Staying Motivated: Progress Makes Perfect

After a year and a half of disruption and uncertainty, leaders around the world are taking stock of their next steps and looking for ways to keep people motivated. Even in challenging times, it’s an intrinsic part of human drive to feel (and see!) that we are making progress - however large or small it may be. Find out more below about how BeNext’s unique week-by-week structure scaffolds this sense of progression, keeping learners driven and inspired throughout the learning journey. 

Quickfire Interview with Payal Shah, 

Every fortnight we feature a top, highly-engaged BeNext learner for a quickfire interview on their experience of their program. Here, we speak to Payal Shah, People Manager at Digicorp, who took part in the BeNext ‘HR for Start-Ups: Building a Winning Team’ program. 

What is the biggest challenge facing leaders today?   

With the heavy disruption in the job market, hiring has become a major challenge across all industries. The pandemic and the post-pandemic era has brought a huge transformation in the preferences and mindset of the candidates which ultimately has challenged the hiring persona of the employers - it's almost like reinventing the wheel. With job interviews going virtual, honesty, authenticity and commitment have almost taken a back seat. While Zoom is a great solution for conducting virtual interviews, in-person interaction will always be missed. That said, thinking of ways to reinvent the approach, no one-size-fits-all attitude, and proactive communication will be the keys to succeed here.

2. What is one book, article or podcast on leadership or the world of work you’ve enjoyed recently?   

‘No Rules Rules’ by Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings. It's a must read for every leader who wants to create a sustainable organizational culture with high performing teams. 

Another masterpiece is the ted talk by Simon Sinek, ‘How great leaders inspire action’, where he emphasizes the importance of having the "Why" of the organization clear each year to keep outdoing yourself.

3. How has your experience of the BeNext certification program empowered you?   

Well, it reminds me of a famous saying: "We are not here to stay content, we are here to do better." I sincerely would like to thank the People Matters BeNext team and our mentor, Mr. Ankur Warikoo, for coming up with such a great program and great content. There is so much that I learnt about what it takes to build a high performance culture, how to retain the talent, how important it is to have an EVP (Employee Value Proposition), and the list is almost endless..! The best part was to have the founders, leaders and HRs of different industries come together and openly discuss the problems and propose solutions.

4. What have you enjoyed most about the learning journey? 

I frankly enjoyed the content, I do keep on reading and re-reading it as it gives me important insights to almost every problem I face as a People Manager. And the online sessions by Ankur served as a cherry on the cake, it helped us delve deeper into the topics and have a more practical rather than a more tried-and-tested approach to every problem and situation. Also, the expert talks brought the bright minds together sharing their journey and the approach they took which proved to be very informative. Last, but not the least, I thoroughly enjoyed doing the mandatory assignments as it allowed me to apply my learning and get it validated from my colleagues and mentor of the program.

5. What is one innovation that you believe will transform the way we work?   

I definitely feel that chatbots and smart tools are going to bring a radical transformation, businesses too will be forced to pivot their approach to sustain themselves and get to the next level.

6. What is the best advice you’ve ever received?   

The best advice I’ve gotten is: "It's absolutely fine to outgrow your friends, your relationship with yourself is more important than anyone else." And, another that has helped me all my life is: "Do what you say you'll do."

Thank you for talking to us! You can connect with Payal on LinkedIn here. 

What we're doing…

Over the coming weeks, People Matters BeNext is offering a whole suite of Cohort-based certification programs designed to set your skilling strategy on a new trajectory:

Building a Culture of Empathy for Productivity & Innovation - Enroll here 

Design Thinking & Agile for HR Team - Enroll here 

The HRBP in the New World of Work - Enroll here 

Webcast: 

Ahead of the Design Thinking & Agile for HR Teams program, our Virtual Learning and Development Manager, Cindy Scholts, spoke with Elliott Russell, Global Learning & Development Programme Manager EMEA at Boeing. Here, Cindy and Elliot discuss how Agile and Design Thinking can help define the ‘value’ HR brings to an organisation: 

What we're reading…

Hear from Michael Jenkins, CEO of Expert Humans, on why empathy is acting as a key driver for impact and creativity in today’s hybrid context.

Hear from our expert program speaker Professor Dave Ulrich on common HR myths - and how to debunk them. 

Take another look at Unconscious Bias with expert speaker Ruchira Chaudhary, author of Coaching: The Secret Code to Uncommon Leadership