First Manager is like First Love!!

Last week, quite unexpectedly I got a chance to connect with my first manager with whom I started my career over a decade ago! Though we had not been in touch for several years, the mere mention of his name - AC - sucked me back in time into my formative years and the wonderful few years I spent being mentored by him.

An amazingly brilliant professional, a wonderful people manager with an always-smiling persona (and an infectious roar-of-a-laughter!), and great coach and mentor, AC was a pleasure to work with. Now when I look back I realize that he was the reason I stayed so long (a couple of years) in a finance career though it clearly wasn’t suited to me. I enjoyed working with him so much that I did not focus on the fact that project financing was clearly not my true professional calling. But it is a blessing that I worked with him during my formative years because he taught me (often in his own subtle ways) several things that helped me have a (relatively) decent career run long after I left the organization.

As I started to work with him straight out of school, despite my inexperience (and a multi-level difference in hierarchy; which is very important in a PSU), AC often treated me like a peer and gave me large amounts of responsibility. He coached me in a natural way, letting me observe him while he worked (as he dealt astutely with the department head, negotiated project deliverables with clients, and worked his way through the infamous PSU politics) which meant that most days I was sitting in his office discussing topics as varied as project structuring to upward-management to sports to politics to life!

While he would push me to experiment and innovate on projects I worked on, he always had a safety net around me. In fact I remember a couple of times when he “batted” for me and stood by my side, defending work that I had done. And, more than anything else, he taught me the meaning of “officialdom” - ways and means to survive in a professional office environment; something so valuable for a young recruit starting his career.

AC showed me the importance of staying ahead of technology. Though he was a good decade (or more) elder to me at that point, he was the one who encouraged me to learn about this thing called the World Wide Web back in a time when there was nothing much to do on the Web. I distinctly remember he pushed me to create an email account long before we had anyone we could send an e-mail to. He also taught me to blend work with life as he always pushed me to get out of the office on time, to not work on the weekends, and to structure the work flow such that I did not need to work late hours.

When I decided it was time to move on, it was not easy for me though I was clear I wanted to get out of project financing and the “PSU environment.” I was sort of scared to change my function, move into a start-up environment (from a PSU), and out of the safety net that AC had always provided. AC however encouraged me to take that leap of faith – and I am glad he did!

Now when I am in a position where I am expected to coach and mentor young folks starting their careers, I realize the enormous task and implicit responsibility that the first manager has in making or breaking the career, and more importantly the self confidence, of his/her direct reports. Each time I see my direct reports moving ahead and doing well in their careers, somewhere deep inside I thank AC for the skills he gave me early on in my professional life.

I guess the first manager is like “first love” – you never end up staying with either for a long time, yet you can never get it (or him/her) out of your mind!!