Building High-Performance Teams: Jeevan Lobo’s Strategies for Growth and Trust

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Jeevan Lobo is an experienced IT professional. He has had over 20 years experience working in information technology. He has worked in companies like Microsoft, Major American Banks, Consulting companies like Accenture ad others. Now as a VP leading over 600 people with cross functional teams, he shares with us some of the things he learned about communication, team building, and team performance.

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Host: Hi Jeevan, how are you?

Jeevan Lobo: Very good, how are you?

Host: Very, very good. Thank you for joining us on the podcast. I'm going to do a quick introduction of you and your experience for the audience. This is Jeevan Lobo. He's a very senior and very experienced IT professional. He's been working with IT for over 20 years now, and he's been doing it in several countries. He has very international experience. He's worked in India, he's worked in the United States, worked in the Middle East, and he's just here to share some of his experience and some of the things he's done. I'm very excited to have him on, so Jeevan, thank you for joining us.

Jeevan Lobo: Thanks a lot! Thank you. A great start to the Thanksgiving week here in the US, so I'm very happy to be a part of the show.

Host: I'm very happy to have you join before all the festivities. Hopefully, this will be a warm-up towards a nice end of year because now it's Thanksgiving weekend and then Christmas and all those sorts of things. This is near the end of that work year, and hopefully, this is the last heavy piece of work you have to do.

Jeevan Lobo: Thank you.

Host: Alright, so I'd just love to get right into it. Could you give us a quick summary of some of the reasons why you even decided to get into this field in the first place?

Jeevan Lobo: Yeah, so I, too, as a kid, I always loved math. Loved numbers, algebra, arithmetic. I mean, that's been a sweet spot for me, and reasonably I've been blessed more on the analytical mindset. So having these two, doing a degree in engineering came to me just followed me naturally. Then I pursued my bachelor's in Engineering in the field of electrical and electronics between 96-2000. Even though I took electrical electronics, the passion, the interest was always in IT because at that point in time, it was the boom. I had friends, relatives, family, most of them in IT, and they would say they had excellent experiences. It was the, I would say, the only natural thing to do for me.

Host: Okay, alright. So, with a little bit of a dual experience there, where you started with electrical engineering, so sort of the hardware, you moved into essentially IT, the software part of it. How did you end up making that final jump and what was that experience like into actually entering the working market?

Jeevan Lobo: Yeah, so I quickly realized that though I graduated in engineering, I had the prerequisites, but I was not qualified enough to land myself a job in software. So I had to pick up a course, which I did just after engineering, which was from IBM, the advanced certificate in software engineering. It was like a super hard crash course, and I was very fortunate that, 75% through my course, I landed a placement into a big Japanese multinational firm. That got me exposure into a lot of device driver testing, coding. Yeah, so I think that's where it all started. That's where the hard work of my parents and the schooling all eventually paid off. Of course, it didn't pay me the money I wanted, but at least it got me started. It set the launch pad.

Host: That's great. I actually found some of the best ways to get into software is actually through testing because it gives you an understanding of what quality is, and then when you actually start building things, you have a standard that's built into you, that you're an assessor of standards, and now you're a producer of standards.

Jeevan Lobo: Absolutely, absolutely.

Host: Okay, so you went through that experience and IBM was able to have you do that placement. So what was the next step for you once you did that?

Jeevan Lobo: After I worked at my organization, I got into the field of technical support. I was working in a leading American firm where my clients were based. Although I was in an outsourced company, I gained significant exposure to antivirus, internet firewalls, and related technologies. It’s all about the opportunities that are presented to you. I was fortunate to be part of a high-performance team for a pilot project, where we built everything from scratch. Maximum learning often comes from such opportunities, especially when they are new and challenging. Our high-performance team had no prior experience; it was technical support in its most foundational form.

I remember that, from drafting communications to outlining step-by-step processes and creating knowledge-base articles, everything was entirely new to me. Over time, through hard work and proven results, I earned the chance to grow as a technical lead. This experience in a high-performance team definitely boosted my morale and confidence. As they say, good work speaks for itself. I was later picked up by my former manager, who had since moved to a new role, and he recruited me to join him in his new endeavor.

