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Family Conflicts and Problems: A Family Counsellor Speaks

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As a social institution, the idea of family may be on the downhill in many societies globally. But there’s no denying the fact that it has stood the test of time for thousands of years, despite the many problems that plague it. We all know family is our life, that’s all we crave for whenever we’re in trouble or need support. Our family has our back and is something we can always count in our successes and failures. Our family laughs with us, cries with us, but is ever ready to support us in the hour of need. Of course, nowhere does it imply that families don’t have any problems. Each family, being a unique entity, has its problems and issues. But there are some common threads in a majority of family problems, which are in need of resolution for a happy family life. 

  1. Family conflict

Disagreements, conflicts and fights are part of family dynamics. Period. This is especially true of egalitarian marriages and families wherein there is everyone is free to express their opinions. These differences in opinions, however, can easily escalate to arguments and conflicts, which can potentially damage the family relationships and peace, if not resolved in time. 

Arguments, per se, are not bad at all; rather, they tend to promote independent thinking and reasoning, especially useful for kids, but the trouble arises when they slip out of hands. Argue, by all means but lay down certain ground rules and do not let your emotions get the better of you as you may say something hurtful without meaning to.

Family Problem Solution: 

  1. Define the problem clearly. Do not beat about the bush and especially try to avoid generalizing the issue. For instance, if your spouse didn’t pick a towel lying on the bed this morning, do not say “You know, you’ll never do that in life”. You know there has only been one such instance. 
  2. Argue only over the specific issue and do not bring out other grouses, which you may have held in the past. Harking back to past arguments isn’t going to do any good. 
  3. Life coach recommend that we focus on the solution part instead of endlessly stretching the argument. For instance, if your spouse never presses the toothpaste tube from the bottom, it’s no fun always fighting over it. Buy two toothpaste tunes, instead. Simple!
  4. Focus on the why behind the other’s actions and behavior and if the disagreement seems to be turning into a fight, have a time-out. Return to the topic whenever you have cooled down enough.
  5. In this way, family counselling can be extremely beneficial for any family facing troubles in maintaining healthy relationships with one another.

2. Communication

Life coaches, especially those dealing with family conflicts, agree that most arguments are there thanks to inadequate or qualitatively poor communication. Everyone needs the chance and the space to explain themselves and their viewpoint. Making assumptions regarding anyone, even within a family, is just not done.

One of the biggest casualties of a disagreement or fight is the closure of communication channels, which worsens the problem.  So keep the lines of communication open. It’s difficult to find a solution to a family problem if you’re not talking. To open the line of communication, you need to set aside your ego as it takes a big heart to become the first person to tackle a problem. 

Therefore, try to reach out first, however hard it may be. 

* In case it doesn’t work out, an older, wiser family member can intervene and set up a meeting by acting as a mediator. 

* Ignoring the problem is only going to worsen it, leading to a certain coldness in relationships. It’s better to express yourself at a suitable time. So, bringing up a family problem at festival time is definitely not a good idea.

* Avoid drinking before a tough family conversation as it can fuel emotions even in a moderate quantity, which is going to hamper your thinking and act as a block in a difficult conversation. 

* Many kids and teenagers hesitate to express their emotions in the fear of ridicule or shame. Explain to the family that each one is welcome to express themselves openly and fairly. 

  1. Work-Life Balance

The lack of a healthy work-life balance creates another common family conflict, as per expert life coaches.. Amidst the responsibilities of both parents’ jobs/ businesses, ensuring a work-life balance can be tricky. But this family conflict is relatively easier to resolve as the balance can be easily achieved with a bit of smart planning and slick execution. The key lies in creating clear-cut boundaries between work and life spaces so that the two don’t overlap to create conflicts.  

It’s important to spend time on yourself as well. With a better work-life balance, you’ll be able to have a better focus and give due attention to work and family at the same time.

Solution: The best solution is to leave work at work and focus on family when you are off work. Make time for family only when it comes to family time. Delegate your tasks at work so that you are not overworked. 

  1. Infidelity

Experts involved in counselling for family issues concur that infidelity (includes adultery too) or cheating is being emotionally or physically unfaithful to a spouse or partner, and breaking a commitment or promise during the act. Around 1/4th of all marriages face infidelity, which is one of the biggest threats to marriages and families worldwide, says research. The figure goes much higher if we also consider purely emotional affairs or online infidelity. Prevention is the best pre-emotive solution here i.e. the partners commit to and nurture their relationship. 

Unfortunately, the situation of an extra-marital affair offers no painless solution as to rebuild the broken trust, one needs  time and a commitment to change.

Solution: Working through the emotions of shock, anger and grief – common reactions to spousal infidelity – takes time and effort as it’s important to give yourself space to collect all your feelings. Try to be assertive rather than being aggressive as anger only leads to rash decisions. Practice mindfulness, self-regulation and seven-second breathing to calm yourself and think through it rationally.

