IT Leaders

I actually am gonna talk about something else and how intrinsic motivation doesn't work. And people who talk about intrinsic motivation had no idea what they're talking about. You should listen to them. Alright. Got a few chuckles there.

For people who don't know what I'm talking about, the last speaker who talked about intrinsic motivation was my husband, and I could not resist that one because you should see I'm looking for intrinsic motivation when it comes to junk food. So it'll get there sometime. So today, I wanna just start off by triggering some of your brain cells. Let's say you and I. You and I meet outside.

We have familiar faces, but we don't know each other. I run into you in a restaurant, movie theater in a casual setting. After exchanging some pleasantries and greetings, I ask you, so what's your story? Can you take a couple of moments to think about it now? And if you feel like it this morning and wide awake after the coffee and the breakfast, maybe you can share it with the group.

That's fine. With a show it's okay. It's really early. With a show of hands so let's say your story is about two to three sentences. Alright?

Sorry if you had longer than that. With a show of hands, can you tell me how many of you all are thinking about our titles in your story? Okay. How many of you all are having at least some reference to what you do in your professional lives? Yeah?

Alright. So now let's put a pin on this, and we'll come back to this later. But hold on to that thought for me. April, I was getting ready to present an agile product training class at this organization. And I was getting ready, like, it was nine to twelve, day three of three, day class.

And at about 08:52 ish, fifty three, you know why, you'll know why I know the time, I get an email invite from my manager's manager about an impromptu meeting. So now this person had newly joined the department, so and I'm a big supporter of skip level meetings. Right? So I was like, okay, well, that's what's going on. And I'm like, oh, sorry, but I can't do it right now.

Decline proposed new time. Within seconds, his I'm pops up on Teams. Now I know there's something going on. It's like, Dimple, we need to meet. And I we immediately hopped onto Teams call and I said, well, I apologize, but I'm getting ready for this class so I couldn't talk to you.

And they're like, oh, that's fine. No points for guessing. I was told I was laid off. And that I had a month to stay around, see if there are any other opportunities that pop up, and that I didn't have to finish that class. It's like, well, we'll find someone else.

We'll let them know. Blah blah blah. I politely declined that offer. I finished my class, and then I logged off. And later that day and the rest of the week, I started thinking about how this was gonna work out for me.

Well, I've never been fired before, so I'm like, okay. I don't know what's gonna happen. But I did have until the May, and I decided that if I don't find anything in that one month, internally or externally, then I'm just gonna take the summer off because my family was visiting that summer, and that too, after eight years, after like a massive family tragedy had hit, so I was gonna make the best summer ever, which I did. Best summer ever. And fast forward October when everyone was back home safely after rocking time together, I was obviously keeping an eye on the market.

Now 2023, we are all IT, we know what started in 2022 and what's still going on unfortunately. So I was keeping an eye out when I also was back in the market in Q4 of that very struggling year. So I don't know. What started as a lot of excitement and internal blogs, it quickly changed for me. I'm like, okay, all right, what am I gonna do?

I do not want any words of advice. I'm trying to read, I'm listening to podcasts, and when Adam Grant says, well, take every opportunity for moment of growth, I'm like, no, don't talk to me about that, please. So things changed. Things changed a lot. But I did, too.

If you know me, I introspect a lot. A lot of it is also what I help others do for what I do as a living. So all those months, I'm now thinking, it's like, well, isn't this a blessing in disguise? You know? It was great.

The job was great, and I was very intentional about not beating myself up and helping others feel the same, that it's not us. It's not personal. It rarely is. We're just names on spreadsheets. Right?

Besides, what also helped is when I went out, as I was walking out, I got some phenomenal reviews and feedback. Oh, organization got it wrong this time. My six month review which overlapped with a year annual review. We got three gold stars, blah blah blah, whatever. But I was very aware that, yeah, it's not me.