And he got me into another pilot project, a new startup project where I had to travel to the US in Las Colonist, and this was in 2003. So, a three, three and a half years experience, I was pretty fortunate, I would say, to get an opportunity to come to the US at the last call in its office. It was very motivating for me because I learned a lot of things in the sense that my first experience into outsourcing contracts, knowledge transfer, and training a bunch of freshers way back home and getting them to speak professional technical—I mean, the whole thing for me, I'm talking about my third to fifth years of experience, and all of this really the opportunities that presented themselves and, um, with the good support of the leaders and managers I had, my peers, yeah, I was able to come through and, um, yeah, I think since that did pretty well for me, I never looked at turning back and stuck to it for as long as I know it.

Host: No, it definitely worked out for you, but more importantly is the way you were able to learn very quickly and provide value to others very quickly and also then end up not only doing that for yourself but communicating how you provided that value. Could you talk a little bit about that? How you were able to, first of all, accelerate so quickly in such a—what would be—a challenging environment because it's a pilot program and all the constraints that being in a business environment, the requirements for success sort of contain also, then having to actually communicate all those things succinctly, clearly to team members and get them to quickly also provide value?

Jeevan Lobo: Thanks for that. So, my first lesson, right, when I go back to—you’re taking me back my, you know, memory lane, but you’re lucky it’s a Monday morning, so my mind is fresh. Okay, so the first thing I’ll say—it’s unprecedented—not so the softer aspects of it was the actual learning for me. So the number one thing on my list would be human relationships, and I can say that, uh, because barely one and a half years of experience and managing a team is not something very easy. And knowing, at least me, being the brash kid I was just out of college and trying to mentor a team, especially speaking to people who are more senior than you, be it experience or age, that was a big learning in the sense. And come to think about it, there’s no magic formula for it, right? There’s no single magic formula that you can just go and do one style for every person. And the best part of anything is you learn when you fail, and you fail. That’s something which maybe I learned the hard way, but apparently, to summarize it, I felt that you need to have different strokes for different folks. You need to understand, get there in the middle, appreciate what they do, and yeah, I think that definitely was a big part. Apart from the technicalities, apart from the other things, things keep changing. Even today, IoT and AI, there are things that will always be there; it's bound to happen, right? So what technologies are working today may be obsolete in the next decade or so. But the human relationships, the way you manage a team, the way you mentor them, the way you talk to them—because at the end of the day, the team works for the leader, and you have to be worth it. And to be worth it, they need to see something in you. So yeah, it's easier said than done, but yeah, you had to walk through those nine yards. Right? So that was one of the things for me.

The second one I would say is managing seniors, and I already covered this. You couldn’t go to a senior giving him your points of view. Or, when I say a senior, I mean a team member who reported to you, who had more experience, or someone who you report to. There’s a way you manage—They say manage your manager. So, coming back to my experience with two years of experience, you're barely trying to understand how you manage yourself, forget managing others. That was quite a significant turning point in the way of how to speak, when to speak, how much to speak, where to speak. I mean, all of these things come back 20 years down, and I’d say, maybe I could have done this better, maybe I could have done that better, but I think this is very good. All of this is a part of the learning curve, which I was happy to have.

And the third and the last thing before you ask me and PR me into more questions is the dynamics of managing people. How much of information do you communicate to an internal stakeholder versus your client? How much is important, and why is it relevant? Though I’m talking about the software skills, trust me, anything else can be learned. You have certifications for them, but unless you know the software aspect of it—unless you learn how to deal and manage people—it becomes a challenge. So, these are the things I think I got a little quickly, not because I was very keen to do that, but I knew if I had to be successful, if I had to make an impression, your human connect, the way you relate, connect, build that trust is absolutely essential, especially when working in high-performance teams. Managing people in such teams requires more than just technical knowledge; it’s about communication and trust.

In high-performance teams, it’s not only about managing tasks but also about understanding how to balance the information you share with different stakeholders. The dynamics of managing people are a crucial skill to develop, as it directly influences team success and project outcomes. This is something I learned quickly because, without it, success becomes much harder to achieve. It's all about creating the right connections, making sure the communication is clear, and trusting the process.

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Host: No, absolutely. And for me, what I got was know what you're doing first, deal with people as individuals, understand your environment, be an example, and communicate specifically relative to the person you're talking about, both up and down that ladder. And I think that those are really great, uh, really good points to draw out and apply—obviously everything is easier said than done and there's a lot of nuances there. I think I really learned from that sort of dire triap there. So, one question is, how big was your team by this time?

Jeevan Lobo: Yeah, so I started with a five-member team and again, I transitioned from a technical team to a management team leader. So, there are two different types of teams. My first stint was managing a technical group, so I would only be responsible for technical solutions and handling escalations. But my third company, it was more about appraisals, performance management. It was more about how do you ensure your people get trained, how are they motivated, how do you help them achieve their goals, how does your team—little bit more strategic. So, yeah, that time I had as many as 20 members reporting into me.

