YOUR BOSS IS YOUR BOSS!

In your career, you need mentor/s. Some might disagree, but I feel it is important to have mentor/s in your career. We normally don’t accept us to be guided, but, there are times, when you need to go to someone and share your thoughts and emotions who would listen to you, show you the right path no matter how silly you might sound,

or how lame you might think!

In my journey so far, I have been blessed that I have come across both people leaders and business leaders. But I have come across only a handful of people whom I

consider as my mentors. I would not reveal their names today. But today, I will tell you about a few things that I have learnt from the mentors and which I am still trying to adapt-

As a nation, we hardly care about the timing. And trust me, this is one of the reasons why outsiders find us weird as we don’t live up to the timing commitment. I have seen one of my mentor exercising this commitment of timing. When he said the meeting would start @ 2.30, that meant, 2.30. Not a minute late. We, the people, taking for granted 2.30 as 2.45-3.00 gradually started learning that time sense is important. It’s a habit that you don’t build on a day (like, we are used to 10-15 minutes delay as normal). I started working on this. I wouldn’t say I have succeeded, but definitely I have improved.

I have one mentor who has taught me how to make things simple. Breaking the big problems into smaller parts, taking small pieces at a time, convert it with strong rationale, convenience and present it spontaneously as if you created the problems and you are the only one with the right solution. Still to date, we debate on so many things. He is a very busy person, but we have discussion over phone starting after midnight even and lasts up to hours. I feel lucky that he responds and he listens. Another quality that we all need to develop. We jump to conclusions and make a statement before hearing all the things. But my mentor keeps his calm. Sometimes, I might be talking no sense, but he listens and figures out the right guidelines for me. He is a person whom I feel scared of, but he is also the person with whom I speak my heart out. Mentors earn a position in your heart no matter how hard you try not to give them the spot and keeping it professional, and you always try to be someone like him/her.

I have also come across a mentor who has been outstanding with numbers and analysis. I have seen him doing number crunching and analysis single handed, which is a task of multiple person. He has always been relaxed, never expressed pressure in the job, and always spot on with the numbers. The love for numbers grew from there. As a business professional, we all should love numbers. It does not come automatically until you start understanding the number and start projecting the future. He made such statements about the industry that came true years later that he predicted earlier. And to date I see his assumptions are coming true. He also has the knack for general knowledge, science and innovation. He is one passionate guy who would say things upfront in your face whether you like it or not. But, trust me, whatever he would say, there is a huge possibility that it might come true. Speaking up front and challenging the status quo is very difficult to do, and to possess such quality is like having a treasure.

One of the mentors has taught me the importance of taking ownership with freedom. Everyone loves freedom, but with ownership? When you have freedom but connected with ownership, you start loving things you do. Not everyone can enjoy freedom with ownership. But, growing the sense of ownership is a big step to become successful I believe. It is tough, but once you are on the ride, you will complete any challenges thrown towards you. And eventually, you will start loving that.   

 You must be wondering, how many mentors I have, right? Well, I am yet to complete a full cricket team. But I believe in this journey I will be able to cover a good portion of the stadium whom I consider as a mentor. My definition of mentor is a bit different. I believe, no one is perfect. But you should take the best out of someone, and if that person allows you the time and coaching to develop the best quality, he/she possesses I consider him/her as a mentor. But that does not mean, everyone is my mentor as everyone has got some good qualities. I also have some bench-marking. If you can’t cross that, you are not in the list.

I will give you an idea of bench-marking on some other time. But the examples I have given are 100% right. I consider these qualities are important, and till this day I am learning from them and I am indebted to them that they are open to me whenever I have asked hep from them. What do you think? Do you need a mentor? Or already have one?

On the fishing note, I would say, I am still in the journey of learning, unlearning and relearning things. It is never too late to find your google in career who can steer you and build you for future. It’s a never-ending process. But the sooner you understand the powers of your mentors (whom you consider as your mentor/s), the faster you should start learning from them.  

