Stories

You must have had heard of several stories, fables and phrases in the corporate world when things do not go as you have had planned initially or when things worked out for others and not for you.

Some of the popular stories such as the one below are standing examples:

The Crow and the Pitcher: Don't Give Up When Things Look Bad

The Story: A crow is flying around on an abnormally hot summer day looking for water. He comes across a pitcher of water, but when he tries to stick his beak in he can't reach the water. He tries and tries, slowly getting more dehydrated. He's about to give up and accept his fate when he has an idea: he drops small pebbles in the pitcher until the water level rises to the point where he can reach it.

The Lesson: Where there's a will, there's a way. Persistence is the key to solving any problem you have because eventually—even if the situation seems dire—you WILL find a solution. Your idea might not be as bad as you think it is, and is just in need of some iteration. Whatever it is that you want to do, just keep plugging away. As Wayne Gretzky once said: you miss 100% of the shots you don't take.

Or even this one:

The Ants and the Grasshopper: The Importance of Thinking Ahead

The Story: A team of ants is working hard all summer to prepare for the harsh, cold winter. Meanwhile, a grasshopper spends the entire summer singing, goofing around, and wondering why the ants work so hard. When the winter comes, the grasshopper has nothing to eat and nearly starves to death (gruesome for a children's story, huh?). The ants save him and he understands why they worked so hard.

The Lesson: Just because you don't need something right now doesn't mean you should put it off. It's okay to take time to enjoy the fun things, but you may not always have the metaphorical ants to save if you. You don't want to wait until winter to buy a heater, wait until the day of to buy a plane ticket, write that essay the day that it's due, or start saving money too late in life. Think ahead, stop procrastinating, and always be prepared for what's ahead.

Stories have been around since humans have learned to communicate with one another.  They provide links to ancient traditions, myths, symbols and legends.  They connect us to a larger self and to the universal truths.  Stories are about collaboration and connections.  They transcend generations, engage us through emotions and connect us to others.  

Through stories, we share joys, sorrows, hardships and experiences.  We share meanings and purposes. They are the common platform through which people are able to communicate better, helping us overcome our defenses and differences. Stories help us to understand ourselves better.  They provide a commonality for us to connect with other people.  

Stories are how we think and make a meaning of life.  You may have heard of certain terms such as mental models, cognitive maps, scripts, metaphors, or narratives.  We use stories to explain how:

• things work
• we make and justify our decisions
• we persuade others
• we understand or perceive our's and everyone's place in this world
• identity creation of self
• define and teach social values and norms
• we are wired in our imagination 
• pathways to engage our right section of the brain
• broaden our mental horizons and see things differently
• help us in self discovery and to step out of our comfort zone

The usage of story telling has developed new meanings over the years.  Recently, it has gained more popularity in the corporate world. Plenty of our top leaders today use the art of story telling in change management.

Stories with morals have kicked in with providing a new and fresh insight in the way the world is adapting to change.

This has led one to wonder:  why stories have been adopted for change management?

Simple.  Simple facts do not inspire one to change, adapt or become flexible in the dynamic business world.  A straightforward analysis on things that matter does not encourage anyone to set a goal.  

Stories are facts in combination with emotions which helps a person to accept change more subtly and easily.  These days, stories are being used to get people to perform various tasks which helps them in being:

• team player
• create an emotional and intellectual balance
• improving communication styles
• empowering oneself to become a better leader
• drives growth by imbibing passion, inspiration and motivation to succeed
• pursue excellence

Stories need not be long but short with morals attached.  Psychologically, people have a tendency to relate with their's and others' mistakes and experiences more easily if they narrate it in a form of a story.

I believe that every person has a story to tell.  Every person has a story to live.  And, every person has a story that he / she uses as a guidance in this world. 

Perceptions can be changed through story telling.  Leaders develop a charismatic personality through story telling.  Writers earn their bread through story telling.  The list is endless.

Story telling can be used in a variety settings.  Be it as part of a speech, middle of a presentation, trying to emphasize over a point, selling your brand, behind every company's logo, selling your product or merely beside a bonfire on a cold night.

A person can just fall in love with their work, family and see a meaning towards leading a more satisfying life.

To conclude, story telling is an art.  If mastered the spell of telling a story, you have a better control over your career.  You also have a more profound personality which attracts others towards you, guaranteeing more success your way.

