EKMH Innovators Interview Series
An interview series spotlighting global tech influencers, disruptors, visionaries, and of course, innovators.
These last weeks and months have continually presented challenge after challenge for our global community. The world feels heavier as we try to understand and invest ourselves and our resources (remotely) in all the iterations of the “new normal.” In addition to the pandemic, climate change catastrophes and tense geopolitics must be mindfully and immediately addressed.
On Friday evening, when US Supreme Court Ruth Bader Ginsburg, our Notorious RBG, unexpectedly died, many Americans found ourselves yet again navigating another seismic shift, determined to fight harder for equity, rights and democracy. (A reminder to American readers, please register and vote.) If nothing else, 2020 has forced us to (re)evaluate what changes must we make immediately and how can we make a difference both now and in the long term. As Justice Ginsburg said, “Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” We can and we will enact lasting change and reform, one step at a time.
It’s no secret that successful investors, entrepreneurs and innovators seek council of their respected colleagues and global confidantes to help figure new paths. Lean In Sustainability Founder and President, Being and Becoming Institute of Conscious Leader, Global Entrepreneur, Keynote Speaker and Holistic Life / Career Coach Myah Payel Mitra is one person who can provide such guidance during these turbulent times.
Payel Mitra, an award-winning Holistic Life and Career Coach, is recognized as one of the Top 5 Women Entrepreneurs working on women’s mental health, leadership and well-being. As Google certified #IamRemarkable Facilitator, Payel Mitra helps women to talk more confidently about their achievements, needs and goals. Within organizations like Lean In, Vital Voices, One Billion Rising and Kolkata Sanved, Payel Mitra has successfully coached, facilitated and mentored women and girls across the globe with diverse backgrounds across industries and life stages, including South-East Asian human traffick survivors.
In addition, as a Stanford-trained Positive Intelligence therapist and certified Movement Therapy practitioner, Payel Mitra has worked with CXOs, senior leaders and high-performing teams, including KPMG, TCS, HCL, InterMiles, Vodafone, Experian and Citibank, helping clients navigate transitions, build resilience and empathy in order to make conscious choices. A member of the global Climate Coaching Alliance (CCA), Myah has also worked with Impact Leaders in the social sector and has led a winning CSR project which was recognized by the UN and won a 2020 Outlook India Responsible Tourism Award. Most recently Payel Mitra founded the Being And Becoming Institute of Conscious Leaders which seeks to help leaders navigate life and career transitions making conscious choices and adapting sustainable lifestyles.
I caught up with Myah Payel Mitra via email to learn more about a variety of topics including her vision for building a more conscious, sustainable and inclusive world, her founding role in Lean In Sustainability, her work as a Holistic Life / Career Coach, her own career transitions as well as advice for leaders and entrepreneurs. Our interview follows (responses in British English).
Lean In Conference attendees including Myah Payel Mitra happily leaning in with LeanIn.org Founder and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.
EKMH: Where do you see possibilities and opportunities to increase sustainability and climate change awareness in the workplace through your ground-breaking work at Lean In? How can companies and individuals proactively improve their records in both?
Myah Payel Mitra: We all have immense potential to collectively move the needle on the current climate crisis. Each voice matters and each action counts. Armed with this belief, I started Lean In Sustainability – a global network of 1500+ members who are committed to working on climate change and gender. As a Founder & President of Lean In Sustainability, I am humbled to introduce sustainability conversations into Lean In networks (community of 2 million+ members across 181 countries). Lean In Sustainability is a part of LeanIn.org – a non-profit whose mission is to help women achieve their ambitions and work to create an equal world.
Through Lean In Sustainability we raise awareness and inspire action against climate change. As an example, last year we ran a Shopping Detox Challenge for 2 months where 100+ women and men pledged to shop consciously. 80% of the time we only wear 20% of our wardrobe. With the fashion industry as the 2nd largest polluter, the idea was to move away from fast fashion and instead recycle, re-wear and re-purpose clothes to minimize filling up of landfills.
In my own corporate stint, I had successfully led and strategized an award-winning one-of-a-kind CSR (corporate social responsibility) program focused on bio-diversity conversation. This program has been recognised by the United Nations (UN) for its holistic approach and awarded at the Outlook India Responsible Tourism Awards 2020.
Having worked as a CSR and Sustainability Lead, I strongly believe that organisations need to move beyond sustainability and SDGs to embrace a more regenerative approach towards climate change. Organisations, global leaders and teams at large need to embrace inner and outer sustainability. We need to go beyond CSR and celebrate individual sustainability. On 1 October CCA will hold a 24 Hour Conversation to explore coaches can help raise the collective consciousness around climate change.
