In today’s times, large organisations with rich legacies, across industries, are finding it extremely challenging to retain top talent. With new-age startups mushrooming and COVID-19 redefining the concept of working from anywhere for many roles, the need for retention of existing talent has increased manifold. A decade earlier, opportunities were far lesser and moving from a well-respected large organisation to a startup would have been considered a huge career risk. It is a no-brainer that the cost of losing top talent is disproportionately high, including leadership time spent in recruitment/assessing culture fit. Also, there is always a possibility of the…
Author: Guest Writer
Things can get challenging when trying to maintain a competitive business. The post-COVID era has brought more challenges, with companies worldwide trying to adjust their operations to new formats and adopt new skills and conformities. At times we struggle to find the incentive to keep going. It’s easy to concentrate on what’s missing from our personal and professional lives. Those challenges can often introduce negativity in areas we didn’t previously feel insecure in. Misery, indeed, likes company. How can we eliminate this negativity before it spreads in the office? You’ll be surprised to know that one specific ‘trick’ works magic…
In the world of ‘expect the unexpected’, leaders, managers, and thought leaders need to aim for clarity, be agile with ‘emotional intelligence’, and have a ‘coaching perspective’ to handle this world’s changing times. During the last two years, so many things have changed rapidly. The effects of the pandemic have seen some companies suffer severe financial losses while others seized new opportunities and thrived and flourished. We have seen business winners and losers – some shine while others barely breathe. We can confidently say that adaptive leaders who acted early benefited, and change management has become a critical factor in…
I had the most bizarre conversation with someone on the telephone this morning. I misunderstood one word at the beginning of the call, and it threw the discussion into two very different directions. The result? Embarrassment, apologies and laughter on both sides. Perhaps it helped that we won’t meet each other in person. It got me thinking about how often an underlying coaching issue turns out to be due to miscommunication. The Oxford Dictionary defines communication as ‘The imparting or exchanging of information’. Simple! So how does exchanging information so often end in complex, emotional and uncomfortable situations? Communication skills…
Years ago, I built a 24-foot-long table in my backyard as a gathering place for thoughtful dialogue with the eclectic group of friends, acquaintances, and associates my wife and I have. As our post-Covid hosting has creaked back to life, one topic continually elbows its way into the conversation: what will ‘office life’ look like now? I do not envy the business and HR teams charged with answering that question in a way that makes everyone happy. Opinions I hear first hand, and those I read about, are all over the map, but plotting a pathway forward may come from…
Many of us have tough conversations almost every single day. They happen at work, at home, with friends and a variety of other stakeholders. We discuss the next promotion, a raise, conflicts, ideas and initiatives at work. We have tough conversations with kids, spouses, partners, siblings and parents. These conversations can push us (and those around us) forward, can improve performance at work and can strengthen bonds. Even through the toughest of conversations, we have a chance to improve our relationships with the people we communicate with. In reality, however, we prefer not to have these important conversations. We put…
The business world has seen a significant shift with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. One of the biggest challenges is maintaining the quality of work while still adhering to the precautionary measures to protect the public from the fast-spreading virus. Many institutions turned to remote work and digital transformations during this period. Many continue to adopt the work-from-home approach, despite the numerous attempts to recover from the pandemic and gradually return to offices. While institutions and their human resource management teams did their best to confront the new environment by developing the best technical systems, enabling remote business and…
The role of managers in modern-day organisations has changed. They manage in complex environments and highly-competitive markets. These are significant pressures on ongoing peak performance, and the expectation is that managers will adapt to constant changes and adjustments to new market forces. Managers are expected to increase the organisation’s competitive advantage through increased profitability, productivity improvements, employee engagement and better customer service. This is observable in the widely integrated Balanced Scorecard1, a framework for building and communicating strategy, where managers are required to extend their focus beyond financial performance. Balancing all can be challenging and calls for a much broader…
