Nurturing ‘Corporate Athletes’- Zeus Mentors


Nurturing ‘Corporate Athletes’- Zeus Mentors


Nurturing 'Corporate Athletes'- Zeus Mentors

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;

They have their exits and their entrances,

And one man in his time plays many parts…"

– William Shakespeare

The stage or field on which professionals and entrepreneurs must perform on comes with great opportunities and at great cost, intricately woven with challenges through almost every phase. Despite all effort, most "performers" remain "Me too", with only few emerging as stars.

Traditional "Learning & Development" systems do not focus enough on practically equipping professionals for the challenges that work and life throw up. Combined with insufficient or rather, irrelevant, text-book type, training and development, results in increased demands on leaders, both existing and potential, to develop such skills on their own. The ensuing process is usually a long drawn, a frustrating & many a trial-&-error, journey for all concerned.

The future of any organisation, or even the country, lies in the quality of its leaders. But even more important, is the availability & quality of its pipeline of "future leaders".

Research & surveys prove time & again, that having a mentor is important to success. As far back as 2013, one such survey recorded that 80 percent of CEOs said they received some form of mentorship. But what of the leadership pipeline? A constant woe of the People Department, it is a fast depleting/shrinking layer, insufficient & unprepared in the face of changing business dynamics and an ageing leadership.

The answer was staring us in the face all the time, but for some strange reason, eluded us…till now.

Future LeaderMUSTbe integrated closely with Leaders. There was/is just one challenge here – current leadership is bandwidth choked & highly organisation focused to provide time & objectivity, in a sustained and long term personal engagement format.

Experience is a very expensive asset — yet it's crucial to business success. There's only so much about a person's experience you can gain from books or some online training! Mentorship is one guaranteed way to gain experience from others. Mentorship is one guaranteed way to gain experience from others.

Thus – Zeus Mentors came to be!

'Zeus Mentors' focuses on Future Leaders, the "Corporate Athletes"(CA), its value proposition created and delivered by reputed, highly acclaimed(erstwhile) CXOs/business leaders, viz. Zeus MentorCoaches (ZMC).

Zeus Mentors is industry agnostic; its ZMCs, discerningly selected, come from across industry domains – all seasoned professionals with first-hand experience & knowledge on what top management looks for in their star talent. Believing in the power of 'paying forward', ZMCs utilise various leadership techniques & development strategies, to pass on the lessons they have learned through personal experience. An innovative yet practical approach to developing & establishing a sustained pipeline of future leaders.

With the focus on the mid-career professional, the approach effectively and relevantly interweaves Mentoring & Coaching, focusing on career, performance, and future, of the CA. The program is strictly ONE-on-ONE, customised mentoring and coaching with sessions addressed telephonically or via Skype. The engagement can be further customised to specific needs including in-person sessions.

Identified CAs need support & grooming for leadership positions. Mentoring and Coaching by established leaders who have 'been there' 'done that' is targeted at leveraging and stretching the CA's abilities to deliver top performance. ZMCs leverage the full range of their experience and knowledge to enable the CA's success under challenging circumstances, to emerge stronger, healthier, and eager for the next challenge. Such sustained high achievement demands mental and emotional strength as well as a sharp intellect. The CA's chances of success in life and at work can be amplified by having a right mentor. The valuable connections, timely advice, regular checks — together with the spiritual and moral guidance that he/she gains from having a ZMC — will literarily leapfrog them to success.

Thus, grooming CAs towards realisation of their goals and aspirations, is the heart of the Zeus Mentors value proposition.
Head quartered in Chennai, the company is privately held and funded by the organization's Board of Directors.

Zeus Mission

Zeus Mentors work towards uniquely empowering &inspiring HiPots to "do more." This does not mean doing more things, but that the engagement will empower & encourage them to do more of what they care about — get stuff done, have fun, communicate, and accomplish great things.

"This is the core of who we are, and driving this core in all we do, is our endeavour".

Zeus Mentors has constructed a platform for future leaders to take charge, invest in themselves, without waiting for sponsors, goodwill, or chance, thereby pulling down traditional barriers.

Zeus Mentors is currently engaged with CAs across industry/domains, viz. Auto, BFSI, Education, Healthcare, Logistics, Mfg, R&D/Tech, IT/ITES,etc.

Quality

Zeus Mentors offers 2 services, viz. modular Mentoring & Coaching (*Zeus MnC) and ZeusIn.

