The Storyteller

S.V. Nathan,

Partner, Human Resources, Deloitte India, is often asked by his colleagues to give leadership lessons. With over 30 years of HR experience, Nathan obviously has innumerable anecdotes to share. However, instead of the usual PowerPoint presentation studded with HR jargon, Nathan prefers telling inspirational stories that he writes.

“My stories are stories of life, incidents that have happened in my own life, which I blend with folklore,” he says. An avid reader of Indian, Japanese and Greek folk tales, Nathan’s stories have a distinct influence of all these folklores.

At an investiture ceremony of a leading management school, Nathan spoke about the importance of having the right attitude to succeed and judging talent by attitude and not only qualifications. During the ceremony, he spoke of one such instance from his early professional life. Nathan worked for a holiday resort company, and at their resort in Kodaikanal was a gym- trainer who helped a desperate guest in the hotel take his car out from a puddle near the lake. “The trainer convinced the guest that he would take charge of the situation and he brilliantly did so. We gave him an award for helping the guest and seeing his attitude we also gave him a role in the

HR department. The gym trainer today heads the HR department of a leading retail company. “To cut the long story short, the point I tried to drive through my story was the importance of judging a person by his/ her attitude. A qualification from a prestigious university shouldn’t be the only criteria,” he elaborates.

Through his stories, Nathan talks about myriad topics such as the importance of speaking up or standing up for the right cause. His blog SliceOfLife, where he narrates inspiring stories, has made Nathan one of the top three HR influencers in the country on LinkedIn.