Host: Wow, that's amazing! And I found out you actually won some awards as well with that team the first few years. So, you might be quite humble with the way you're talking about how you're able to achieve your goals, but you achieved them quite well and were recognized for them. So, and this is something that happened quite quickly for you. So, how were you able to not only learn and standardize but also almost exponentially increase the productivity of your team in such a short amount of time? Like, how were you able to affect their performance?

Jeevan Lobo: Yeah, so as I spoke to you before, I learned it the hard way and there’s no magic formula. What was very important, and some practices that I still follow till date, is speaking to your team members and speaking—not just speaking, listening to your team members. Right? Treating them as extended family or sometimes even family, because if you know what they want and if you're trying to support them in your means, you've already won half the battle, or more than that, I would say. Right? So, I think speaking to them was very important. And the second point would be maintaining transparency. It is very important to be as transparent to your team, because we are talking about the trust factor. And I learned this also through some experiences. A team member would feel very deceived or they'd feel very lost because they are not being the first to be communicated about—be it their performance, be it about the company, be it whatever initiative. So, that could be a hard story too. It could be maybe even if they had to get laid off, but the truth is transparency. And then, as I already mentioned, knowing, understanding, and caring for them at work and off work too. So, doing that social connect, having those quarterly parties, celebrating victories, being a part of their family get-togethers. I mean, of course, you cannot force it. Some people have a privacy with them, but at least try to show that you're genuinely concerned. Again, when it comes to the actual work aspect of it—and that's where I really enjoy doing it—is about sharing data. It's very important for the team and the team member to know where they stand, is that they're at par with what they're expected to do. If they're not—and nobody likes surprises—you can’t tell them at the end of the year, “You know what? I’m giving you a poor appraisal rating because you didn’t do this well.” So, I think it's good to maintain and show them, "Okay, this is your target, this is what you're supposed to be doing, this is where you did B." So, I think, and if that's done from the beginning and communicated throughout, they are ready even if it's a bad rating or a good rating. So, that was one. And the thing which I think I did a lot for my team, and sometimes I got beaten by my management, was I fought a lot for my team in the sense I would help them grow their careers. I would be the bad man who would stand up for them, not—and I wouldn’t be a bad man because for anything, because if I trusted in a cause, I knew this guy was really worth fighting for—he or she. So, when people see this and they see genuineness, they automatically feel, "Okay, you know what? This is a leader. This is the person I want to work with. If he does this for me, I know how much more." And then everything and anything just follows. This is key in high-performance teams, where leadership and trust are essential for cultivating an environment where growth is not only supported but prioritized.

When working with high-performance teams, it’s not just about fighting for the team during tough times. It’s about creating a culture of trust and support, where the leader sets the example. These principles don’t just apply to career development—they form the foundation for ongoing success and ensure that the team thrives, even under pressure. So, those are some things—very deep, very personal—but I feel I hope the audience would benefit from this.

Host: No, absolutely. I think there's a lot of virtue in advocacy, and I think that when you see someone is willing to push for you, it's not necessarily easy, but it makes sense for you to say, “Hey, I’m willing to actually put my best foot forward when the time is right.” So, you've built trust and you've shown them how much you're willing to take on responsibility for them, for the team, and for the company in general. But I would love to inquire about when you have conflicts within the team. With all this foundation that you've built, how are you able to resolve them? You know, so there are these personal relationships that have been built. How are you also not able to say, “Hey, with that in mind, this is how you should have reacted to this, this is how you should have reacted to that”? How do you have to balance that sort of conflict to increase the cohesion within the team, or even amplify it when you felt it was necessary? So, both from the negative and the amplifying it into a surplus.

