Investing in People

Some years ago, I worked at a company whose tagline was ‘Investing in People’. Who those people were; end clients of the businesses they financed? the entrepreneurs? employees? or investors? I still wonder.

But many moons before, I was handed over a bunch of 30 guys and gals, fresh out of college, with a brief to turn them into officers, gentlemen & ladies, a somewhat ‘My Fair Lady’ kind of transformation. Did we succeed? Well, it’s not for us evaluate.

The motley 30 were part of the 150 junior officers recruited by NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development for those unaware of the acronym) as Grade A officers.?Apart from getting equipped with knowledge on what NABARD does, the training is also a time to instill in the young ones, the right attitude, culture and values that would hold them in good stead in the organisation as well as in life.

Our gang of 30, plus me, over time, became the envy of other batches that were simultaneously recruited and undergoing training around the same time. We outshone all others not only on performance during the training, but on the job, and in life itself.

So here are a few tips on how we pulled it all together:

It’s the ‘We’ principle, which is building a spirit of oneness and a sharing attitude. This contrasts the competitive spirit and the conventional ‘impression banana’ (Hindi) preoccupation. We used to almost daily have simple recaps & tests of ‘what we learnt’ and the metric of learning outcome was not who got maximum marks, but what was the class average, and how many were below average and how do we pull them up. Equally, tests were seen more as self-assessment and not as examinations for getting a rank.

Second, we saw the induction program as the start of life’s journey where we were all pilgrims rather than participating in a training event with a start and end date. This approach built such strong bonds that, as a batch we stay connected (though loosely) even today.

Third, while organisations would look at an employee doing the best for them, we set ourselves much higher aspirations of realizing our full potential, both at work and in life.?Simple exercises like pictorially depicting a vision of where one would want to see himself/herself 5 years hence, saw so much excitement in the class, that it spilled over to the dinner table, and remained the topic of discussion for days thereafter.

As a mentor and guide, it is often tempting to exercise the power and influence that one wields, but as you delegate, the group becomes empowered and it becomes so much easier to command discipline, as well as gain consensus for collective action.

One of the most difficult and painful experiences was building a ‘caring for each other spirit’. It doesn’t come so easily. It also, has a cultural context. ‘Not leaving anybody behind’ is also a tough principle, and could drag the performance of the group down, instead of up. Combining patience, reflection and a passion that touches the heart of those who you lead, things start changing for the better.

As the three-month induction training ended, our batch was on fire; charged and excited. As I had expected, of all the batches that passed through the portals of the NABARD Staff College that year, the maximum from the batch I mentored moved on in life beyond NABARD, achieving new heights (IAS, IPS, RBI etc) and taking on new challenges, finding their ‘calling in life’ was somewhere else. Even those that remained in NABARD are stars. I'm tempted to name them, but will refrain from doing. As a batch, we still find a common thread that binds us together. Just three months together, but so eventful and defining.

Trust some of those dear friends of the 2003 batch get to read my piece and respond. Even today, if we meet, we reminisce of the three months spent together, twenty years ago.