% in 2001 and then to around 75% in 2011.

The question is, are we really Educated?

If Yes, then...

• Why can't we tolerate a slower vehicle ahead of us?
• Why do people waiting at the Traffic Signal honk when the signal turns Green?
• Why is it that, an error in the software program we just wrote is "just a bug", but a wrong calculation on the Bank Account Statement is something we would sue the bank for?
• Why is it that we expect our customers to understand why the project is delayed, but we yell at the Pizza Delivery Boy for being 10 mins late?
• Why is it that we get upset when the boss admonishes us for delay in the project, but we cannot tolerate a delay in the paycheck?
• Why is it that we expect appreciation for the "good" work we do, but expect the Management to "understand" we make mistakes and feel bad when management asks us to show cause?
• Why is it that the Policeman always stands at the end of the One Way Street to issue a Ticket to people who have broken the law and not stand the beginning of the street trying to prevent people from breaking the law?
• Why do children at school compare their father's cars and discuss religion?
• Why should a child try to get more marks just because the neighbor's child has obtained better marks in the test at school?
• Why do we need facebook to stay in touch?
• Why do friends compare their salaries, cars, work and designations when they get together?
• Why does a family of 3 want a 5 bedroom apartment?
• Why is grass greener on the other side? Why is my friend's company always better than the one I work for?

Think about it...

What I learnt from my Mother: Responsibility

When I was a kid, I used to feel important when my parents would assign some tasks to me, like watering the plants everyday or bringing the newspaper and milk bottles from our door-step every morning. I remember very clearly, that I would perform each of my tasks for a few days and then either lose interest or get lazy and then forgot all about it only to find out many weeks later, that my mother had "assumed the responsibilities" of my tasks....

There was not a single day, when my mother would forget to make breakfast on a Sunday or chose to skip doing the laundry because it was a National Holiday!

My mother would ask me, my brother and my dad, what we would like to eat the next day and carefully plan every night how she is going to fulfill our wishes for "tomorrow". There is not a single day that I remember of, when my mother did not fulfill a "reasonable" demand!

Another interesting fact that I remember about my mother is that, I don't recall my mother falling sick or being too sick to cook, there was always something to eat when I was hungry.

What I learnt from my mother was RESPONSIBILITY and that

• Responsibility is ABSOLUTE! - there are no ifs and buts, no National Holidays, no breaks and no vacations. 
• Responsibility is not a 9 to 6 job! - it is a 24x7 job. 
• When one takes up a Responsibility, it better get done, because someone is depending on you to do it. 
• Responsibility does not need "Comfortable Working Conditions" or "Encouraging and Supportive Customers", only an iron will to do a great job at all costs.
• Responsibility is a Thankless Job! - don't expect a pat in the back for each successful attempt, get on to the next task as soon as possible.
• There are no Shortcuts when one takes up a Responsibility! - the involvement and commitment required is 100% - no one likes a half cooked meal.
• Anything that prevents one from executing the Responsibility is just an Excuse! and not a Reason.
• Most important thing about Responsibility is that one feels for the task or the group of people. The "Brain" follows the "Heart" when a responsibility is involved.

An amazing lesson, valid at home and at work at all time. 

How I wish, we all implement these lessons at work, there will be no loss making companies and no dis-satisfied employees...

Opportunity - Are you Ready for Success?

A few months ago, I read this wonderful book from Malcolm Gladwell called Outliers. Malcolm Gladwell is, in my opinion, an exceptional author and each of his theories are well supported by data that is an outcome of thorough research. In a world of great thinkers, who have attempted to solve complex problems, Malcolm Gladwell, takes our attention to simple occurrences, conducts research, derives data and draws simple conclusions that change one's thought process.

In this blog, I draw the reader's attention to a section in the book Outliers, called the 10,000 hour rule.

This section articulates Malcolm Gladwell's research on successful musicians, entrepreneurs and sports persons. He says, each successful person he interviewed had put in at least 10,000 hours at honing and perfecting their skill.

In the book, Malcolm Gladwell also describes the criteria for being Rich or Successful - he says, you have to be born between certain years.

The key point is that --- Opportunity does not leave a Visiting Card at the door and leave a message that says it will return in a few days. Opportunity comes when you least expect it to come.

The Person who cashes in on the Opportunity is the person who was the most "Prepared" to do so, meaning the person has already put in the 10,000 hours in the skill.

When you don't know when the opportunity is going to come, you cannot predict when the opportunity is going to come, so why not get the 10,000 hours as soon as possible and be ready when the opportunity comes?

To get to the 10,000 hours mark, a person...

• working at 8 hours a day, requires 1,250 days which equals 5 years (@ 250 work days a year)
• working 10 hours a day, requires 1,000 days, which equals 4 years
• working 12 hours a day, requires 834 days, which equals 3.33 years
• working 16 hours a day, requires 625 days, which equals 2.5 years

So, working harder, gets you prepared sooner, enhancing your chances to cash in on the opportunity when it comes!

Now look at it in another way, working 12 hours a day, gets you 5 years worth of experience in just 3.33 years!

Everyone likes a hardworking team member. So, when the Boss is looking for a person who has the best chance of solving a very critical problem or to handle a very important project, I would recommend the most hardworking individual in my team. This is because the hard working individual has the highest chance of success!, and I don't want to look like a fool by betting on someone who is less hardworking. As time goes by, this hardworking individual, gets more opportunities than others in the team and eventually becomes more successful. 

Others become obsolete and complain, that the company does not care for them, they do not provide the right environment for people to succeed and blame everything in sight.... in reality, this individual has never tried and they are in this position because of their own actions....

When I say working hard, I mean, working hard in the right direction!, For example: I live in Bangalore, if I set a goal of climbing Mount Everest, I need to start my journey in the North of Bangalore. Well, I can even start traveling south and still reach Mount Everest, but, I would have circumvented the Earth and reached at the base of Mount Everest from the Tibet.

Bad News Travels Fast!

I admit that I have committed errors, mistakes and some serious blunders in my professional life. I am not ashamed of my mistakes because I have learnt from each one of them.

I used to wonder how my boss gets to know about my mistakes before I highlight the error to him myself?

Yes, I agree that some colleagues like to highlight my error, just to show that they are better than I am. It's fine, I am not competing with them anyway, so I don't care.

I don't care because I know what I know, I know what I don't know and I am proud of my achievements so far and am willing to work hard to achieve more in the future...

Coming back to the point --- my boss gets information about my mistakes before I take it to him as I delay taking the bad news to him as soon as it happened or discovered. When I delay my communication, I give others the chance to carry the information for me, hence Bad News Travels Fast.

Why do I delay informing my boss of my errors? There are 2 reasons....

1. I do not want to highlight my errors to my boss, because it will make me look bad.
2. When I highlight the error to my boss, he will call me dumb, he will be angry and yell at me.

Reason # 1 is being UNPROFESSIONAL.
Reason # 2 is PROCRASTINATION. I just need a reason to postpone taking the issue up with my boss because I am afraid of his reactions.

The best approach is ....

• Be fearless and let the boss know of the error as soon as it is discovered.
• Apologize for the error. 
• Give assurance that this will never happen again.
• Figure out the Root Cause of the error and define preventive actions. 
• Go back to boss and explain why the error happened and how you plan to prevent such errors in the future.

Don't hide your mistakes, because someone else will discover it eventually and highlight the error. If this happens, it will be humiliating.

Don't be scared of reactions - if you have made the mistake, be fearless and admit it, be graceful and accept the punishment. Worst case you'll get sacked, no one can take your life from you, you can always start over!

Be the one to communicate your own bad news first....