About working with me and my previous services
“Harsh's gift of helping people come alive and bringing the best out of others is unparalleled. And I think he's able to do it because he does three things better than most people I've seen.
One is that he creates a space where you feel really heard and seen. And because of that, you're able to share much more than you would be able to share with anyone in any setting. This happens because of the way he shows up and because of the inviting, warm, and non-judgmental space that he creates for everyone.
Second is that he is one of the most unbelievable learners I've ever seen in my life and anything he shares is not just from theoretical knowledge. He's been on the journey himself that he's looking to guide other people on. So he's had success, failure, setbacks. And so whatever he shares is from a lived experience, which makes his insights and recommendations very powerful.
And third is that Harsh has a magical ability to believe in people even more than they might believe in themselves. And so on these difficult personal journeys, he's the best guide and cheerleader you can have because he will be cheering you and believing in you and supporting you all the way.”
Gaurav Singh
Founder, 321 Foundation - where I worked for a Decade, Ashoka Fellow, Echoing Green Fellow"Working with Harsh has been a revelation. In a world where most people seem to listen only to respond, Harsh stands out as someone who listens to truly understand. This quality alone has not only built a strong rapport between us but has also paved the way for genuine growth.
What's remarkable is Harsh's ability to set aside preconceptions and approach every interaction with an open mind. Whether our beliefs align or not, Harsh's focus remains on understanding where I'm coming from and how best to support me. And he does this with everyone he works with, which is quite remarkable.
Also it's not just words with Harsh. His actions speak volumes. Over the years, I've witnessed his unwavering commitment to personal growth and self-improvement. From his health journey to his experiences with mindfulness, Harsh embodies the principles he advocates.
Behind the calm and composed exterior lies a person who consistently puts in the hard work, even on the toughest days. This dedication is a testament to the authenticity of his workshops and teachings. Harsh's journey exemplifies the power of a growth mindset and the courage to live by one's values.
Personally, I've learned as much from Harsh in our professional endeavors as I have in observing his role as a father. He challenges societal norms with grace, redefining what it means to be a parent in today's world, particularly in our Indian context.
From his engineering days to his current ventures, Harsh's story is one of perseverance and staying true to oneself. It's been an honor to learn and grow alongside him"
Rima Bist
Student Success Projects Director, The Brilliant Club, UK"I've had the pleasure of knowing Harsh Swaminarayan for over a decade now, and it's been truly inspiring to witness his journey of growth as a teacher, leader, and coach. Throughout the years, Harsh has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to helping others optimize their time, attention, and energy.
One of Harsh's greatest strengths lies in his ability to provide invaluable support in areas such as time management and mindfulness. Whether it's offering practical advice or simply lending a listening ear, I've always been able to rely on him for guidance in navigating life's challenges.
What truly sets Harsh apart is his resilience, grit, and sheer courage. In the face of adversity, he remains steadfast and determined, motivating those around him to persevere and see things through to the end.
I wholeheartedly recommend Harsh's services to anyone seeking to enhance their productivity, mindfulness, and overall well-being. With Harsh's expertise and support, you'll undoubtedly unlock your full potential and achieve your goals with confidence."
Nikhat Aga
Instructional Head, Acres Foundation"Harsh has played an instrumental role in my personal and professional success. His wealth of knowledge, accumulated through years of experience and learning, has been invaluable to me.
Since the time I met Harsh, I've witnessed his unparalleled dedication to helping others thrive. His innovative approach to personal growth is truly inspiring. Harsh helped me define my life goals and develop short-term and long-term vision plans. He worked closely with me to create realistic plans and taught me how to ensure consistent commitment to them throughout the year.
I am just one of the many fortunate individuals who have experienced the impact of Harsh's guidance and support. I'm thrilled that Harsh has decided to share his knowledge with others through this workshop. I have no doubt that it will be nothing short of transformational. Harsh's unwavering commitment to excellence and his ability to connect with people on a deep level will undoubtedly make his workshop series a resounding success.
I wholeheartedly endorse Harsh and his workshop series to anyone seeking to elevate their mindset and achieve greater fulfillment in life. Thank you, Harsh, for your unwavering dedication and for being a beacon of inspiration to us all."
Rahul Talreja
Senior Program Manager, 321 Foundation"I’ve worked with Harsh at 321 Education Foundation, where employee engagement and wellbeing were central to everything we did. Harsh played a crucial role in modelling the ideal practices required to help individuals find the right balance between work and life that could ensure improved effectiveness and efficiency. The fact that he practised what he taught brought extra depth to all his sessions.
He’s an effective communicator but more importantly, an effective listener, who seeks to understand before suggesting contextual practices that could help an individual grow. His sessions are designed in a manner that encourages deep reflection and creating actionable plans."
Rahul Sreekumar
Pursuing MBA, IIM Calcutta"Harsh has been instrumental in setting up the people function at 321 and setting up some of our work and time management systems from scratch. He helped me create an effective time and work management system using a calendar and notion very early on in my career. It set the base that I'm using till now. His energy matrix sessions were some of the most useful sessions I had. Harsh has the ability to stay calm in the most stressful of situations, and a lot of it can be attributed to meditation. He has helped several people build a meditation practice by sharing his knowledge with the world.
Overall the work and time management systems that harsh helped me set almost 8 years ago are still in place and help me lead a happy and more purposeful life today."
Anukshi Mittal
IESE MBA Candidate Class of 2025, Barcelona | Forté Fellow"During my tenure at 321 Education Foundation, I had the privilege of working closely with Harsh Swaminarayan as my HR manager. Harsh's dedication to fostering personal and professional growth within the team was truly inspiring. His relentless pursuit of excellence and his passion for helping others become the best versions of themselves were evident in every interaction.
Harsh's expertise in self-development, team building, and leadership was instrumental in shaping our organization's culture and driving its success. His commitment to recruiting and coaching exceptional talent played a crucial role in our development and contributed significantly to our impact in the education sector in India.
I vividly remember the invaluable self-development talks and training sessions Harsh conducted, which left a lasting impact on me and my colleagues. His insights and guidance have helped many of us navigate our personal and professional journeys with clarity, confidence, and courage.
If you're seeking a mentor who can empower you to unlock your full potential and lead a happier, more fulfilling life, I wholeheartedly recommend Harsh Swaminarayan. His workshops are a testament to his unwavering dedication to helping others thrive, and I am grateful for the positive impact he has had on my life and career."
Pratishtha
Operations Specialist, Coursera"I had the good fortune of working with Harsh during my tenure at 321 Education Foundation. After that, I went on to work in a very fast-paced, demanding job in a startup and was kind of stressed about how I would manage the change from dev to the corporate sector. I was surprised at how easily I was able to blend in and perform at very high levels.
In hindsight, I owe this to Harsh a lot. The work management techniques that Harsh had enabled us with are so robust that irrespective of the context, they have come in handy. And the surprising part is that I don't use those techniques intentionally, they have become a part of my muscle memory.
Additionally, I also want to give a shout-out to the empathy with which Harsh operates. He creates such a safe environment for you to discuss anything and everything with him under the sun that you don't fear becoming vulnerable in front of him.
There have been times when I have reached out to him even after we stopped working formally with each other, and have always come out with great solutions to my problems."
Somya Aggarwal
Incoming MBA, IIM Ahmedabad"When I joined 321 Education Foundation, it was my first job after the Teach for India fellowship. Hence, I was extremely passionate about doing my job well. But I realized in a few weeks that passion alone is not enough. You need to bring passion into action by adding structures and routines to manage your current work priorities and time while grabbing new projects. Harsh was my go-to person, he helped me become more planned and structured by sharing multiple resources and also his focus on fitting all of this into my individual reality helped me overcome the challenges. He not only did this for me but for 50+ people at 321 Education Foundation. I remember every time we had a check-in with Harsh, that became our highlight of the week. It was comforting, added different perspectives and also was tangible to apply.
Thank you, Harsh; I am super excited that you are bringing your magic into the world and sharing what you do best."
