You Can Achieve Greatness: Special module for Students

1.         Most people wonder what this Strengths Development is. The process of Strengths Based Development determines his or her talents and strengths that lead to success.

2.         All of us are born with unique talents. Talent has been defined as “a naturally recurring pattern of thoughts, feelings or behaviours that can be productively applied”. These talents are discovered by taking Clifton Strengths Finder Test. Coaches guide the participants, as how to convert their talents into strengths and how to leverage these strengths to achieve their desired SMART goals. These steps lead to Strengths Based Development.

3.         This concept is applicable to individuals, managers, teams, leaders and students of colleges and universities.

4.         People when performing from their strengths zones are positive, creative, innovative resulting in greater production, they become willing workers and they enjoy the work.

6.         College students, besides knowing their strengths, they will become focused towards their desired and SMART goal(s). They will know their domains of strengths and work in that direction. Students will realise that they are not made out of cookies cutter, but they are all unique and differences are advantage. They are individuals and they can achieve same goals by different behaviours.

8.         The strength has been defined as the ability to consistently provide near perfect performance; the ability to consistently produce a positive outcome through near perfect performance in a specific task. To finish with strength, start with talent.

9.         Why do students require Strengths – Based Development Training: there are reasons for this is success. Success will come by

(a)  Discovering your talents.

(b)  Understanding your talents.

(c)  Converting your talents into strengths.

(d)  Leveraging your strengths to achieve their goals

(e)  Understanding your Domains of Strengths.

(f)   Early identification of your strengths will lead you to the right path of success.

(g)  Working from your strengths zone and be fully engaged.

(h)  By becoming driver and not be driven by someone else.

(i)    Improving your ability to take an interview confidently.

(j)    Their best bet for success lies in building on who you already are, not in trying to become someone you’re not.

(k)  This will be able to bridge the gap between the teachings at the universities/colleges and the real world outside the university campus.

How to become the most successful student, dignified employees, respected managers and leaders?

 Module 1. Individualised Strengths Based Development Programme

            (a) Taking Online Clifton Strengths Finder Test

            (b)  Coaching Group of 20: full day

Module 1 is an interactive session for 8 hours with 20 participants. This will involve online test and then being coached based of their respective individual talents. The learning values are (participants will)

            (a)       Know their talents

            (b)       Understand their talents

            (c)        Learn how to convert these talents into strengths

            (d)       Learn how to leverage their strengths to achieve their goals

            (e)       Learn how to make an Individual Development Plan

            (f)        Know their strengths domains.

Module 2.Strengths Based Team building Programme

            (a) To be conducted after Module 1

            (b) Exercise: PANCHTATVA

            (c) Group of 20: 2^nd day

Module 2 named as PANCHTATVA will be conducted only after the completion of Module 1. It is a full day interactive workshop (exercise) in which participants will be exercised on various facets of team building and managerial skills. PNACHTATVA is based on the backdrop of SMART CITY. The participants will learn

            (a)       To determine strengths and domains of a team

            (b)       Strengths Based Talent selection

            (c)        Strengths Based Talent Engagement

            (d)       Strengths Based Leading Performance

            (e)       Strengths Based Talent Development

            (f)        How to increase the OPEN AREA on the Johari’s window?

            (g)       How to create an interdependent team?

            (h)       How to create a STRONG Team?

Module 3: Strengths Based Leadership

            (a) To be conducted after Modules 1 & 2

            (b) Exercise: CHAMATKAR

            (c)  Group of 20: 3^rd Day

Module 3, named as CHAMATKAR will be conducted after the completion of Modules 1 &2. It is a full day interactive workshop (exercise) in which the participants will be exercised on various facets of leadership. It based on the concept that everyone is a leader only if they work in their respective strengths zones. They will reach dizzy heights only if they perform in their strengths zone. It is again in the backdrop of a SMART City. The participants will learn

            (a)       Why people follow?

            (b)       How to build an organisation/team with Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope?

            (c)        How to leverage their Strengths to achieve Trust, Compassion, Stability and Hope?

