Am I successful? … the journey continues

It has been more than 5 years since I wrote my first and only blog post, “Am I successful?”. A lot has changed over the past 5 years and I feel this is the right time to take stock of where I stand today and what the path forward looks like.

I am nowhere close to what I consider as being successful. However, I do feel that success is not measured by the end goal. It is a culmination of multiple milestones and small successes that are achieved during the course of our journey to fulfil the goals we have define for ourselves.  I am happy to say that I am making good progress against some of those goals and I feel proud that I continue to work hard and progress in the right direction.

Let me start with a brief about my journey since October 2015 (when I wrote my first post). In 2017, I was getting impatient with lack of career progression. With a few departures at the Credit Suisse-New York office, I sensed an opportunity to move to the US. I landed in the US on 28^th July 2017, which also happened to be my birthday. It was possibly the best day I could have chosen to start my new journey.

I worked in the Credit Suisse US office for a year – it was one of the toughest years of my life as I tried to adapt to a new and different work culture. I made quite a few mistakes in of the way I approached the issues facing me, and this coupled with insecurity among the people surrounding me, did not make it for a smooth transition. Thanks to the support of my family – especially my wife, I came out strong and learnt a lot about how to navigate a tough working environment. While it was a bittersweet experience, it transformed me into a stronger individual who was confident of being able to navigate  adverse circumstances.

I joined Barclays Capital in July 2018. My role coming into Barclays Capital was not very well defined, but it provided me an opportunity for another fresh start. I was determined to not repeat the same mistakes that I committed while at Credit Suisse, New York. I realized that  to succeed, I would need to win the trust of the people around me. Change in general brings with it an uncertainty – from my perspective, I am trying to prove my worth and from the perspective of people around me, they are worried how  hiring the  new guy affects their role and job security. Therefore, I would strongly advise a new hire to spend time gaining the trust of people that  work around them when moving to a new organization.

As I moved towards the end of 2019, I had established myself as a strong member of the Electronic Product team (this team is responsible for managing the Equities and Options electronic product offering for Barclays). I focused a lot on building trust of my colleagues and gradually expanding my responsibilities. However, some friction was inevitable as I was looking to move into a leadership role and there weren’t clear distinctions between the roles of  different team members. I continued to contribute as a doer, but I had my eyes on taking on more responsibilities. At the same time, I did not want to rush into it – I wanted to ensure that I am ready, that my career ambitions don’t cause trust deficits among the senior and established members of the team.

As fortune would have it, a few senior departures within the team opened an opportunity for me to lead the US Electronic Product team within Barclays. July 2020 is when I was officially announced to lead the US Electronic Product team. I transitioned from a doer role with nobody reporting to me to a leadership role with multiple people reporting to me and our team continues to expand. I am excited about this opportunity and I see it as a significant milestone for in my career progression.

I still have a long way to go before I can call myself a leader – but I admit that I aspire to be one. Over the last few months, I have realized that my success is no longer dependent on my efforts and my achievements – it is largely influenced by the contribution made by my team members. My newly found success has taught me to be humble, I feel the burden of being responsible in shaping the career of my team members. I feel the need to be able to articulate my expectations clearly and to build a stronger sense of belonging within the team. I find myself standing up for the team and the need to applaud and appreciate them for their efforts. The yardstick for success is not restricted to just  objective goals, in fact the subjective ones are equally important. My success is now defined by my ability to continue building trust amongst people around me – be it my colleagues, my team members or senior management. And the key for this lies in effective communication. I find myself ready and eager as I take these first few steps towards being a successful leader.

PS: I want to clarify that anything mentioned here should not be viewed as anything against Credit Suisse. I have had the best years of my career at Credit Suisse. Infact, I owe my career to Credit Suisse and the people I worked with at Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse is one of the best organizations I have ever worked with, and given an opportunity I will be more than delighted to work for Credit Suisse again. My experience at Credit Suisse US  was a result of bad timing and a few mistakes I made - it is in no way a reflection on Credit Suisse as a organization.