Jeevan Lobo: So, I think we covered a lot about the good things, but we live in a world where everything and anything is not hunky-dory, right? You still have those bad apples there. So, this is what I have analyzed and observed over my years of experience: people who have a different mindset are not necessarily the bad apple. And I have seen this over my years of experience. People with a different mindset are sometimes better leaders or they love driving initiatives. And they feel perhaps they're too neglected and kept in the corner, so they feel you know what and I've seen this in real life. I've seen people just spring up to the occasion, and I say, okay, they have something completely contradictory toward the team and the organization. One, they say, "I have an idea and a method of doing this." What I feel is sometimes you empower those folks, and you can see a transformation. Now, this may happen in all cases; this may not happen with everybody, but I'll say give it an iota of opportunity where you can at least give a chance for a person to thrive in such high-performance teams. If a destructive team member arises, it's always important to understand why a person behaves the way they do. Now, nobody is born bad—I'm a firm believer in that—and their experiences or whatever they go through shape them in a particular way, so understand what it is. Why do they feel this way? Do they need a role change? Maybe this role doesn't map or match. Is there a personal problem leading them to act this way? More often than not, speaking with the individual helps sort and clear a lot of things. At least it worked for me. And if nothing works out, show them the road and say, "You know what? Maybe you belong to another team, or maybe this is not the right place for you." You do your strike one, two, three, and then, trust me or not, I hate doing it, but I've done it in the past. When you see a person affecting team morale or a strategic goal, you cannot have an employee come drunk to the office. There are certain work ethics, and if the person has done it and is affecting another employee's morale, it's not right. It's like an injustice. Even though they may be a good performer, you coach them, and if they don't do the right thing, you have to tell them in a very polite way that this is not your place, please move out or you're terminated. So you do everything you can. You try to coach, you try to pamper, and you give other opportunities, but if you see no improvement, maybe some things are just not meant for them. You won’t believe that there are some people who learn from that experience. Some people come out, and I'm in touch with a few folks who, maybe I have in that middle manager role, have had the unpleasant task of terminating employees. Sometimes things work out; there's a blessing in disguise. They don't perform well here, but they become stars elsewhere, and that may be part of their learning process.

So I answer this question to your expectation AO yes absolutely I think that there's several things like if something isn't fitting there's several ways to solve that problem either give them the right opportunity or you ask them to find another one and I think that that is the best uh way to move forward because at the end of the day what's currently happening isn't working and an action must be taken but there is more than one action termination is not the only action opportunity is a possible action uh and then just having that mental flexibility to say hey let me try one or the other and let me investigate further let me look into more detail that correct cognitive load is something a lot of people don't necessarily want to do it's always much easier to sort of sweep something away but if you take the time it could be an adsiz return on your investment once you've uh taking that time so make a proper investigation.

Absolutely, I think that’s very fair and mature. From my personal experience, I’ve learned the importance of seeking out opportunities that are better suited for me, so I agree with you 100%. Moving forward, after having these experiences and opportunities, you decided to pursue a new role outside the country. Could you share a bit about that experience? Specifically, what it was like to lead people from different cultural backgrounds and how you managed to transition into a completely different environment while still being effective at a nuanced level? Feel free to let me know if you need any further adjustments!

Oh yeah I mean I recall a funny incident and you just fcked some ideas and thoughts so I was in a not so open culture and um in this country shaking hands with a female employee or female would be considered taboo and I went like a start Dan hey I'm J and you know and then I was quickly wared and coached hey you're doing something wrong but I think just coming back from the experience these are things that you learn and each culture is so different so unique and it's all about an irrespective and what I found a commonality you know irrespective of cultures and what or not it's the results that matter I mean that's eventually what everyone wants you in for right.

And I want to touch upon another point while our languages may be different our dialect may be different some things just do not change the tone and the voice modulation so you can easily know if someone is angry even if he speaks Russian or he speaks Polish or you can look at their eyes you can look at it that won't change you don't need to need a language or go to a special school or therapy any even a kid can recognize that so what is more important is reaching Middle Ground so to have to work in a new culture and I come from a country where Cricket is very popular and then going to a country where soccer is popular what you know you need to speak something which is common or you have to do the perhaps the shisha which is the smoking and all that stuff.

Host: But you know, of course, I don’t smoke, but what I’m trying to say is you need to relate, you need to be connected for people to just open up, be transparent. At the end of the day, we’re all humans. We may be raised differently, from different backgrounds, but we all are here for a reason, right? We work in a team, so we either stick with it or stay away from it. That’s one thing. And, uh, just to tell you, right, like in any relationship, it’s all about making it work together.

Jeevan Lobo: Right, so I recognized that I was, um, not breaking well enough in a local language. So, what I did is I picked the five or seven words where people usually greet each other, and after those five words, I would stop and get back to my English because I didn’t know anything past that. But at least I could get a smile, and they were happy. But yeah, I think it’s all about this. This is my small trick, and that’s what I try doing. Irrespective, I speak today, I have teams across the globe in Latin America, in Poland, and I just see that at least knowing the good mornings, good afternoons, and that’s it. And I think it at least brings a smile. People are happy when you at least are able to relate to them, and this is my small way of trying to relate to people.

