Employee development goes far beyond optimizing an individual’s skill set for their professional role. Instead, it encompasses continuous learning that nurtures employees and guides them to progress on their personal career paths. An investment with assured returns, developing people’s talents has no downside, as explained by Ravila Gupta.

Ravila Gupta is an advocate for and master in the art of people and talent development. Ravila has worked in a multitude of industries all over the world and has been exposed to all kinds of working environments and people. From pulp and paper engineering to environmental engineering to engineering consulting to material technologies and even a law firm — Ravila has left no stone unturned.

Ravila, you are passionate about, an advocate for, and a master in the art of truly developing people. Your expertise in coaching people comes from your deep cultural understanding, your experience in a breadth of industries, your own leadership experience, and the leadership skills you developed over the years — tell us more about all the aforementioned. Why is this critical for businesses and how do you go about developing people?

“Since a very young age, I have always looked to improve myself. If there was a tough problem in front of me, which caused me to learn something new — come up with an innovative solution and gather knowledge along the way — those were the best days of my life. There is nothing else I enjoy more. I have been on a constant journey of wanting to do better, learn more and understand more thoroughly. I absolutely love being posed with challenges — most people tend to run away from that, but I thrive on it. Not knowing much about a topic, and then being able to figure it out is such a joyous experience for me. I put myself in positions to grow and constantly evolve”.

“I like to apply this same mentality to the people I work with. My goal is to share my story with them, understand their story, their potential, and what they envision their career trajectory to look like, and then help them achieve that. My approach to leadership and people development and talent management can be viewed as a form of servant leadership. I believe that as a leader it is my duty to help those around me flourish and constantly grow. Once I am able to understand someone, I purposefully put them in situations that may scare them or put them outside of their comfort zone. They may successfully navigate the challenge, or they may shy away from it — either way, it is a learning experience. It forces them to learn more about themselves”.

“When investing in people development and training, every organization’s biggest fear is “what if they leave?” However, I don’t view talent development that way at all. If I am able to train someone and they continuously grow and contribute to my organization — that’s great. However, if they move elsewhere — that is great too. They are contributing to society. There is no downside to developing and coaching people to reach their full potential.”

Thanks for sharing, Ravila.

Originally published in Talking Trends

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Author Bio:

Ravila Gupta is a people-oriented CEO & Board Director. A leader with Strong Business Acumen, Legal Experience & an Origin in Engineering, a strong affinity for people, and purpose-driven work.