Realizing my purpose – one experience at a time

By Pramukshi Kariyawasam

It started with the very first external training programme I attended at John Keells Hotels, back in February 2010. It was a “Cinnamon Magic” programme where I had to deliver a presentation on what we had learnt during that programme together with a few colleagues whom I had only just met. I was so young, inexperienced and had never used Microsoft PowerPoint until that day. My presentation slides were anything but tidy or appealing; but there I was, standing in a cramped-up meeting room with 8-10 senior colleagues, supervisors and the external facilitators staring at me, who I knew I had to impress. My palms were sweaty, I could hear myself breathing hard and I could feel a stream of sweat trickling down my face even though the room was freezing. But at that moment, I realized that it didn’t matter how I felt. It mattered how I made THEM feel. And I knew I had to do my very best. I started off with a croak, my voice was faint but gradually I gained more confidence and presented more clearly. By the end of the presentation there was silence in the room, and I’ll never forget the words the lead facilitator said to me that day. He said, “One word. Brilliant! You have a natural flair in you, and I hope that you put this talent to good use in your life”. I was shocked in disbelief. Was I hearing him right? What about my awful presentation slides? What about all those mistakes I made? Well it turned out that none of that mattered to him and the rest of the members in the room, as I was able to leave a lasting impression in their minds.

And so, began my journey of using this “new-found” talent to do something useful. I instantly began getting opportunities to conduct ‘train-the-trainer’ programmes and was able to conduct programmes for hotel front office staff, and subsequently for call centre staff as well. Having started off my career as a call centre assistant myself, it was definitely more exciting to be able to do something meaningful with my spare time apart from answering calls.

The more chances I got to attend training programmes and also conduct them, the more I realised that I didn’t want to answer calls as a day job for the rest of my life. After being promoted to a call centre executive, after 2 and a half years of being in the same role, I was clear that I needed a change; a change that helped me use my public speaking skills better and add more value to the organization. I asked my supervisor at the time to give me a chance to perform in another role, such as marketing – and without hesitation she did take a chance on me and gave me the post of Marketing Executive. Being in this department gave me many more opportunities to get involved in internal training programmes for our team members and also conduct presentations to the management.

The more chances I got to attend training programmes and also conduct them, the more I realised that I didn’t want to answer calls as a day job for the rest of my life. After being promoted to a call centre executive, after 2 and a half years of being in the same role, I was clear that I needed a change; a change that helped me use my public speaking skills better and add more value to the organization. I asked my supervisor at the time to give me a chance to perform in another role, such as marketing – and without hesitation she did take a chance on me and gave me the post of Marketing Executive. Being in this department gave me many more opportunities to get involved in internal training programmes for our team members and also conduct presentations to the management.

During another training programme I attended that was conducted by a renowned trainer, the participants were asked to deliver a presentation on a topic of their choice. When I finished my presentation, he congratulated me for a job well done, and invited me to become a guest lecturer at his training institute in the area of hospitality management. I graciously accepted and started conducting guest lectures every Sunday, which exposed me to a whole different spectrum of people who were now my ‘students’. They too were young, full of uncertainties just like me when I was their age – but I was able to relate to them on so many levels.

Subsequently, the Group Learning & Development were scouting for internal resource personnel and I was offered to take on the module of “Business Etiquette” and I managed to turn it into a full day programme and began conducting 5-6 training programmes per year on the topic.

A few years ago, I was invited by the JKF team to address a group of 800 students at the Sabaragamuwa university and conduct my programme in Sinhala entirely, which was a different kind of challenge altogether. Surprisingly, all 800 students were very well engaged and completely appreciative of the effort I put into conducting the programme in “Singlish” as that was the best I could do.

Fast forward to today, I’ve added more modules to my programme collection with Personal Grooming, Leadership & Motivation, Customer Service, Brand Management and the newest one being on Effective Communication. I facilitate more programmes for internal staff as well as external participants as part of the Group L&D’s and JKF’s training calendar, contribute to e-modules and online trainings, role play sessions, and also conduct external programmes and guest speeches for vast audiences from school and university students to corporate executives and professionals as well. I am also a certified corporate trainer from City & Guilds, UK.

Throughout my 11+ years of working at John Keells Group, I have been able to interact with and engage thousands of people thanks to the multitude of training programmes I’ve been privileged to be a part of, despite working in a completely different job role that has nothing to do with training. And throughout these years my purpose has become clear with every experience I have had, both the good and bad. It has moulded me into a better version of myself and made me embrace change; whilst understanding that every day will bring you a new one, a new challenge, a new fear. And helping people realize that and become better versions of themselves, whilst impacting their lives positively is what I consider my life’s purpose – as I too continue my journey of constant improvement and change.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – ― Maya Angelou