My Childhood: How I stopped drinking

This post or perhaps a series of posts with this topic will be for me and just me. There are many good and bad memories while I was growing but I wanted to preserve them.

The first one I wanted to share here is about how I stopped drinking. My father was smoking and drinking in my childhood but later he stopped completely with no looking back. Whenever the parties take place at home, me and my younger brother are very curious and excited. The attraction is not for drinks. It is more on the items that the participants eat. There are  Cashew nuts, Chips, Pakodas, Pa-pads  Mixtures, Onion rings in combination with Lemon. We also used to have a mini party in separate room with these items. For drinks we had alternatives. It required lot of preparation and time. We used to buy Poppins packets. We open them and segregate Poppins of each color. In each tumbler we fill water and put the smashed pieces of same color. We managed to get two Glass tumblers to get the feel of Party. Once the Poppins are dissolved in the water, the juice will be in that color. We have orange, green and other colors of juices. More than drinking, preparing them was quite exciting. We have a Foot stool (a simple seat without a back or arms) and there are two fold-able Iron chairs. the chairs are rusted so we covered them with towels to bring better look Even the stool is covered with whatever cloth is available. We place all the items along with drinks and start the party. We had same level of enjoyment that the other group might have enjoyed.

My father very soon gave up the smoking and drinking. Parties were no longer there. There were a few, but with my father just hosting them without participation we also lost interest. 

When I joined NTPC, I was doing elevated role much bigger to my age. The role involved handling of contractors as big as BHEL and small local contractors as well. I had the signing authority to pass the bills of large values. The work used to be like Overhauling, Erection & Decommissioning and there used to be no holidays as timelines were quite aggressive. Once we complete the mission, there used to be parties. My team, contractors and my seniors used to take part in those parties. I again came across the new items like Fried Rices, Biryani, different types of bread and lot of junk food. Along with them, there were drinks as well. I was  part of a minority group which preferred to have Coke or Pepsi. My seniors used to feel a bit embarrassed about it and my boss tried to explain that he is not drunkard but he wanted to relax after tireless schedule of commissioning activities. I was tempted to take the drinks but every time I realized there is an expiry date or time for such temptations. If I just restrain from taking them for a few minutes the interest dies. I replied him that I do not see any wrong in that but I enjoy Pepsi like the way they were enjoying whiskey.

The real reason on why I should stop drinking was different. One day I went to my colleague on my scooter in the afternoon. As it was afternoon, I didnt go with winter cloth. We spent a few hours and it became cold by the time I was returning. When I was worrying about cold, my colleague prepared a Pan and gave me. He asked me to kick start the scooter,  eat the pan and go immediately. I realized that my body became quite warm after taking the pan and it was just sufficient to keep me warm till I reached home. That's the point when I started eating pan. My attendant in NTPC plant used to bring 5,6 pans in the beginning of shift. I habituated to take Pan. One day he forgot to bring pans. First time in my life I shouted at him. I immediately realized that it is the first time when I shouted on office support staff. For the kind of pay they get, they don't deserve such shouting from me. I immediately apologized and told him not to bring pans any more.

Thats the day I decided I stop drinking because I knew I am not good at resisting addiction.

The learning in Leadership

There are many books on Leadership but there is no substitute for the learning through experience.

Still I thought of sharing a few things among us with expectation that my findings may match to the experiences of some others and may help learn the same thing quickly through relating to their experiences.

Keeping the team above Personal Ego

I learnt this hard way. There is always an input which will be the major triggering point that alone can never be the reason for transformation. It could be the input at a right time when I was already prepared for a change. For example, Lord Buddha didn't transform just by sitting under Bodhi tree. By that time he already experienced a lot  and the summary of findings reached to the conclusion at the time when he rested under this tree. 

Before I deviate to elaborate more about lord Buddha, let me come back to the topic.

When I was young, I used to fight for the team in aggressive manner and in one occasion one of my manager told that he doesn't need a union leader. Instead he wanted a leader who meets the agenda of his manager. With that we finished talking and the cause for which I fought was not met. In fact I moved out of that unit and preferred to work elsewhere. However when I looked back, I see it as my failure because for my ego, I sacrificed the team interests.

The real change happened when I watched a program in a US Channel. I don't remember the name of the program (Something like "You are fired"). It was a reality show where bulk hiring happens for specific requirements. The applicants are formed in to teams and are given tasks. The audience see how the team lead and team members discuss and execute the deliverable. In one episode the Project manager was blaming the team and was claiming that she did everything right but the team didn't support. She was fired. The anchor explained that she was fired because she kept her personal interests above the team. 

Probably that was the perfect timing for me to understand one of the important leadership principles and there was a change.

I was able to follow the principle and it always gave me tremendous happiness on every achievement that helped the team.

There was one instance when reorganization happened in my unit when the unit was dissolved with an intent that individual delivery units will be managing the functions of my erstwhile unit in the way they want. Because of that me along with about 15 leaders were role less and we were given time for 3 months to find roles in the new organization. There were many roles available in the new Organization Model but my first focus was to accommodate my team in safe places.  I worked hard to move my team to various functions like Line HR, Testing and other units. I cleaned up the entire team while the team didnt even know the news of Reorganization as it was not even announced by that time. It took almost 3 months for me to do this exercise and by that time all my colleagues found the roles. But I was still happy about completing my first responsibility. I found my own options in the 11th hour and got the opportunity to work with one of the best leaders I ever had. That new role helped me get the much awaiting visibility in the organization.

There was another incident when in another leadership role, I lost my team due to a very high level leadership decision to lay off many of team members from all units and my unit was also effected. I was a mere spectator when this shocking change happened. But unlike my earlier approach, I tried to negotiate with the leadership to retain some of the members. The missing item was my aggression as I wanted to be more practical and team was above my EGO. There was no immediate success but slowly I was able recall most of the lost members without impacting the organization interest. I worked with no rest to ensure that the entire team is either accommodated elsewhere or is back to my team.

My journey continues but my restraint is helping me in every step. Unfortunately I am still aggressive when it matters just for me. I may need another Bodhi Tree to make the needed transformation in this aspect as well :).

Many compromise to live with them but you question them

One thing I learned from one of my managers is to question when everyone decided to live with them. There are always conditions because of which certain practices or patterns are accepted  But they can be changed by questioning. For instance, I procured  Network Bandwidth and the vendor said 4-6 weeks as the delivery lead time. I see people planning to take the next steps from 6th week by simple acceptance of Vendor's delivery time. When insisted the delivery happened in a week or so. There were many such when we met commitments much earlier than committed but before that we thought the schedules were quite aggressive.

Stick to Basics: Many times this is sufficient to meet the challenges
Whenever we want to do drastic transformations, we look at defining a new process, invent a Best Practice, create a task force, committee, Panel and what not. But we need to realize that many challenges were arising because we dont even look at the fundamentals. For example, to demonstrate our expertise in a technology we may not need great inventions in the technology. Just verify whether we are following the basics. To name a few, we miss following the design and coding standards, naming conventions, a simple practice of aligning to Version Control, Standard testing procedures and Documentation. If we overlook these basics and try to invent something from nowhere it may be another reinvent of the wheel rather than invention.