Captain Rajesh Nair AVP Administration AT - view linkedin profile

Q. Respected Captain Nair, You are an army veteran and a corporate leader, Tell us about Can you please help our Viewers with 3 Most Important Learnings from your army career which has helped you grow in corporate roles & todays youth should also strive to follow.

All my success is due to the training and learning I had in army. The saying of army “We make men out of boys” is very true.While there are a lot of learnings which can be shared, I am mentioning the three important ones as below:-

1. Never say Die – The army makes you mentally strong. Its starts from the training itself, “Believe in yourself and never give up”. This ensures that no task is impossible and with training and hardwork you can achieve wonders. Be it in the face of enemy bullets or designing and executing a tough work like building a live bridge.
In corporate this attitude of never giving up ensures you are one up when the cards of everyone is down. People look up to you when they are stuck, knowing very well that you would not give up come what may. This also instils a confidence upon you by the Sr. Management for giving the toughest challenge or targets and yet being assured you will handle it well.
2. Discipline – The word is anticipated by many as being strict (as seen in movies). However discipline is more than being strict. It’s the virtue of following things as it should happen. For example a player has to have a discipline in practice i.e. he needs to follow the practice routine and the diet routine also, only than he can achieve the results. Army teaches you discipline in all sphere of life whether training, dressing, time, work or play.
Discipline towards your work helps you in corporate also.It’s a known fact that a discipline person will be at the right time, with his homework done and with all requirement met. A discipline persons is wanted person in all circle due to his capability of closure of things and actions. People are assured of your work due to your discipline towards your work. It also helps you to have a proper work life balance.
3. Adaptability– Being in the Army adaptability comes naturally. You are shifted to different regions and environment for which you don’t get much time to adapt hence to survive, adaptability becomes the key.
In today’s corporate VUCA(Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) environment being agile and adaptable to situation and environment is a key for success. Adaptability is towards environment, place, challenge, limited resource etc. You may have situation which was not planned, however adapting to the situation and changing the further course of action is what strikes you out among all. A key example has been the recent pandemic situation or any other Business disruption activity. As the Facility lead you have to ensure to have a business continuity and that you get by being agile and adaptable to the situation.

Q. During your Corporate Life, what are the biggest professional challenges you faced and how did you overcome that?

Business disruptions due to (terror strike – Mumbai; Flood; communal riots; strike) were some of big challenges during my corporate life. All of these had the same broad way of being handled.

Recce – Recce the situation on ground at ground Zero(impact area), routes to your business and at your business place. It can be through news, your person/contact at the point, your experience or being in person. Having the knowledge of the situation is the most important part of handling any issues.
Plan – No action can work without a plan. Planning has to consider the current and future disruption which may happen. This helps you to plan for a bigger picture. You need to plan the goal with the available resources with you in a fixed time. Include the team in your planning.
Decentralising – While the command has to be with you, the work needs to be decentralised. Your team needs to know their respective action they need to undertake. One of the key action as a leader you are supposed to undertake is to ensure the plan of action (POA)&it’s directives reaches to the last team member of yours.
Communication – For every planning communication has a major role to play. Communication with your team, communication to your immediate supervisor and to all the stakeholders. This ensure the panic is not spread and the environment remains calm. The communications mode can be verbal, email or telephonic, however time is of paramount importance in communication. Monitoring – No war is finished till the last battle gets over – Any crisis situation needs to be closed fully and till such time it’s done the continuous monitoring of situation is a must. Your action may require change depending on the sudden change that may come in the course.
Reconciliation– Post the crisis getting over a reconciliation on the number of employees effected, the amount of business disruption that happened, the damage that has costed the company needs to be worked upon and communicated to the management. A summarised report with all effective personnel being mentioned needs to be shared.
Lastly Leading from front.The team does wonders if you are in command on ground. No leader is is successful without leading from front his team. For leading the team you need to have the ground knowledge and also know the strength and weakness of your own team. Only then would you be able to lead the team effectively on ground.

Q. Capt. Nair, as you have experience of leading an extremely important vertical of Facilities Management and Administration, If Someone from Our Readers/Viewers Want to make a career in Facilities Management, what qualities he/she should develop to become successful.

Facilities Management has come a long way from the hygiene team to becoming a business partner and profit centre in some cases too. Below are some of the qualities that a professional should have to plan a career in FM.

Integrity - Integrity is the soul, without a high level of integrity personnel should not venture into this domain. There are no shades of grey, its Black or White only.
Universal thinking capability – The personal should have a broaderspectrum of thinking, ready to think out of box, increase his thinking capacity outside the local domain, only then can he reach great heights of success
Customer centricity & Empathy – No FM professional can survive in industry without customer centricity. A greater empathy and customer centricity just ensures a great success in your work. People start loving and respecting you for your empathy in a longer run, in comparison to a short term regards shown towards people with sympathy attitude.
Dynamic and Agile in thinking and action – As mentioned earlier the uncertainty in today’s world, drives you to become agile and dynamic in your thinking and in your action also.You and your teams success depends on how agile and dynamic you act in crisis situation.
Goal oriented – A high calibre person without goal is untamed bull. A person should not only have a SMART (Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound) Goal but also he should be focussed in achieving the same.
Team player - FM is a team affair. There is no place for individual contributors here. Success of any team largely depends on how the team works together.
Organising and planning skills – Administration is the act of organization and direction of human and material resources to achieve desired results, which requires a proper planning and the ability to get things done with available resource.
Problem solving skillset – Any operations will have problems, since FM team felicitates for the running of business, its essential for them to resolves problem which are brought to them from their partners and from clients.
The later three points are something which may be developed with experience also.