Pradip Shroff, CEO Coach
Pradip Shroff brings over 38 years of business experience, out of which 28 years of experience is as a head of a business unit.
Podcast
Overview
“Coaching”, we all know it as a support program to help the coach develop and achieve a specific personal or professional goal. Coaching and mentoring programs among the organisations is a common practice these days. But there are people who have taken it to a better level.
Today, we are enchanted to set the stage for Mr. Pradip Shroff, a very senior corporate professional turned CEO coach. He is a former President and Managing Director of PRS Permacel which was earlier called Johnson & Johnson.
What inspired Pradip Shroff to become a coach?
While sharing his story of him becoming a coach, Pradip tells us about the time he was about to retire, he wanted to repay the corporate world for what it had given him. At that time one of his friends and colleague at PRS Permacel, Mr. RR Nair, suggested him to get a certification in coaching as he believed that Pradip had knowledge to give to people which is lot more than monetary gifts. As a result, Pradip joined a coaching certification programme and liked it a lot. He got to learn many things there which he now says would have been better to know while he was in the business.
Team Coaching
Pradip explains individual coaching as a personal tuition in a simple training program, whereas, team coaching is coaching where all the members are reporting to one boss or they are working on one task. While coaching an individual the coach tries to work on the individual’s excellence and helps the individual to optimize his or her skills whereas team coaching is very different as the members might not be willing to discuss a particular topic among the group.
Discussing how Pradip took up Team coaching, he shares with us the story which changed the direction of his career as a coach. Pradip tells us that once he was in Bombay coaching for a client. The client told him his problem is that he experiences lack of communication among the employees and requested Pradip to coach thm as a team. Pradip did a great job there and the client was satisfied. Since he had not been taught about this in his certification course, he decided to self learn about the topic and read as much as he could on this subject. This is how his journey as a team coach started.
Developing the process of team coaching
Pradip affirms that coaching has to be highly customized. The framework and structure can be common but the content inside that has to be subjective. He gives an example of how he did his frost team coaching. He tells us that he did a team 360 feedback. He went to each individual in the group and asked different questions about the team. Thus, he got everybody’s views about that team. He considered the team to be a single entity and individuals to be the elements of that one unit. This is how he coaches a team.
Effects of a culture on team coaching
In Pradip’s opinion, it is very important for an organisation to have a culture. He says that each company has their culture and the new individuals joining it have to accept and adopt the culture. In case of new start-ups, Pradip believes the culture is according to the vision of the promoter. He calls these start-up entrepreneurs to be super genius in their work but sometimes they cease to work as a team. He considers it to be unhealthy and thinks that they must be provided a platform where they can communicate and enjoy each other’s wisdom and experiences. Pradip tells us another story of how he came with a solution for this problem. He identified the particular skills that were required for a particular task, did a 360 with the team and asked them whom they considered best for a particular skill. The individuals on the team were asked to do a forced ranking, calculated the average and presented it in front of the team. This helped them strengthen their bonds.
Challenges of Team Coaching in comparison to Individual Coaching
Pradip tells us that in individual coaching you have to fix your brain on one person whereas in a team of people your focus gets diverted continuously which causes tremendous stress on the coach. Another challenge Pradip faced was while coaching a team, there are people who are more smarter and who are less smarter, they intentionally or unintentionally obstruct the meeting by asking different questions or not participating. Now it becomes the duty of the coach to provide equal opportunity to everybody. He tells us different approaches a coach can take to do so. He also tells us that sometimes the coach might not be an expert on each topic the team is discussing, this also gets challenging for the coach to deal with etc.
Welcoming and adjusting to the young people on the team
Pradip believes that there is always a generation gap when younger people join a team of much experienced individuals. They might feel that the younger generation is a bit undisciplined, but according to Pradip, they are clear on their principles and as honest as the old generation. The younger generation likes to enjoy more but when it comes to work, they are as hardworking as older people are. So he feels that they should be provided the support and encouragement to keep going. As they get mature, they gradually adjust to the working style that the organization requires.
Profile
Pradip Shroff brings over 38 years of business experience, out of which 28 years of experience is as a head of a business unit. He brings a strong business acumen and strategic thinking due to vast experience of working as CEO of a business. He has nurtured and developed several employees at all level. He is very analytical in his approach, very meticulous in his planning, very quick in grasping of new subjects/ issues, and very creative/ innovative in developing solutions. Expertise and Experience relevant to coaching Pradip is a certified CEO Coach from Coaching Foundation India Limited. He has been a CEO Coach for 10 years. He is now a part of CFI’s extended faculty as a Guide to coach interns of the PG program in Executive coaching and has been a guide to 30 Coach Interns while doing their internship. He has completed 62 Executive coaching assignments with senior executives and has done 4 Leadership Team coaching Programs. Pradip’s clients include companies like Aditya Birla Group, A big four consulting firm, Larsen & Toubro, Vodafone, Hindustan Zinc, JSW steel, Tata Steel, Everest Industries, Wirtgen, Can-Pack Ltd., Canara HSBC Life Insurance, Sundaram Mutual Fund, Oman India Joint Investment fund, GSK, Blue cross Pharmaceuticals, USV Pvt Ltd., Mewar Hospital, High Spirit Commercial Ventures, Duroflex, Bizongo, Ruchi Soya Ltd, Armman foundation, Muskan foundation etc. Pradip is able to use his deep and wide corporate experience in developing insights into client’s dilemmas and work place challenges. He is a Case author in CFI’s book “Are you ready for the corner office”. Pradip continually updates his knowledge and skill by attending CFI’s Professional Development programs and webinars. He regularly reads publications of Harvard Business School, and books related to Executive coaching. Business Experience: Pradip started his career as the Product manager of Permacel division of Johnson & Johnson India, and has worked as Marketing Manager, General Sales Manager before being appointed in 1984 as Head of Permacel Business. This was a great entrepreneurial job within J&J as Permacel business outside of India was divested by J&J in 1978. From Jan. 1993, he was appointed to head J&J’s core business of health care in India. In this job as country head he was designated as President and Executive director and reported to a boss in Singapore. When J&J sold the Permacel business to Premchand Roychand & Sons (PRS group) in 1999, he was appointed as President & Managing director of the new company PRS Permacel Pvt. Ltd. Pradip retired from PRS Permacel in 2011.