The cheating spouse must take full responsibility for what had happened. They must be completely transparent and answer the other one’s questions. It can lead to an understanding of what went wrong and what needs to change. Though trust doesn’t return overnight, accepting one’s responsibility can be a good start.

However, if things don’t work out this way, total separation from the other person is the only way out. Making a drastic break is a tough task and it may be a bitter pill that needs to be swallowed as in many cases, healthy marital recovery is impossible without it. 

  1. Money Matters 

During the counselling for family issues, finances are found to be one of the biggest stressors in a relationship, especially if a family is undergoing some financial stress, which can raise tension. Arguments about money are common and important issues and need to be addressed on priority. The most important cause of such arguments is the lack of agreement over the way people think about money and its management. If one of the spouses is a firm believer in penny-pinching while the other one is a spendthrift, you can expect fireworks only. Therefore, it’s important to sit down and discuss calmly how they are going to deal with income, expenditure, savings, insurance and investment. The spouses need to get a basic financial literacy to be able to understand and profit from this kind of money management and set out the family priorities of how money is to be consumed. 

Solution: An excellent idea to avoid financial stress is creating a monthly budget. For a family facing financial difficulties, cutting back on unnecessary expenses and looking for additional sources of income may help. Financial troubles can test a relationship hard and but you are open to solving the issues together, you can navigate tough times together.

  1. Distance

Physical or emotional distance can extract a heavy toll on a family and put it under strain, especially if you have kids. With them, being distant for a long period can be challenging to bear through. Of course, physical distance may be a compulsion/ involuntary choice due to one’s occupation. If you travel and cannot do anything about the physical distance, think of nightly video chats, online games or watching movies online together to compensate. The converse is also true i.e. not keeping enough distance as spending too much time with the family can also be a problem. All relationships, even a happy and successful family, need some space.

Much more dangerous is the emotional distance despite physical proximity. Most often, it arises from a serious, underlying issue like lack of trust or lack of communication, which leads to a lot less sharing as compared to what happens in a normal, healthy relationship.  

Solution: To tackle the problem of emotional distance, simply talk it out openly, honestly and transparently. Listen to each other’s perspectives and try to find a common ground, if you can and be ready to accommodate the other person’s needs within your sachem of things to save your relationship/. . 

  1. Disagreements over parenting styles

While counselling for family issues, experts find that every parent has a different viewpoint about raising their children. How one raises their children is greatly affected by their own childhood experiences and upbringing. Of course, one cannot undo the past but if both of you disagree on parenting styles, it’s good to talk it out. Discuss the pros and cons and try to understand their views on your parenting style.

Solution: If two spouses disagree over each other’s parenting styles, they need to learn to make some compromises and adjustments. However, if one parent’s parenting style is proving to be toxic for the child, you need to convince the other one of its toxicity and make them come round to your viewpoint. 

  1. Rebellious Children

Quite often, children become rebellious, refusing to listen to their parents. Rebellious children can test your patience and push you to your limits. While you may be unable to control your children’s actions, you certainly can teach them the consequences of their actions by setting a positive example of how you react to your emotions. If you are dealing with an angry teenager, try listening to their grievances and discuss with them and offer them advice only if they ask for it. One of the best ways a child can learn good things is by making mistakes.

All families go through turbulent times and the above common family conflicts can plague all families – divorced, separated, or blended families. I hope with the above-mentioned common family problems and solutions, you can improve your family relationships.

Unravelling the knots 

We all know: Family problems are very painful. However, there are ways to prevent many family problems in the initial stages only and restore peace. Life is too short to waste time on cultivating negativity towards your loved ones. 

  1. Begin the discussion 

2 Get to the roots 

3 Address the problem 

Beginning the Discussion 

  1. Wait until you’re calm enough to discuss it. If you are arguing, wait until everyone is calm to keep the argument from escalating into a full-blown feud. 

* Don’t discuss the problem while you’re upset /emotional. If you wait for a while, the emotion is likely to subside somewhat.

* Waiting lets you approach the issue logically. If you give yourself some time to think, you won’t deal with it so reactively.

* Approaching someone while you are angry heightens an already tough situation. You can wait to make your point tomorrow; control your instant impulses.

  1. Deal in person

* Addressing a family problem by email is the worst possible choice. Your tone can easily be misperceived by electronic communication as people can’t appreciate your body language here, which conveys empathy and reduces the pain. People say things by electronic communication that they would never otherwise say to another, which is another reason to avoid it.

* Pick up the telephone or, better still, have a personal meeting. 

  1. Accept faults

* Understanding that family members have faults, but you can still love them, is the first step toward addressing problems. 

