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4 Ways to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills

4 Ways to Improve Your Strategic Thinking Skills

Strategic thinking requires envisioning what could happen in future and then applying the thought process to the current circumstances. This might sound like a tough task, particularly if you are a busy businessperson with little time to ponder upon what’s in front of you.
The economy globally hasn’t been more changeable and turbulent than it is now, making a door die scenario. So, you must ensure that your business not just survives, but flourishes in today’s world of evolving technology and customer expectation. But how? By honing your strategic thinking skills.

However, with the right techniques and a bit of direction anyone could become better at strategic thinking and, in the process, become a better business person. So what steps can one take to be more strategic in their current role?
Firstly change your mindset. In case you think that strategic thinking is for C-Suite executives alone, think again. It could, and should, happen at each level of an organization; it is one of the unwritten parts of a job description. Once you acknowledge that it’s part of the job, concentrate on developing the below-mentioned four key abilities which exhibit your strategic prowess.

1. Grant Yourself The Required Time To Think And Reflect

Business Woman Thinking

Letting yourself some time to think and reflect is constructive. Take time out to look around and look forward, your work would benefit as you would be able to assess the clarity of tasks around the work which you’re aiming at as well as new ideas are stimulated. Strategic thinking opens the doors for marketers for creating connections between plans, ideas, and people which are unseen by the other marketers. However, if you do not let yourself some time to think and reflect, how would you create such connections?
It is worth to note that the best place where you could do some of the strategic thinking is when you do not have tasks requiring your attention. You must allow yourself some time to read on a daily basis be it in the morning or during lunch hours. You should allocate time to read inspiring books or blog post on social media.

2. Have A Long-Term Approach

Long Term Approach

For being an effective professional, you should think long-term. Strategic thinking is thinking for long-term together with the ability to prepare and expect potential problems which would be triggered by the decisions you take. You should learn the challenges and changes which are at your forefront for positioning yourself emotionally and thoughtfully so that you could endure such problems which you might encounter on your way.
Every bad experience which you might encounter or have encountered previously is imperative as well as helpful as it makes you a better long-term thinker. Once you have experienced and you gain an understanding of numerous perceptions, you would have a superior understanding of what you’re required to do.

3. Have An Encouraging Attitude

Positive Thinking

The more strategic minds you find producing ideas for you, the better. So try to build a culture at your workplace where people are encouraged to think strategically. The best way of doing this is to reward people for doing things in ingenious ways. It does not always need to be a monetary – public recognition is enough for spurring them on. You could also encourage staff for thinking strategically by incorporating strategic ideas in the training and performance appraisal system or by assigning them a mentor.

4. Expand Your Horizons

Expand your Horizons

Curiosity and strategic thinking go hand in hand. The more experiences and ideas you are exposed to, the more material you have for making connections with. The best way of doing this is by leaving your desk behind and experiencing the world: try experiencing new things, new people and new places. Visit that museum/art gallery which you have been waiting for long or take those holidays which you have been saving up for. Even taking a new route home or trying a new restaurant or visiting a new park could help you in stimulating your mind.
Finally,

As a professional, improving your strategic thinking skills isn’t rocket science. All you need to do is to focus and commit yourself to change the way you perceive your problems and way you find the solutions to those problems. By doing this you’re enhancing your strategic thinking skills. Moreover, it’s important to keep in mind that making superior decisions or generating ideas isn’t the real value of strategic thinking. It’s more about developing a framework which would future-proof your business and allows opportunities for achieving lasting success.

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The Art of Leadership & Coaching for Beginners

The Art of Leadership & Coaching for Beginners

Corporate Coaching

The Concept Of Leadership & Coaching

Most of the organizations today, talk about their people being the most important resource. For a leader to lead this important resource requires particular abilities and skills. And for a person to develop into a leader require continually growing and expanding such abilities and skills. What this people resource wants from their leader is to set consistent and clear expectations, value their qualities, and create an environment which could bring out their best.

Over the last few decades, leadership coaches have gone from being rare to common. Most of the people in organizations assume that being given a chance to work with leadership coaches could be a positive thing. Today, leadership coaching has become such an accepted with the evolution of several coaching center businesses in India.

