Relationship between Goals and Values

Recently there was an interesting discussion in a group on ‘Relationships between Goals and Values’.

 

This post presents summary of interesting points:

Goals are understood and seen in the context of Action-Behavior, Time and Space.

Values are deeper and spread on a larger time canvass- many times through the entire life span of an individual

Goals that are in alignment with values, provide deeper connect with self-purpose and thus become meaningful.

Opposite may not give sense of satisfaction; they can be very transactional, overwhelming or draining.

Connect between Values-Purpose and Goals is very important. If certain Goals do not inspire us, if they do not give an Emotional Drive or Sense of Purpose- then it is a very good idea to sit back and reflect- “Is it really worth it? What is the trade off in accepting this goal with respect to time and effort? Should I be rather doing something else?”

Answers to these simple and powerful questions can be surprize you/

Just try it out!

Regards,

Rajesh

Gift of Presence

We keep running to achieve something, to become something.

Not enough time is spent on fathoming the depths within.

Not enough time is given to be present for ourselves.

 

There are precious, priceless jewels of compassion, empathy, respect and understanding lying for a very long time.

 

Waiting to be discovered- or waiting to be polished.

 

In leadership, communication and coaching, great deal of importance is given to Presence.

Presence is a wonderful gift that we can offer to other individual.

I think we also need to offer the gift of our presence to ourselves, more frequently- and that’s  something extremely beautiful that we can do to ourselves.

Regards,

Rajesh   

Is Empathy Trainable?

In one of the Training related e-groups, someone posted a question “Is Empathy Trainable?”

It evoked interesting responses- while most of the answers were affirmative, there were a few opined that Empathy is not trainable.

I thought it was an interesting question and it would be worthwhile to understand what Empathy is and what we understand by “Training”

Empathy is defined “as the capacity to recognize emotions that are experienced by other sentient or fictional being”. Empathy is a very powerful attribute or competence for those who especially are in the field of ‘human profession’- like management, counseling, mentoring, psychotherapist, healing, coaching, nursing etc.

Empathy is innately present in human beings and I’d dare say, that in some animals- it can be much more developed than human beings. Those who have pet dogs and (treat them well) may agree with my statement.

Empathy is to be discovered- it is to be explored. It cannot be shifted or transferred from one individual to another. One needs to suspend judgment, be in the same space of emotions and awareness of other being to empathize. Developing empathy is a powerful developmental experience for an individual.

If the ‘Empathy training’, has elements of exploration, discoveries, suspending judgment- being present completely with other person- then yes, Empathy can be trained.      

Would love to learn your views!

-          Rajesh

Coaching Diaries- Dancing in the Moment with the Client

I came across this wonderful expression- “Dancing in the moment with the Client”. I think it captures the beauty of client centered coaching approach.
 

Focusing entirely on the client during the coaching session, listening- feeling what he/she is expressing and partnering in expanding his/her own awareness about oneself is a wonderfully fulfilling process.

When a leader or a coach, partners with a client to bring out the better or best out of him/her- the relationship in itself become transcendental. There is commitment to growth, expansion and touching higher realm within oneself.   

It offers a great opportunity to the Coach to practice selflessness. A powerful coaching session invariably energizes the Coach to be fully alive in each moment- be fully Aware of the Client- and oneself. And living in Awareness is beautiful!

Awakening the Purpose of Life: Power Coaching

Doing things that are consistent with one’s nature always are fulfilling and bring meaning to self. And amidst those cues of actions, life hides its purpose. Discovering it is bit like “Treasure Hunt” game- challenging, stimulating, frustrating at times- but exciting nonetheless.

Great Masters, both of the past and present have emphasized on discovering Purpose of Life.

For a coach, it would be a powerful action to challenge the client in discovering his/her Life-Purpose. And for the Client, it could potentially be an extremely engaging, creative and fulfilling experience. While ‘finding purpose’ may not be the expected coaching outcome- but finding that primordial source of Energy and, building subsequent actions/programs around it could be a very empowering and liberating experience for the client.

