Prabir Jha
Sep 6, 2018 · 1 min read

#PrabirInsights from 1990s

Freshly posted in the field after completing my civil service training, I had the responsibility of leading a very large team, almost everyone much older & experienced than me. You had to manage them but you knew only an iota of what their experience was.

How do you earn the respect, beyond a higher designation? Some experience-based insights.

  1. Respect their experience & perspectives but ask all your questions: what questions we ask makes the team think more, prepare more & accept more. Learn to ask the right questions
  2. Take decisions: the team respects leaders who make decisions rather than procrastinate. They would remind me that I had apparently once said that even a death sentence can be reversed but take decisions.
  3. Yes, then yes; no, then no: every decision will have criticism and alternate opinions. Once you have taken a decision, stand by then. Teams observe your courage, resilience & your guts very closely
  4. Acknowledge your team: the only thing one could do in the government was this in the absence of “corporate” rewards. But this itself rallied the troops like nothing else
  5. Be a leader of men, not files: Connect widely, listen, clarify, act & people accept your leadership. And your reputation then takes care of everything else.

Prabir Jha

    Prabir Jha

    Written by

    Global Chief People Officer at Cipla. Ex-CHRO at Reliance, Tata Motors, Dr Reddy's #CareerCoach #StraightFromTheHeart. All tweets/retweets are purely personal.