In case you want to master that Everest inside you, do get in touch with Entrenador Consultants on info@entrenador.in.  

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone!

Article contributed by Entrenador Shruti Misra

Need of Personality Development in Work

You must have been to parties, get-togethers etc. 

Have you ever noticed that there are some people who are surrounded by lots of friends all the time and there are others who sit in the corner of the room having a drink alone? 

The difference between these two groups is mainly because of their different characters, thoughts and different personalities. 

So, what is Personality?

Personality is a blend of temperament, emotions, principles and behavior. 

Personality is developed right from the very beginning of a child’s life.  It is later molded , based on the impact of various positive and negative factors in life. 

However, the significance of understanding this is that, you can always keep on improving your personality. 

In other words, if you feel that there are some features in your personality that need to be worked on upon, then it can be done.

What is Personality Development? And how does it help in charting one's growth in their career?

Perosnality Development is a tool through which one can bring out their capabilities and strengths.  This helps one to in following ways:

• Boosting one's self-esteem
• Attract more credibility to oneself
• Making one more approachable in a group setting
• Helps one to enhance their natural leadership abilities 
• Improves one's non verbal communication to the world

Personality development, in a professional setting also assists you in:

• Depicting ethics, morals and professionalism
• Team spirit
• Encourage's a learner's attitude life long
• Good and effective habits builder

Few facts:

• People are attracted towards a positive personality rather than a negative one.
• Good personalities serve as role models to others and gain more respect
• People approach you from a problem solver mindset and are more open towards what you have to say or contribute

Therefore, personality development is an essential and one of the most critical life skills which directly contributes towards your holistic growth.

In order to improve your chances of standing out from the crowd and gain respect, do get in touch with Entrenador Consulting for a personality development workshop for you and your employees.  Write to us on info@entrenador.in or call us on +91 76000 18930 for more information.

Emotions Watch @ Work

In the 1990s, when people went to work, they faced:

• the same problems that people in the millennium face
• did same set of jobs were available 
• has similar problems meeting high lifestyle, rising costs of housing, children's school fees, struggling with balancing careers with family & social life

So what changed today?

Why are we, the people in the millennium unable to cope with the current work pressures?

We all have been in one of those situations at any given point of time:

• Cancellation of a project that we have dedicated weeks of hard work
• When a customer snaps at you unfairly
• When your best friend (and co-worker) has been laid off suddenly
• The boss assigns you more work when you are already overloaded

On a personal front:

We all saw our parents trying to make the ends meet somehow, work for late hours but still finding time for us too.

Remember, the walk to the park, buying balloons and chasing us all over the park?  Do you remember playing soccer in fields?  Do you remember them holding the bicycle from behind, so that we may learn to cycle?  

How about the part where they used to sit in the audience, cheering us on while we participated in fancy dress competitions, school plays, cricket matches, and many more memories?  They were there, to pick us up when we fell down.  

Their presence was there also when we were at our lowest and highest points in life.

So what happened now?  What happened to the world that was once familiar?

Where did the childhood go?  Why are not we there doing the same things for our families, kids, friends, etc.?  We are always so stressed and feel burnt out easily.  With the slightest provocation, we feel irritated, angry, depressed, jealousy, lonely, guilty, moody and fearful?

Sounds familiar?  Then read on....

Let's start by defining emotions:

Based on Merriam Webster Dictionary, emotion is a conscious mental reaction subjectively experienced as strong feelings usually directed towards a specific object or person and typically accompanied by psychological and behavioral changed in the body.

With reference to Wikipedia:

"Emotions in the workplace play a large role in how an entire organization communicates within itself and to the outside world.  Events at work have real emotional impact on participants.  The consequences of the emotional states in the workplace, both behavioral and attitudinal, have substantial significance for individuals, groups, and society."

Ok, so how is this connected? 

"Our emotions are the driving powers of our lives." Earl Riney, Author

Stressful situations have been common since as long as mankind can remember. We have been battling with budget cuts, adjust ourselves with new department, transfers (or more commonly re-locations), and staff layoffs.

It is becoming ever so difficult to handle emotions that are part and parcel of reminding that we are still human.

Emotions and overall human temperament have a significant impact on a person's job performance, decision making skills, team spirit, leadership and turnover of the organization.  In short, your emotions affect all dimensions of your life - both personal and professional.