Coaching helps to unlock an individual’s potential to maximize his own performance. Most of the people feel that leader coaching brings out the best of them by helping them to focus, clarify their values and break down tasks. Leadership coaching is a process which builds the leader’s capability in achieving both the long-term and short- organizational objectives. Coaching is customized, personalized, and generally conducted one-on-one for a definite period of time and with a predefined business outcome in mind. Originally instituted for saving the derailing managers, the leadership coaching today, focuses typically on enhancing the performance for the leaders at every level.

Similar to a coach in sports, a business coach focuses on the development of specific functional outputs and skill sets for moving his clients forward in their careers. As corporations compete in the larger markets, the leadership development has progressed from an open-ended, sporadic career advice from mentors; to a skill-focused routine work with trained professional coaches for a specified period. A leadership coach serves the organization helping its employees to gain clarity and focus on what is required to be accomplished as well as the tactics and strategies for achieving it.

Latest From The World Of Leadership & Coaching

Greater Acceptability

It is not uncommon for any industry to emerge and find acceptance for a long period for society. Leadership coaching is one such arena where those who meet challenges can embrace its value. Today, coaching class business in India has become widely accepted and has gained necessary focus among the executives wishing to propel themselves faster and further.

Leadership Coaching A Norm

Owing to the growth of coaching institute business in India, the desire for coaching has expanded immensely. The idea that someone could help you in building muscles in the gym is now relating to coaching an executive through critical decisions while managing their stress level. Now it is a huge progress. Who would not wish less stress and increased productivity in their professional as well as personal lives?

Coaching To Surpass Consulting

It still might take some more time, but coaching has risen in popularity and is overtaking consulting. The aging demographics demand major transfer of industry, professional and institutional wisdom. Consulting supplements gaps in the knowledge, however, coaching stresses transfer of wisdom. Smart emerging leaders seek to learn, as talent is harder to rent.

Encouraging Your Followers To Follow You

If you’re a leader, your words are often magnified. Something which appears of no significance to you could lift your team member’s spirits or could even crush them. Whether you’re a company leader or a mentor, your words could hold enormous power. This is why it is important that your words lift your followers up, not tear them down. Some of the ways in which you could encourage your followers to follow you and find others to follow you are listed below:

Show Your Care

When you take your time learning about others that shows you care for them. It encourages and empowers them. If you’re a leader, one-on-one meetings with your employees are the best way to do it. In case you haven’t done one-on-one meetings with your employees, this would be a great start.

Take your time learning about their interests, family, dreams fears and challenges. One of the best ways to motivate and encourage them is showing care about what they care about.

Be More Verbal

Use the magic of your speech. Even your small communication that you believe in them could do wonders to their motivation levels. Find time to tell your team and your followers that you believe in them and their abilities and also that you’re confident that they would succeed.

Written Communication

The best thing about inspiring someone through writing is that they could keep it forever. These notes of encouragement would stay with them for quite some time and would motivate them every time they glance at it.

Sharing Achievements In Public Or With Others

One of the ways to motivate someone is to share someone’s achievement in public or others. When you speak about your team member in public or with any fellow manager, praise him. Over a period of time, it would develop a culture of encouragement.

Trust Them With More

When you’re assigning someone with responsibility, verbalize it with short statements such as “I trust you.” Your trust conveys belief.

When you’re giving someone the responsibility, remember you do not just trust them with the hope of success, but you’re allowing them to commit mistakes. When you try micromanaging or try fixing things yourself, it’s demotivating and discouraging. If you give responsibility to someone, trust in them, and get out of their way.

Don’t Forget To Help Them

It might sound contradictory to the previous point, but helping here doesn’t imply meddling or micromanaging. Simply ask your team how you could help them. It is crucial for others to understand that while you do trust them, you’re also there to help them.

This process of helping them isn’t limited to tasks or projects, though. Get yourself involved with their personal development by sending them to workshops, seminars, professional training, classes, or such other opportunities. Show that you place importance in self-improvement and not just hard work.

The best thing about each of the aforesaid points is that they’re effective in all kinds of environment. They work well in an office, in peer groups, at home, and literally everywhere.

When you show your caring attitude, by believing in them, talking positively about them with others, trusting them with crucial things, and helping them succeed, you’re encouraging them to have faith in themselves and be able to accomplish things which they never thought might be possible.

