"The Inflection Point..."

This was somewhere in the summer of 2000 - I ended up being the Senior most player in our School cricket Team and as a Captain as well, I faced a unique conundrum post a rule was floated by the School Management for one student to represent only one Sports Team. Evidently, some of my terrific Teammates chose to represent the Basketball Team rather and thereby leaving a huge void in our preparations for the zonal Cricket tournaments ahead. I had to swung in action rapidly and call for trials to fill up the gaps – many fellow batchmates and juniors came to participate on the given day. Time was short and depending upon what we could analyse in short time available and our instinctive judgements w.r.t the Game’s fundamentals – our Coach and myself picked up the players we thought had some potential or could be groomed over the next few preparatory weeks available. Like we chose to place our bets on some bowlers having good speed but poor line & length and few the other way round. It was more of a gamble and a bet that we believed could be tilted in our favour. Long story short, we went on to win the zonals with a great team effort and some good individual performances. That was a relief and indeed satisfying for me as a Captain of the Team.

           Well Sports shape character and often is quoted as the best Teacher - Game often tests you in making quick decisions - at times bold ones, dealing with failures, criticism and harsh public scrutiny, placing huge trust and responsibility in your mates and owning up every success & failure that comes your way; especially if you don the coveted Captain’s hat. As soon as I entered the professional word, introspection at times made me realize that the traits I inherited from the battles of sports arenas during school & college time were shaping my work ethic and professional demeanour as well. And those warrior instincts, values, knack for hard work, quick thinking, risk taking appetite alongside vital contributions & support that I could garner and enjoyed from Teammates with almighty’s grace, helped me generate consistent results that caught eyes of Superiors and I thoroughly enjoyed the progress I were making. On the contrary and in hindsight – from another standpoint, I won’t shy away from referring ‘Old-Me’ as someone who was quick to judge people at the same time quick to read Customers, influenced by stereotypes at the same time able to impact results, youthfully aggressive at the same time professionally assertive. And all the earlier cited references got to change, because some of these capricious sixth-sense driven outcomes can serve you well at times but turn out to be equally deceptive like a fox as well; and they did with two important instances that shaped up the ‘New-Me’. Nevertheless, the metamorphosis continues as its said – if you are the same at 40 vis-à-vis what you were at 30 or 20 then you haven’t grown in Life.

The inflection point was to come later but a trigger to question my own sixth-sensical or intuitive judgments, for the better, was during a negotiation I were having during the year 2011 with a Fortune-100 FMCG major which tested my Sales skills less but composure & consistency more. My one set of stakeholders in this organization was a Technical Team headed by a Gentleman (let’s name him Mr.MBL as Mr.XYX won’t be a right acronym given the lesson he was going to leave me with) who always spoke two cents less than what was ideally required in bare minimum terms. And 2-3 meetings down the line, one fine day when inquisitively - I googled the meaning of the unique name of his other accomplice, it meant Constant, immobile, still, immovable as per Epic Vishnu Puran; and this person was certainly dealing with me in this negotiation true to his name. Alongside this challenge, alike the unbreachable walls of ‘Troy’, that these two Gentleman were presenting me; on the other end the conglomerate that FMCG company was – I was getting restless about mapping the rest of hierarchy to avoid later speed-breakers. And there came no help or success in identifying this through the Technical Team but I kept on doing the things my way hoping to connect the dots later as soon as I get my chance. Sales for me was eliminating luck as much as possible from the Sales process but this case was testing my nerves and already low reserves of youthful patience even. The sales cycle had got into double the timeframe compared to what it usually took to close a similar deal in the market, nevertheless, I was sure of our direction albeit not the result and I kept rallying the troops (cross-functional teams) at my end internally. After all that I could do to assert our Technical superiority against seasoned competitors, one fine day, I got a call from a concerned female official in their Procurement Team and in less than 5 minutes we had a virtual handshake on the price & broad commercial terms we both liked for our respective companies – certainly the shortest ever commercial negotiation I ever had in my 15 years of professional career and that too not sitting across the table.

Next 2-3 weeks after drawing approval was done seamlessly and manufacturing clearance also received, I got an invitation out of the blue with a loosely tied agenda to visit site office and meet Mr.MBL. I somehow planned my journey for the discussed date, a bit confused about the agenda ahead. Amidst the Project site’s usual hustle-bustle and after extending some usual visitor courtesy’s - I were escorted by Mr.MBL into a remotely placed desk and there he started speaking slowly in his idiosyncratic style. My mind was leaping on to make conclusions: was I going to hear something which I haven’t so far, any favours required here – was that the expectation now? Maybe I didn’t read them well enough, were they shy of speaking something openly before. There really wasn’t anything else we had to discuss now - what’s this meeting for? After all they had broken a longstanding relationship with one of their Partners for signing this deal with us; my sixth sense was sensing something fishy here although back of mind I were sure about how to handle any questionable overtures which don’t comply with the way my Employer conducted its Business. Here he started: “Mr. Sharma, now that you have the Purchase Order from us, advance released and drawings approval done too – is there anything else we can do for your company so that we can have a smooth execution further”. Whufff, stunned, ashamed I were on myself as I had thought so adversely about the entire situation and so low about the people involved. Post those words by Mr.MBL, the brand equity of that FMCG major and its employees suddenly soared so high in my eyes and I found myself belittled by their such a big gesture despite working for at that time ~ 148Bn$ behemoth named GE. That left a lasting impression on my mind whereby I started having second thoughts before forming any quick opinions about people or Business situations in general. Needless, to say we executed that order well and went on to create a special bond with that organization.