* Accept your own faults and blame when you deserve it. Try to look at family issues not as all-or- nothing situations where someone is wrong and someone else is right. Instead, perceive the gray areas. 

* Apologize even if you truly think you did nothing wrong. Say, “I see you’re upset, and though it has been hard for me too, I am sorry. I would like to fix this, so let me know how I can do it.” 

* Avoid the blame game and keep the language positive. Stay away from using language that puts blame on others or is negative. Negativity is a vicious cycle. 

* Avoiding using judgmental words or name calling e.g. accusatory words said in an angry tone. Blaming others makes them defensive and counter attack you, making it worse. 

* Don’t look at it like  “winning” the argument. Try to accept there are two or more ways to see the point. Develop a plan for solving the problem together. 

* Maintain a calm and modulated tone and voice. Explain yourself calmly and methodically, with empathy for the other person. Attempt to cool down the argument with comments like, “I can see your point.”

  1. Forgive 

* Forgive the family members who have wronged you, though a difficult thing to achieve. 

* Forgiveness frees yourself from the corrosive nature of a fight. It’s about letting go of the past so that you can build a healthier future without tension and stress.

* Tell them with empathy you forgive if they readily admit blame. It goes a long way.

* Remember all human beings, including you, at some point, are imperfect and need forgiveness on the journey called life. 

Getting to the roots 

  1. Problem identification

Identify the real problem by figuring out what’s really going on. Perhaps one may be facing health problems (e.g. high blood pressure causing too much anger or aggression) or personal problems (workplace or studies) that they have been hiding. Consider the real issue as it will allow let you address it better. 

* Don’t assume, talk to them to find out what they really think. Focus on causes, not symptoms. 

* A trusted family member may help you figure out what’s really going on, so it’s OK to talk to them about the issue.

  1. Ask 

* A good way to dig out the root cause is asking questions rather than making statements. Statements look judgmental and put others on the defensive. 

* Asking questions softens the conversation and draws out what’s really bothering them. Questions make one feel like not being condemned. 

* For example, if your brother has grown distant and isn’t inviting you out for coffee like he used to, you could say, “We haven’t seen each other as much as we used to. Why do you think that’s happening?” 

* Make sure to ask open-ended questions so as to provoke them to elaborate. And then truly listen to what they have to say.

  1. Recognize when to discuss

When a family conflict reaches a point that it needs to be addressed, these are clear signs of family and relationship problems – arguing, disagreements, angry outbursts, avoidance and physical conflicts. 

* Some problems are caused by differences of opinion such as on cultural values or beliefs. Often, parents and children may not be able to agree on lifestyle choices and personal preferences.

* Other problems can stem from substance abuse, mental sickness, bullying, mistrust, change in family circumstances, financial issues, stress, sexuality-related issues, and jealousy.

Addressing the problem 

  1. Reaching a compromise

Compromising implies that you come up with a mutually acceptable solution to both the parties. It’s a good way to defuse or address a family problem. 

* The first step is figuring out whether the problem is solvable, which depends on its nature and what’s already been done to solve it. 

* One technique to compromise is to draw two circles that relate to the family problem. In the first circle, write down everything you’re not willing to compromise on. In the outer circle, write down the areas where you are willing to bend. Then, share the circles.

* Don’t try talking to the family member when you’re distracted, working on a project, fielding phone calls, doing the dishes or the like. 

Prevention is the best cure

Families are built on relationships, which get strengthened with healthy communication. An environment of sharing creates a foundation for healthy communication. Family members need to feel safe while sharing their feelings and discussing their issues. As a parent, that means allowing your child to share their viewpoint without any fear of judgment/punishment. Children who feels safe can talk about difficult subjects like mental health, self-identity, anxiety or substance abuse. Children who feel safe and respected are likelier to open up while struggling with a situation or making a difficult decision. This is also true of other family relationships, not only between a parent and child, but also between siblings and within a marriage.

Family counsellors recommend the following to create an environment of sharing:

  1. Listen
  2. Be willing to share your feelings. 
  3. When sharing your perspective, present your perspective and not the facts. 
  4. Recognize others’ experiences as valid. 
  5. Admit your mistakes, encouraging others to admit theirs.
  6. Create a personal example of the behavior you want to see. 
  7. Do things together – interests, sports, activities – to achieve a sense of closeness, open communication and sharing.

However, if everything fails, it’s best to seek professional help by visting a Family Counsellor.

