What I did in the first 100 days at work: Shaleen Sinha, Coo, Zivame

The brief I was given and what I did in the first 100 days at work

My first job
My first job was with The Boston Consulting Group. Post induction, I moved to various client projects. My first project was for a large IT MNC, which was growing 6x-8x yr-on-yr and needed help in setting key processes, as things were bursting at the seams. The second project was a complete contrast, with a turnaround mandate for a loss-making marquee Indian company.

The worst mistake I made
In the turnaround project, the module involved working with a large team and steering an important initiative. While that was a heady experience, as a 25-year old I was focusing far too much on being right about the answer and less on ensuring that the rest of the team was aligned. I had this naive assumption that if analytically I could get to the right answer, the rest could be pushed through. After a couple of slippages, I realised that change management is much more, if not all, about people management and shared vision.

My biggest innovation
In this turnaround project, we were to help develop a new product range. The team managed to reduce development time by almost 50%. I was able to get some really interesting and market-beating features, and was also able to reduce costs significantly. The process adopted became a template for future development projects.

The best leadership lesson I learnt
I worked closely with one of the managers in this project who later became a mentor to me. I figured that one of the reasons I loved working with him was because of his ability to set clear goals, which were often fairly stretched, and then giving enough freedom to perform. I have tried to incorporate that as a principle in managing high-performance teams.

How I had fun at work
I realised that I loved working in team settings on meaty challenges and in high-pressure situations. These kinds of settings invariably lead to strong bonding and friendships which last far beyond the scope of work.