I walked into the meeting with questions.
I walked out with a leadership thought that stayed with me.
As part of our engagement with the Department of Posts, Bengaluru HQ Region, I finally had the opportunity to meet Ms. V. Tara, Director, Postal Services.
Before any project begins, I have a practice I value deeply:
Meet the leaders.
Not simply to understand the project brief.
But to understand the people behind the brief — their perspective, their priorities, their expectations, and most importantly, how they define progress.
And this meeting was particularly interesting for me.
I came in with the natural curiosity that comes with entering a very different institutional environment.
A Central Government organisation.
A different ecosystem.
Different structures.
Different responsibilities.
What should I expect? (honestly I was skeptical)
Then came a statement from Ms. Tara that immediately caught my attention:
“Staying relevant is my vision. Our vision.”
And she went on to speak about how every small step is taken with the intention of ensuring that they do not stay behind.
That stayed with me.
Because relevance is one of those words we use very easily — but rarely examine deeply.
Being relevant is not simply about adopting technology.
It is not about changing everything every year.
It is not about following every new trend.
And it certainly isn’t about trying to look modern.
Relevance is the willingness to keep asking:
What is changing?
What are our people going to need next?
What should we stop doing?
What should we learn?
What can we do differently — without losing what already works?
That, to me, is a leadership mindset.
And it applies equally to an individual professional, a business, an institution or a public-service organisation.
Because the world doesn’t necessarily leave us behind in one dramatic moment.
Sometimes, we become irrelevant one small decision at a time.
One skill we stop developing.
One assumption we stop questioning.
One customer need we stop listening to.
One emerging capability we decide can wait.
One conversation we postpone.
And eventually, the gap becomes visible.
This conversation also made me reflect on something I have encountered repeatedly through corporate projects, consulting, coaching and leadership conversations:
**Experience gives us depth.
Relevance requires us to keep evolving.**
That is also why our work at Change Institutes International (CII) is increasingly moving beyond conventional training — towards capability building, leadership development, communication, management and business skills that respond to changing organisational realities.
We are now looking forward to contributing to the proposed three-day capacity-building programme on Management, Business & Marketing Skills for field-level supervisory and managerial officers of the Department of Posts, Bengaluru HQ Region, including Divisional Heads and Assistant Superintendents of Posts (ASPs).
The CII team will contribute across the programme, and I will be addressing the Leadership segment.
For me, this is more than a new sector or a new project.
It is another opportunity to listen, learn, adapt and contribute.
And perhaps that is what staying relevant really means:
**Don’t wait for change to make you relevant.
Make relevance a leadership habit.**
What does “staying relevant” mean in your organisation — or in your own professional journey?
I’d genuinely like to hear different perspectives.
#Leadership #LeadershipDevelopment #StayingRelevant #ChangeManagement #CapacityBuilding #PublicSector #ManagementDevelopment #LearningAndDevelopment #mitchelevy #ProfessionalGrowth #ChangeInstitutesInternational
