An end of one Journey and memories of the milestones that made that Journey!

Sometime in the early part of 2007, I decided to take the leap of faith. I joined an organization whose business was very alien to me. I did try very hard to cope with the rigours of the new job and I believe that I gave it my best shot. I have written many times in my personal blog, of the triumphs and failures in this new job, but I know that in return, this job has helped me immensely.

First few months were spent trying to ensure that I understood this business as best as I can. During that time I also tried to restructure the team I had with me. I quickly sensed that this team was in need of unity and direction. Inspiration in an industry I did not know much about was hard to come by. Only I know of the deep thought process I applied to this situation. I have always believed in inclusive leadership. This way everyone is involved in the development of self and the team around them. I ran many "campaigns" to get the team involved. There was limited success, but I do believe that there was some change in the thinking of the team.

I faced many hurdles and many disappointing moments in the early stages of my tenure there. Not very often do you come to know that under your leadership, the team put up its worst ever score. But the most important point is that I believed in the things I was doing to improve the performance of the team. I always backed my people who had the talent and in time they rewarded me with results. Soon we recorded the best ever performance by this team, ever! It was a moment to cherish and all the hard work I had put in paid off. I had with the help of my team turned around a group of under achievers to a team of winners. I learnt a valuable lesson that if the basics are right and adhered to, then there is no stopping you.

The team almost entirely changed in the following months of our success and I found myself back to square one. During those times, it was difficult to focus on performance as the sword of Damocles (read attrition) hanging over me at all times. Inspite of that, I truly know that my team and I tried very hard to restore parity to performance.

There are little grudges on either side of the aggrieved parties. But I am sure that time will heal this animosity. The end was rather abrupt and very poorly executed in my personal view. Inspite of anticipating the worst, I hold myself responsible for not trying enough. Perhaps that in itself is a lesson learnt.

The closure of our operations left me with little bitterness and many friends that I hope I have made for life. It was a turbulent one and a half years, but I do believe that I have emerged the stronger for the efforts. I bear no grudge against anyone and I am sure that there is no one who grudges me. When there are things beyond your immediate control, there is little that can be done to overturn the tides of destiny. I have accepted my new destiny and I am very happy for it. What is even more heartening is the fact that my team has also found its new destiny and each one of them is doing well.

It has been an absolute honour being the leader of a great group of people who accepted me for my fallacies and then worked very hard to ensure that we achieved success. I can safely say that having know them at close quarters, all of the individuals with whom I worked during my tenure have great talent and will do very well for themselves in their professional lives.

Cheers to the devils!

KK