The xMonks Drive

This episode brings to you the agile, diligent and the purpose weaver, Mr. Sanjeev Mantri with us. He is a sports fanatic who loves to be on the move. Sanjeev shares his lessons learnt from being on field to leading corporate halls. Listen to Sanjeev bringing a new lens to losing, leading and leaving a legacy. 

About Sanjeev-

A seasoned banker with experience that betrays his age, Sanjeev is already excelling in his new role as Executive Director for the company's retail business division.

With more than 20 years experience in the BFSI sector, Sanjeev joined the group in 2003 and has since left his indelible imprint across the Corporate Banking and the SME space. He holds credit for introducing various innovative products in the SME segment and the group’s expansion in the rural markets.

Prior to joining ICICI he has spent over 7 years with BNP Paribas, Mumbai handling diverse responsibilities in the Corporate Banking space.

A qualified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant, number crunching comes naturally to him. On the personal front, Sanjeev is known to be an avid sports person with a special interest in running marathons.

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Website: https://xmonks.com

Everybody is different. We don't need to figure it out. We just have to respect it. What we as a society have made a norm are actually just 2% of the people. Who set the benchmark? Who drew the line? 

Meet Praful, Queer Neurodivergent Entrepreneur on the latest episode of xMonks Drive in a chat with Gaurav Arora.

Praful Baweja is the Co-Founder of 6 Degrees Growth Network, Queer Neurodivergent Entrepreneur & Design Thinker.  Praful has been narrating stories based on diversity inclusion and strategic brand & marketing communication for corporates, celebrity and social sector clients for almost 2 decades.

Currently, he pursues happiness by including diverse viewpoints of stakeholders, their equity & creating a culture of belonging for various organisations through policies, branding & programs. He has won the Wow Awards Asia Gold for Best Use of Augmented Reality, Silver for Best Use of Virtual Reality & Bronze for Best Use of Interactive Technology for Capgemini Tech Fiesta 2019

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-xmonks-drive/id1549886334

Website: https://xmonks.com

Are you having trouble expanding your startup? You're not the only one! 
It's common to occasionally run into a wall. Nevertheless, many people are able to create successful businesses. What exactly are they changing, then?  
What realities have shifted in these decades? 
In this conversation, you will explore how coaches can help a start-up environment to accelerate growth with Rohit Thakur.

1. Why do Start-ups need  Coaching?
2. Tips to expand a start-up environment
3. What is the importance of coaching in organizational development? 

Rohit Thakur is Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at LEAD, India’s largest School EdTech company, and the first unicorn in the segment. At LEAD, Rohit is responsible for spearheading employee engagement, talent management and development, stakeholder engagement, internal communication, compliance, and health and safety environment. Prior to joining LEAD, he was the CHRO at Paytm. He has also worked with Microsoft India. He spent 11 years at General Electric in various HR leadership roles across multiple businesses such as energy, capital, engineering, corporate and aviation, both in India and the US. He was also associated with Eicher Tractors, Cadence Design Systems and Bausch & Lomb.

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Acceptance is a small, quiet room. And in this room, there is space for everything bitter life offers. 
Life is not always like we want. Even though we imagine it to be in a particular way, it ends up being something else. But what is important is that these factors should never be able to stop you from what you want. In this life philosophy-centred episode of The xMonks Drive, get a chance to listen to the unabridged story of Anupam Arun and his powerful breakthrough of learning Acceptance.

The episode contains-
Why is acceptance of life situations important? 
What are some uncommon meanings of acceptance? 
How can you add more acceptance to your life? 
How acceptance helps you overcome failure, grief, and hurt? 

Anupam Arun is the Country Head & SVP at Cvent. He has a strong and diverse background in Banking & Financial Services (BFSI) covering Voice & Non-Voice Back Office Operations and Shared Services Operations & Controls. Currently, he is a part of the global leadership of SAS market leader in enterprise event management 
 
In his career, he has led multiple lines of business, successfully executing objectives and managing multiple stakeholders in diverse geographies in a matrix environment 

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Website: https://xmonks.com

A leader is neither born nor made. A leader chooses to be a leader. So does that mean, it has always been inside us all the time? 
Most of us fail at it because we go straight into leadership skills without first addressing the leader’s mindset. Leadership is more than just a title.  

Who you are is how you lead. It’s that simple.

