Lessons learnt from 10-years of professional journey
A journey of pride, purpose and accomplishment.
It’s crazy to believe that it’s been exactly 10 years at my current organization and strangely enough my last week here . What an incredible journey it has been ! Grew from strength to strength — embracing different roles, solving new problems , designing innovative solutions, strengthening relationship with customers, building high performance teams and of course travelling the world.
I’m writing this piece today to take a pause, breathe, reflect, and pen down my learnings/guiding principles through the years.
1. Carve your own journey — Don’t let fears, insecurity, FOMO, or what others want to hold you back from making life on your own terms. Build your career based on your passion, one that gives you a sense of purpose and joy. I chose to stay at an organization for 10 years when my friends, colleagues moved every few years. I chose opportunity of growth, built depth and breadth of understanding, travelled, and explored business across continents and cultures, embraced multiple roles to build a holistic experience and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
2. Invest in People — The biggest asset of any business is its people. Hire the right talent, nurture the growth of each member, and create a sense of belongingness. We can do the impossible when we have the right team around.
3. Be a Champion of great ideas — The best ideas don’t come from you; it comes from your team. Foster the right environment to have open discussions, brainstorm ideas and create the culture of experimentation. A focus on collective success will generate great ideas to win the world
4. Have clarity in Purpose and not harper on the process: Always know your why! Learn to see the big picture and meaning behind doing something. Once you lock the purpose, navigating the process becomes easier and making necessary pivots are easily justified.
5. Be a gate keeper of time, yours, and your teams’: Time is limited and giving time to someone/something translates to giving energy, so make sure you do it with intent and priority. Say NO to unnecessary tasks, meetings. As a leader, prioritize time to invest in growth of the team professionally and personally.
6. Allow free flow of information at all levels: We all know information is power. Certain times , I have seen leaders withhold information (public information and not the ones which are confidential and illegal) to feel superior or at times assume that everyone knows and worse yet a few cases where they don’t feel the need to share with the team. Knowingly /unknowingly this hurts the team in the long run. I personally believe in over communication. You will be in a better position to manage the chaos, the purpose, the execution through the right communication. As said rightly in the Art of War by Tzu: “If words of command are not clear and distinct, if orders are not thoroughly understood, the general is to blame.”
7. ASK , ASK , ASK — Ask for that help that can ease your understanding, ask for that meeting that you are too scared to take, ask for that promotion that you deserve , ask for that project that you so passionately want to work on, ask for that time off for your wellbeing without feeling shame. Know what you want and ask for it with thorough justification and you will be surprised how many people will stand by your side to help.
8. Be Curious: Cultivate curiosity, it helps us collectively get better at learning, building trust, collaborative relationship, getting creative, thinking rationally, and having a greater sense of purpose. This simple and underrated trait can help you navigate through though situation and make us lifelong learners. Foolish beginners with curiosity become the grateful masters.
9. Fight it off with the bullies, hold your ground — Every now and then we come across people who pull us back, who create obstacles than pathways, who resort to dirty politics. Learn the ability to recognize these workplace bullies, develop a thick skin and hold your ground. When the effort is honest, faith in your ideas and opinions and the right intent, you are bound to outshine such people. Don’t let anyone question or reduce your self-worth.
10. Feedback is a gift — always receive it warmth and zero offense. For honest, authentic relationship both internally and externally, for true personal and professional growth, it is important that we establish positive feedback loops. A timely and honest feedback without the fear of reprisal gives us a healthy opportunity to work toward better behaviors. A feedback is a hallmark of true investment in someone.
11. Don’t be exclusive; be available and approachable to others — You can be effective as a leader only when you are open to them. Don’t take yourself too seriously, treat others as you wish to be treated, always look at the long-term win, have a give first mindset, listen and value people.
12. Celebrate the success and embrace your failures equally — Most people want to talk just about accomplishments. While it is important to celebrate them, it is equally important to acknowledge the failures. Be vocal about both success and failure with the same social eminence. By doing so it publicly helps you grow, learn faster, and make us humbler. Personally, my biggest promotions, visibility and opportunities came around when I failed in projects despite my best efforts. When you own it and learn from it, you build a version of yourself who is ready for more challenges and can do so with more rigor and commitment.
13. Be a storyteller — What are we without our stories? No matter what job we do, storytelling is as important as the job itself. Stories make you think, react, and engage. They create a mental picture, they help you structure the thought, the purpose and captivate the listeners, and create an emotional connection. The success of a business, a project, a sales pitch, marketing ad, a brand, a meeting can all be dependent on how good the story telling was
14. Find a mentor and your personal cheer leaders — With all the information around on the internet and social networking it might feel unnecessary to have a mentor. But the reality is that the practical and experiential 1x1 guidance and advise is the best time investment with great dividends. Many a times we find ourselves second guessing or even anxious about the next steps or dealing with uncertainty or even trying to grapple with failures and all we need is that external voice, support, and push to stay on course. Mentors and our personal cheers leaders help us regain control with their positivity and faith.
My journey of 10 years has been full of purpose, pride, and accomplishments. It has been shaped by countless experiences and people — their unwavering faith in me, their guidance to fight for causes that I have believed in, their timely feedback that has helped me grow, their trust in me when I didn’t believe in myself and most of all teaching me how to build true relationship .
I feel immense pride and comfort knowing my legacy lives in products & processes that I have helped built through the years and the relationships that I will cherish for a lifetime.
