Now, insecure CEOs seek mentors

NEW DELHI: It’s pretty lonely at the top. And no one knows it better than India Inc’s CEOs. So whom do they turn to when they are faced with insecurity, sarcasm or problems with peers and board members? Keeping in mind that today’s corporate India has many leaders who have been thrust with top roles in a short span, it’s a tough calling for these top honchos to be perfect in their role-play.

This is where one-on-one programmes come in — tailor-made for CEOs and the likes — to advice and help them deal with such situations. Conducted by professional training services, these classes are being offered in plenty but with a price tag attached. The cost ranges between Rs 30,000 and Rs 1 lakh for a three-day programme.

Although, mentoring and coaching has been around forever, this trend is fast catching the fancy of many leaders in corporate India. The reason being high stress levels, due to hectic deadlines to meet the respective targets. Be it an MNC, PSU or even a government agency, everyone is embracing the concept of personalised training for better professional and personal performance.

“Every CEO needs a sounding board as it’s tough out there in the corner room. What these trainers and facilitators offer is an unbiased viewpoint since they don’t have an axe to grind in the company politics,” says Murlidhar Rao, CEO, NIS Sparta, one such performance enhancement solutions company. Mr Rao has worked with companies across sectors such as IT & ITES, BPO, telecom and financial institutions. Due to non-disclosure agreements Rao couldn’t disclose the names of his clients.

Similar sentiments were echoed by Siddartha Talwar of Evolve Services, who believes that people at this level are embarrassed about coming out in the open. He says, “Our effort is not to teach them finance and economics but to prepare a case study material which is highly customised. And their performance is judged by their peers.” Behavioural enhancement seems to be the hottest thing in the market right now feels industry players. “Cultural sensitisation is becoming significant as cross-cultural workforce is becoming common for multinational companies,” says Gaurav Gill, head, business development, Mindtrainers.