How we use language?

I found the following information in nationalstrategies.co.uk. The document has some interesting handouts given out to the children during an activity where they explore how language use can help create the conditions for learning.

And here is how one of the children has filled out the handout. The title of the handout is ‘Things Teacher say’ and this is what the child has to say

 “This is a guide to what teachers say and what they really mean. All children needs this guide to understand teachers”

 What they say – It is getting noisy
What they mean – Shut up

What they say – Did I say talk?
What they mean – Quiet!

What they say – Stop playing with that
What they mean – It is confisticated

What they say – Is that mine?
What they mean – Can I have it back?

What they say – Finish it by playtime.
What they mean – Finish it now.

What they say – I want to talk to you.
What they mean – You are dead.

What they say – I will be away tomorrow at a course.
What they mean – I am going to a football match.

What they say – You have been good today.
What they mean – Be good tomorrow.

Oh, I can’t stop myself from laughing by reading this. It would be fun if HR in corporate can come up with an activity like this help employees assess their manager’s use of language. The employees will have real fun.

Warm Regards
Prabha

The Power of Questioning

It’s been a while since I questioned my little boy who will turn six coming June. I have been busy confronting something else in life and have not been engaging my child in a way so I provide him a climate to inquire. Today, he looked so bored and I suddenly asked him, “What is happiness?” He promptly replied. “Happiness is cool weather”. It is summer here where we live; the hot and humid temperature probably reminded him of the happiness that he gets being in a cool weather. It was amazing for me to observe how one can name their emotions when powerful questioning happens.

With further brainstorming, we figured out how hot weather makes him so irritated and how he does not like it and that is the reason why he is so dull and bored. It was a relief for him to acknowledge the emotions that he was going through at that time. After a while I told him, “Happiness for me is having you as my baby”. He felt good listening to that and then, he started to play the inquiry game and here is what he came up with.

Happiness is buying trucks.
Happiness is drawing a picture of a bus.
Happiness is to be with Appa (his father).
Happiness is to learn with Amma (mother).
Happiness is to play with Anna (his cousin brother).
Happiness is to have fun with Akka (his cousin sister).

He said he would journal this in his weekly journal log. I was amazed at how children can actually inquire and name their emotions.

One of the effective ways to develop emotional intelligence is to help people name their emotions. Declaration has so much power, it keeps multiplying. I noticed how I expanded the declaration that I made that happiness for me is having him as my baby. I started to explore this further into what that means for me. Within moments I started playing catch and throw with him which I never do generally. For me, it is so hard to have fun. I realized how much happiness I get by playing with him which is much more than just having him because here, the happiness shifts from ‘me’ to ‘him’, creating an environment for him to have fun. It is about contribution, sharing, connection, relation, and expression. The inquiry game and the fun continued through out the day. It all started with a simple and powerful question, “What is happiness?”

So, what is happiness for you?
Prabha

_________________ 

Prabha Sathyanarayanan is a life coach and L&D consultant who work with adults and children.

Personal Awareness Coaching for Effective Performance

EGyana announces a 10 month coaching program for professionals who stepped into their first corporate job. The coaching program will support the junior professionals through out their first year in their new corporate job helping them to create fabulous first impressions, position themselves powerfully and establish credibility at the right time.

Starting Smart: Effective performances towards making it happen

At the college, it was always about intellectual challenge where as in the organization, it is much more than that. It is about people and organizational challenges. “Starting Smart: Effective performances towards making it happen” is a personal coaching program that focuses on fostering self direction and independence for the new corporate professionals. The coaching process will be an insightful journey that will unleash personal awareness preparing the professionals for personal, organizational and people excellence.

Format:
• 3 Intake (Introductory) calls one hour each for exploring needs, determining focus and goal review
• 12 one hour calls on a one-to-one basis for a period of ten months
• Client responsible to make the calls either through VOIP or regular telephone
• Weekly email contact

Coaching methodology:
CTI’s Co-Active® coaching with focus on personal fulfillment at new job, includes activities like visual assessment of 8 areas of client balance and personal values clarification exercises. The program will include needs based assessments like self competency, job skills analysis profile, personal development worksheets, performance awareness and a self monitoring dairy.