Host: Absolutely. No, I think there’s always value. Everybody wants to be acknowledged, and it doesn’t matter to what degree you do it. I think people will recognize it. They can’t help themselves. It’s just human nature, and there are different scales of it, but at least if you make that effort, people at least understand you went and you looked at something that you didn’t have to, and I think that has a lot of value.

And you alluded to this idea that you have, right? Now, at least at this point, you’ve continued with this responsibility internationally. And from what I understand, you’re leading a department now. It’s, I would say, it’s, uh, over 500, 600 people, and you’ve taken this idea and your philosophy on how to engage people and get them to be productive, and you’ve scaled it quite aggressively at this point. Could you talk about that journey and how you got here? In terms of, essentially, how you got to the U.S. and what ended up happening?

Jeevan Lobo: Yeah, so after I did a stint in the Middle East, I think way back in 2007, I got an opportunity to get back into the IT managed services. And, um, as I said before, every experience counts. I’m so happy for the things that happened to me because had I not been to the Middle East, I wouldn’t have had enough experience in business development, sales and marketing, and even knowing that culture and region. Today, I can have a conversation about a different land just because of the sheer fact of living there. So, nothing in life happens just for a reason. There is a reason for everything, and that’s your learning. So, yeah, I did a rebaseline, came back to India, and then, um, with two kids then, because my daughter was one in this country. But yeah, I mean, I started off managing a team of, uh, 20-30 people when I started back.

And then I got a bigger opportunity to handle a sector of customers. So, at that time, it was, um, energy utilities and, um, within the travel hospitality. So, I had like a bunch of customers, and they were different types of services that were being offered. So, not only taking care of people, but also P&Ls, client relationships, and other aspects. I think, um, as you do well, the not-so-good part of the work thing is, once people observe talent, they tend to give you a lot more, so a lot more opportunities. But yeah, I think it has been good. One thing I can tell you: you are only successful as your team. So, my team has always been very close to me. I still keep in touch. In fact, just before I had a friend in Canada who used to work with me in 2003, and we’re still in touch. So, you know, it’s a connection, and the relationship that you build.

And one thing is, as I manage these bigger teams across geographies, what I found is, especially with, I’ll say, better-performing or the star performers, so-called rock stars, to get these rock stars to work together was quite, um... each of them would be a leader, having a team of 50 people or so, right? But to get these leaders to converge on an idea just because of whatever, right? Could be their mindset, it could be because they feel this is more important, it could be genuine too. That was a little... And doing it remotely, virtually, asking a lead from, say, North America to agree with the EMEA mindset, but the EMEA, to be fair to the EMEA leader, would say, "No, this is how my customer base wants things to be done." So, getting those things, having them... And of course, you cannot do any team bonding remotely, right? You cannot just go...

Now, you have seen how my roles are transitioned. I speak to the leads of teams. I try to get a buy-in, and then I go and articulate. And then that's where my experience in process has really helped me. And I just want to also let the audience know I am an IT expert and focused more on IT service management. So what's very important is laying and emphasizing process. So what is your "As-Is" process? Why do you do stuff? Show me the way you do stuff. Where are the overlaps happening between the customer or between teams? Why is it difficult? Not so difficult? So laying it out on a piece of paper, showing things pictorially so that people can understand rather than just having it on the head or on words definitely helps. You already covered this, but I cannot emphasize more. There should be metrics and measurement in any relationship. The software aspect is one, but if you don't have anything on paper to show, you look foolish. You have to at least baseline. We at least show them, "Okay, this is what I've done, and this is where I am right now, and this is what I expect to achieve. However, for me to achieve this, I may need your support." And that's how you build a workable, agreeable conversation than just saying, "You know what? This is what you are supposed to do." Communicating process and metrics.

Effective communication in teams is something which is very important and then lastly what I have found myself being chosen for most often is the brand that you are, right? So people would reach out to you because they know you can make a difference. You can represent their case and have it well communicated on the other side of the window, right? For example, an infrastructure director may feel that a particular service level is not agreeable to them. Now, for that, they would have data, they would need to show why does it not work. Is it because of a tool problem or is it a person who was unwell? I mean, getting that data, turning it up, and then communicating back, maintaining the transparency across the whole nine yards is absolutely important. And by doing so, having measurements... I mean, it's all a trust, it's a brand, and by doing it, you're ensuring that you're set up for something more or either you're getting something new, or you're the one who they trust for the next big initiative. And you do this not just together with the team.

