At BrilliantRead Media, we always strive to bring meaningful and powerful stories from India and around the world to empower and motivate our growing community. As part of this endeavour, we invited Shubha Murthi for an exclusive interview with us. Shubha is a Social Development Worker, Entrepreneur, Leader, Consultant, Speaker, Coach, Mentor and Change Enabler.
Shubha holds a B.Com Honours from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, followed by a PG Diploma in Information Technology from NIIT. Over the years, she updated her professional skills through the Young Managers program at ASCI – Hyderabad, Management Development Programme for Executives at IIM Ahmedabad and Governance program at Harvard University.
Shubha is a certified Leadership and EQI coach for executives. She strongly believes in the role of emotional strength for success and one of the means to achieve this is Yoga. She is a student of Yoga and a certified Yoga trainer as well as a Reiki Healer and also a certified trainer for “Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) at the workplace’’. Let’s learn more about her incredible journey, her background, and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Shubha:
Talk us through your background and your journey, please;
My educational background is in Finance, Economics and Software development. I started off my career assisting in the digitalization process of an International Civil Society organisation in their regional office in 1990. Little did I envisage at that time that I would one day end up as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer in the very same organisation operating in 132 countries & territories.
I had the opportunity to work in different parts of the world, come in contact with varied cultures, which opened up my thinking, helped me not to be judgmental of cultures, traditions and values which are different from ours.”
One thing led to another and before long I was fully bought in by the concept of this organisation that provided and continues to provide a home for the child who has no one. For someone who has had a good childhood, it became a passion to help as many children as possible through this organisation. I understood that only my good intentions would not enable me to reach out to the children in the world.
The organisation offered a platform to do good and that is what I tried for over three decades. However, after 32 years of service, it was time to change and move into a different sphere of life using my knowledge & experience to benefit others.
What makes you a strong leader? What’s your views on good leadership?
Acknowledged as a “tough but fair” leader, I believe that a leader is as strong or as weak as the team. Hence, my focus on team development. Another of my strengths is to conceive and build large projects and train people locally for sustainability.
I find tremendous fulfilment in mentoring and coaching young executives especially women facilitating their career advancement.”
In a career spanning over three decades, my learnings have come from working in a multicultural environment, differing social and political environments. This has taught me to accept and to leverage differences to navigate tense and conflicting situations leading to success and mutual respect.
Another strength is to leverage technology to bring change, especially through tailored interventions for women and youth. Text to Change an ICT4D programme in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Cambodia succeeded in bringing social, economic and physical change in the lives of women and youth.
How did you discover your passion as a ‘Coach’?
Throughout my working life, I have brought together teams that can work with a purpose, supported them to achieve their individual goals yet aligned to the organisation’s goals.
Unknowingly, I was being a ‘’Coach’’ all along and now it was just a matter of time before I took this up in a bigger and more professional way. That is when I decided to formalize and undertook Coaching training, completed EQI certification which enables me to get an insight.
Despite the challenges, what keeps you going when things get tough?
In one word I would say ‘’self-belief’’.
Do your best at all times and be practical in what you want and what you can give. Results will follow.
What is the one strategy that you believe has helped you grow as a person?
I did not really strategise to grow as a person. On the physical front, one grows with or without a strategy.
On a deeper level, at every stage in life, looking back, I took things as it came and gave my best shot.
I believe in moving on, learn from the past and move on. One cannot live in the past always or cry over spilt milk. Maybe this helped.
What are some of the best practices you advise your clients and how does it help them?
In my opinion., there is nothing as ‘’the best practice or best practices’’.
It is important to not reinvent the wheel always, however, for practices to work or fail, the number of variables is just too many.
It is advisable to pick up good practices and apply them as they are, in conditions that are equal or tweak them according to the needs/circumstances of the client for execution.”
One thing that comes to my mind, always promise only what can be delivered. Over-promising and under-delivering breaks trust.
What are the three most important lessons you have learned in your life?
Gratitude – Gratitude – Gratitude.
I use three times because gratitude comes in a multitude of forms (possessions, people, peace and nature).
It could be gratitude for who you are, gratitude for all that you received in life, gratitude for all those people who taught your life lessons, gratitude for the universe that carries all the positive and not so positive vibes…….the list is quite long.
If I were to take my own life, I would say, I have immense gratitude for having a family that allowed me to grow up as a ‘’child’’, they gave me a childhood as against the number of kids worldwide who are forced to become an adult and start earning, thus losing their childhood (there are some 120 million children in danger of losing care, worldwide). I might not have had the gadgets of today’s kids, but I had an environment where one could play and just be a child without having to worry about my next meal.
Gratitude for being able to go to school and receive an education from some of the prestigious institutions. Gratitude for having friends, who stand by me and ever helpful when needed. Gratitude for my teachers and mentors who believed in me and gave me wings to fly. I say this because during my time, some 25-30 years ago, for a woman to be travelling, alone, to the so called underdeveloped countries was not common.”
Gratitude for being able to travel around the world and learn from so many different cultures.
Gratitude for good health.
The list is endless.
Once, we as humans, start seeing the positive things around us and appreciate what we have, everything that we do not have become small or insignificant.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success is a relative term. The definition of success varies from person to person. For some it is all the material possessions, for some it is a spiritual journey and for some others, it is a combination.
I believe success has to be individually defined by a person for themselves and strive towards achieving that. Whatever makes one happy & allows the person to perform in peace, would be a success.
I was a couple of weeks ago talking to some youngsters. Two of them said having a particular kind of phone (costing approx. Rs. 150,000) would define them as being successful. For someone like me, a mobile phone is but a phone. It is no way to define my success. Hence, success is defined by each individual for themselves.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
I can only draw from my own life lessons. I started off as a software professional helping in the digitalization process in an organisation. However, it took different forms and soon, I moved from programming in the software arena to developing programmes in communities and countries for those marginalized.
One thing led to another and before long, I realised that I like what I was doing. My career shifted completely. I refused three software professional jobs that were taking me to the USA (it was the time of Y2K in 1989-1990). Some of my friends took these jobs and today live in the US and most are citizens. Do I regret it, NO, not in the least.
I had a fulfilling career of over 32 years, which took me across Asia, Europe, parts of Africa and Latin America. It widened my horizons, enabled me to grow as a person. So never lose yourself, keep an OPEN MIND. No one knows what is in store as we walk the journey of life.
Try and GIVE BACK to the universe what you got. The universe will return it in the manifold. FEAR & HATRED are adversaries. Never let them simmer, before you know they can overtake your life and all would be lost.
Last but not least, what about your journey makes it satisfying/exciting?
The answer lies in the question. It is a ‘’JOURNEY’’ every day brings something. Whether you make it ‘’satisfying and exciting’’ remains in one’s own hands.
Every day is a new beginning and that is what I look forward to.
BrilliantRead is committed to bringing stories from the startup ecosystem, stories that reshape our perspective, add value to our community and be a constant source of motivation not just for our community but also for the whole ecosystem of entrepreneurs and aspiring individuals.
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