For Enquiry and Registration, Contact
Email: TO: egyana@gmail.com CC: info@egyana.com

Since this is a coaching program for first time corporate professionals, the pricing will differ and be reasonable from the regular rates of executive coaching programs. Contact me to discuss pricing options.

Warm Regards
EGyana

Executive Coaching Program for Health Care Executives at Salem, India

Nurturing the potentials of health care executives in India

EGyana initiated a pilot executive coaching program for a group of health care executives and their manager at Salem, Tamilnadu. A team of health care executives from a hospital with a capacity over 200 beds met with Prabha Sathyanarayanan in April 2009, to increase their personal effectiveness and job productivity.

At the initial one day group coaching intervention for a team of 9, the executives engaged in a personal growth development process to nurture their own well being, develop adaptive coping strategies and balance the demands of professional and personal life. The program focused on raising awareness about executive’s strengths and deficits and to facilitate a process that will help them connect with their selves at a deeper level through self inquiry – to look into their attitudes, core personal values, strengths, limitations, perceptions that they have about themselves/others, their opinions about what others perceive of them, reactions and interactions with others.

The coaching approach which took the executives on a learning process through self reflection and feedbacks from peers/manager, included value clarification exercises, exercises to understand listening levels at depth, saboteurs clarifications that identified the triggers which motivated them to operate, conduct or communicate in a particular way, mocking sessions and brainstorming activities to choose powerful perspectives and values to live from. The program also provided an opportunity to explore challenges and unique behavioral competencies pertinent to the health care industry. As a result of this initiative, the executives evaluated their personal effectiveness and started to articulate new insights during the program.

Key take-away for the executives

• Personal values awareness score card that unleashed their unique capacities and a clear understanding of who they are and what do they stand for

• Growth plan to honor/live their personal values in day-to-day life and to apply it at work

• Strategies to confront work/life challenges from a learning perspective rather than operating from stress

• Created support structure with in their team to motivate and inspire peers

• Realized what motivated them in being passionate about their profession

• Breakthrough in fear, realized that freedom is being supressed while relating to the authority and experienced that operating from freedom and ownership actually improves their relations with the management and expresses their loyalty towards them

• Realized an urge to be more fulfilled rather than forcing themselves to achieve

Feedback from the Manager after two weeks

Dear Prabha,
Thank you very much for a wonderful coaching program that you offered to our team. As a result of the coaching experience, I notice that our executives are able to develop empathy towards patients and we are starting to provide a patient centered customer service. The team has shown tremendous improvement in their listening skills and the way they verbalize their thoughts with patients, management, and peers. They are now able to understand the challenges and stress levels of the physicians and are starting to take initiatives to collaborate with the physicians and management. Ownership, self responsibility, loyalty, modeling effective self care strategies, motivating and supporting others in the team, a concern for quality, dealing with pressure, taking on a value system as a team, managing other’s opinions, listening to patients with care and respect and the big thing is managing emotions; not letting out anger at patients and peers are the amazing qualities that I notice in my team nowadays. We appreciate your work and are looking forward to our next session with you.
Head, Customer Service

About Prabha Sathyanarayanan, EGyana

Prabha Sathyanarayanan is a professional coach trained at The Coaches Institute, San Francisco and an accredited MBTI practitioner who extensively uses the Co Active coaching model with her clients to elicit and nurture resonant expressions in her clients. Her personal mission is to bring out powerful personal leadership expressions in people and organizations that are resonant with their values. She offers coaching services at very reasonable prices to fulfill her vision of making coaching affordable in India.

Prabha lives in Chennai and offers her private coaching sessions internationally over phone or VOIP. Contact her at egyana@gmail.com to know how she can contribute in your process of learning and personal leadership development. To learn more about EGyana, please visit www.egyana.com

First coaching conference in India held at Bangalore on 21st April 2009

A one-day coaching conference on “How to Leverage Performance in all Areas

of Life” was held in Bangalore on April 21 by Sun Executive Coaching Consult-

ants in association with the ICF Indian Coaches Association—Muthyalapadu,

Andhra Pradesh; ICF Indian Chapter—Bangalore; and ICF Indian Chapters—

Ranebennur, Shimoga, Davangere and Almatti. This event was held to introduce

the principles and skills of coaching and its application for improving perform-

ance for individuals and organizations.