Leadership And Life Change

Whether you are a CEO, manager or trainer, being a leader is a crucial part of your roles. But what essentially makes you a good leader? Most of the people go through the entire careers without understanding the real essence of what makes a good leader, while others seem to find it immediately.

It is crucial to learn these skills early in one’s career for putting them into practice and growing professionally.

Most of the leaders are not born overnight; it takes time to develop the qualities which one must possess. Quoting John F Kennedy: ‘Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other’. Whether you are learning how to work on a computer software or reading the about subjects outside the purview of your everyday experience, you would be thinking of innovative ideas which are important for your position. In case you continue educating yourself, you would remain inspired and will be able to impart the knowledge which you have attained to your followers.

As a leader one partners with the employees for overcoming the human nature of procrastinating or shying away from the unfamiliar. The scheduled, structured employee engagements either in person or in groups or via telephone – encourage them to develop and hold the employees accountable to their commitments.

Equipped with this information, a leader provides insights on new opportunities for leveraging their strengths, expertise, knowledge, and skills which hadn’t been realized yet. Beyond assisting the team members to learn new skills, a leader can also help to enhance morale and self-confidence.

Conclusion

Today, organizations globally are recognizing ways for leveraging business coach. Leadership coaching has undergone a major transformation into the opportunity of fostering emerging leaders, to develop advancing leaders and for assuring long-term stability in the organizational leadership.

Coaching today is considered as a growth opportunity both for the employees as well as the organizations. Employees benefit from the customized teaching and objective skills assessment which enables them in developing new lifelong expertise and skills. Similarly, coaching supplements an organization to support and strengthen both its current structure as well as succession plans for its future.

Leadership coaching is no longer about fixing problems. Today, it’s about creating robust leaders who would move their businesses ahead in the competitive and complex business environment.

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Corporate Coaching – A Tool to Reveal Your Inner Strength  – Part 3

Corporate Coaching – A Tool to Reveal Your Inner Strength  – Part 3

A coach doesn’t tell you what to do, she helps you discover what you can do.

What is the big deal about corporate coaching, asked Rohan Verma. Why should I spend my time and money on something that I already know? You think a coach would know more about me than I do?

Devika could not help but smile. She could understand where these questions were coming from because two weeks ago, she had similar thoughts. However, she is a changed person now.

Just try once, she said.

Reluctantly, Rohan accepted the idea and went to meet the coach the next day. He was stiff and not willing to cooperate.

The coach tried to put him in a comfortable space by casually chit chatting for first 5 minutes. Rohan still did not seem convinced.

His dismissive attitude towards the coach and whole idea was evident.
But the coach was not the one to budge.

She asked, how was the performance of the company last quarter?

A question as blunt as that took Rohan by surprise. He had no convincing response because he knew the company had suffered a heavy loss.

However, he was quick to blame the marketing team for their poor strategy and execution.

Who do you think is the top official here?

Well, he was the CEO. So, it has to be him.

Who is responsible for the work they do too?

How satisfied did you feel with their plans?

Who gave approval to their way of marketing?

How timely was the questioning & monitoring the status of sales of the products?

Rohan didn’t have an answer.

And finally, the coach asked again, “Who is the top official here?”

Rohan paused a minute. Sipped some water from the bottle he had got for himself. It appeared as if he just had an epiphany.

He drank some more water and said, Thank you, coach!

Yes, such things happen when you take a break from the routine and ponder or when some outsider comes and asks you a simple question.

It makes you question what you have been doing all the while. Where you have gone wrong. Where you could have some improvement. No one is perfect.

A so-called control freak like Rohan could also have some incorrect assumptions. At the same time, for all the stiffness he carried around, he would have probably needed someone to talk to him. Someone to tell him what he needed to be told. Someone to hear, what he wants to say — not just at the professional level, but in a very that helps you bring out your inner voice.

As a corporate coach, I come across different people on a regular basis. And these are people who take decisions that can make or break a company. A company that runs the lives of so many employees. A company that consumers put their faith in.

A person at such a level in the scheme of things has to be able to make level-headed decisions.

A corporate coach won’t really tell you what business decisions to take. You would know that better, but a coach can be that friend/philosopher/guide that you have heard of.

