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.
Time just flies
Last year this time, I was in Titisee, a lake town in Black forest, Germany. I went there with a friend of mine and we took an appartment and stayed for few days. What a relaxing time that was! We went on a boat ride (well, one could have guessed that), strolled through the town and ate lots of local food. Now a year is gone and all that is left is pleasant memories. Couldn’t imagine how fast time passed by and how much life has changed.
Troubled upgrade
I dont know what I was doing but I tried to upgrade Nucleus CMS software yesterday. I thought it was going to be just easy. Phew! man, it took me three hours yesterday and I lost all – I lost the contents, I lost the skins, I lost the settings. I lost all. Only smart thing I did was to take a backup before the screw-up. But I learnt that restore works only for the same version, not for upgrades. What a disappointing upgrade! Today I did a clean install and inserted only the blog entries. I had only one image in the blog entry and I lost it. I have to still redo the site CSS, templates and skins (though I like the default design and I might keep it). If I try to remove the logo, the whole menu and navigation items disappear. Probably I have to read owner’s manual before making changes. I dont have that much free time now-a-days, so it might take a while, before I get the site to look like how I want.
Lessons learnt
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.
Surprisingly too many on the same boat
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.
Romance with nature
My date(!) was fabulous. It is my kind of place – surrounded by mountains, a lake in front, a serene spot. I spent a lot of time reading and writing. Good food as well. So in total, a good holiday. May be I will go back whenever I need to spend some quite time.
You can check the photos here
Urge to travel
Northern wind is itching me to travel. With all the pressures of work and loneliness, I just couldn’t resist it. I am going to a resort near Dindigul in Tamil Nadu. I read about this place in a travel magazine and since then, I am obssesed with the idea of going there. With a holiday on Tuesday, I decided it is right time to go. So I got a day off on Monday. Tonight, I am leaving there.
I am doing such a trip for the first time in India. When I said about the trip to few of my collegues, they were asking, what the hell are you doing? Why are you going alone? Why cannot you just go home and stay with parents? Why are you wasting money? So on and so forth.
But I am excited about the trip. Waiting to see how it is going to turn out to be. If it is good, well. Even otherwise, I am not going to live there, it will be over in two days. I am all thrilled like being on a first date!
Dreams with expiry date
My visa for Belgium expired yesterday! That puts an end to the hope of returning back to ‘Life is beautiful’ days. A melancholic feeling runs through the blood, whenever I think of it.
I do have a challenging job – managing people who are at different spectrum of human nature is no easy job. And yes, I am closer to my family than before. Strange as it may sound, I feel lonely more often in my native land than I felt in a foreign land. Not only I feel often, but these feelings are deep as well. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by them.
I thought, such feelings will be a phase and I will get over them quickly. But more than six months have gone by and still these thoughts and feelings are as gloomy as it was in the begining.
A busy weekend
Again change! This weekend, I moved to a new house. On Friday, I went to order electronic appliances (TV, Audio system, Microwave oven …). Then I had to come back to office. I worked until 1 in the midnight and went to bed in the dorm. On Saturday morning, my parents arrived from Tuticorin. I went to pick them up and left them at the new home. Then I had to come to office for an hour. Thank god! The migration of a patch went well.
My sister had come from Bangalore as well. She helped in packing from old house. Man, it is awful, how much you pile up in six months! It took some time in sorting things out. Otherwise whole packing took less than an hour. I transported all the stuff in a mini-van. Earlier, all the electronic items were delivered at home. Then started the whole fixing up operation. I was able to fix only TV, audio system and DVD/VCD/mp3 players. Anyway that is all what I was interested in.
Getting a gas connection for the stove turned difficult. I need an address proof. How the hell would I have a proof that I am living there, for a house that I am moving in? Won’t people think? Well, we couldn’t make the guy understand. Finally I had to borrow a cylinder from a neighbor to go ahead with dinner preparation.
Today, most of the items got fixed – washing machine, fridge, and fans. Still, I need to test microwave oven. That is for later. My dad left back and my sister will be leaving in an hour or so. My mom will stay with me for a week. After around a decade, I will enjoy her food every day.
A Maverick named Ricardo Semler
Ricardo Semler inherited his father’s business, which was run, like most of the companies, in an autocratic way. There was a rule for every contingency, layers of management, and not to mention employee’s disdain. But Semler changed it all as narrated in his book – ‘Maverick, The success story behind the world’s most unusual workplace’. It is fast-paced, motivating and thought-provoking. I just couldn’t keep the book down. I kept reading through day and night, stopping now and then to assimilate whatever I had read. I am still going through whatever I read to see how I could implement this wonderful philosophy. He says this could be implemented at any level, though change from the top would be favorable.
His revolution was to have complete employee participation in running the business – be it promotion, acquisition, profit-sharing or just about the color of wall next to an employee. The company is composed of self-managing teams, for there is no hierarchy in his firm. The balance sheet of the firm is publicly available and discussed, so even the lowermost employee knows how much profit is made. And the teams evaluate their bosses. End result of all this is, there is lot of trust between employees and employer, high productivity and every party reap the benefit. What a wonderful world to live in!
He doesn’t only paint a rosy picture, he also describes the hurdles he faced in implementing this system. But I am sure his satisfaction compensates for all the pain that he underwent.