This experiential workshop enabled participants to understand the core princi-

ples of coaching, core competencies of coaching, ethics and practice of coach-

ing. The coaching conference focused on the following four themes:

• How coaching can help you to identify ‘Who You Are’;

• How coaching can improve the executive performance;

• How to work from inside to outside; and

• How the Law of Attraction can be leveraged to lead a happy, joyful,

purposeful and peaceful life.

The majority of the ICF Credentialed coaches in India were given a chance to

speak on the above mentioned themes. ICF allotted CCEUs for all sessions of

the conference.

Over 150 participants, mostly from government organizations, corporations,

non-governmental organizations, coaching companies, as well as individual

coaches attended the conference. Coaches from Sweden and Australia shared

their experiences with Indian coaches also.

Satya Murty, ACC, gave the inaugural address explaining the importance of

coaching in human life. Global ICF President Karen Tweedie, PCC, (Australia)

delivered the keynote address explaining the role of the ICF in spreading coach-

ing across the globe. ICF Director of Membership Don Whittle (USA) was also in

attendance. Participants had an opportunity to interact and learn more about

ICF Credentialing, the benefits of being an ICF Member and many other issues

related to the ICF.

At the end of the session, participants expressed that the conference raised

awareness about what coaching is, how coaching can be used to improve per-

formance both personal and at organizational level, and how coaching could be

applied to improve all around effectiveness of individuals and organizations

through the coaching process.

New Mexico ICF Chapter:

Coaches Collaborating in

Tough Times

The recent downturn in the economy

has been tough on everyone and

many coaches are feeling the pinch as

well. So three coaches in New Mexico

decided to join forces and offer coach-

ing to people affected by recent job

loss.

Katree Edmonds, Transformational

Coach with Retreat to Reality; Jane

Emberty, Career Coach with Moving

Thru Transition; and Michele Murphy,

Career Coach with Life’s Compass

agreed to work together and target

people out of work. They first mar-

keted their services at a local women’s

expo, called “A Woman’s Affair.” At

their booth, they showcased their indi-

vidual coaching programs and pro-

vided educational information about

ICF and the importance of having a

coach who follows the ICF Code of

Ethics. It was a great opportunity to

educate the public about the benefits

of coaching, do some networking and

listen to concerns.

“Many of the people we talked to

seemed surprised about the role of a

coach,” said Murphy. One of the sur-

prises that they found at this event

was that many of the other vendors

knew about coaches/had used a

coach in the past. As an introduction to

their respective styles, Edmonds, Em-

berty and Murphy market tested a free

group information session at one of

the local libraries. They were able to

educate the public about the benefits

of coaching, encourage the attendees

and give them hope in their quest for

that next job.

Part of what informed their presenta-

tion was the information Emberty had

collected earlier that month. She sur-

veyed more than 100 job seekers at a

local job fair.

Continued on page 17.

Tweedie and Whittle visit with ICF members in India.

 

---

Page 16

A one-day coaching conference on “How to Leverage Performance in all Areas of Life” was held at Bangalore on 21st April  2009 and this is the first ever held coaching conference in India.  This event was held to introduce the principles and skills of coaching and its application for improving performance for individuals and organizations.

This experiential workshop enabled participants to understand the core principles of coaching, core competencies of coaching and coaching ethics. The coaching conference focused on the following four themes:

* How coaching can help you to identify ‘Who You Are’
* How coaching can improve the executive performance
* How to work from inside to outside
* How the Law of Attraction can be leveraged to lead a happy, joyful, purposeful and peaceful life.

ICF Credentialed coaches in India were the speakers at the conference who presented papers on the above mentioned themes. ICF allotted CCEUs for all sessions of the conference. Over 150 participants, mostly from government organizations, corporations, non-governmental organizations, coaching companies, as well as individual coaches attended the conference. Coaches from Sweden and Australia shared their experiences with Indian coaches also.

Satya Murty, ACC, gave the inaugural address explaining the importance of coaching in human life. Global ICF President Karen Tweedie, PCC, (Australia) delivered the keynote address explaining the role of the ICF in spreading coaching across the globe. ICF Director of Membership Don Whittle (USA) was also in attendance. Participants had an opportunity to interact and learn more about ICF Credentialing, the benefits of being an ICF member and many other issues related to the ICF.

At the end of the session, participants expressed that the conference raised awareness about what coaching is, how coaching can be used to improve performance both personal and at organizational level, and how coaching could be applied to improve all around effectiveness of individuals and organizations through the coaching process.

