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 – Usha Karimpanakkil for an exclusive interview with us. Usha is an Entrepreneur, Coach, Mentor, Consultant, Change Maker and Speaker. She is the Founder of USucceed Teamcrafts Academy. Let’s learn more about her inspiring journey, her background and her advice for our growing community!
Excerpts from our exclusive interview with Usha:
Talk us through your background and your journey, please;
My father was in the India Air Force where he served as a non commissioned officer and hence my schooling was in different Kendriya Vidyalayas across the country, mostly the north and east of India.
I am really thankful to my mother who insisted that she would travel with my father to all of his postings rather than staying in Kerala with her parents and raising me and my elder sister there.
She wanted us to get the best of education. Well, I am sure the school education would have been equally good in my hometown as well if not better, but what the life in Airforce stations gave me was this deep sense of patriotism, adaptability and acceptance of people from all backgrounds.
I was above average in studies but I loved being on stage and enjoyed being in the spotlight. I would participate in pretty much all competitions in school which gave me a lot of confidence.”
Very early on, my father made me handle everything on my own. He opened a bank account for me, so I had to manage money. He made me fix electrical connections and also allowed me to go on a 13 days school trip to Kathmandu from Delhi. I remember my mother being dead against it and also the cost was beyond what we could afford at that time. But dad wanted me to enjoy the experience.
For my graduation, my parents decided to send me to a college in Kerala and I stayed in the hostel. That was another enriching experience, pretty much the best day of my life.
I continued being on stage, but this time also ran for the college election and won it by the highest margin to the post of Fine Arts Secretary. That was a high point in my study life.”
When I decided to come to Mumbai for work, I remember my father saying – “Find a job and find a partner for yourself”. I lost dad soon after that and then started my struggle to be myself.
For a girl who was allowed to be free and fly the way she wanted, I had to then listen to a number of folks, especially family, on what I should do and what I should not.
Well, I continued to be myself without realizing that not a lot of people liked that; especially if it does not fit into their structure of how a girl should live.”
I worked a few jobs trying to figure out what I wanted to do; I did well in some and some I learned. Fast forward to a place when I had to start my life all over again with a 6-month-old child, no job and no money. I took the first job that was offered and jumped into the booming Indian outsourcing industry and in 6 months I found myself leading a team of 10 people. There started my leadership journey.
What made you passionate about ‘Coaching’?
My niche for coaching is for young leaders to be able to build transformational teams. When you have a team, you have to play the role of a coach, mentor and confidant to your team members. I could create phenomenal teams that produced phenomenal results and I realized that I was able to repeat it in any team that I worked with.
At some stage in my career, I was mentoring other leaders in my team. I was doing it anyway as part of the job but at some point, I realized that there are so many out there who could benefit from my experience.”
Also, the fact that the ability to help someone and see the change unfold in front of you really gave me a lot of happiness and I became increasingly passionate about coaching. I have also experienced how bad leaders can suffocate you, take away your confidence and cripple your inner strength.
I truly believe that a leader is as good as her team and vice versa. They need to build harmony to succeed. That’s why USucceed because it has to be about U (you) – the leader.”
You seem to have a very focused niche for coaching. Tell us a little more about it?
In over 20 years of my career, I have led teams for more than 15 years. I attribute a large part of my success to how I build my teams. I think all organizations need leaders who can create high performing teams.
When people in a team are not collaborating and moving together as one unit towards a goal, that team suffers and ultimately the organization suffers too. As easy as it sounds, not many leaders are leading, they just manage the work of the team.
My goal is to bridge that gap and help them make that transition to become true leaders of their teams.
How do you manage to keep going despite the challenges? What drives you?
I will be honest – I have realized lately that I like challenges; although I may not have agreed to this when I was going through some of the toughest phases in my life. It is an opportunity for me to show my strengths and come out on the other side as a winner.
When everything is going smooth and monotonous, I start getting bored – must be something to do with my childhood where we kept changing cities and schools and friends. Due to this reason in my career, I would always look for a role change and at times did things that I had no clue about. and then dissect that one problem at a time.
I am also a highly optimistic person; so more often than not, I am not even thinking that what I have taken up will not get completed. That keeps me going. So when there are drastic changes happening around me, I used to see people having a lot of questions and complaints but I did not have much.”
Sometimes I would wonder if there is anything wrong with me; but after a lot of reflection, I have come to believe that my attitude is the reason. I strongly feel that I can face whatever is in front. Starting my own venture is also a result of my need for new challenges, I think.
Who do you believe has been the biggest source of motivation in your daily life?
During my growing up years, it was my mom and dad both who were highly encouraging and kept motivating me for everything that I wanted to do. Even my grandfather who served in the Royal British Airforce was also a great source of inspiration for me.
He was the one who would help me prepare my speeches and practice with me. During my teenage years, I drifted slightly more towards my dad. He introduced me to books and instilled this feeling of limitlessness in me. So, after dad passed away, I used to get really annoyed if someone would stop me from doing anything, which may not always be the right thing to do. 😊
My husband has also been very supportive and has motivated me to try new things. Whenever I wanted to study something new or invest in a personal development workshop, he is the first one to push me along. My daughter is also a great source of motivation. I am amazed how she can stay positive every single day of life and find happiness in the smallest of things.”
What are some of the strategies that you believe have helped you grow as a person?
There are a few:
1) Taking risks in life
2) Build empathy
3) Take ownership and empower others
4) Learn from anyone.
You are always positive and motivated, what keeps you going?
My go-to place for staying positive is music. It is my solace and that is also my me-time. A long walk with my favourite music playing in my ears will surely top the list.
I also read books and listen to podcasts, something that I have started enjoying a lot lately. I also try to go easy on myself. Somedays, if I am not feeling my best, I don’t hesitate to take a break and recharge my batteries.
I love to coach and mentor. When I can see the difference that I am able to bring about in a leader, it gives me immense satisfaction and motivation to do more.
In your opinion, what are the keys to success?
Honestly, there is no one formula that fits all. I strongly believe in working on your strengths and enforcing positive psychology.
I have led teams with skills that I had no idea about. If you think traditionally, that was my weakness but I could add value because I focused on my strengths.
So if I list down few key elements:
(a) To be self-aware and be open about it
(b) Be engaged in what work you are doing and where you are working
(c) Create your successor or replacement
(d) Build great teams, hire greater talent & then get out of their way – Empower
(e) Be a continuous learner – this is not optional anymore
What advice would you give students and young professionals who want to have a successful career?
I would just say that when you are starting off as a young professional, one needs to stay curious, experiment with new skills & new roles.
Our education system does not always help you identify your happy place of work. So being curious and experimenting is important. Invest in self-development.
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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