The Man Who Doesn't Need PowerPoints: What Himmat Singh Taught Me About Real Leadership
Look, I've been managing engineering teams for over 15 years now. I've sat through countless leadership seminars, read my fair share of Harvard Business Review articles, and endured more "inspirational" CEO keynotes than I care to count. But sometimes the best leadership lessons come from the most unexpected places.
For me, it was watching Kay Kay Menon play Himmat Singh in Special Ops.
I know, I know. Learning leadership from a fictional RAW agent sounds a bit ridiculous. But hear me out.
The Anti-Hero We Actually Need
Most fictional leaders are either shouty alpha types or impossibly perfect Boy Scouts. Himmat Singh is neither. He's that quiet colleague who sits in the corner of the meeting, says very little, but when he does speak, everyone stops and listens. You know the type—the one whose phone never stops ringing because everyone trusts their judgment.
I've worked with maybe three such people in my entire career. They don't announce their credentials or wave around their achievements like flags. They just... deliver. Consistently. Without drama.
Singh does exactly this. No chest-thumping speeches, no elaborate presentations, no motivational quotes on LinkedIn. Just gets the job done while keeping his team alive and sane. In the corporate world, we call this "executive presence." In reality, it's just being good at what you do without making a song and dance about it.
Credibility Over Charisma
Here's something I learned the hard way while managing a 60-person engineering team spread across Mumbai, London, and Singapore: your team doesn't follow your title—they follow you. Or they don't.
I remember this one incident a few years back. We had a critical system failure during a weekend, and instead of barking orders over Slack, I quietly called each team lead, asked what they needed, and then spent the next 8 hours helping them coordinate the fix. No heroics, no public credit-taking. Just making sure everyone had what they needed to solve the problem.
Come Monday morning, something had shifted. The team looked at me differently. Not because I'd saved the day, but because I'd proven I wouldn't throw them under the bus when things got messy.
Himmat Singh operates the same way. In Special Ops 1.5, we see him protecting his subordinates from institutional pressure, even when it costs him personally. That's not movie heroism—that's real leadership. The kind that earns loyalty instead of demanding it.
The Master of Strategic Juggling
You want to know what modern leadership actually looks like? It's not the guy charging up the hill with a sword. It's Himmat Singh at his desk, coordinating five different operations across three continents while his boss breathes down his neck and his daughter won't return his calls.
That's program management right there. Multiple stakeholders, conflicting priorities, incomplete information, and everyone expecting you to have all the answers while pretending you're not making half of it up as you go along.
I've spent years trying to explain to senior executives what a program manager actually does. Show them Himmat Singh for ten minutes and they'll get it. He's managing a portfolio of high-risk projects with life-or-death consequences, using limited resources, while navigating office politics and keeping his team motivated.
Sound familiar?
The man has three phones and uses all of them. He doesn't have time for elaborate project plans or status reports—he needs real-time intelligence and the ability to pivot quickly when things go sideways. Which they always do.
Emotional Regulation Under Fire
Here's where Singh really shines, and where most leaders completely fail. The ability to keep your personal mess separate from your professional responsibilities.
I've watched talented managers derail entire projects because they brought their relationship drama or family stress into critical decision-making moments. We're all human, we all have stuff going on, but there's a time and place for processing your feelings, and it's not during a crisis.
Singh deals with complex family relationships, moral dilemmas, and the weight of people's lives on his shoulders. Yet when he walks into the RAW office, he's focused on the mission. Not because he's emotionally numb, but because he understands that other people are depending on his judgment.
This isn't about being a robot. It's about professional maturity. Something that's increasingly rare in our therapy-speak, feelings-first corporate culture.
Building Trust Across Boundaries
One thing that struck me about Singh's team is how they operate across different cultures and contexts while maintaining complete trust in each other. His agent in Dubai doesn't question orders from Mumbai. His analyst in Delhi doesn't second-guess intelligence from the field.
Having managed teams across India, UK, and Singapore, I can tell you this is incredibly hard to achieve. Time zones are the least of your problems. It's the cultural nuances, communication styles, and building personal connections when you only see faces on video calls.
Singh does this by being consistent, reliable, and absolutely transparent about expectations. No hidden agendas, no playing favorites, no different stories for different audiences. Everyone knows where they stand and what's expected of them.
This is leadership 101, but you'd be amazed how many senior managers fail at it completely.
Standing Your Ground When It Matters
The thing I respect most about Himmat Singh is his willingness to be the bad guy when principles are at stake. He doesn't bend rules to make people happy or take shortcuts to hit deadlines if it means compromising safety or ethics.
I've been in those situations. When the business is screaming for delivery, stakeholders are applying pressure, and the easiest path forward involves cutting corners. It's tempting to rationalize, to tell yourself "just this once," to prioritize short-term wins over long-term integrity.
Singh doesn't do this. Ever. Even when it costs him politically, even when it makes him unpopular, even when his superiors are questioning his methods. He has a line he won't cross, and everyone knows it.
That clarity is incredibly powerful. Your team knows you'll protect them, your stakeholders know what to expect, and you sleep better at night.
The Leadership We Actually Need
Look, I'm not saying Himmat Singh is perfect. The man has commitment issues, communication problems, and a tendency to shoulder too much responsibility alone. But those flaws make him more believable, not less effective.
In our Instagram-filtered, personal-brand-obsessed corporate culture, we've forgotten that real leadership is often quiet, unglamorous, and involves a lot more coordination than inspiration. It's about making good decisions under pressure, building trust through consistency, and getting results without burning people out.
Singh doesn't post motivational quotes on social media or give TED talks about disruption. He just shows up, does the work, and makes sure his people have what they need to succeed. In a world full of leadership theater, that's refreshingly authentic.
After 15+ years in program management, I can tell you that the best leaders I've worked with were more like Himmat Singh than Tony Stark. They were the ones who remembered your birthday, knew when you were struggling, and somehow always found budget for the tools you needed to do your job properly.
They didn't need to tell you they were leaders. You just... knew.
Sometimes the best leadership lessons come from the most unexpected places. Whether it's a 30-year-old HMT watch that teaches you about patience and precision, or a fictional RAW agent who shows you what quiet competence looks like, the key is paying attention to what actually works rather than what sounds impressive in a conference room.

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