Mital Patel On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain & Turbulent Times
Once I heard my coach Jay Shetty say “silence isn’t empty, it’s full of answers” it changed the way I thought of meditation and it has become a life changing quote to live by. Whenever I find myself struggling to find clarity or even resolution, I turn to solitude. In fact, if we rearrange the letters of the word “silent” it can be spelled out as “Listen”.
As part of our series about the “Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Turbulent Times”, we had the pleasure of interviewing Mital Patel.
Mital is a Jay Shetty certified Life & Success Coach, a mum of two boys, and an advocate of conscious living.
Her mission is to help one parent everyday (HOPE) connect & communicate with their children. She empowers parents to overcome parenting challenges by choosing connection over correction and by modeling effective leadership..
Mital has a personal testimony about how lack of connection in childhood can lead to anxieties and depression. Hence, she guides parents to raise children that are well-equipped with the necessary tools.
Thank you so much for your time! I know that you are a very busy person. Our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you got started?
In 2015 I found my husband suffering silently and losing the battle against mental health. That day I decided I wanted to help him, and the frustration of not knowing what to do led me to self-development. After consuming all the free content out there and reading self-help books for 3 years I found myself overwhelmed with all the information. I decided to invest in coaching for myself, and my coach Jay Shetty shared it’s about what’s inside of you. It’s Gandhi who said be the change you wish to see and that day I understood the real meaning of being the change. I started focusing on my personal growth.
After a year of focusing on my growth, I felt annoyed at my husband for not putting any efforts to come out of addictions. I felt agitated and anxious about the future of our family. I asked my coach Jay Shetty for advice, he said I can’t advise you as a coach but there are two options I see if you want to explore. One is you take your kids out of the toxic environment and just leave your husband or two you accept your husband for who he is and keep praying and not forcing the growth on him but facilitating the environment. I chose the second option. I accepted my husband for who he was and reminded myself that he is going through a tough time, this is his journey and as a partner I take responsibility to support him. I agree this is not for everyone, but at that time I wanted to do everything I could. I knew it was not his fault that he got stuck in the mud of addiction, everyone makes mistakes. Some mistakes are minute and some mistakes turn our realities to 360 degrees.
That day I made two choices. One to support my partner and another to ensure I change.
I promised myself and my children that I would do better. I decided to facilitate the growth environment for our family instead of forcing the growth. Reminded myself that I can’t make people want something, I can only make them want something 😉
Fast forward to 2020, we were happy where we were as a family and having deep conversations like what’s our purpose? I knew as a kid I wanted to be a teacher because I loved solving puzzles 😂. I learned Coaching is my path, another huge gratitude to Jay Shetty, my mentor. I decided to empower parents to connect and communicate without repeating themselves millions of times. I take parents on a journey from correction to connection with my SOLVE method.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Haha! I have a good one. It was when I signed up my first paid client, during the discovery call and she asked how do I pay? And I blanked out for a second. Because I didn’t even think about it that far. The lesson here was that entrepreneurship is a learning experience, and it’s okay to not have it all figured out.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
As much as it sounds cliche, I say I have many without whom I wouldn’t be where I am today. But for now I will say my mentor Kavit Haria, someone I look up to and someone who is my silent biggest supporter. When I was starting and afraid to charge for my services, he reminded me by not charging I am doing a disservice to my clients. I am grateful for him to remind me of how important it is to charge for my services so I could help them create the transformation and not just keep it to the information or transaction level.
Extensive research suggests that “purpose-driven businesses” are more successful in many areas. When your organization started, what was its vision, what was its purpose?
Purpose of my brand has always been about the impact, it was about helping parents build stronger parent-child relationships so that they can empower their children to make a wiser choice of not going towards the mud of addiction. Vision was about building stronger childhood so we have less struggling adulthood.
Thank you for all that. Let’s now turn to the main focus of our discussion. Can you share with our readers a story from your own experience about how you lead your team during uncertain or difficult times?
Of course, I lead multiple dynamics. First one is where I get to lead my family life as a mom and I truly believe parenting is a challenging leadership role. We must model positive behavior for our children to imitate. During sibling rivalry or power struggles is when my leadership is tested. That’s when I use my 5 step SOLVE method to ensure I make children feel seen, heard and understood even in the difficult times. This is the same method I guide my clients with.
Then comes my different teams for my business, I have a podcast management team, then a video editing team and it’s important as a leader I step back and give them their autonomy and let the experts do their charm. I am one of those who believe leadership is about leading your people not managing them. I ensure I share my vision and optimistic outlook during difficult times. It’s important that my team gets to see the bigger picture and inspire them with a vision for the future, even when things are uncertain. Seeing vision is only possible when I communicate my goals and expectations in a way that is easy to understand and follow to achieve the big vision. And when I do that it helps reduce confusion and anxiety, and ensures that everyone is working towards the same vision. One of my new favorite skills I carry on my sleeves is the ability to adapt to change during difficult times. Being able to pivot plans and strategies as circumstances change, and be willing to try new approaches when necessary.
