Leadership

I was in Bengaluru for a day and had reached the office much earlier than usual. The floor was almost empty. Unoccupied cubicles stretched across the room, and an unusual silence filled the space. I settled at a desk and began my work. After a while, I glanced at my watch. By then, she should have arrived. There was still very little movement around, so I assumed she might be running late. Then I thought, why not go and see if she was already in? I didn’t know where her cabin was, so I simply walked around, looking. I found her deeply engrossed in work. I knocked gently and asked if I could come in. What followed was a warm conversation filled with catching up and easy laughter. Before I left for my desk, we agreed to have lunch together. She was my manager, someone in a senior position, while I was only beginning my professional journey. Yet, she never carried the weight of hierarchy. She was approachable, warm, and genuinely interested in people. At lunchtime, we headed to the office...

  One of the earliest lessons of my corporate career had nothing to do with technology, processes, or performance. Fresh out of college, I joined Infosys in Pune and was assigned to a product team spread across three different locations. Like most newcomers, I was busy trying to understand the work, the people, and the expectations. A few days into the project, we had a team introduction call. As everyone joined, our manager greeted the team and then turned to one of the senior members with an unexpected question: "You haven't taken leave in quite some time. When are you planning to take a break?" As someone who had heard countless stories about corporate pressure and long working hours, I was genuinely surprised. A manager encouraging an employee to take leave was not what I expected. At that moment, I didn't fully appreciate the significance of what I had witnessed. But as I spent more time working with her, I realized it wasn't a one-off comment. She was deeply...