If you have already found your mentor/s , you can share the qualities you have/are trying to adapt from them in the comments.Your opinions are appreciated!

#MainulAhsan

#thothnotes

After a long break, here I am writing once gain. This pandemic is teaching us so many new things every moment;

as humans we are very compatible that we are getting aligned and marching forward. Today, I will try to keep it short and crisp. 

Everyone in the networking place is talking about mental health. To be honest, I was not a big fan of this topic. I thought it is abnormal to talk about mental health. 

Guess what? I was wrong.

Mental health is important. I can’t define like the academicians. But, to me, having a full control over your emotion, decision making capacity and the ease in communicating with others reflect your mental health status. Let me explain-

Then to the decision-making part. When you are in trouble, a drop of water might turn into a sea. As we were never prepared for this kind of incidence, we never measured all the variables we needed to take care. Suddenly, you tend to lose the ability to make bold decisions. Like most of the people, I am also trying to attach myself with whatever I have. May be this is something, which is not giving me any pleasure, or not giving me the right value or appreciation, maybe I am wasting my potentials, but still, we all are attached to it. This is the beauty of uncertainty. When this uncertainty starts to control you, you can’t take any bold moves. Because, you did not plan for this. Although there is always a fight within yourself, you are still trying to keep your chin up. But this can’t go on forever. Humans might have difficulties controlling their emotions, but decision-making power needs to be firm. I am hoping, that when I reach the boiling point, I can also take strong decision and for that mental health is important. Overthinking kills most of the times, and zero thinking kills every time. In the right frame of mind, you need to be able to take solid decision about your life and future. If you can, great! You are in a good mental state. 

Last but not the least, ease of communication. See, when things were normal, it was easier to communicate with everyone. Now a day, I feel scared to ask someone, whether he is okay or not. Because, all over my mind I am going through so many things that impedes me delivering the right communication or signal to the opposite person. Well, you people might think I am making confessions. Yes, perhaps! Not only the mediums of communication have changed, but also the topics and chit chat point are different than what it used to be.

Considering all these factors, I believe you need to have a sound mental wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is the software, when it starts crashing, your applications will stop working. For this, I am trying to remain focused on communicating with positive people, people I look up to for guidance, watching light and funny things, trying to spend time on self-development and trying to spend time with my family (although, my performance in spending time with family is the worst as per the review I have received from the family members). It is not easy to overlook everything, but we should start trying to filter things which are negative. I think this pandemic will make us even stronger as a leader, communicator, decision maker and overall a good human being.

By the way, I was not into prayers, but, apparently, it is evident, that I am asking for support from the almighty more than ever before. I think this is one place where you can ask for anything. You have no limits, no boundaries. And this also helps you to give you some “YOU” time that you deserve.

I hope we shall soon stand up and embrace the new world. Let my mental health help me to overcome the odds of corona and the surroundings.

May you all remain physically and mentally happy! My prayers are with you 😊

Share your feedback on the write up, what do you think about mental health? did you feel anything similar? or different? How are you working on it to improve?

This time the topic is going to be more helpful for the new joiners or the fresher to a greater extent. Every time a new joiner or a fresher join, a common thing you get to listen as a fresher in many of the cases is that – You don’t know the right way to do the work.

True! How come a fresher would know the perfect way to complete the task? If he had done that, he would have become an experienced person. We, the experienced sometimes forget that once we were also new to the industry. We better give some time to any resource to make him/her stronger in his area of work.

Having said that, for the new joiners, there are some observations that I would like to share with some examples:

I have taken a lot of interviews so far, especially for the entry level position. In the interview session, I have seen people just used so fancy words in their CV, of which they don’t have any idea. Literally, no idea or why this is being put in the CV. I can clearly understand that, they did not write their own CV, but the overall CV presentation was really good. One thing that we forget, when something is beautiful, it draws our attention and for that they really need to own whatever they put in their CV. Another issue is with the misspelled words. In few cases, they wrote marketin instead of marketing and they could not find what went wrong. This might be a lame example, but, to me spelling is important and more than that your CV should be important to you. You should double check if there is any issue with it or not.

