The Team: कबड्डी कबड्डी! कबड्डी कबड्डी! कबड्डी कबड्डी ! मर गया। जी गया। Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Dead and Alive

Prior to internationalization of Kabaddi (कबड्डी कबड्डी) in late 1950s and early 60s we in the village used to play kabaddi (कबड्डी) with very simple accounting system that determined winners or losers. All boys assembled got divided into two teams. While playing, the boy lost the breadth or got touched by opponent or was touched by the opponent was decaled dead (मर गया). He was made to sit outside the field. As and when an opponent boy was declared dead (मर गया), then the other boy was declared alive (जी गया) and he joined his team. This way the game carried on till one side had no one left ie all dead (मर गया). Those early formative years of my life I realised the value of team while playing Kabaddi (कबड्डी). You were decaled dead due to team work of opponents and you were declared alive due to the team work of own side. Kabaddi (कबड्डी). Gives us one of the best example of team work.

There is no doubt that the sports teams are the best examples of team as the adage goes that the “Battle of Waterloo was won in the playing fields of Eton”. Besides, in the field of Kabaddi, I realized and experienced the value of team when we had to evacuate a wounded fellow soldier. He was wounded in an intense encounter with a group of terrorists deep down in a mountainous terrain full of tropical type of vegetations. He was to be brought to a place involving 5 km uphill climb through a narrow winding track. The wounded soldier was secured to a stretcher and carried by three teams of four of us changing every after 10 minutes. We managed to bring him to the helipad from where he was evacuated to a Military Hospital and he survived after battling with his life for several days. I have not seen in my 33 years of military life and 10 years working with the United nations in Iraq and Syria, the teams by its efforts, cooperation, dedication, zeal and efforts saving the life of a colleague. There are numerous examples in the accounts of wars and battles, but this one was which I witnessed happening.

May be the military operation, sports field, corporate world or the world of any profession, the success can only reach its peak with a team as described by Tom Rath and Barry Conchie in the book “Strengths-Based Leadership”.  An ideal and interdependent team looks like this:

How do we build and operate a Strengths-Based Team?

The first and the foremost action is to know yourself, which has been covered in detail in my previous blogs. The second most important aspect is to know your team members. To build a successful team each member of the team must know the strengths, values and other characteristics of each members. A strengths-based Interdependent team will look like this:

Knowing each other will increase the Open Areas when studied on the graphs of Johari Window.

What will happen with the increase in the Open Area? It will increase the level of confidence in each other. It will bring in respect and dignity while dealing with each other, they will all understand as to why one behaves the way he/she behaves. It will bring in Harmony amongst all. Member will be ever willing to support each other. This will increase the productivity, reduce absenteeism, improve employee engagement and will better the employee retention.

Assignment of Responsibilities as per the Strengths.

The figures illustrated below exemplifies as how to assign responsibilities in a balanced team.

Bog by Satyendra Kumar of www.satyssparks.com

How to choose a career? How to reach dizzy heights in the chosen career?

 

Other day, I got a call from a Chartered Accountant (CA) Santhosh. He said he does not like the job of CA which he was practising for the last five years. He went through Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment and a marathon one on one coaching for 4 hours. His strengths are Adaptability, Positivity, Harmony, Relator and Woo.  He loved teaching. He studied B Com because most of his friends took B Com.  After the Strengths-Based coaching intervention he has commenced a CA coaching school and he is enjoying his new-found job.

Hemjit was then working in a real estate company. In 8 years of his work life he had seen the functioning of five companies operating in various fields. Hemjit did not like any of the five jobs. When he learnt about the Clifton StrengthsFinder, it took him almost a year to make up his mind to take the CSF Assessment. Once he took the assessment he discovered that his talents lie in Empathy, Ideation, Developer, Individualization and Learner.  Out of five, three are in Relationship Building two in the Strategic Thinking. From the conversation with him, it transpired that his ideation theme is the most dominant in him ie in the field of creativity. Now he is migrating to the job which will give him opportunity to be creative. He loved photography and now has shifted his career in the field of photography. The migration is gradual so that he continues economic stability.

·         Ideation talents are all about creativity.

