Ravi isn’t very much liked by his manager. He is a very good developer with very strong work ethic. But Ravi cannot tolerate incompetency and never sugarcoats what comes out of his mouth. He is also a straight shooter, and never beats around the bush.

Within the first couple of months after he joined his company, he had a difference of opinion with a colleague which turned into a squabble later on. From then on, Ravi has unofficially been labelled as the disrupter of peace and harmony.

In fact, Ravi very well knows about this “special quality” of his. He is proud of it, and voluntarily admits not being a very good team player with incompetent members. He demands excellence from himself as well as from those around him — he mentions about these traits in his performance reviews as well.

This very nature got him bad reviews, and prevented him from getting promoted. His manager just can’t seem confident enough to promote him. “I know he is a good programmer, but somehow I always have second thoughts whenever I think about giving him a level up. A voice in my head keeps suggesting that maybe he doesn’t deserve it.”

Ravi’s job was going nowhere, so he quit. Surprisingly in the next job he is held as a rockstar. Before joining, he took his wife’s one advice, “Absolutely no fighting in the first 3 months! If somebody goofs up, take him to a corner and communicate, but don’t shout or lose your temper. If you think you can’t hold your anger, just write him an email and tell him what was wrong. Don’t express any personal emotions — none!” Ravi followed this by heart. Anytime he was pissed off over someone, he simple wrote and email pointing out the faults and how they should be rectified — nothing beyond that.

This simple decision to restrain himself has done him a major favour in his new company. People started valuing his opinion and consult him for his advice. After the first three months he started with his usual habits of getting physically pissed off whenever there’s some silly mistake. But within a year he was promoted to lead a team of his own nonetheless — especially because of his high standards. His boss went as far as to say that this is the best hire of the company is the last couple of years. His colleagues love him too. “I want to work with Ravi. Guy has zero tolerance for errors. It’ll make me better at my job.”

This was the same Ravi in both he companies. What was so different in the second company though?

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