Source: www.coachfederation.com

Conscious Leadership

Leaders are very conscious of the impact of the perceptions that they create.

I got an opportunity to stay with a bunch of parents and their children who had visited my parent’s place to attend a summer camp in that city. I noticed how a parent’s perceptions and stories about a child contributed to the productivity and happiness of the child. It made a great impact on how worthy the children regarded himself/herself as. The common patterns that the parents were showing are that they have pre conceived opinions on how boys would be, or girls would be or a child from a poor family would be etc. Their stories were too strong that even others in the environment started to relate to the child as set by the negative perceptions of the parents.

The experience reminded me of a type a leadership that I was reading about few days back, and that I considered very necessary for leaders at all levels. It is called conscious leadership. All leaders including parents should learn the art of practicing conscious leadership. It is about being unattached to conventions or past reference points. It is about the willingness to take risks, destroy and un-create old systems, structures and routines for new ones. It is about being conscious regarding new aspects of reality. It is about exploring unfamiliar realms of reality. Conscious leadership can be thought of as becoming conscious of our own and other’s blind spots. I imagine conscious leadership is about throwing away the yellow sun glasses that we always used to wear to view the green fields. I extend it by adding that it is also about helping others throw away their yellow sun glasses and helping them to understand that the field is really green.

I invite all leaders (including parents) to inquire on a powerful question

What is REAL? What is real TODAY? What is real OUT HERE? What is real about THIS organization? What is real about THIS person? What is real about OUR CHILD? What is real about ME?

Answering this basic question will help us break the old beliefs, get out of the box and set the stage for success for ourselves and others.

About Prabha:
Prabha Sathyanarayanan is a professional coach trained at The Coaches Institute, San Francisco and an accredited MBTI practitioner who extensively uses the Co Active coaching model with her clients to bring out powerful personal leadership expressions in people and organizations that is resonant with their values. Prabha lives in Chennai and offers her private coaching sessions internationally over phone or VOIP.

Contact Prabha Sathyanarayanan
http://www.egyana.com
egyana@gmail.com

Leadership is about helping people see their magnificence

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We have heard about this famous quote. This quote made a profound transformation in my life few years back when I first read it. It was an ‘aha’ moment. After many years now, I am wondering what if I be ‘the powerful’ that I am. I shrink down immediately and what stops me to be my fullest is the fear that I may intimidate people around me with my power and they might feel dominated. When I wonder how not to diminish myself and at the same time not intimidate people, what shows up for me is to not impose my power on them instead hold people high and help them see THEIR magnificence.

So, I guess here, the style with which we conduct ourselves as a leader plays an important role in bringing out the best in people. And that is what Leadership is about. It is about bringing out the best in people.

So, what are some of the ways you can help people see their magnificence; at your work, in your life and in your environment?

About Prabha:
Prabha Sathyanarayanan is a professional coach trained at The Coaches Institute, San Francisco and an accredited MBTI practitioner who extensively uses the Co Active coaching model with her clients to elicit and nurture resonant expressions in them. Her personal mission is to bring out powerful personal leadership expressions in people and organizations that is resonant with their values. Prabha lives in Chennai and offers her private coaching sessions internationally over phone or VOIP.

Contact Prabha Sathyanarayanan
http://www.egyana.com
egyana@gmail.com

M.S. Dhoni and his Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Last night, I enjoyed a fantastic cricket that was played by Chennai Super Kings against Kings XI Punjab. It was a crucial match since both the teams were trying to secure their places in the IPL semifinals. The target set by Dhoni’s team for Punjab seemed to be very easy for Punjab to win. But here’s the thing. Amidst all the stress, despair and after a loss to the Knight Riders the day before, Dhoni stayed focused and cool. He didn’t seem to buy in to the ‘No Possibility’ perspective that everybody had. The Chennai team, through an unbelievable victory, proved to the world that it is ‘Actually Possible’ even when others think it might not have been possible. The Super Kings won. Shivmani’s hands started to dance on his drums with great inspiration and happiness.

Dhoni keeps reminding me that positive leadership begins with awareness. Every time, he walks in to the presentation ceremony, he consciously acknowledges what they could have done better. That is what self awareness is all about. He seems to clearly inquire on the vital role that he needs to play as a captain during his team’s journey in the IPL. Not only that, he knows who he is and consistently demonstrates that kind of ‘being’ which is very unique to himself.

