At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring to our community some of the finest stories from the entrepreneurship world. As part of this endeavour, we invited a passionate entrepreneur and coach – Prasad Palav for an exclusive interview with us. He is a Leader, Mentor, and Executive & Leadership Coach. Let’s learn more about his inspiring journey, his background and his advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Prasad Palav:
Talk us through your background and your journey as a leader, please;
I started my career when the call centre industry had just started. After doing my graduation I started working with ICICI Bank as a phone Banking officer and then moved up as a team leader in a year’s time.
This was my 1st stint handling people. It was quite early in my career that I got the opportunity to lead people. After working with ICICI for 3 years, I got an opportunity to work with Standard chartered bank and led a bigger customer experience team for the western region.
Then got promoted to a higher role and was given the responsibility to handle a team of around 500 people from the centralized phone banking centre in Bangalore. That was an exciting experience.
The next move was to lead even a bigger team for Magma fin corp (which is now Poonawala Fincorp) where I got the opportunity to create a customer service function right from scratch and the team that worked with me was a fantastic one. Together we were able to transform a cost centre into a profit centre within one year. This is where I learnt the most as it was a completely different experience setting up teams across 500 branches in rural India.”
The last experience in my corporate life was in standard chartered bank Singapore where I was leading projects across multiple locations like MEPA, ASEAN and ASA region. This was a brilliant exposure as a led teams virtually and indirectly and led teams which were across multiple cultures.
It’s been 2.5 years now that I am on my own as an Executive, Leadership and Career coach helping people achieve their dreams, get clarity in their careers and helping them improve themselves across various facets of their personal and professional life.”
How did you discover your passion?
The story goes back to my stint incorporates around 10 years back. After almost a decade of being a high performer in various roles, my performance rating was downgraded. This came as a shock and I was on the verge of quitting the organization as I felt I should take responsibility for my actions.
However, my boss decided to retain me and we had a heart-to-heart talk on what went wrong and how I can improve myself from thereon. My leadership style was challenged and I had to rediscover myself.
In that process, I came across the book “Go put your Strengths to work” By Marcus Buckhingum and diligently followed the powerful exercises that were part of the book. I discovered some key strengths and started working on those. This helped me get back my Mojo.
I learnt that my strengths lie in motivating, developing and coaching people and in that when I am doing it on one to one. This was the start of my new way of thinking.”
And in 2015 when I was assigned an executive coach, that was the turning point. While I was being coached, I discovered that this is exactly what my calling and passion is.
With so much going on, how do you start the day to keep your passion alive?
It is not easy to keep the passion alive when so many things are happening. But the one thing that I have learnt and practice over the years is this “Operating from my circle of influence”.
It simply means, asking myself what is in my direct control and putting my energy and efforts there.
By taking action on things which are fully in my control allows me to take charge of my life even in the worst situations and keeps me sane.”
It’s easier said than done though and I won’t lie that even I at times have downs and reminding myself to live in the present moment helps.
What are the business mantras you have embraced as you sought to establish your success story?
(a) If you want to ever shift from your day job to starting something of your own, then make sure you are financially secured enough to take such a plunge. One should have calculated that he/ she should be able to survive without earning anything for at least 2 to 2.5 years.
(b) Know your strengths and be relentlessly clear on what you want to do and more importantly why you want to start something of your own. Hire a career coach or work with a mentor who can help you in an unbiased way to figure out what is the right business/ career choice for you.
(c) Network, Network and Network. In a business, you cannot survive without networking. Learn how to do networking if you are not comfortable with it.
(d) Partner with the right people wherever required
(e) Join communities where you will find like-minded people and volunteer there to learn.
(f) Invest in your own learning and keep disrupting yourself by keeping yourself updated about new technologies and advancements that may be happening around the world.
(g) Fail fast and learn to move on and let go fast.