Strategies for trust come into play here. Absolutely. And I think one of the most powerful ideas you brought up there is—I hope people didn't miss it—is instead of having metrics as a whipping mechanism, you have it as a mechanism for buy-in, for trust, for increasing the degree to which an initiative is furthered, not as essentially "Why isn't this done?" It's like, "How could we make sure something is done because of this measurement?" For me personally, just a great, great takeaway. And so, if we dive deeper into how you're pushing these things forward, there’s two questions. My first is, what do you consider a good quality process that really does scale well? Philosophically, you're saying, "Okay, this is good." Right? There’s also that people are selling processes these days, but what do you say, "Okay, this is a process that will work because it’s good for this specific situation, or it has the fundamentals of a great process?"

In addition to that, when it comes to goal setting for teams, the key is ensuring alignment with the overall vision while also accommodating individual and collective growth. Developing clear team collaboration strategies is crucial for success in this regard. When all team members are on the same page, the process will naturally align with the desired outcome.

Host: So we've really gone into the communication and things of that nature, but I want to go back to where you talked about your math background and talk about some of the core pieces. Because I know underlying all of this is very, there's a lot of communications to talk, but underlying all this is fundamentally a quantitative mindset. And you handling all these cross-functional teams where they're doing things you haven't done yourself per se or things you know very well, and then you have to sort of bridge that gap and say, "How do I measure the productivity of these teams individually and how they relate to each other?" And there's an information flow mechanism there. So could you talk a little bit about that? So how do you assess these teams, these cross-functional teams essentially, and how do you leverage measurement to make that happen?

Jeevan Lobo: So a couple of years ago, I was a cross-functional leader, and apparently my job was to bring in all the teams together. I had teams, I had application teams, I had security teams, and here I would be the team who would ensure that all of them follow standard processes, all of them are compliant, and are they achieving as per the service level agreements? Are they excelling? So that was my core role. And again, this is a common thing you must have observed already. I, on purpose, do not like to enforce on somebody because I don't believe you get the result that you would like. So before I get into—and I don't say I want, it's not like I, it's "we." We all work together. We are all in this together. Get them to the room and ask them, "Okay, this is what is contractually obliged," and we, apparently, what do you say, "Do you think this is achievable?" Not, "Why is it because of the tool?" When you look at them and speak to them. Now, you cannot do this. Of course, now I'm not speaking to the people who do the job; I'm speaking to leaders. So I'm speaking to a director of infrastructure, director of application. Of course, I expect them to get connected to their teams and bring it to me because I am now communicating to the customer at a client level. I'm doing a different role right now. So they need to come back with me and tell me why something works or why something doesn't work. If they don't, they need to propose something. But you just can't go empty-handed. I cannot go to the client saying, "You know what? This is not possible because person X just doesn't like that." That doesn't work, right? I mean, is it a tool issue? Give me the specifics. Give me an alternative, and then we'll go and speak to them and get the middle ground done. Number one.

Now, you have seen how my roles are transitioned. I speak to the leads of teams. I try to get a buy-in, and then I go and articulate. And then that's where my experience in process has really helped me. And I just want to also let the audience know I am an IT expert and focused more on IT service management. So what's very important is laying and emphasizing process. So what is your "As-Is" process? Why do you do stuff? Show me the way you do stuff. Where are the overlaps happening between the customer or between teams? Why is it difficult? Not so difficult? So laying it out on a piece of paper, showing things pictorially so that people can understand rather than just having it on the head or on words definitely helps. You already covered this, but I cannot emphasize more. There should be metrics and measurement in any relationship. The software aspect is one, but if you don't have anything on paper to show, you look foolish. You have to at least baseline. We at least show them, "Okay, this is what I've done, and this is where I am right now, and this is what I expect to achieve. However, for me to achieve this, I may need your support." And that's how you build a workable, agreeable conversation than just saying, "You know what? This is what you are supposed to do." Communicating process and metrics.

Effective communication in teams is something which is very important and then lastly what I have found myself being chosen for most often is the brand that you are, right? So people would reach out to you because they know you can make a difference. You can represent their case and have it well communicated on the other side of the window, right? For example, an infrastructure director may feel that a particular service level is not agreeable to them. Now, for that, they would have data, they would need to show why does it not work. Is it because of a tool problem or is it a person who was unwell? I mean, getting that data, turning it up, and then communicating back, maintaining the transparency across the whole nine yards is absolutely important. And by doing so, having measurements... I mean, it's all a trust, it's a brand, and by doing it, you're ensuring that you're set up for something more or either you're getting something new, or you're the one who they trust for the next big initiative. And you do this not just together with the team.

