My Ideal Boss

I was reminded of Rahul when I came across the words stated by US Army General Patton: “ Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity”.

Rahul is known as one of the best people to work with. It has been about 2 years since I last met him. Vijay used to work for Rahul. Vijay was my classmate and good friend. Rahul, Vijay and I used to work at the same office and used to stay in the same apartment complex. We used to discuss a variety of topics while we commute between work and home. These discussions and my interaction with Vijay helped me understand Rahul.

Rahul is a great simplifier. His statement “a task remains complex as long as one does not understand it” is true. He keeps himself abreast of latest trends in technology and business. He has opinion on what business demands and which technologies have the potential to effectively meet those demands. I believe in his philosophy “constant learning and innovation” are essential to succeed in knowledge intensive industry. He effects change by exuding positive attitude at work. He comes across principled and consistent in his approach. He sides to right at any cost. He negotiates well with any party. He focuses on having values, creating and nurturing values. He exhibits recursive leadership qualities. It’s no surprise that Rahul won lot of accolades and customer appreciations.

Rahul shares his vision with his team and discusses with team on different ways of accomplishing it. He cuts through arguments, debates and offer solutions that team can understand. He learns from his team members and from his mistakes. He practices true delegation. He allocates tasks to his team members and empowers them with complete freedom to execute those tasks. Team members do definitely make mistakes; but such delegation increases team’s confidence level to take up insurmountable tasks. He never gets frustrated at any mistake. He opines ‘frustration is the sign of weakness.” He gives specific feedback to his team members to improve themselves. He believes that making people around him successful will make him successful.

Sudden buzz of phone put me back on mundane world. For a second, I could not believe what the caller is saying. I am given a new assignment and Rahul would be my reporting manager.

I know Rahul has confidence and trust in me. We understand each other’s strengths and improvement areas. It helps us collectively leverage our strengths and undermine individual weaknesses. I am sure Rahul would discuss with me and then clearly define the set of goals that I need to achieve. These goals would help me discover how far can I go and how high can I reach. More importantly, Rahul would help me learn, contribute, grow, and succeed in my career. Rahul is my ideal boss.