As a social institution, the idea of family may be on the downhill in many societies globally. But there’s no […]

Take Your Leadership Skills to the Next Level: Qualities of Effective Leaders in the 21st Century

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 “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”         –         John Maxwell

 Leadership is indispensable to all kinds of organizations- business, educational, political, cultural and others, even the ones that ultimately fail. Whether you are an employee, marketing manager, director, teacher or a student, it doesn’t matter – you can be a leader. Leadership is not about your position; it is about your disposition. It’s also not about any title that you may hold; rather, it’s what you have inside you that makes you a leader. Leadership skills are all about inspiring and igniting the flame of passion and purpose in everyone you come across by enabling and empowering them to lead their lives.

Now, if you are running an organization, you learn leadership skills on the go as you juggle your staff, clients, suppliers and the red tape. That way, you are already a leader. But what if you want to elevate your leadership skills to the next level? Try out the following 15 Tips to cultivate better leadership skills in order to take your leadership to a whole new level and dimension:

  1. Sense of purpose

The purpose of our life is to have a life of purpose. Having a purpose gives a sense of direction and momentum to you, a group or an organization. In short, if you don’t know where you want to land, you will never get there.

Among the qualities of effective leaders, this one takes the cake. A responsible leader always plans, prepares and performs all his tasks with a certain purpose in mind and feels it their responsibility to ignite the sense of purpose within the team members, too. People want to know what they are doing has a meaning and a purpose behind it. They love to know how their task is contributing to organizational progress. Striking an authoritative tone and withholding such information shows the weakness of leadership, not its strength.

  1. Never stop learning

What flows, remains fresh and flourishing, what stops, dies.

Savvy professionals harness all possible opportunities to acquire new knowledge and skills. As technology continues to transform our society at a rapid pace, your company’s business, too, constantly changes. To maintain your marketability and your skill sets, find training and career development opportunities in line with organizational goals and needs.

Great leaders always seek to become more and better than what they are. They are always open to learn from their team and others about their failures, successes and everything else that gives them an opportunity to learn. To this end, they set up effective feedback systems for employees, vendors and others to keep a tab on how they are doing. They are ready to get trained and consider learning their constant companion.

Leadership skills demand that you attend workshops, webinars, and online certification programmes on the topics and skills you’d like to know more about. With so many helpful resources available online and offline, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t tighten your grasp on subjects that could make you a better manager.

Besides, reaching out to your team allows you to learn from them. If you’re trying to run an IT project with little IT knowledge, it may be helpful to sit in on their process and learn more about how they complete tasks. It can also give you a better idea of how your team manages their time.

Besides, don’t just review analytics. Actively seek feedback from your team, vendors, and your clients. Try to find new ways to improve the experience you offer.

 

  1. Be authentic

HOT is HOT

NOT is NOT

Great leaders have the gift of authenticity i.e. they are who they are. People follow and support them because of what they are. They can cheat the entire world but not you.

So, to become a great leader, create an authentic picture of yourself in the eyes of people around you. Authentic leadership comes from your being, self-awareness and transparency. Nurture honesty and all positive possibilities within you to evoke the respect, credibility and respect so crucial to a leader’s continued existence.

 

  1. It is NOT about YOU

Why you follow anyone is because you see something for you there. Be they blogs, people or the lifestyles you follow, they always share or show things you need in your life.

Great leaders keep track of all about their followers and team members by building a culture of inclusiveness. They are more “WE”-type than ME-type and devote their time, energy and resources to create value for team members and the world around them.

This slight change from “WIIFM” (what is in it for ME) to “WIIFW” (what is in it for WE) helps you function with greater intensity to emerge as a great leader.

 

  1. Effective communication

Among the qualities of effective leaders, this one has commanded a lot of attention. We are living in times of great complexity and continually face an extreme information overload. And when information grows too complex, people tend to glaze over. Therefore, you must navigate the complexity, look for meaning, and come out with a clear message.

Among all popular leadership skills, this one has been given a very high level of importance. All great leaders, with a few exceptions, have been great public speakers. Effective communication lets you inform, motivate and convince your followers with ease. Therefore, try to invest time, energy and money in developing effective public speaking skills to impact the lives of those around you. The quality of your leadership is directly proportional to the quality of your communication skills.

Effective leaders don’t believe in delivering complex messages; instead, they distill and prioritize their messages to make it reach their destination. Most effective politicians have a knack for providing clear answers to very complex questions. Try to send a message so brief and clear that anyone can understand it.  While writing email or reports, try to refine what you say and how you communicate it to maximize its impact.

Invite questions and check to ensure that they understand what you say. Hearing doesn’t equal understanding in many cases. People have different antennas. So, tune into their various communication styles and adapt yours to reach your people meaningfully.

 

  1. Solution Seeker and Provider

Followers talk about problems while leaders seek and provide solutions.

A problem is a problem only as far as you see it as a problem. But the moment you look at a situation and try to find a solution to it, it turns into an opportunity for learning and growth. Great leaders see everything that comes their way as an opportunity to learn, serve and share. Remember, most great inventions have been made this way only. So to be an effective leader, be a solution seeker in life.

