Action from FDP session - Mindfulness and Emotional Resilience

 I was thrilled to be invited to be a part of the Faculty Development Program of Anjuman College of Hotel and Tourism Management Studies and Research.  This program is spread over a week and has other external faculty like myself, who are covering different aspects of the theme "Wellness to Wisdom".

All the faculty invited for this Program

I opted for the topic, Mindfulness and Emotional Resilience for Educators.  The challenge - only two and a half hours to cover such a fascinating and deep topic.  I had a further discussion to understand how this topic came up, and based on this, I put the components of my session together.

Through facilitator led discussions, I covered how emotions can create distortion of reality and facts, what emotional resilience contains, the difference that a Growth Mindset can make, the fallacy of multi-tasking and it's links to stress and productivity, mindfulness and got them to practice a mindfulness journaling exercise.  

The faculty participants marvelously did their part of being student learners, with insightful questions and comments.  They made the session more interesting and impactful, especially when they took up a specific action to put into practice.

                                          

Practical Expectations Captured

Key Insight and one Action

Dr. Harish Suvarna, the Principal presents me a memento on behalf of the organization

My gratitude to the Principal, Mr. Harish Suvarna, the faculty and particularly Ms. Priyanka Kandalkar for the warm hospitality they provided to me throughout my time there.  I wish them all the best, and look forward to working with them again in future.

Do connect with me on +919820155778 if you want your people to experience such topics.

Action from Leadership Quotient - Emotional Intelligence Workshop

Here are some glimpses of Workshop on Leadership Quotient - Emotional Intelligence conducted for the leaders of a Mumbai-based large organization.

There were 2 days of two separate batches of leaders, and let me say that the enthusiasm and curiosity of the participants in both batches really made the learnings more powerful.

We covered how Emotional Intelligence affects the leader's ability to build relationships with their team members and their peers, in addition to naming emotions, and what goes on in the brain.  The participants also went through a facilitated process on how to create positive emotions at the workplace.

Do connect with me on +919820155778 for conducting leadership workshops for your organizaion.

Should there be limits to being authentic?

How much honesty is enough / needed? = how much authenticity is required for different relationships?

If we are told that being authentic is essential to building trust with others, then how much do we reveal of ourselves while being authentic in our relationships with them.

Here's an interesting Ted Talk on authenticity and leadership from psychopaths.

While the similarities to leadership are intriguing, the speaker raises critical points about how much authenticity is required for us in our relationships.  

It's not OK to feel desperate at work

Workdays that are constantly stressful can  be overwhelming.

If your week (or past few weeks) have been more #stressful than usual with a recurring sense of #dejavu, then take a pause and have a look at this article.

In case you want to have a chat, don't hesitate to message me.

#strengthsdecoder #performancecoach #performancecoaching #careercoach #careertransition

Choosing your Mood - Every Day, Every Time

This post is about choosing our moods on a daily basis.

Some times we do it consciously, but most days we are reacting. 

The above image (image sourced from Pinterest) got me thinking.  Some thoughts about this interesting image (you can substitute the word 'mood' for the word 'chair') :

1) Which of these chairs did you spend the maximum amount of time last week?
2) Which other chairs did you occupy during the week?
3) Which chair would you justify your choice the most, perhaps subconsciously?
4) In this week, which chairs would you intentionally like to spend the most time?
4a) In this week, which chairs would you intentionally like to AVOID spending the most time?
4b) What exactly will you do about these intentions?

Post your responses if you are comfortable, or don't.

Definitely do reflect on them and have a wonderful week.

#coaching #coachingquestions #performancecoach #emotionalintelligence #managingemotions #strengthsdecoder #reflection #introspection #emotionalregulation #emotions #coach

Participant Feedback - Emotional Intelligence Workshop

Here are the pictures of my recent one-day workshop on Emotional Intelligence for participants from a financial organization.  The interesting point here is that the participants (not all were managing teams) have nominated themselves for this workshop.  Their interest was evident right from the start, with their questions and participants.

I was able to facilitate a couple of areas and not the entire workshop since there the participants needed content to increase their understanding the topic.  Hence the workshop was a mix of facilitation and training. 

Learning Expectations

 

Participants try to portray and identify each other's emotions

The participants thoughts about what makes a leader (hint - behaviours)

Participants identify ways to manage self, motivation and others

Learnings that participants wish to apply at the end of the workshop

The client feedback received was positive (they enjoyed it, were keen on applying their learnings), and participants wanted it to be of a longer duration.

Do let me know if you would like to conduct such workshops for your teams / organization. Write to me on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or call me on +919820155778 for a discussion.

Top Behavioural Skills for the Leader / Employee of Today / the Future

Pic Credit - Ryan Barretto Oct 2011

I'd like to talk about a topic that comes out nearly every year around this time, in the media.  The topic is 'Skills for the year _____".  After going through them over the past 4/5 years, I noticed that the skills that get mentioned there are pretty much the same (when you think about it), and are simply renamed and given a different ranking by whoever generates the list.

Based on my experience (it's a fair amount - go see my LinkedIn profile to know details) in HR and now as a Strengths-based Career Coach, HR Consultant, Trainer, and Facilitator, I decided to come up with my own list of Behavioural skills for the future, though with some detail so that readers are clear about what the skill means in life and at work.  Behavioural skills are what help ensure that candidates are selected / rejected, but let's be clear - poor demonstration of Functional capabilities (skills related to your function i.e. Finance, Marketing, Sales, IT, HR and so on), will definitely ensure that you get rejected or won't be able to stay in the organization very long.