Here are some great quotes on Purpose:

“Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose”- Leonardo da Vinci

“He who has a ‘why’ to live for can almost bear any ‘how’”- Friedrich Nietzsche

“Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it”- Gautama the Buddha

 
Bringing in the Purpose aspect is bringing in the Alchemy- it can transform the coaching process into something extraordinarily precious

Personal Excellence

Excellence is a heightened state of existence. Pure brilliance has a magical ability to transform mundane into inspirational. It uplifts the ordinary into aspirational, into a shining effulgent star which acts as a guiding angel for self as well as others who are in the circle of one’s life. Excellence is the Alchemy with transforms worthless into priceless.

Path of excellence is often lonely. It consists of those small minutes and hours of the day wherein we make choices about what we want to do, how we want to deal with various aspects of our lives and act on them. Former heavy weight boxing champion, Joe Frazier said... “You can map out a fight plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you are down to your reflexes- which means your training, That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you are getting found out now under the bright lights.”

The journey is no way easy. It has its ups and downs. Many a times circumstances do not favour your decisions. Unforeseen priorities spring from nowhere and you get sucked into chores of life which neither inspires you, nor does it compliment your true calling. There are times when lethargy sets in…or we tend to take things easy- we get de-focused. But the true seeker and practitioner of excellence keeps bouncing back.  Setbacks or failures caused even due to one’s own mistakes are used as fuel to move ahead in the journey of excellence.

Couple of years ago, I came across a quote from Lao Tzu, “Great Master weakens the ambition of the followers and strengthens their resolve.” I could not understand “weakens the ambition” part. After all, what is life without ambition- I wondered! After a few years of experiential learning, I started to see the point. Many of us undertake so many projects, initiatives, yet how many of those ambitious ventures see the final fructification? Many of them die right in the early stage. After getting enough knocks and deviations on my certain life goal plans, I understood the importance of “Strengthening the Resolve”.

It does not matter how big the quantity of one’s goals is. Pertinent questions- “Are those goals really worthy? And if they are, then what is the level of commitment I am going to behind their achievement?”  Approaching one’s goals with focus and sustained commitment produces Excellence and Excellence creates Magic!

In Search of Roots & Stars: Re-Discovering Lost Treasures of Work

Off late, I am doing some hands on studies (book reading, discussions with experts, interpreting psychometric profiles etc.) on Leadership Personalities, Leadership Behaviors and their impact on People and Performance. And this quite a fascinating area to explore!

Thoughts, Behaviors and Actions of a leader are akin to origin of a river. It starts like a small stream. But gains momentum and power while flowing downstream. Authenticity, High degree of self- awareness, Balance of mutually complementing strengths and commitment to build a competent, value oriented apex leadership team are so very vital for sustainable Organizational progress.

There are interesting accounts of how once successful or charismatic CEOs failed miserably, when they became slaves of their own selfish ego-drivers. When a CEO uses his key strength blindly, without realizing its impact on people, things star cracking down and later they become interesting case studies of a failed hero.

 It is fair to give some benefit of doubt to CEOs/Apex leaders as they constantly reel under unrealistic expectations of board members, investors, media amidst volatile market trends and competition.

It is important to address fundamental issues of how much need, ambition and greed should we place as a driving force in the business organizations.

I was fortunate to get exposure to high level discussions on operating budgets, mid-term planning and strategic planning from very early stages of my career. I can vividly recollect those matured discussions, whose focus primarily remained on new products, re-defining customer service, process innovations and meaningful HR programs. And I also was part of discussions which did not go beyond financial numbers and sales growth targets. Former were stimulating and engaging. In later, everybody went through motions without any real connect. 

Let the focus be back on serving customer needs, creating value through innovations. Let sales and growth targets reflect intent of ambition, but not the end in all.

Let us reclaim the joy of work from slavery of stress. Let there be matured work ethos flourishing on strong roots of cherished values Respect, Integrity and Employee/Customer Centricity.