Challenge yourself as a leader

Thirteen years in the corporate world and finally a day came where I understand what it means to reach the pinnacle of achievement … you succeed so far beyond anyone’s wildest dreams that makes you THE man and because of you the entire team is appreciated…

 My GE days were filled with leadership experiences that helped me build resilience and maintain composure during tough times… and as I moved on there was an opportunity came knocking to my door … two Mid Cap giant companies merging together to be among the top 5 in the India IT play and I am responsible to spin success at the process side driving operational excellence and building growth strategies, using principles of lean and six sigma to eliminate waste and make the integration smooth.

As I moved out form the comfort zone of the GE Leadership and the GE Culture into a company that is acquired a bigger organization than itself and going thru a churn and restructuring at the top there was reluctance in employees and seemed though they have immediately got defensive and resist the idea of change.

What was so easy for me in the GE Days looked like a herculean task to carry the wave along to accomplish the set goal and help people overcome the perceived threats and get them away from the assumptions and gossips into reality. Loss of status, delays in pay hikes coupled with surprise factors of the policy changes added fuel to fire for the role I was playing.

This situation was testing my resilience and tenacity, which is obviously essential in a change management role and experienced the first time in reality compared to the GE days where such circumstances were only discussed in the training sessions.

This was the best experience of my career where in practice I have situation at hand where an adversity is presenting me an opportunity and instead of pressing a panic button hold on to the composure not letting the emotions get in the way and keeping a positive attitude handle the situation. One of the biggest learning out of this entire episode strengthened my belief … to be a good leader you need no rocket science … Communication and Faith are the only two qualities that are quite sufficient to emerge out of any situation…

Its few months now… my project was signed off yesterday with an annualized benefit of $ 3.46 Million to the organization …

Moving out of GE was a tough decision and I wanted to test my waters out there in the market and see what I am capable of.  Many a times working in a big organization and big MNC brand helps one maneuver thru the hurdles very easily… try it else were and challenge yourself as a leader  …!