Browse Category: Coaching

6 Traits of a Great Leader in the Workplace

When we think of leadership, we sometimes think of epic moments like George Washington crossing the Delaware, or Martin Luther King Jr. speaking on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. But what makes a leader great in a less epic venue, like work?

1. Communication

A good leader at work is a good communicator and clearly spells out expectations. Not only that, they foster good communication between their team. A great leader goes above and beyond leveraging chats, emails, and texting groups to bring their team together around workplace issues. They don’t just offer tools for networking—they help develop a sense of how to communicate effectively.

Download Business Communication Clipart Png PNG Image with No Background - PNGkey.com
Source

2. Empathy

A good leader in the workplace cares about their employees and shows it. Remembering the details of their lives and asking follow up questions (in a non-invasive way) about spouses, children, parents, and life events shows that they care about their employees and view them as more than just human chattel.

Empathy | Skills | Matter
matter.com

3. Approachability

A good leader is someone who people are not afraid to approach with a question or concern. Sometimes the office door needs to be closed. But when it doesn’t, leave it open, and maybe even have a bowl of candy or some coffee for visiting employees. They shouldn’t dread your office like they did the principal’s; they should know it’s a safe haven they can turn to for help.

Defining Collaborative Leadership – Cross Collaborate
source : Cross collaborate.com

4. Generosity

Everybody loves a boss who does nice things for the team, whether it’s renting a food cart for lunch or taking everyone to a movie. Bosses and managers who use rewards to motivate their team rather than threats and punishments will find they have a much more effective workforce.

Leadership High Res Stock Images | Shutterstock

5. Passion

As the captain of the team, you’ll find that leading with example is the best way to go. If you’re plugged into the mission of your company or care about what your business does, that enthusiasm will be contagious and spread to your workers. Read up regularly on your field, network at events and attend conferences to be a cutting edge player in your line of work.

1,014,771 Leadership Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock
istock.com

6. Firmness

Nobody wants a tyrant for a boss, but they also don’t want a pushover. A good leader needs to be firm and resolute and also know when to put their proverbial foot down in a respectful way, whether it’s breaking up a water-cooler party or discussing mismanaged time with an employee. Clarify your principles and rules and stick to your guns—although per our earlier points, know when to bend the rules for extenuating circumstances.

Free Vector | Leadership concept in flat style
freepik.com

8 ONLINE EDUCATIONAL SUPPORT Sites

Join, engage, establish your presence and gain knowledge from the following top educational support forums and communities: 

1-http://www.ocwconsortium.org/

2-http://www.ocwconsortium.org/en/courses/ocwsites

3-http://ocw.tufts.edu -Tuft

4-http://ocw.upm.es -Univesidad Politechnica, Madrid

5-http://www.open.edu/openlearn/

6-http://ocw.usu.edu/ -Utah State University

7-http://open.umich.edu/ -Univ of Michigan

8- http://ocw.nd.edu/ -Nore Dame Univ

Imagination is the first step towards creating your new reality !

The ability to imagine things pervades our entire existence. It influences everything we do, think about and create. It leads to elaborate theories, dreams and inventions in any profession from the realms of academia to engineering and the arts.

The definition of imagination is the ability to come up with mental images of something that is not real or to come up with new and creative ideas. When a child is playing house and creates a pretend story, this is an example of a child using his imagination.

As per mentor – Bob Proctor his powerful quote actually means “Creation begins in the mind before it becomes physical.”

Everybody has the ability to imagine, but imagination becomes powerful when you turn it into “manifestation”. Every material thing that was created by humans was first imagined.

To imagine that which does not exist in your reality requires Discipline , Determination , Dedication and Belief & Faith. Learn to become a powerful manifestor or generator of positive outcomes in your life .

We are all creators of our destiny but very few people understand the power of imagination to create powerful experiences for themselves.

6 Tips to avoid side track syndrome and focus on your tasks!

Tips on how to avoid multi tasking by prioritising your tasks or To Do lists!

