The Choices We Make!

”Daag achche hain,” (literally, stains are good) pronounces the detergent ad. The unusual value proposition has been hailed for its out-of-the-box thinking. 

In quite the same fashion, one finds leaders who think ‘stress is good’ or ‘hyperacidity is good’ and wear it as a badge of honour. Both stress and hyperacidity are good things to have, they seem to tell themselves, for aren't they signs that they are ‘working hard’?

Why do leaders, even when they are aware that both signs are detrimental to their health, persist in neglecting these body's warning signals?  Because the brain is our friend and supports our choices. This is what psychologists call a choice-supportive bias, a regret-minimizing process our brain uses - we chose the option, therefore it MUST be good.

‘Daag achche hain!’

Your Goals Need High-octane Fuel

The dictionary defines the word vector as “(to) direct (an aircraft in flight) to a desired point.” In life too,  one needs an appropriate vector to guide us to our desired goals. And my client B needed one.
Over the years since he had joined his father in his business, he had progressively moved into an increasingly executive role. With his father involving himself less and less in the business, he was now at the cusp of a critical decision - how should he now define his role to himself?
Enter the coach.
Over two intense coaching conversations, wide ranging at first and funneling into more focused ones, he gradually arrived at a role definition which proved a powerful vector. And that was the role of a ‘Change agent’.
This role definition has proved to be transformational, providing him clarity of action and purpose. And this has translated into more satisfying outcomes

When Work Takes on New Meaning

She is an engaging storyteller and writes from the heart. A quality she brings, along with determination and enthusiasm, to her work as the joint CEO of her husband’s family business. She manages the business administration, while her husband looks after the demand generation.
In an an initial coaching conversation, she had concluded that she was a ‘Doer’. That is how she saw herself. In the next coaching conversation,  she refined this label to ‘Enabler’.
And this translated into subtle, but dramatic gains in her way of functioning.
The dictionary defines a ‘Doer”’as a, “person who acts rather than merely talking or thinking,” and an ‘Enabler’ as “a person...that makes something possible.”
Redefining her role as an ‘Enabler Doer’ has helped her to manage her admin staff in a manner that effectively supports her husband's leading role in steering the company to success.

The Power of Story

When I asked him what his values were, he looked a bit lost. After some thought, he said the 7 Habits book had influenced him greatly. But as a coach,  I saw a difference between ‘influencing’ and ’driving’. For, values not only influence - they drive every one of our actions and define our emotional states. Experiences aligning with our values are considered reward and violation a threat.
So I had to make him think deeper.
The solution?  Tell a story, a personal experience that shaped my own life. I shared one such, and voilà, he immediately came up with five of his own values.
That's the power of the story. It has the power to shift your thinking.