What I learned from Mr Atanu Dasgupta at Power Grid – Part 1

I started my career at Power Grid Corporation of India Limited. After one year’s worth of training, I was able to secure the department of my choice. One with an odd name for a telecom engineer, A department called LD&C (Load Despatch & Communications). Well, my eyes were set on C for Communications. Mr. Atanu Dasgupta was the head of Communications and I consider myself extremely fortunate that I got a guide like him at the very beginning of my career. I learned a lot more than communications and I am going to recount a few lessons in the next few posts. The lessons are in no particular order, so just sit back relax and enjoy!

Make Your Boss Look Good

Mr. Dasgupta always put in his best efforts whenever there was any task given by our HoD Mr. Bhatnagar. He made sure that in whatever work was assigned to communications, the Boss always got the best output. Mind you, those were the old days and we used to have electronic typewriters and typing assistants and just a couple of computers (best one being a 386) in the department. Official memos were typed and painstakingly corrected and retyped and recorrected, till Mr. Dasgupta was satisfied that the quality is now fit t0 be presented to the Boss.

Mr. Bhatnagar used to represent Power Grid at various meetings with the Government departments, Ministries and, various Industry Forums. Each time a new presentation was required, we went through huge efforts to make sure it was “Accurate” and “Impeccable”. Following are the key things that he drilled down into us youngsters.

• Stay up to date on the latest information (we were one of the first departments in Power Grid to get an Internet connection, a dial-up modem)
• Get into details, one must be ready with the answers to all potential questions on the content
• Presentation matters, symmetry, colors, creativity, etc. all counted
• Go beyond the ask, always do more than what is required
• Anticipate potential issues, problems and highlight them to the Boss

Well, this lesson has stayed with me so far, it has made me capable of working in various different environments and with different personalities. Make your Boss look good, there are many good side-effects of this “Mantra”.

Thanks, Dasgupta Sir, for the lesson, I have definitely benefitted from it.

Hope that it can also help you with your own career.

Stay tuned, next week, we continue with another lesson from Mr. Dasgupta.