2012 In The Rear View Mirror And Happy New Year

All things considered, 2012 has been a good year – a very tiring year, but a pretty good year none the less. Whoever said things are clearer in rear view mirror “clearly” was not thinking about me – the past 12 months that passed me by have not left things organized for me to think through. So here is a random attempt…..

On the personal front…

I managed to take some time off work (not nearly enough time), spent some time with my parents and my wife’s parents (again, not enough time) , bought a nice treadmill (2013 hopefully is when the ROI kicks in), traded in our old car and got a new one (which I hope to drive more one day soon) and finally got around to trading carpet for tiles in the ground floor of our house ( actual work yet to be done, but tiles selected and advance payments made) , cooked and ate out as much as we liked (way more than what my doctor likes for sure) , kiddo did great at school and in swimming class ( handily beat our expectations by a mile), both fur kids did ok ( minimal destruction of back yard, but 9 year old “Boss” sadly continues to have allergies, and has slowed down a bit ), and last but not least – got to mingle more socially with other Malayalees, thanks to KHA.

On the work front…

Not sure if it is “blessed” or “stressed out” that takes the cake when it comes to describe the year at work. I sure had a lot of blessings – every team that I had the privilege of leading this year went way above and beyond – including sales, project delivery and forward engineering. That doesn’t happen often – thanks gang. I was also incredibly proud to watch many team mates make great strides in their own careers as leaders. Playing a small part in their development makes me incredibly proud. As for the rest of it – between my employer and my clients, I have to call it a tie, when it comes to blessings and stress 🙂 . If proof of the pudding is in the eating – I can’t complain. I made and exceeded all the quantitative goals I agreed on with my managers. Most probably I just need more experience in getting through all of these with a little less stress. Biggest lessons I will take away to 2013 – Trust the team ( they know the problems and solutions, so get out of their way), don’t postpone vacations (ever), and listen more than I talk (easier said than done). Biggest problem I could not tackle in 2012 – my inability to stop taking work home with me.

The strong working relationships I had with my clients, my superiors, my team and my peers – I am very thankful for it. When I told them about my decision to move on to another company, everyone was totally supportive. Still don’t know why I stressed out with “how do I break the news” 🙂

On the blogging front…

Few days ago was the third anniversary of this blog. I blogged on SCN a few years before I started this one. More than the blogs – it is the people that I became good friends with due to blogging – readers of this blog, fellow bloggers, SAP blogger and mentor program peeps et al , that made my year. Thanks folks – I look forward to our friendship to continue into 2013 and beyond.

As for quantitative metrics – I did post a lot more than I thought I will. Page views are probably not a good metric for the type of things I rant about, but if it is – wordpress says I got more than 2X the eyeballs I got in 2011. But what is really gratifying is that several of my clients, including CXOs, read my blogs and engage me in great debates when I meet with them. It is also funny that many colleagues knew of me as a blogger and did not know that I worked for the same employer as they did.

And finally, I think I am making progress on a lot of my “worry list” from last year. Still some ways to go – but I think I will do ok.

In 2013, as I am joining SAP – I might need to make a few changes to my blog. I am not a 100% sure on what all I need to change, but for sure I won’t be writing a lot about SAP in general – just as I did not write much about IBM as an employee. If my login issues with SCN get resolved, I would like to go back there and blog occassionally. But you know me – I will rant on anything happening around me 🙂

Happy New Year Everyone !