There is no particular order, because in my view, you better go about developing them as best as you can, and as a lifelong habit.  This list also doesn't include functional skills because they will be different for every job.  As a candidate, you should be on top of your game in this area, in order to stand a chance.

Now, as an individual employee, you might think - I'm a seasoned professional, so this may be suitable for a fresher or a junior person. Let's be clear - These are skills which if used throughout your personal and professional life, will earn you rich dividends.  

Then, if you happen to be a recruiter for an organization, you may not think this to be relevant. I can say with confidence that your organization will become more successful and effective by incorporating these skills into the Employee Development Plan.  As proof, notice that successful people around you (especially those you know well and without prejudice) will also have these same skills, no matter what their age, background or industry is.

Another thought to consider : To execute these skills, you have to develop a subset of related skills.  For example, to be able to Communicate with Clarity, you must possess / develop Listening Skills, develop the ability to appropriately Apply a vast Vocabulary, Clear Diction, the ability to State your point Concisely and Precisely, a level of Analytical skills to be able to provide a detailed response when required, applying the appropriate emotion and tone to your words, and as with any communication, the skill of timing your response.

As you can see, the skills are layered with other skills, and some will even be interconnected with the ones I have mentioned. You are going to have to go deep.

So, here are the skills for the future (whatever the timeline may be):

pexels-antoni-shkraba-4348401

Digital capability skills are non-negotiable today i.e. being familiar with a computer, applications like MS Office is a base requirement no matter where in the organization you are joining. If you have learnt some statistical tools and are keen on analytical roles, make sure they're upto date. 

Pexels Photo by Anna Shvets

Analytical skills are becoming more relevant, along with the ability to think first and then act.  If you are into specialist analytical roles, then some statistical tools are going to be required tool.

Pexels Photo by Pixabay

Constant learning, followed by reflection (introspection) and application - why? knowledge is growing by leaps and bounds daily, and we must be relevant to the times and our work / careers, or get left behind because of redundancy.  This also means being open to viewpoints that are vastly different from the beliefs you hold.  

pexels photo-yan-krukov-9069214

Communicate with clarity - because if you cannot communicate your knowledge (jargon free), experience and perspective clearly enough to be understood by others, then why should you be hired or promoted?  In fact, why should anyone pay attention to what you say?

pexels photo-cottonbro-studio-8102738

Influencing others - this is what I term as advanced level of communicating with clarity.  Simply put, you are able to get other people to agree and work with your point of view.

Pexels Photo by Pixabay

Emotional Intelligence - to understand  yourself, your emotions and the emotions of others without getting carried away & making ineffective decisions.  

pexels-brett-jordan-9141232

Flexibility in approach - this allows you to sense and act based on external environment situations that shift quickly. If you are stuck to your ideas & brilliance too much, you may not be able to provide quality work, listen and work well with others and be effective in your role. As the song goes - "The Future's uncertain and the end is always near".  So how adaptable can you be?

Pexels Photo by Hilmi Işılak

Working well with others - a.k.a. Collaborate.  This is a very critical skill because today, no single person is 100% talented in all areas of life and work, nor does one person, at any level have the all the answers.  I will include the ability to respect others here, because it is very hard to collaborate with someone you don't respect.

Photo by Ryan Barretto Oct 2013

Resilience - The ability to bounce back from failure to failure with a positive, can-do mindset, until you reach success.

pexels photo-eva-bronzini-6475420

Consistently delivering value - It is the skill of applying all of the aforementioned skills with thought to provide service which the world finds value in.  Your ability to do this effectively will define how successful you become.

So there you have it.  Working on these areas, particularly with a strengths coach will definitely find success. You may find it difficult to build and excel in all these skills because your strengths aren't going to be aligned with each of them, so a basic level of competence would be required for all these skills.  This is also where the ability to collaborate is critical, so that you can contribute your strengths to enable a colleague to play around their weaknesses, and they will do the same for you.

Recruiters (including managers and leaders) - don't forget to assess these skills when you are interviewing candidates.  Your organization's long term growth depends on it.

Want to know more on how to develop these skills for you and your team / organization? Contact me at +919820155778 or ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com

Where Talent can take you...

It's strange how some talented people feel they can get away with any sort of behaviour, just because they contribute a lot.

They seem oblivious to the fact that #talent can take you far, but your behaviour can take you a little more ahead.

Please vote on this Emotional Intelligence Poll

The work problems due to low Emotional Intelligence occur much more than we like to admit.

In the poll below, please share what you think will be most effective solution for both the individual and organization's growth.

Please comment if there is a course of action that isn't mentioned in the poll. The number 5 is just an assuumption, and could be any number of times that you prefer.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/barrettoryan_selfawareness-selfmanagement-strengthsdecoder-activity-6925750616937902080-AIRd?utm_source=linkedin_share&utm_medium=member_desktop_web

Facweek feedback - Difficult Conversations

 As I mentioned in my earlier post that I had done Four sessions during #facweek.

Here's the feedback from the second topic I covered for two corporate organizations in two sessions of 90 minutes duration.

Feedback from Belden Technologies

Feedback from DXC Technologies

Article - What makes a Good leader? (my hint: Strengths-based and Situational Leadership)

Here's an excellent read on what can help a leader excel as a #leader. The article talks of the leader being able to leverage both his #strengths and his team's strengths, which in turn leads to better results. Read on... here

Feel glad that I am a #strengthscoach and a #situationalleadership certified trainer.

Managing Anger

 In a recent webinar, during a group discussion on leadership behaviours, I articulated this thought -

"A Leader must be carefully angry."

What do you think? From the list in the image, which is most easy and most difficult to do? Please comment.