Someone who could help you face your professional fears. Someone who makes you aware of what you already know somewhere deep inside.

Rohan did not become the CEO of a top FMCG company overnight. He had worked day and night to reach a level like that.

But a short session with a coach suddenly made him realize things that probably a textbook can’t.

As he sipped water, Rohan asked the coach whether he could leave before the stipulated time. He thanked the coach again and fixed the next meeting then and there.

What hit Rohan? What did he suddenly realize?

Find out in the next part of the series.

Watch this space every Tuesday to read more true stories of how corporate coaching has helped our clients evolve.

Also read CORPORATE COACHING – A TOOL TO REVEAL YOUR INNER STRENGTH – PART 2

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Corporate Coaching – A Tool to Reveal Your Inner Strength – Part 2

Corporate Coaching – A Tool to Reveal Your Inner Strength – Part 2

corporate-coaching

Coaching isn’t just imparting knowledge, it is about enabling an individual find the potential within.

The Devika Mehta who walked out of that corporate coaching session was not entirely the same person who walked in the room that day.

Questions as basic as what makes her different from others in similar roles at her workplace made her dwell deep into her aspirations and talent.

Does she have a clear plan? A plan that is not just in her head, but also a part of an official document.

Is her team aware of the incentives that they could possibly get if they achieve the targets in a given time frame?

Does her team appreciate the hard work she puts in?

Does she have confidence in the work her team us?

Is there the required amount of transparency in the workforce?

Questions like these might sound basic to you as a reader. And a layman might pass it off as something childish. Which professional would not know about these things in their right mind, you might ask.

Unfortunately, the truth is that we are all aware of these things, but most of us fail to implement them on a day-to-day basis.

It’s something similar to school homework. We all know the importance of it, but most of us might not devote time to do it if the teacher won’t check it the next day.

The coach asked Devika, where does she herself with the project by the end of the month.

With all honesty, she mentioned her targets, but somewhere within, she was aware that not half of it would be achieved. Hence, she reworked the targets in a realistic way and promised herself to deliver the same or a bit extra in the given amount of time.

She was aware that the follow-up session would be about discussing the progress. Devika had a point to prove.

A corporate incentive always helps, but the drive has to come from within. It’s not always about proving things to others, it is about whether you can look in the mirror and tell yourself that you gave your best. That you faced the challenges like a boss and took the opportunities that came your way.

It is whether you were able to push the boundaries and set an example for those who follow you and those who you follow. It is about inculcating confidence in the weakest link of your team and making him or her feel a part of the process.

It is about these and many other things.

And it’s certainly not just about knowing things, it’s about implementing them.

When she walked out of the session, Devika had a fresh resolve, a reformed will and sudden burst of confidence evident on her face.

Devika was not the same person who walked into that room.

Watch this space every Tuesday to read more true stories of how corporate coaching has helped our clients evolve.

Don’t miss to read previous story

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Corporate Coaching – A Tool to Reveal Your Inner Strength (Part-1)

Corporate Coaching – A Tool to Reveal Your Inner Strength (Part-1)

Battling with the Monday blues, Devika Mehta was trying her best to figure out a complex code on her screen.

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Boss – How do you like you work, Devika?

Devika – It is good, sir! My team and I have been working on this project for about a month and the client seems to quite happy with the way we are progressing.

Boss – That’s great news. If the client approves the project, you and your entire team can expect good news from the accounts department.

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The codes blinking on the screen looked like a puzzle to Devika again. With all the day dreaming and last night’s tequila shots at a colleague’s birthday party, the only thought she could manage to come up with was, “Let’s take a smoke break”.

And as always, a cup of tea accompanied her on that ‘one-cigarette-a-day” break.

As Devika blew smoke away in the air, multiple thoughts continued to haunt her.

“Will she get a hike? Will her team get it? Is her team happy with her? Will she be able to take her family out for that long-due beach vacation next month? Did I lock my computer before leaving the desk?”

CUT

You have a new message, said a pop up on the screen.

It was from her boss who asked her to come his cabin.

“Considering all the pressure you have got on your shoulders with this team, the management believes you should become a part of our corporate coaching programme. Please meet our regular coach tomorrow at 10 am in the board room.”

