It all started out when one constipated monkey called onsite manager wanted to get into good books with client. Without consulting any of us, he commited to the client that we will finish a certain task. He explained to us as if the whole task will take a day to complete. But the devil is in detail. It took three days to develop and three of us were staying through the weekend to complete it. When I informed the onsite manager, he cooly replied that those planing should be dealt with the client manager! Amazingly idiotic, but true. I wonder how these people get into managerial positions. They commit saying such-and-such task could be completed within such-and-such time, without knowing a bit about the work involved. They all think if we increase the resources, it should be fine. Try impregnating a woman with nine men to get a baby in one month!

In addition, I got to put-up with managerial madness at offshore. I have one guy who repeats everything twice. Everything he says, he says twice. When it happens to others it is comedy, when happening to me it is a real tragedy. He will send out an e-mail and come to you saying, “I have sent you a mail. Check it out”. Whenever he does it, he gets into my nerves.

Finish the task. Suddenly there is a crowd to pick up the glory. You would wonder, where the hell were these people when you were boiling and toiling.

Our client is using Vantive, a CRM tool which is in its dying ages, for tracking their problem tickets. As it is in its last phase, client decided to migrate to Remedy, another CRM tool. The client manager felt that Remedy is much more complex and insisted that we undergo training. And the managers wanted to catch a big fish with the smallest fish. Well in my case it turned out to be not even the smallest fish was offered. For the past two months, I have been running on all options to get my resources trained in Remedy. Every time there was some obstacle. But surprisingly I got help from unknown quarters. Finally, we had a Remedy training arranged for this weekend. The instructor was good and the class went very interactive. All the resources were very much involved. I was thrilled to see the fruit of my efforts. Of course, I still need to get the project to the offshore. But this itself is satisfying. I learnt couple of lessons during this period:

• You already have a no. Make it an yes:This is not always easy and possible. But give a try. I learnt this from a Flemish friend of mine. During this period, most of the things I wanted to do had a NO as an answer. Either I had to find a workaround or cajole them to say yes.
• Be persistent: As a true Taurean, I persisted. Sometimes I had to bend and other times bend others, but bottom line was to get the work done. Keeping the spirit high for two months was tough. In between other official happenings put me down. Sometimes how the team members behaved hurt me. But I kept my beat.
• Get an authority behind you: My immediate boss was supportive of the efforts that I was taking. Having him behind me helped me to kick some asses and be bold. There were times when I was feeling pretty low, he would come along and encourage me. It helped.

Every month, on the last Wednesday, we have a project-get-together to welcome new comers into the project and to celebrate, in a small way, birthdays and other special days of project members. Every person has to go in the front of every one and say a word or two. What I realized is that I cannot stand being the focus, even for few minutes. I like to stand out in a crowd, nut having the crowd focus on me is a big No! Call me crazy, but that is me. I sneak out in such situations, as I did today.

In my current project, I am at the offshore managing few critical applications for a US client. There are few Indians working for the client as well, with whom I have to interact time to time. What I have found is that, it is easy to deal with Americans or for that matter anyone other than these Indians (there are one or two exceptions though). These people of our own blood make our life so difficult. These non-Indians out there are ready to help or offer a piece of advice. However, the Indians out there are so tough and make everything an issue. And on top of it, they paint a black image of us. Once one of my resource failed to get to the root cause of a problem. He has been a good resource, but failed in one. When the client manager and the leads from offshore discussed about that, an Indian in the client place generalized and said that Indians are only ready to do what has been asked to do and they cannot think further. Man! if he was anywhere near me, I could have given him a slap. That was so a wrong message. When I explained the diligence shown by the team member in earlier instances, the client manager agreed that this was an isolated issue and dismissed the poisoned opinion. I deal with another one of such a moron. He has been in this application from the requirement stage. So he knows the system so damn well. Obviously, having taken the maintenance of the system just 3 months back, I am not well versed with the entire application as like him. I take so much effort to understand the application and to deliver the modifications after much testing. But invariably, once in a while I fail to get a whole picture. He waits until I fail and then boom, he will shoot out a mail to my boss that I am not good enough. The client manager so many times appreciated me for handling such critical applications without much of escalations, but getting a good name from this guy has been next to impossible.I say often (to myself), Brutus! get to hell.

It has been only a short period since I have been a manager – less than six months. But this period has been remarkably eventful. Dealing with people, both subordinates and bosses, is much different from dealing with PCs and programming. Even in that, boss’ needs are different from subordinates and I need to often find a balance. I don’t know how many times I failed, but in general I have a satisfied feeling. These are some of the lessons that I learnt in this period. One day I am planning to write an article on this, but for now, this is just in the blog.

Ask right questions
Soon after I took over and even now in the day to day affairs, lot of time goes in finding facts. Depending on the comfort level with whom I interact, I go with an assumption that they will be honest. But I understood, even then I need to ask the right questions to unearth facts. If not, I could be discussing for hours but not getting the fact.

Don’t take everything your subordinate says into heart
While I was busy fighting for the team and taking every step to build it, few of the resources spread tarnishing rumors of me. Well, I was disappointed and depressed when I heard them. But then, I kept the direction and continued what I was doing. It wasn’t easy, but I persisted. Thank God! I persisted. I see a slow but definite change in their attitude.

Make a balance
A manager’s expectation is very different from that of the subordinate. I have to make a delicate balance between both. If I side with managers to create profit, the measures hurt motivation of the resources. However, I need to make sure, enough profit is made as well. If I tax resources by way of getting-most-out-of-less policy, then subordinates become disappointed. Some decisions might be risky too.

Be part of the solution
This one thing I learnt long back. People don’t want to hear of the problem, whether it is your boss or subordinate. Strive to get to the solution. Think creatively. Brainstorm! Do whatever. But find a solution. Sometimes, I have very little time, probably few minutes. I have thought through while walking to manager’s cabin. It may be difficult, but once you train yourself then it becomes part of yourself.

I used to pity myself for continously going through some kind of troubles, especially for whatever I have been going through for the past 5 years. Also I used to feel that this sorrow multiplied many times as I went through them almost alone.

Now that I am a manager, as part of the job I am ‘officially’ expected to interact with lot many people than what I am used to. As I spend more time, I get to know lot many things about these individuals – not just about their professional lives but bits of their personal life too. Few of them carry their personal baggage to work and feel depressed time to time. It might sound strange, but yes I often have to get them out of that and help them concentrate in their work. In the course of time, I got to know one thing – each heart has its pain.

One girl lost her father at a very early age and her brother has a serious medical problem. Another girl, recently broke up with a guy and was weeping over him through the weekend. Yet another guy lost his reputation at office and has been going through some rough weather. He has a girl friend and would like to get married soon, but his parents want his sister to be married first. That means another two years for his marriage. There is an indifferent guy in the team. When I spent time with him, I learnt that he got a seat in an US university for higher studies. But as time would have it, India exploded nuclear bombs which costed his visa.

Not all of them are from my team. But it is kind of consoling to know that I am not sailing alone in this rough waters.