Reflections from 2020

Many want to forget the Year 2020 for several reasons, for some, it has been emotionally stressed, mental stress, financially stressed, and the agony of losing a loved one, and the list goes on. I can rant on many of them as the year winds down, especially knowing and learning about each type from several friends. But, I am grateful for the good health as we cruise into 2021. The Year 2020 needs to become a distant dream (nightmare) as we embrace positive energy driving ourselves into the Year 2021.

Note to my (prior) Followers

Many have known me write my blogs before. I have finally took that down, not able to maintain and focus my time with my daughter after she was born. So it has been a different year in reflection to let go of my legacy and what I had as an brand. A new decade, needs a fresh start!

Starting 2021, I plan to write once in a while in this channel on LinkedIn and keep those mind-maps penned down. In a way, look at 2021 the year for my return to writing a few notes here. A lot has changed in these past 5 years, building my own team at work (from Ground 0), building business models, taking new challenges, working with tough customer problems, learning across different solution areas, getting into a new country, learning different cultures etc. All these are shaping me to become a better person every day compared to yesterday. I am not perfect, but I am making progress.

COVID-19

I don’t think anyone is talking about 2020 and not remember COVID-19. My dad, who turned 72, said – “I never seen the effect of a pandemic to date. Never thought this day would happen in my lifetime.” I thought how deep and profound that statement was. Life will never be the same as we get into 2021.

Huge respects, salute to the Healthcare workers who endured a different level of stress, gone through personal sacrifices while keeping the world safe for everyone. We look forward to the light end-of-the tunnel; as vaccines start to get rolled out in 2021 in various countries.

Staying in Singapore for the past 4+ years, I have massive respect for the Government around how they got into action to control the pandemic. Yes, they had a few glitches, but overall – a commendable job so far. Strangely, even during the pandemic, they were able to have an election run with a massive turnout – Hats off on pulling that. My appreciation for Singapore people is even more as they understood being safe is a collective responsibility – not just the Government. For the majority, everyone obeys the rules, safety standards, considerate to their neighbors, showed empathy to everyone in need and embraced the new ways of living.

One of the metrics for me, my daughter has been going to proper schooling since July-2020, and as a parent, I believe the systems and measures put in place to keep everyone safe works without a doubt.

Remote working

Well, the Year 2020 has narrowed the gap between our work-life and personal life so close, we are just a door separated from our office space and private space. For some, both remain in the same room, making this year a tough one to get work done.

Every industry from manufacturing, health, education, government, services sectors, retail, supply chain, automobiles, banking, and many more had reshaped their digital transformation journey. In some cases, they had to over pivot and fast-forwarded their three-year transformation journey in less than three months to stay alive. For a few, they went out of business and cash reserves – some of the fastest Billion $ ideas went out of business instantly. The path to recovery is going to be painfully slow, for sure.

Businesses that already enjoyed the working from home culture before the pandemic were the ones with less heat, and the appreciation for this benefit (for employees) took the limelight with the pandemic. Every employer accepted the fact that remote working is real and here to stay.

I have been talking with a few CxO’s and “going digital” is no more a luxury – it is a necessity. Physical Datacenters are not fancy, but Cloud is the way to go. Gates and locks not essential, but “digital data security” critical for the business. Governance and compliance is not an afterthought but part of the design principle along with automation.

There is no better time to be in IT than now. Learn to unlearn (your legacy) and get ready to learn new ways of working.

Leadership

Forming a new team, division, business, and leading the new Asia Technical team from Jan-2020 has been an extraordinary journey for me personally. Lots to learn and reflect on.

As soon as the team was formed, we had to get into the lockdowns, and I have team members on my team who I never got a chance to meet even after a year. Going virtual is real, but leading teams virtually takes a lot of intentional effort.

My leadership style has been to be transparent, open, over communicate, give enough time to team to get their learning, time to unwind, and be present during meetings. I share often, I do shorter team meetings, listen to their needs, and finally, close the loop. Keeping noise away from them, I want to give them the space to express themselves.

Say what you will do and do what you said. Show you listened and acting on it.

I have felt the need for trust in your leadership is supercritical at these virtual moments. Driving a strong sense of teamwork, share the team goals (Northstar), and joint efforts to maximize your skills is critical.

The power of WE is greater than the power of ME.

For me, building this culture of high-performance, self-motivated, purpose-driven, challenger mindset, risk takers (calculated – learn fast, fail fast mode), the autonomous team is the critical success factor as we get out of the pandemic.

Learn and Reflect

With this pandemic, I have got busier than ever. The hurry-bury, non-stop back-to-back meetings have got me to think – am I burning out? Early in March/April, I realized I need to pause and reflect before acting.

My analogy has always been like an ECG pulse. You cannot always be high or consistently low. You have a normal, and then you have spikes – these spikes represent life. Even those spikes have highs and lows as that is what makes life purposeful. Think about customer scenarios and how a project goes, there will be challenges despite all your planning, but overcoming that and getting to the finish line gives us the energy to run long. Finally, a flat ECG means you are dead and dull life.

Have spikes, take risks, stay curious, confront the status quo, and have lots of fun.

As we turn the page on the calendar to 2021, you are on a fabulous train ride – no point being consumed by your laptops or phones so much that you forget to enjoy the journey, the greenery, and the beautiful scenery of sunset that just went by. So pause, reflect, learn, and have fun.

Final words

As I wrap up 2020, I am grateful for the excellent health, hope for a better 2021. I intentionally kept a lot of things from strategy, execution, and other learnings away this time. I wanted to start 2021 super positive, give a glimpse of hope for my back to writing ways and be thankful to everyone I met or interacted in the past year.

As they say in cricket, your class is permanent even if your form is temporary; so you have to keep practicing. I am back :)