On the personal level, I decided to quit my corporate career, ditch city-based life and embrace an eco-centric slow living, and have since adopted minimalism and a sustainable lifestyle to make a difference. Through my work as a Holistic Life and Career Coach, I am building a more conscious, sustainable, and inclusive world and encouraging others to make more conscious choices every step of the way.
EKMH: How do you lend support to global leaders and coach teams on emotional intelligence, resilience and mindfulness? Why do these characteristics and an agile mindset play important roles for business leaders and their teams?
Myah Payel Mitra: There is no denying that we are living in an ever-changing and ever-expanding VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. COVID has both taught and reminded us of the very nature of life and the Universe. We live in a disparate yet connected world. So often we are caught in the cobwebs of our minds that we forget the presence of our bodies. Practicing mindfulness brings us back into the body and enables us to access somatic intelligence. Global leaders and high-performing teams acknowledge the importance of practicing mindfulness and adapting an agile mindset. Amongst the skills needed to thrive in a VUCA world, emotional intelligence & adaptability rank the highest.
Trailblazers, disruptors and visionary leaders in the world are already accessing this wisdom. Sir Richard Branson was once asked how he knew who to trust as he works with many people and regularly enters new partnerships. I will never forget his response: within six seconds of shaking hands with a new person he knows if he could trust him/her or not. Further, Branson has said, “I rely on gut instinct far more than researching huge amounts of statistics.” That’s accessing intuition. Similarly, Steve Jobs indicated, “Intuition is a powerful thing, more powerful than intellect, in my opinion.”
I work with senior leaders and high-performing teams helping them navigate transitions, build resilience and make conscious choices. As a certified Movement Therapy Practitioner and Holistic Life and Career Coach, I bring my understanding of somatic intelligence, embodied practices, resilience and mindfulness to my clients. As a former Agile Coach, I also understand the importance of psychological safety and coach teams on fail fast principles. Building collective resilience and improving adversity quotient (AQ) is particularly important for teams to bounce forward after every failure, especially in times of crisis.
Myah Payel Mitra aims to build a more conscious, sustainable and inclusive world, one workplace at a time.
EKMH: What does building a conscious, sustainable and inclusive workplace mean today?
Myah Payel Mitra: I believe that each one of us possesses an immense potential to make a difference in the world through our every action, or as the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn has said, “My actions are my only true belongings.”
With this in mind, earlier this year I virtually joined global leaders, disruptors and innovators to learn, share and discuss mindfulness in the age of technology at The Wellbeing Project at the Wisdom2.0 Conference. Despite COVID, I regularly interact with leaders across the globe on the future of work and how we can all play a larger role.
We are living in a very interesting time in history when we are at the cusp of change and human revolution. Currently our world is experiencing stressed systems, stressed people and a stressed planet. Organisations that care equally about People, the Planet and Peace are the ones who will thrive in the future. Moving from linear to circular economy, from rational thinking to embodied being, and from corporate responsibility to individual sustainability are all ways in which we can build more conscious, sustainable and inclusive workplaces today. This is the dawn of new age leadership that could take organisations to the next level.
Leaders pave the path and define organisational cultures. When we start becoming consciously aware of how we shape the world – both inside us and outside of us - we become aware of our own actions too. That’s Conscious Leadership to me.
EMKH: As an expert on women’s leadership and well-being, on which areas do you most often work and how do address their needs? How has the current pandemic played a role in this?
Myah Payel Mitra: The current pandemic has exacerbated some of the challenges that most of my clients/coachees are working through. According to ILO, 400 million full-time jobs are lost. WHO has declared depression is the global pandemic and women continue to do three times more unpaid work at home. Navigating the current job scenario while dealing with the blurring lines of work and life, managing mental and emotional well-being while upskilling to stay relevant are some of the common challenges that my clients now face.
In my many years working with women across different life stages across sectors and populations, I have found one common thread: most women often put their needs last and place the care for their teams, families and communities first. While this decision may seem good, one needs to understand that we can only serve when our cup is full.
In my work with women, I coach them on the five pillars of holistic well-being, the Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spiritual and Financial:
Physical – teaching self-care practices and somatic intelligence
Emotional – finding balance, exploring emotions, embracing the mind-body-soul connect
Mental - building resilience and raising Adversity Quotient (AQ)
Spiritual - being consciously aware, incorporating mindfulness & embodied practices
Financial – teaching financial independence, communicating value, negotiating at work and home
Recently EPIC (Equal Pay International Commission) hosted the first International Equal Pay Day. Interestingly, we still do not have a single country in the world that has achieved equal pay. Women are paid 20% less than men globally. According to Women’s Institute for a Secured Retirement (WISER), 80% women die single, a statistic that again stresses the need for more financial security for women. Taking a holistic approach is not only crucial but remains of paramount importance for the success and well-being of ambitious women leaders and entrepreneurs at large.
