Defeating the Personal Debt Trap (ft. Asesh Sarkar)

Defeating the Personal Debt Trap (ft. Asesh Sarkar)

Asesh Sarkar is changing the way employers and employees handle salary

OPENING QUOTE:

Just like when I joined the workforce as a grad and I had a great experience, making sure that people who join us have a great experience, as well. So yeah, it's quite the journey, and then one we're very much still on and learning every day.

—Asesh Sarkar

GUEST BIO:

Asesh Sarkar is the Global CEO and Co-founder of Salary Finance. Salary Finance is a fast-growing FinTech company which enables employees to receive wage advances to help them pay off their debts faster and save towards their financial goals, operating in both the UK and US. It's been featured twice by Forbes as one of the leading socially responsible startups and as one of the five fast-growing businesses to watch. It's also already become a Harvard case study. Across the UK and US, Salary Finance is used by 500 top employers and available to around 4 million people.

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[4:38] -Four Things Great Leaders & Bosses Do

Lessons from Asesh’s first great mentor

Asesh recounts the boss who played the role of a coach in his early career, providing him with four key gifts— autonomy, a listening ear, the feeling of being valued, and flexibility. With these four tools, a coach gives a person much more than any domineering, hard-charging boss could ever provide. 

[17:42] - The Model of Reciprocation

You don’t have to be an extrovert to thrive

If you genuinely go out and show other people that you are interested in helping them, you don't have to be an extrovert to thrive in business. If somebody reaches out to help you, and you are happy to help them, it’s often as simple as that. Build authentic trust-based relationships where people know that you are not just in it for a transactional benefit, and your reputation will reflect that. Meanwhile, people that have a history of transactional-based interactions get a reputation for having transactional-based interactions. The number of people who genuinely want to work with them declines over time.

[28:31] - Combining Social Intent with Business Acumen

Asesh’s formula for impact

Asesh shares his vision for an organization with the greatest positive role in the world: the best talent working on problems which can make a real impact in society, combined with a commercial model which means it is commercially scalable and can raise capital to do it at a big, big scale. This idea of business with social purpose is what inspired him to go all-in on Salary Finance.

[50:12] - Asesh’s Message to Leaders

Learning to cut the line

There’s always more work than there is time in the day. It’s rarely a bad decision to cut the line and stop work time a bit further, then use that extra time to spend with colleagues and form human relationships. It makes you better, it makes them better, and everyone performs better as a result. Focus on relationships and watch performance soar.

RESOURCES:

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ABOUT PERSPECTIVES FROM THE TOP:

Discover the secrets of success for you and your organization shared by the world’s leading thinkers, doers, and trailblazers. Join Chris Roebuck, Honorary Visiting Professor of transformational leadership, leader in military, business, and government, inspiring global keynote speaker, one of HR’s Most Influential Thinkers, bestselling author, and your host of Perspectives from the Top. The show reveals a treasure trove of insights from mega trends to practical strategies and actions to take your career up a gear. From government world shapers and business mold breakers to evidence driven academics and enthusiastic entrepreneurs, each episode shows you how you can immediately use these new ideas and actions to drive your success.

Learn more at: PerspectivesFromTheTop.com

ABOUT DETROIT PODCAST STUDIOS:

In Detroit, history was made when Barry Gordy opened Motown Records back in 1960. More than just discovering great talent, Gordy built a systematic approach to launching superstars. His rigorous processes, technology, and development methods were the secret sauce behind legendary acts such as The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and Michael Jackson.

As a nod to the past, Detroit Podcast Studios leverages modern versions of Motown’s processes to launch today’s most compelling podcasts. What Motown was to musical artists, Detroit Podcast Studios is to podcast artists today. With over 75 combined years of experience in content development, audio production, music scoring, storytelling, and digital marketing, Detroit Podcast Studios provides full-service development, training, and production capabilities to take podcasts from messy ideas to finely tuned hits. 

Here’s to making (podcast) history together.

Learn more at: DetroitPodcastStudios.com

ABOUT THE HOST:

Chris has shown over 21,000 leaders in over 1500 organizations globally how they can discover their secrets of success in a way that meets and beats their organizations specific challenges.

Chris has done this across sector, culture and geography - UBS, HSBC, KPMG & London Underground, legal firms to construction, tech and IT, to retail, facilities to scientific research, police to not for profit, pharmaceutical to SMEs. From the UK National Health Service of 1.4m staff and UK Government to the Red Cross in Myanmar, from Investment banks in London to Middle East Telecoms, from the Chinese Space Program leaders to HR Directors in India and global retail CEOs in Rome.

When he was the Global Head of Leadership at UBS, overseeing a staff of 70,000 across 100 countries, his team helped the bank transform organizational performance to increase profitability by 235%, market capitalization by 50% and win numerous awards. This is now a Harvard Case Study.

Chris has been quoted as a business leadership expert globally in the Harvard Business Review China, FT, Wall Street Journal, Le Monde, New York Times, Business Week, Time Magazine, Washington Post, Times of India, Straits & Gulf Times and many others. He judges business awards and has done over 350 TV interviews on leadership and business on BBC, Sky, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera, CNBC & CNN. He’s also skied at 60mph by accident. 

Learn more about Chris at: ChrisRoebuck.Live

CREDITS: