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PD Assignment

The document summarizes an interview with Girish Bharne, Vice President of Engineering at Persistent Systems. Some of the key challenges he faced as a leader during the COVID-19 pandemic included ensuring the well-being of his 700+ employees, their families, and communities. Motivating and engaging remote employees while delays occurred was also difficult. However, leaders were able to use tools like Microsoft Teams and online meetings to communicate and recognize top performers. They encouraged creativity, risk-taking, and decision making at all levels to combat issues arising from the pandemic.

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Aarnavi Bharne
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26 views

PD Assignment

The document summarizes an interview with Girish Bharne, Vice President of Engineering at Persistent Systems. Some of the key challenges he faced as a leader during the COVID-19 pandemic included ensuring the well-being of his 700+ employees, their families, and communities. Motivating and engaging remote employees while delays occurred was also difficult. However, leaders were able to use tools like Microsoft Teams and online meetings to communicate and recognize top performers. They encouraged creativity, risk-taking, and decision making at all levels to combat issues arising from the pandemic.

Uploaded by

Aarnavi Bharne
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Name: Aarnavi Bharne

Roll no: 215730014

Name of the interviewee: Girish Bharne

Nature of the report

The purpose of this report is to examine the catalyst and barriers to leader identity

development during the covid -19 pandemic.

My interviewee, Mr. Girish Bharne, is the vice president – of engineering and center head of

persistent systems limited. He has been working in this company for 16 years.

He works as a top manager in his organization and works on organizational transformational

initiatives which require working with colleagues across different groups at similar positions.

He is Leading various organizational transformational initiatives and heading all the aspects

of the Goa center – operations, people, infrastructure, and growing the center.

In his job role, out of the three management skills, he utilizes technical and human skills the

most. Technical skills are mostly for data analysis, passing the correct communication across

the most effective mediums available while human skills are used to keep connected with the

stakeholders and get their inputs/feedback.

He mainly plays Decisional roles i.e., for various decisions that need to be taken in his role as

a center head and previously as Delivery head and Head of Resource Management group.
Catalysts and barriers during the covid -19 pandemic

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he

stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

COVID-19's rapid and unprecedented expansion has quickly surpassed past epidemics in

terms of magnitude and breadth. The economic impact is considerable and far-reaching, in

addition to the death toll and disruption of millions of lives.

The current situation poses an enormous challenge for leaders across the world. The

uncertainty embedded in this situation makes the ‘leadership challenge’ even more complex.

According to my interviewee, Mr. Girish, some of the barriers/challenges that he faced as a

leader during covid-19 are as follows:

- Heading the Goa center with 700+ employees as of the date has been a task

- There are different aspects of heading such a center that requires leading and

driving various function teams at the center.

- In addition to the tasks that needed to be performed as part of the role, the most

important aspect was the well-being of all the employees and their families and

ensuring help reached people who needed it, both within the organization and in

society as well.

- the vulnerability of life to an unknown virus with no possible solution (at least at

the beginning of the pandemic) has had a slight impact on my interviewee’s role

as a leader.

From the answers given by my interviewee, it is evident that during the pandemic leaders

prioritized people over the business.


Whether it was working from home, ensuring the safety of all employees, ensuring the safe

return of teams deployed overseas, providing support to employees who required special

assistance, or being concerned about the mental and emotional well-being of employees and

their families, their focus was on securing people.

Leaders had to remain dedicated to the concepts of empathy and employee well-being.

Physical, psychological, and economical concerns would be the focus.

Health and safety, workplace cleanliness, and the availability of testing and treatment are all

aspects of physical well-being.

Flexible schedules that accommodate workers' mental and emotional wellness are examples

of psychological well-being. This devotion to well-being extended to domestic well-being,

such as childcare and household chores.

Many leaders (including my interviewee) donated ppt kits and other medical supplies to

hospitals and other people in need through their organizations.

Other impediments in the working environment included delays in finishing activities owing

to not being physically present in the workspace. This was also due to the employees' high

level of covid optimism.

As a result, in addition to ordinary labor, a leader must consider the health and personal

circumstances of his or her personnel while assigning duties and goals.

Another important challenge during such crucial situations is to keep employees. According

to my interviewee, it is very important to keep your team motivated. Only a team that is

motivated can deliver the desired output in time and with quality. Even if one team member

is not motivated enough, he/she can spread that across to the team impacting the morale and
output of the entire team. So, keeping a regular watch for such cases and ensuring that their

issues are resolved to the best of what we can is necessary.

Catalysts that helped during the covid-19 pandemic:

During the pandemic, Leaders need to focus on quick solutions that help combat the situation

to the extent possible.

Leaders have devised a variety of solutions to the issues provided by the epidemic in order to

keep the organization working efficiently.

Because actual meetings were impractical, executives employed a variety of methods,

including online meetings using programs such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom Calls, and Google

Meets, among others.

Another strategy to keep employees' morale high was to hold online seminars and meetings.

In the midst of the pandemic, it's critical to maintain open lines of communication with them

to learn about their concerns and take whatever steps are necessary to address them. It's also

critical to publicly recognize and reward the team's top performers, encourage them to think

creatively and share such information with larger groups.

Leaders must demonstrate courage, risk-taking capabilities, and an ability to experiment.


As leaders deal with unexpected problems, it is a good time to encourage more initiative and

decision-making at all levels of the business. Trusted teams and individuals who are firmly

rooted in a certain setting may be in the best position to devise novel solutions to

unanticipated needs. Make the goal clear but give local autonomy more leeway.

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