Wednesday 30 January 2013

Why I Loved my Lazy Team Member

Today , in Calcutta , India , it was a lazy winter morning. I got up late and  felt very lazy to go for my  routine morning walk. As I sat in my verandah with my morning cuppa,  the warmth of the bright and lovely sunlight made me feel even lazier!  After some time , I looked at my to-do list and just as I started feeling guilty about my laziness,I remembered him !

The lazy team member whom I loved to have in my team ! 

He was a very lazy, bright, creative person with lots of enthusiasm and initiative ! Yes, sure this sounds contradictory.... But after working with him for some time , I just could not do without him . Let me explain .


  • He was forever looking for ways to reduce his time for work  so that he could go and play table tennis . So , he came up with creative and very ingenious ways of doing things. Usually when I learnt how he did certain things , I made it a tool for improving the  productivity of the rest of the team members. 

  • He always looked for ways to automate things since he wanted to expend the least effort . He created marvelous macros in excel sheets, looked for tools which could simplify the complex and time consuming processes.

  • He never rushed into things and thought about the shortest and the best path . He tried to make things repeatable so that they don't have to go thru it again and again.  I could make many best practices due to  his laziness !

  • Since he did not want to spend time in rework, he always did things right the first time !

  • He was intelligent and very productive, so he was quickly promoted to lead a team. He delegated the work intelligently.  He leveraged the strengths of his team and got his work done so efficiently that his effectiveness as a lead was set as an example in the organization. He did not micro-manage his team and this worked famously with them and the team doted on him. 

And yes, I loved to have this intelligent lazy person in my team  !  


10 comments:

  1. Excellent competency brought out from a person who at first glance appears to be lazy. It is true that most companies do not recognise talent within apparent negative behaviors.

    I like the image too.....keep writing..great to read all your articles.

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    1. SMG, Thank you ! Do keep reading and posting your comments !

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  2. Isn't it wonderful that I can read the thoughts of someone who is sitting in Kolkata and who I don't know ? This still thrills me.

    I worked with a lazy person like that.... in the London Stock Exchange many years ago. . .. much of this colleague's laziness is what I have tried to emulate. You are right - his approach is today my best practice.

    What is lovely to see is that a young woman in India is in a position to be noticing this excellent lazy person, and incorporating what he did into her 'best practice'. Well done.

    We women are all too keen to put each other down - so I thought I would do something I always advocate for others - when you see a competent woman, stand back and applaud - so, imagine a roomful of women of my age, (50+ and menopausal !! ) applauding . . .
    Sreela Banerjee

    www.pyrproject.com

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    1. Sreela, I am humbled . Thanks a lot for your appreciation. And who knows, we might meet someday ! And I am glad you read my short stories. It boosts my morale to know that they have been read and appreciated !

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  3. By the way, that post was from England - from a woman who knows Lake Gardens, Alipore, Kalighat and every other place you mention in your lake tales, because she grew up in South Calcutta.

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  4. Do you have a story or a poem which arises from the delhi rape case ? Do you wish to put it on an international 'wall' ?

    http://wallwisher.com/wall/pictures-for-change

    here is the wall, ananya. See what you and do, and spread the word... when their naked bodies were thrown out of the bus, people walked away.... I don't want to be one of those people who walked away. . this is my little effort at doing something.

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  5. Well said, Ananya! Laziness never looked this good as a quality! ;-)

    In fact, I feel I am lazy too, and could have achieved a lot more had I remained focused like this hero of your narrative. Instead I chose to dabble in many things, extracting joy and excitement out of totally unrelated (or may be deeply related?) things.

    I am a big fan of delegation. I do it at home all the time. Only thing is, wives do not tend to appreciate the virtues of such laziness, ha ha! ;-) ;-)

    To Sreela in England - thanks for the link to the wall. Expect a poem from me on it soon. Just as soon as I can take some time off my busy siesta! WINK WINK!

    Pramod Joshi
    NOIDA

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  6. Very enjoyable story, and makes one think...what are the ways I can be "lazy" and help to streamline my work and become more efficient!

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  7. Indeed very inspiring Ananya. Thanks for sharing it with us.

    Regards,
    Jyoti

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  8. Dear Ananya,
    This article is translated into Vietnamese and posted on my site. I'll drop the link to the Vietnamese post here.
    http://www.ecoblader.com/2013/05/anh-chang-luoi-trong-nhom-cua-toi/
    Thank you very much for your permission!
    Best regards,
    Tuki
    PS: Vietnamese readers enjoy your article very much!

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