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Clueless about what she was going in for, Devika entered the boardroom with as clear a head as she could manage.

After exchanging the regular pleasantries, the coach asked Devika a basic question –

What makes you different from the others?

Though it appeared like a juvenile question, Devika came up with a monotonous response.

After about 90 seconds, she found it difficult to talk more about herself.

It was at that moment that she wondered — what makes me different?

Breaking the silence, the coach asked again — What makes you different, Devika?

Not that she had much to add to her previous response, she still tried to bring out the dormant forces in her.

That one question went on to become an hour-long discussion without either of two realizing how time went by. One response from Devika led to another question by the coach, and so on.

And when it was over, Devika walked out of the room with a much wider and brighter perspective of her own self.

What was it that they discussed? How did it help Devika?

Watch this space next Tuesday to find out.

“Coaching isn’t just imparting knowledge, it is about enabling an individual find the potential within.”

Story to be continued……

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How to Improve your Leadership Skills through Executive Coaching?

How to Improve your Leadership Skills through Executive Coaching?

During the professional journey towards success, a leader or a manager often starts questioning his ability to lead and motivate the team working under him. This is a result of several dynamic factors out of his/her control and sometimes even personal inhibitions that make him/her ineffective at leading teams in the best possible way. A leader has a major responsibility to set the right example for the team he/she is leading and also getting out the best output. This is where a leader is required to focus on improving his personal leadership skills through executive coaching.

Executive coaching is the process of taking help of a professional executive coach for receiving the right feedback about current skill sets and mentorship for improving leadership skills. Executive coaching is an important aspect of corporate training for leaders that helps them to improve their emotional quotient and in turn improve performance management and leadership skills, in general.

The Power Of Effective Executive Coaching

The power of executive coaching is realized by leaders such as Bill Gates and Eric Schmidt in the past. Eric Schmidt has been seen quoting that every great performer (leader) in a company has been influenced by a coach.

An executive coach works as an effective mentor who helps an individual in becoming the best team leader as well as becoming a valuable asset for the organization. With the help of executive coaching, a leader can discover his/her potential strengths, leadership skills and work on his/her weaknesses after receiving honest feedback from an executive coach. An executive coach acts as a trustworthy mentor who guides a leader through challenging hurdles while knowing about your professional limitations.

Executive coaching also helps in developing and executing a well-structured professional growth plan for a leader by helping a leader in:

  • Gaining broad perspective about inherent leadership flaws owing to unbiased feedback by an executive coach
  • Clearly-understanding opinions of team members about the decisions
  • Improving interpersonal and relational leadership abilities
  • Removing communication barriers by improving skills and changing the current approach towards communicating with team members
  • Navigating through challenging hurdles by making a leader discover the power to identify inherent leadership abilities
  • Getting the best output from the current team for achieving organizational goals

Improving Leadership Skills Through Executive Coaching

An executive coach is a trustworthy mentor and advisor who makes a leader unleash his inner leadership skills by talking about potential challenges. As a mentor, an executive coach gives the right advice and feedback about blind spots in your leadership that is currently degrading your leadership abilities. As a mentor is an outsider, he/she gives an unbiased opinion while mentoring about remedial steps for improving leadership abilities and growing out as a strong team leader.

Also, executive coaching helps a leader in venting out worries and stress by giving an ear who hears without being judgmental. An executive coach thus serves as a great friend who has the power to uplift moods and works upon building the emotional quotient (EQ) in a leader. An executive coach gives direction to leadership, encouragement, and accountability to leadership efforts and works on building a strong charisma for making a leader much more effective than before.

Throughout the executive coaching journey, a leader gets to know himself better and feel acknowledged. This makes him a better team player and communicator that improves a relationship with team members. This gives a leader the much-needed leverage using which he/she can get to know team members better and extract the best possible output keeping in mind the potential professional strengths of each team member.

RecommendedHow Executive Coaching Promises Sparkling Benefits for Your Career & Your Team?

An executive coach is the most reliable professional who can help in improving leadership skills using the right mix of motivation, persuasion, teaching and relationship building. Not only does an executive coach help in improving leadership skills, but build a strong interpersonal relationship with each member of the team- making them respect you as a strong leader, in the long run.

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