Office reimagined: In team leaders, soft skills take centre stage

"While leaders are responsible for a better tomorrow, managers are responsible for a better today," says Ashish Ambasta, founder and CEO of HappyPlus Consulting, a tech-enabled HR firm

At the truck manufacturing unit of Tata Motors in Jamshedpur, Jhark­h­and, a small group of workmen sits in the lounge area, glued to smartphones. They are attending a session being hosted by the company’s human resource (HR) personnel on Microsoft Team from his home in Mum­bai. He, along with a dietician, is delivering a talk on the importance of a healthy lifestyle, nutrition and a fitness regime to beat anxiety and stress amid the pandemic.

Touching upon various fac­ets of mental and physical hea­lth, such sessions are regular now for those employed at the company’s manufacturing units and elsewhere. Until