Alchemy Consulting

05/11/2019

Managers / Leaders - Are you being "UNKIND BY BEING KIND"?

I asked this question at a group coaching session recently. We were talking about empowering women leaders, and supporting female talent and managers returning to work after maternity leave.

One of the things we shared was "BENEVOLENT BIAS". Means making assumption about the talent, choices, preferences, capabilities of other people, out of care and concern. Here are some examples:

1. Not giving high stakes / client visibility projects to new mums returning to work, because "they may not be ready to deal with the intese hours or pressure".

2. Someone seems stressed / overworked and you assume that they would not like to be in a client meeting.

3. You don't ask a colleague to make a presentation as you think that person is sensitive to tough remarks and don't want to put them in a spot.

The problem with these assumptions are that these are ASSUMPTIONS. Here is what we can do:

1. Be kind by being open and discussing options with people

2. Challenge our assumptions by discussing with others

3. Have one on one conversations

Speak up, ask and share. Message me if you would like to learn more about this or ask about my workshops.

19/06/2019

"I don't like to brag about my work. I want to speak it for itself."

"I am dedicated, hard working, top performer and great at what I do. I can't be bothered with doing more."

Many of us have had these thoughts at some point or other. Unfortunately, as many of us have also realized, work work will not speak for itself and hard work is not going to be enough to reach the positions we want to and get the opportunities we want.

Then what will? Here are 3 of the many additional things that we can do.

"What is one thing you wish you knew 10 years ago?” is a question I often ask successful and senior leaders in the business and corporate world. Some of their thoughts are similar, some are different.

14/06/2019

In 1998, I had the experience of my first leadership role. I was in Year 8 and I had been elected by my classmates as the "Class Representative". As a newly appointed leader, I was excited and a tad bit nervous. On the first day of my 'term', my father gave me these 3 lessons in leadership and confidence.

1. Confidence comes from knowing that there is no fall from which you can not rise. As a leader, you might have to fall several times. That is alright. Your rise will inspire people and instill confidence that they can fall and rise too.

2. No one knows everything. The most confident leaders are those who know this, who are always curious, open minded and willing to 'not know the answer'.

3. Focus on your natural strengths. Use them to your advantage. This will build your confidence levels. And when you are down in the trenches, you know you have some core skills to get you out of there.

These days, when aspiring and future leaders, ask me about building confidence - I often start with these three reminders!

What are your thoughts? Please do share your experience and suggestions in the comments below.
All the best!

20/05/2019

"This is a great opportunity Nidhi, but I don't feel like I am ready for it. I do not meet all the necessary requirements. Plus I have a lot going on in my current role. I feel like I still need to learn and wait for a little more evidence to show that I can handle this leadership role."

I asked her, "Is the evidence for you or for others?"

"Well, on one hand I think I can deliver results and can successfully lead the team. On the other hand, I am not sure if I am ready. And I am not sure if they will think that I am ready for this."

This is a conversation (not in exact words), which I have had several times with clients and friends. One of them just happened last week.

When a client tells me this, I ask them to ask themselves:

"When exactly would you feel 100% ready?"

"Are you sure that if you did this one thing for which you are waiting, you will 100% ready?"

"Who do you need to convince first, that you are ready for this role? Yourself or others?"

And slowly, through discussions, we identify that we are never going to be fully ready. If we believe it is a good opportunity for us and we have reasonable evidence in terms of past achievements, then why not give it a shot?

Remember, nothing is stopping us from taking the first step.

Go for it - even while you are debating - whether you are ready or not.

15/05/2019

3 Things I Stopped Doing in Order to Better my Communication

a. I stopped interrupting people with my 'brilliant' ideas. I realized I needed to be a better listener in order to truly connect with people.

b. I stopped using lengthy, verbose sentences. Most people don't have the attention span or time these days. Come to the point - fast.

c. I stopped expecting people to understand / guess / know what I want, and started to clearly express what I wanted from them. Clarity in communication is the key to better relationships too.

Which of these things, will you stop doing? Or is there anything else on your agenda to improve your communication? Would love to hear your thoughts and stories. :)

(In the pic - me giving a keynote on Communication to a group of over 200 accounting leaders at a conference.)

14/05/2019

Hey Friends,

It has been a while. How have you been?

Today, I want to ask you a few questions.

Do you struggle with talking about yourself, your strengths and achievements?

Do you struggle with the concept of "selling"​ your work, ideas and yourself to gain visibility? Would you rather let your work speak for you?

Today, I want to share with you a different perspective about modesty and humility.

It is time to not be modest, but be humble.

What do you think?