Strategies for trust come into play here. Absolutely. And I think one of the most powerful ideas you brought up there is—I hope people didn't miss it—is instead of having metrics as a whipping mechanism, you have it as a mechanism for buy-in, for trust, for increasing the degree to which an initiative is furthered, not as essentially "Why isn't this done?" It's like, "How could we make sure something is done because of this measurement?" For me personally, just a great, great takeaway. And so, if we dive deeper into how you're pushing these things forward, there’s two questions. My first is, what do you consider a good quality process that really does scale well? Philosophically, you're saying, "Okay, this is good." Right? There’s also that people are selling processes these days, but what do you say, "Okay, this is a process that will work because it’s good for this specific situation, or it has the fundamentals of a great process?"

In addition to that, when it comes to goal setting for teams, the key is ensuring alignment with the overall vision while also accommodating individual and collective growth. Developing clear team collaboration strategies is crucial for success in this regard. When all team members are on the same page, the process will naturally align with the desired outcome.
So, that’s a great question. Again, people are so stuck up with the word “process.” Everybody... it's process, process, processed foods—I’m just kidding! But, you know, process as such is times overrated. I know I’ve heard of places—and what you said is definitely relevant—because sometimes people get so lost in the weeds of the process that they just don’t achieve the desired result or a task or a milestone. And at the same time, I’m not canvassing for not having a process to make things right. I want to start with: why is a process important? What is the need to have a process? Because if you didn’t have a process, people are going haywire. So, a lot of people—and I’ve seen this in experience—have a lot of information way up here. They've been in organizations for 30 years, 40 years. You ask them, "Do you have it on a piece of paper?" "No, no, no, I can just tell you." But what if the person is not available or if he’s unwell, on planned leave, and if a new person like you or me is going to do it, do we know what to do? Do we have a guide? Do we have anything? No, we’re lost. So, at least that’s why you need a process, right?

And another thing is this process helps in standardization. Now, the way an experienced team member, a new team member, a person from geography X, geography Y, do it needs to be consistent. If, of course, their geo laws and other stuff is conducive, but apparently, you should not have 10 people doing 10 different things to achieve something. If that happens, then there’s something really messed up in the way things operate. So, process for me is where you need to have some level of standardization, and of course, there are metrics that often define and check to measure how compliant your process is.

Having said that, while following a process cannot be the only factor to make a team successful, it definitely is an important factor. Statistics generally indicate teams who follow process are better shaped for success. You know, they definitely do much better. Now, coming to the other question of how do you balance the line between proper process tracking and facilitating task completion? I just let you know in the beginning that sometimes people get too lost because the process seems so out of place. Like, to complete a two-day task, they ensure the process is followed, and they take like 10 days. I mean, then you make fun of, you know, "What is it? Is it the process or the actual task?" What my two cents on this is: process needs to be an aid to enable task completion, and if the process is too complex, so much so that it compromises timelines and affects other key deliverables, it’s time to reconsider the process itself. There’s something messed up with the process.

So, a good place to be is when a process is simple, it has minimal steps that lead to a task or a milestone being completed. If you observe there is a continuous trend of repeated delays in task completions, that’s an indicator, “Hey, it’s time to evaluate my process because I think it’s messed up.” And then look at methods of automation, or just knock off that irrelevant "muda" (waste) or that activity to just go off and make it better. So those are my two cents.

Host:An offshoot I was just interested in: What would you say—would you change a process even if it works just to refresh it? Because if your indicator for this process isn’t working, it’s delay, but it’s almost... for me, I almost have a reflex now because of how people are looking it over just for its own sake, because you just never know, right?

Jeevan Lobo: Yeah, so one thing is I am a strong firm believer that never do things for the sake of doing things and always have a continuous improvement mindset. Just because you triggered my thinking cap there, you said if things are going good, if it's green, but my processes are, it doesn't stop you from redesigning that process. So you can still go and challenge it. So maybe your SLA or your metric is 5 days, you're doing it in 2 days, and you could go ahead, evaluate the process, and say, "Okay, I can do it in half a day by just changing this process." That method and model of continuously innovating, checking, trying should never stop. And if you feel from the first, "Oh, something is wrong," you don't have to wait for the author to go ahead and change the process. You can go ahead and just make a difference and say, "You know what? I think this could be better if this was done this way."

