Looking back - The Huddle that started it all:

From the very first day I could remember, I had always wanted to outdistance my rivals. For many years, I used to be after titles.

Sometime during this stage, I started reading about the former British Premier - Sir Winston Churchill. As I progressed through my reading on the great leader, I came to know that had it not been for an accident of birth, Churchill would have inherited the title of a Duke. He was a man who had dominated the world stage for over three decades and then turned down every hereditary honour a grateful nation could offer; including the title of 'the Duke of London'.

From then on, the ultimate ambition had been to rise above mere titles and posts. Many had described me as an achiever, while many of my contemporaries thought of me as pushy or even arrogant, according to their aptitude of jealousy.

Wherever I worked, I used to quickly gain a reputation as a hard and smart worker. I was thought of as extremely bright, demanding, hard working and beyond my back - as arrogant and dominant.

I had read that the anger or jealousy of one man could block the advance of a career but I found it hard to accept that it could apply to me. The truth dawned on me when a particular set of colleagues turned against me and two hard workers in my team. It annoyed me more when their tentacles seemed to have spread through the organization. It was not our fault that we were friends, hard workers and originated from the same state. Combined, we had over 20 years experience in our field. Did the contemparories fail to notice that though friends, we were strangers to each other during work hours?

I always give it 101% in anything I take up. Most times, I have ended up having others' workload on my shoulders. My workload was always prodigious and I always have the attitude - 'don’t make excuses' - which in turn branded me of being arrogant and dominant.

My policy was against short term gains and long term loses. The goals were set on clearing the base issues and then working the way up. In Quality terms, a root cause analysis was done and strategies were derived to clear off the root cause and thereby eliminate the resultant problem.

I also learned that in most cases, it was not set procedures that failed, but people who bent the rules their way to do what they want. My strict stand against such lousy heads did not help me in clearing my name from being branded dominant and arrogant.

My skills and work experience lies in a technical support environment. I have seen processes were resolving the customers issue comes first and other processes were achieving a higher customer satisfaction survey mattered most. I always went along with the first, because in case of the latter - the management did not care about what happened to the customer. All they wanted and expected from a team was to follow tricks and tactics (including non-ethical ones), so that the set goals were achieved.

Because of my firm belief and stand on resolving the actual issue first, I was not the favourite candidate for the management in Type Two processes. I used to be strict and harsh on lousy heads and this lead to a team vs. three huddle. Three Mallu’s were accused and demotivated by a gang of racists. Me, Anoop and Sunil were accused of feelings that haven’t even crossed our thoughts. Yet, when I asked the opposition in the open house to speak up their issues and ask us the issues in front of everyone - no one opened their mouths.

I repeated my stand - I was, I am and I will always be harsh on any lousy head. Duty comes first, Work is Worship and Workplace is the temple. I Am not sure how many of the rival gang believed in that principle. The only thing I knew was that I and my fellow accused believed in those lines.

The speechlessness and lack of courage to speak proved that we were being framed. This was the incident in my previous organization that started regional biasing against the Mallu’s. 60% of the staff in the Bangalore branch of the organization is made up of Mallu’s and being of the majority, they have a say in things.

It could be that certain people who are in management and is among non mallu’s are quite unhappy at the turn of events and do not want the Chennai centre to be a replica of its Bangalore center.

With my strong stands, I might have made my colleague's life hard - but for the customers whom I was expected to serve - my policies undoubtedly made their lives easier.

Struggle on, but never lose your integrity.