Professional Legacy

'Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room' - Jeff Bezos.

The above is as true for us as professionals as it is for a company. I am talking of 'Personal Brand' - our unwritten introduction as we pick up a phone to talk to a colleague/ senior, join a call (on MS Teams these days) or enter a meeting room.

I would like to recollect an anecdote from my professional life...as in earlier posts, the objective is to reflect on some right behaviours and not to indulge in self - aggrandisement.

I was working in a Cash Product Management role with an MNC Bank in India then. The stint inculcated in us a spirit of 'intrapreneurship', as we were building Business and Product lines in a start-up environment, amidst a highly competitive banking landscape.

Some of the areas we were able to progress on included: traction on Collections mandates, structuring of some Escrow Solutions, implementation of Post Dated Cheque (PDC) Management Solution, creation of a Vostro account franchise, launch of Payables Management Solution, development of a strong Medium Term Plan (presentation) for India Cash business and so on.

We used to have a dotted reporting line to the Cash Head for Emerging Markets (EMs), who was responsible for growth of the Cash Management franchise across South Asia and Africa. There was a weekly call scheduled every Monday, where the broad agenda used to be: Cash Sales numbers achieved, business pipeline, Products & Services launched and pipeline, engagement with Wholesale Banking Segment teams, Business Plans/ Forecast and so on. Besides me, the attendees included my Line Manager (Cash & Trade Product Head), Cash Sales Head, the EM Cash Head and his team based out of the UAE. At that time, I did not visualise that I would be working in the UAE some day :).

The EM Cash Head was very passionate (and so was I)....given the ambitious budgets/ plans, start-up pangs and a highly competitive market, the Monday calls were often not 'cordial'. I used to sometimes contemplate if I was doing the right thing by highlighting the ground reality 'as is' without being diplomatic...the easier way out was to move from one call to the other (next week), agree to everything and end the discussion on an amicable note. I was also much younger and junior as compared to the EM Cash Head...however, I kept on presenting the reality each time, without worrying about the perception that was getting built for me.

Later, I moved on to an Indian private sector bank to build their Cash Management franchise; that role offered me an opportunity to conceptualise and execute multiple solutions/ mandates that required a distribution network and enhanced my horizon considerably. Within days of my joining the new organisation, I received a call from the India Cash Sales Head of my previous organisation. He informed me that the latest Monday call mainly covered why I had left the organisation and how I could not be retained by the Leadership team. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that, given that I felt that I did not share a very pleasant relationship with the EM Cash Head to the external eye. Perhaps, deep down he acknowledged my passion, efforts made at building what we could and the honesty that was reflected in my responses.

A year prior, I had received a promotion in that MNC Bank (along with a 50% hike in the annual fixed salary). The promotion was for a year (2008) characterised by Lehmann collapse, crash in global equity markets and large scale layoffs. However, I think the 'high' I got from that phone call perhaps surpassed the feeling from the promotion a year back.

It is said that we are all a 'Work In Progress' and keep evolving over time. As we work in our respective roles, let us reflect on what we are leaving behind (even if we don't change jobs, for sure, we would change roles in the same organisation). I am re-reading the book, 'The Professional' by Subroto Bagchi, Co - Founder of Mindtree Ltd in India (the book was gifted by a friend over a decade back). I found it a masterpiece as it outlines some qualities a professional should possess, along with some prescriptions for managing volume of work & complexity. A careful consideration of those concepts should make us better professionals.

What legacy are you leaving behind? What do people say about you when you are not in the room?

#weekendmotivation #professionallegacy #professionalpunch #professionalism #onwardsandupwards