• ·         Environments that reward your creativity and give you the time, space, and freedom to experiment and dream will bring out your best.
• ·         Select an organisation where leaders encourage and solicit your divergent thinking, stimulating them to consider some innovative approaches. You will be able to find new and better ways of doing things within the organisation, and you may be assistance in strategic planning exercises.
• ·         Consider career in which creativity seems to be important.

Ahil, a B Com graduate never liked the course of study that he was pursuing. It was his last semester of the Final Year. Somehow, he completed the course. He wanted to pursue his Post-Graduation in accordance with his talents/strengths. He went through Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment and when coached he discovered that his talents are Context, Learner, Intellection, Input and Connectedness. Out of five four of his talents lie in Strategic Thinking and one in Relationship building. During coaching conversation, we discovered that his Context, Leaner, Intellection and Input were dominant themes and he loved history and researching on past events. So far, his Post-Graduation studies he took admission to study Archaeology. He is very happy and doing well. One of the career planning guide given to Ahil was “Interview archaeologists, historians, museum curators, humanities professors, or antique appraisers about their talents and what they love about their work”.

Rajeev is working in the IT Industry for the last 16 years. He has moved forward in his career but he was not sure how to move ahead in the field of work of his choice. He was confused about the choice. He underwent the Strengths Coaching and discovered that his strengths are Ideation, Input, Context, Intellection and Adaptability. His four out of five themes lie in the Domain of Strategic Thinking and one in Relationship Building. After knowing his strengths, he is manoeuvring himself in the field of research and development in the same profession of IT.

Ronita was employed in the field of sales of home loan by a reputed bank. She had her targets to achieve which she never achieved. She was so much awed by the fear of going to office that he did not sleep well. Her health was deteriorating. She resigned after three months and was looking for direction. She underwent Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment and coaching and her strengths are Input, Adaptability, Restorative, Responsibility and Harmony.  After a detailed coaching, we realised that she is a voracious reader and a peaceful person, who likes harmony. Her Input, Adaptability and Harmony are the most dominant themes. She underwent some additional training in the subjects she liked and changed her line of profession commensurate with her strengths. The suitable description of a person of her talents described in first person and 10 sentences are:

1.       As an easy-going person, I go with the flow. I want to calm others whose tension limits their performance and enjoyment.

2.       I am aware of needs because I live in the present, and often have what I and others need because I gather useful resources.

3.       I foster collaboration when I help teams find useful resources and when I help them manage their emotional tension.

4.       If I had a rose garden, I would tend to rose conscientiously, and I would always take time to smell them as well.

5.       Others can count on me to build emotional environments that encourages cooperation and facilitate practical productivity.

6.       My service to others involves identifying real needs and a commitment to finding and sharing exactly what they need.

7.       I take time to smell the roses, but if I see bugs on the roses, I get the insecticide.

8.     Problems are normal in life, so I don’t get upset. My practical, even- keeled approach calms others and promotes peace.

9.       My ability to diagnose and solve problems is enhanced because I know how to acquire and use tangible resources that work.

10.   I am willing to sacrifice and serve so that something or someone broken can be made whole.

Keeping above in mind she has selected her second career and is quite happy about it.

There are numerous examples like that of Santhosh, Hemjit, Ahil, Rajeev and Ronita who have benefitted from the programme. I have more than 200 cases where the lives have changed for better.  Santhosh being a CA has changed within his technical capability to the more likeable department of teaching. Hemjit has totally changed his track from real estate to photography. Ahil has changed his course of study leading to a career in Archaeology from commerce. Mohanan has changed from an ordinary programmer to the world of research and development within the organisation and is doing well. Ronita has found a job which she likes, where she is fully engaged when compared with a dreaded sale presentative of a home finance.

In all above cases, Clifton StrengthsFinder and the Coach let the persons know their strengths and best direction of their profession. Neither the coach nor the StrengthsFinder Gallup Report mentioned about the suitability of a profession. We work on How to achieve the best career goals and not WHAT career.

Talents/Strengths that one discovers because of Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment, are neutral. These are applicable to all profession and walks of life. I have observed after coaching about 400 persons of age group 15 to 78, and from different walks of life, people do not know themselves. So, knowing oneself gives the most thrills to them. Later they build up on their strengths for team, leadership and for achieving their goals.

