Sandra stood up one more time and pat came the reply… this time louder than before, she was correct as always. “Oh Sandra… Oh Sandra, not again”, I groaned to myself. The trainer in me could not allow this to happen. Sandra was a participant in a customer service training session. She was a very intelligent and extremely confident…
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Creating Leadership Readiness Through Animated Movies
Where do the best learning’s take place – in schools? In colleges? At home? At work?? Well the best learning takes place in a movie hall – specially when we watch movies of the animated kind – have you ever noticed how these creatures we call animals so beautifully mirror thoughts, actions, behavior, attitudes and…
Read MoreThought Leadership
Gautama Buddha, SriSri Ravishankar, BabaRamdev, JKrishnamurti, Paramahansa Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Osho Rajneesh, Sathya Sai Baba, Srila Prabhupada of ISCKON fame – What common thread binds all of these big names – yes they are all spiritual gurus revered and followed by millions all over the world. Apart from this they have another amazing quality…
Read MoreLeadership Development – Should it be about others or about you?
Recently I was running a leadership development program for a group of branch managers of a public sector bank. Repeated requests to turn off or put their cell phones on silent fell on deaf ears. As the session progressed one the issues that quite a few participants voiced was that it was hard to handle…
Read MoreAuthenticity – A Leadership Essential
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. I heard a story of authenticity……….. A mother took her 8 year old son to meet her swamiji (religious leader) as…
Read MoreFollow Your Heart
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam gave a regaling talk to an enthralled audience at a “Times Avenues” event on career options recently. [Kalam Tell Students To Follow Their Heart, Times of India – June 23rd, 2009] Speaking in his typical anecdotal manner, Kalam doled out advice on issues ranging from current prospects for…
Read MoreStay Hungry, Stay Foolish
I recently read an excerpt of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address that was published by the Stanford Report dated June 14th, 2005. His closing lines revealed an amazing idea of inspiration in me. Jobs credited the birth of this caption to a publication called The Whole Earth Catalog. This magazine was synonymous to today’s Google and other…
Read MoreIntegrity – The Stronghold of Successful Living
As a Soft Skills Trainer and Executive Coach, I believe that training would be starkly incomplete without touching upon the importance of Integrity in one’s life. It is the foremost value essential to success in all that we undertake. The essence of integrity is beautifully summed up in the quote by Don Galer, “Integrity is what we do, what we…
Read MoreLeadership Skills – The Gandhi Way
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2nd October 1869 – 30th January 1948), is lovingly known as Bapu (Father), and is the Father of modern and democratic India. As we stand at the threshold of his birth anniversary, we need to remind ourselves that there…
Read MoreThe Leader Who Bought the Ferrari He Wanted
The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not. That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.Warren G. Bennis Am I a leader? Am I a…
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