Everything can be quite overwhelming in a way that I feel I need to know everything. And I get into that vicious circle of, oh my God, if I don’t know anything, how do I ask? And we get so stuck in that mindset that it stops us from performing the way we want to perform.

Lalita Raman

In today’s episode, I am speaking to Lalita Raman who is the CEO and founder of Transitions Intl Ltd based out of Hong Kong where she facilitates and coaches in the areas of leadership and communications. 

She started her business in 2012 after 27 years in investment banking in Hong Kong.

This Mumbai native became a transitions coach because she herself had experienced many transitions in her life, uprooting herself from India and working in Hong Kong where she worked in audit, risk management, banking, trading and sales for companies such as Citigroup, Jardine Fleming, Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and more.

She talks about how she had to adapt to different roles and build new skills as she made that shift from employment to entrepreneurship. And in her coaching work, she helps executives do the same – finding in themselves the clarity and confidence to manage the change that comes with career shifts. 

Lalita says she empowers executives and their teams to think, lead and communicate more effectively.

She credits her parents as her biggest inspiration and lives by this quote from John C Maxwell, “The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.”

In April 2015 she collaborated with 15 others all across the globe to produce a book titled Energize Your Leadership – Discover, Ignite, Breakthrough with people she had connected with only via Twitter! She had not met them and until today, has not met them yet! It amazes her and yet shows her that all things are possible.

Lalita says, ”For me, it was an experience in diversity, and inclusion and when there is an intent to connect no matter the form, we can make it happen.”

Even if, if I want to, on those one odd occasions, I don’t know who to ask for help. It feels embarrassing because I don’t want people to see me as I don’t know. It creates a lot of pressure and that affects the way I communicate.

Lalita on why executives need help as they transition into new roles

In today’s episode, she spoke about:

• How being a juvenile diabetic dashed her dreams but also helped her become a more determined person
• That one thing that makes a world of difference to everything we do 
• Why she ended up leaving her banking job and taking another path in 2012
• What transitions do senior leaders and corporate people experience and why it’s important to find a trusted listener and coach
• How she ended up in Hong Kong for the past 27 years and what she most loves about the city (and it’s not the city life!)  
• Her own personal transition from banker to entrepreneur and the learning curves that come with it
• Understanding one’s identity even as one rises up the ranks with each promotion 
• What prevents good leaders from doing their jobs
• Not knowing how to ask for help is just as detrimental as not asking for help 
• Doing your “homework” before you quit your job is one of the best things you can do for yourself 
• How and why your old identity can be a burden instead of an advantage

I thought that my contacts in investment banking will help me get the business pro bono. And then I can establish my credibility and surely then I can move to [being] paid. And that’s where I was wrong because people saw me only as they knew me which was an investment banker, not a coach.