Tuesday, January 5, 2010

My supervisor with Disciplined character

I completed 4.5 years in Wipro technologies and worked under various managers. I take this blog as an opportunity to share my experience of working under SyamSunder Yellamraju with whom I worked for 2.5 years.

What a fantastic fortune!!!

I was unhappy to join the current project in 2007 after missing an onsite chance to UK. Syam was made my supervisor. Initially, I was busy in interacting with senior colleagues, especially Srinivasan & Vimal, forming new friendships. The offline coffee-break talk (among many groups) is that any person working under Syam or RaghuBabu Mungonda is considered to be lucky in my business unit. Fortunately, I worked with former and unfortunately, I missed the latter.

What a charismatic character!!!

You put a herculean project task on his shoulders, Syam still responds in the coolest possible way. Usually, one can learn or acquire the skills of the person while working with him/her. But here, while working with Syam, one can learn or acquire the character in addition to the skill. It is often the character of a person which creates issues but not the skill. Mihaly said, "There are managers so preoccupied with their e-mail messages that they never look up from their screens to see what's happening in the non-digital world". Syam is my manager by designation but he is much more than that in reality. Taken in a positive sense, he is a servant to our team because each of us approaches him for any problem we have. He never misused the power of his designation. I agree to what Mr.AzimPremji said, "If you're losing good people, look to their immediate supervisor. More than any other single reason, he is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization". Yes it is true; Syam is one of the chief reasons for my stay in Wipro for the last 2.5 years.

What a lively listener!!!

I wondered why many people approach Syam to tell their issues and I slowly realized the unrevealed secret that he is an empathic listener. He listens not to judge you but to understand you. May be, this nature allows others to open up. In my case, I share both personal and professional problems with him especially whenever I am in terrible predicament.

What an amazing award!!!

My team thought of giving highest awards available in Wipro but as team members we could nominate him for only DearBoss award which he received in the month of September of 2008. As a boss, he gave awards to all his team members by building rich relationships with each of us. We all are sure that he will reach the heights of his dreams one day with the support of all the people around him.

We are in a world of competition for everything. Many subordinates feel "When I do well, my boss never remembers. When I do wrong, he never forgets". Managers need to change and become an exception to the above to stay in the hearts of their team members. Good managers should be promoted to exalted positions and when these managers exercise their powers with full freedom (which many managers are not doing because of various fears) in a positive manner, the number of people benefitted will be more.