So there has to be a reason. And I was like, okay, well, my professional bio says, okay, well, when I'm applying for a job, let's take the pin out now, please. So rightfully so, when we're applying for the job and our call letter and resume has to be professional, Dimpleshire as an IT, transformation leader, blah blah blah, and everything. But in those months, I got a chance to think that I just didn't want that to be my only story. I I just didn't.

I'm so much more than that, and I actually wanted to start thinking about the things that I preach. Like, let's practice what we preach, right, bringing our whole selves to work. What does it really mean? And how many of you all have actually seen that work in our organizations? Are you do you feel safe bringing yourself to work at all times?

If you do, I'm really so jealous. But please. Right? It doesn't work that way. But I also always talk about a cliche.

Be the change you want to see in the world. One step at a time. It doesn't have to be massive. Go out. I'm going to do my thing.

I'm not asking you to get fired. But we believe in ripple effects. Right? And that is what I was ready to do. In these months, I had time to think that, yes, I need a job and what whatnot, but I also get to embody what aligns with my purpose.

What how can I use that in my job and how I not let my job overshadow what my purpose is? They can they can work one tiny little step at a time. So I decided to do an experiment. Around the same time, I ran into someone similar to the story that we first started with. Like, we know, but we don't really know each other, and I was now at the receiving end of that question.

So it's your story. And I started with, well, I'm a proud working mom of a 14 year old son. He's my biggest achievement, and I love biking with him, and couple of more sentences in there. And then I say, well, as a working professional, this is what I do. I started talking about my role.

I started talking about my passion. I started talking about the value I bring into an organization. I started talking about why I believe what I believe in and carry it with my work, but I never talked about my title. I'm still late. I have no idea how that landed on them.

I don't. They they were, like, staring at me, being nice, smiling, but I have no idea. Did I confuse them? Did I catch them off guard? Were they pleasantly surprised?

I've never heard this one before, or they were thinking little of me. I don't know. Either way, I felt really, really good. And then I decided to stick to it. I'm like, well, there's nothing wrong again.

Let me make this very clear. There's nothing wrong if your title defines you. Again, I'm very jealous if you're really happy and your title completely justifies, like, you. I have rarely seen that happen, and we all should be very proud of our achievements and everything. The reason why we get a title is because we worked hard towards it.

So there's nothing wrong with that at all. For me though personally, if you're anything like me, I've been very much title agnostic, partly by choice and a lot of times that's how it is. So I always look for that something more. It's like okay, well, yeah, sure, I'll join, I'll do that, I like the job profile company, whatever. But when I go in there, it's a little different for me.

And I decided to stick with it. Yeah, well, this works for me and there's nothing wrong with that, especially in today's job market. When I started seeing all those things and so many, I mean, I dread going on LinkedIn sometimes just because of those green banners popping up and, you know, so many amazing people, so many people that I look up to, you know, they are struggling. And when I was in the market, I started noticing some of these things, which I want you to think about. And if you could, just and there's probably well, there are no judgment here, but what do you think?

What's going on in the past three years? What are some of the factors that's contributing to this IT landscape that we're seeing? Shout out a few men.

Remote work. I think remote work has impacted culture, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively.

And where did that remote work start? Right? Pandemic?

Yep.

Yeah. Right? Suddenly, pandemic saw talent pool, and everyone jumped on it. I personally know of so many examples where people are like, yeah. We don't have a role, but we see some good people over there.

I'm gonna just get them and then see if we can put them in a role. Right? What else?

Somewhat related, but sociopolitical division.

Oh my gosh. Yes. And I'm just gonna make that as a statement. We are not gonna get into that. But, yes, that and that leads to inflation too.

Right? There's so many layers of onions there. Yes. What else?

Also related to the pandemic, we hired a lot of people. Yes. And now companies are saying our group our our organization's too big. We've gotta downsize.

Oh my god. Yes. So when I was in the market and I was laid off as an agile coach, I came back as an agile coach, and I realized that suddenly companies are restructuring and suddenly they are changing paths, ways, directions, visions, what you call it, and they're like, don't need agile roles, but they need agility. So how cool is that? Right?

We'll get to that more. What else?

