Speak Up!

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard the following statement in performance reviews: “He is a great engineer. Keeps quiet and does his job.” Most managers nod after hearing this, acknowledge the engineer and discuss a totally different person for promotion. I’ve also lost count of the number of engineers who get frustrated at not getting promoted after being told they are doing a great job.

Why does this happen so often, especially in the Indian software industry? Here are a couple of reasons why I, as a manager, tend to pass over the quiet folks when looking for a senior engineer who can excel as a leader.

First, I expect the senior engineer to be able to influence her peers and business leaders, especially across geographies. I work in India, in the software product development space, where the ability to be crisp and clear in describing your point of view is extremely important. The engineer could be talking to architects, product managers or heads of business units, who may not have a lot of time to spend in detailed discussions. If the engineer is a quiet recluse who finds it difficult to open up and speak in a broad setting, I will not have the confidence that she can influence business and technology direction for the product she is working on. On the other hand, a person who is articulate and can convey her point in a few sentences would be far more effective.

Second, I also expect the engineer to mentor and motivate other engineers. I’d like him to set an example, be a person other engineers can look up to and learn from. I’d like him to help nurture ten other engineers like him, which would raise the team’s overall performance. I would need to see evidence that the engineer can act as an energy amplifier, before deciding to promote him. Here again, a quiet person who does his job well may not be the best possible candidate.

I do realize this topic could be controversial, especially in India where we have been taught to be quiet in schools, and often rapped on the knuckles if we speak up. However, the more we speak up, the more confident we get, the more influential we become. Changing the world is then just a step away.

On Decision Making

A short video that I did for the Intuit India Managers' Forum, back in April.

What's up, d00d

I'm planning to go visit a few cities all over India, trying to get some quality .Net developers. Does anyone know good tech leads and development manager types who are interested in working in Chennai? Product dev work, satisfaction guaranteed. Please contact the undersigned.

In other news, I bought Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. Looks very promising. Have tossed it onto the Currently Reading pile, where it rubs shoulders with Stephen King's boring Lisey's Story and Lionel Shriver's intense We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Onam approacheth. Looking forward to the thadya.

Traveling Again

At the Frankfurt airport again. What joy! On the way to Indianapolis this time. What does one do there, I wonder.

Oh, well. Once more unto the breach.

Hello, Delhi

Karol Bagh sucks. Found succour at Hotel Diplomat, in Chanakyapuri. Not a bad place, but the room rent is what you might pay at the Leela in Bangalore.

Calling developers

Anyone here interested in creating a site that is a combination of orkut and monster.com and has a lot of other cool features too? Kindly drop comment. Brokers excuse.

The voyage home

Over the atlantic again. Can't wait to get to Bangalore. Have a 2 day stopover at Chennai though - work! Damn.

Updates from the past few days

Yesterday was Wednesday. Nothing special. Opened a restroom door to find big lady inside, sitting on the throne. Lady yelled, I whoopsed and went into the other restroom. Was peeing when the door opened. Skinny lady this time. Lady went whoops, I went eeks. Have been carefully avoiding all unisex loos since.

Isn't-saying-much statement of the century, after watching The Da Vinci Code on Tuesday: The book was better.

Wednesday again. This lady does a presentation on the Change Management System used by the customer I'm visiting. Towards the end, she has a slide on the benefits of using the system, along with a picture of a cash register. I smile and say,"Oh, good one. Change management system, huh?". Lady blinks twice, doesn't get it. Smart boss lady to my right starts laughing. Joke explained to presenter lady, she says she is going to use that line in all her future presentations. I ask for royalties.

I am not a nice person. Fact. And that is unrelated to the above anecdotes.

The man who shot the man who shot JFK

Since I've nothing better to do on a Sunday morning, I'm trying to learn a new programming language.

Sigh.

Yeah, talk about plumbing the depths.

Right Now I am

- 34,000 feet above sea level
- Flying to Chicago on another one of those unavoidable US trips
- Pleasantly high after a couple of glasses of scotch and a passable airline lunch
- Listening to 's Feelgood Rahman Mix, delighted with the selections
- Hoping I'll not miss my connecting flight to Greenville, SC; wondering what to do in Chicago if I do

Yee-haw!

Am headin' back home, pah'dnuhs!

Here we go again

Yet another painstaking journey. Yet another stop-over at the Chennai airport. This time round, they have free wi-fi though.

The Frankfurt airport looms ahead, grim and foreboding. Thankfully, I'll have just a couple of hours before my connecting flight to Houston.

Ammo packed: Jonathan Stroud's Ptolemy's Gate and Terry Pratchett's Going Postal. Should keep me alive till I reach Houston, hopefully.

Tech talk

Item One: We will do a quick sanitation test and then release for acceptance testing. Lovely. I know we need to remove all the bugs we find, but doing a sanitation test really takes it to the next level.

Item Two: I could not get Manoj's approval. He has gone native. I see Manoj with paint on his face, wearing leaves for a dress and dancing to a tom-tom beat. He is obviously in no shape to approve anything, he's well and truly gone native.

Item Three: Please do the needful. My personal favourite. I get to pretty much do what I want, there's no one more needful than I.

Need

Have an urgent need for the following folks. If you know of anyone who might fit the bill, please to contact the undersigned at the earliest convenience. Much obliged, your humble servant.

1. HR: 1 numbers. Should be able to multitask between recruitment and interfacing with employees. Main focus is recruitment currently, but will expand into other areas soon. Full time prefered.

2. J2EE developers: lots. Preferably people with at least 2-3 years experience in product dev. Can look at highly talented freshers too, but they have to really rock.

3. Webmethods developers: 2 numbers. 2 - 3 years experience at least.

4. Good hackers: 1 or 2 numbers. Technology no bar. I could really use a couple of talented hackers to tinker around with stuff.

All positions: should have the initiative and drive to work in a startup environment. Fun times guaranteed. Company and work details provided on request.

Rachu

Everyone was interested in watching Rachu's reaction when she saw me after I got back. Whether she'd jump around, yell, be angry, etc.

She was asleep when I reached home - my flight got in at around 4am on Monday. All of us were downstairs, Kichan and Seena about to leave for work, when we heard sounds of her waking up. We all ran up to the bedroom and I lay down beside her. She slowly opened her eyes, looked at me and then said she was hungry. I replied and cuddled up with her. She looked at me again, hugged me tight and started sobbing. Sobbing like an adult, not like a two year old child. Slowly, everyone left the room. I don't remember the last time I felt so depressed.

She still appears to feel I will leave her - started crying when I carried my parents' luggage to the car, thinking I was going too. Cried buckets today when I dropped her at school, something she hasn't done in a long time.

It's not easy being a dad. It's way tougher being a two year old kid.

Toto,

I don't think we are in Kansas anymore.

I am actually in Kansas City, which is in the state of Missouri. But part of it is in the state of Kansas.

It's all very confusing.

TGIF

Office. Home. Office. Step out for lunch, step out for dinner. Home. Work till 2am. Back in office by 930am.

The thing is, I can get a lot more work done when I am here. I try not to think of Bangalore, family and other such minor details. I am becoming a machine.

Maybe this weekend will help. Plan to go for a movie today - whatever is running. I think I watched Mr and Mrs Smith the other day, but I couldn't be sure.

***

Work is great, though. Designing an organization, planning out processes, running recruitment, IT support - all the internal stuff. Then there is the customer facing part: working with CEOs and CTOs of small companies, helping them plan out a technology roadmap, convincing them about the India model and showing them how we can deliver value.

It's not that I'm not enjoying work. Just that there is so much to do.

***

I was able to finally find two books I've always wanted - Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and Ed McBain's Cop Hater (the first book of the 87th Precint Series). Reading Fight Club is just like watching the movie - it's almost like the screenplay. Amazing writing.

As in Bangalore, all my reading is in the loo.

***

, thanks for driving me around last Sunday. It was great hanging out with you.

Down and out in Dallas, Texas

Dallas. Shit. I'm still in Dallas.

Looks the same as it did before. Nothing ever changes out here.

Have been sleeping past 3am most days, what with one thing and the other. I'm right now at my friend Maneesh's house, on a wireless connection stolen from his neighbour. Just finished watching The Party, a Peter Sellers movie I hadn't seen. Slapstick, but fun. No, it did not have the 'Goodness Gracious Me!' song. That was from The Millionairess.

I have this evil plan to buy a Blackberry from T-Mobile here and use it in India only for GPRS stuff and as a PDA. Would that be cost effective? Hmm. Needs some more investigation, but it's definitely an idea.

In other news, I'm lonely. Good night, world.

Hello, Washington DC. Hello, new laptop. Hello, w...

Hello, Washington DC. Hello, new laptop. Hello, world.

Good night, world.

What Madhav is doing these days

• Twiddling my thumbs, waiting for something to happen.


• Checking my LJ friends page every twenty seconds. (What's up with you guys anyway? Why don't you write more?)


• Chatting up unsuspecting souls on IM, people who really have work to do.


• Reading up on movies I won't watch, gadgets I won't buy and porn sites I won't visit.

I'm serving my notice period, by the way. I leave on Friday and join the new outfit on Monday.