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Bobby Joy

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Bobby Joy

Director

CA Technologies

Current job profile

I am currently working with CA Technologies as Director, Education for the India region and China Technology Center. Promoting and driving organizational cultural change in the India region by influencing and guiding management in designing, developing and implementing high impact learning and development initiatives. This is done by providing out of the box learning solutions that closely align with business objectives and help accelerate business plans.

Leadership qualities

The first and foremost skill as a leader is Humility. Never forget how you became a leader and remain grounded. Another important element of being a true leader is to ‘walk the talk’ or lead by example. It’s very easy to preach but putting all that you preach into practice is an acid test for any leader

Ensuring growth

Growth and development as a leader is an ongoing process. I call this the ‘leadership journey’. I personally like to ‘watch and learn’ from other leaders and their leadership styles. Also, I have identified a few such leaders as my mentor which helps me in my personal and professional development. I would strongly recommend a strong mentor for every budding leader.

My advice

As I had mentioned earlier, leadership is a journey as such you’ll get numerous advices from a lot of people. A few things close to my heart are:
You’ll achieve great things if you do not bother who gets the credit
Treat your people like people and not things/resources
Trust your team and empower them to achieve results
Find a credible mentor and be open to learn and share

Doing things right

Based on the Gallup Strengths Finder survey, two out of my top five strengths – Connectedness and Positivity help me in connecting the dots. Connectedness helps me understand that, we are individuals, responsible for our own judgments and in possession of our own free will, but nonetheless we are part of something larger. We need to see what lessons have we learnt from each of these situations. These lessons make are pivotal in your leadership journey.
Positivity as a strength, helps me always be on the lookout for the positive in a situation. In every situation I ask myself – what’s the worst that can happen? I mentally prepare myself for the worst that can happen that has helped me immensely when facing the actual situations in life

Influenced by

I can’t pinpoint an inspiration to one person alone. I have learnt valuable lessons from every person that I have met in my life. Each person from their own set of experiences can teach you some valuable lessons. One can learn a lot if you glean from these experiences.

Handling gravience

Listen to the grievance completely. Do not be in a hurry to give a solution. Let the employee give you the complete picture about their respective situations.
Coach the employee to find the solution themselves. Probe further and help them find more information about the situation. Do not jump to a solution as you might not be aware of all aspects and angles of the problem.
Empathize with the employee and let not sympathy bias your decision

Important career decision

The first and foremost career decision I made was to quit Chartered Accountancy and take up learning and development as a profession. I made this decision within the first year of my professional career. Being buried under files and numbers wasn’t a career that I had in my mind. I realized that my strength was talking to people and sharing my experiences with them. Though many people questioned my choice, I stuck to my decision and have never regretted it.

Second career decision was to explore all aspects of learning and development and not getting stuck with one like process training or voice and accent training. Getting an understanding of all aspects has helped me think differently and come up with innovative learning solutions that are exciting and fun.

My view on India technological development

It wouldn’t be fair to say that we don’t have any technical product coming out from our country. However, I do believe there’s always scope to do more. I see a lot of positive changes in our country and the way we work and I believe that’s a great start. Here are couple of things that we certainly could ponder over to help build our technical expertise:
Promote technical career paths: In India people opt for a managerial career path over a technical one as there’s a perceived glamour associated with it. I have heard from a number of colleagues who are technically inclined that without a managerial title they do not feel empowered. This has to change. We need to have a strong technical career path in our organizations with equal compensation and decision making authority as a managerial career path. This would act as a motivator for our technical community.
Promote risk taking: Innovation happens when you create an environment that supports it. Risk taking should be promoted even if the end result an expected success. The valuable lessons that one learns from a failure is precious. Our organizations and managers are at times too scared of failures and as such, do not promote risk taking. I have realized that as a leader, if I empower my team and provide all the support required to take risks, they come out with the most innovative solutions. Now, even if they fail, you still support them and stand by them and reward them demonstrating the courage to take a risk. We need to promote this culture in our teams.
Focus on technical depth over breadth: Staying abreast in a dynamic technical environment is a challenge for our technical leaders. However, my recommendation would be to pick an area and delve deeper and become a technical expert. We can’t be ‘Jack of all trades, and master of none’. The need of the hour is for strong technical experts who specialize in their respective areas and are the authority on these topics.

Family background

My family comprises of my wife who epitomizes patience. She hails from Madhya Pradesh and is a teacher by profession. Both of us are currently in Hyderabad.
My father is a pensioner and served the country for 29 yrs in the Indian Air Force. His humility and honesty has a great lesson in my life. My mother’s a homemaker and her commitment to her family has been a great support for all of us. Both of them are settled in Bangalore
I have an elder sister who’s married and settled in Bangalore. Their ability to take risk and also their sense of humour is an integral part of my life. My two nephews add spice and liveliness to our lives.