* described earlier in this article

The quality of Zeus Mentors is reflected in the standards it has set for itself and its team. Every ZMC has the record of having been a successful corporate athlete him/herself. Most ZMCs are also certified executive coaches. Sensitive to the challenges of corporate stars, they help sustain self-confidence, motivate their mentees to stay the course, give them pointers in acquiring skills and building competencies, advises them in making appropriate choices towards attaining their chosen goal – whether it is to improve performance or realising dreams or combinations.

ZeusIn:

ZeusIn focuses on the enhancement & success of the organisation's internal mentoring program.  Working with the organization's identified internal mentors (IM), ZeusIn is best suited for organizations with an Internal Mentoring Program (IM). The ZMCs provide the IMs with a structured and practical approach to mentoring, including experiential & knowledge transfer workshops, thus enabling a sustainable/successful engagement, mitigating mid-way derailment commonly experienced in most IM programs.

The IMs themselves experience enhancement/correction in their personal capacity & deliverables.

The passion & desire to contribute, drive change, help build future leaders and to do more, describes the Zeus team.

Zeus e-Avatar

Keeping with the agenda to evoke long-term social change, Zeus is designed primarily as B2C, its value proposition presented through a state-of-the-art portal, www.zeusmentors.com. Here, engagement is enabled in a progressive and futuristic manner by mitigating a lot of the usual communication & decision-making challenges.

For the people who are always on-the-go, Zeus engages with its target audience, the Corporate Athlete, digitally. The signature Zeus one-on-one sessions, can take place anytime, anywhere, right from your smartphone or laptop.

The Zeus e-Avatar makes the whole process a user-friendly, device-friendly, and an hassle-free experience – right from choosing your mentor, to next steps!

The Rainmaker

Translating vision into reality, Sadhana Somasekhar, CEO & MD of the organisation, along with a group of acclaimed industry leaders, is one of the founding members of Zeus Career & Performance Coach Pvt. Ltd.

She is an accredited CEO/Executive Coach, Mentor and certified NLP Practitioner from National Federation of Neuro Linguistic Programming, USA, with over 26 years of experience in the IT/ITES industry, addressing business, strategy, and innovation.

Known to be an out-of-the-box-thinker, incurable optimist & passionate communicator, Sadhana is anactive member of various industry bodies and forums –

Industry affiliations:

  • NASSCOM D&I: National Council Committee (current)
  • Chairperson, NASSCOM D&I, TN Chapter (2012-2015)
  • Chairperson, Bilateral Relations, India-Sri Lanka, India –USA (CPD)
  • Chairperson, All World India100 Executive Council (Michael E. Porter-Harvard Business School initiative)
  • Expert Mentor: National Entrepreneurs Network (NEN)
  • Pink Ambassador – *West Cancer Research (*NGO)

Recognitions:

  • "25 Most Influential Women in India – 2017" by The CEO Magazine
  • Most Talented Coaching Leaders (India) – 2017, World Coaching Congress (WCC) & CHRO Asia Awards
  • Woman Super Achiever- 2017, at the 4th Women Leadership Congress, FEMINA & World HRD Congress
  • "25 Most Promising Women Entrepreneurs – 2016" by Consultants Review Magazine
  • Best Woman Entrepreneur Across Sectors"- Dun & Bradstreet's Leading SMEs of India Awards (2014)
  • "Woman Leader for Innovation"- 5th Annual Women Leaders of India summit (2014)
  • NASSCOM Special Recognition Award – 2007 Innovation & D&I
  • High Intensity Entrepreneur – All World Network, Harvard University, USA
  • "Leading Woman Entrepreneur- SME": II Annual Women Leaders in India Awards (2010)
  • "India's Top 5 CMOs" – Women Leaders in India Awards (2010)
  • "Leading Woman (IT)" – Women Leaders in India awards, iiGlobal& NDTV (2010-11 & 2012-13)
  • "India Leadership Award for Industrial Dev." – 2011 & 2013, AIAF
  • "India Athena Award Nominee (2007)" – Athena International & Infosys Ltd.

Others:

  • India Today: Top 20 Most Influential People of T.N. (2007-08)
  • Individual success profiling: "Betting on Talent", Outlook Money

"The best work happens when you know that the effort invested will improve the lives of others. This is the belief that drives each of us at Zeus Mentors. Many companies aspire to change the world. But very few have landed the full order of the elements required: Value (the WHY), experience, quality, resources, and most importantly, perseverance, passion & spirit. Zeus has all this (& more) in abundance.Here's to building a great tomorrow, today, together!" – Sadhana Somasekhar

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