Leadership and management skills are vital for today’s rapidly changing workplace. With this in mind, a leadership workshop was held from the 19th to the 22nd of March. What follows is an exclusive interview with the speaker.
Advay:
Good afternoon sir, thank you for agreeing to this interview. To start of can you tell us a little about yourself, and what you do?
Rakesh Sir:
My name is Rakesh Mehrotra, my partner and I run this company called TalentEdge HR Consulting, we are into leadership development, we help organisations increase their profitability by working on their people, because we firmly believe that all people have more potential than they are displaying at this moment in time, so we help organisations tap into this potential, basically with the object of increasing efficiency and profitability. So that’s what I do.
Advay:
Can you give us a general overview of the workshop and what you’ve done in the last few days?
Rakesh Sir:
Ok so the seminar, or workshop that we created is called ‘Creating Next-Gen Leaders’ because we firmly believe, and that is through our experience in the corporate world, that there is a dirty of genuine leadership in our country. So we have potential, but we are not using it or exploiting it because of lack of leadership. This program basically was aimed at creating a certain amount of awareness about what will work in the future, and about what sort of skills and competencies people should start acquiring in this day and age. So we covered topics like the VUCA world, which is basically a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world, and that is something that impacts everyone. Most people are not aware of it, most people don’t look out for it, but VUCA has to be a part of strategy, not only for organisations but for individuals also. So we firmly believe that if you’re not factoring in VUCA into your strategy, as an individual also, then you’re missing out on something. So we looked at VUCA, because the world is changing, we need to be prepared for it. And how do we prepare for it? By inculcating certain habits, so we looked at the common denominator of success which says you can succeed by doing things that need to be done, as opposed to things that you enjoy doing. So you can start doing things that maybe you don’t like to do, but lead to success and make a habit out of it, and that’s what success is all about.
Advay:
What exactly are these enigmatic habits that promise success?
Rakesh Sir:
Well, we looked at the seven habits, which I think is a life changing book and I think a life changing experience if you can implement it, which basically talks about how do I go from self mastery to interacting and engaging with others, it works in the family, it works with friends, it works in the workplace, it works with corporates, it works with everyone.
Advay:
What would you say is the one thing someone reading this should do to help improve their leadership skills, to help improve their teamwork skills and to help them improve their productivity in general?
Rakesh Sir:
Well what my advice would be is to become aware of the fact that the world is changing very fast. With artificial intelligence coming in, and biotechnology coming in, and so many new things coming in, what worked in the past will not work in the future. Most people still rely on their past experiences, past successes to be successful in the future. I would encourage people to read and be updated to acquire as much knowledge as possible as to where the industry is going, what are the changes that are happening, because if you don’t do that, then you’ll suddenly discover that you’re very well prepared for a world which doesn’t exist. So I would recommend that people identify what the changes are, where are they taking us, and start preparing themselves today.
Advay:
Can you give us an example?
Rakesh Sir:
Well, when I started working in 1978, there was hardly any competition in India, and there was no competition from elsewhere because we had a very very closed economy. Who was I competing with? With four people, five people in my company or team. Today, when a person hits his workstation, on day one, he or she could be competing with people across the globe. Now the level of preparedness that you must have to succeed in this scenario, is very very different from what we experienced. My request, or my suggestion is keep yourself updated, constantly reinvent yourself, and the best way to learn is to learn, unlearn, and relearn again. That should take you forward.
Advay:
Thank you so much sir, it was lovely having you with us for this workshop.
