During the first 5-7 years of my career, I had the opportunity to work with some truly amazing people. Here are the lessons I learned, which now form the core of my leadership style.
- A leader’s job is to bring out the best in their team. When I was tasked with leading a project to transition services offshore, I wanted to handpick the best team members. However, I was given a pre-set team instead. They were all technical experts, often at loggerheads with each other. Although we ultimately succeeded, the journey was challenging. Maintaining a clear vision of our goal and understanding our direction proved crucial. It wasn’t until later years and working with multiple teams across the globe I got better at it. How do you get the best out of people? By truly connecting with them. What does this even mean? Perhaps a topic for another day…
- There is no replacement for diligence.I was a system administrator then, working night shifts, backing up systems on magnetic tapes. It was a tedious task, especially in the middle of the night. One day, the core system failed, and I was on the backup roster. The haunting question, “Do we have a backup?” lingered until I confirmed we did. However, the restore failed due to other issues, and we had to recover from a few nights back. I feared it would cost me my job. “We must have a backup. If the restore fails, it is OK”. When I heard those words, I breathed a sigh of relief. Those were the days when restores from backups weren’t 100% successful. (I am talking 8mm tapes.) Those diligent late-night shifts changing tapes had not been in vain.
- Ask, don’t tell. This was the most challenging lesson. As a technical expert and troubleshooting master, I spent hours deep in log files, teaching these skills to my teams. It wasn’t effective. My boss, coach, mentor, and friend asked, “Are you asking or telling?” It took time to grasp. “Try asking them questions so they learn. No one learns by telling.” Transitioning from telling to asking was difficult. As an expert, I wanted to showcase my knowledge. Even now, I sometimes fall into the telling trap but quickly correct myself.
Our early career experiences shape who we become as leaders. We carry these lessons throughout our lives, discarding some ‘anti-lessons’ that guide us in choosing who we don’t want to be.
Sid Kumar 