The ‘Inflection Point’ came two years down the line in the best classroom Training program I ever had in my life named “Assertiveness for work effectiveness”. During the course in one of the classroom drills, I was chosen as a leader for one of the groups and task was to jointly arrive at a decision about a picture projected onto a wall as to whether that was a Prince with a crown or a Princess with a necklace. Two minutes into the task – majority of the members including me established that it was a Prince - barring a soft-spoken lady, an introvert, always short of speech who could hardly convince me any notches through her conviction that there was a Princess in the picture rather. Choosing to waste no time further on deliberations - I declared our Team’s verdict to the Trainer and just that when we were waiting for the results to be declared - I walked a few yards to my right to speak to someone and had a glaring revelation. The projected picture now looked like a Princess with a necklace as well. Again, stunned this time to my core – I felt pity for my swift decision and more about not listening to that soft-spoken Teammate of mine. Imagine if that event were about leading an Army Unit into a combat zone – ignoring that one viewpoint would have proved catastrophic for the entire Unit and Commander as well. Haste had just made waste and later we figured out that the picture looked like a Prince and a Princess both depending upon from which direction you were looking at it. The outcome was relative…depending upon the direction!

That was also the time, when I was about to step into my 30’s and I sort of learnt and vowed not to judge, label or classify people or situations quickly and to be wary of the stereotypes or prejudices that exist in the mind. Your gut feeling, instincts, sixth-sense, intuition may prove to be wrong more often than you expect so and at times counterproductive as well. Your analysis of a situation cannot be right always, diverse viewpoints do matter - that is what makes the world so unique. In a Business Team, even one of the opinions can prove to be much more valuable than the majority put together. As a leader, you got to hear and evaluate each opinion in an unbiased manner. The rules of the game in a sports arena and a boardroom are different – it isn’t always about the hardest hitting batsman or the fastest bowler – a soft spoken, less dominating, discernibly vulnerable persona can also affect the outcomes positively.

That day and time, I changed and changed for the better. As life progressed, I even comprehended that performance and non-performance in functions (Sales especially) is also a subjective matter; under what market conditions, what degree of challenges, what quality of working conditions & culture, with what existing product positioning and stage in its lifecycle, against which grade of competition – a careful assessment of variables only can give us true insights of someone’s potential. Still the assessment is always relative depending upon which direction you are looking from – and the direction from which you may be watching could be deceitful whenever you choose to pass a judgement. It could have been just about moving few notches to your left or right and discovering a different picture than what you portrayed. Often you will find people fighting their own battles, everyone a Hero in their time zone & circumstances for their own family – we got no right to differentiate or label people. There were times when even the likes of Sachin Tendulkar were questioned with voices calling for his retirement, Sourav Ganguly left out of the Team despite being a dashing opener and harbinger in changing the face & fierceness of Indian cricket, a cancer survivor and a World Cup Winner for India like Yuvraj Singh not considered for a decent exit or farewell match for India, World’s best footballer as on date Cristiano Ronaldo (no offense to Lionel Messi fans ??) being booed at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium during his time at Real Madrid for not being able to score in just 2-3 consecutive matches. Well if Life can be unfair at times to GOAT’s (Greatest of All Times) – lesser mortals fighting lesser known battles will also have their own share of challenges too. For all these legends, we have seen massive comebacks despite all the public scrutiny and criticism which exemplifies that no matter what – one requires mental ability, grit, determination, and courage to deal with interim failures and misfortunes which are a part of everyone’s life. Whilst unarguably - Sports may keep on serving as the greatest Teacher producing fierce warriors and able Leaders – life always will have its way in moulding and reminding every human being of his/her fragility, shortcomings and incompleteness despite all the cherished accomplishments.

I have reasons to believe that in Life nothing is absolute except Death - everything else just relative - every dimension of it, every analysis of it. I read somewhere a powerful and timeless message which is so true: “Labels are for Cans and not People”. We got to learn, listen, overcome our pride and walk with humility respecting every being around. Life’s lessons, inferences and returns as well our never absolute albeit always relative.