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 yet another passionate women entrepreneur – Somrita Chatterjee for an exclusive interview with us. She is the Entrepreneur, Author, Coach and Consultant. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, background and advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Somrita:
We are aware of your contribution to the ecosystem, talk us through your background and your journey as a coach, please;
In search of Ikigai, I found out that one of the things that truly call me is ‘Connecting With People’. Have been working with people for over a decade and started my journey in the L&D space a few years back. Have a prior experience of 7 years in Human Resources & Industrial Relations, in corporates like Tata Steel, KONE Elevator and Nestle Skin Health (total experience of around 12 years).
Currently, I am Self Employed and do professional coaching for individuals as well as groups. I also associate with multiple organisations as a consultant. I enjoy understanding client needs, designing content and delivering training; ranging on various topics like Emotional Intelligence, Communication, Active Listening, Parenting, Preparing for Job Interview, and other soft skills.
An Author (wrote a book named ‘Self Voyage with Somrita’), a YouTuber, a young mother, who has made ‘happiness of self and others’ as her LIFE MISSION.
What made you passionate about coaching?
I experienced coaching by a senior mentor a few years back and I found it absolutely empowering. All we get to hear since childhood is advice and suggestion. But coaching helps an individual connect to herself and seek answers within. The inward journey is beautiful and a Coach supports, encourages, challenges and inspires the individual to take her voyage.
I have two certifications in coaching and now offer individual and group coaching. The Coachee decides what she needs to work upon, how and the path ahead. We offer a safe space, build trust and our listening ears. Instead of suggesting, we use powerful questions to help them connect to their own selves and find solutions if they wish.
Coaching is helping me become a better individual, impact lives and works beautifully in parenting too.
How do you manage yourself and keep on going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I have bad days especially now with the second wave, I get the news of loved ones getting affected, loss of lives and it’s slightly impacting work as well. I am a strong believer in hope. What builds hope? Being realistic and taking action. Some days, I do not feel like doing anything, have negative self chatter and am low on energy.
But it’s all about pushing oneself and taking small action like trying to reach out to someone, little exercise, few minutes of meditation, chanting and completing small tasks. What makes the difference is ACTION.
Instead of waiting for things to happen or expecting others to make me feel better, I get up and get going.
What drives me is my goal of how is it that I want to feel and what do I need to do to feel that!
Could your please share with us what are the degrees and certifications you have?
– Post Graduate Diploma in Personnel Management – XISS, Ranchi
– Certified Life & Leadership Coach Part-I (ICF Certified Coach for Life)
– Certified Life & Leadership Coach Part-II (ICF Certified Coach for Life)
– Arfeen Khan Certified Coach (Incredible You Program)
– Certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner
– Certified Advanced NLP Practitioner
– Certified in Train the Trainer Course by Equipoise Learning Pvt. Ltd.
– Mindfulness Certification Program
– Personal Energy Management Certification Program
– Accredited Administrator of PAPI psychometrics
– Science of Well-Being from Yale University
Our would audience would like to know, how do you motivate your clients?
I encourage the clients to take a step forward, sometimes also challenge and support them by celebrating small victories, sharing stories and discussing with them about possibilities.
I hold them accountable for their own selves. Motivation, if at all, has to come from within because you are with your own selves 24*7. I can be a fellow traveller to a point but it’s an individual’s journey.
What has worked well for you so far?
I try to be more and more of my own self and show my vulnerability. Because I am not perfect, I don’t expect perfection from others most of the times. This helps me connect and clients open up to me. I work a lot with teens and youth and there’s so much to learn from them.
When they hear about my failures, see me keen on learning from them, they come along really well. I always focus on what’s a small practical thing they could do regularly to embed the learning.
With adults and parents, I connect more as a human and as a parent rather than a Coach or Facilitator and that has helped me build trust. I give in my best and keep supporting my clients even after the coaching or training is over. I can’t be in touch with them always but they know they can approach me if they wish to. Have developed some beautiful bonds this way too.
In your opinion what are the keys to success?
Success is what meaning you assign to the word ‘success’.
For me, success is feeling happy, content and fulfilled in all walks of my life. Say suppose there are different areas of life. You have wealth, you have health, you have a career, you have relationships and so on.
I want to strive to have a decent balance most of the times. So I am not looking for perfection but I know that if one area is adversely impacted, it has an effect on all other areas. For example, if your health is not keeping well, it can impact on all other areas of your life.
How do you measure success? Say suppose there is a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is lowest and 10 is highest. Right now, I am at 9 when it comes to feeling happy, content and fulfilled and one of the major contributing factors is I am on my journey of being self-employed in spite of there being challenges, hiccups and occasional detours.
But in order to continue maintaining this 9, I need to take action and I need to focus on my attitude towards life. So I am successful and that is what is success for me.
Keys to success will totally depend on how you define success.
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
I designed this acronym while delivering a talk at a college. It’s called GAME.
G: Have gratitude for whatever you have in life. The more gratitude you have for something (could be job, money, fame, and so on), the more of it you will attract.
A: I already spoke about achieving success. To define what this word means to you and use the SMART technique (make it Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound) to see where you are headed.
M: It’s OK to make mistakes. Learn and carry on. Everyone makes mistakes and if you look at any person who you think is successful, you see his/her past and you will know he/she made a lot of them too. It’s ok to NOT be ok, not be sorted, not have answered every once in a while.
E: Emotional and mental well-being is very important. How is it that you are feeling? If you are feeling say anxious before an exam, interview, appraisal or presentation, use validation and say to yourself, ‘Somrita, you are feeling anxious. It’s ok to feel anxious.’ Maybe you could try breathing or music or any other way to manoeuvre the unpleasant emotion. Many times, when we look inward to see what we feel, we will know what to do about it.
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.
Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