For example, in January 2023 I had plans to launch my video podcasting and life took turns and withdrew a support system so I decided to communicate with the team to pause the current audio podcast and work behind the scenes to come back with new energy. Instead of getting burnt out, I ensured I communicated with the team new goals, vision, pause on current plans and pivot to adapt new strategies all while self-regulating and managing my emotions and responding with empathy and compassion.
Did you ever consider giving up? Where did you get the motivation to continue through your challenges? What sustains your drive?
Honestly not giving up is like in my nature or something. My husband till today reminds me of how I never gave up on him because of his addiction. I stood by him for a decade while being abused, and living in fear and anxiety for the future of our family life. I honestly believe that challenges are part of life and for some reason I am just built to live with pressure and challenges, I love being challenged. In fact, I did this quiz called Four tendencies created by the author Gretchen Rubin where I learned I am a Rebel type. Who resists outer expectations and inner expectations and the antidote to life for Rebel is challenges. This explained why I loved being challenged. I also think for me personally it’s not about motivation rather it’s about the challenge itself that makes me go for it. And then sustainability definitely comes from the support system I have around me.
I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Do you have a book in your life that impacted you and inspired you to be an effective leader? Can you share a story?
Think Like a Monk (TLAM) by Jay Shetty that was published in September 2020 is THE book that impacted me to be an effective leader. It’s my go-to book for my personal or professional turbulent times. Every year on my birthday I have a tradition to set a theme of the year and I do this by reading my spiritual scriptures. In 2022 I decided to add TLAM and did the mission reading as Jay Shetty calls it. You open a random page and whatever catches your eye, you read that and take it as a sign from the Universe as that’s what I needed. To my surprise I got something similar from my scripture reading and TLAM, scripture said about maintaining courage and TLAM said about befriending my fears. As a leader it’s about modeling and TLAM is helping me do just that.
What would you say is the most critical role of a leader during challenging times?
I must say communicating a clear and compelling vision for the future is crucial during challenging times. Optimism, adaptability to change and pivot, fostering teamwork and collaboration are some additional skills that help leaders during challenging times.
When the future seems so uncertain, what is the best way to boost morale? What can a leader do to inspire, motivate and engage their team?
It’s natural for us to feel anxious and unmotivated when the future seems so uncertain, as we have all experienced during pandemic. As a leader this is the time when we need to support our team to boost morale. Mentally and emotionally everyone loses the battle against fear and that’s when the leader gets to practice their leadership.
I believe as a leader the best thing to do to inspire, motivate and engage our team is to lead by example, be resilient and adaptable. Model prioritizing your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being so your team can do the same. Provide resources and support to encourage a healthy work-life integration.
What is the best way to communicate difficult news to one’s team and customers?
This is never easy, communicating the difficult news to the team is hard but what helps is being transparent, thoughtful and considerate. Again, as a leader being clear and concise is important along with empathetic and understanding nature. Demonstrating that you care about their well-being and interest helps them listen. So I believe it is challenging but communicating openly, showing empathy, and providing support can help our team navigate through difficult times.
How can a leader make plans when the future is so unpredictable?
That’s a great question and first of all i would say is by embracing the uncertainty instead of eliminating it. Secondly, focus on your personal and professional core values, vision and mission. I believe our core values, vision and mission becomes our compass and empowers us to make a new choice again in the midst of chaos. And as a leader you are also modeling the behavior you want your team to model.
Is there a “number one principle” that can help guide a company through the ups and downs of turbulent times?
There is no “number one principle” like there is no “one size fits all” approach in life. Every company is unique, there core values are unique. One thing for sure can help a company guide through the ups and downs of turbulent times and that is core values like resilience and grit. Which becomes the GPS to navigate through the turbulent phase.
Can you share 3 or 4 of the most common mistakes you have seen other businesses make during difficult times? What should one keep in mind to avoid that?
The most common mistake businesses make during difficult times is cut down budget, which surely is important but thinking budget cutting will solve everything is not going to help. Instead, re-prioritize investments that can bring maximum outputs. Another big mistake we make is failing to communicate effectively, fear of what ifs becomes so heavy that it blurs out our communication skills. Instead how about we focus on “what is”, focus on calming our nervous system down and then communicating with teams. Another one is not focusing on your team members. Instead focus more on your team members because they are the backbone of your organization. Recognizing and rewarding them for their efforts can actually increase productivity and give maximum output.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Once I heard my coach Jay Shetty say “silence isn’t empty, it’s full of answers” it changed the way I thought of meditation and it has become a life changing quote to live by. Whenever I find myself struggling to find clarity or even resolution, I turn to solitude. In fact, if we rearrange the letters of the word “silent” it can be spelled out as “Listen”.
How can our readers further follow your work?
They can find me on any social media platform under @risewithmital and you can subscribe to my emails at www.risewithmital.com
Thank you so much for sharing these important insights. We wish you continued success and good health!
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to share my story and thoughts on leadership as a mom.
Mital Patel On Five Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Leader During Uncertain & Turbulent… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.