 

  1. Ability to act

Nothing will work if you don’t.

A big dividing line between followers and leaders is that leaders take the desired actions instead of waiting for things to change. They have the courage and the foresight to take an initiative to bring about a change in themselves and in those around them. Anyone wanting to become a great leader needs to inculcate the ability to act in life.

 

  1. Direct your people

Great leaders keep their directions simple. Synthesis and understanding will amount to nothing without the payoff resulting from action. Therefore, make your course of action easy to follow. And the fewer calls to action, the better it is for the followers.

 

  1. Show optimism

While talking about the organization with your employees, do you radiate the natural confidence and the enthusiasm that a leader needs to have? Such optimism breeds more enthusiasm and fuels further growth and creativity. If you believe in the best outcomes, you can unleash unparalleled opportunities to make them happen in reality.

 

  1. Take initiative, responsibility

If we list all the qualities of effective leaders, this one should rank among the top ones.  Completing the tasks assigned to you meets your job description but leaders need to go beyond it. Try to constantly look for ways to simplify work processes or improve the bottom line. Try to take up projects because you saw the need and are willing to pitch in. Your proactivity shows others that you have the ability to lead.

Do not make excuses if you have sent a sensitive email to the wrong people. Apologize straight away and do whatever it takes to fix the thing. Taking responsibility demonstrates your maturity and leadership acumen.

As a team leader, the responsibility will always fall on your shoulders. Of course, you don’t bear the brunt of every problem that your organization faces. It’s important to ensure that you know who in your team is taking care of which task, and what their results bring to your team. It will allow you to know who to turn to in case of a misstep or to congratulate someone on a success.

Taking responsibility and following through on what you delegate shows your team that though you want everyone to work as a united front, you care for them as individuals and would like to push them to the best of their abilities. In addition, it can also allow for less frustration among your team as there can be no more playing the “blame game” as you know exactly who’s doing what.

 

  1. Meeting challenges

Effective leaders anticipate what might go wrong and take steps to avoid it and think of solutions on their own and as a team. They don’t hand off difficult situations to others. Problem solving is an indispensable skill for a professional, but is particularly useful for people holding leadership positions, whom people look to for support and guidance quite often.

  1. Delegate

It’s perfectly alright and valid to enlist others’ support while executing complex or lengthy tasks. Effective leaders know when not to do it alone. Let’s say you’ve been charged with the year-end closing. Of course, you’ll need help coordinating the entire task with all sales teams and the accounting department. It will not only ease your burden but will also create a sense of participation and responsibility among your team members.

 

  1. Negotiate

Most leaders don’t accept whatever they are offered since they know their worth and don’t shy away from asking more – respectfully and tactfully. If you are looking at a pay hike, don’t demand or threaten. Instead, explain why you deserve more money -maybe your role has evolved or you’ve earned more job skills since you were hired. And always come up with relevant facts and figures to support your case- sales numbers, leads, new clients etc.

 

  1. Initiative

A salient characteristic of an effective leader is the willingness to take initiatives to get the ball rolling on new projects and goals. Taking the initiative to bring about positive changes is a leadership essential. To make it happen, you need to gather your entire team to properly communicate and delegate tasks like a leader should.

You would also like to show your staff that you really are committed to the goal you want them to achieve. Creating task schedules and having regular checks on projects not only shows that you care and are thoroughly involved, but also evokes a level of respect and attentiveness from employees that breeds enthusiasm, accountability and ramps up productivity.

Besides, successful leaders know the importance of cultivating relationships and contacts. The try to know their team members personally and on social media. So, attend office parties, company picnics and social events. With better social visibility, you can improve your chances of getting recommendations for promotions and new projects.

 

  1. Embrace challenges and learning

A true leader embraces every challenge, hardship and criticism that comes their way. Embracing challenges makes you a leader because it shows a brave face in the midst of adversities. It allows your staff to see that challenges are nothing but certain things to tackle so as to achieve the results you want.

Accepting any criticism gracefully is another form of bravery. If you can take constructive feedback from outside and within your team and work on it to bring about a positive change, you are on your way to true leadership. Accepting the challenges that come your way and turning them into growth opportunities tells your team that you have what it takes to become a top-notch leader.

Besides, it’s important to recognize the gaps in your current knowledge (after all, you are not a know-all, are you?), find a domain expert and learn from them. Learning from others isn’t the sign of bad leadership, in fact, it’s just the opposite. So, always be ready to learn and grow to create a great example for your team.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – […]

Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make: A Business Coach’s Take on Learnings from Corporate Counselling

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Are you really tired of living a 9-5 work life and would love to strike out on your own and be your own boss? Well, there never was a better time than the present one. The advances in information technology have lowered the entry barriers to new lows, and whether you want to bootstrap or raise venture capital for your business, the options for raising funds are wider than ever before.