By Satyendra Kumar,  www.satyssparks.com

Strengths-Based Learning will bring about a revolution in the Field of Education

In the field of learning, there are three most influential figures who play significant roles and they are Students themselves, their parents and their teachers. Besides them, other people like friends, peers and counsellors play advisory roles. The environment prevalent in the national and international economic, technology and job market also play important roles.

Students

“I wish I knew it earlier” said a final year mechanical engineering student. He took the Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment and his strengths are Activator, Restorative, Communication, Input, Woo. Three out of five of his strengths lie in the “Influencing Domain”. Further conversation revealed that he is interested in reading books related to psychology, leaning various languages and has commenced counselling other students of his college. He may change his course of studies for Post- Graduation. He may study what he likes.

“This session gave me clarity in what my strengths are. I also learnt the success lies in focussing on your strengths rather than trying your weaknesses” wrote a XII standard student. Her strengths are Maximizer, Individualization, Woo, Activator and Adaptability. All her strengths lie in the “Influencing and Relationship Building Domains”. She loves Psychology, reading human minds, creativity, fine arts, photography, and a very observant person. After receiving detailed coaching, she decided to study English, Journalism and Psychology for her Under Graduate Course. This is the best combination she could get. Strengths Coaching re-assured her and cemented her belief in herself and chose a career path as well as a course of study for herself.

“I was going through a lot of tension and turmoil in life personally as well as a student when Sir Satyendra Kumar sent me a mail regarding this test. After going through the test and knowing my strength I am little sure about my future now. Maybe I am not sure about what exactly I am going to be in my future but I know at least for now that my future is going to be good! And out of all the things that Sir has told me while coaching, from my perspective the best thing or the most important thing he has told is ‘Focus on your strengths and not your weaknesses. We are going to build up your future on STRENGTH better ignore your weaknesses’. Thank you, SIR for all the help!”  These are comments from an Under-Graduate student of Media Studies from a reputed University. Her strengths are Empathy, Positivity, Relator, Significance, Developer.

  

A class XI student who has Includer, Ideation, Command, Self- Assurance and Restorative as his strengths has learnt to leverage his strengths in achieving academic excellence by selecting right course of studies, chose a study technique, chose extracurricular activities and even try and chose suitable teacher all based on his strengths. His drawing below illustrates his plans.

As evident from the above mentioned four examples, Strengths-based Education Programme can be helpful to students in the following ways

• »   Determine the most suitable learning programme.
• »   If necessary at appropriate time change the programme as per the strengths.
• »   Ascertain the programme one is pursuing and gaining self-confidence in what one is doing.
• »   Chose appropriate school, college, study groups and teachers.
• »   Determine strengths-based career path.
• »   Leverage strengths to excel in the academic field.

Parents

She is the mother of three sons. The eldest is in class XI and her strengths are Individualization, Input, Restorative, Connectedness and Responsibility. Her eldest son’s strengths are Includer, Ideation, Command, Self- Assurance and Restorative. (Other two sons are young to take CSF Assessment) She knows her strengths and she knows the strengths of her elder son. She has plans to leverage her strengths and that of her son’s strengths for the academic excellence and other developmental programme for her son. Her drawing below illustrates her plans.

She is a XII Standard girl who has Consistency as one of her signature themes, was taken by her father, for the Aadhar Registration. There was a long queue. He knew the officials, so he jumped the queue and was given preferential treatment. He called her daughter to come ahead, but she being a Consistent person, refused to come forward by jumping the queue. She stood her ground and got the chance after two hours for the Aadhar registration. This is the behaviour of a person with Consistency and she should be treated as such. The father learnt a lesson and came to know an important strength of her daughter. Father’s strengths are Responsibility, Developer, Connectedness, Relator and Includer. Daughter’s strengths are Deliberative, Consistency, Input, Responsibility and Achiever.

 Parents play the most important roles in shaping the future of their children. If they know their strengths and know the strengths of their children, it will not only bring in Harmony in the family but parents will also willingly support children in their entire development---academic being one of them.  As per the book “Strengths Based Parenting” written by Mary Reckmeyer and Jennifer Robinson, parents can support their children the following six ways: -

• »   Provide suitable direction to children based of his/her strengths.
• »   Besides their work life parent must devote their time for the development of children.
• »   Parents must celebrate along with children on their successes; howsoever small may be the success.
• »   Recognition of the achievement of children by parents is the greatest motivator for children.
• »   Emotional support to their children when need will bring about greater bonding between parents and children.
• »    Parents must have structured development plan for their children based on their strengths.