Geetika Arora
Project Lead, Simple Education Foundation"I worked with Harsh for more than three years at 321 Education Foundation. Harsh has mentored me in two very diverse roles - that of a primary teacher/grade lead and a School Empowerment Manager. What has always been key in Harsh's support is his consistency and contextualized knowledge.
Harsh always created a safe and non-judgmental space where it was easy to both zoom out and reflect and zoom in and create effective systems and structures for my own and my people's growth. He has always been an excellent role model himself - whatever next steps he shares aren't merely next steps - they are habits he follows in his professional and personal life. This also meant that he was always very open about his struggles and would acknowledge that he was trying to change/better himself with some habits.
I have learned many long-term practices that have been easy to carry forward in my roles even after transitioning out of 321."
Jasmeet Soni
School Leader, iTeach Schools"Harsh is an embodiment of calmness and clarity. I have never seen a person who is more approachable in terms of communication. He is my ideal version of a person who can communicate well. He is a good listener and gives practical feedback / next steps.
He radiates an aura of peace and positivity, which enables people to reach out to him easily.
He explores a lot of tech tools to make planning easier and combines technology with his strength in breaking down problems.
Harsh spearheaded the people team in my org, often carrying the whole burden on his shoulders. He helped multiple team members in developing strong systems for work and personal management.
Tip: He can also help you with child management/parenting."
Irishi R
Senior Manager, Monitoring and Evaluation, 321 Education Foundation"Harsh takes a highly deliberate approach to help you make better small decisions. He has information and insights from using it, which aids others in learning from his experience as well as knowledge. He sets an exemplary example. There was a particular instance where he came to my aid. I was finding it difficult to maintain the energy and concentration needed for work because I had to balance both office and fieldwork. He gave me an explanation of how to use the pomodoro approach to set goals with a time and location and incorporate breaks to manage energy efficiency throughout the day by planning it within my calendar."
Priyansha Rawat
Program Manager, 321 Education Foundation"Harsh is an excellent human being. He was my manager at 321 School. His approach to people management is characterized by empathy. He listens attentively, asks insightful questions that unlock one's thought process, and guides one toward problem-solving. I truly wish more people could learn from his coaching style."
Rohini Nanduru
EdTech Consultant, Teach For India"Harsh to me is the epitome of ‘Zen’ and ‘keeping your smile on’ - even in challenging times. I’ve always left feeling positive after my conversations with Harsh.
Two powerful things that Harsh helped me with professionally are - 1) Power of rituals and 2) Decluttering my brain.
I think rituals helped me bring intentionality and specificity to my desired habits. Secondly, I could declutter my brain through steps that simply freed up my mental bandwidth to process information rather than to store lots of it haphazardly.
Both rituals and decluttering originate in really powerful frameworks. Do ask Harsh about those, he'll be of incredible help."
Viraj Surve
Senior Manager, Program Development & Communications, 321 Education Foundation“Deciding one’s life’s mission can be daunting and confusing. This workshop helped me form one and gave me the tools to keep refining it, all within an hour! It was thought-provoking, and made me think about living life more mindfully. At the end of the workshop, my goals had a mission preceding them, which I hadn’t quite formed on my own before.”
Ashutosh Shah
Data Center Global Spare Parts Program Manager, Amazon Web Services (AWS)“I’m a new mom, educator, co-founder at Lead by Design and all time learner; Currently working on balancing all these different roles. This workshop has helped me channel a lot of chaotic thinking into a more comprehensive thinking- doing mode. Enabled me to give myself time to ponder and articulate my life’s mission and place where I am currently. Zooming out to create and ponder during the workshop is helping me be ok with the current flux of continuous change and uncertainty. Best thing was that the workshop did indeed end with a pretty good tangible draft of my life’s mission statement just like it said it would. The easy accessibility of the tool, the flow through which you took us and the possibility of discussing at the end to troubleshoot where all great enablers.”