His ability to allow it to happen; let go and accept what is there; shows his willingness to experience his wins and losses, learn from them and not react to them but actually be very proactive. His ability to remain cool under pressure and to express emotions appropriately shows that he does not focus more on achievements measured by external standards, rather emphasis more on rewards that are intrinsically meaningful to him and his team.  Many might say that his success is related to his sharp mind and smart thinking, but to me it is more than that. It is his willingness to connect with himself at a deeper level, experience and start noticing what is there at the moment, including and accepting what is there and the confident ability to improve working from that place. This is exactly what high level of emotional intelligence means and is very crucial for leadership.

 According to the leading emotional intelligence psychologist, Dr. Daniel Goleman – the foremost and basic foundation among the building blocks for emotional intelligence competency is self awareness – knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions and managing one’s internal stages, impulses and resources that are foundation to success. Dhoni’s awareness about himself, his team mates, the opponents, the situation and the impact that he desires to create, is helping him and his team recognize their capabilities, allowing them to play with passion and with ease on a competitive ground under high pressure.

About the Author:
Prabha Sathyanarayanan is a professional coach trained at The Coaches Institute, San Francisco and an accredited MBTI practitioner who extensively uses the Co Active coaching model with her clients to elicit and nurture resonant expressions in her clients. Her personal mission is to bring out powerful personal leadership expressions in people and organizations that is resonant with their values. Prabha lives in Chennai and offers her private coaching sessions internationally over phone or VOIP.

Contact Prabha
http://www.egyana.com
egyana@gmail.com

Prabha from EGyana presented a paper at the first ICF India coaching conference

Prabha Sathyanarayanan presented a paper on ‘Coaching for Self Awareness’ at the first ever held coaching conference in India. The conference was held at Bangalore on 21st April 2009 and focused on how to leverage performance at all areas of life.  ICF President Karen Tweedie and Director of Membership Mr. Don Whittle were present at the conference to personally grace the occasion. Coaches from all over India, Sweden and Master Certified Coaches from ICF Australia chapter were present at the conference.

Prabha is one among the 9 speakers who presented their speech that day at the conference.  Her paper explored what self awareness is, its importance in fulfillment and effectiveness, and the role professional coaching plays in raising personal awareness.  She also discussed how Co Active coaching model helps clients have a deeper connection and experience with one’s self and how the Co Active model contributes tremendously in helping people identify their core personal values with greater clarity.

Prabha discusses in her paper that resonant expression is about being totally in tune with one’s self and then connecting with others as well as aligning our values and skills to our performance goals.

According to Dr. Daniel Goleman, the foremost and basic foundation among the building blocks for emotional intelligence competency is self awareness – knowing one’s internal states, preferences, resources and intuitions and managing one’s internal stages, impulses and resources that are foundation to success.

Fulfillment can initially mean outward measures of success such as great job, enough money and a certain life style. Achieving a certain goal can be very fulfilling but that may not be the end. At its deepest level, fulfillment is about finding and experiencing a life of purpose and about reaching one’s full and true potentials. (Whitworth, 1998)

The conference was successful and Director of membership, Mr. Don Whittle said to Prabha that he felt ‘that presence’ in the room that day, that coaching was taking hold in India and it will be a different type of coaching where there will first be a commitment to a higher purpose (Knowing one’s self) and from that place all else will flow with ease and grace.

Feel free to drop in a line to Prabha Sathyanarayanan to understand more about how you can be coached for raising your personal awareness and to understand how self awareness acts as the foundation in helping you truly accept your choices, be responsible for your thoughts and actions and be highly aware of what motivated you in to a commitment to action leading to effective performance.

About Prabha:

Prabha Sathyanarayanan is a professional coach trained at The Coaches Institute, San Francisco and an accredited MBTI practitioner who extensively uses the Co Active coaching model with her clients to elicit and nurture resonant expressions in her clients. Her personal mission is to bring out powerful personal leadership expressions in people and organizations that is resonant with their values. Prabha lives in Chennai and offers her private coaching sessions internationally over phone or VOIP.  

Contact Prabha
http://www.egyana.com
egyana@gmail.com