Teachers

An Assistant Professor of an Engineering College who went through the entire programme for 4.5 days commented. Her strengths are Connectedness, Includer, Achiever, Context and Consistency.

Day 1

»   Today’s class I learnt about communication.

»   Values and Strengths are known.

»   They taught how I build up Accuracy, Brevity and Clarity by using Situation, Impact, Resolution and Result (SIRR).

»   Will be able to communicate well by using these.

»   How the themes are related to myself.

»   We did presentation on values. It was very useful.

»   In this I learnt about my Strengths and values.

Day 2

»   In today’s session, I learnt about Ex-PANCHTATVA.

»   Coming together is a beginning.

»   Keeping together is progress.

»   Working together is success--- by Henry Ford.

»   We did pray together.

»   We learnt about different types of team ie Dependent Team, Independent Team and Interdependent Team.

»   Case of Smart City.

»   Barrier to Listening.

»   Powerful partnership.

Day 3

»   In today’s session, I learnt what is leadership?

»   The art of influencing and directing men/women in such a way as to get obtain their willing obedience, confidence, respect and loyal cooperation to accomplish the mission.

»   I learnt how I can use TRUST, COMPASSION, STABILITY AND HOPE with respect to our Strengths and Strengths of the team.

»   Quality of leadership: I learnt to build trust with respect, dignity, honesty and integrity.

»   I learnt to build hope by leadership, direction, and feel enthusiastic about the future.     

Day 4

»   In today’s session, I learnt to achieve goal, which should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and time bound.

»   PDCA Loop: Plan, Do, Check and Act.

»   Project Life Cycle: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closing.

»   These were about the hard skills. I learnt top 10 competencies for successful project managers in soft skill topics.

»   Difference between efficient and effective.

»   Emotional Intelligence: I learnt SELF-AWARENESS, SELF- REGULATION, MOTIVATION, EMPATHY AND SOCIAL SKILLS

»   I am going to leverage my learning of strengths-based to enhance my teaching ability to become a great teacher.

An engineering college professor whose strengths are Analytical, Achiever, Connectedness, Learner and Developer. He commented after undergoing one-day strengths coaching session.

• Ø  Really great efforts have been taken to design this programme.
• Ø  Due to this programme I have been able to know my strengths.
• Ø  It will be useful to me for my teaching.
• Ø  It will be really very useful to us.

Finally, Teachers who is the Dronacharya/Chanakya for the students can make a difference in the life of their students by leveraging their strengths in harmony with the strengths of students.

Two examples quoted above are the illustrations from 89 teachers who have received strengths-based intervention. I know for sure that about 60% of them are using their strengths to bring about changes in the learning/teaching scenarios in their respective fields.

A teacher with his/her Maximizer strengths can lead a student to success as depicted in the sketch below.

Extract from Coaching Blog Posted by Tom Matson on www.gallupstrengthscenter.com

While self-awareness is a gift and starting point, students need to know far more than their top five. They need to understand the vital relationship between strengths, engagement and how to thrive on campus. Students who understand that relationship are equipped to create the future they want. They also become more emotionally engaged with their school, which is necessary for the long-term survival of higher education institutions.

When school integrate strengths into existing programmes (rather than making strengths a programme within itself), they achieve a more robust and practicable route toward emotional engagement. And when schools lead with outcomes rather that stopping the conversation at students’ top five, their graduates have better engagement rates at work and higher rates of lifelong well-being.

Blog by Satyendra Kumar of 

https:www.satyssparks.com

KNOWING YOUR SELF AND KNOWING OTHERS WILL USHER IN HARMONY

 “I am a world citizen. Every Citizen is my own kith and kin. Where there is righteousness in heart, there is beauty in character. When there is beauty in character there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation there is peace in the world”.  Spoken by Ex-President Dr Abdul Kalam during the Golden Jubilee Function of the European Union. He was quoting from the Tamil Classic PURANANURU written by Kaniyan Pungundranar.

