Ms. Tejal Rathod | elementsD Coach Professional Services

Ever felt overwhelmed by work stress or personal challenges? You’re not alone. A significant portion of the global workforce experiences burnout. This alarming trend underscores the need for effective coaching and mentorship. Millions of people worldwide seek guidance to navigate life’s complexities. But what about the well-being of those driving this success? This is where elementsD Coach Professional Services (eDC) steps in. A skilled and experienced coach can provide the support and tools to help us overcome these challenges and reach our full potential.
Founded by Ms. Tejal Rathod, a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the corporate IT space, eDC was born to address a crucial gap. Recognizing the limitations of traditional approaches, Ms. Rathod envisioned a unique, integrated coaching methodology. Inspired by her journey and a passion for holistic well-being, she founded eDC with a mission: to bring meaning and happiness into the lives of individuals and organizations.

eDC’s approach is anything but conventional. They combine various coaching modalities to create a personalized roadmap for each client. This holistic approach addresses not just professional development but also mental, emotional, and physical well-being.

Their services include work dynamics and culture coaching, executive coaching and leadership development, professional and behavioral skills development, mental and emotional well-being coaching, and holistic lifestyle coaching for total health and nutrition.

These services are delivered through a variety of methods, including speed mentoring, personal coaching, group sessions, and corporate consulting. They even offer a self-paced program through Ms. Rathod’s book, “Wo/Man, Work IT Out!”— a testament to their commitment to accessible and comprehensive support.

We have featured Ms. Tejal Rathod in our “Impact Recognition: India’s Most Acclaimed Coaching Services Provider To Watchout 2024.” Ms. Rathod’s journey, recognized with the prestigious Peter Drucker Management Excellence Award from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School, is an inspiration for aspiring entrepreneurs.

In this exclusive interview, she delves into eDC’s unique approach, the challenges they’ve overcome, and their vision for the future. Stay tuned as we explore the secrets behind eDC’s success and Ms. Rathod’s invaluable lessons for aspiring business leaders.

Prime Insights: What inspired you to start your company?

After spending twenty successful years in the corporate IT space, there was a need to bring more meaningful success in the working dynamics of professionals, organizations’ management approach, and the lives of individuals struggling with the stressors of modern-age fast-paced life. That’s where a unique integrative approach using various coaching modalities to bring meaning and happiness to the lives of people was born at eDC (elementsD Coach Professional Services).

Prime Insights: What were the initial challenges faced by your business?

The challenge of deep-seated stigmas attached to integrating holistic well-being approaches to business management, psychology of work culture, and lack of focus on one’s mental and emotional wellness. Moving the mindset from gathering information to acting and making change happen is a challenge we regularly face.

Also, the challenge of the mindset “I know it all,” “I know the best,” and “I’ll be redundant” is often encountered at the initial stage of engagement in corporate consulting, although our approach remains that of an integrator, collaborator, and complementary services provider rather than an advisor.

Prime Insights: To begin, how is your brand-defining “trust” in the market? What stands behind its uniqueness?

We bring “trust” by offering a four-fold lens to serving our clients, differentiating in its approach, engagement, expertise, and service record. Our values of authenticity, compassion, integrity, and commitment to progress contribute the most to it. Along with our promise to every client’s guidance being uniquely curated to address their goals using a holistic, integrative, science- and evidence-based approach that operates at a body, mind, and soul level. Our reliability, cutting through various fields of expertise, and quality of personalized service are what sets us apart!

Prime Insights: What are the offerings (services/solutions)?

Our specialized services provide personalized success coaching in areas of work dynamics and culture, executive coaching and leadership development, professional and behavioral skills development, mental and emotional well-being, and holistic lifestyles for total health and nutrition.

These are delivered through speed mentoring, personal mentoring, coaching, counseling, therapy, group coaching, speaking engagements, workshops, and corporate consulting.

For clients who prefer low-cost yet effective coaching, we offer self-paced mentoring through the Success Guide “Wo/Man, Work IT Out!” authored by eDC’s Founder, Ms. Tejal Rathod, for transforming one’s personal and professional life success!

Prime Insights: In an age of mistrust, are you seeing an evolution in how consumers trust brands, or are they still for the most part doubtful?

We think brands lose their identity with a lack of engagement, service usability, and value offered. In the age where most of the services are designed for the masses, all of these aspects are compromised in quality because of the design of business operations, as they focus only on services offered at low cost, which equates to value delivered. Also, the life of engagement is more transactional because of the many options available to clients for the same set of services. While it’s good news for consumers, brands do suffer through the psychology of instant gratification and trying something new in the consumer mindset. We have seen a segment of clients who are service quality-conscious trust brands’ credibility. While the other masses are quite experimental and open to trusting brands that offer services aligned to their needs or goals at a reasonable value. In today’s age, making a brand work means being agile with time, flexible and adaptable in details, and always keeping the value provided at the center of your brand to make it work for your target consumer.

