I realized that you could learn
leadership lessons from anybody let me
narrate to you an incident from one of
the earliest branches that I headed this
branch had a very strong and active
Union and the leaders were heavyweights
in their own organisation but there was
this young chap who wanted to take over
I watched with interest and his band of
five young followers went about
capturing the mind space of the branch
employees the employees used to have
difficulties in putting up their bills
which they needed to put up to reimburse
themselves for various expenses like
medical travel etc as well as for
applying for loans for which they were
eligible for instance for home loans etc
now this band of challengers each one of
them volunteered to become an expert in
one area of preparation of bills are
putting up off loan proposals and then
they went about offering their services
to the branch employees by the end of
the year every single branch staff was
building his or her house with a home
loan the bills were getting paid in
double-quick time because they were
submitted in apple-pie order and
management didn’t have to raise umpteen
questions to pay them when election time
came around this little band won hands
down the incumbents didn’t even know
what hit them
and that is when I realized that if you
have a good team and a good strategy we
you will win every single time it
doesn’t really matter how small you are
or how late you are with the idea but if
you have a good team what then do you
need to do in order to make them more
efficient and more productive
the secret is never put a square peg in
a round hole it is the leaders job to
determine what are the
of each of his or her team member and
thereafter positioned them in a place so
that they can play to their strengths
the same young Union leader that I
talked about was considered a very
difficult person because he never gave
up a chance to needle management
whenever he could
now I used to think that he does this
because he was a highly intelligent
person and I thought that he was getting
bored with repetitive jobs now in those
days of manual banking the day and
reconciliation of accounts called clean
cash was a very important activity but
it was an activity that needed not only
delicious but also expertise also in
those days union leaders never did any
work for the bank itself they were not
expected to but I decided that this
shaft should be challenged with this
particular job and I called him and I
told him that if you really want to feel
respected you should be able to do this
so that you can tell not only your
followers but everybody else as well
that you can manage your union
activities as well as a very difficult
seat my peer group of officials were
quite quite disbelieving that this would
work I gave him the job and believe me
not for one day did I regret it and that
is what happens when you put the right
kind of people into the right sockets
you add to the productivity of your team
but what is a good team how will you
determine a team is good a team is only
good then if the leader or a member
steps away the rest of the team can fill
in that reach without missing a beat I
was a branch manager of a small
semi-urban branch in monaka
that day my husband had dropped me to
the branch and his scooter and I was
just taking the cash out of the vault
when somebody came running in and told
me that my husband had met with an
accident appeared to be badly injured
and had been taken to a local medicine
shop I don’t remember what I did for the
three or four R’s but as I was returning
home with my husband after having taken
him to hospital got his wound stitched
and rest that I remembered that I hadn’t
closed the cache safe or taken the keys
with me which I needed to have done no
mobile phones
my anxiety kept peeking as I tried to
get to a landline in order to call the
branch when I did call them my team told
me don’t worry we’ve taken care we’ve
done exactly what was required to be
done under the circumstances we have
closed the safe we have sealed the keys
we’ve called for a replacement from
controlling office that replacement has
already arrived has tallied the cash and
is now in charge please take care of
your husband we are here to hold the
foot for you I didn’t know whether I was
more proud or more relieved but you know
for women this kind of teamplay is
required not only on the office front
but also on the home front and this is
because in India women continue to
remain the primary caregivers and there
will be times when you will need to
prioritize family
I got posted to New York and it was a
time of rejoicing because obviously the
experience would be huge and it was a
big step up in my career but what about
my daughter she was very young then and
she needed special care my aunt had just
retired and she offered to come with me
in order to look after her and things
were good but a year and a half down the
line I got the shock of my life and
immigration attorney told me that we
should not again apply for my aunt’s
extension of visa she had already got
two extensions and he felt that if we
apply the third time and the US
attorneys refused she would never be
able to get a visa again so his
suggestion was let her go back come back
after a year and be with you again for
the remaining one and a half years of
your tenure but what about my daughter
who take care of her
she had got so attached to my aunt as
the primary caregiver because my aunt
was spending the maximum amount of time
with her the doctors didn’t feel that
she would do well if I put her into a
new situation with totally unknown
people and she did need that special
care what was I to do
my uncles of the village I should send
my daughter back with her so also my
mother and sister who promised to help
and my husband said that he would
support me in my decision but at the end
of the day it had to be my decision
believe me it’s probably the most
difficult decision I took in my life to
send her back with my aunt and the next
365 days were the longest days that I
have ever lived almost every year I
would relieve the last moments that I
saw my daughter when I got into the taxi
and she put out her hands for me and I
turned my face because I didn’t want to
see her face crumpled up I would make it
through a call morning a night those