444 Sidetrack Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty-Free Images - iStock
Images : Google.com

1-Learn to list down all tasks for the day and prioritise the tasks as urgent and important vs not so urgent / Important

2-Identify the tasks you don’t need to do today

3-Have a definite schedule with a timeframe for each task and put a timer ⏱

4-Manage your time in portions ( just like eating )

 5-Cluster tasks that are similar and correlated to each other

6-Interruptions are unmanageable , keep a pause and resume in your stopwatch to see how much time you have spent on side track conversations!

Hope this helped you to stay focused on your track and achieve more!

5 Tips For Better Self-Care ❤️

It can be difficult to make time for self-care in our busy schedules. We run from one commitment to another, filling every gap in our life with work, study, family and social events. The chaos of modern life makes it even more important that we take the time to care for our individual wellbeing, both physically and mentally. If you are struggling with your own self-care, consider these five tips to improve your habits.

1. Add self-care to your normal routine

When planning your weekly schedule, make sure that you have time for self-care. Cementing its place in your routine means that you will be more likely to commit to self-care as you will have allocated time specifically reserved for it. The more often you practice self-care, the more it will become a habit and part of your regular life.

2. Do what suits you

Self-care looks for different for everyone. Some people enjoy getting outdoors, others like catching up with friends and some people prefer sitting at home losing themselves in a good book or movie. Identify what makes you feel better and commit to that. Don’t feel pressured by what others consider self-care; long walks aren’t for everyone.

3. Practice gratitude

Engaging in regular gratitude practice is a valuable habit and a worthwhile way to spend your allocated self-care time. Take some time each day or week to write down three things that you are grateful for. Try to think of unique things that have happened for that week, rather than repeating the same common things each time. It may be difficult at first, but the more you practice gratitude the easier it will become. Regular participation in gratitude exercises trains your brain to be more thankful and positive about the things you have in your life, rather than focusing on the things you don’t have or things that aren’t going so well.

4. Be brave and try something new

Trying something new is a great way to break the monotony of everyday life. Your mental health will benefit and you will learn new skills, both through the actual activity but also in regard to managing your nerves and being open to new opportunities. It is a great way to take care of your mental, and depending on the activity, physical health.

5. Detox from social media Social media can be a great way to keep in touch with people, but in can also lead to resentment through comparison. If you are feeling overwhelmed or finding yourself in a rut, take a break of social media to become more present and rejuvenate in the real world.

Prototyping phase in Design thinking/Sprints

By far one of my favourite sections in Design thinking workshops is the Prototyping phase -where participants/Cohorts learn to build solutions with their hands .They sketch , they create 2D/3D models and have fun.

Why this is the most engaging and rewarding phase of the workshop?

It’s because as designers or participants they have been working right from their vision or goal to identifying stakeholders to creating Empathy Maps, Persona Maps and Defining the Problem statement. Post which they generate multiple ideas and then come to a idea filtration methodology to prototyping ideas/solutions and testing the same with the users.

“For many designers, prototyping is where the fun begins. Sometimes the key to good empathy is sharing or co-creating a prototype with your users and getting feedback. Prototyping helps us learn, solve disagreements, and test hypotheses quickly and with minimal repercussions.”

Rapid prototyping is an iterative learning process that acquires and expresses increasingly complex information of higher fidelity over time through repetitive and cumulative cycles of build, test, see, and refine.

Prototypes are traditionally used in design and engineering environments, but when they become integral to other organizational cultures, they serve to develop a creative mind-set that is able to effectively focus on imagining, socializing, and testing any idea, including work processes, team structures, business models, and, of course, products and services.

Because every output of design thinking begins as a prototype, think of them as part of a culture and not specifically as a tool.

Prototyping is the way to open up that dimension; it’s a relatively low-cost, hands-on activity that helps bring people on to the same conceptual page, uncover new knowledge, and identify and mitigate design and development risks early on. This is done to avoid downstream costs while also building up critical assets for the internal and external communication and socialization of ideas. As part of the hands-on approach, prototyping typically seeks to involve and engage multiple stakeholders and so-called end users as participants at every stage of iteration, from paper to final production.

The next time you are stuck and needing to apply your ideas / solutions in a practical manner and invalidate assumptions – Apply prototyping and see what could happen!

