"Starting my career, as a fresher out of my college, I was full of energy to prove my worth. I got a brilliant opportunity to grow my career in a growing organization – Drishtee, at my first job. I was hardly out of the joys of my student life and here I was, struggling to lead the role of a mature and responsible professional life. - donning the role of a manager."
In my first year, my life was running at full charge and I had both my hands full with the planning and coordination for the Microfinance activities in Drishtee Foundation. The entire experience was exhilarating as I was learning newer and newer things on each passing day, becoming wiser day-by-day. I started my experience with the field visits in Sitapur and sometime later, I was enjoying the whole stint as I liked working in the microfinance sector and wanted to specialize in this field. I thought this was the kind of role that would give me the ideal experience, but I was in for a surprise. The entire year went off in a jiffy, and the very next thing that I knew was that I got a role transfer in the form of an Operations Controller. A new role, a new responsibility, and a whole new meaning to the word –Experience.
As I would like to put it, both the former and my present roles are experiencing in their own right, but I was a bit apprehensive about how good would I be at handling operations. But, I believe it’s true for everyone in a new role. In the first week itself into the role of an operations controller, I was fortunate enough to get a field visit with Microsave to Sitapur, which was indeed an eye opening experience and which helped me to get a holistic understanding of the intricacies of operations at the field level. During the field visits, I realized that there are challenges abound, how work gets done, how people have to be managed, how I as a leader have to make strikingly different decisions in different situations, the list is endless but this column isn’t. But, I also felt there are certain aspects that need to be worked upon.
Operation is the running blood of any business and it cannot be at the backburner for a long time. For this purpose, just wishful thinking and making strategies wouldn’t help. Execution is the key word here. The feeling of execution along with firm values and beliefs must be present in not just the top brass of an organization (which is usually present) but the same must be a common ingredient in people till the lowest rung. If this can be made possible, nothing like it! My goal, from this point onward, would be to take a step forward in this direction and make it possible at all the levels of Drishtee. If this becomes a reality, then nothing can stop Drishtee from becoming not just a good organization, but a Great Organization. Till then, as someone rightly said to me, operations are where you should be if you want to get the real experience of an organization. And I am right at the heart of it – getting the real experience.
Pooja Bharech
Controller – Rural Finance, Drishtee
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