Knowing yourself and knowing others ushers in Harmony at Home, at Schools/Colleges and at Work Place. Knowing each other’s signature themes/talents/strengths (Top 5) will enable parents to understand children as to why their sons/daughters behaves the way he/she behaves. What are they good at and they should be developed according to their strengths.  It will enable son/daughter to understand parents.  This will bring about harmony is the family; henceforth parents will not compare their children with that of neighbours’ children. They will understand that their children are good at and they should be supported to develop in the fields they are good at. Neighbours’ children are good at something and my children are good at something else. Each person is born with unique talents/strengths.

Students will know the strengths of their teachers and approach them with respect as per the strengths. Teachers will approach students with respect and dignity and teach them according to their strengths. The teachers will never say a student that you are weak in so and so subject so you should take tuitions. Teacher will never compare one against the other by marks. He/she will understand why one student scores 90% in maths whereas other scores 85% in social studies. Students will also understand their strengths and leverage their strengths to become the best in their respective Strengths Zones.

At work place the employees will be assigned responsibilities as per their strengths and they will be fully engaged. They will deal with their colleagues, superiors, clients and other stake holders according to their strengths. At work knowing each other will create an interdependent team with high performance in all aspects. Once they understand each other, feeling of respect and dignity will bring in harmonious environment.

Blog by Satyendra Kumar of  www.satyssparks.com

Know Yourself: Self-Discovery

All humans are born with unique talents. Talent has been defined as the way one naturally thinks, feels and behaves in a situation. These talents are the source of the individual’s true potential and power. There is a need to harness this potential and convert into effective, productive and profitable results. The best way to harness is to first determine the unique talents of everyone, and convert these into strengths by refining the talents with acquired skills, knowledge and coaching. These strengths are then leveraged appropriately while at home, or School/colleges or at work in everyday life to achieve their personal as well as organizational goals.

“Most people think they know what they are good at. They are invariably wrong. And yet, a person can perform only from strengths;” said business Guru Peter Drucker. Knowing one’s unique talents will be a lifelong revelation. These talents never change. The key to success is to fully understand how to apply one’s unique talents and strengths in everyday life.

The best way to know yourself is by undergoing Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment. The five words that you will get will describe you the best. Here are the testimonials from five out of 400 persons who gone through this programme under the banner of SatysSparks.

Ashvija A, MBA Student, SJCE on 18 March 2016, Now a Corporate Employee (Includer, Learner, Positivity, Responsibility, Input)

We spend lot of our time in understanding others, but this was a great platform where we spent a day to know about our self which is more important one. " Knowing Others is wisdom. But knowing yourself is Enlightenment"

Rajeev Kumar (Ideation! Input! Context! Intellection! Adaptability)

Senior Firmware Engineer with Hewlett-Packard

“Never knew, I had to improve on my strengths instead of weakness.

 Need to create more awareness.

Namrata Singh (Activator! Communication! Relator! Strategic! Maximiser)

 Consultant (PI - PPM) | Advisory Services: Ernst & Young LLP

“Strengths Finder was one of the most useful trainings I have undergone. It revealed strengths that I did not know I have and how to capitalise on them. The training also gives different perspectives from that of the traditional...capitalise on your strengths rather than improve on your weaknesses. The trainer imparted the training very innovatively with good use of videos and presentations.

I would highly recommend the training to anyone and everyone, if only to be reminded of their strengths.”

Soumyadeep Maiti (Context! Ideation! Deliberative! Relator! Learner)

Consultant: Accenture

“Training was really great and helped me understand my unrealized strength of being able to connect to people and really helped me understand why I do certain things exceptionally well even without knowing the basics to begin with.

 I will certainly recommend people to go through the training rather than interpreting it themselves as lot of characteristics have different meaning even to begin with.”

Kanthi Mathi, Teaching Faculty of UNNATI (Connectedness, Relator, Restorative, Responsibility, Discipline)

Second Segment will be exposed in the next blog.

Blog by Satyendra Kumar of www.satyssparks.com

Superlative: Teaching and Learning

How can a teacher leverage his/her Strengths of Maximizer to be Great Teacher?

Teacher with Maximizer as his/her signature theme presenting as to how he/she could Behave and Treat so as to achieve Trust, be Compassionate, provide Stability and Hope to students.

A student has Individualization as her one of the Signature themes. She is presenting as to how she would leverage her themes to achieve academic excellence. She is the First Year UG Student with English, Psychology and Journlism. She also presented as to what are her expectations from her teachers.

Post by Satyendra Kumar www.satyssparks.com