15 years of my professional career...pause, reflect, learn, share, proceed

Wednesday, May 25, 2005 – the day when first landed in my professional career and the day that made yesterday my 15th work anniversary. As I thought about this day, I could not hold myself from reflecting on what these 15 years have been about...

 It’s fun and helpful to reflect on these 15 years – fun because I have had successes and failures during this time, a lot more than the busyness of these years allowed me to celebrate; and helpful because I can continue building on success basis on learning from the failures I had.

A lot happened in these times... changed jobs – mostly by choice while few circumstantial; moved across projects - completed most of them while shelved a few; been part of multiple teams – created most while joined a few; led various businesses – most were built while few were inherited; mentored by few, learned from many; met people – built new relationships, severed a few; learned lessons, unlearnt a few.. the journey had been full of highs and lows.

 While I continue progressing on this journey – I want to pause to thank the companies who believed in my abilities, my clients who commissioned all these projects, my colleagues and team members as it was because of you I enjoyed the success that came by my way, and very importantly my family and friends who have been staying put with my workaholic habits – without anyone of you this would have been impossible.

 Over the past few days, few of my colleagues have asked me to share my learning from the various roles I have played. They also asked me how I would be celebrating this achievement… well, taking the latter first, I did not celebrate it as this is a milestone on the journey which is still pending to be completed. On the former, I restrained my responses to these questions – as most of my learning is from my failures and through some of my toughest experiences. I believe its failings and difficult situations that teach the best of the lessons.

 Here are 15 key learning from fifteen years of my experience which have now turned into my professional principles (these are in no order)

1.  Stay Humble – Humility is not about saying "sorry" or "thank you", it is about respecting someone else individuality, recognizing their views, appreciating contributions. It has helped me building trust, relationships, and earn respect.
2. Do not surround yourself with yourself – helps in building diversity of thoughts around you, makes you approachable, and promotes self-awareness. Continuously seek feedback... I follow the mantra "I feed on feedback to evolve".
3. Continue investing in yourself: learn, unlearn, and relearn – keeps your relevant and growing... make mistakes, learn from them but do not repeat them. This may not be just formal education but a combination of training, exposure, and most importantly gaining experience... I have followed the mantra "Either I succeed or I learn". Also, it is important to learn what to do, it is more important to learn what not to do
4. Customer experience is the key – I have taken risks of venturing into new markets and functions. What has helped me the most is understanding I have been able to understand the needs of my customers, the unmet ones, their decision-making factors, and their personas. I have always taken time to be regularly in front of my customers - it helped me stay close to my customer and hence my business.
5. Strive for excellence and not popularity – I have noticed that this is one of the biggest traps and even I fell into this during my first managerial assignment. I was lucky to be coached soon and have been practicing since. This has ensured I build the courage to make difficult decisions which fair to my team members and to my business. It helps me build businesses on the ethos of integrity and meritocracy.
6. Ask “Why” and “So what” for everything you do – helps in ensuring blind spots are taken off and decisions are realistic.
7. Talk less and speak more; think about what you say – helps you stay away from unproductive problems, one of GMs used to say ‘do not say anything that you would not want to hear or something you think you may regret later”. I also learned “every best friend has a best friend”.
8. Challenge the status quo; change is the only constant – helps you in keeping innovation going. It is better to be challenged by yourself rather than by your competitors. It also helps in building a certain risk appetite.
9. Be loyal to only one - your principles and ethos; it is your values that will help you take actions aligned with business and life goals.
10. The team is the reason behind your growth – invest in them. It is you who is responsible for building a highly motivated team that invests back into your business.
11. Look out for “management bias” – do not depend only on filtered information you get for your decisions, make use of your curiosity, and seek opinions.
12. Focus on leadership but do not lose sight of the importance of “ability to manage” Focus on things that matter and keep you happy – everything you do should make a difference, should move the needle, should bring you happiness.
13. Do not get stuck in process and activities; only results matter - it helps me how am I contributing to the business and keep me focused. I am not saying the process is not important but a process without KPIs and results has no meaning.
14. Do things differently for different results – things that got you here may not take you to the next level.
15. Lastly, always be honest to your profession, take pride in what you do - integrity for me has always been about doing the right thing, I have faced the brunt for it and also have experiences of facing repercussions for not doing something which I did not feel is the right thing to do. I have always taken and will continue taking pride in the fact that I am making some difference in the life of a patient in the world somewhere - getting the medicines to those who need them

 I do realize that not everything will resonate with everyone however hopeful that a few will.

 As I continue my journey of learning and exploring, let me close by invoking the lines from the famous poem by Robert Frost:

 The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep,  

And miles to go before I sleep,  And miles to go before I sleep.

 Thanks for taking the time and reading!!

 Divesh Singla