1. What have you found most challenging as a leader of a small or medium enterprise?

Effective communication has been a challenge. Making sure that people can make the right decisions on their own is a challenge for me.

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

The other guys were sick one day and they called me :)

I hail from a business family. I grew up hearing about how to run a business. I was unemployable and hence I knew entrepreneurship was the right path forward for me.

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

I wake up late, get ready and talk to my team to set up the day's agenda. I take care of my emails at this point.

Then I plan the next steps once we are done with the current projects/tasks. I engage in a fun conversation in the club house to unwind before going to sleep.

4. What's the most recent significant leadership lesson you've learned?

The COVID lockdown made it a bigger challenge to manage people. It was great initially but it has become a bit frustrating now. I am working on improving my communication skills to explain myself better. I am trying to do that for my team as well.

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?

Getting Things Done! I highly recommend everyone to read that book. Even if you don't follow the entire system, it will give you some great pointers to become better at managing your time. Every time I read it, I learn something new.

6. How do you build leadership capacity in an SME?

The idea is to empower people to make decisions without worrying about whether this is the right decision or wrong. As long as they make more right decisions than wrong, you will grow. Your job as the leader is to give your people confidence that they can make decisions on their own so that they can one day take your job.

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

It is a difficult time when your employees leave for greener pastures. However, I always wish them well and we keep in touch. One of our employees left for a better position but after a year or so he did not like to work there. Since I had always maintained a good rapport with him, he did not hesitate to reach out and we are working together again.