days there was no face time there was no
Skype there were only landlines and then
there was something called a false ring
when I would think that the phone was
ringing but the person at the other side
was probably looking at a dead
instrument and I would get horrific
images in my mind I would think that
probably my daughter had an accident or
she has fallen sick and all the people
at home had rushed off to hospital and
that’s what they were not taking my
calls my parents neighbors got used to
being woken up at all times of the day
or night because I was in the US and
this was India 12 almost 10 and a half
hours 12 oz difference but the community
came together and if my parents phone
wasn’t ringing I could ring up anybody
in the neighborhood and find out how my
daughter was doing I was on pins and
needles at the end of that year waiting
for my aunt’s visa to come through and
when it did come the relief was
undescribable
but then another apprehension set in as
I came back to India to pick up my aunt
and my daughter and that apprehension
was what if she had forgotten me and as
I approached my house my heart was
thudding I opened the grill gate and
there she was sitting on the veranda
plane and she looked up at me and for a
moment all was still and then she
stretched out her arms again just the
way she had the day that I had left
I don’t really know even today whether I
did the right thing or the wrong thing
but this much I can tell you that she’s
grown up to be a lovely woman on my last
birthday just at 12 at night I received
a whatsapp message from her it said to
my mum happy birthday thank you for
being there for me I laughed a little I
also cried a little and I tell you these
things to illustrate that in a long
career there are decisions to be made
there are challenges to be taken there
are sacrifices to be made and they have
to be done by your family members by
your team members and of course by you
yourself you will never know whether
it’s the right thing or the wrong thing
but if your team clay is good on both
Frank’s then the burden never becomes
too heavy to carry there is one other
way in which you can lighten the load
learn to laugh at yourself take
yourselves lightly be grounded you know
if you step away somebody else will take
your place and in all probability they
will probably do a better job than you
the word
in itself has two words chair and man
you know the chair is the one that gets
the automatic respect the man has to
earn it
I remember it was just about a year
after I had taken over as chairman and I
was in London when a friend sent an SMS
say that either Forbes or fortune had
come with this list of 100 most powerful
woman and that I should go through it so
I scrolled through the list and lo and
behold I was on 36th position in that
year and who do you think was in the tip
the 35th position just one step ahead of
me it was her Royal Highness Queen
Elizabeth and I was in London you know
so I was highly tickled so I sent off an
SMS to my husband have a look at the
list you know this is where Her Royal
Highness is and this is my ranking and
he immediately sent back an SMS and he
immediately sent back an SMS and it said
she will be on that list till she dies
but you will be off it in three years as
soon as you retire that truly brought me
down to earth and if you were grounded
the added advantages that you will be
accessible what happens when you are
accessible
then you are accessible you get to hear
the things that you need to hear not
necessarily the things that you want to
hear and if you hear the things that you
need to hear and you take them in the
right spirit then I can promise you that
efficiency and productivity of your team
will continue to be maintained just two
other things before I wind up one is be
a learner through your life it’s very
important for us to keep learning but
who will you learn from
learn from the people who are proud
about the job they are doing it doesn’t
matter whether it’s a big job or a small
job learn from these people because they
are the ones who are trying to excel in
every single thing that they do I
remember a lesson that I learned from a
lyft man those days I was working on the
15th floor of an establishment and I
found that whenever I was stepping into
the lift the lift man would push both
the 15th and the 16th floor buttons so I
asked him why did he do that and he said
ma’am
this lift recently has been skipping the
15th floor every once in a while I know
how busy you are
so in case it skips the 15th floor you
can get off at the 16th floor and walk
one step down it will save your time and
I remembered having done that once or
twice in the recent past and then it
struck me that this person had actually
internalized the first lesson of risk
management that is if you know that
something will probably go wrong have a
practical back-up plan how many of us do
that we know that something might be
going wrong we know that we need the
phone numbers of the ambulance and the
fire brigade with us all the time do we
have it how many of you have it right
now in this hall well there are a few
hands and I’m glad but most of us don’t
have it so approach every situation with
a questioning mind and a learner’s
humility and you can’t go wrong I love
this quote from Brian Herbert it says
the capacity to learn is a gift however
the ability to learn is a skill and
skill as you know can be learnt by all
and yet more the willingness to learn is
a choice and it’s a choice that we must
all make because it is only this that
gives meaning to all the reversals and
failures in your life if you have
learned from them then you have done
well
last and not least you must love what
you do because in a long career there
will be days when you will feel
challenged there will be days when you
feel energized and there will be days
when you feel exhilarated but there will
also be days when you feel despondent
when you feel dejected when you feel
disillusioned at such times you cannot
keep up your energy and give your best
if you are not really passionate about
the job and if you don’t really love it
it’s truly said that it’s a beautiful
thing when a career and a passion come
together and if that has happened for
you you’re 40 years believe me
we’ll also go in the blink of an eye just as mine has thanks