I'll say the excitement and uncertainty of AI.

Oh my gosh. Yes. That was my fourth point and I saved the best for the last. It felt like I blinked and AI took over. And I still feel that this is just the beginning.

There's so much more that's gonna happen. There's so much more that's gonna happen. I mean, forget about quantum. I was researching for this presentation here and I read, Gartner Top 10 Technology Trends. It blew my mind on what I saw on number 10.

If anyone has seen that this might seem familiar, it's neurological enhancement. What does that mean? It means technologies will now improve our cognitive abilities to not just read but also decode our thoughts. Like, really? Here I'm just catching up to AI.

I'm like, okay, alright. So what I did when I saw those roles going away as result of company restructuring or we don't find value in this particular pool so we're gonna let go is I started looking for what I have to offer and what companies or organizations are looking for. And one of the things that I noticed is process related roles, program portfolio management roles, change management roles, IT leaders. Literally almost anything associated with what I do day in and day out, they're asking for agility under different titles. And then the light bulb hit for me again.

I was like, oh, good for you, Dimple. You you don't care about the title, But that was me. That was not what the market was offering just because there's such a big talent pool here. So I guess what I'm saying is between 2022 to now, there are about 4,800 organizations who have let go more than 580,000 people. A lot of people just such as myself, they've also find found new jobs, but in 2025, 75,000 people alone have already lost their job.

So it's okay to think differently. It's okay to step out of the title. It's okay to upskill, reskill, or pivot even. I have a great story about pivot. Someone, when I started sharing, well, yeah, I'm doing this, this was my official title, but I'm also looking for this, someone, said to someone who's very close to me, he's like, Oh, so Dimple really can't find anything, so she's trying to pivot.

And I'm thinking that, Why is pivot a bad thing? It shouldn't be a bad thing. It's okay. Pivot away. You know?

Do what you feel is right for you. Do what you feel is gonna bring you joy. How often do we think about that? Yeah. I mean, I had a regular job search going on where I was click, click, click, networking, everything we had to do, that correct to find a job, but I never lose sight of what is it that I need to be doing.

And there are different approaches. There are so many people I've talked to in the past year who've been in situations similar to where I've been. Like, hey, Dimple, can I pick your brain? You know? I'm like, yeah, sure.

That's what I'm here for. And there are people who've taken sabbaticals. They they got some certifications to up skill, agentic AI, and now they find the job of their dreams. There are people who thought it might be best for them to find something in the interim and let that ship sail while they still look out for what's coming with the new world and new technology, it's fine. I'd say find what's best for you, title or not.

Again, having a title, it's not a bad thing. It's just that, okay, let me be a little bit of dramatic here. What do you want your legacy to be like? We all are give or take maybe around fifteen, twenty, twenty five years away from retirement, I'm hoping. Maybe early, maybe a little later.

But when we leave, if that title brings joy to us, go for it. Amazing. It's great. You've lived the perfect life. Oftentimes, especially in this market, I've I've known better.

I've seen better, unfortunately, though. So why lose sight of what is it that we want for our legacy to be going forward? Right? That that's probably just a little bit of nugget I'd like for you to think about. So I did talk about upscale.

I did talk about prescale. I did talk about pivoting. Anything else that you can think of over here that I might be missing that could be useful for us in this amazingly crazy world.

It's paradigm changes. Right? Because the way things were done in business industries, you know, rapidly changing. Right? So you hear a hype out there, but it's really you gotta look at the broader context of everything.

Right? Because you mentioned all the jobs that people could just say historically, you rewrite history. Well, that was all because of AI. Well, not really. There was all those factors you just mentioned.

Mentioned. So you gotta think bigger and broader differently about how you're gonna be able understand whether that's hybrid work or whether that's specialized skill sets or whatnot. So the way you know, that's tough for a lot of folks. I had coach mentor a lot of people, and they're like, well, this is how we do things. I mean, that's how you use things.

But I love your quote, by the way. But but there's different ways. And and as new generations keep coming up, they're doing work much, much differently than we used to.

