You may like to read the stories for children at http://stories-children.blogspot.com/ and tell them to your or other children.
Leadership Means Making Ordinary People Do Extraordinary Things
The receptionist rang me as I was taking charge of the dual responsibility of HR department in addition to my already being the head of industrial engineering department. This was my first day in my new second office. I already had one more office with its contingent staff.
I was a bit surprised to get the receptionist’s call at the beginning of the day and that too in my new office. She said, “Mr Bhatkar, have you seen today’s local news papers? You are all over the place. Please accept my heartiest congratulations. Will catch up with you later.”
I asked my new personal assistant Mr Kartik to bring all the local newspapers to my desk. He did so promptly.
I settled in my chair and started shuffling the pages. In every newspaper, right on the front page, I could see my photograph along with corresponding news column that read as follows:
“This is the first time in the history of Universal High Tech Products Ltd that someone has broken all the management conventions. Mr Bhatkar has been once again promoted superseding all the first four senior batches of management trainees. He is the youngest head of the department at the age of 27, not of just one department but two very important departments (and simultaneously reporting to two different bosses). It’s a spectacular achievement of Mr Bhatkar, his exemplary leadership qualities have been truly recognized by the company……………” and the news went on.
I became kind of a hero. Many youngsters in the organization started seeking my appointment for a meeting with me to try to understand the secrets of my out of turn promotions at such a young age. One of such youngsters was my own personal assistant Kartik; he was couple of years older than me.
One day, after having completed the business with me, Kartik kept sitting in front of me and won’t leave my office. I asked, “What’s the matter Kartik?” He hesitated. Obviously, he was a bit apprehensive about what he wished to communicate. I encouraged him to speak.
Finally, he spoke, “Sir, I want to become like you. Please guide me, sir.”
I said, “What do you mean by saying that you want to become like me?”
Kartik’s innocence could be gauged by his reply, “I want to sit in a big chamber like yours at the earliest, that’s my dream.”
“But, you do not possess even a graduate degree; forget about any professional degree or diploma.”
“If you think that it is required in order to get into an office like yours, I will do everything you say. Please guide me.”
And that became the starting point of mentoring my new protégé.
I started by telling him to take interest in every single job that he undertook and learn more and more from it. He took it quite seriously and soon came to me requesting him to allow taking dictations from the other officers of my department after he finished my work. Not only was he improving in his skill of taking dictation but was learning more and more aspects of what was going on in the department since he was closely interacting with many officers of my department.
In my second session of mentoring him, I asked him to enroll himself in a distance learning graduation course of some university. Soon he looked around, collected information and joined a course that suited him.
While he was pursuing his studies this way, an opportunity came when my general manager was looking out for an efficient personal secretary. I called Kartik and told him to apply for the position. Initially, he was quite nervous. Then I reminded him about his ambition and advised that if he was serious about fulfilling his ambition, he must be ready to take up the new challenges. I promised him to give a good letter of recommendation since he deserved it because of his excellent progress in the jobs he was doing for me.
And he was promoted to the post of personal secretary to the general manager after being screened through formal interviews. My recommendation letter helped.
Then I lost touch with him for quite some time. In the mean time, I was invited by another company to join it and I changed the job. I more or less forgot about Kartik.
After about fifteen years or so of this incident, on a day while I was waiting for my flight at Mumbai airport, a gentleman who was sitting opposite me, got up from his chair and rushed towards me. He stopped right in front of me and touched my feet- this is the Indian way of showing the respect to a person to whom one feels highly obliged. I was taken aback by his act. I moved my feet away from his hands and said, “Gentleman, please do not touch my feet. Who are you, I don’t know you.”
In reply, he handed over his visiting card to me that read his name “Kartik” followed by his designation “Director- Human Resources” followed by the name of my previous company.
Then in flashback, Kartik narrated his story, “Sir, I became a graduate within three years of enrolling myself in the distance learning program. Alongside I went on taking more and more interest in whatever I was doing plus went on accepting and even grabbing new challenges and opportunities. I needed a professional degree badly. So, I took up part time MBA course with HR as major. Also, I added a law degree to my resume. Once I had an MBA and the degree in law, I requested my boss to transfer me to HR department as an assistant manager. He had already developed confidence in me and was looking out for a suitable person who could take up this responsible position in HR department. Within couple of years I picked up the ropes in HR function and soon was ready to take up the number one position in HR as soon as the current incumbent retired. And sir, finally I entered the same chamber where you used to have your office. If you recall, I once told you about my ambition of having my office in a chamber. But, let me admit that without your leadership and guidance, it was not possible- perhaps I would have retired only as a clerk.”
The stories being published on these pages here are available in the form of a book: eBook version titled "Funny (and Not So Funny Short Stories" from Nuubuu http://nbuu.co/1 and Printed book from Amazon.
(Also, refer our High Quality Management Encyclopedia at: http://management-universe.blogspot.com/)
For “out of box thinking” articles by Shyam Bhatawdekar, refer: (Out of Box Ideas) http://wow-idea.blogspot.com/
Read other blogs of Shyam Bhatawdekar at: (Home Page for Writings of Shyam Bhatawdekar) http://writings-of-shyam.blogspot.com/
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