In Bangladesh there is an upsurge in the CV writing industry. My LinkedIn home page is flooded with posts regarding CV writing and why it is important. In many cases, it seemed that, if you don’t write a CV from a professional, you will not get a job. I have a very bad notion for these people who are always marketing that how CV writing is becoming a dire need to get a job. Please, STOP!

If you can use internet and have some basic knowledge of computer- You would find a lot of CV template available for free download. Go, check them out and use it if you find it appropriate. You can take help from the seniors, colleagues in getting the templates, but remember, whatever template you use, make sure you are cross checking the spelling and the inputs that you provide, so that Mr. Rahman does not become female while copying and pasting from others format.

Now moving on to joining to a new place. Before joining to a new place, try to gather some basic information about the workplace if possible regarding the office time, attire, basic office norms, culture of the team, etc. See, in our childhood, when we used to move to a new class, before starting of the class we use to go through the new books out of curiosity. This curiosity is good. But, as we grow up some of us loses this interest. Because, in cases I have seen people coming in proper formal attire in the interview, but, on the very first day of the joining –wearing a polo t shirt. See, I am not against wearing polo t shirt, but, you need to know how others in the office are coming up. So, you should get along rather drift against it. This is basic!

While working in tobacco, I found that it is not a sin to smoke with your boss or higher management. But, I took this for granted. But, after moving to other places, I found having a smoke with your line manager was just like a cardinal sin. And I had to go through some humiliation for this as well. Well, things are changing and the companies are becoming more liberal. But, I also made a basic mistake! So, try to gather some knowledge on office culture as well.

As a new joiner, we should be more open to listening rather than talking. From university to job place there is a big difference. Whenever you are in a job, you are getting the salary against some assigned task ( in most of the cases, you do more than what was described in the JD) . Meaning that, you are given the responsibility, and you should grow accountability. You might have done so many things in your life, but, whenever you are in a job, that is affecting the lives of others and the society as well. So, take things seriously and let your work speak for you. Now, how can you let your work speak for you?

In any workplace, you are likely to get the seniors/colleagues with you. First, start learning the process with an open mind. As we all know, in every organization, they use many jargons, so, get used to it. It is something related to the process and you will be using these frequently. Try to gather knowledge, and go through the previous works done by your predecessor so that you get some clarity on the work. If you are in sales job, the best place to learn the job is the field, in the real workplace where you get to learn the real business. This is basic!

So far I have been working in sales and marketing and I have learnt the basics from the market, from the front line soldiers, the experienced distributors, competition and even from the back office people. The secret to it is developing a good relationship with the right stake holders and have an open mind. Remember one thing, the faster you get along with your workplace, the better for both you and the organization.   

In MNC there is a term called “honeymoon period” meaning when you join, you get some breathing time to grasp the business. In this period, no question is a wrong question, some operational mistakes are ignored, you get to know your market. This time is the best time to learn. From day 1 , you should utilize this and you don’t get this opportunity ever again when you have passed a significant time of your probation.

The honeymoon period is not always applicable for the local organizations. They want you to deliver from day 1. There is a very low margin or acceptable error and you will need to roll up your sleeves and start getting things done in a proper way from day 1. Get your basics right to deliver as fast as you can. Remember, you are always replaceable the moment you stop adding value to the business. Business does not run with emotion, it runs with numbers and results and every business has the same motive- generate profit. So, be clear about this and act accordingly.

No matter if you are selling product or service, you will be getting a target. Targets are such that you can achieve, or there might be times when you can’t. Every company sets their target with a growth projection. If the industry is declining, your target might get lower than the past; or else, you need to ensure growth to gain market share and profitability. For anyone working in the sales, must get a good grip on planning out how to meet the targets. The companies operating in full cash business have to maintain daily performances. Cash business operation is much safer from a business perspective. On the other hand, due to the nature of the industry, some might have to run in the credit operation. They need to make sure about the credit management and hitting the weekly/monthly numbers. In this case, with daily sales management comes the credit management. For anyone, joining in the work be it cash operation or credit or even mixed operation must know how transactions are made with the company in details about all the processes. Let me give you an example why this is important from my life experience.

