Honoring My Managers: Dipu Pandey

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Though my tenure at The Webplant was short – less than 6 months – I learned some very basic and valuable lessons at the company – and most of them from my first team leader Dipu Pandey.

In this post, I would share three key lessons I learnt from Dipu Pandey that I wished I had learned and absorbed earlier.

#1 No compromises with the quality of your work.

While working in Dipu Pandey’s team, we would get the site migration projects where we would have to migrate already running client sites to HubSpot.

After the team member would complete the migration, Dipu Pandey would be the first authority to sign off the migration (then it would go to others like Vikram Singh or Deepti Mittal).

In the first review, Dipu Pandey would be matching and comparing the migrated site with the original, element by element and pixel by pixel. I repeat “pixel by pixel”.

That experience with him taught me the value of quality work. And about the role and responsibilities of a team leader.

#2 Go the distance. And then, run the extra mile.

Dipu Pandey expected his team to be the last team leaving in the evening.

Staying late at the Webplant office for some extra 30-60 minutes was pretty normal for his team.

Not that I liked it when it happened, but let’s be honest: If you are willing to go the extra mile for your lead, manager or company, you will register yourself in their good books – which could translate to better work, better pay, better position, better role, or something else that’s “better”.

#3 Leadership

Dipu Pandey commanded respect and authority. He was good at what he did and his team (because of Dipu Pandey’s QA/Testing) also did brilliant work.

There was a line he used to say to express his understanding of the corporate world and corporate culture in general: “Boss is always right.”

Sure, it’s a cliche and an over-simplification but a good starting point to keep in mind if and when you have to face or confront your leadership (be it your lead, manager or just somebody senior).

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