What I learned from Mr Atanu Dasgupta at Power Grid – Part 2

As shared in my previous blog post, Power Grid was in a way my first job and though I had been through one-year worth training including 4 months of on-job training, I was just like a fresh raw engineer. The lessons that Mr. Dasgupta taught me were subtle and deep. Let us take a look at the next lesson.

When the Boss calls, Go Prepared

I remember a small incidence, Mr. Dasgupta had come back from a visit to our Telecom Consultants in the USA and gave the entire team a briefing about the meetings, he also told us that he will be giving specific tasks to each of us.

Later in the day, he called me to his cabin. I just walked up to his cabin and the following short dialogue ensued:-

Me: “May I come in sir?”

Mr. Dasgupta: “Come in.”

Then he looked at me and made another statement,

Mr. Dasgupta: “I do not see a notepad or a pen? Did you think that I called you to have tea with me?”

I apologized and rushed back to get my notepad and pen.

Over the next few years, I kept developing on this concept, noting that when the Boss calls you, he has some need,

• the good guys go ready to take action
• the great guys anticipate the issues and go with a potential solution
• the best guys do not wait for the Boss to call them, they initiate the discussions and present multiple options.

A simple yet powerful lesson. I hope that next time when your Boss calls, you are ready or best that you are ready even before the Boss calls.

Thank you, Sir, for guiding me.

Stay tuned for some more lessons from Mr. Dasgupta.