I moved from total cash operation to another industry where there is heavy dependency of credit due to the nature of the business and the national practice is as such. Anyways, back then I did not have clear idea about bank guarantee and the company finance was sending mails regarding the bank guarantee renewal for some of my distributors and I talked to finance and they said it is important to make renewal of the bank guarantee within the time. The conversation made me understand that, bank guarantee is a tool, that needs to be renewed, But, even back then I was not aware that, if you don’t renew the bank guarantee within the timeline, it is nothing but a piece of paper. One of the distributor had his bank guarantee getting expired on the same day. I got a call from the sales director on the progress of the BG and I told him that, distributor has confirmed that he would do the BG renewal. My sales director ( by the way, he is a fantastic human being and one of my mentor who taught me how to take ownership and how to be down to earth all the time!) made me understand the hard truth that if it does not get completed by today, 4mln worth of BG (Bank Guarantee) will turn into a simple paper by tomorrow morning and company will be facing the consequences.

I got into the car and traveled 60-70 kilometers meeting the distributor and grabbed him and took him to the bank and by then it was almost 4 pm and the banking was about to get closed. Along the way, in the car, I was thinking that if I did not know how significant bank guarantee is, I would have been in trouble. I am thankful to my sales director for making me understand the importance of the BG in simple words. As I came from total cash operation, I literally had very little knowledge about BG and other banking instruments for credit operation. I was about to make a grave mistake but, fortunately the BG was renewed on that very day; I scanned the documents to the company and in the end, the day was saved. See, I did not cover my basics well. So, be very attentive to your operational details which can make you a seasoned professional.

I know I am taking much of your time to explain so many things. I will close the topic with the last example.

If you are working in sales and distribution, you must be aware of the fact of route restructuring and adding new outlets to the operation. I learnt this in the hard way. It is one of the task that looks good in excel, but in reality if you don’t have the total grip on the geography, socio economic understanding of the market and patience it is very difficult to execute a good expansion plan. In my early days, when I got the first outlet restructuring exercise, I shared the required data with the distribution point and I was expecting that being experienced people they would share the initial draft and I would check back if things are OK. While approaching the deadline, I asked my team to share the updates and I was happy getting the files from them. Even when I started checking, I found the outlet numbers are ok, brought new outlets to coverage with SR and everything. But, When I started checking the cluster names, something did not add up. The team had a meeting with a map, putting pins in the markets to identify the new scopes and how these were going to be covered. And then the shit hit the fan!

The team was focused on meeting the numbers, not focusing on how the routes are going to be drawn or the right scopes being taken into consideration, will that be possible for the SR to cover that geography in the right time to cover the targeted outlets, if the vehicles they are choosing for distribution making sense or would that incur more cost for the distributor, was the frequency set in the right way that would justify the volume and overall, does the expansion numbers make sense and giving the profitability to the distributor with additional investment. I can recall for the next 4-5 days, for me with a big map and the team, I needed to solve the questions that came into my mind.

Sometimes we had to go outside of the general guidelines, as things were not making sense due to distance, potential volume and logistic. It was a hell of a ride and trust me, since then I have gained more confidence because I did the overall RTM exercise by myself with the help of the distribution team and my senior colleagues, and I asked the right questions. I was so confident, that next year I took the lead for not only my territory but also for the area when it came to outlet expansion! Since the first time, I have loved doing it. Because, once you complete the right route plans and you are convinced, you immediately see the impact of increased sales or improve on the costing that affects the business positively.

So, roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty (in a positive way) to make it happen. This is basic!

Once you build a strong foundation of the basics of the business and the process, develop a strong relationship with the right stakeholders and open to learning new things from different sources, you will do amazing!

Learn the basics by heart and shine on…

#thothnotes

#mainulahsan

#understandingthebasics

#thirdtopic