As you reflect on your own leadership, I’d invite you to answer the question, “Who are you being?” with Alain Hunkins

When you show up to work, or lead in your home, or community, “Who are you being?”

The more you look for an answer, the more you become aware of your inner leader.

Over his twenty-five-year career, Alain has worked with over 2,000 groups of leaders in 27 countries, including 42 of the Fortune 100 companies. In addition to being a leadership speaker, consultant, trainer, and coach, Alain is the author of the book CRACKING THE LEADERSHIP CODE: Three Secrets to Building Strong Leaders (published by Wiley, March 2020). 

Alain is a faculty member of Duke Corporate Education and serves on the Academic Board of Advisors for the New Delhi Institute of Management. Alain’s work has been featured in Chief Executive, Fast Company, Inc., Training Magazine, Chief Learning Officer, and Business Insider. He’s also a regular leadership strategy contributor to Forbes. Alain was recently named #33 on the Global Power list of the Top 200 Biggest Voices in Leadership for 2022 by LeadersHum. A father of two teenagers, he lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.

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Website: https://xmonks.com

Leadership is one of the hottest topics around. Every few minutes, a new leadership-related blog, podcast, opinion piece, or article is out. Almost anyone can refer to themselves as a leadership coach, and many people from various areas of life do so. However, a lot of them endorse unevaluated and unproven notions.

A successful leader never stops learning.

Tune in to the podcast episode to learn the lesson of acceptance, develop purpose-driven leadership, and be inspired by Anurag Agarwal's journey. 

In this episode, we are going to talk about-
* To lead is to add value to people
* How to stay grounded when you are on the top?
* The trap of lust and power; and breaking out from that
* Building a purpose around Contribution
* The enemy of a fulfilling experience: FEAR

About Anurag

Anurag Agarwal, CEO & MD of Natural Remedies has been associated with the company for over 20 years and has been leading it for the past 5 years. Passionately committed to the paradigm of “Harnessing Nature and Applying Science for Health and Happiness,” Anurag Agarwal believes in ‘Collaboration and Winning Together.’ At Natural Remedies, the organizational culture, where everyone - be it, employees, customers, or partners, feels valued and respected. They are strongly merged to business goals of the organization which is aiming to double its revenues by the year 2020.

He believes in the mantra of being sensitive and mindful of the impact to the environment, people, customers, and everyone associated with Natural Remedies.
The company was founded in the 1950s by his grandfather Ramlal Agarwal with a vision to deliver top quality animal health care products at reasonable price. The company has come a long way since then and has built a strong presence in the major markets like USA, Australia, Korea, South East Asia, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East.

Under the innovative leadership of Anurag Agarwal, the company has carved a place for itself as India's No.1 herbal veterinary healthcare company. Natural Remedies has also made its foray into the world of human health and their healthcare products offer a perfect recipe for improving the quality of life of its customers. 

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Website: https://xmonks.com

The festive season just got over! And I am sure you had a great time with your family and friends.

What each festive season or to say good or bad times teach us that --Connections Matter. There could not have been a better time to discuss more deeply on the matter.

My guest, Pat Hedley joins us to offer hard-earned wisdom about the true spirit of making a connection. One being learning and sharing, a learned skill that can be mastered by anyone, even introverts. She debunks the notion that networking is a self-interested act. Instead, she makes networking accessible, joyful and life-affirming.

In this episode, you will learn—-

1) How to stay in touch with people?

2) How to build curiosity in people?

3) What stops people from nurturing their connections?

4) What are the parameters to look for before investing in a relationship?

5) What is the true essence of connection?

Pat looks for great opportunities to bring people together to help one another. With three decades of global private equity experience at General Atlantic, now she independently invests in and advises innovative growth companies.

Current investments include business services (Triple Mint, Mogul, BrandVerge, Sorcero), wellness (Hint, Milk+Honey, Leda Health) and consumer (Margaux, Bespoke Post, Omsom). More than half of these companies are founded and led by women. She selectively takes on advisory or board assignments helping CEOs accelerate growth and translate strategy into results.

She is the author of Meet 100 People, A How to Guide to the Career and Life Edge Everyone's Missing, encouraging young people (and all of us) to meet people and build valuable life-long relationships. She speaks at corporations, alumni events, colleges, and other venues. TEDx speaker at Dartmouth College 2018. www.meet100people.com

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-xmonks-drive/id1549886334

Website: https://xmonks.com

You are more than your title, but some problems do come along with these titles. What are the problems which only CEOs face and can relate to? How does one go from an HR head to a full-time CEO? So when everybody around you is doubting you, how do you build faith in your team, and in your stakeholders? That's the story of Amit Malik. In this episode, let yourself experience the power of acceptance in tough times to come out winning.  


