Designing a Career based on your Strengths

Here's a superb, concise article that gives you great tips on improving your career - via your strengths. Click the link here

As you will see, it talks about searching for careers quite differently i.e. from a perspective of strengths & tasks.

If you want to know how to design a career that's based on your strengths, I am India's First Strengths Strategy Coach and will definitely be able to coach you on this.  So, write me a note here or at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call me at +919820155778.

What's on your Playlist?

 Ever since i-pods, and then music players came onto our mobile handsets, and then the internet streaming of audio content took off, the word "playlist" became a constant part of our lives and, if we happened to be heavily involved in the music industry, our vocabulary.

We know that a playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs, but sometimes a loop.

We have songs for when we feel good, or feel a little low, or if we want to motivate ourselves (think "Chariots of Fire' theme or Rocky movie theme) and so on. On Podcasts, you have motivational or informational talks.  

There's another playlist that has been with us for a longer time.  This playlist is not just music or podcasts, but consists of conversations. At times, they can consist quotations (said by someone we give importance to) that we are reminded of, according to our circumstances and experiences.  They could be things we have told ourselves.  The psychologists call this 'self-talk'.  I call it the 'Internal Personal Playlist'.  This image shows how it generally works on the inside.

This playlist or 'Internal Representation' comes on automatically as we go through different situations and emotions in life, sometimes defining our behaviours, actions and even our mindsets.  It's never a constant theme, and sometimes, it is extremely hard to switch off.  So we end up more mentally tired than physically tired, and want to withdraw from the world.

Suppose we tried to consciously control the Internal Personal Playlist by choosing what to play?  How might we control this? What might happen?  

For a start, we could acknowledge what is going on around us, and also acknowledge what we are doing in response to the playlist.  We can try to change the playlist.  In the world of Emotional Intelligence, Strengths and Positive Psychology, this means developing deep awareness of what's on our playlist in a given moment.  

The implications of the playlist are many.  But more importantly, what's on your playlist this week? and next month? 

Share your comments on your playlist here

Creating a Feedback Culture

 In this week, what will you do to help promote a #feedbackculture ?

It's no easy task.  It requires patience, to listen, in depth, to accept without acrimony, to respond, not reply.  But it also needs strength to speak up, clarity of thought in order to articulate your message.

How to make Positive Feedback / Praise Effective

As the first #IndiavsEngland cricket test match started in Chennai today, I recalled the recently concluded test series with Australia last month. There were certain things that struck me, some which were covered by others in their own articles. This in particular, was the speech by head coach, Ravi Shastri in the dressing room after the win.  Have a look here:-

Ravi' Shastri's Speech

I think this speech clearly shows a critical element that is missing from organization life viz. praising your team effectively. From naming individuals in particular, to mentioning specific actions to considering the contributions of every person in the contingent, it was masterful. He made the point of telling the team to celebrate.  At no point, did he hurry through the speech.

Have a look, and share your thoughts on
1) What might be incorporated into the corporate world, and
2) How this speech may impact the current test match / series with England.
3) Those with a #strengths perspective, can share what positive areas the Indian team can improve upon.

#strengthsdecoder #strengthscoaching #coaching #teamcoach #powerofpraise #verbalappreciation #appreciationpost

Feedback - Design Your Life Session on 31 Jan 2021

Happy to share that I conducted a session "Design Your Life" for 100+ second and final year students using Zoom. This was partly facilitated and kept interactive to allow the young minds to speak up.

The key topics covered were Communication Styles, Developing one's #Strengths and Dealing with Failure.

It was joyful to interact with sharp discerning minds who did a great job to participate fully despite internet issues.  Thanks to @Semira Khaleeli - Imagenation Training & Coaching Co. for her support.

#designyourlife #designyourcareer #strengthsdevelopment

#strengthsdecoder #strengthscoaching #careerguidance #careerplanning #careercoaching