A Role Model

We all knew we were going to get blasted. All the big heads of the team including Amit, my manager had summoned us, the 5 freshers who had joined,for a meeting to discuss the status of the "Specification tool" that we had been asked to design. There had been no progress with the tool.
This was my first experience with Amit's wrath and I remember it very clearly even now. He looked thro' the measly document we had rustled up, and threw the papers on the table. Then,he said, very softly, that this was not what he expected and this was not at all enough. There was not enough commitment and we need to keep to the deadlines.
I was scared to death. From then on, I treated him like my strict school principal. I used to stand up when he came to talk to me. I never understood why he had a high respect among people inmy team.
Then, to my utter fright, I was allocated to working on the 'Test Harness" tool under Amit who had designed it. I worked with him for a long time and during that period, I realised that he is simply THE BEST. It was my privilege to work under an amazing personality. He was hard to please and that was a challenge to my technical ability. As soon as I finished a task, Amit would take it up on him to crash the application and make me re-write the code. And my challenge was to thwart all his attempts to crash the application. I would just wait for his reaction when he wouldnt be able to crash the application and he would give me a smile and say "Great job". Those two words were the best I heard because I know he meant it.

I stopped getting scared of him soon and could talk to him like any other person

I believe, it is important for a manager to know what ticks his sub-ordinates. How they get motivated, how they get frustrated and how to get somebody to do what he wants. Some people get bogged down by criticism, some people strive to improve on it and become better. Amit knew, what ticked each one of us.He knew how to get work done from me and he knew what was my ideal motivation. Most importantly, he believed in me and trusted me. He always thought I had the capability to do better that what I was doing then. . He never had doubts about whether I would complete the job successfully. That, I guess, went a long way.

He let me voice my opinions and even asked me for them sometimes. When he asked my opinion about something, I never thought twice about telling him what I thought. Because I never felt that I had to think about what to tell him. I liked that, because it gave me the independence to voice my thoughts and I really appreciate it when somebody does that.

I admire him for his determination and will power. He was not able to pursue his M.E n IIT-B due to financial constraints. But he took up PGSEM in IIM-B instead. Knowing the work pressure in our previous project where we all used to night-out day after day, I can only marvel at his ability to have kept his balance at work and his MBA. In the middle of all this hungama, he got married and bought a flat.

Some people make a difference to the workplace just by their presence. They dont have to say a word, they dont have to do anything.Amit is one of those.
Once, I was stuck in a situation where I couldnt fix a major bug and the release was scheduled the day after. I went to Amit and explained the situation. He took one look at me (my face must hav been stricken) and said calmly "Dont worry, we'll handle it. I'll sit with you and we'll fix it". What a difference it made! It gave me the much needed push and I finally fixed it myself.

One more quality that I admire in him is his modesty. Believe me, there is very less that he doesnt know. But he has never never uttered a word about what he has achieved and what he has done. He only says that he is trying to do his best.

Some time, some day if I ever get to become a manager, I would definitely want to be somebody like him. Whenever I get bogged down by the amount of work I have to do in my personal/professional life, I always remind myself that there is a living example who has handled all the problems with ease and I should be able to match to atleast a wee bit of that.

There are several people like me who consider Amit to be their role model.

http://www.orkut.com/Profile.aspx?uid=7152250385593427722
Thats Amit's profile id at orkut.