The Charismatic Manager

Vijay never failed to charm others. He was a mid-heighted guy in his 30s when I first met him in the office. He had a fair complexion with a round face and black eyes.
He was fond of changing his looks, sometimes he would have his moustaches on, sometimes you would see him clean shaved!
If anyone asked him about this, he used to answer in a funny way, with a laughing face, “God has given you the capability to change your looks, why should you be the same all the time!!”.

Ours was a very big office with around 150 people seated on a single floor and there were 500+ employees in the organization. In Spite of that, as far as I know, most of the people knew Vijay by his name. All were very fond of him especially with the friendliness he carried within him everywhere he went.

I joined the company as a trainee, initially I was sent to work in another department, after around a year, I got an opportunity to work with Vijay. I used to hear a lot from the people in the office that working with Vijay is an opportunity you should never miss. He is a man who can give magic tips around your career and also train you to the extent that you will be able to manage a lot of things. People used to say, “Working with Vijay for a year is equal to getting 4 years of experience whilst working somewhere else!”.
What I liked the most was his friendly attitude and magnetic personality. He had vast knowledge about the stock markets and managing people. Even the ex-employees or I must say his ex-colleagues used to reach him up for getting advice about some or the other things day in and day out.

Now, Since, I got an opportunity to work with him, I thought of getting most of it and learning as much as possible from him.

Day One, when I started to work with him, he called me up to his desk and asked, “What is your name, Khatri?”. “Faisal”, I told him politely and then asked, “how do you know my surname?”

He said, “Tera Manager hu, itna to pata hona hi chaiye mujhe!!” (I am your manager, I should at least know your Surname!”). Then he smiled and said, it is his way of remembering people, last names are common so you can remember quickly.

In the morning we used to have a quick standup with the manager for daily tasks assignment, and his style was of a different kind. He used to funnily say, “Jisko jo karna hai karo, mujhe disturb mat karna bass!!” (“Do whatever you want to do, but don’t disturb me please”).
It was his way of calling out, Do what you like and let me do what I like! It was all related to the office work only and I saw many people in our team used to sign up and start working on the things they liked and in this fashion most of the tasks got distributed without manager asking anyone who should do what!
I learned the first lesson: Let people do what they like and you don’t have to manage them. Since they signed up, they willingly are taking the responsibility of finishing the task on time with quality!

One fine morning while I was busy at work I suddenly heard Vijay’s voice, he was laughing heartily. I could see 2-3 colleagues at his desk out of which the one I knew was Sanjay. It used to be a usual scene at Vijay’s desk. He had a cool friend circle at the office. People would stand-by at his desk while having tea/coffee mugs in their hands. Lots of gossip and funny conversations used to happen around his desk.

Sanjay had joined the team recently as an executive,and he was not aware of all the things going around within the team. Having said that, he was not aware of Vijay and his ways of working.
Many times he couldn’t understand what Vijay was upto and he used to ask for help with the other colleagues if Vijay told him something to work on.
Sanjay used to sit behind me, when he came back to his desk, I asked, “It seems Vijay cracked a humorous joke while you were at his desk!”.

He laughed and started narrating the incident that happened while he was at Vijay’s desk.
He told, that he went to vijay to take up a new task and said, “Give me some work, I have finished the task which was allotted to me.” Hearing this Vijay took the head out of his monitor and said, “Kaam maangne Saadhe teen ke baad aana, abhi main Stock Market mein busy hu!!” , [Come after 3.30 pm I am busy in the stock market now!!], and got glued to his monitor back again.

Hearing this, Sanjay stood a bit nervous and was confused. He did not move from there, as he was lost in his own thoughts asking himself if he had asked for something that was not expected. After a few minutes passed, Vijay looked up again, since Sanjay was still standing there, he inquired in a soft tone, “What’s the reason? Why are you standing here??” Again Confused and baffled with the question, he said calmly, “I came here for some task as I don’t have any now!”.

Vijay gave him a chair and asked to sit and with a smiling face said, “Tera jitna saal ka pagaar hai na, utna mera kabhi kabhi derivatives mein din ka loss hota hai, samjha!” [I sometimes lose an amount equal to your annual package in Derivatives Market in a single day!].
Sanjay stood there still, he couldn’t control his emotion and started laughing. Vijay joined him in laughing as well. Then Vijay explained that he had suffered some loss while trading in the market and that was the reason behind the behaviour which Sanjay never expected .

Sanjay understood the whole situation and he started moving towards his desk. Vijay stopped him and called back, “Idhar aa, kahan ja raha hai?? Kaam to leta ja, free baith ke kya manjira bajayega!!” [Where are you going? Take some task, What will you do without any task, will you be playing manjira??] and laughed heartily.
Sanjay took the task from him and returned happily. Truly, Vijay never failed to amuse the people around him.
I learned a second lesson: At times, you might be harsh with your colleagues and team mates due to personal reasons, find time and patch up. You should know to keep a balance between your professional and personal life!

I had the habit of leaving home early in the morning to avoid the local train rush. Officially, the office starting time was 9.30 am, but normally I used to reach the office at around 8.30 am.

One day, it was pouring heavily. Due to the rains, problems like rain water flooding on roads, trains halting due to water logging,etc. are very common in Mumbai. It had been raining heavily since morning. I had anticipated in the morning before leaving the house that it’s possible the so-called lifeline of Mumbai - Local Trains would come to a halt due to water logging, and it happened!
The trains halted until further notice at around 9.30 am.

By the time the news reached me, I was in the office. When I stood from my desk and checked around, I couldn’t see anyone from my team except Vijay.
I went to his desk and asked, “Vijay bhai, let’s have tea”. He smiled and said, “Let’s go!”.

We headed towards the pantry making our way through the vacant chairs and desks as the attendance was very low and hardly you could see anyone in the office.
While having tea in the pantry, I asked, “How do you travel to the office?” He smiled and said, “The way you do!”. I laughed and said, “By Train?” He nodded, Yes.

While we were chatting, Wasiq, another colleague informed us that HR has sent a mail stating that whoever has reached office should continue with their work, the people who couldn’t reach, a holiday is declared for them!

Vijay was shocked hearing this and he turned towards Wasiq and said, “Kabhi to achi khabar leke aaya kar!”[Could you bring in some good news sometimes at least!]. Wasiq laughed on hearing Vijay’s words.

Vijay in a very sad tone then said, “Apni Kismat hi aisi hai, tujhe pata hai Khatri, Agar Aasmaan se Sona girega na to mere baju wale ke ghar me girega, aur mere ghar me uske dewaar ke patthar aayenge!!” [You know Khatri, I am a very unlucky person, if treasure falls from the sky, it will fall in my neighbours house and I will have his wall collapsed in my house!]

I laughed on hearing his statement and said, “Vijay bhai, aapko bhi ghar se nahi nikalna tha na, itni barish mein.” [Vijay, you should have stayed at home as it was pouring since morning!]. To which he replied, “Teri baat barobar hai Khatri, magar, commitment bhi kuch cheez hoti hai, sab chhutti karenge, to kaam kaun karega? Mujhe pata tha ke chutti declare ho sakti hai, isliye mai aa gaya, team nahi hai to manager to hai. Kuch to kaam hoga!” [You are right Khatri, but commitment is also an important thing, if everyone takes leave, who will work? I knew a holiday would be declared, that’s why I came in, if the team is not present at least the manager is there, some or the other thing will be worked upon!].

Indeed, Vijay had taught me a good lesson: Always be readily available to work in place of your team. Be confident, you can do it!!