International Business Relations

I had the fortunate opportunity to revisit my team in Hyderabad, India…over 7500 miles away.

This was my third annual trip focused on engaging, strengthening and developing one of the strongest teams I've seen.

Through a series of group dinners, internal training sessions and a host of one to one development meetings - once again, I came away with a new series of observations and key learning points…. 

• Breaking bread/Naan (i.e. dining experience). This one of the most basic (but often forgotten) opportunities for everyone to open up and learn a little more about each other. The bonding is even stronger when you go into it with an open mind and challenge yourself in the experience (in this case, spicy and exotic foods with limited descriptions but always delivered with a smile). 

• Walking a mile/km in their shoes (i.e. perspective). In this case, it required working 730P - 430A each night…fighting an insane amount of traffic to attend work and trying to adjust your biorhythm to working sun down and falling asleep sun up. Balancing family and personal obligations during the day makes this an even tougher task. 

• Not judging a book/dish by its cover (i.e. looking at staff as more than employees). When I had the opportunity to hold face to face conversations, I learned so much more about each individual that was surprising and positive. Collectively, the team holds multiple Bachelors and Masters Degrees in a wide range of topics from Human Resources, Electronics, Technology, Computer Science, Business, Psychology, International Studies and more. When discussion were held about motivational rewards at work…I expected money to be the number one driver. Instead it was more about promotion, recognition and opportunity being presented to further themselves and their families. 

• Turning off emails and connecting. Knowing that I had a very limited pocket of time and a multitude of items I wanted to cover - this left little time to regularly check emails. Even then, I still was unable to complete all trainings and one to one meetings. However, in the process I discovered that a) spot-checking emails (rather than consistently reviewing) will help you focus on completing priorities and growing a business and b) sometimes its okay to turn it off and go back the old school method of paper/pen and dry erase board…this will drive more creativity and focus. 
•  Attitude is everything. I experienced a multitude of foods, people and experiences - always enjoying being "in the moment". Hyderabad is a continuously evolving city with a ton of internal and external development projects - i.e. new building developments, technology advances and inter-connected modes of transportation. This brings its challenges as sometimes the growth can outpace the infrastructure (i.e. traffic laws).

 However I did not experience negativity or frustration - regardless of their disparity in economic levels, high pollution/smog levels, limited housing conditions (i.e. some only had a tarp and half enclosed shelter), extreme weather ( 100+ F degrees, flooding rains) and much more. They work through many of these activities to better their lives and their family. In fact, you will find that those that live in the shelters are oftentimes road workers that moved from 4-6 hours away and are collecting paychecks to send back to their family. 

I wonder if my family's country (Hungary) or even in the U.S., demonstrated 10% of these same attributes - how much more things could change without an additional investment of finances or legislation carried through. All driven "by and for the people".