I love that. I love that. And that makes me think is we always used to, like the world I grew up in. Right? It was just so simple.

I had, like, three career streams that I had to pick from growing up in India, and I selected one. The current world is just so crazy with climate changes, wars, politics, AI, tech industry struggling, stuff like that. And the futuristic world is nothing that we know about yet. At least that's how I feel. Like I said, AI just yeah, it was creeping in, but I for me, in all transparency, I'm like, I'm what I do for a living has so much to do with leadership, interpersonal, strategy, people related.

I'm like, yeah, AI. I'm like, no, but I was wrong. There are ways to use it. And to your point, we are so used to growing up around world that we see, but now, especially with IT, what I've learned is we need to grow for a world that's going to be here and we have no idea what's going on with that. Okay.

That's how we need to be open and leave these little tiny rooms for innovation, I guess. While I was doing all those things, some of the things that I completely lose sight of was self care. A lot of times self care is seen as well cocooning, I'm tired, I need to take a break. What I often tell people, even in my classes, I say take a break at fifty five minutes. Why take a break after the hour when people are already exhausted and then you're playing catch up?

Like, okay, I need to go back again after my coffee or I run to the restroom. Take a break before you're getting really worn out. The same thing is true for me at least, is try experimenting. Use self care as growth as opposed to I will take care of myself when I feel like I'm worn out because it's not hiding, it's not cocooning, it's giving yourself an opportunity to come out fresh. Have you noticed that your most important and interesting thoughts pop out when you're in shower or when you're in walks?

It's rarely when you're sitting in front of your computer, right? So that tells a lot on how important it is for our minds to be fresh. The other thing that experienced big time is massive information overload. Right now in Google or Perplexity, ChatGPT, wherever, you just put in a jacket. And good jacket, you'll see like a million posts, half of which will say that how wonderful this jacket looks with this combination and the other half will say how awful you look in that.

So for me, especially when I was so vulnerable at the time, and even now actually, when I've learned one thing, to block the information overload, that yeah, I still follow people for AI, I still have people in agile coaches and leadership in fashion industry that I look up But I have a very small circle and it's okay for that circle to evolve. That, oh, okay, well, not interesting anymore but they mention something that I don't know what they're talking about so I'm going to look it up. But information overload is real and it's gonna hit you up if you don't stop at the right time. I know it did to me. I mean, my walks I always used to listen to podcasts and there were times when I was like, okay, if Brene Brown talks one more time about shame and vulnerability, if Simon Sinek talks one more time about leadership, I'm just gonna lose it.

So I created a playlist. Pick me up playlist, instrumental playlist, you know, Bollywood playlist or Backstreet Boys. Yeah, love that. Playlist. And that's okay to do that when the information overload happens.

And finally, find your passion. I realized I find my passion almost anywhere that doesn't pay. And it's okay. It's okay. Because I have something going on that I also like and it pays.

But the passion, they fill my cup. You know, I love to be part of my son's schools time and again, help them out, Carmel Clay Schools. I love to support First Indian Robotics. The last time I met a speaker over here, we started a podcast that we really love. Doug reminded me of that today.

I am also a part of Give It Forward Coaching that, thank you, Doug decided to use that. And before we go over there, I'd like to know what do you think about these things. And it could be about anything, self care, information overload, or passions. I wanna know how that landed on you. Yes.

So I was laid off last December. I'm now working again. But in that six to seven months, one of the things I found I had to do was the self care. Mhmm. Whether that was making sure I talked to my wife about how I was feeling on any given day or whether that was going to the gym on a regular basis.

I'm probably in the best shape I've been in the past twenty years, and it's now a habit and a routine that I can stay with, and it helps with stress levels. Mhmm. It helps like you said, sometimes things pop in your mind when you're on the treadmill or in the shower. Mhmm. So I think that that's a really important thing that a lot of people miss.

Yes. And I love that you said that because growing up in India, I never had working out as my lifestyle, never needed. One thing I started was started working out in gym. Eight months in, I never thought that could be our passion. You know, our passion doesn't we don't always discover our passion.

