The benefits of managing people flow beyond them.

“You end up improving society,” stresses Piyush Ghosal, Associate General Manager, HR, at Josh Software in Pune, India. “You do justice to society by helping people realize their potential. So, you have a larger responsibility.”

An HR professional for 17 years, he stands by the quality of resilience. Things are moving fast, yes. And you need to change too. “Resilience is needed to embrace this change,” he advises.

As a student of law, he was clear about one thing – he didn’t want to practice law.

Not that he completely abandoned it. Rather, it was labor law that sparked his interest in HR.

As a college intern, Mr. Piyush worked under an inspirational supervisor – a lawyer and an MBA in HR. And that’s when he figured such a blend could work well. “More than an interest, HR became a visible career path for me,” he recalls. “I wanted to take up a career which afforded good visibility and opportunity.”

And when Mr. Piyush joined HR, he realized the wide scope it entails, much beyond labor law. “More than law, I reasoned, it was important to understand human psychology in this field,” he says.

But from law education, he took back the art of persuasion. Today, especially while putting across his ideas to the leadership or a huge audience, this competency comes to aid.

There is no limit to human potential. The only limit is our inability to see through it, believes Mr. Piyush.

Moreover, being a catalyst in someone’s journey to discover potential has a ripple effect. “You touch someone’s life like this, and they touch someone else’s,” explains Mr. Piyush. “You help the society at large.”

But what’s the key to discovering potential? “The more unknown areas you venture into, the easier it becomes for you to realize your potential,” he says. Sometimes, an individual may not even be aware of their capability to perform a task. “After initial successes, you start embracing it.”

And this applies to your personal life too. In 2017, despite being overweight, Mr. Piyush set his eyes on running a half-marathon. “I did it. I ran four such races back to back,” he recalls proudly.

Words alone don’t move people. To stir emotions, you need more.

Mr. Piyush is an advocate of ‘storyshowing’, a concept he developed in his book ‘Stop Telling Start Showing’.

“When a story is shown, it strikes the emotional string of the listener and connects them to the speaker,” he believes.

Further, he suggests that your emotions and actions should match. In case of mismatch, there is no impact. “Often, when we speak to an audience, we focus on mere facts. There is no emotion. Facts alone don’t create impact,” asserts Mr. Piyush.

HRs work best when involved in business, according to him. “Responsibility of the HR is to act as a catalyst for the business to flourish.”

Down the line, Mr. Piyush aspires to delve deeper into organizational development. “I am interested in the question: how do you influence the thinking of an organization and individual in general and improve their social capital through positive organizational development,” he explains, adding that he is interested in the application of positive psychology in creating meaningful change.