Myah Payel Mitra leading a Movement Therapy session.
EKMH: How have your clients benefited from your entrepreneurial background and holistic approach as they transition their careers and/or mindsets?
Myah Payel Mitra: I hail from a family of doctors and engineers and was destined to be one; I initially did what was expected of me. After finishing my Engineering degree and MBA, I worked for some of the largest global MNCs and Big 4 Management/Tech firms.
I am a first-generation entrepreneur. I started small – building on my dream, layer by layer, and over several years. Working on my passion project over the weekends while being gainfully employed in my corporate job, gave me a sense of what truly set my heart on fire and how I could make a living out of it. That was my ikigai moment: when I was ready to take the plunge, I decided to dive in.
When I met Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg in Palo Alto during August 2019, she asked me, “What would you do if you were not afraid?” Having an entrepreneurial mindset means that I do not fear failure; I see rejection as redirection. I have learnt to dance with my fears and make allies with them. I often coach my clients/coachees do the same and to fail on purpose. Magic happens on the other side of fear.
EKMH: What personal qualities have enabled you both to lead, collaborate and transition well?
Myah Payel Mitra: Before I quit my full-time corporate career in Jan 2020, I asked people to share one quality about me that they found inspiring. Resilience and persistence stood out for me.
My own experience dealing with a health scare, depression, toxic relationship, IPV and workplace politics, have taught me the art of resilience and science of neuro-agility. I take rejections as redirections and treat failures as springboard to bounce forward. Being resilient and persistent has helped me tide over and transition well. Just so you know, my latest transition happened in the backdrop of the current global pandemic.
EKMH: As an active community leader and volunteer, what advice do you have for other leaders, particularly those in STEM, to better share their energy, success and tools to help empower female peers, rising female team members, young women graduates and adolescent girls?
Myah Payel Mitra: The Dream Gap is real. Girls as young as 5 years old stop believing in themselves to achieve full potential. No wonder why we still have so few women in STEM.
When I started out on my first job, I was the youngest and only female leader to join the Strategic Solutions Group of one of the largest global IT firms. 13 years later, when I decided to hang my corporate boots, I remained the only woman in the Board Room.
According to Women In Workplace Study (the largest study on the state of women in Corporate America conducted by McKinsey & LeanIn.Org), the biggest obstacle to women’s progress is the broken rung and not the proverbial glass ceiling. We need eco-systems and support structures in place to help women achieve their full potential. We cannot do this alone, we need governments, policies, organisations, partners and teams supporting us all the way.
To adolescent girls and young women graduates I would say if you want to fly, learn how to First Love Yourself (F.L.Y.)
EKMH: How do you utilize Movement Therapy in your practice? Which other coaching techniques and expertise sets you apart from your peers?
Myah Payel Mitra: I continue to draw inspiration and insight leveraging my corporate background. If Big 4 Consulting taught me the dynamics of working in a highly demanding job in a competitive environment, working in a start-up taught me the importance of agility and resilience. Social sector and non-profit experience taught me the importance of emotional intelligence and empathetic leadership, while volunteering experience taught me more about the aspects of community and compassion.
As a certified Movement Therapy practitioner, I am trained to understand energy and access bodily wisdom. I bring my understanding of somatic intelligence, embodied practices, resilience and mindfulness into my coaching practice. I often incorporate elements of nature, art, breathwork and music therapy in my work. As Google certified #IamRemarkable Facilitator, I also help women to confidently communicate their worth and negotiate their value.
I often coach my clients/coachees on energy management rather than time management. When we have an understanding of our own energy bodies, we can lead a more sustainable and productive life without having a burnout. I follow Tony Robbins’ wisdom: “Energy flows where attention goes.”
EKMH: And last but not least, which books, podcasts and/or films are among your favorites?
Myah Payel Mitra: Books – Entrepreneurial You by Dorie Clark, Systemic Coaching by Eve Turner & Peter Hawkins, Life Is in the Transitions by Bruce Feiler, The Buddha and the Badass by Vishen Lakhiani
Podcasts - Hurry Slowly by Jocelyn K. Glei, On Purpose by Jay Shetty and Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations
EKMH: Any additional words of advice for our readers?
Myah Payel Mitra: Everything starts with you, goes through you and ends with you. Be aware of your actions and make conscious choices at every step of the way.
Follow me @crowdfunderin and @ekmhinnovators
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