Being an entrepreneur is one of the most difficult jobs ever as few career paths require the kind of work, skill, sacrifice and commitment it warrants. It is hard, no doubt, but is also really rewarding. But before you decide to take the plunge, it is important to understand some common mistakes that plague so many entrepreneurs today, no matter which field or business you are in.

Many wanna-be entrepreneurs fail to anticipate or realize that their path is paved with bumps and humps that can make even the most seasoned entrepreneur fall, if they do not exercise enough care on the way. How do you ensure that you get to succeed in a hyper-competitive, crowded marketplace? One thing you can certainly do is: avoiding the most common mistakes entrepreneurs commit by learning from the experience of others. Even the most seasoned entrepreneurs commit many mistakes, which they don’t wish to talk about openly. But sharing such experiences with others can help them avoid committing the same mistakes in their journey to success.

10 Most Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make

As part of my life coaching experience, I often get to talk to many people looking for corporate counselling. Well, here are my two cents on the Top 10 Commonest Entrepreneurial Mistakes, many of them based on what I have learnt from my entrepreneurial journey so far:

  1. Lack of focus

Experts involved in corporate counselling often point out that a clear business focus makes it easier for you to communicate about your product and who it’s meant for. In contrast, by trying to appeal to all by adding all sorts of features, you dilute your marketing message and end up with a complex product. Take some serious inspo from Dropbox and Instagram to focus on doing just one thing really well.

Any business coach worth their salt can tell you that it’s not easy, given the multiple kinds of pressures coming from customers, investors or team members. But learning to say no is something you need to cultivate if you want a usable product. Getting the core right makes your life much easier. A good technique to achieve it is to make a list of things you WON’T do by adding some constraints to the development process – so everyone knows what the product ISN’T. This way, you can hope to make better product decisions and learn a valuable trait common to all successful entrepreneurs.

This one ought to be the starting point of any enterprise, but it often gets overlooked. Quite often, entrepreneurs plunge straight into their ideas without thinking of why they’re doing what they’re doing or thinking about the change they wish to bring about in the world.

Let’s face it: In the absence of a clear purpose, no enterprise can move along with much momentum. And when things get tough (which they are going to), there isn’t much to pull your team through. A clear purpose adds real meaning to one’s work something that people can rally around. It gives your brand real weight as it has got a reason for its being. Therefore, it’s worth spending time giving shape to this idea and articulating it. Notice carefully that the following taglines don’t mention any product anywhere:

“Connecting People” – Nokia

“To be the earth’s most customer-centric company” – Amazon

The fact is, as an entrepreneur, you need to awaken an emotion among your early customers so that they feel something special, return for more and tell their friends about it. Consumer research reveals that most buying decisions are based on emotions, rather than on any logic as people don’t buy what you do; rather, they buy why you do it. If your customers believe your mission – i.e. what you believe and where you’re going, they’ll listen to you and how you do it. So, by focusing on the question of ‘why?’ in business, you can forge a deeper connection with your target audience and give your business a better shot at success.

Without any focus, you will harm not only your business but also your relationships with clients and partners, too. But the lack of ability to find focus is very real in many cases. Instead of feeling bad about the lack of focus, you can try turning it into an advantage. Just think of Richard Branson and the diverse products he offers. Now, if someone were to judge Branson negatively for a lack of focus, they could be excused by just looking at Branson and his diversified product portfolio. So, if you have a hard time finding your niche, try to adopt a diversified business model.

  1. Building a product no one wants

Life’s too short to build something nobody wants.

Any business coach’s first piece of wisdom for you is to ask to build something that people really need and are ready to pay for. Mostly, the “right” product is simple, compelling, and aligned with your business model. But often, you see websites/apps that look nice and seemingly offer a good experience, but upon deeper study, you find there’s no obvious value offered to the user. Either the problem being solved isn’t big enough or the proposed solution doesn’t hit the right note to gain significant traction.

Therefore, first of all, try to ensure that you build the right product before you perfect the experience. Besides, before building the product, you may have a discovery phase to explore the market, test your risky assumptions and discover potentially more lucrative opportunities. Most business ideas are based on its founders’ assumptions, which are yet untested. Many business disasters could have been avoided very simply by talking to customers. So, it’s your responsibility as an entrepreneur to find a valuable and desirable product. It makes no business sense to build something unless there is evidence that you have found the right product.

  1. Not enough listening

‘Make things people want, not make people want things’.

Those involved in corporate counselling never fail to highlight this point. You DO need a sales pitch, but you also need to listen. Funding is so important to early-stage startups that they get pro at perfecting their sales pitch pretty soon. It’s great news if you’re looking for funding, but not so good if you’re searching for a product-market fit. Without a proven business model, you run the risk of missing opportunities that could come from just listening to people.

