TALKS & INTERVIEWS

I thank God for yet another opportunity to have shared with an intellectual group of budding and seasoned professionals on experiences of how they could accelerate their career with focus on a hand-picked topic - 'What got you here, will not get you there'

Happy to have shared my thoughts on 'Leadership in the VUCA world' with the distinguished students from IIT Roorkee.

I was looking forward to this session as I felt it a privilege to be part of their 174 year legacy. I must confess that it was a great interactive session and exciting to an extent that we over ran our schedule time !

I wish all the 100+ budding professionals nothing but the very best for their vibrant future!

Thank you, DoMS, IIT Roorkee

A big 'thank you' to the budding Finance professionals of Fin-Elite for the opportunity to have shared my experiences on ... Investing Young and Harvesting All-through! Thank you Deandra Aden and finelite for inviting me!🙏

Glad to have spent a quality 90 mins on sharing my personal life experiences on investing for their tomorrow, today!!

Click here for the talk, especially the Q & A.

Excited to have been on an elite panel discussion at the White Page Leadership Conclave 2021 organized by White Page International, on 28th August 2021.

Praise🙏God !! For this great opportunity!!

The panel discussion was on: "Talent Analytics- a crystal ball for your work force/ creating the strong employment brand and how to earn the employer of choice reputation"

Thank you Sarmad Zargar from WPI. A big thank you to my fellow Panelists: Avinash Ananda, Renu Rohtagi, Puneet Rajput, Priya Chakravarty I thoroughly enjoyed being in their esteemed company.

Happy to have shared on "Resilience For Remote Working". Building Resilience starts with happiness from within! This was the key message shared at this highly interactive session.

I wish the leaders who were present all the very best in their leadership journey.

Thank you Prakash Sharma for hosting me at Leaders Connect virtual meet. Thank you Divya for the pics.

The COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on the future of work. The crisis has brought a massive change in the way an organization functions or brands its culture. Even most of the companies are ready with their technical and communication infrastructure to run their businesses smoothly. Now is the time for companies to increase their learning budgets and commit to reskilling. Developing this muscle will also strengthen companies for future disruptions.

In this episode, Willis Langford talks about "Reinventing The Organisation For The Post COVID-19 Phase".

Read more...

Brainstorming on the way ahead, a panel during the India Technology Week, discussed what employees and employers can do in the current situation.

Jobs in the electronics industry are very diverse. These range from as basic as soldering operations to as complex as making devices edge and cloud compatible. However, the current COVID 19 situation has put up a question mark on all these equally. While some experts believe that companies moving their base and operations to India will create new job opportunities, others argue that there is a long way ahead!

Read more...

Ever since the world has been put under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all companies have moved to remote working. While employees are gradually getting accustomed to this setup, companies need to introduce the new normal at workplaces once all of this is over.

In this webinar by ekincare, moderated by Thrilok Abhishek - AVP, ekincare, speakers Ashrita Anthony - HR, Dow, and Willis Langford - HR Director - Avnet talked about how organizations can help employees not just cope with this change, but to recognize it as the new normal, and to succeed and thrive in the face of ongoing disruption.

Read more...

Interviewer: How do you retain Hi-Po's?

Willis: I use my STAR tracker. The first one is S is, to give them 'stretch' goals and projects you know because hypos don’t want to do the regular thing that they’ve been there and done that they want to be someone different. They don’t want to work for money, they want to work for what they have done in untrodden territory. So, give them some stretch goals and targets. The T stands for you know the 'targeted training and development' for them, so that they could really be not the run of the middle of classroom training but something that accelerates their stretch goals and then you come into the action plan which is A and then 'appreciation' and recognition for what they have done. And trust me once you you’ve really got them going with all of this action then the R comes in. What’s the R? It’s really given them a 'rotation of job' for the next role, right?

Read more or listen to the podcast...

All of us want to be good leaders, but never clearly know how to become one. We know that a wise man is one who learns from mistakes of others, but more than that, what is more important is to learn from your own mistakes. Willis Langford, HR Director, Avnet shares his exciting journey of ups and downs and leadership skills learned from the industry for 25+ years with Ankita KS from EFY Group. This is something worth a read…

Read more...

Interviewer: What would be your advice to the academia–how should they reinvent their curriculum to create techies suitable for the industry?

Willis: More than 50% of India’s population is below the age of 25 and the prediction that the average age of an Indian by 2020 will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. With this as the backdrop, we will witness a significant change in the demographics of India’s working population. Hence, it is imperative for a transformational change in the curriculum so that the right skills are imparted to satisfy the thirst for knowledge of this increasingly dynamic group who are at the forefront of technology. One way of transforming would be to focus on building on creative skills alongside basic life skills to be more relevant and employable in the VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) world. A few universities have already made a head-start, others need to quickly follow.

Read more...

Interviewer: How can emerging leaders be successful in the future especially when work is mostly remote-centric?

Willis: Leaders of today are faced with increased challenges due to fast technological advancements, changes in the workforce demographics and digital disruptions. And now, with the pandemic, emerging leaders have an additional challenge of managing people working remotely. To have confidence in an individual, leader or organisation, one has to start with building trust. Likewise, for a leader to be successful, he or she needs to be a transparent communicator and one who encourages an open environment where people can voice their opinion freely. In these challenging times, it is important that the leader shows empathy. This can be demonstrated through active listening and showing care not just to the employees but to their families as well.

Read more or listen to the podcast...