What I learned from Mr Gopal Vittal at Airtel – Part 1
I worked for Airtel for three and a half years in Network Planning. I have had multiple opportunities to interact with the CEO, Mr. Gopal Vittal and learned tons from him during that tenure. Needless to say, I still seek more opportunities to interact with and learn from him.
In this post, I will be sharing one of the most important things I learned from him!
“And” not “Or”
Many of us create an excuse for ourselves by pre-conceiving that we may be only able to ever achieve one of the two desirables, such as
- Market Share or Higher Profits
- Speed or Quality
- Speed or Accuracy
- and so on!
I believe it was a first for me when Gopal articulated the same sentences with a different “Article”. Would you rather have:
- Market Share and Higher Profits?
By creating a vision and relentlessly demanding both, he did make them happen. I hope you can also use “and” not “or” when you desire both of the seemingly conflicting things.
Imagine a professional basketball player telling you, “I can either have speed or accuracy”. The player must have both, speed and accuracy to win and not just one player, the whole team has to be good at both to be the winner. They do not take no for an answer and relentlessly work for getting both speed and accuracy, and over time add more to this like finesse, style statement and attitude. Winners are different.
Are you willing to be a winner? Use “AND” instead of “OR”
In my next post, I will tell you the second thing I learned from him that made it all look very easy.
7 Comments
Sudhir Bawa
Leadership is all about showing the path and infusing confidence in team.The “AND” is a very good example of same
jatindersehdev
Thanks, Sudhir for your comments. This definitely was a turning point for me, I have started using AND a lot in my own job profile and significantly benefitted by never settling for less.
Manish Goel
Thanks.
Very well articulated, will wait for the next lesson.
Shankar Benahalkar
Hi
Thanks for articulating a very simple and yet a powerful message. Leadership is a powerful tool in hands of those who wish to create a strong organization AND a strong team.
Mukesh Nag
Great lesson Sir, waiting for next one…..
Pramod Mishra
Good One
Arjun Mishra
Great example of thinking positive not only by action with words which we speak ..
Waiting for your next lesson sir…..