“The state of the literature shows that affect matters because people are not isolated 'emotional islands.’  Rather, they bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and their affective experiences and expressions influence others.” - Professor Donald Gibson, Fairfield University's Dolan School of Business, co-author of paper "Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations".

By learning how to better manage your emotions, one is ensured success and mastery over adverse conditions.

The art of managing emotions effectively is known as emotional intelligence.  The concept of emotional intelligence in the workplace is a set of skills through which employees can treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation.  While you cannot change your co-workers, people can, however, take steps to avoid catching a negative mood.

"If you are tuned out of your own emotions, you will be poor in reading them in other people"  Daniel Goleman, Author of Emotional Intelligence

How can we achieve Emotional Intelligence (E.I.) or Emotional Quotient (E.Q.)?

Studies from various sources show that if one can keep a balance between their professional, personal and recreational life, mastering E.Q. is possible.

According to emotional intelligence (or E.Q.), success is strongly influenced by our personal qualities such as perseverance, self-control and relationship building skills with other people.

An employee with high emotional intelligence can manage his or her own impulses, communicate with others effectively, manage change well, solve problems, and use humor to build rapport in tense situations. These employees also have empathy, remain optimistic even in the face of adversity, and are gifted at educating and persuading in a sales situation and resolving customer complaints in a customer service role. This "clarity" in thinking and "composure" in stressful and chaotic situations is what separates top performers from weak performers in the workplace.

For example, the Hay Group states in one study:

Out of 44 Fortune 500 companies found that salespeople with high EQ produced twice the revenue of those with average or below average scores. 

In another study: The technical programmers demonstrating the top 10 percent of emotional intelligence competency were developing software three times faster than those with lower competency were.

To conclude, it is very important to have a conscious track of your emotions in order to have more control on your life.  This will help you to create a balance in all aspects of your life.  Emotional intelligence is the foundation for developing critical skills for your success.


Tid Bit of the Day!

How do you deal with adverse conditions?

Simple. Follow below steps for basic stress management:

• Stop:  Take 3-4 deep and slow breaths.  Relax.  If things still do not work out, then take a walk or drink one glass of water.
• Evaluate:  Look at the situation.  Write down as to why you are feeling so frustrated.  
• Think of at least one positive thing about your situation.  
• Focus on how to improve the situation from a third party perspective.

Still unsure?  Want to learn how to rid yourself of un-resourceful emotions? Want to learn more on Emotional Intelligence?  

Master your emotions and get in touch with Entrenador Consulting team at info@entrenador.in for more information.  Our consultants are Neuro-linguistic Programming Master Practitioners and are experts in the field.  

Understanding Communication

Do you really know what “Communication” is?

Let’s ask one question to ourselves- “How much importance we give to our communication skill?” This post is not about teaching communication skills. There are multiple blogs and posts on this topic. 

Even before jumping to earlier question, I want to begin with a very fundamental query - “Do we understand philosophy of communication?” 

It’s not really possible to make anyone clearly understand any philosophy; it comes with belief of acceptability with time. I’ll here try to give enough thought provoking statements and examples which will help you to experience or discover the philosophy behind communication.

So let’s begin!

The word “Communication” comes from Latin commūnicāre, meaning "to share". “Sharing” or “Symbiosis” is the foundation on which today’s human civilization is based. In other words, communication can be considered as one of key elements necessary for our survival. But why you should accept this statement? Without accepting the utmost importance of anything, it is impossible to put an effort in learning or accepting it.

Now, what are things we share with each other? There’s no text book or guidelines on what to share but it can be as simple as putting up a smile or eye contact to as complex as clarifying your role in some crime or negotiating your point of view. Emotions, from happiness to sadness, aspirations to frustrations, love to hatred etc. are the inner self that gets exchanged with self and others each moment – consciously and unconsciously. The manner in which we share these emotions become our behavior and creates action with subsequent results. These emotions are then converted in messages through words and non-verbal actions which forms the crux of any communication process.

We’re the only living organisms on this planet, who has received power of language from the creator itself. Words, presented in right format to the right audience, have the power to start and finish wars.

As quoted by legendary Hogwarts Head master, Albus Dumbledore of Harry Potter series – 

“Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of inflicting injury and remedying it.”

That gives some sense to the finding that only 35% of communication is verbal. Words need to be used judiciously to achieve desired outcome. Sharing these emotions through words can be in form of one on one talk to addressing a large crowd or a nation. 

