My first experience of conducting a ‘public workshop’ (The Leadership Paradigm – Switching Gears!, targeted at sharpening the skills of those people who had transitioned from an ‘individual’ contributor role to a ‘Manager’ role) can be described as ‘miraculous‘, nothing more – nothing less!
Participants at the Workshop
Firstly, it was the self-doubt that I could pull one off. The fear of creating a wrong ‘first impression’ that would play spoil sport for future was the biggest hurdle. Secondly, I had never delivered a formal leadership training before, even though I knew what content would make a difference to the target audience.
It was a big ‘leap of faith’ when I challenged my fear and decided to give the idea a try. Perhaps, my first personal lesson of applying ‘leadership principles’ … A Leader takes calculated risks when he/she wants to bring a change! I call it miraculous because, till about a week before the D-day, I had very few registrations. Everyone around told me that “this is normal” for a newbie in this space. Less than 24 hrs before the start of the workshop, I receive a call from a global organization confirming a large participation. I cannot explain this phenomenon except that it had to be ‘miraculous’ with a ‘Divine Intervention’. My second lesson in leadership principles, …. The Leader is never overly concerned about the outcome, instead believes in ‘doing the right’ things! The results follow.
Pipes & Balls, Achieving Common Goal!
The third leadership lesson, ‘never let down those who believe in you’ was learnt when I trusted those who encouraged me from the day I started on the path to deliver my first public workshop. The fourth lesson ‘leaders look for alternative solutions during times of adversity’ was taught 2 days before the event by none other than my 11 year old son Joel. I will talk about it in a separate article however, stress & heat-of-the-moment clouding our rational thinking, impacting our ability to think of alternative solutions was a good lesson to learn from an innocent mind!
Blindfold, Learning to be a Coach & Mentor
Overall, a great experience of divine intervention and a great reminder of simple leadership lessons from daily experiences. As I prepare to take this workshop to other cities in India, the lessons learnt will go a long way to enhance the quality of content and delivery.