Sources: Ideo.org

Design Thinking Handbook

Invision : Rapid Protoyping

Passion and Purpose

Do you ever feel confused? Pulled in so many directions at one time that you cannot figure out what you are interested in or how it all could possibly fit together? 

Underneath the indifference and confusion, there is still a voice saying, “There has to be more than this!” 

There is. 

The great news is that it DOES all fit together, because YOU fit together. You would not be the you that you are without all the fabulous bits that come together into the delightfully human you are. 

for eg : 

Do you dream of being on stage? 

• Writing a bestselling novel? 

• Producing a life-changing film? 

• Changing the way people think about their spirituality? 

See, you were designed this way. You have a purpose and a plan and your soul signed you up for ALL the challenges and opportunities you are experiencing. 

Your soul knows what it knows. You would not be called to it if you did not have it in you. If you are called to it, it is part of your purpose! So what are you waiting for ?

My perspectives on Following your Passion and Purpose

Increase your Public Speaking Confidence today!

When it comes to making a success of any public speaking exercise there are several tried and true methods that can be successfully adopted to ensure all endeavours proceed smoothly in order to garner the right kind of results or responses. By exploring the many and often varied techniques, the individual will be able to make an informed assessment as to which “tool” would be most beneficial to be used in any specific public speaking foray.

There are some basic points that should be understood and accepted as a given when it comes to the public speaking basics. In the quest to present material that is both relevant yet exciting and engaging one has to be able to understand and relate to the receiving party at all times.

Failing to note these very important elements will cause the entire exercise to be ineffective and a waste of time for all parties involved. Therefore there is a need to understand the audience before making any presentation.

When engaging in the public speaking exercise the main and perhaps most important point to bear in mind is keeping the attention of the audience from the beginning to the end of the presentation. If this is successfully done, then the presenter has been able to achieve his or her goal in imparting the material.

In order to establish one’s self as an effective presenter the element of being able to successfully connect with any audience at anytime is very important. The importance of the connection capability should never be underestimated.

When there is no proper connection between the presenter and the audience, the material presented will seem boring and uninformative. This will then cause the attention span of the audience to waver and even dim altogether. When this happens the audience may cause disturbances or distractions due to the restlessness as a result of the boredom.

Contact me for the e-book today!

10 Small Steps To Improve Your Health

source : angelweekly

Many of us make health-related resolutions, such as to lose weight, stop smoking or join the neighbourhood health club. While it is common to set high goals, experts say that setting smaller goals could do more for our health.

“Small steps are achievable and are easier to fit into your daily routine,” says James O. Hill, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. “They are less overwhelming than a big, sudden change.”

Here are 10 to try:

  1. Stop gaining weight. Even if you gain just a pound or two every year, the extra weight adds up quickly.
  2. Take more small steps. Use a pedometer to count your daily steps; then add 2,000, the equivalent of one extra mile. Keep adding steps, 1,000 to 2,000 each month or so, until you take 10,000 steps on most days.
  3. Eat breakfast. Breakfast eaters tend to weigh less and have better diets overall. For a filling and nutrition-packed breakfast, top Whole Grain TotalÆ with fresh fruit slices and low-fat or fat-free milk.
  4. Switch three grain servings each day to whole grain. If you’re like the average American, you eat less than one whole grain serving a day.
  5. Have at least one green salad every day. Eating a salad (with low-fat or fat-free dressing) is filling and may help you eat less during the meal. It also counts toward your five daily cups of vegetables and fruits.
  6. Trim the fat. Fat has a lot of calories, and calories count. Purchase lean meats, eat poultry without the skin, switch to lower-fat cheeses, use a nonstick pan with only a dab of oil or butter.
  7. Consider calcium by including two or three daily servings of low-fat or fat-free milk or yogurt. Dairy calcium is good for bones and may also help you lose weight.
  8. Downsize. The smaller the bag, bottle or bowl, the less you will eat.
  9. Lose just 5 to 10 percent of your current weight. The health benefits are huge-lower blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and triglycerides.
  10. Keep track of your eating. Write down what you eat over the next couple of days and look for problem spots. Often, just writing things down can help you eat less.