            (d)       How to lead followers working from different Strengths Zones?

Programme being delivered by Gallup Certified Coach, Brig Satyendra Kumar, SM (Retd).   For details visit:  www.satyssparks.com,

 https://in.linkedin.com/in/satyendra-kumar-b4876187, www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005647427750,

http://satyendra1138.blogspot.in/

For inquiry write to:  satyssparks@gmail.com or contact: +91 9900073571

Who will benefit the most?

·         College Students of all streams

·         Newly inducted Managers,  Middle Level Managers, Team Leaders—operational, marketing, sales and research teams and HR (Talent Selection, Talent Engagement, Team Building, Performance Management away from the dreaded Bell Curve and Talent Development)

WHOM SHALL I follow? Which leader shall I follow? FOLLOWED myself.

When I learnt to read, the first influential story that I read was of Mahabharata and I thought I am reincarnation of Krishna. He even appeared in my dream. Later when I grew up a little, I tried to emulate Arjun or Karna. When my teachers gave lectures that one day one of you will be Mahatma Gandhi or Jawahar Lal Nehru, I thought of following them. Much later in life when I read “My Experiment with Truth” I thought I have read the best book on leadership and truth. I tried to follow it, but in the practical world of diplomacy, truth was the first casualty. But yes, practise what you preach is glued to my head which even nuclear fission cannot disintegrate it.

In the National Defence Academy, we had to study a subject called Military History. One civilian Instructor named Mr Bhandari used to teach this subject to us. He came fully prepared and kept us engrossed for 40 minutes with a chalk in his hand making sketches on the board and explaining. Till now I am trying to emulate him.

When I was a Subaltern (a junior officer) in the battalion, I tried to emulate my senior subaltern then Lt Vilas Baburao Zende and my Company Commander then Maj CG Shambaya.  Whenever, I faced a challenging situation(s), I tried to think as to how they would have acted/reacted.

In military history, I studied various campaigns of great warriors and military leaders. Immediately on completion of the study, I thought I was Alexander the Great or Julius Caesar. On several occasions I tried to emulate the manoeuvres of Rommel, Patton and Guderian but these ended in disastrous consequences.

Some time back, I read in the Readers Digest, an essay on Empathy by Roman Krznaric. I bought his book “Empathy—what it matters, and how to get it”. I did not only read it but studied it and converted the book into a Power Point Presentation. In this he made reference to several  empathetic books like “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Schindler’s Ark” by Thomas Kennelly, “Black Like me” by John Howard Griffin, “The General’s Son—Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and finally “All Quiet on the Western Front” by  Erich Maria Remarque. I read and studied all the books mentioned by Roman Krznaric. Also read the articles about Che Guevara who wanted to become a medical doctor but became an empathetic terrorist; the story of Patricia Moore; an empathetic designer: Eric Lomax, a British prisoner in Burma during the Word War II and his tormentor in the camp, the Japanese Translator Takashi Nagase who beg forgiveness to Eric after 48 years in 1993. The list is endless including Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, George Orwell, Gunther Wallraff, to name few, but study of these great Empathetic personalities did not make me empathetic. I also planned to build a Human Library in the society but did not follow it with vigour. Why this? I read and learnt a lot about empathy and empathetic personalities, but still I did not become empathetic. I got the answer when I took the Clifton Strengths Finder Test. Empathy was at number 9 out of 10 for me.

I am Empathetic but not always. It is a supporting talent for me. It is much below my top five: Learner, Achiever, Strategic, Arranger and Input. Discovery of these talents (some of these are already my strong strengths) gave me identity as to who I am. Why do I think, feel and behave the way I naturally do? My talents gave me insight into as to why I could not follow the great leaders naturally. While considering retrospectively, all my success in professional and personal lives are attributed to these talents and strengths. The failures are as a result of not working within my strengths zones. I failed when trying to emulate someone else. I failed because I tried to do what I was not.

So I am a Learner, Achiever, Strategic, Arranger and Input. This is my identity. I will not follow anyone. I will follow myself ie my thoughts, feeling and behaviours that come naturally to me.