Sometimes we develop our passion, and that's okay. Thanks for sharing. What else? Yes.

I think listening to the podcast really resonated with me. I used to do that too, and then I'm like, I'm constantly taking in information. Mhmm. So now I use those walks for quiet time to let my brain

catch up. Love that. Love that. Thanks, Latina.

Self care at 25 years old is probably different than self care at 35 or 40 or 65.

Amen. Yes. So

I think I think giving yourself permission to change change what's important in taking care of you is super key if you want results.

Yeah, absolutely. And to take it before you feel you're worn out. Don't wait for you to be completely burned out and then think about self care. So thanks for saying that. Anyone else?

I got one. It kind of goes

to what Doug was saying. So the other thing,

it goes along with information overload, but there's a really big cultural issue, especially in IT right now, around immediate results. You know, you have to have the answer yesterday. You have to have the answer ten minutes ago. And there's not a lot of room right now around cognitive thought. Mhmm.

You know, how especially remote. We deal with this a lot. You know, how much time is appropriate to get to a solution? How much time do you need to properly think about it, research it, figure it out? And all of those thoughts, because we're all IT professionals, we get tracked by it too.

Of I need to have this answer right now. Mhmm. I need to provide this immediacy. Mhmm. And, you know, being able to disengage, you know, be out, take a walk, not think about it, giving yourself that self care, like Doug was talking about, to say, it's okay to to disconnect, and it's okay to stop and think, and that's not a bad thing.

And that's super hard in this kind of world with all of these information streams.

Yeah. And I love that you say that because in IT, we have analytical brain. So we get that, but how how many times have we noticed that people around us get it? Especially at the executive levels, right? So one of the things that I've learned and that I think that was what my resistance was with adapting or embracing AI early on is now with the advent of AI, it's earlier they wanted answers in like a week, now they want it in an hour.

And now it's our responsibility to help them understand that maybe instead of an hour, can I give it to you in three hours? And it's hard. It's hard to communicate when people are moving so fast and there's competition everywhere. But that's a great point and that's gonna be a constant struggle, especially with the speed at which AI is growing. So I know we are out of time, I'm just gonna keep moving if that's okay.

I hope this brings you all back to the full circle. Again, as a reminder, it's okay if your title is your identity, but if that is doing you more harm than good, I do encourage you to step out of that phase and think broader. You're more than that. You're so much more valuable than those three words that is on your resume, rightfully so. Might have absolutely have earned that.

Reality of the professional world, it's it's fine. The more we embrace the uncertainty, more we leave room for growth, and we're gonna embrace that uncertainty. Positive flex self care. Do it. Who cares?

Who cares what it's gonna translate into as long as you're happy, as long as you are filling your purpose, as long as you are able to bring joy into your world. And finally, don't don't be scared to take that leap. That leap is good in a right direction. I have grown so much. I feel like I wish I would have adapted it earlier, but I've grown so much once I started opening myself to AI tools.

And I can't wait to see I have mixed feelings about that, but I can't wait to see what neurological enhancements has to offer. Having said all that, what do you want your story to look like? Do give it a thought, please. And finally, I promised I'll talk about give it forward. Did I okay.

Maybe I skipped that slide. Give it forward coaching. I'm so glad. Thank you, Doug. Out of everything that he saw, he decided to use that in my bio, rightfully so, for this talk.

We are a group of four agile coaches, but agile with a small a is so much more than agile. We started this little venture where the coaching services are free. All that we ask is you give it forward. Pay it forward. Coach someone else.

Mentor someone else. Volunteer at a shelter or Gleaners Food Bank. That's all we ask for. We are in The US, Sweden, Poland, and Sweden, Switzerland, Poland. Yeah.

These are some of my passions. Our greatest strength. If you haven't checked out, please do that. We are over a year. That's one of my passions.

We spread awareness, and I am on LinkedIn. So I thank you for your time. Go disrupt your and others' worlds. You deserve it. Thanks for your time again.

Thank you.