Anna Maria Geogy
Co-founder, Lead by Design“Knowing that across age groups, the problems we face of getting stuck in the busy or pseudo-productive is more common than I ever thought. Anyone who is living their life on auto-pilot mode should join a conversation with you through the come alive community to improve their quality of life both personally and professionally. Thank you for sharing your experiences, time and shared resources it has been helpful in a difficult time in my life”
Ojasvini Grover
Fellow, Teach For India"I am currently working on improving the quality of education of around 2k students from underprivilege background with the support of 65 fellows and 5 program managers who develop themselves and others by applying leadership in teaching model.
Harsh held a space for me to articulate my thoughts, opinions, worries and fears.
He listened deeply and asked questions which elicited the deeper thinking which was happening sub-consciously for me but wasn't available to me consciously.
He openly shared his own stories and his own life lessons, which provided an additional perspective.
He shared a number of frameworks, ideas, and references of people whom I can refer to for my personal learning.
The conversation with Harsh filled me with hope, clarity about self and helped me move from thoughts to actions. "
Ritika Arora
"I am college student and currently I am find the right opportunities that would suit my forte
This conversation helped me navigate certain areas of developments that I should start working on
One best thing would be that I really felt worthy and gained back my self - esteem that I am capable and I have better opportunites coming on my way"
Aarti Konar
Student Lead Intern, Teach For India “I had not prepared well before joining the call, but the questions that Harsh asked helped me put a direction to my thoughts.
The conversation made me think about larger aspects of my life which I normally would not do on my own.
Harsh helped me reflect on some core questions that can affect my approach towards my personal and professional life.
While there are enough resources available on the internet in the same domain, I have often found myself to be overwhelmed by it.
Harsh directed me to the right set of resources tailored to my needs which was a huge help.
Our conversation was well structured and Harsh had clear actionable for me at the end of the call.
I definitely had more clarity and confidence in my professional journey after talking to Harsh.”
Akanksha Narode
Senior Program Associate, TechnoServe“We appreciate the entire process and your patience with us. We felt good about your moderation, perspective and focus on the objective of the workshop”
Prachi and Zeeshan
Founders, Social Shapes Foundation"Harsh has been a constant force of light/hope. His ability to infuse every situation with a perspective of calmness and solution-orientedness has been nothing short of transformative.
One of the most impactful lessons I've learned from Harsh is the importance of pausing before reacting. In the face of challenges, both personal and professional, Harsh has always reminded me to take a step back, breathe, and assess the situation with clarity. This approach has not only helped me navigate through difficult times but has also enabled me to find creative and effective solutions.
His wisdom extends beyond mere advice; Harsh leads by example, demonstrating the power of resilience and adaptability in the face of adversity. His unwavering support and guidance have helped me clarify my life mission, set meaningful goals, and develop the habits and systems necessary to achieve them.
I wholeheartedly recommend him to anyone seeking guidance on their journey of self-discovery and personal growth."
Aishwariya Upadhyay
Chief Program Officer, Teach for Change"I have known Harsh leading the People's team at 321 Education Foundation, where the core of the team, as the name implies, had a focus on people. I am grateful to Harsh for providing me and the team with the best experience.
I was a fresher at that time, and even at later stages of being an experienced professional, some basics if done right and consistently, can make one feel more in control and calmer. Not many HR departments can always focus on skills and practices that are not just in the talks but are actually doable. I consider myself lucky to have learned those practices in my early years under his mentorship. He doesn't just talk about these practices but with full discipline abides by them. He had been an exemplar to the team who closely practiced what he preached. Rather than making these practices strict, he made them really fun for the team.
Starting from basics like Pomodoro techniques to doing catch-ups with team members to talk about self-development and team development, to actually taking breaks during the day to meditate, all of this aimed towards developing sharp focus, people well-being, and productivity at work. The fun team-building activities, and catch-ups organized to talk about building habits and a lot more, the list just goes on.
All in all, I have seen and learned from Harsh what being calm, sharp-minded, empathetic, and more efficient at work looks like. He very closely learns, researches, and shares these practices with the team. When I think about Harsh, I think about a life coach who instantly understands you, makes you feel heard, and together weaves a plan to aim towards satisfaction and happiness at work and life in general."
Nitika Sahni
Associate Solution Consultant, Coursera
