Taking Your Chance: The Shadow, The Cycle & When to Let Go 🎯🔄
Status: Declassified - File Archive 6 | ISP Calls, Production Incidents & The Art of Being Thrown In
We’re back with another file from the archives.
Still connecting dots from Carlo Ancelotti’s Quiet Leadership. The man keeps delivering intel.
This time, it’s about what happens AFTER you step up. The shadow you cast. The eyes on you. The cycles that end.
Ancelotti says:
“OK, there’s always a first time, and now is the right time to be the first one.”
That sounds inspiring on paper. But what does it actually feel like when someone THROWS you into being “the first one” — before you think you’re ready?
Let me confuse you with how I learned that lesson. 🎯
📌 The Dot: Taking Your Chance
Ancelotti says:
“You have to wait for your chance and then take it. And, when you do take it, you have to know that you will always be challenged.”
“There is no room for complacency at a big club and it is important for the players to know that, if they do well when they get the chance, they will get their opportunity in the team.”
Wait for your chance. Take it. Get challenged. No complacency.
Sounds straightforward. But what if you’re not waiting for the chance — what if someone THROWS you into it before you even see it coming?
The Field Reality:
Let me bring Sam Prasad again. 🎯
At RediSolve, Sam had a habit that drove me crazy. He’d ask me why I didn’t do certain things — things I thought I should only do when told. This wasn’t about my regular tasks. It was about leading team members and grabbing cross-team opportunities that I thought were clearly outside my R&R.
I always got perplexed when he threw me in. And sometimes it got downright weird.
💀 The ISP Call: One day, the office internet went down. After a few minutes, Sam called me and asked if I’d checked with the ISP. When was the line coming back?
I was thinking: “Isn’t that the Admin’s job?”
But I did it anyway. Confused.
💀 The CEO-to-CEO Call: Sam was on leave. He asked ME — a Lead Engineer — to speak to the customer CEO on his behalf.
I was thinking: “How can I speak on behalf of the CEO to another CEO?”
But I did it anyway. Confused.
💀 The QA Pilot: Here’s the weirdest one. I was a Developer. And like most developers, I HATED QA.
One day, Sam said we were running a pilot QA project for a US eCommerce company. My team? Two developers and a lawyer who had joined for a KPO pilot but was free at that time.
Two devs and a lawyer running a QA pilot. How weird can it get? 🤷
But that incident changed my perspective on QA entirely. It eventually led me to manage Dev, QA, AND Systems — and pivot to DevOps Transformation in 2013.
💀 The Indian eCommerce Site: We had to build the Indian version of a famous US eCommerce site. In the US, that site was run by 60+ engineers across various positions and 500 on-prem servers.
Our team? Me and one J2EE Engineer. 50 servers.
Sam believed we could deliver it when WE thought he was crazy.
And we delivered. 🚀
The Twist:
One day, I asked Sam: “Why do you keep pushing me into zones outside my R&R?”
His answer:
“You shouldn’t wait for someone to tell you what to do. Do whatever you can for the team and company to keep things moving.”
That’s the Rough Sea philosophy again. He threw me in. Waited on the shore. Watched me swim.
Ancelotti says “wait for your chance and take it.”
Sam’s version? Your chance is NOW. You just don’t know it yet. So I’ll throw you in.
Think about Nick Fury. He didn’t wait for Tony Stark to volunteer for the Avengers Initiative. He showed up at Tony’s house uninvited. He didn’t wait for Steve Rogers to feel ready — he put him in the field. Fury’s entire playbook is throwing people into chances they didn’t know they were ready for. 🛡️
That was Sam Prasad for me. My original Fury. 💀
📌 The Dot: The Shadow You Cast
Now that you’ve stepped up, there’s something nobody warns you about.
Ancelotti puts it plainly:
“The transition from member of staff to leader is not as straightforward as you think. You have to understand that, no matter how insignificant you think your actions and words are, to your staff you cast a shadow over most aspects of their lives.”
“Take that responsibility seriously; take care of people and don’t abuse your power.”
Your words carry weight. Your actions land harder than you think. You cast a shadow.
Heavy stuff. How do you carry it without letting it crush you?
The Field Reality:
Honestly? As a Super Villain, I don’t spend my nights worrying about how my feedback landed. 🦹♂️
If they’re upset with me or confused — they come to me and get it sorted. That’s the deal.
That’s where Netflix 4A Feedback comes into play:
🎯 Aim to Assist — Feedback should help, not hurt
🔧 Actionable — Give something they can act on
🙏 Appreciate — Receive with gratitude (even if it stings)
✅ Accept or Discard — You decide what to do with it
And Zephyr 1–1s — my regular one-on-one sessions where the agenda belongs to THEM.
Sometimes in Zephyr, after hesitation, they bring up something I said weeks or months ago that’s still bothering them.
I address it. But then I ask them:
“If we cancelled this Zephyr today due to some reason, when would you have asked me this?”
Silence. 💀
The Formula:
Right Info → Right People → Right Time
If ANY one of these three is missed, it’s ineffective. Most cases go down the drain.
Don’t sit on your confusion. Don’t let my shadow haunt you in silence. Bring it to me.
The Flip Side — Praise:
But here’s where the shadow works FOR the team.
I follow Bill Campbell’s method: Shamelessly praise them to stakeholders and other teams. Big wins. Small wins. Doesn’t matter.
