5 Things to learn from the world’s top leaders

Recently, we witnessed one of the greatest events in our country; the landing of Chandrayaan 2 on the moon. I know it didn’t go as well as we all would have wished for, but the entire event was no less than a leadership training program for me!

It was a spectacular event. One of those rare occasions where the entire country was awake post mid night, cheering on for science and showing their support to their nation. We may not have been entirely successful that day, but there was definitely plenty to learn from. And a lot that we would love to reflect on in a leadership training program.

That night, we witnessed two great leaders – our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the ISRO Chief Dr. K. Sivan.

It was amazing to see how the prime minister of the nation managed to be there for our team of scientists throughout the process, really not caring about what time it was! In fact, that particular night and the next day morning he attended multiple events and meetings back to back at different locations of the country. But he still made it a point to go back to ISRO to meet the scientists again in the morning. And the best part about it was that he did all of this travelling, contributing to each event and being there for his countrymen with the same enthusiasm.

There were three big things here that we can learn from a leader like him. One, be there for your team fully and look forward to their work and achievements. Two, support and motivate your team when they fail and show them the positive side of those failures. And three, be enthusiastic about each and every task that you do irrespective of its importance. And always remember, enthusiasm is infectious and can spread extremely fast!  And that I can vouch for when we conduct team building activities as a part of our leadership training workshop!

Coming to our second leader; Dr. K. Sivan. Two qualities that I absolutely admired about Dr. Sivan were his humbleness and ability to express his true emotions in front of the entire nation. Although Dr. Sivan was the leader of the nation’s space research organisation and was highly educated, he was so humble. And he was not afraid of showing his emotions when he broke down while talking to the Prime Minister. Now that, I would say that is true emotional intelligence, an important aspect of every leadership training skills!

It takes courage to do that. To cry when you fail especially when you are in a position like him. And that too with the whole world looking at you! He could have been afraid of being judged as weak and incompetent. But he didn’t let that stop him. Instead he did what felt right in that moment.

There is a common myth that a leader can never be weak. He can never show his vulnerable side to his people. But I think it’s quite the contrary. True strength comes from being who you truly are and not being afraid to show it to the world, even if they tag it as weakness! And that is what is truly inspirational in a leader, his human-ness.  

How to choose a leading corporate training company in Bangalore?

I received a call from a prospective client the other day. She had been searching on google for a corporate training company in Bangalore which could help her provide soft skills trainings to her employees. And as always, google had thrown up a long list of such companies leaving her completely confused! In fact, the reason why she had called us up was because she liked the way our website looked. And that’s the only thing which she had clarity on at that point of time!

She started off by explaining her predicament to me in great detail.  And I responded by telling her not to worry. I would definitely help her find a good corporate training company in Bangalore which would help her fulfil the need.

So, off I went trying to first figure out what her need was…

She went on to tell me that her organisation was based out of Bangalore and required a corporate training company in Bangalore that could help her cover her entire training calendar at various levels.

After some questioning, I also came to know that although the headquarter of her company was in Bangalore, the organisation also had factories located in 6 other cities across the country. These factories had mainly blue collared staff which had never been through any kind of training before.

Post hearing all her inputs, I gave her some insights on how to select the right corporate training company for her organisation. Here are some insights into my insights…

·         Appearance – Never judge a book by its cover even if the cover is really attractive. Yes, she had called us because she liked the way our website looked. But that was definitely not something on which she could take a decision! She had to do her homework well and check if the attractive cover also had substance which could really make a difference to the lives of her employees.

·         Experience – I advised her to first check with each of the prospective training companies which client and industries they had worked with, what kind of audiences they had delivered to and whether they could offer her the spread of solutions that she required to fulfil her training calendar. She could use this as her first criteria, and preferably try and short list companies that could satisfy all or at least most of these criteria. This way she would have a company that understood her industry and its challenges and give examples during the training session that participants could easily relate to. The training company could also be a one stop solution for fulfilling most if not all the training needs and co-ordination would become easy.

·         Presence – Rather than going ahead with a soft skills training company in Bangalore, I asked her to select a company that had a presence in the cities where her factories were also located. That way she could save on costs as the company could deploy local trainers for each training. Local trainers could also train in the local language which helps increase audience engagement, especially with audiences like blue collared staff which may not be comfortable with English.

So, these were some tips I gave the prospective client. And guess what, she landed up selecting us! I guess a helpful nature is important too and can be added to the list😊

Tips to identify best soft skills training companies in Pune

Pune is steadily become a large corporate base. And to cater to the ever-growing need for manpower training, there are a large number of corporate training companies in Pune. On one hand this variety is great for organisations and gives them a large spread to chose from. On the other hand, it increases confusion. And choosing a good company from the large pool available can become quite a difficult task!

So that’s my topic of discussion today. I’m going to help you understand how to choose a good corporate training company in Pune. I’ll give you some tips that will make that ever so difficult decision a little easier.

Here goes…

1. Experience - Pune has a diverse corporate population. On one hand it is an IT hub and has a number of youngsters who have just entered the corporate world. On the other, it has many factories in and around it which have a large number of blue collared staff. And as we all know, the skill set required off the trainer is very different in both these cases! Therefore, it’s important to go ahead with a corporate training company in Pune that has the experience of handling your audience. Always ask the company whether they have trained ‘such’ type of people before and the approximate number of times. This will help you gauge how capable they would be in handling the specific crowd.

The same applies for the industry. Check which industries the training company has trained for before. If they have trained for your industry before, it will be easy for the trainer to give industry specific examples. This will make the training more relatable to your employees.

2. Location – Try to choose a company that is either based out of Pune or has a local trainer from Pune. This again increases relatability for the participants as the trainer can speak in their local language and cite local examples that participants are aware of.

This also helps in reducing overall costs as the trainer will incur local travel expenses rather than outstation travel along with lodging and boarding.

3. Responsiveness – This is another important one considering the previously seen laid back culture of Pune. Go for a soft skills training company in Pune that is quick to respond, is eager to work and is passionate about what they do. This will help motivate your employees and have an impact on productivity too!

These were some points coming to my mind. I would love to hear some more from our local Puneites😊