If you are a coach, you are not the only one the client has asked to demonstrate a return on investment (ROI) on coaching dollars. Many of us try different approaches to do this. The most prevalent one being a 360-degree feedback on the executives, a request for a percentage improvement in behaviours, and then an estimation of the impact on their overall performance. I am sure this approach works because I believe that coaching works. However, given my experience in consulting, I often try a slightly different approach to demonstrate tangible results. As usual, our initial coaching sessions focus…
There is a ‘chicken or the egg’ question when considering Emotional Intelligence or quotient (EQ) as a coaching tool. Must a coach be emotionally intelligent to be effective as a coach? Can EQ models be applied to coaching? Our aim in this article is to share insights into the second question and explore how EQ models can be used to coach the client effectively. Let’s review three different cases: Self-awareness: Bhaskar coaching Sai – a CXO with spots Self-Awareness is knowledge of oneself and of how others perceive one. It is demonstrated by having a deep understanding of strengths, weaknesses,…
Are you a Leadership Coach or a Life Coach? A tantalising question, no doubt. How would you answer? The response could be a simple yet challenging one: What is the difference? To illustrate, I was recently approached by a large firm’s human resource department about a leadership coaching assignment for their executives. During the short but intense discussion, my interviewer and I stumbled into an apparent block. They, at HR, understood the need for leadership coaching, but could not see life coaching as a part of it. They were, in fact, vehemently and flat out against it. One can easily…
The career of Cristiano Ronaldo has been a beacon of inspiration, much beyond matters of the football pitch. Its sheer longevity, relentless adherence to high standards and its unwavering commitment in rising to huge expectations are massive narratives in themselves. However, his recent move back to his old club, Manchester United, throws up some interesting other lessons. This return presents insights into how one can embark on a second stint at a previous workplace. Done the right way, one can score some glorious goals along the way, in true Ronaldo style. 1. Leave on a high note Ronaldo’s departure from…
Consciousness exists in every living organism meant Ved Vyas, when he wrote in the Devi Suktam from the Puranas — “We bow to the divine Goddess in all existence who resides all throughout the consciousness and is known by the reflections of mind” Awareness is fundamental to the existence of every human being in their respective evolution journey. As they evolve (grow) from infant to child to youth to adult to seniors, awareness is central to the learning process for each individual. Awareness is also central to changes in the behavioural aspects of the individual. It is because of awareness…
An alumni network in the corporate industry is a pool of surplus business potential that can vastly benefit organisations in development. Alumni are among a company’s most efficacious means of external communication, and actively nurturing these relationships contributes immensely to a business’ success. In the corporate world, bonds once formed can serve for years. The ties between companies and their alumni can stay alive for a long time, facilitating rehiring and referrals. Nowadays, a not-so-good exit experience for employees can lead to tumultuous post-tenure relationships, which become a barrier to rehiring. In some cases, the candidates may not even refer…
I was waiting for a meeting with Dr Sen, chairman of a large conglomerate, at his office. The meeting was organised to discuss one of the CEOs within his Group who wanted to be coached. Once someone decides to embark on the coaching journey, the process starts with chemistry meetings with a few coaches. I had already had a chemistry meeting with the CEO in question, Venkatesh. We had had a good meeting and hence, the introductory meeting with Sen! Soon, his secretary informs me that Sen was ready to meet me. Dr Sen looked older than his photo on…
Leadership presence, executive presence, boardroom presence — many leaders and business professionals spend a lot of time and effort on developing their ‘presence’. They hire coaches to help them with their presentation skills or work with image consultants on their style and personal brand. Although these exterior elements of presence are important, the interior elements are far more crucial if you want to effectively lead through your presence. As a leader, presence is important because you want to inspire confidence in your team. If they doubt your abilities or even worse your motives, then you’re not going to have a…
While people typically tend to resent change, the past year and a half has been fraught with changes and challenges, which were unavoidable. We didn’t like the way the pandemic changed our lives, and now resent the changes yet again, as we start to return to work. But re-opening the physical workspace for the workforce is actually far more complicated than ensuring seamless remote work or work-from-home ever was. Companies are now endeavouring to incorporate new models into their work environments, with some continuing with the remote work model, others requiring employees to return to office and a significant number…