“If I’m not going to shamelessly promote my team, who’s gonna do it for us?”
The Twist:
Yes, you cast a shadow. But that shadow doesn’t have to be darkness.
Think about Fury on the Helicarrier during the Battle of New York. He’s watching screens. Giving orders. But he’s not micromanaging every move. He’s cast a shadow over that entire operation — and that shadow is PROTECTION, not oppression.
⚡ Create systems (Zephyr, 4A) so they can surface issues
⚡ Challenge them to own their side — don’t wait, speak up
⚡ Use the shadow for GOOD — shameless external praise
Shadow isn’t a burden to carry. It’s a tool to wield. 🛡️
📌 The Dot: Solutions Over Blame
Once you’re in the seat, everyone’s watching. And when things go wrong — and they WILL go wrong — you have a choice.
Ancelotti’s preference:
“My preference is to find a solution, not to look for the guilty to blame.”
“Do your job to the best of your ability and let others judge you because they will anyway.”
Find the fix. Skip the blame game. Let the work speak.
The Field Reality:
When you’re appointed as a coach, everyone’s watching. Management. Fans. Players. All eyes on you.
Now imagine managing crisis management teams — DevOps, SRE, QA.
When production goes down, it’s not just your team watching. Management watches. Customers watch. Customer Success and TAM teams watch. Everyone’s waiting to see how you handle the chaos.
I jokingly tell my team:
“The best way to get introduced is during production incidents — when almost the entire company comes to you. While you address the incident, use that moment to introduce yourself and build rapport!” 💀
Turn the crisis into connection. While you’re fixing the fire, shake some hands.
All eyes on us! We’ve got this! And we’re making friends while we fix it!
The Super Villain Move:
I poke my customers — the Engineering Team — with my crazy methods. How I run DevOps, SRE, QA.
They watch. They doubt. They wait.
Then the team delivers.
And they become our silent, ardent supporters. 🤫
Dinesh Varadharajan’s Brief (My Boss at Kissflow):
When I joined, he gave me a clear mandate:
“I want DevOps to be silent. Engineering shouldn’t feel the dependency on DevOps, but should get what they want from DevOps.”
That became my motto: “Empower Team Engineering”
Now I’m taking up the same challenge with QA.
The Twist:
All eyes are on you. Let them watch. Let them judge.
Remember what Fury says? “I still believe in heroes.” He says it AFTER everything goes wrong. After the Avengers fall apart. After the world doubts.
He doesn’t waste time finding who to blame. He focuses on the solution. The next move.
⚡ Go to gemba regularly — where the work happens
⚡ Trust the process
⚡ Trust the PPT — People → Process → Tools
Magic will happen. It always does when you stop worrying about the watchers and start focusing on the work. 🏭
📌 The Dot: Cycles & Moving On
Here’s the part nobody likes to talk about. The endings.
Ancelotti on cycles:
“Sometimes a relationship just gets tired and it’s time to move on. Don’t over internalize this, everything has a cycle. The key is to be as productive as possible in each cycle.”
Everything has a cycle. Don’t over internalize. Stay productive.
Easy to say. Harder to live.
The Field Reality:
In the beginning, this was tough for me. Watching people leave. Feeling like I failed them somehow.
Now? I’m okay with it. It’s part of the game.
In a football club, players leave for other clubs. They get traded. You wave them goodbye. It happens fast — sometimes you don’t even have time to process before the next match.
Same goes for coaches.
Most of the time, I don’t know when a cycle is ending. But when it happens:
⚡ I try to reverse it if possible — is there something we can fix?
⚡ If they want to leave, I respect their decision
⚡ I do what’s best for THEM
⚡ While making sure TEAM and COMPANY interests are protected
The Twist:
Parting is tough. Even though it’s part of the game.
I don’t pretend it’s easy. I just accept it’s the job.
We talked about the Avengers Initiative in a previous post — when they leave, they spread the legacy to places you’ll never go.
Think about it. Tony mentored Peter. Cap handed the shield to Sam. Fury built something that outlasted his direct involvement.
That’s the reframe that helps:
🚫 You’re not losing them
✅ You’re deploying them
The cycle ends. A new mission begins. For them and for you.
Like Fury says: “There was an idea… to bring together a group of remarkable people.” That idea doesn’t die when one person leaves. It multiplies. 🔄
🎯 The Debrief
Stepping up is just the beginning. What comes AFTER is the real game.
Here’s the operating system:
⚡ Don’t wait to be told — do whatever you can to keep things moving (Sam Prasad’s lesson)
⚡ Your chance is NOW — you just don’t know it yet. Let yourself be thrown in.
⚡ You cast a shadow — make it shelter, not darkness
⚡ Create systems (Zephyr, 4A) so they can surface issues — Right Info → Right People → Right Time
⚡ Shamelessly praise them — if you won’t promote your team, who will?
⚡ Let them watch, let them judge — the work will speak
⚡ Trust the process, trust the PPT — magic happens in the gemba
⚡ Parting is tough, but it’s part of the game — accept it, don’t fight it
⚡ You’re not losing them — you’re deploying them
The chance came. You took it. Now carry it well.
And when the cycle ends? Let it go. A new mission awaits. 🔄
Stay thrown in. Stay shameless. Stay deployed. 💀⚡
Class dismissed. ✊
