As soon as TISS happened I had become ready to change the “therapist” cassette in my mind to a corporate one. I thought maybe, here and there I would use a few skills or theories but that was all. I couldn't have been more wrong. This is the story of how I used every single thing I learned in my “advanced skills in therapy” class at my fieldwork.
In my first week at Piramal Glass Ltd, I noticed what an open and friendly place it was. People were open critics of each other but also dear friends and voices were raised but there was also laughter galore. I was to design a coaching handbook for managers to lead their teams into becoming star performers. Meenu Ma’am guided me through and through- at times even handholding me to take a needs-based approach to make this handbook. Coming from a legacy of writing technical papers, my biggest challenge was writing with minimal jargon and ensuring it serves the needs of the people reading it. I knew I had to come up with something relatable. Meenu Ma’am talked to me about design thinking and empathy, which went through me like a bolt of lighting since I had been working on the concept of empathy throughout my masters. I used my clinical interviewing skills to talk to senior managers across various sectors and came up with coaching situations, common conversations that managers could refer to while leading their teams. This was a brilliant experience as I met professionals across industries and even went to a gathering with a coaching interest group called Believe in Yourself (BIY) - this is where I went gaga over the food arrangements at the Facebook office where the event was held . All the certified coaches I talked to were of the opinion that no matter how much AI contributes to the future of work, human negotiation, persuasion, facilitation, upliftment cannot be replaced. Talking to these veterans I realised that people can be the biggest asset any organization has and the path to best performance is through establishing a workplace version of the therapeutic relationship - a bond of belongingness and trust with the team.
My field-work has been a massively enriching experience, with Meenu Ma’am teaching me how storytelling can transform so-called dry HR functions such as compensation and benefits to eliciting the values employees associate their organization with using a Large-Scale Interactive Process. Meenu Ma’am ensured that she gave me candid feedback and never handed me solutions, being a wonderful coach herself. My fieldwork with Piramal Glass Ltd gave a brilliant kickstart to my journey at TISS, Mumbai as an HRM & LR student!
About the Author:
Mugdha is a cat lover and an eternal optimist. She loves being prim and proper but is personally known for her inappropriate sense of humour. She is a first-year student and the Class Representative of HRM&LR at TISS, Mumbai.
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