(h) Take breaks, have a work-life balance and learn to say NO. Remember when you are saying NO to something, you are indirectly saying YES to something else. Know when and How to Say NO
We know that you are continuously engaged in helping others achieve their goals. Why do you do that?
The simple answer is this is what comes to me naturally, makes me feel confident, energetic powerful, positive and gives me joy.
What about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
Watching people achieve their goals, getting clarity about their career, changing their beliefs and assumptions about themselves, other people and the situations.
This is the best part of what I do, without actually giving them suggestions and solutions. The power of asking questions from a place of neutrality and believing fully that they have all the answers is extremely satisfying and gives me inner peace.
Given the rapid pace at which the world is changing, what are the leadership traits that are necessary for success?
~ Constant Self- awareness
~ Your ability to adapt to changes and staying relevant
~ Resilience – your ability to get back after a setback
~ Focusing on your physical and mental health
~ Learning to balance work and life
~ You are never failing, you are only learning and growing.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned building your startup?
– Having your family by your side when you decide to start something on your own was very important to me
– Financial security
– Networking without expecting anything in return
Please share with us – what has worked well for you so far?
(i) Getting trained as a Certified Coach has been the biggest turning point in my life. Not just because I loved coaching, but more than that it has helped me manage myself and my surroundings (which include my family, business, career and health) in a much better manner. Every leader at some point in time whenever they feel it’s right, should learn and learn Coaching skills to develop themselves and in that process helping others as well.
(ii) Being Self-aware about my emotions is another thing which has worked very well for me. again I would give the credit to my coach training. When we are aware about how we are feeling, we are in much better control of our lives, otherwise, it’s easy to give control to others and get lost in the constantly changing world.
(iii) Changing with time, being like a chameleon. I love the quote from Steve Jobs “one can’t expect to do the same things again and again and expect things to change ”.
(iv) Define what success and happiness mean to you and your family. Do not try to copy from other successful and happy people, because you don’t know what they have been through in their lifetime, create your own definition and accept it gracefully. That is where Inner peace will lie.
(v) Finally Learn to live in the present moment and make the best out of it. It’s not easy, and I don’t claim that I can do it, however, just by becoming aware that you got to live in the present, is enough.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
> Doing things which are in one’s direct control
> Networking within and outside your community with a purpose of sharing knowledge
> Helping people wherever and whenever you can without expecting anything in return, having a positive attitude especially in situations when things are not going your way
> Accepting that there will be days and situations where things will not go the way you expect, being biased towards action
> Staying true to your core values and making sure that you find your purpose which is strong enough to keep you going every day.
Needless to say, we can’t do this all on our own, hence having friends, family members by your side and keeping them informed, talking to them, getting their advice, bouncing your ideas, and concerns with them helps tremendously.
I have myself been coached, 1st before I became a coach and then I hired one when I wanted to transition from my 19 years of corporate experience to start on my own.
Having a coach/mentor throughout your personal or work life is something that I would always advise anyone who wants to succeed and be happy in life. Remember I said, “succeed and be happy” and the definition of both these would differ for every single person.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
4 simple things according to me:
1) When you fail, reframe that failure as lessons learnt. Ask what am I learning from this failure or situation, what feedback am I getting from it and how can I implement that learning next time. There is nothing called failure, there are always lessons that you learn at every step of your personal or professional life.
2) Believe in the power of networking right from the start of your career. Connect with friends, colleagues frequently without any selfish purpose and more so with a selfless attitude, to help them, to know them better and just to spend time with them. The more you give, the more you get it back in abundance, but don’t help with an expectation to get back something in return.
3) Challenge your assumptions and Beliefs about your own self and others every time you feel negative or feel stuck. The hard held beliefs and unvalidated assumptions are the most harmful things that can prevent you from having a successful and happy life.
4) Have a Coach or Mentor for life whom you can talk to and who can listen with an unbiased and non-judgmental viewpoint. This can be extremely helpful as you move forward
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