The other day while introspecting through my career achievements, I
suddenly remembered a professional with whom I'd worked for few years,
as his deputy .
The company was not in good shape -- incurring
huge losses. As a last resort, the owner agreed to pay hefty
compensation and managed to get the best available talent from reputed
organizations. Somehow, I got included in the list and landed there.
Having
worked with one of the largest system driven organization of that time
for many years , I was suddenly at loss of enthusiasm and initiatives
on the very first day.
Though I was told about the background
and also the current state of affairs, but living with it even for few
hours turned out to be a different kind of experience. Only news
worth mentioning was: my new boss would be joining the next day.
He
came, silently, mingled freely with all of us and in just few days
became one of the most admired senior managers in the organization --
exhibiting the essential ingredients of a true Leader.
He
successfully removed all other priorities from our life by channelizing
our thoughts in one direction: Revival of the company. All the team
members followed him blindly, rather he made us follow him blindly
which we didn't t realize at that point of time, but his ability to
inspire and motivate us was remarkable.
Entire team worked
round the clock, happily, embedding in mind, the single objective of
reviving the lost glory of the company in terms of reputation as well
as profitability -- finally, achieving the objective.
In less
than 3 years, he turned around the company from a blacklisted entity to
a self certified vendor, supplying precision engineering products to a
galaxy of public and private sector organizations.
What made him such a good leader
could be a million dollar question. But the answer is simple: It was
his “Social Intelligence” skills, exhibiting empathy for all and
becoming attuned to our moods, synchronizing his own brain chemistry
with ours.
Apart from professional issues, we're confiding in
him about our personal matters also, taking his guidance time and again
-- making him an integral part of our life.
It was a unique
biological synchronization or brain interconnectedness, through which
he guided us to develop genuine interests in the purpose, fostering
positive feelings in us -- whose cooperation and support he needed for
achieving the goal.
Well, a recent discovery of mirror neurons
in widely dispersed areas of the brain confirms above connectivity:
helping us detect consciously or unconsciously others' emotions through
their actions, and our mirror neurons reproducing those emotions.
Collectively, these neurons create an instant sense of shared
experience -- a mirror image.
Perhaps, because of these mirror
neurons we followed his emotions and actions, moving seamlessly towards
the goal , no longer his, but ours also.
Today, the company is
16 times bigger than what it was 17 years ago when I joined. Though, I
decided to move on - 3 years later - after contributing my share of
dedicated efforts to rebuilding of the organization, but the memory of
those 3 years still gives me immense satisfaction -- in terms of career
achievements.
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Originally published on my Official Blog
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