What more can be done to promote entrepreneurship and skilling in India?

The COVID-19 pandemic and the economic repercussions have negatively affected many people’s mental health and built greater barriers for people already suffering from mental illness and substance use disorders. An increasing number of people are facing a serious mid-life crisis and are in need of a coach to help them cope with stress. Social Story spoke to life coach Shailesh Kumar on how we can cope with finding motivation and how the government can support skilling initiatives to support people.

How did you go from being an IT professional to a transformational coach?

I am an IIT graduate and worked in the Information Technology Industry for over 19 years before I embarked on transformation coaching full time. One of my strengths is people management.  I always used to inspire and motivate people as a team leader to ensure the success of the team for all assignments.

There were some defining moments in my life and that’s how I started on my coaching journey. 

Life took a turn for me when I was asked to leave the organisation due to downsizing. I tried to look for opportunities, but all I heard was ‘Budget is a constraint and ‘The position is on hold’. I was afraid to start a business and fail, and wondered if I would not be good enough and lose all my savings. I was negatively wiring myself and sulking. 

It was then that I explored coaching and went through a transformation journey myself. The process helped me discover myself and rewired me through a system that completely transformed my life and made me aware of all negative patterns in me. For starters, I  never imagined I could write a book because I was only writing emails in my career. My book hit the bestseller list on Amazon.

Now, I am on a journey to help 100,000 people rewire their minds to move forward with confidence using my research-based skill-building tools.

Why is transformation coaching for people in midlife important and what’s your coaching methodology?

Midlife is a very important transition phase in life where people go through different scenarios in their work and relationships. As the complexity of life increases, people lose sight of their truest expressions and struggle to find clarity on what it is they really want. Ultimately this results in frustration, lack of motivation, overthinking and makes people experience self-doubts and low self-worth.

This in turn affects emotional well-being which is the most important factor for personal and professional success. During midlife, one needs to focus on three strong pillars to be successful in the midlife transition –  developing emotional security, financial security and health security (both physical and mental health). 

I have built a process that uses time-tested, simple and yet powerful tools that help them experience breakthroughs. I focus on helping them discover their core values, help them get absolute clarity and build a growth mindset. My coaching helps them set up the right outcome in alignment with their true strength and hold their hand to achieve their goals. 

How do you think the Government can promote Skill India more and what more needs to be done to promote skills and entrepreneurship?

I truly appreciate the government for various initiatives under the Skill India campaign that they have launched for both the Rural and Urban populations. However, there is a lot more that can be done to set a strong foundation for people to get skilled. 

• There should be programmes for creating self-awareness in people to know their own self in terms of their values and helping people discover their true potential. This will help them decide what drives them and what work they should do and where to focus. People also get influenced by looking at others, copying what others are doing and they forget what they can do in a unique way to make them feel fulfilled. 

• People can develop great skills but equal impetus needs to be given for people to build a growth mindset and overcome negative self-beliefs, which is a prerequisite to learn any new skill and for being an entrepreneur.

• Mentorship is very important in today’s world, where there is no dearth of information in social media. What people lack today are the right mentors to help them master the skills and implement the learnings to consistently deliver results.

As you have been trying to spread positive energy across all age groups, how has the last 365 days been for you?

Coaching has transformed my life after impacting 800 lives in the last 18 months. I feel more fulfilled in my work when I am able to contribute to people’s lives. I had never experienced such satisfaction and bliss in my work. Coaching has helped me nurture my inner character and made me more resilient, patient and a better listener. My personality has evolved over the period of time that has been the best thing that happened to me. We all know that life is not a cakewalk, and I have developed the mindset on how to bounce back when going gets tough.

My family and my kids have started using some great inspiring words that has changed their perspective of their own self. As a result of this, my son was able to help one of his old friends who was going through a tough time being alone during lockdown. His parents called my son and they got emotional when they thanked my son. 

Coaching has given some great results for me and my family that I had never ever imagined. It has been a beautiful journey and I wish to make it even larger.

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