Leaders as Teachers

At Morningstar, Learning and Development is crucial to success. Leaders play a key role in creating an environment where team members can collaborate, share ideas, and make decisions together by removing any barriers to communication, and encouraging open dialogue. Nirav Gosar (AWS, SAFe, PSM, 6σ, ICAgile, PMC Certified) Director of Product Management at Morningstar India conducts workshops on incorporating the Agile framework to build products, provide guidance, and best practices to help teams develop a user centric approach while keeping a continuous improvement mindset.  We caught up with Nirav to hear more about what motivates him to invest time in conducting these workshops, and how he believes it encourages him to be a better leader. 

As a leader what motivates you to take the time and conduct the Agile framework workshops at Morningstar?   

I think one of the best motivations for me is that these workshops are interactive, and that makes it a great way to engage with and learn more about people across all levels at Morningstar. It also helps enhance collaboration and engagement across various roles, and engaged teams in turn are more motivated, and productive. 

Additionally, conducting training at these workshops allows me to share best practices, problem-solving tips, help build a culture that encourages ownership, and decision-making at all levels, which then helps empower teams.

Personally, for me providing training to so many teams has actually helped me learn new perspectives and ways of thinking. It has also enhanced my leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills, especially while addressing questions from participants. I truly believe in the mantra that ‘by learning you will teach, and by teaching you will learn’, and that resonates with Morningstar’s open and transparent work culture as well.   

You specifically chose to conduct trainings on the Agile Framework. How do you think Agile contributes to promoting a disciplined approach to project management? 

The Agile framework reinforces the importance of Agile values, principles, and scrum roles within cross-functional teams. It provides shared understanding of processes, a client centric approach to prioritization, and an iterative roadmap plan using time boxed scrum events to achieve a common goal. With Agile, we can also conduct periodic reviews, and retrospectives to inspect progress. That in turn allows us to adapt and make necessary changes to improve outcomes and deliver value. Essentially the Agile way of working needs discipline, and a continuous improvement mindset.  

Can you share any particular feedback you received that encouraged you to continue providing training and support to various teams at Morningstar?

One of the most common feedbacks I receive, is that attending these workshops has helped people understand that collaboration and communication across various levels of organization is super important to remain relevant and agile in a fast-changing world, and that truly encourages to me to continue to provide training and support to various teams at Morningstar.

Another feedback that I have received is that these workshops help a great deal in shifting the mindset from “doing agile” to “being agile”. What does that mean? Basically, we help them understand why certain processes, tools and structures are incorporated and implemented in order to make organizations agile. Teams felt that while it may require unlearning some things and recalibrating their mindset to a new target state, learning as you grow is part of the process on the road to agile maturity. Practices started to make more sense to people as they started solving problems much faster by having real conversations, receiving quick feedback, and back and forth collaboration. Over time they experienced the positive shift in work culture as they began living and breathing the Agile values and principles through the practices.

How important do you think it is to continue learning new skills and adapting to a constantly changing work environment? 

One of the best things about working at Morningstar is that it provides you opportunities to learn new skills and take on new roles. During my eight years at Morningstar, I took up various roles in areas of Project Management, Technology Management, and now Product and Program Management. There are a couple of things I have come to realize in the last few years as I myself have evolved both personally and professionally. Continuous learning and adaptability are crucial, especially when it helps you step out of your comfort zone. I have always practiced this, and in turn it has sharpened my skills. Given our dynamic business environment, I have come to realize that many of us will never be a hundred percent ready for a new role or career growth path. Hence, it is extremely important to make a conscious effort to learn new skills, and explore new areas in your existing role, with the goal of upskilling. In a rapidly changing world, the nature of problems we encounter can change quickly. Being adaptable through continuous learnings has allowed me to address new and unforeseen challenges effectively. At Morningstar we promote a culture of experimentation, learning, and development, and my journey at Morningstar reflects the same.

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