So, one thing that really struck me, you said before, and I think this is... I really hope people take this into consideration because it's just a very interesting idea that BR brought up. And it's actually something that one wouldn't think would be something you would say, especially because of your level and your experience and things like that, and because it's used in other sectors, it really shocked me when you brought it up, was personal branding. Having a personal brand, and you're saying, even within an organization, that's something. It has absolutely, it's something intangible that has a lot of value. So could you speak a little bit about your idea on that and what that really means for you within an organization? You know, what does it mean to have a personal brand? Yes, you do have it so that people see you as somebody who's able to complete a task, but what are the nuances there of having a personal brand? I'm sure there isn't a Gan logo, but how do you say, "Hey, this thing," what does that mean to you? Even though there's no tangible thing that says, "Okay, you're not slapping it on somewhere," but there is a feeling that comes into mind when you hear your name. And what is that feeling you're trying to bring forward, apart from, "Yes, he's going to get something done"?

Jeevan Lobo: This is another great question, right? So there are so many folks out there and there are so many Jens, and everyone in the market, the three important questions: why should someone reach out to me? How am I as a brand different from another? What value does my presence bring to a team? And I think the quicker, the faster people across the board, if the moment they understand this, and this could be basically by the work that you have done in the past, the quality of your work, ideally speaks volumes of a person's ability. Your presence in a tough situation, how have you seized upon opportunities and converted something in ramshackles and made it like a palace, right? I mean, those are the things people love to hear. And if they find someone like that—at least if I know today I have a big team, I would like to look for people, or I'll keep my eyes and ears open to look for some person like that.
I think at least with the work I do, I try to be as genuine as I am, and I'm very happy that I have this experience of coming from a process background with a delivery program management skill, people management skill. So I at least try to be honest to what I do. They say success cannot happen overnight. If something is meant to happen, it will happen, but at least if you're involved in something, give your 100%, and the rest will follow. So that's what I've been, I've practiced, I've got you. I've been thankful for getting a lot of good friends, good leaders to work with, good colleagues, off work, on work, and whatever has to happen will happen. But keep one thing is definite, just be honest and give your 100% in whatever you do, and whatever has to happen will happen.

Strategies for growth in an organization come from a deep understanding of the team’s potential and providing them with opportunities to develop. It's essential to constantly evaluate and refine strategies for trust, ensuring everyone feels valued. This leads to effective goal setting for teams, where all members are aligned with clear objectives. In such environments, team collaboration strategies thrive as individuals work together to achieve collective goals. None of this would be possible without effective communication in teams, which is the cornerstone of high-performing groups.

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Host: All right, well, with that in mind, thank you so much for joining us. Speaking of personal branding, you can find Jen on LinkedIn by his name, Jan Lobo. And if there's anything else you'd like to talk about, maybe something you've been doing or other places that they can find you, please say so.

Jeevan Lobo: Oh no, I have nothing in mind at this point of time, just that I was... I'm yet to get there. But it's all about, well, some things I'm passionate about is continuous improvement. I come from an ITM background and I'm on these blogs, forums, and very happy to help reach out to many people who want some advice. I'm more than happy to help. Of course, I don't do this as an organization or so. I am very bound to where I work, but I'm more than happy to help, and there's so much of learning because a lot of people have different experiences, perspectives, and just by speaking to a few people, you learn a lot. I think team collaboration strategies are key here because by working with others, you broaden your perspective. So I'm speaking to a Heru, I learned a lot of things. I love the fact that he summarizes things so well—things that I took 20 years of my experience and I'm trying to put it in a paragraph, and he's able to memorize it. This kind of exchange is one of the best examples of effective communication in teams. You keep learning, and that’s also where goal setting for teams comes in—ensuring everyone stays aligned and focused while growing together. It’s also critical to have strategies for trust in place so that you can create a supportive environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing and contributing. These things really contribute to strategies for growth—as both individuals and teams can evolve with each interaction.

Host: All right, well thank you for the compliment. You can find JLobo on LinkedIn, reach out to him, talk to him. He was very kind to be on this. I reached out to him, he just said, "Hey, give me so much value and so much information." I've actually learned quite a lot in personal branding, what it means to provide value, what it means to lead people, being specific about things, being specific about people, and I hope you guys, all learned a little bit about what it means to measure and use that not to berate but to help others grow and push the initiatives of yourself and your organization. Thank you so much for joining us, and I'll see you later.

Jeevan Lobo:
Thanks a lot, it was fun.

Host:
Thank you, thank you. Bye-bye.

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