Farewell, Lessons to fare well!

A few days back, we had a farewell party for a colleague who has been with us since we started the new division in the organization and with over 18 years in the organization. Its like, in her own words, "growing into adulthood - being in the parent's house". During her farewell party, her team members and other colleagues were sharing their experiences, engaging with her. The discussion that happened, in addition to my own experiences working with her, was almost like a crash course in leadership and some great insights, for managing a team.

Here's the seven learnings that I picked up during that farewell luncheon, which I feel hold great inputs for any team leader, across domains and sectors.

1. Readiness to take on the New Challenge - When she joined this new division, two of the three dimensions at work (Sector, Geography, Domain) were completely new for her and yet she took on the challenge and had an impactful stint. Many managers fear from getting into the unknown and yet the ones who do, are not only able to discover new sides to themselves but also bring new perspectives to the table. So, never stop shy of trying new things and at the same time, when you do - go deep dive into that so that you have a ground level understanding about the same. Go as close to your customers and their environment to understand their choices.

Don't limit your challenges; Challenge your limits

2. Inputs vs Freedom - How much to delegate to the team - this is a classic dilemma that every manager faces and options range from micromanaging to giving full authority to their teams. The team members, while speaking about this manager spoke about three things - (a)Providing clarity of vision/direction; (b)being accessible and creating a team culture such that people feel comfortable to ask if unclear about something and finally, (c) Giving that freedom for people to try their own creativity and decision making, while backing them up. Isn't it just the recipe of the perfect answer to the classic dilemma !

3. Making workplace Fun - To keep teams engaged requires creating rituals at workplace. This leader has created a small ritual of 'Fun Fridays' (sounds cliched and often used, but from what I heard in the room - it really worked). This helped bring the team together at personal bonding level as colleagues started to see the person beyond their official roles as they came together and shared personal journeys, personal struggles, achievements, what are they doing in personal time. The bonding that thus developed made her team a cohesive unit. Secondly, what I always cherished about her, being an avid reader - that she used to bulk order books that she felt were useful for individual growth and gift it to team on special occasions. Its when the team grows, that the leader grows !

4. Belief in DEI principles - One thing that I used to share as a passion with her was that she has always been a strong believer and practitioner of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. She champions the thought and practices it as well. True and Visionary Leaders, are able to move beyond (a) Short term gain to long term faith in institution building principles like DEI and (b) From preaching about principles to practicing it. After all, Leaders have to walk the talk !

5. Resource planning - Cost vs Investment - One thing that I have particularly learnt from her, has been that leaders see resources and research as investment into a new business rather than as a cost. In this new division, in early years she was the one who invested well in putting together a relatively larger team, which many of us felt at that point of time as going overboard - however, as the time progressed all of us realized how crucial that was for hiccup free operations.

6. Work life balance - Another pet topic, spoken about zillion times, across the globe and yet, I am again bringing this as a point. She used to value her weekend / weekday evenings and protect it like a treasure with the approach of "Don't expect a response from me on Whatsapp or emails, during these hours.

If super critical, call me." As a leader, she not only used to talk about it, practice it and even fight with other teams, for her team to have that balance equally available to them. Quite amazing to see it in practice from the non striker's end.

7. Care Beyond Work - Finally, the topic that was discussed at the farewell the most. As a leader, she was someone who cared for people at work and beyond the work. Many people in her team as well as beyond her team, beyond international boundaries spoke about how during Covid, in their difficult times when someone in their family was unwell, she had reached out and comforted them and regularly enquired about their well being. For youngsters, esp young female managers - she was also a coach and mentor of how to navigate the workspace. (more on this topic of 'coaching' by leaders can be found in a 2015 article - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/why-bosses-need-coach-aditya-singh/ )

While every manager and every leader have their own unique style but above are the seven traits that I found so powerful that I was able to pickup the thread of this newsletter, "Boss, who never was" once again. I am hopeful that you can find some or many of these applicable in your situation.

To the leader, whose farewell it was, I would like to share a John Maxwell line, "A leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way"