Priyanka Mehandiratta: Enabling Enterprises Become More Human-Centric and Inclusive with Technology

DX Learning empowers leaders to be more human and shapes their organizations worth working for. With offices in Chicago and Toronto, the company has a relentless focus on efficacy, ensuring real change. DX has a progressive culture and acts as a leadership development partner to stimulate the clients' organization culture with powerful experiential learning and thought leadership.

DX creates experiential learning phenomenons that lead to new and compelling acts of leadership, which drive visible and immediate change within the organization. Its 6-stage methodology is proven by neuroscience and experienced by more than 17,000 participants in the last five years.

A Visionary Leader

After building her career as a trusted partner in the world of Talent Acquisition for sixteen years, Priyanka was drawn to the unique challenge of enabling global organizations to become more human-centric and inclusive. She says that transitioning into the world of leadership development was a natural and progressive transition.

Priyanka is an MBA Graduate, Certified Training and Facilitation Professional, and a Certified Executive Coach. She is currently the Director of Leadership Development at DX with deep expertise in developing leaders at all levels to be more human and better at the things robots can't replace- interpersonal skills.

Priyanka had the most pleasure of launching the DX business in Toronto, Canada. This role has allowed her to wear many different hats and challenged her to develop intrapreneur and entrepreneur skills. 

It has also helped her to broaden her facilitation and leadership developmental skills. She has successfully built and managed the process from the ground up and singlehandedly managed all business pillars, not limited to – legal, marketing, brand awareness, business strategy, organizing new product launches, sales cycle, process mapping, logistics, and program management. 

Learning Life Lessons Through Experience

Priyanka says that as the firstborn in her big family, she had to be the role model for her siblings and her dozen other cousins. She recalls, "Be Prim and Proper! I was only six years old when I was told to – act mature!"

Priyanka tells that fast forward, in hindsight, she completely lost her childhood. The cycle continued until she had nothing left to offer, and all these years, she recounts no one ever asking her if she is OK? 

Hence, two years ago, Priyanka decided to break free of the chains of perfection.

She views that how somebody shows up at home is identical to how they will show up at work. This was a turning point for her in her leadership journey.

Experiential Learning Program Through Self-Awareness

Priyanka states that DX's core objective in any training is to elicit self-awareness. She believes DX's 6-stage methodology is the only experiential learning program where participants play themselves. 

Priyanka notes that this makes the learning process extremely efficient, and the learnings are immediately applicable. The approach is instrumental because the experience is repeated every time, and the participant becomes even more self-aware.  

She elucidates that combined with the growth-mindset, this self-discovery encourages participants to create positive leadership habits, knowing that they can change and then understand what they need to change to better themselves and those they influence. 

Breaking Gender and Racial Barriers

Priyanka remarks that women's core DNA is ingrained to dedicate their lives to others, parents, husbands, or kids. She denotes that thinking for themselves as a woman is probably the most selfish act. 

Priyanka passionately believes that a woman has the power to shake the world, but before that, it is imperative to shake the myths that make the possible impossible for them. She points out that the idea of women inferior to men is absurd. She says, "When a man is born of a woman, how can he be superior and she inferior?".

Priyanka feels that being a woman of colour has its challenges; women continuously battle to stay ahead of the times and cannot afford to sit on their laurels even for a day. She recalls that it took her a while to learn that one does not make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering, and complaining. Instead, by implementing ideas, one can make progress.

Emphasis on the Soft Elements of Leadership with Technology

Priyanka observes that it is tempting to regard artificial intelligence as a threat to human leadership. She says that the very purpose of AI is to augment, improve, and ultimately replace human intelligence, which is still widely regarded, at least by humans, as the key competitive advantage. Priyanka opines that there is no reason to believe that leadership will be spared from AI's impact. She states, "Indeed, it is highly likely that AI will supplant many aspects of the "hard" elements of leadership — that is, the parts responsible for the raw cognitive processing of facts and information."

Priyanka agrees with the prediction that AI will also lead to a greater emphasis on the "soft" elements of leadership — the personality traits, attitudes, and behaviours that allow individuals to help others achieve a common goal or shared purpose.

Recognizing Empathy for Transformational Leadership

According to Priyanka, the most critical and vital attributes for every transformational leader are to prepare for 2021, cut through the fog, permit to let go of the past, and support employee efforts to think expansively about the changes most likely to create and capture value in the future. 

Driving Value-based Leadership for the Future

The pandemic has transformed the idea of leadership. Priyanka adds that traditional leadership ideals, like the ability to act quickly and swiftly while making tough decisions, continue to be valued. However, she points out that as the company faces a tremendous amount of uncertainty and fear, empathy, compassion, honesty, and authenticity have never been more critical. She says, "We aspire to be the best in empowering leaders to be more human, creating psychologically safe teams, and Value-based leadership development. Hence, DX is here to stay for the greater good. "

Guidance to Emerging Women Leaders

Priyanka remarks, "Being a woman is not a barrier for me. It should not be for you either."

She believes that Patriarchy is the barrier. It is time women should change the language they use for themselves. She observes that women's gender is not a barrier; a system that propagates and upholds watertight beliefs around gender roles is the barrier. Priyanka encourages that it is time that women stop trying to fight for identities and focus on fighting the system that dismisses and suppresses them instead. Being oneself can be a revolutionary act. Priyanka advises, "And in a world that wants us to whisper, I (we) should choose to yell. "