Attitude counts – more than talent and expertise to grow and build a professional career

This piece is dedicated to all middle level managers aspiring to move to the next higher level in their professional careers. Most of us have attained our current position through sheer dint of hard work, dedication and commitment. As we aspire to move forward to the next role and take on higher responsibility, it is critical that we are able to demonstrate the right attitude.

In my professional life, I have come across and worked with a number of highly talented and knowledgeable managers - I would write about one such manager and he positively impacted a whole lot of individuals and continues doing so.

It was in the summers of 1995, that I got to know Amit (name changed). We were working together and evaluating a number of expansion projects and conducting feasibility studies around it. I got to know him closely then and continued to know him thereafter.

And what did I pick up from him - while working with him and indeed subsequently – in a random order……

a. Ability to influence the thinking process of others
Very few managers have this quality in them. You are actually guiding other managers to reach an understanding and solution in line with your thought process. At the same time, you are not imposing your decision, but allowing a logical sequencing and discussion. Amit at various times and situation, used this trait to good effect and fostered the decision making process.

b. Initiate discussion, offer alternatives and possible solutions
In a number of critical review meeting impacting – make or buy decision, invest or outsource, expand or diversify, it is essential that one manager leads the discussion and also has a broad view of all the variables that might impact the overall decision. With his persuasive skills and an involved approach, Amit would engage with all the functional heads to get their construct on the variables and he was able to provide an exhaustive option to allow and arrive at a logical solution.

c. Work with the line managers – across functions to get a better understanding of the processes
Support managers like Finance, HR are required to understand and appreciate the role, functions and activities of an operations manager. In a number of multi -national corporations and indeed in FMCG organizations, it is a given mandate to undertake extensive training with the line managers. While the traditional set of support managers would tend to undertake the training to gain familiarity and knowledge, there is another breed of support managers who smell an opportunity in such training. Amit belonged to the latter class – he embraced the roles of the operations manager, valued and worked with them. He consistently challenged the current process and system – all these helped him in moving to a general management role.

d. Study and compare with research information from other markets, similar products and processes
In any decision making process, it is very essential that besides being knowledgeable about your business, it is also important to gain a good understanding of market related information about similar products / geographies. You need to have a fair understanding of the market, engage in external forums, speak to peers and seek information, understand sales and operation processes followed by others – all of these require a patient hearing and seeking answers by engaging in a continued dialogue.

e. Build a business model as opposed to a financial model
One of the key differentiator with Amit, was his ability to build a financial model based on carefully examined and evaluated business sense. The model is well accepted then and is not merely used as an excel tool for decision making – a number of qualitative observations and comments flow from the model. Amit espouses this position and ensured that business rationale drove the finance model and not otherwise.

f. Be aggressive and assertive in the approach but retain practicality
In a number of instances and review meetings, Amit displayed his dominating position and rightfully so. He was knowledgeable and was in a position to voice his point of view to any opposing or divergent point. He was clearly seen as someone who could be over-powering in a discussion. But most of us would also notice the practicality in his approach, without taking sides towards any particular function or person. This is an important attribute, one needs to imbibe as he grows in an organization and in a leadership role.

g. Lead the discussion and conclude with concrete suggestions without being judgmental
A number of skills mentioned above would make us all believe that Amit indeed exhibited leadership skills. With his ability to direct review meetings and decision making process, he was able to extract answers and suggestions thereby leading to concrete decisions/suggestions.

h. Be positive and be human
One of the enduring qualities that Amit wore at all times was his ability to be positive in all trying moments at work place. Uncertain economic conditions due to market realities or other pressures can shake and hurt an organization very badly – and in these trying times you would need a leader who would stand by his team, support them, face the seniors and take ownership. At times, leaders tend to misread the situation or expose their team or are unable to instill the confidence in difficult times.

Many of these traits are never taught in business schools or indeed there are very few IDOLS in corporate world that one can look forward to emulate. Therefore, the attitude has to be within and has to be self cultivated.

Amit started his career as a finance professional, but went on to lead business teams in his various future roles in the organization – and he led them with significant success.

He displayed similar attitude in each of his subsequent roles and set the foundation for a number of other aspiring professionals to follow a similar career path.

And off the job, he is an amazing coach and an engaging communicator. He is able to connect across the organization chain and he always made an effort to remain in touch at the grass root level. The positive energy and attitude that he displayed actually rubbed off on a number of people across functions.