Personal Traits: PPP

Listener, Empathiser, offering 'Shoulder to Weep With', Enabler, Facilitator, Coach, Mentor, Messiah, yet professionally Resilient, Mature, having high ranking in HR Acumen, yet not loosing Simple Common Sense!

Cool and Resilient Only a deep base-person can have such clear direction. Paul P Paliath was a silent person. He did what he preached and vice versa. Thinking person. Emoting professional.

Letter, Content & Quality Paul P Paliath (PPP) was concerned about the style/font/slant/shape of hand writing; for a hand written note. Doesn't hesitate to suggest learning to write in a 4-line copy book. Content-focussed. Kerala Gazette (KG) and RD were his daily companions. Very good at words: Used to ask KGB (KGBalachandran Nair) and TVK (TVijayakrishnan) & me in the daily interactions, again 10-15 minutes only, of new words, meaning, usage etc. from Readers Digest (RD). Meticulous in reading end-to-end of any letter. Ensures that his team members read from left hand side top to right hand bottom of a page. Personnel professionals to be official-legal-aesthetics bias in communication. Even font, font size, lay out and sequencing to be mastered in practice. From the KG, the finesse, style and choosing of right words and phrases employed by Justices used to enthral him. Concerned about the style/font/slant/shape of hand writing; for a hand written note. Doesn't hesitate to suggest learning in a 4-line English hand writing book. Content-focussed.

2-3 weeks after my joining as Manager (Personnel), he asked me to sign few notes/letters/ communications, even Notices. He was a good Coach: like the Coach on the sidelines of a football field. He is quick wit. Seen him flamboyantly employing it as an art with union leaders. Has an affinity for brevity. Bias for perfection is enviable. After 6 months or so after my joining, I saw him "migrating" to the new role of Management Committee Member (MC Member); discharging only MC Member's roles, leaving the rest on me, to take his earlier role.

Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts Percy Bysshe Shelly

Culture My mission in Binani Industries Zinc Division was to "professionalise" and "corporatisatise" the Corporation; over a decade, 1980s-1990s. All Department Heads, except Production, were hired during the decade from PSUs. Much later, I knew I was the last among the PSU executives so hired.

Administration & IR Acumen: Preventive and Proactive PPP's drafting skills are excellent. He is a stickler for details. He had patience and perseverance. He spent almost a quarter of his time, energy, effort to train those qualities in his team members. (HR shall use full name with initials; even the spelling of an employee name has to be exactly the same as in official records).

PPP developed 'problem defining' workshop to his team members, almost very day. He enabled each to go through the process of identifying and establishing cause-effect relationship in issues. Aspects, dimensions, impacts of HR issues, though intangibles, were enabled to be identified with KGB, TVK, and MSS. Next was putting through 'diagnosis', 'prognosis' and 'treatment plan' on professional and ethical moorings. Most sessions ended like solving jig-saw puzzles, sodoku, especially those concerning small small issues. Baby steps, we 3 did, mistaked-corrected, learning was geometrical. We also realised KGB, TVK, MSS and PPP has differential approaches with slight variations in regard our views on rule of law and rule of justice. We 3 re-learnt our lessons on justice, equity and fair play from HR. Greatest learning for me was that KGB, TVK and MSS (even PPP) cannot have separate pillars of justice, equity and fair play. It has to be confluenced to that Binani Zinc's cultural DNA; will not go flexing issues, disregarding principles. Those sessions were lessons in 'organisational culture'' in no time, we leant our thinking, emoting, words, talking and doing has to be one. As a precursor, we went through lessons in excellence (LE) starting from the bedrock of Values, Beliefs, Philosophies. I gathered fresh/additional inputs from Sreedharan Nair Sir (HMT), M Sulaiman (KSPC), K P Philip (KRL), P K S Menon (Federal Bank), John Sam (United Catalysts), B K Nair (KRL), George Stephanos & Zachariah (Indal), George Sleeba (FACT) from their rich experience [forgive me if someone has been left out] @ NIPM and also spending time with them on and off @ their offices/sidelines of Seminar halls/venue. That's the qualitative inputs personally for me, 'value assetisation' from NIPM.

Listening PPP joined Binani Zinc in 1991 after the longest strike: 11-month and after LTS was signed. Re-learnt the art and science of LISTENING from PPP. In meetings and at individual employee-level, he will keenly listen with eye contact; seen his slightly nodding etc. to signal total listening. He will summarise what he understood in one or wo sentences.

Homework We never saw him without good homework, be it a discussion with MC members, briefing in the Daily Operations Meeting, Labour Department, discussion with solicitors/Menon & Pai. His protocol was a note in hand with all facts & figures and history as he/team understands and analyses. Holding an A4-size Guidance Document/ Talk Points paper in your folder kicks up your confidence several times, was 'his signature'.

Communication 360 degrees Strategies/tactics of PPP-only ## 5-minutes daily no-agenda session ## One/Two-employee-contact-a-day ## Interactions with Department Heads ## Consultations with MC Members ## dialogues with external TU leaders ## Stakeholder consultations (Panchayat: President & Ward member, Officers from Factories, Boilers, PCB, Weights & Measures, PESO etc, besides with NIPM, KMA, as also with Rajagiri College, Loyola College, which he nurtured during Alind days continued during Binani Zinc days too.

Networking & Relationship Management PPP had an innate bent of mind to know individuals, family name, link places, people, events & distinguished persons of that place, geographies, incidents, cultural ethnic importance, personalities etc., with a curiosity and inquisitiveness of a child; a fine craftsman connecting with other people in those locality etc. Learnability quotient and adaptiveness are very high.

Salute to you, a true professional, who lived what one talked; very humbly. Always fond of and proud of the profession, Company, NIPM, passionate about buddies; only last oneself.

 Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom; Lead thou me on! The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead thou me on! Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene—one step enough for me.

“Lead Kindly Light” John Henry Newman 1833