Food for Thought: 

How many times we’ve regretted about not saying those words during heated argument?

As mentioned earlier, since we share emotions, it is well communicated through our body which makes non verbal communication percentage to staggering 65%. You can flip through any high profile training manual; you’ll find tons of exercises on physiological practice – eye movement, facial muscles, and body posture and so on. For example, From its products to packaging, Apple communicates all its emotions of being different, innovative, aspiration non-verbally.   Any more details on non verbal can be referred to another article on Entrenador Consulting's blog.

Finally, comes the environment in which you share your emotions. The surrounding environment gives automatic context to our message. Hence, you need to be in conscious state whenever we communicate. Your emotions change as per environment and alter the message to be conveyed.

To put in nutshell – Communication is a process of sharing our inner self with surrounding environment verbally and non-verbally. Philosophies have more depth than any example or fact. 

This is the reason I haven’t shared many examples. You just need to go through this article and get the soul of the message – Understanding communication philosophy.

My next attempt will be to underline the importance of communication post which it’ll become easier to follow any tricks and tips for effective communication. Remember, effective communication is the foundation of successful professional and personal life.

Article presented by our Entrenador Junaid.

Mentors for Start-ups - A boon or Otherwise?

There has been a lot of discussions lately on various forums with regards to whether having a mentor is a good idea or not.  LinkedIn, Twitter and other networking platforms have a controversial view on mentor backed success ratios in start-up businesses.

Today, I am writing to clarify few facts:

- Mentors are approached to help individuals and businesses to avoid certain traps and mistakes that the mentors have faced in order to take the business to the next level.
- Mentor alone does not guarantee the success rate of the business.  A lot of other factors are involved as well.
- Mentors are subject matter experts with domain expertise built over a period of time.  They cannot answer or cover the entire business entity at one go.
- Mentor acting as investors may or may not add credible value towards the growth of any business.  It really depends on how the entrepreneur / individual value the knowledge and experience off - loaded by mentors in application.  Mentors, acting as investors, are also taken a little more seriously by people due to the financial support.
- Entrepreneurs or individuals aiming to grow in a particular field, should be able to distinguish mentors from mere advise givers, trusting their gut feeling.  It is the human tendency to give advises on various topics that may or may not be directly applicable to the product or service being offered.
-  One may keep more than 5 mentors at different levels of their growth process and also with different domain expertise.

For running a successful business, a lot of factors are needed to be considered:
- Current and near future market dynamics
- Opportunities in form of challenges
- Mentor advise based upon their experiences
- Financial & risk management
In case of funding received, how to delegate the money towards building other aspects of business
- Human resources & operations management
- Time management
- Knowledge & self development

I believe that in order to become a success, one should be able to:
- understand that change is the only constant
- one should continuously pursue excellence in all aspects of their lives

This means, that in order for one person to grow, he or she should be able to tediously and gradually keep updating their own practical and technical skills.  Regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or any other professional, one should invest in their own development and pick up few skill sets that can make them stand out from the crowd.  This not only will help build confidence levels but also help one to be recognized among their colleagues and associates.

A lot of times, it becomes difficult for most entrepreneurs to invest in self-development.  This not only restricts their bandwidth to expand neurologically but also limits their original thinking process.  Reading more books, articles, blogs not only fuels one's imagination but also gives ideas as to better their own skill sets.  A lot of successful people such as Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and many more invest a lot of time in reading substantial books.

You will be surprised as to how many people can find direct answers to their more pressing problems just through reading.

Another common mistake a lot of us do is copying other practices of more successful businesses.  This needs to be mitigated.  One formula which has worked for one business may not be the answer for the other business.  What does work here is the more profound your thought processes are, the more clarity your business and people in your organizations will get.

We, at Entrenador Consulting, believe that more time you invest in self-development, the more you promote and want to see development of others.  The more developed your team is, the more success your business will be.  The more success your business is, the more recognition you receive from outside.  This chain reaction helps you find better talent and retain talent easily.

Moral of the story:  In order for one to grow, have mentors who can support your growth from different perspectives.  You may also keep or leave a mentor depending upon how many benchmarks you keep for yourself and your team in order to attain excellence.  Mentors are not the solutions to every problem. But if you strive to become a model of excellence for others, you may in turn become an inspiration for them in coming years.  Remember, that excellence is only role model and that takes time; and change is the only constant one needs to adjust with.


Article written by our Entrenador Shruti Misra