Developing entrepreneurship skills also includes, besides developing the art of speaking, cultivating the art of good listening, too. While exploring a new product idea, we often conduct customer interviews without ever mentioning a solution. This exercise aims at a better understanding of potential customers to see if the problems we’re trying to address are a real pain for them. So, proposing a solution early on can take the conversation away from many missed but potential opportunities. The key is understanding your customers’ problems before selling solutions.

  1. Launching too late (or too early)

Too many startups spend months or years in a ‘stealth mode’, away from the public eye, and  never come to the point of releasing their product. Lack of planning is a formula for failure, but too much of it can also cause a disaster. Too much planning can weigh you down. In fact, a good plan always leads to a decision. Focus on a few key themes instead of addressing all potential problems at once and strengthen the revenue-generating areas before moving to minor issues.

On the other extreme are those businesses, which launch a poor early version in the true lean startup style. But it would be a blunder to release it if it’s not ‘bare minimum awesome’. Ensure a base level of design and usability, else you will not get the results you’re hoping for. Of course, getting the balance right between launching early and creating the perfect product is not easy but perfecting it could pay rich dividends.

Keep in mind that your first release is just the beginning, not the end of the process. Try to learn from customer experience, revise and improve as you go along, but avoid overloading features on it. Instead, try to focus on optimizing your core product before adding more.

  1. Design can make-or-break

Many entrepreneurs often see little value in investing in design. In many cases, it can be a missed opportunity. Especially in the startup world, the culture of solution or technology first has prevailed, whereas they need to take a people-centred approach to developing products and services.

Unless the product you make delivers real value to customers, it’s just a vanity trip, regardless of  the technology. Entrepreneurs need to learn about the competitive advantages coming from well-designed products and services. Just look at what Xiaomi, Nokia, Apple do in terms of designing and you’ll get the idea. It’s worth every penny you spend on it.

  1. Hiring wrong people

Many well-funded startups hire people too soon, before they really know about the sort of person they need. Meeting your future spouse in a nightclub is as unlikely as meeting your long-term business partner at a local gala. Thus, it all boils down to pinning down your organizational DNA. With a strong vision and set of values driving you, you’ll know the sort of person who will be the right fit. No talented person would like to work unless they have a real bond with you and believe in your organizational purpose.

  1. Expecting success too soon

Expecting success right away is setting oneself up for disappointment. Undoubtedly, it’s a great idea to be armed with the confidence and the drive to succeed fast, but don’t expect it to happen  right away. While it takes a long time to grow a business, it takes even longer to make money from it.

Therefore, you need to have realistic expectations and show patience. Why so many businesses fail early on is because entrepreneurs expect to make money too soon. Many a time, businesses have to shut as the entrepreneur can’t pay the rent anymore as they had expected to earn money right away to meet business expenses. That’s why having a cushion to fall back on and being realistic is so crucial for the success of a business.

  1. Getting the wrong investor/partner

Those looking for corporate counselling on setting up a new venture need to bear in mind that find the right investor is as crucial to business as finding the right partner. Simply because someone has the moolah or someone is your friend or a family member doesn’t mean they are necessarily the right partners / investors for you. It’s quite tricky to pick the investor who can be a good fit for your business.

The foremost thing to remember while choosing the right business investor/partner is it is akin to a marriage, which obviously means that there will be misunderstandings and conflicts. However, it’s important to realize that such misunderstandings need to be addressed logically. Therefore, it is essential to set the right expectations on Day 1, so that you know what to do and expect in future.

You can start finding the right partner by understanding the investment options available. Study them before choosing one and don’t be afraid to ask what the investors can provide. It will also give you an idea as to how much involvement the investor will have in the business- just financial or operational or strategic. And finally, make sure that your investment pitch clearly articulates your vision and business plan.

  1. Chasing investors, forgetting customers

Having a great business idea doesn’t mean that you’ll definitely get funding. One of the surest ways to ensure survival is to design a business model that lets the product pay for itself. These days, you can find so many businesses too much focused on building a pitch rather than a business. So forget about funding for a moment and try to find a customer to pay for your product. Getting some more customers and investment becomes a lot easier that way.

Besides, while scouting for investment, focus more on the product vision and the story and less on the (manufactured) numbers. Like a true entrepreneur, worry about the things under your control (a great product and customers delight) rather than things beyond your control (getting VCs, angel investors).

  1. Foster customer loyalty

Let’s admit: There’s a direct correlation between a positive user experience and user loyalty. It has repeatedly been proved that a happy customer tends to spend more money, more often. But more startlingly, a happy customer tells only 4-5 friends on average about their positive experience while an unhappy one tells many his friends more times this figure.