Prime Insights: How did you make your mark in the industry and the hearts of the customers?

Our services offered are at a unique intersection of management, psychology, health, and wellness. More often, these are offered as individual services, but as we integrate them, clients’ needs are met at once through a compassionate engagement, trusting our deep expertise and accreditations in the field we operate in. Above all, our service record of getting clients’ goals met by providing personalized value that works for them is something that keeps us a choice of our clients. Our clients’ often quote, “My needs are well heard, understood, and solved based on context.”.

Prime Insights: What is a customer for you?

Customer/client for us is an opportunity to make a deep, valuable, and meaningful difference in the real life of someone. Our typical customers are business/corporate organizations & executives, mid-level managers, and working professionals. Also, these are individuals in their early adult age of 26-55 years.

Prime Insights: What are the most effective marketing initiatives or programs you have used to promote your initiatives, offerings, or services?

Our digital biweekly eDC blog/ LinkedIn newsletter “Unspoken Uncovered” offers quality, valuable, and actionable insights on the topic of our expert services. This gives our existing and potential clients a complimentary 101 peek into our commitment to serve them. With all authenticity and building trust by offering new perspectives on topics that are useful for them, attached with evidence-based psychological facts, and meaningful methods to change their lives for the better.

Prime Insights: Have you measured how much trust consumers have in your brand?

Our measurement of the trust of consumers/clients is referrals, repeat opportunities to serve them, and reliable service reviews. Our referenceable clients’ testimonials can be found at eDC’s website: https://www.elementsdcoach.com/services. Testimonials section.

Prime Insights: What’s the first thing that enters a consumer’s mind when they see your brand?

When consumers think of eDC’s, they immediately associate it with a commitment to quality personalized service, a deep pool of expertise, and a genuine dedication to customer satisfaction. Our brand is synonymous with authenticity and a track record of delivering exceptional service through genuine engagements.

Prime Insights: What is the plan connected with the brand?

Keeping our mission of reaching a million lives at the center of our strategy, we plan to launch a digital-first learning platform for those who prefer online learning courses. With our best efforts towards keeping eDC’s values uncompromised and delivering quality and useful services.

Prime Insights: How has been your journey as an entrepreneur?

The journey of entrepreneurship is primarily that of dealing with volatility and courageously taking risks to deliver value to each client. While it can be a tall order to fulfill and can induce stress in the process, keeping the service mindset at the core of everything helps to ease the pressures that come with it. eDC being my second venture, this time around, I am working through the mindset of surrendering pressures instead of dealing with them every single time & merely following mantras worked for others, i.e., knowing which battles are effective & worth taking on in the journey of bringing meaning to others’ lives.

Prime Insights: What do you hope to accomplish within the next year from a personal as well as a professional point of view?

Professionally, the focus will continue on the launch of a digital-first learning platform, expanding outreach to corporations and leaders through complementing collaborations and partnerships and paying it forward engagements. i.e.

Engage with more businesses and corporate organizations to introduce eDC’s unique integrative methods-based customized programs and workshops into daily management and well-being to bring healthy, diverse, yet equitable work cultures to the business and corporate world.

Also, contribute towards mentoring or coaching graduate and postgraduate students in the engineering or management field of study through possible engagements with educational institutions.

Personally, the focus will be on art, relationships, and spirituality. i.e., reintroducing art-based activities for personal downtime, developing a few meaningful friendships, and steady growth in spiritual health.

Prime Insights: A piece of advice for young entrepreneurs?

Be in it for the long haul while you celebrate quick wins. Focusing on the longer-term value creation and not only short-term wins will lead to numbers inevitably following the client value you bring.

In the consumer-led knowledge economy, you may find yourself often caught in progress, which is about doing more and being productive all the time.

In such times, reconsider your strategy and choices to reap the best outcomes for the environment, humanity, and, most essentially, your will and motivation to keep making a difference.

Prime Insights: Can you share one of your recent achievements that you believe can inspire others?

It was an honor to have been recognized for my contributions by the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School, UK, for the jury-selected Peter Drucker Management Excellence Award for Leading Holistically: Excellence in Management Psychology and Workplace Well-Being. This is a testament to taking risks when innovative ventures offering impact-driven vision and services are always acknowledged when there is a backing of experience, expertise, and credibility. Accompanied by an exclusive speaking opportunity amongst renowned delegates of India and the UK on the topic of “Remodeling Leadership for Meaningful Success”.

Also, it was a rare but great opportunity to pay it forward to eDC’s Founder’s Alma mater and contribute to mentoring management students by having the book “Wo/Man, Work IT Out!” authored by Ms. Tejal Rathod find a shelf in the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) Campus’s Vikram Sarabhai Library and featured in WIMWIAN Magazine’s June 2024 Give-back edition. These & more highlights can be found at https://www.elementsdcoach.com/highlights.