A few days back, I was giving a seminar to a room full of leaders about Branding, leadership presence and communication. We were talking about how to share our talents and strengths with people around us and shine, when one of the leaders paused me and said, “This is good.

25/03/2019

So excited to be invited by the Singapore NextGen committee of 100 Women in Finance to facilitate a session on the "Vital Art of Assertiveness" later this week. https://100women.org/pages/event.php?e=1975&inc=A&yr=2019&loc=0&kw=&p=1

Looking forward to interacting and discussing with the attendees about discovering our 'Assertiveness Quotient', tools to make our communication and behaviour more confident and assertive, learning to say 'No' and more.

(Here is a pic from one of my earlier client trainings on this topic.)

So, what is your 'Assertiveness Quotient'? Do you find it difficult to speak up, say no and navigate difficult conversations? Would you like to learn some tools on how can you use your words, body language, behaviour to increase your leadership presence, assertiveness, confidence and impact?

Would love to hear your thoughts and challenges in the comments below.

19/03/2019

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5-qualities-highly-confident-women-nidhi-kush-shah/

Hello dearest Alchemy Community!

How are you?

Today I have a question for you - how do you define confidence? And have you wished to increase your confidence at workplace and day to day life situations?

Today, on my LinkedIn blog, I am sharing 5 qualities of highly confident women and what can we learn from them.

Would love to hear your thoughts and challenges below!

All the best!
Nidhi

Let me ask you a question. “How do you define confidence?” “What words come to mind when I say this word aloud?” I asked these questions at a recent speaking engagement for a group of senior women professionals.

18/03/2019

Every struggle, every difficulty, every challenge - means only one thing to me.

It means it is time to rise to a new level.

Remind this as you start your new week today.

Are you ready for the mountain? Yes, you are.

Time for an exercise: Write down 5 challenges you are thinking of this week and write down what strengths you can use to overcome these challenges.

Share your thoughts in the comments below. :)

All the best!

26/02/2019

"I am not comfortable 'selling' my strengths. I like my work to speak for myself." I can't tell you the number of times I hear this from my training attendees or coaching clients.

And nothing holds us back more than our own beliefs. This belief that you do not want to 'sell' - take it and spin it around. You are not selling. You are SHARING.

By sharing your strengths, your accomplishments, your values, your work - you are telling people around you - your colleagues, team members, leaders, clients - how can you help them. You are telling them that you are the solution to one of the problems they have and you are showing them how can you solve it. That is not selling (and selling is not bad, BTW).
That is sharing.

Flip your entire pitch to yourself and to others about how you can and are making a difference. How can you help.

I loved 'sharing' this message to an audience of over hundred people at The Hong Kong Trade and Development Council event. Was I building my brand? Sure. Was I sharing because I genuinely wanted to make a difference? Hell, yes!

And that is what Personal Branding is all about.

12/02/2019

Identifying what to say 'No' to is as important as identifying what you say 'Yes' to.

This is an important reminder for us in many aspects of our business and life - like identifying our brand, making our days more productive and growing our business. We can not be everything to everyone and we can not do everything in one day.

We talked about this at my Personal Branding workshop at Hong Kong Trade Development Council

So, what are you saying 'No' to, today?

16/01/2019

Hey friends and family,

It has been a while since we had a chat and I properly introduced (or re-introduced) myself. :)

So here we go!

My name is Nidhi.

I am a Communication and Leadership Executive Coach, Motivational Speaker, Writer and Entrepreneur and I feel infinitely blessed that I get to wake up everyday and do the work I love so much.

I am a Masala Chai and Paneer addict, yoga and dance loving, vegetarian food cooking, book reading mom of two cheeky monkeys, who is in love with her family, work, business and life in general.

Inspiration is my jam. My motto is to help people around me grow in their careers and their lives and to be able to live their best lives. I measure my success by the people I inspire and their success.

I would love to get to know you more and love to tell you a bit more about me.

In order to get to know this community better, I am having my first Instagram Live Chat on
18th January, Friday, 22:30 Hong Kong Time / GMT - 14:30 / IST - 20:00

✨I will be talking a little bit out about my journey as an entrepreneur, speaker and coach.

✨What lessons I learnt as a small business owner? Mistakes to avoid

✨What are the three key factors which helped me build my brand? ✨

✨ How do I work this entire working mommy angle of my life?

I am doing it for the first time and I am super super thrilled.
Hope that you will be able to join me.

If you have any specific questions about any of these above points I listed or my journey or my work, please drop me a comment below or DM.

Looking forward to chatting with you all.

Love and inspiration,
Nidhi