Philosophically speaking, each of us is unique and logically not in competition with anyone. This realisation gives us a healthy outlook to the world with greater respect and no enemies. The perspective We’re constantly told that we are in a competitive world, where we are supposed to be in competition with someone or something all the time. We are so conditioned to believe this that we are blind to perspectives and possibilities beyond this conditioning. We don’t realise how very limiting it is, if not patently untrue. In ‘competing’, the direction is not bad. In fact, it can be a…
A Coach is a person whose role is to shine a light on something that is otherwise not visible to the client’s eyes. And this is a key ask from the HR, especially in these uncertain and fearful times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stress has always been an inescapable part of human competitive endeavours. Without an exception in corporates, mental and emotional strength is the yin to the yang of physical prowess. These days, the HR not only have to operate on their usual clocking and explicit KRAs, but also have to act as demi-god aka coaches to their people.…
Here’s a story of an HR professional who set out to make a mark in her chosen field only to be left with a feeling of not being needed by anyone. “However hard I try, I can’t satisfy anyone”, says A’ren. “I give so much, I care for people so much, I am so passionate about my work, but at the end, I am left with nothing but this feeling of being alone and not wanted,” laments A’ren. This has been the signature feeling of A’ren since she became aware of herself. She is oblivious to the fact that she…
Personalised and curated digital learning can help create time-efficient, relevant and targeted corporate training programmes. In an evolving business landscape, learning and development (L&D) and human resources (HR) teams are continually exploring newer approaches to manage workforce development and help businesses stay ahead of competition. Given the many changes in recent times, the need to improve L&D is higher than ever today. While new digital technologies are making some current skills redundant and pushing the need for rapid reskilling, the nature of workforce demographics has also become an important consideration. Learners today differ largely in terms of their learning styles,…
As professionally credentialed coaches by the International Coaching Federation, we are supposedly masters in the art of active listening, offering space for our clients to vent, ponder, reflect, learn and commit to taking necessary action or steps for their forward movement towards the desired goals. Active listening in the true sense of the coaching competency, as defined by the ICF core competencies, means that the coach focuses on what the client is saying (and is not saying) to fully understand what is being communicated, in the context of the clients’ systems and to fully support clients’ self-expression. In simple words,…
In today’s dynamic corporate landscape, upskilling and reskilling employees is one of the key ways for organisations to build competitive advantage. In this article, we explore how digital learning programmes can help deploy scalable and effective training solutions to an audience of any size, type or location. Businesses are experiencing changes at an ever-increasing pace in these unprecedented times. The skills needed to succeed today are not the same as they were yesterday. The ones required in the future are also likely to be much different from either of these, in turn, leading to a skills gap. Skills Gap: A…
Psychological Capital is defined as ‘an individual’s positive psychological state of development’, which is characterised by high levels of HERO — the four elements of Hope, (Self-) Efficacy, Resilience and Optimism. • Hope refers to persevering toward goals and when necessary, redirecting paths to goals in order to succeed. • Efficacy is to have confidence to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks. • Resilience is the ability to bounce back and beyond to attain success even when beset by problems and adversity. • Optimism is making a positive attribution about succeeding now and…
It is strange how we endow random time-related benchmarks, such as days of the week, with such deep meaning. In fact, each one has a particular set of associations that has been built over time. These tend to cloud our perception of those days, rather unfairly it must be said. We then prejudge what may transpire, and that is a lost opportunity, even a tragedy of sorts. It is a kind of chronological typecasting, which leads to fatigue, and a dullness in disposition. Think Mondays, where you are destined to inevitably feel the blues…manic Mondays…mournful Mondays…a day for moaning, and…
As work environments become more complex thanks to digitalisation, it’s imperative for the workforce to develop soft skills that drive individual and organisational success. Of these, communication has emerged as one of the most important and necessary soft skills. Many organisations emerged from 2020 with an increased readiness for digital transformation. However, through this time, soft skills too emerged as must-haves for everyone —from employees and managers to business leaders and customers. In fact, working in the digital environment has made the need for soft skills, especially those like communication, even more important. As learning and development (L&D) teams renewed…