Lesson from the MD

The conference was just four hours away and the approval for the press release had not come. It had gone through at least 10 iterations – majority of them undertaken by the communication, marketing and the legal team based in US. Why the delay then? The MD based in India is yet to go through it, said our client counterpart. One of my senior team members was on the threshold of losing his temper over the client who was repeatedly checking about ‘all the other things,’ which he knew were in place. As time passed, we knew there wasn’t anything anybody could do but just wait for the MD to approve. Sitting amidst team members, who were vociferous about the MD’s ‘attitude’ and the company’s slothful culture, there was no room for airing anything positive.

An hour later, two foreigners emerged out of the business center followed by the head of marketing in India. No sign of the MD yet. As if to increase the tension in the air, the marketing head wanted to know if we had everything in order. All I could hear was someone gnawing their teeth. Ten minutes later, the MD emerged out of the business center - in a wheel chair, heavily bandaged and unmistakably in enormous pain. The blood stains were still fresh on his forehead and feet – the white bandage and the numbers on the wheel chair indicated he was coming directly from the hospital. As he approached us, he congratulated us for getting the ‘messaging’ bang on. He apologized and asked the person who was pushing the wheel chair to handover a green folder. “Thought, I’ll get the printed copies myself as we are getting delayed,” he said while moving on to the conference hall. No one from our team spoke for what seemed eternity.

Once the conference was over, one of the members went to the MD and helped him move around his wheelchair so that he could interact with the press. Why did you make it for the conference, asked an inquisitive journalist. Why shouldn’t I? Am perfectly fit to make an announcement – so why not? A start-up in India, and part of a diversified group, he was the innovator behind a game-changing product that was being launched. When the last journalist left the venue, he called our team and thanked each and everyone. His parting words still remains fresh in my memory. “You guys have one of the toughest jobs. How do you write something that is in synch with others thoughts?”

That event taught me couple of lessons. One is to increase my tolerance levels, two to be kind and three – everyone has a way of writing, what is important is to capture the idea, the thought.

Shadowing those in power

Discussing colleagues at workplace, my wife made a passing mention that her colleague was trying to google their CEO’s hobbies. For what? I exclaimed. The justification went on for 5-10 minutes but did not actually make sense. Her colleague had his own reasons, I thought. The next day in office, a colleague was digging into LinkedIn to extract details about a client. Well, it is important when you are planning to do business together, I thought. However, there seems to be more to this practice of ‘finding out more.’ According to psychologist Susan Fiske, “People pay attention to those who control their outcomes. In an effort to predict and possibly influence what is going to happen to them, people gather information about those with power." That is the ground reality.

In an earlier company that I worked, there was a deliberate and collaborative effort towards understanding clients. It was imposed on every client facing executives to find out – what does the client like the most, when is his/her birthday etc. Was there any result, any benefit to anyone? Absolutely no. Social capital or the ability to network should be an outcome of something larger. Smart executives in the same company pushed their knowledge with the client to get his buy-in and ultimately built a stronger relationship. The idea holds true in every professional relationship – an agency/client or a leader/follower. How much can one stretch his/her social capital to make a difference?

This ‘finding out more’ practice is mostly done for an immediate requirement – a project, a lead. Happen to read what Dr.Ivan Misner, who is supposedly a networking guru had to say about investing in networking. According to him, "You should always ask new contacts to tell you about a business challenge they are confronting. That way, you might know someone who can help, and that's the start of a relationship." Everyone has a way of accomplishing what they want in life – some leverage their networking skills while others rely on their intellectual capital.