My Executive Summary proved to be a success, and soon after, I was handed a new challenge: forming a distributed team across India and Romania to enhance part of the product.
Where do I start? The instinct told me that it might be a good idea to take my team to India, spend time together with our colleagues there and truly get to know each other. This proved to be a good decision although just an instinct back then but now I can even explain why it was a good decision. Building a team isn’t just about aligning tasks and processes. It’s about bonding, creating trust, and learning how to work as one unit.
The moment we landed, culture differences started showing up. Looking back, The Culture Map by Erin Meyer would have been a perfect read before this trip. The way we approached problems, communicated or made decisions – it all had layers shaped by our cultures. And to succeed, we all needed to adjust.
One of my biggest fears was about control. Back home, I was used to seeing my team every day in the office. I could walk around, check in and feel the work happening. In India, it was different. I asked myself: how do I know the work is being done if I can’t see it?
That’s when a big leadership lesson hit me: not everything will ever be in your control. At best, you can influence and that influence comes from trust, not oversight. Leadership is not like fixing a bug where you jump in, apply a patch and the issue is gone (at least most of the times). People, teams and culture don’t work like that.
I also learned how much relationships outside of the office matter. Spending time with colleagues beyond work hours helps you see them as people first and that changes hope fully when you step back into the office. Thanks to my colleagues in the Bengaluru office, I even had my first cricket match (and trust me, I was no star player, but I loved it).
Another thing left a strong impression on me. On the streets in Bengaluru, I kept seeing ads for debating, negotiating and presentation skills courses – for kids. Back in Romania, these weren’t common at all (and are not common even today unfortunately). Years later, you can still see the gap: we have world-class engineers, but many lack the soft skills that today’s market values more and more. Leadership isn’t just about solving today’s problems; it’s also about preparing the next generation to thrive.