Commitment

A true leader is measured by his Commitment to his stakeholders - his team, his supervisors (in the same order),  his peers and client (interchangeable).

To me, as a leader, if I said something, it needs to be done. My biggest inspiration was the movie Devar Magan, where Sivaji Ganesan says "Devanukku vaaku than perusu.. ".

One of the many things that I learned on the floor was I earned my respect due to my commitment and how well I kept my word with my team. The more such instances, the greater was respect for me.

Thankfully, I learned this important lesson pretty early in my leadership journey. In my first few years, I was pretty convinced that I need to keep my word. I went to whatever extent to keep my word with my team, even at the expense of being lashed at by my supervisors. My people knew that when I said I would try my best, it definitely meant my best effort. This earned me respect, as well as made people to understand that commitment was now 2 way - they had to keep their word as well, at least with respect to interactions with me. 

But, the price paid to be committed, to keep my word was pretty high. I had several instances where I tried my best, but things did not work. There were times that I could not do something, and I found it very difficult to face the person and tell that I could not keep my word. These were the times when I felt very bad.  It also meant that I had to go out of my way to get things done; sometimes do things which were not part of my responsibilities. 

In the whole process, another important realization that dawned was not to commit what I cannot do or commit something where there were several external factors involved. This took time, but over a period of time, I realized what it meant "giving my word and keeping it".

Until next week, take care.

ps:  I had promised to do something for a team member, and went beyond call of my duty. I did not realise that I had stepped on several people's shoes until, in a call, my lead who was 2 levels up in my hierarchy told me "Raghu, there are several people trying to do their job, and you are not the only one concerned about people. So stop all this."

Comments

  1. AnonymousJune 23, 2013 at 1:45 PM

    Raghu, successfully engaging thru this for about 4 months now (14 series). excellent effort and I recall several incidents you have mentioned and introspection of some of the incidents / examples though now when we are together, brings some nostalgic effect. Great learning experience for you and sharing this with others in a nice way.

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