Master of One but Jack of ‘ALL’
Mayur Kalbag is a Leadership Coach, Corporate Trainer & Author who regulalry does corporate training in Fiji. This will be his regular column in our Jobs section on Saturdays providing readers some useful tips. He can be contacted via email: mayurkalbag@ hotmail.com
Wayne was a brilliant Chartered Accountant and quite quickly got a job in a reputed organization in Suva. Though he joined as a junior executive within a year he was promoted to the position of ‘Team Leader’. His elevation was based not only on his knowledge of accounting but also his ability to manage people with tact.Apart from this he was also good in dealing with tough situations. He was so good in his field of accounting that he almost became the ‘Go-to- Guy’ for all issues related to finance and accounts and it was not a surprise when he was again promoted to the post of Head of Department for Finance. One could say that Wayne was now a master in his field due to his constant urge to keep upgrading his knowledge related to the subject of Finance.
It was a Friday afternoon and at exactly 3pm all the Heads of various Departments trickled into the main ‘Meeting room’. For Wayne it was his first meeting of this magnitude where he was interacting with all his colleagues who were themselves heading various other departments.The meeting started and as per the planned schedule each Head of Department(HOD) had to make a small presentation related to his achievements and plans for the future. Wayne too was prepared with his specific presentation as he had prepared intensely for it albeit his turn would come later as there were three other presenters who had to make their presentations before him.
The first presenter was Ajesh, the Head of Sales department.He greeted everyone and began speaking about the various sales figures , medium and long term targets as well as sales strategies.Towards the conclusion he asked if others in the audience had any questions or queries to put forth to him. Initially most of the people in the room were silent.HoweverWayne was left completely speechless. However the reason for Wayne being left speechless was because he had not understood most of what Ajesh had presented. To make matters worse for Wayne, the Managing Director who was also present in that meeting looked towards him and asked him if he had any points to add and suggestions to share. As Wayne sat there in silence unaware of what to say some of the other Heads of Department slowly and yet steadily began taking initiatives to seek certain clarification of doubts and queries. It seemed as though there was a healthy discussion after Ajesh’s sales presentations except that Wayne was still ‘speechless’ and that was mainly because he had absolutely no idea and knowledge about the subject of sales.