The post is about year 2009 that is in question. What did it gave me? What did I do in return and Blah blah blah…
When I am recounting the year how it passed by I am realizing that it didn’t made me just one more year older but also gave me a lot more that it had to offer me. This is the year which really made me think where I am leading my life and what I need to do. From being a self independent going home at free will with no worries about mom, dad, brothers waiting for me to arrive so that they can have their dinner on time, to finding the ways to reach home and how I can save a single minute to reach home early now after getting married.
So, here is the first revelation of 2009. It made my marital status changed from Single to Married. Giving my female pals and colleagues a weapon they thought was strong that I won’t flirt with them, which eventually got destroyed with my witty reply J
From professional life, I learnt a much more in the entire year than what I had set in my goals for 2009 (shamelessly admitting the fact that 90% of all those goals still are lying somewhere on an A4 Sheet of white paper to be read again).
It was in the early start of this year that I got an opportunity to visit the annual Kick off of our organization at it’s headquarter in Los Angeles, which was one of the most memorable kick-offs I had ever attended. Reminisce of the kick off was the drumbeat exercise demonstrating the power of teamwork. The exercise was exhilarating with a synchronous beat being rolled out from each drum provided to participants giving us the important lessons of teamwork.
As I further dwell into 2009 it was during appraisals period I realized how difficult it is to judge your team based on their performance for the entire year. As the deadline to submit the review report came close I realized I haven’t started reviewing but even then I was cool and relax, with carefree attitude that I would be able to assess every member of my team with honest feedback on time and somehow this was found amusing by managers of other functions. I still remember those two nights where I was pushing myself very hard to recollect the memories of the entire year that past and writing my feedback about each and every employee. It was a tough testing time for a person like me to be in a Managerial position. Nonetheless, the hard work paid off as each and every team member agreed to my points.
So, here’s the second revelation, from being a Lead of the Team to taking over the team as a Manager in true sense happened in 2009. Few colleagues in the initial phase thought I was incompetent as managing a team, but I assume they failed to realize that I was already a manager in my mind the day I took up the team lead role as I had already kept a close eye on my manager monitoring his activities and would use to imitate his actions in my work life apart from the duty of lead.
This is my take on progress that the position you are in, is because you are worth it. If you need to move ahead, you need to perform a dual duty of proving the worthiness of the position you are in and working towards the next role for your life simultaneously.
As the year progressed the business demand increased, and the need to hire new people also increased. It was during mid 2009 that the organization had a sudden spur of growth in new hires marking another major feat of organization to grow into a much bigger space of 25000 sq. ft. and we had to say good bye to our lovely small office of 10000 sq. ft. The new place had all modern amenities and lavish lifestyle business place. The amenities like aerated drinks vending machine, coffee machine, daily breakfast in morning and evening, Nintendo Wii, it seemed like another home for each employee of this organization. We moved to Goregaon which meant my travel time increases to additional 30 minutes one side this was when I wasn’t married. Now after marriage its increased to 2 hours and 30 Minutes travelling towards office and the same while going back home that sums up to spending minimum of 5 Hours daily only in travelling, changing atleast 3 local trains. Yes, it does sounds crazy but that’s the price you need to pay if you want to work in Mumbai. And I happily accept it.
To payoff for my increase in travel time, I have now decided to write content on my blog and bore my audience with the stories of my life J and hence you are reading this stuff.
The most radical change that I have seen in an organization is change in the belief amongst the employees of my organization. The words inspire, principled performance, leadership, taking responsibility, going to point of no return slowly and steadily started making sense. During the early part of 2009 it wasn’t easy for us (with us it includes me as well) to digest the companies mission, whether it was just a mission on paper with great vision by the founder or in reality it means as well.
The reason being it wasn’t easy is 2009 was also a year world would reckon as a recession hit year where organizations collapsed and failed to survive the financial storm and our organization decided to restructure its working to make sure that the organization didn’t suffer the extremes of this storm. It meant parting ways with few well talented colleagues and unfortunately this exercise was viewed by us with the horse-eye view as layoffs. We parted with more than 60 of the precious leaders during this exercise. But, as the first step of this exercise was completing, Atleast I sensed to realize the importance of the need for restructuring the organization required.
I would really like to appreciate the way organization handled the most difficult phase that the organization went in restructuring making sure that the colleagues who would be parting were taken well care of. Our Organization provided them with all the benefits an employee would receive while leaving the organization plus to the range of six months severance packages and a guaranteed assurance from the CEO as a recommendation from him to help them find jobs and earn their livelihood. This is what I haven’t seen for long in organizations and would definitely claim it as a true act of Inspiring Principled Performance.
There were several quite noticeable improvements in the process at my organization, from employee attendance based salary structure demolished to provide the complete package of salary with the trust on employees that they would inform their leaves or absence. This is one of the noblest acts done by any organization I have worked with in my past 9 years of experience. Organization made sure that the employees received their rewards (salaries) for all their hard work in the first 3 days of the next month. As I write this story, I already have my Sodexho food coupons for the month of December on the last day of the month, and salary being credited on the 1st January 2010.
During our first ever kick off meetings the CEO made a statement that “Sun will never set in this organization”. In 2009, as the business momentum increased in Mumbai, we as managers had to be constantly in touch with our valued and esteemed colleagues working in different continents. So, we were provided with the flexibility of working from home, an internet connection at home being reimbursed by the organization and provided with business ready laptops to work with. Incase of loss of internet connectivity we were provided with Blackberry’s as well to be connected 24 hours with other members of the organization. Today looking back I realize the vision of “Sun Never sets at LRN” coming true.
This year also provided me to interact with new colleagues and having an opportunity to work under a great leader and great manager that we ever had. Being said that I was the early bird to react very strongly on the selection process of the manager I had to work under. Today, I don’t feel guilty about my reaction since those were accepted by the Executive Committee. During the course of action I also realized the mistakes I made and wasn’t insecure to correct them by apologizing which I did. Looking back, I feel each and every day of 2009 made me stronger mentally, physically and in verbal dialects at the organization, day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute and second by second.
From an organization of 80 employees to progressing towards the goal of 150+ I am fortunate to be a part of this organization named LRN.
If you think you like this I would request you only if you have some time to spare out of your busy schedule to acknowledge my post and let me know your feedback as well.
Thank you,
Irfan Kazi
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