I Don't Know

#4 – It doesn’t harm to say “I Don’t Know”

The most powerful and the most potent word I feel is “I Don’t Know” and not “I love you”.

This I tell from my own experience of two decades as it has helped me find good mentors as well as given me such a learning curve that I have always thanked God for the privilege he accorded to me. As I had mentioned earlier, my job in media started from a generous gesture of a stranger who later on, became my first Godmother as well as my friend.  Before I talk about her, let me tell you why I think “I Don’t Know” (IDK) helps in the long run.

My first interview in Media was with the Finance Head who needed a secretary to handle his daily schedule, a point to note here is Finance in media. It is, I think often the extended family of Sales Operation. Sales operation, is again an extension of Sales and well, you get the drift. Therein, the finance head needs to be extremely people friendly, with an Iron fist as in terms of rules and regulations. They have the most powerful weapon in their hand, a small two letter word that can either add crores to bottom line or erase the same ... yes, you guessed it right, it is the power of the word “NO”.

Therefore, the secretary needs to be people friendly, able to take quick notes from boss, maintain basic accounting /data and of course, know all the exceptions to the rules, as people will be quick to cut the corners to achieve targets, and wrong messaging may get passed to the decision maker. This was the scenario and the work profile required, but I walk in with my newfound Godmother, my train friend and my savior from boredom to an interview, which at that time I didn’t know anything about. My interview went something like this:

Boss: So, you have work experience working for senior /management people?

Me: No, but I can learn.

Boss:Mmmm.

Boss: Do you know shorthand? You need to take notes and I am quite a fast talker.

Me: No, but I thought the point of having a secretary is to delegate the correspondence to her, post giving your opinions that needs to be covered.

Boss: But you don’t know accounts or media or how we operate, so how will you know how to correspond.

Me: Sir, I can learn.

Boss: Mmmm

---

Boss: Do you know computer languages like QPro etc., I will need regular reports etc.

Me : No sir, I can learn.

Boss: Mmm

Boss: So far, you have either said I can learn or I don’t know. But I need somebody who will pick up from day one and start running the show. Iam not getting the confidence as I may have to handhold you for some time and I don’t have time.

Me: Sir, everybody is a learner sir. At least I have been honest in my skill set to you and I assure you I will learn. In case I don’t you can ask me to leave by 7th day., excluding weekends.

Boss: Why 7 days? Why not a month, not that I am proposing a month!

Me:Sir, it is like that Jeetendra song (Somvar ko hum milae, mangalvar ko naain)., I will join on Monday which will be HR day, Tuesday I will come to know the staff who work with you, Wednesday and Thursday I will know how you work and what are the requirements of the job, Friday I will realize whether I have the potential or not and during the weekend, you will think whether you want to give me chance or not and on Monday again HR albeit exit interview day. Hence 7 days sir.

Boss: A deep belly laugh and a quick call to HR to take my interview and appoint me. His words “I like your confidence and your attitude, lets hope we are taking the right punt with you”

And he walks off, leaving me to fend for myself with HR.

(A note here: HR didn’t want me because I didn’t fit their recruitment profile of secretary and tried every trick in the book to reject me but my boss was steadfast in his decision and I got the offer  letter in the evening). My evening trip home was now with my train friend, who became my godmother, who become my colleague and later on, a good friend for life. @SM, A big salute and thanks to you. And to my boss @SS, who actually put his neck on the block, a big heartfelt thank you.

Thus, my journey began in an unknown field with limited skill set. The boss, the team members all were super helpful and took it upon themselves to coach me and help me learn. And yes, on Friday evening @SS called me to say, that I will be continuing as he sees passion and fire in my belly, which will enable me to master all the crafts of the trade very soon and also to tell me to stop calling him sir and call him by his name. I haven’t yet called anybody “SIR” yet since that day, unless I use it sarcastically, to address men who thought mansplaining is their birthright.

This period in Finance also gave me my life long friends (few of them Tamilians 😊) and helped me to learn the biggest lesson in my life.

“It is okay to say IDK, but IDKs cannot remain as is, it has to be turned into a learning opportunity and quickly turned into IK”.

Did I tell you earlier that I was abrasive, devil may care attitude with a confidence bordering between self and over, always quick to laugh at self and cry at self? Well, this is what helped me to learn my life lessons. When people went over my head to complain on my abrasiveness, I didn’t take umbrage, I confronted them as why they didn’t tell me to my face., and the lessons and the feedbacks I got, will take 10billion words, suffice it to say that people really gave me honest feedback to my face as they saw that I am genuine in trying to correct myself.  The second biggest lesson in my life.

“If you want to grow, go to the person who commented on you and confront them in a conversational way as to make them comfortable to give you feedback on your face. Don’t argue with the opinion/feedback, listen to it and whatever bits feel right, take it and work upon it. It is okay to be imperfect but it is not okay to ignore the world’s opinion and say “Iam the victim, the world has been unkind to me”. And this is true when there are more than 3 people in your life, who say the same things in different ways about your behaviour. Clearly, this is a call for you to look at a mirror and not search for a handkerchief”

This was in the year 1996 and the times have changed now. The recruitment process is more AI led than human led and somewhere I feel we are losing out on good talents by depending too much on algorithms. HR department which is handling staffing or the person who is in charge of recruitment should make the effort to learn or in fact Intern with the departments at least for a week to understand what are the nuances and what skill sets to look for. Nowadays, the junior person makes the Job description, Manager ratifies it, HR glances at it and forwards to staffing agencies or uploads in social media. The selection happens basis the ticks against the Job specifications the candidates gets and thus the interview process. I am not making a choice between old and current method, my only point of contention is HR should be the Jack of all trades, to be able to select the best person for the job, which might be totally different from what was mentioned in job specifications.

My journey in Finance department ended unfortunately within 6 months as my boss resigned and I was poached at the right time by the Sales team to handle a part of their operations. Yes, it was within the same company which now we know by the name “Zee Media”, those days it was called “Ambience Space Sellers Ltd”. More on that in coming weeks. Zee Media has been the best learning school or I should the best B-school in terms of Media learning. The culture is so great that i haven’t seen a person who hasn’t gaining hugely personally or professionally while working in Zee or even after leaving Zee. My learning institution of professional life is Zee Media.

PS: Thanks to all of your encouragement, going forward I will be making my shares with you a bimonthly feature as feedbacks said the gap between two newsletter is very wide.