

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nila Sinha.
Hi Nila, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Launching Sinha Solutions was a culmination of 20 years of personal and professional growth. My story began in college. I discovered the area of Industrial / Organizational Psychology as a junior at the University of Florida. It’s basically the psychology of work and it intrigued me. I thought it was a noble thing to pursue since many of us have to work most of our lives. At the heart of it, I don’t believe any of us should be “living for Friday,” hating Monday mornings but instead should find joy and fulfillment in our work rather than waiting until retirement to start living. The most conservative estimates I’ve read show that 50% of people dislike their job (with some numbers running as high as 85%). That is an unsettling statistic to me if you consider that the average person will spend about 90,000 hours of his/her life at work. I pursued my Ph.D. in this area in hopes to understand what engages people and makes them happier at work and how successful companies create the culture and environment for people to bring their whole self and do their best. It seemed a win-win was possible! After school, I started my career as a people strategy consultant for a Dallas-based consulting firm that combined high-quality psychology with state-of-the-art technology. They were the first-of-their-kind to offer web-based assessment tools to companies to assist with hiring and developing employees. I got a keyhole view of people’s work lives across different industries and job levels. I shadowed front-line workers like airline baggage handlers at DFW airport (see picture) as well as trained pharmaceutical executives in Beijing (see picture). Every job I studied fascinated me and so I was hooked!
Most recently, I leveraged the knowledge, skills, and experiences I’ve gleaned from two decades to drive my consulting work at Sinha Solutions. My boutique services are about working with companies to understand the true need and determine the right solutions. I’ve found that most solutions are about creating awareness at the individual, team, and organizational level. While larger consulting outfits offer cookie-cutter solutions, as a small and nimble firm, I can tailor solutions to truly fit the company’s initiatives. It is most rewarding to me to be able to implement these solutions and then help measure and show impact for companies. This is accomplished when talent strategies are properly defined and processes are then created to attract, hire, and develop the most important asset a company has – their people!
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Smooth? Well, I remember feeling like I was standing at an actual fork in the road. I was laid off after 19 years at the same company and my next move, if I continued on the typical path, would have been to become a VP somewhere. However, I reflected on the frustrations and burnout I had felt at the end of my tenure with my former company after it had changed hands for a second time. I sought out other entrepreneurs to talk through their experiences and decided not to dust off my resume and instead to launch my own consulting firm. I chose the road less traveled! Talking to others who had started their own businesses helped me set realistic goals. For instance, I was told to give myself three years to grow my business, but no one could have expected the pandemic. Covid struck at almost exactly the one-year mark after the launch of Sinha Solutions! Many companies struggled as we globally were all in free fall. I was just one among them all. Sadly, many companies decided to abruptly end some employee support initiatives that I was helping with. Of course, costs and uncertainty were key factors driving these decisions, but it was distressing to see companies halt good programs at the very time when they were needed the most by their employees! I felt fortunate that my overhead costs were low and I could “give back” to my community and colleagues by offering my services and consulting for free during the difficult time. Honestly, this helped me as well to feel connected to others too.
We can see that 2022 will continue to bring challenges to us all through what is being termed “The Great Resignation.” Many people are reconsidering their work lives, as they should, both in practical and existential terms. People are thinking about their commutes and whether they want to continue working from home, but they are also thinking about their life’s purpose and the meaning of their work. This presents businesses with a challenge and an opportunity! Companies need to reassess how to best support their people if they want to keep their talent. This means thinking about their leadership and how to “up their game.” Through my work, I feel equipped to help companies during this trying time consider their leadership mindset. Frankly, my personal experiences from the last three years have helped here as well.
Our roads are rarely smooth when it is something challenging and worthwhile. The road is made easier to travel with help though… That is what I aim to do through my business,
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Sinha Solutions is about leadership insights at work. It’s a pun I will admit. I am referring to understanding leadership in the context of the workplace, but it’s also about how leadership awareness and insights can work for a business to create true employee engagement and improved organizational performance! Awareness can come in many forms, but Sinha Solutions has focused to date on workshop design and facilitation, leadership coaching, and assessment feedback.
I work with companies to understand their vision and values and create programs and initiatives that translate these concepts into the ways people carry out their work day-to-day. My workshop design, facilitation, and coaching are really in this area. I also consider my adjunct work at the SMU Cox School of Business as part of the Master’s in Management program to be a continuation of this as well. It’s a privilege to share what I have learned with students so they may provide this type of value to businesses. It’s just a perk that I learn so much from my students as well in terms of understanding their varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives!
My specialty since graduate school though has been in the area of feedback. I know asking and getting feedback can seem daunting, but it is so essential to gaining personal awareness and continuing to evolve and be better! An American author once said, “When we stop growing, we start dying.” Feedback is a process that keeps us constantly growing. When we are aware of what we want and leverage insights from ourselves and others through a 360-degree feedback tool, for instance, we can create a better plan to move us forward. It sounds easy, but we need to be open to feedback to do it right. I am lucky that my work to help companies help set up a feedback culture that helps with this.
What sets my work apart from other consulting firms is dedication. I pride myself on creating a real partnership with the companies that I work with. As a partner, it’s about solving problems in a sustainable way so it is not just about delivering a single project for me. I work alongside my clients as they grow and change. It’s a very satisfying aspect of offering boutique services in the consulting space. Plus, the size of my business allows me to tailor solutions for my clients and focus on things that can be seen, felt, and measured to know they are doing what they ought to be doing for the client.
What matters most to you? Why?
It’s been a challenging time during the last 20 months. I am not only talking about COVID but also the divisiveness we have seen in our country. It’s unnecessary and a distraction. This has emphasized for me the need for true connection to one another. I found a quote recently that reads, “if only we fought just as hard to understand one another as we do to disagree.” I feel clear that self-examination can help us as individuals to understand our motivations and intentions. It’s the foundation from which to connect respectfully with one another. I sometimes consider my work a grassroots effort… Let’s start with one leader, one workgroup, one company, and then the world…
Pricing:
- Hourly consulting and coaching rate $350.00 – Project fees determined during initial consultation
Contact Info:
- Email: nila@sinhasolutions.com
- Website: https://www.sinhasolutions.com/
Image Credits
Vemula-Queijo