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<<Profile Main
What Keeps Mohan Kapur on the Go?
Meet the coach who has committed his career to delivering extraordinary performance to organizations, communities and people.

BY VEENA RAO

Mohan Kapur relates an incident that happened during his management days when he was asked to speak before a large stadium crowd at an athletic meet in Bangalore, where he was chief guest. “I could not open my mouth. I was frightened by the crowds,” he says. Anyone who has listened to Kapur speak at one of his seminars would find it hard to believe that this dynamic speaker who can motivate audiences with the power of the spoken word was once tongue tied before a crowd. It has certainly been a long journey of growth and self-realization for this performance coach who believes in the power of daily affirmations and small goals.

“It is not enough for a good coach to go through a training process,” he says with feeling. “A good coach needs to practice a lot of those things in his life. It is a question of application and not knowing the theory.”

”Knowledge is a factual science,” he adds. “But knowledge is also delving deeper into what you already know, when things begin to take on a new perspective.”

That in a nutshell is Mohan Kapur’s guiding principle in life. A recent immigrant, this Atlanta based success coach moved to the US in 2001 with his wife Sunita and son Rohan after a remarkable career impacting several organizations in India.

Kapur began his career in management, working mostly in sales and marketing- a career that took him to Dubai for a few years, before he moved back to India to head a publishing house. It was then that the urge to get into the field of leadership management consumed him. Be began reading books on the subject. 
Addressing a corporate gathering at a seminar in Atlanta.

“I always felt that there were questions that were unanswered while I was in the corporate world,” he says. “I didn’t feel that management skills were sufficient to produce consistent and effective results. Management was too reactive, and produced results with pressure- both external and internal.”

This made Kapur wonder whether management was really a science or an understanding of the self. “I saw in practically every industry that something was doing well one day, but didn’t do well the next day. Somebody was a hero one day, but was considered to be a nobody the next day,” he says.

“The reactive practices were more into producing instant gratification and results out of dominance and pressure, rather than being able to deliver consistent results.” 

“Personally, I had low self esteem throughout my management career,” he adds. “This resulted in me becoming a dominant manager, and tremendously instant gratification oriented. I was restless and in a hurry.”

That was the time when subjects like leadership had started gaining ground. Kapur started dabbling in psychology. He had an MBA in organizational behavior and group dynamics, although he says, such subjects were not given much credence to during those early days. 

Over time, Kapur says, he was able to improve his self-esteem, which in turn gave him a greater ability to understand others, to be patient and think from the perspective of giving to others. “Listening to others helped me in terms of improving my learning process, and to take better decisions for betters results.

Kapur decided to branch out on his own, and started negotiating with the US based Leadership Management Inc (LMI). He started operating a branch of LMI in India in 1993, after going through rigorous training in the US. “I’ve never had a better innings in my life,” he says. And there has been no looking back. “After becoming a performance coach I have picked up tremendous results,” he says. 

The Kapurs decided to move to the US mainly to provide the best possible support for their son Rohan who needs special education. The performance coach gained entry into the country under the person with extraordinary abilities category. The fact that Kapur was nationally recognized for his skills, was consistently followed by the media in India, and had been invited by his peers to deliver talks on leadership helped him gain instant entry into the US. He also had several testimonials from major organizations like Siemens India, Lucent Technologies etc. documented over the years to support his case.

After landing in the US in 2001, the first thing Kapur did was to buy a car to look up various cities in the US, with the idea of settling down where he could find the best special education for his son Rohan. He traveled with his family to various cities before zeroing in on Atlanta. “We liked a school called Centennial High which has a very proactive special education system,” he says. And that was the motivating factor in their decision to make Atlanta their home.

It has been a journey of growth and self-realization for Kapur. It is his goal to carve a niche for himself within people of the Indian sub-continent and other Asians, and to create strong leadership driven organizations. He also strives to create a balance between human connections and speed. 

“If we are going to train a new culture which is going to be highly efficiency oriented and low on human relations-.where people are trained to sit in front of the computer 16 hours a day- we are promoting a loss of human connections,” he says. “We are creating a world of autistic adults- efficient adults with a low ability to connect with each other, or have eye contact or be able to touch.” And this is why maintaining a balance between human connections and speed is important to Kapur.

The success coach is a great believer in setting everyday goals. He sets goals for himself, both on a personal level as well on the professional side. Typically, he writes down his goals for the day, and then goes about prioritizing his activities. He usually sets a couple of challenging goals for himself, and makes affirmations during his spare time.
“I typically have two affirmations that I would be repeating during the day,” he says. 
“For instance, if I don’t like writing my goals, I tell myself repeatedly that I am the best planner in the world. But there are thoughts that tell me that writing is a pain. So the obstacle is not planning, but writing. So my affirmation takes on a new note. I repeat- I love writing, I am a great writer… Negating thoughts need to be overcome with a powerful positive thought.”

Kapur typically has three sessions a day, and prefers not to work on Saturdays, unless something comes up. He loves to read, is passionate about ghazals, and is an avid socializer. His wife Sunita has been his quiet supporter over the years, even helping him with his administrative work while in India. An M.Sc from Lady Irwin College in Delhi, these days, she works for a bank in Atlanta. “Sunita is a peaceful person. Despite her challenges, she has taken everything with a smile,” says Kapur. The biggest challenge was raising a child with special needs. Sunita also had health challenges early in life, having had a kidney transplant while she was only 26. She has been on steroids for the past 25 years.

There is no mistaking the pride and tenderness in his voice as Kapur speaks about his son Rohan. “Despite his challenges, physically, Rohan is very smart He is very hungry for success, and is very focused like me. He excels in the skills he picks up.” Rohan won four medals in the power lifting category in the recent Special Olympics. 

It is Kapur’s ambition to make Rohan self-sufficient. “After all,” he says, “every human has limitless potential.”

As a father and a success coach impacting organizations, tapping this potential is Kapur’s main goal in life.

The mission statement on his web site says, “I commit my career to deliver extraordinary and measurable performance to organizations; communities and people, one at a time, by helping them realize their full potential. In this meaningful voyage, I wish to dedicate my life to continuously transform my 'being' to acquire the abundance and energy necessary for such deliverance.” 

A very impactful voyage indeed!

Mohan Kapur will speak on "What Keeps CEOs, Business Owners and Professionals Awake at Night?" at the Global Mall on February 20th. Contact susan@giacc.org or call (678) 230-3283 for more information.

 

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