Name: Naren Nanduri

Title: Senior Engineering Manager

Organisation: Collins Aerospace

Location: United States of America

Leader in Aerospace domain with 17 years of experience in Engineering, Program Management and Operations. Several years of experience in managing complex international programs, joint ventures and leading cross cultural teams across the globe. Currently working as a senior manager in Avionics Test Engineering supporting manufacturing and product service centers.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Naren's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

For me, the challenging part is managing the time during a workday. Even when you plan your day in advance, there can be conflicting priorities, unplanned emergencies and demanding expectations that force you to juggle work.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

The three qualities from my childhood that helped me are commitment to the tasks, big picture thinking and helping others. My project leader at that time & I joined new to a company, and we established a good connection. I started mentoring sessions with him to understand the big picture and management above and beyond my role. When he was promoted in the company, he referred me as his backfill. It helped me get into a leader position to handle a larger team.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Time management is critical as well as challenging. It doesn’t get easy with a 4-year-old son and a new baby on the way. My best days start with my favorite exercise at 6 AM (tennis or gym) and then helping my son getting ready for the school. Once I drop him at the school, I start my workday with critical/important meetings first.

I prioritize all my meetings ahead of time, usually on a Friday prior week. I try to be fully committed and focused during the work with less distractions. This helps me to be more efficient for the time I spend at office. After work, I spend quality time with family such as playing with my son, helping wife with cooking etc. When I get a chance, I play a game of chess on my mobile, browse social media or watch TV after my son sleeps around 9 PM.

I always review my schedule for the next day, adjust any priorities and then go to sleep around 10.30 PM. I also have my office email/chat available on my phone for any emergencies after work. I do review all my office emails (even if I don’t respond right away) after work to avoid any surprises the next day. For me, it is important to balance work/family as well as getting time for your own personal care.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Trust is an important factor to me. I am typically not a micro-manager unless there is a need. I trust my team when delegating tasks and expect them to hold their commitments. One of my team members was constantly missing his commitments and never communicated in advance. I had to start tracking (micro-manage) his tasks closely and it was not a great experience for either of us. Even though he was showing progress, it was hard to completely trust again. It reminds me of the lesson, it takes years to build trust and only seconds to destroy it. Say what you do and do what you say!

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

Leadership and Self-Deception by The Arbinger Institute is one of the books I read during MBA and really liked it. It helped me to think outside the box and increase empathy towards others. I usually don’t get time to read a lot of books. I try to get knowledge wherever I can get from. For example, when I am driving to work or picking up my son from the school, I listen to various YouTube videos about leadership, motivation, focus and energy. They give me a good energy boost for the day.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

I recommend young leaders to have periodic mentoring sessions with their senior leaders. They share big picture and wisdom to make the right decisions. Powerful networks always help no matter what your current role is. It is easy to get overwhelmed in a new leader role and lose focus on training & mentoring. Another aspect, I learned through mentoring with leaders is putting people first. As a leader, when you consider people (team) needs first, the outcome has a higher success rate.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far?

As a leader, it is important for me to foster a positive work environment. I was encouraging my team to focus on their personal career development. A few team members found great job opportunities outside my team. They all were strong performers but leaving around the same timeframe. While, I was very happy for them, it has an impact to the work commitments.

When preparing to communicate the news about their transition, I thought about 2 questions. What is my message to the team? and what example I am setting up for my future team? In the staff meeting, I communicated the team members transition as a positive event that we are happy for their personal growth and glad to be part of their career journey.

While we still had to plan a backfill and minimize the impact, the tone of the message made the entire crisis look positive and I received appreciation from a few team members personally. Remember, people first!