I just met my Ex-boss at the airport. He
was my boss for about 5 years at a key point in my career.
I had just got into IT (Information
Technology) career after about 10 years in manufacturing and 2 years in
Academia. I was into an area called ERP (Enterprise-wide Resources Planning)
and was implementing ERP solutions across multiple companies across South
India.
He became my boss after about one year
into my IT career and was my boss for about 5 years covering two phases. The
first phase lasted for about 3 years in company 1. In this phase, our
relationship was excellent. We had very good rapport and understanding. May be it was because my interactions with him were few and far between. He used to work out of our Company HQ and I used to be at various customer sites for up to three to six months at a
stretch implementing ERP.
He used to respect me for my knowledge. I
used to respect him for his fairness and the effort that he was putting in
despite his limitations.
Ours was a small company. I think in the
end, his limitations became highly visible to the management and he decided
to leave. I think the feeling was mutual between him and the company on the
need for him to leave.
From a small company, he joined a very big
company. I think his new role was a letdown for him but he valiantly soldiered on.
While he was a delivery head in the previous company, in the new company he was
asked to join as a Project Manager (which is one level lower in the IT
management hierarchy) for a large ERP Implementation for one of the most
prestigious companies in India.
He had a requirement for a competent
consultant in his project. He asked me to join his team. And I did.
This was the beginning of second phase of our relationship.
Since the project was prestigious and big,
it was also stressful. Any minor issue was escalated into the highest levels of
our company management and every two days some top shot or other from our
company visited our site to 'Review' the project and discuss with the Project
Manager. Every one of such ‘Reviews’ started with the assumption that the
Project Manager was not doing a good job. So these reviews invariably were
stressful for my boss. In addition to this, the project was very complex with
lots of customizations to the application.
Coupled with the fact that my boss was not
technically equipped to manage such complex projects and you had a recipe for
disaster. Throughout his career, he had been a people manager and had not spent
time developing his skill-set in the technical area.
Finally, when you consider that we had one
or two very difficult people in our team, who were filled with hubris about
their knowledge of the application and were arrogant to the point of being
offensive, you can imagine how any boss could
have shot his bolt.
There was always a suppressed element of
short temper in my boss. The stress in the project made it explicit.
Initially the relationship between me and
my boss was very cordial, in fact very friendly in a personal sort of way. Over
the course of time the stress took its toll and the relationship
deteriorated.
I couldn't understand my boss's inability
to see the big picture. He couldn't understand why I was taking decisions
related to my area without informing him. To be fair, I felt that I was
taking technical decisions in my domain and within my purview and my boss felt
that I was trying to upstage him.
I was also under a lot of stress. In
addition to my key role in this very complex project, I was also handling a
solution which was not tested, implementing an area (costing) that I had never
done in my life, and was also leading the team implementing the Financial
Solution part in the implementation. I was also pursuing a two year Management
Program at a prestigious management institute in Bangalore. The course load was
very high and the demands were tough.
As mentioned earlier, over a period of time, our relationship
deteriorated. I am also not perfect and was prone to my share of temper and
irritation. And normally an ERP implementation adds to the stress by its
constant and invasive demands on your intellect. In addition an ERP consultant
also has to handle some recalcitrant team members from the client side, who are
afraid that ERP implementation will make them redundant.
So I was stressful, my boss was stressful
and both of us had short temper.
Classic recipe for disastrous
relationship.
Gradually we stopped exchanging
pleasantries. Our communication simply became formal and official. I used to
send him the status report. He used to send me formal mails.
The customer team quickly started taking
advantage of this conflict. They started complaining about me to my boss and
about my boss to me. By this time I had also established my position in the
project and it was widely known that I will take over this project once my boss
leaves.
Things reached a crescendo one day. We
were planning to go for UAT (User Acceptance Test). It was a Friday. I had
classes to attend.
The previous day, I had modified a
configuration to meet a specific requirement from the customer. It was done
late in the evening and my configuration change had to be followed up with some
changes to a custom code. The team which was supposed to make the code changes
took their time.
UAT was to start in the morning. The delay
in code change ensured that the start of UAT was delayed.
When my boss heard that the UAT is
delayed, he lost his temper. And he can be nasty when he lost his temper.
Months and months of stress had taken their toll and he was extremely nasty that
day.
I was not there in the office when my boss
lost his temper and started shouting at the team. The team couldn't take the
stress and informed him that I had made the changes which led to the change in
code.
He called me over the phone and shouted at
me while I was still in class. I told him that I will talk to him once I am in
office.
When I reached office, I saw a very
stressed out team and a very angry boss. Even before I kept my bag in my seat,
my boss started shouting at me with everyone in the office - our team,
customers, clerks, peons- in hearing distance.
I couldn't take it any longer. I asked him
for a personal meeting.
In this meeting I gave him a piece of my
mind. I told him that as a boss it is his responsibility to understand what
changes I had done and why this was important for the project. I told him that
in an ERP implementation, it is expected that the PM has technical knowledge. I
basically told him that he did not know what he was talking about and if he did
not know the technology, he should not be talking to a technical consultant.
He also gave me his piece of mind. He told
me that he was aware for some time that I was trying to take his place (which I
wasn’t) and that he was sorry that he brought me into his team.
We had a mutually satisfactory meeting,
both of us having spoken our minds.
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Today I met him at the airport. The old rancor still lingered. The communication was affected and the smile was artificial. The effect of a year of stressful relationship was not going to go away in one casual meeting at the airport.
Today I met him at the airport. The old rancor still lingered. The communication was affected and the smile was artificial. The effect of a year of stressful relationship was not going to go away in one casual meeting at the airport.
After leaving him, I started thinking as
to why the rancor remained. Was I guilty? Of course, our relationship had
become formal. May be I was still holding a grudge for all the stress that he
gave me in the project. Was it worth holding the grudge? Wasn't it time for me
to move on? He had moved on out of my life, I had moved on out of his. So why
this casual meeting was affecting me like this? Why was I uncomfortable after
this two minute meeting?
Was I still living in the ‘Psychological Time’
of my project days? Or did seeing him now bring back all the bad memories and the associated feelings and emotions? I don’t have an answer.
More importantly, knowing what I know now, how would I have handled the situation differently?
I would have done differently in two areas. Communication and escalation.
1. I would have communicated more regularly. I would have discussed my decision and got his buy in before I decided some of the things I decided. Of course, this is me speaking in retrospect, so I can only generalize.
2. I would have escalated my risks higher in the organization. I remember that I had written multiple mails to my boss's boss and kept the same in my draft folder without sending. This is an area where I have improved over the years. I don't keep my frustrations to myself now. I escalate the same to the right people in the organization. Of course, now I am in a role where I have to handle other's frustrations, but it doesn't mean I don't have any.
One lives and learns, doesn't one?