An accomplished Business, Customer and People focused leader with over 23 years of experience in Financial Services – Insurance, Banks, Captives and FMCG. Being a strong believer of inclusion & diversity, building capability and bringing social impact through sustainability initiatives, has been making a difference at Aviva since last 9 years with expertise in areas of Business Transformation & Growth, Strategy & Consulting, Business Restructuring, Change Management, Digital Strategy, Financial Analysis & Impact, Leadership & Capacity Development, Operations & Customer Services Management. 

He has served as the Executive Director on Aviva India Board and member of all Board level Committees, working with both shareholders as part of the Joint Venture, as the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director for the organization. 

With collaboration at heart, he has worked with global teams and have a strong track record of Developing Leaders and building high-performance teams. 

He is also a Certified Coach from ICF and Erickson and was Awarded ‘Top 40 HR Leaders’ 2014 in the country by Asia Pacific HR Congress. He has been an esteemed speaker at various forums, jury member and authored several articles on Future of Insurance, Customer services, Innovation and personalization , Key trends and practices in leading national dailies.

Personally he is very keen to work towards increasing the Financial literacy of a common Indian.

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Website: https://xmonks.com

We grow into the adults, we needed as children. Does that come into our way of becoming leaders?  The truth is life happens to all. Jerry Colonna adds that in between life happening and decisions we make, one cannot be a strong leader unless one allows oneself to grow, and this can only happen by leading a life examined. Hear more of life and leadership with Jerry in this episode of The xMonks Drive.

In this episode, you will learn-
1)     How to respond both sympathetically and compassionately?

2)     Reason why people do not open up

3)     Better human beings make better leaders

4)     Recognise the role one plays in their own reality

5)     Why do many people feel a sense of suffering in their work?

Jerry Colonna is CEO and co-founder of Reboot.io, an executive coaching, and leadership development firm, and author of ‘REBOOT: Leadership and the Art of Growing Up’ (HarperBusiness, June 18). For nearly 20 years, he has used the knowledge gained as an executive, venture capitalist (VC), journalist, and a board member for 100+ organizations to help people lead with humanity, resilience, and equanimity. For more, see https://www.reboot.io/book

Prior to his career as a coach, he was a partner with JPMorgan Partners (JPMP), the private equity arm of JP Morgan Chase. Previously, he led New York City-based Flatiron Partners, which he founded in 1996 with a partner, Fred Wilson. Flatiron became one of the nation’s most successful, early-stage investment programs. His first leadership position, at age 25, was editor-in-chief of Information Week magazine. 

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-xmonks-drive/id1549886334

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Can listening as a core discipline bring transformation in systems? 

Hear from the author of Transforming Systems—Why the World Needs a New Ethical Toolkit and the former member of The Planning Commission Of India and the learning factory himself, Arun Maira. The episode contains the wisdom of exemplary leadership, living, listening, kindness and special bits from Arun’s core memories. 

In This Episode, You Will Find-

• Balancing The Power That Comes With Titles
• Simple Joys Of Life
• What Is The Purpose of Your Work?
• When You Stop Learning, You Stop Living
• Kindness Lessons Learnt From Parents
• Listening As A Core Discipline In Transforming Systems
• Listening and Dignity Go Together
• Let Kids Discover Their Roles In World
• What Is The Essence Of Life?

Arun Maira has an unusual combination of experience as a hands-on leader, a consultant to leaders, and a thought leader on leadership and institutional transformation, in the private, public and social sectors. He has written several books on institutional transformation and regularly writes in journals. 
 
Arun was a Member of India's Planning Commission from 2009-14, prior to which he was Chairman of the Boston Consulting Group, India. Earlier, he had worked with the Tata Group in India for 25 years, and for another 10 years with Arthur D Little Inc and Innovation Associates in the USA. 
 
Presently, he is Chairman of Helpage International and an Advisor to several civil society networks. Arun Maira was born in Lahore in undivided India on August 15, 1943. 

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Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/the-xmonks-drive/id1549886334

Website: https://xmonks.com