In 2022, companies are looking to emerge and build back their businesses. But are they well equipped to thrive in the new world of work? 

The post-pandemic business landscape has enabled employees to develop new skills. But, it has also forced employers to focus on retention and build resilient workforces. 

Aishwarya Goel, Co-Founder & CEO of Peakperformer, has this to say about retention, “People skills are the most important skills one can develop in the post-pandemic reality. I believe they will play a massive role in the future of work. In the era of great resignation fueled by working from home and amidst sky-high tech attrition, it is essential for leaders to be better at people management and understanding their team better.”

Especially at the leadership level, the working styles need a complete overhaul. 

“If L&D fails to incorporate these skills in their roadmap, we may see a huge crisis of sorts not so far in the future,” adds Aishwarya. 

To help young managers navigate the challenges of a young and diverse workforce, Aishwarya and Nilesh Agarwal, co-founder and CTO, launched Peakperformer in 2020. 

In this interview with People Matters, Aishwarya talks about the importance of coaching in a post-pandemic world and how Peakperformer enables organizations and leaders to learn and nurture relevant skills to build a strong leadership pipeline. 

What was the tipping point behind creating Peakperformer?

Many Gen-Z workers who have not even stepped foot into a physical office struggle with human dynamics and people skills.

When I started Peakperformer in 2020, the idea was to help young managers like me navigate the challenges of a workforce increasingly dominated by millennials and Gen Z workers. 

My co-founder Nilesh and I had conversations with others like us, who confirmed our assumptions that most modern managers invariably face the same challenges. More often than not, they don't know who to reach out to resolve these challenges.

Managers that have access to exemplary leadership and behavioral skills are not just better equipped to do their job; they can guide their team to achieve their north star metric with greater predictability. 

While the benefits of leadership coaching were prominent, only a tiny segment of the senior leadership had access to it. We knew then and there that the answer lay in making coaching more accessible and relatable to younger managers right at the start.

What started as an idea found wings in the support we got from our early customers, leaders, and coaches, who have been instrumental in getting us where we are today.

How is Peakperformer enabling organizations to create more leaders and preparing them to tackle the uncertain challenges that could arise in the future?

At Peakperformer, we provide personalized leadership coaching and help executives resolve their day-to-day challenges. 

We have 150+ leadership coaches who have an average of 10-30 years of professional experience and over 500+ hours of leadership coaching on our platform. They have also worked in top leadership roles and have been in the shoes of the executives before. Our coaches are spread across geographies and specialize in several niches.

Be it handling tough conversations at work, resolving conflicts, or navigating complex office dynamics; we help executives handle these challenges with ease.

Our digital leadership coaching platform is currently being used by tech behemoths such as CRED, Groww, MPL, Bizongo, and others to fast-track the leadership path for young managers and help senior leaders address their issues head-on.

How is leadership coaching a key element to driving productivity and performance? How can businesses measure the impact?

For organisations that would like to increase performance and productivity in the long run, leadership coaching helps upskill their workforce and give them opportunities to advance into management roles.

The alternative to this solution is getting into a bidding war for outside talent costing huge resources for the company. 

HR Leaders and CXOs who are deliberating on implementing a leadership coaching program should note that executive leadership coaching provides a massive ROI. 

Like physical training coaches, the benefits of executive leadership coaching are evident in terms of productivity, leadership, and other measurable factors.

According to a Forbes study, 77 percent of respondents state that leadership coaching significantly impacted their nine business measures. It also improved overall performance, employee satisfaction, and engagement. 

In the era of great resignation, leadership coaching reduces attrition and the overall cost of hiring - by opting for internal talent instead of getting into a bidding war. 

We wrote an interesting article about this here if you want to know more about it.

What trends will shape leadership coaching in the new year? 

There are several promising trends in leadership coaching that we are seeing emerge:

Trend #1: Democratisation of Coaching

Leadership coaching is no longer restricted to the upper management. The visible ROI, increased number of certified coaches, and normalization of coaching have led to the democratization of leadership coaching at all levels.

Trend #2: Digitalisation Of Coaching

The days of in-person coaching are gone. Professionals now want executive coaching that is easily accessible, digital and viewed from their devices. Webinars, online personalized training, and other digital coaching delivery methods for clients will become mainstream.

Leadership coaches must be prepared to diversify to remain valuable and relevant.

Trend #3: Specialization Will Take Over

Companies will hire executive coaches to solve niche challenges as the coaching industry matures.

Professional leadership coaches specializing in niche coaching will excel in their careers and be in high demand. 

With these trends in focus, what will be your future plans as far as product and expansion are concerned?

This is an exciting time for the entire team at Peakperformer for several reasons. 

We just raised our seed round, and our vision is backed by Sequoia Capital, Blume Ventures Founders Fund, Antler India, and several angels. As we ready ourselves for this next chapter, we’re eager to share a glimpse of our priorities for the future.

Some of our guiding principles are to:

• Create a tech-first product that is accessible and available to everyone
• Build a community of world-class coaches across industries and specializations
• Be a bridge between the coach and the learner and facilitate the learning experience

In this new age of remote work where teams become more diverse, our focus continues to be providing managers with the support and guidance they need to build high-performing teams no matter where they are.

A key focus area for us will be to continuously improve the product and make it easier for our coaches and learners. We plan on using this round of funding to expand our team as we venture into newer markets.

We also plan to launch many new features and modules beyond the coach and learner interaction. Our upcoming updates include additional content resources that learners can access on their own to make coaching a continuous learning experience.

Get a chance to meet Aishwarya Goel, Co-Founder & CEO of Peakperformer at People Matters Workforce Productivity Conference.