What happens when a successful professional takes a sabbatical and returns with a transformative vision? Sandhya Sudhakar, a certified coach and Enneagram practitioner, discusses her unique approach to leadership development and team building through her company, Self At Work. Sandhya shares how her burnout in corporate sales and marketing led to a sabbatical, which sparked a passion for the Enneagram framework and a new career path.
Paul Fisher and Sandhya talk about her journey from Corporate America to entrepreneurship—how she uses the Enneagram to guide teams and individuals towards better collaboration and personal fulfillment. Her methods intertwine emotional intelligence with practical organizational tools, offering a fresh approach in the work environment. We also hear about her early career at Procter & Gamble and the unique travel experiences that helped shape her current mission.
Themes explored include the importance of self-awareness, the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship, and the value of flexibility and incremental progress in career development. Sandhya emphasizes the power of pursuing what truly energizes you, whether through a sabbatical or simply following a new interest, and how it can lead to profound changes in both personal and professional life.
Listen to the full episode. You’re sure to pick up a nugget or three for your own career adventures. At a minimum, it’ll spark ideas for a future sabbatical, if you ever have the opportunity to take one.
Core Themes
Sandhya “stumbled” upon the Enneagram without intending to start a business. She discusses her love hate relationship with sales. Most importantly, she shares how time away from work can improve your work.
Here are a few of the major themes we discussed during our short time together. Take note of these themes for your own career adventures.
Building a Biz with Enneagram
Life is unpredictable. Oftentimes we start down a path with one intention only to discover a different one on the journey.
Building a business on the foundation of Enneagram was an unintended consequence for Sandhya. A former manager recommended she explore the concepts when she was feeling lost in her career. Who knew the process of exploring a space recommended by a trusted mentor would spark an interest that would become her next career path?
“I didn't actually get into Enneagram intending to start a business. I did discover it in my own life as a tool when I was dealing with some burnout in my career and some challenges and a relationship. It was something that I just got really curious because I had come to this point where I don't even recognize myself anymore what's going on?”
Getting Unsettled
Experiences open our eyes to new possibilities. It’s easy to get focused on the challenges of the day. However, when we find ourselves experiencing something new, our mind can expand.
For Sandhya, a sabbatical opened her eyes to the possibility of entrepreneurship. Like many, she had a preconception that being an entrepreneur meant eating ramen and living in her parents basement. Au contraire, she found. While on sabbatical she saw how different people, some entrepreneurs, worked. Witnessing this helped her see entrepreneurship in a different light.
“It opened my mind to see different people doing different kinds of things and having a work life flow where it wasn't like, this is my job and I go to my job at these hours and then I go home. It was this kind of fluidity of work and life and work and being self-employed in a different way, a different structure than I had in my head. That changed a lot for me.”
Crafting the Job
Most jobs have more flexibility than we assume. Sure, there’s job descriptions, basic expectations. Yet, we limit ourselves in many ways. It takes smaller shifts in how we think and addressing boredom producing barriers within our work to find more fulfillment.
Sandhya acknowledged that most of us aren’t lucky enough to only do the fun parts of our jobs. We don’t have accept things as they are either. She referenced a school of thought called job crafting. It’s about changing your job to make it more meaningful. This can involve mindset shifts around purpose. Or, it can involve retooling the work to focus more on what you enjoy. The key: thinking differently and asking permission.
“Purpose doesn't always mean this is my life's purpose. It is the impact I wanna make on the world, and I have to tie my job to that. Purpose can be , how do I get more fulfillment out of my work? That can look like connecting people to the outcome of their work, because sometimes we're so many steps removed from what we do, how we impact a consumer on the other end, or a patient on the other end. There's a lot of different ways to get more fulfillment out of what we do. One of the biggest barriers is people just don't feel permission to ask to be different”
Outside Your Zone
Getting outside your comfort zone is critical for long term career success. If you hunker down with the same people, resources, and networks, your mind can become stagnant. We need a stable foundation. Stability can’t come at the expense of growth. Over the long haul nothing is stable.
Sandhya had to build new strengths and evolve her network with her business. She had a background in sales, but was entering leadership development. She needed to make her network aware of her evolved focus. How could she expect to be successful if her trusted confidants weren’t aware of her pivot.
“For me, I went back to school and started, this whole team culture, leadership development. I was in commercial strategy. I was in sales. So I have a great network, but I don't have equity with that network in what I do now. So my biggest challenge from a marketing standpoint has been visibility. Making sure that the people who know me, trust me, worked with me before, know what I'm doing.”
One Step at a Time
In the old world we could plan on far longer time horizons. If you weren’t prepared to answer “Where do you plan to be in ten years?” in an interview or with your manager, it was a miss. Today, that is no longer the case. It seems as if many companies are in a never ending period of restructuring. Thus, we need to become more comfortable with the uncertainty of change.
Sandhya has reframed her goals from very long term focused to openness in the near term. Instead of making a fully planned out ten year plan, she focuses on what the next thing might lead to. Who knows, it could lead to a pretty cool pursuit if you’re open to it.
“That's been a big reframe for me. I have been used to having those long-term goals and now I'm like, I'm gonna do this one next thing and then I'm gonna be open to whatever that leads me to. It could lead me to a totally different business model, lead me to a different opportunity that I wouldn't have ever seen before.”
Career Ingredients
Only 13% of people have seen a career coach. A higher percentage has considered it. Rather than seeing a coach, many people seek the advice of friends, family, and colleagues. Regardless of the source, it’s critical to have unbiased help considering career possibilities.
Sandhya believes it’s important because others can help you mix career ingredients in novel ways. We all have a variety of skills, experiences, and values. Coaches and confidants help us put new permutations and possibilities on our career radar.
“It's important to find, whether it's a group or a coach or something that can help you expand your horizons. Find those possibilities. If you start to collect to these things, okay, these are my values, these are my talents, these are industries that I've had experience in, and like, how can we put all these ingredients in a bucket and mix 'em up in a different way?”
Hear More of Sandhya’s Thoughts
Sandhya is building Self at Work one step at a time. She is embracing the Enneagram on her own journey. Plus, she is helping others craft new ways of working today.
Go beyond the themes. Listen to the full episode. Sandhya provides more insight and tools that could help you forge breakthroughs on your journey.
Enjoy the episode! Thanks for you support!
Paul G. Fisher
PS - Like, share, comment, recommend to a friend! Inspiration leads to ideas. Ideas lead to action. Action leads to breakthrough journeys. You never know who might find this post helpful!
Helpful Resources from Episode -
Sandhya mentioned a few resources during our conversation, including her own podcast, Working Your Way.
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