Why I attend IAF conferences

 

I was asked why I attend IAF Conferences, since I've attended most of them since 2015.

Click this link to know the details.

Facilitating at the 9th IAF India Annual Conference 2025

 Happy to announce that

This will be:

• The second time I am co-facilitating a large group,
• The third time overall, that I am co-facilitating at the IAF Conference.
• The 8th IAF conference I am attending

This time I am co-facilitating with Kala Diwanji (of 60Bits Consulting) and Varsha Chitnis (of Innovision People Development Consultants Pvt. Ltd).  It's been an absolute pleasure working with them to design the session

It's gonna be fun and learning (my favorite combination).  The friends and relationships we make are a major bonus.

If you are keen on attending the conference (it's being held in Pune this year and few tickets are left) and experiencing the facilitation sessions run by myself and others (there's lots of topics being covered), do register at this link.

Register for the Conference: https://lnkd.in/gUiSz8ZJ

Happy Diwali 2025

 

Workshop Scenes from "Leader as a Coach"

This is what happened during the first workshop of another Leadership Journey series from a client who wanted me back as their trainer / facilitator.  I was thrilled that I was called again to train this enthusiastic group.

In the context of these learners, coaching for performance was the area of focus,  We spent a lot of time on understanding what coaching is, how it differs from mentoring and the kind of impact it has on the people being coached, especially in terms of creating ownership to improve performance, as well as the power of different types of questions.  Participants also went through a deep discussion exploring the Competencies of a Coach as detailed by the International Coaching Federation.

Expectations 

Graphical Depiction of each ICF competency

Insights from the workshop

What participants would put into practice

The second batch was a hybrid group with some participants attending remotely.  Hybrid sessions tend to be challenging, but thanks to the participants, it went off well.

Insights and Action Plans

Do connect with me on +919820155778 if you want your leaders to develop coaching as a skill to drive enhanced performance.

How Datafication Damages Trust

We see a lot of posts about the importance of #analytics #data and #datadrivendecisionmaking along the expressed need to be #rational while making #decisions.  This is necessary to reduce (one can't eliminate) the role of emotions and bias.

Here's an article that talks about the fallout with employees when you reduce people to a number. Why this is important when #AI is here?

From the article - "They can bring unexpected and often subtle disruptions to established relationships and ways of working, causing people to question if their employer truly has their best interests at heart and often significantly undermining employee #trust in the organization."

The loss of trust is possibly of greater long term damage to the organization.  Why? Your organization still runs on people.  People deliver superior performance when they trust the leadership and management. Work moves faster and productivity improves in a culture of trust because there's less time spent on doubts.  It's not that there will be zero conflicts and disagreements, but a team that trusts each other will solve their disagreements faster and be more productive.

Read the rest of the article here.

Pic credit - Pixels

Battling burnout: Resilience can’t fix a toxic workplace

When I am asked to conduct #stressmanagement workshops, it's always about getting participants to deal with #stress, rather than addressing the #rootcauses of the stress in the system. It is a strange approach that would not provide effective long-lasting results because while #eustress can aid performance, #distress would hamper it.

Most people don't realize the role of emotional intelligence in managing stress, which is why I include  it in my workshop design.  Also, the irony is that a leader, manager or process could actually be causing the stress in the first place.

Here's an interesting article on why attempting to build #resilience in the organization may promote #toxic behaviours and enhance the toxicity in the #organizationculture, and increasing the stress of all employees, causing burnout and other issues.

From the article - "By solely relying on resilience training, HR leaders risk inadvertently perpetuating a cycle of #burnout, masking the need for true cultural change"

Read the article here.

Leadership Lessons from the Desert

Nature always has a lot to teach us, only if we are willing to pay attention.  

Here's an interesting article about what leaders can learn and apply from nature, in this particular case, the desert.

From the article - "When we strip away the noise, we can lead with greater focus, integrity, and wisdom."

Read the article here.