Do you often wonder, ‘Does my opinion count at work?’

In my first job, there were several teams with their managers, mostly in their ‘50s. They were used to instructing teams on what they should do. The teams promptly complied, but never took ownership of the outcome. I was with one such manager and felt very suffocated. I knew we could achieve better outcomes if only I were allowed to innovate or do things differently. As luck would have it, I was moved to a team led by a young manager. On day-one, the company’s truck that delivered petrol broke down. I went to Deepak and asked him what I should do. He said, “What do you think we should do?”. I said, “Let us send it to the vendor for repairs as the company’s mechanics will take a week instead of two days reducing the asset utilization.” He gladly agreed and we could reduce the downtime.

A week later he called me and asked me what I thought about the decision. When I told him about the lower downtime, he said, “What about the morale of the team of mechanics?” I hadn’t thought about it. He said, “Think about a long-term solution.” I went back to him with a plan and suggested, “Anything that the company’s mechanics require more than a day to repair, should be outsourced. In the case of outsourcing the company’s mechanics will be responsible for quality control and ensure turnaround time.” Deepak promptly agreed. We managed to reduce the cost of repairs, motivated the company’s mechanics, and improved the asset availability. In addition, for Deepak, I was happy and engaged.