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.

Whose Orangutan are you?

Credit: pexels-tara-winstead-8849295

What a fascinating article I came across   Here are some lines that made me think a lot:

• The late Charlie Munger had a hack for making yourself instantly smarter: explain yourself to an orangutan.
• Thinking is social even when there’s nobody around, because good thinkers have internalised the voices of others.
• In lieu of actual person with whom you can “be really human” in person, just speaking your ideas aloud - or indeed writing them down - can help you work out the best version of those thoughts. 

Please click here to read the article.

Now that you've read the article:

• Do you have an orangutan to talk to? or more than one?
• Are you an orangutan to someone? How was the experience for you?

A Performer's Reflections on the TED Talk - "The Tipping Point I got wrong"

I just saw this video today, and was struck by the candidness of the speaker Malcolm Gladwell.  He talks about what he got wrong in his book, The Tipping Point. 

Here are some of my reflections (in no order of importance) on this video:

• "This is what happened" - The way the world works is not as certain as it is in one's mind.
• An outstanding and thought-provoking line - "This is what I believe happened now".
• The ability to admit to yourself that you are or were wrong is critical for your growth.
• The ability to admit that you are are or were wrong to a public audience where you are being recorded for the world to see, is priceless.
• The willingness to be held accountable for errors in your work, make you an outstanding colleague or leader.
• While it's easier to say than do completely, we should do our best 
• What would the world be like if all influencers, particularly those in positions of power, would willingly admit their errors and work towards rectifying them? Wishful thinking, I know.
• Journalists and writers need to be more accountable for the content they put out.
• What would make a person (at any level) more accountable?
• As a coach, how can we encourage such authenticity in our clients?

What thoughts come up for you as you watched the video? What would you like to add to this list.

I'd love to have your points of view.

If you as a leader or influencer, have been sparring with some of these thoughts and questions for a while, and want to have a Strengths-coach as your sounding board, click this link to set up a pro-bono 30 minute Zoom call at a convenient time.  

If the time slots don't work for you, please write to me personally on ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com and we will decide on a mutually convenient time slot.

Diwali Greetings 2024

 

Rethinking the Labor Market in the Wake of AI

Pic credit - pexels-tara-winstead-8849295

An excellent article on what happens to the #workforce when #ai is introduced in organizations.

From the article: "AI requires humans in the loop, so using workers with deep industry experience to a new purpose that complements AI would be the right thing to do, as opposed to getting rid of them and then later figuring out that while the tasks they used to do are obsolete, the #knowledge they have is very valuable and should have been deployed elsewhere."

Read the rest of the article here

The Reality of Carrot and Stick motivation

Both are temporary.

The carrot makes the employees adopt a kind of mercenary mindset. Nothing wrong except that it is too short termed for any sustained impact.

The stick makes the employees fearful, and kind of wreck the culture where you have more lip service than engaged and passionate effort.

The interesting part is that the employees first would feel the lack of energy to move, before any manager or leader.  The manager or leader sooner or later gets the feeling that things aren't moving as fast (a slightly vague term that doesn't always account for the environment factors) as they should, and so proposes more incentives.  

I recall a leader in one organization wanting to put sales people on PIP if they were at 70% of their monthly target. You can guess what those employees got motivated to do.

Surely the revenue an organization earns can be utilized in more effective areas than carrots and sticks?

Your thoughts on this?  What do you think are the best ways to improve performance?

 

My Facilitation Week 2024 Learnings

Every year when the International Association of Facilitators celebrates Facilitation Week, I (and other members) volunteer my services to do conduct 90 to 120 minute sessions pro-bono for Educational Institutes, NGOs, Government organizations and Corporates.  Some of the members also offer their learning in the form of short open sessions to the members and non-members.  

I am always grateful for this opportunity because it allows me to exercise my facilitation design muscles on topics that I may or may not have done before.  I've been participating in Facilitation Week or Facweek since 2018. 

Some of the topics I have covered in the past include, Team collaboration, Resilient Leadership, Focus Group Discussions, Consensus building, Conducting Effective Performance Development Discussions, Unboxing Microaggressions, Building Online Engagement, and others.

Here are the sessions that I conducted for Facilitation Week in this year 2024.

Smiling Participant faces and some comments from them on the session

While both sessions went well for the participants, there's always room for improvement and / or reiteration.

Overall there's a lot of learning for all of us, not just our participants.  As a facilitator, here are some points that get reinforced for me, frequently:

• Think and plan your session based on the inputs you take from the client. Probe for clarity and understanding instead of taking anything at face value.
• Keep backup processes and tools eg. Google Slides as backup.  Your participants may not be as comfortable with online tools (eg. Mural, Miro, Zoom, Teams, Kahoot, Padlet) as you might be.
• Be ready to flex your approach and session, keeping the desired outcome in mind.  This means being reading to shift a process or drop a topic to ensure that the outcome is achieved within the given time.  Don't be married to your session design.
• In the online space, a rehearsal with tech check is necessary, even if you or the client are comfortable with the platform.
• In the online space, be absolutely clear with the client about things the participants have to do or not do, whether it is keeping videos on or sharing a desktop / laptop.
• In the online space, time moves differently, mostly faster than you have anticipated.
• In line with the above, the deeper you frame the discussion question, the more time participants need to assess and discuss the question. This goes back to planning.
• As with technology, your participants may not be completely aware of technical terms related to the topic, so ensure that these are clarified as much as possible during your session.  This also eats into your allotted time so plan to communicate as simple as possible.  
• It's more important for participants to understand the topic than to marvel at your brilliance during the session.  Participants will definitely appreciate this aspect.

Gratitude to #IAFIndia for the opportunity to do these sessions and spread the #PowerOfFacilitation 

I'm also grateful to my co-facilitators, Monica and Varsha, for bearing with me and supporting me before, during and after the sessions.

#Facilitation #IAFIndia2024 #IafIndiaConference2024 #Sustainability #facilitationweek