Customers are savvier now and don’t put up with a poor product/ service if there’s a better alternative available. For you, your customers’ experience is the main contact with your brand. So, it’s the key to finding ways to ensure customer delight. In case of a negative emotion, they will likely never come back (or even worse harm your brand with bad reviews).

  1. Trying to do everything yourself

There is enough evidence to show that multitasking can harm your brain and affect your productivity. Multitasking doesn’t make your company grow quickly or enhance your profits. In fact, it can do just the opposite as you may wear yourself down by wearing too many hats at the same time. 

So, good entrepreneurs always delegate – plain and simple. If you are trying to do everything by yourself, you are planning to fail. Therefore, it’s important to know when and how to outsource. Hiring others to take care of some tasks that you cannot handle on your own is a sensible idea.

Different entrepreneurs have different tasks that they want to outsource. Regardless, it is important to understand that you delegate to them certain tasks so that you can make better use of your time and put yourself in the best position possible. Doing everything yourself will only burn you out or draw your focus away from the tasks that need your attention.

Read: How to Increase Productivity At Work?

  1. Hiring/ spending too quickly

While it is not advisable to do everything by yourself, hiring people too soon can also mean disaster for business. A good way to determine a good time for hiring is to look at the growth of your business. Just because you see a sudden growth rush doesn’t imply that you go hire right away. Try to make sure that the increased workload sustains itself for a good enough period before you start hiring.

Business and finance go hand in hand. No sensible businessman, be they  small or big, in their right mind ignores this factor. Having a regular tab on your financial statements will help you know where it really stands. You can evaluate which areas are guzzling up a major chunk of your cash outgo and where you need to cut down your spending.

  1. Ignoring social media

Many conventional-minded industrialists believe that they don’t need the Internet. But the hard fact i : whether you are a small enterprise or a gaint one, you need the Internet. Simply because your customers are there and any business that aspires to be successful needs to be where its customers are and meet them there face-to-face.

Entrepreneurs need to harness the current tech revolution right now. In fact, the Internet and social media are very economical tools to use, and more importantly, they work very fast and are damn effective. Besides, they have the power to spared the good (or the bad) word really fast.

Summing Up

  1. Don’t be afraid to fail/ commit mistakes
  2. Make a business plan
  3. Get yourself organized                    
  4. Understand the market and your target audience
  5. Don’t do everything by yourself            
  6. Find the right partners / investors with due diligence
  7. Don’t hire too soon                                
  8. Be ready to experiment/ revise your product offering
  9. Don’t launch your product too quickly/ late     
  10. Don’t expand your business too quickly
  11. Create a proper marketing plan  
  12. Don’t hire the wrong people
  13. Don’t over-promise or under-deliver    
  14. Harness the power of the Internet/ social media

Are you really tired of living a 9-5 work life and would love to strike out on your own and […]

Why You Need A Life Coach?

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Life coaches are gaining more and more popularity these days. That’s because, what they do actually works!  Their work has changed millions of lives around the world and the fact is everyone needs a life coach. In reality, it could be the best possible decision of your life and you may thank yourself later that you took it!  

Successful people grab opportunities by the horns. Having a life coach is a good example of how those seeking personal and professional enhancement can take charge of their life. In fact, the iconic TV chat show host Oprah Winfrey and the billionaire businessman Bill Gates have publicly vouched for the efficacy of their experiences with life coaching. The truth is everyone needs a life coach because they can reflect back on what you say, open up your mind, identify the blind spots, encourage self-discovery and support you in creating action. Finding a life coach in India these days isn’t difficult as the awareness about their role is rising day by day.

It goes beyond setting goals and reporting progress; it also encompasses major life shifts, transformations, and paradigm changes. By collaborating, you and your life coach will create actions and practices that can transform your life from stagnant to stellar.

How life coaching works ?

Being human, we often try to evade doing what we fear. Ironically, it is these dreaded acts only that lead to the realization of our goals and our dreams becoming a reality.  A life coach is a helpful guide who works with you to help you overcome those barriers, thereby enabling you to succeed and achieve your life goals. Most great athletes work with a coach or mentor who guides them, works with them to strategize.

The coach sees them strive, fail and eventually succeed in their chosen domain. Ditto a good life coach, who can unlock your potential and collaborate with you to evolve a plan to enable you to achieve your goals. Life coaches play multiple roles in our lives. They unlock our dormant potential, allow us to find our best selves and work as a motivator, partner and strategist.

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The way a life coach in India works is similar to elsewhere. The engage you in powerful conversations by asking you the right questions to enable breakthroughs to create a paradigm shift in your life. They aren’t authoritative and therefore, don’t tell you what to do. Instead, they work as motivators and partners in your success and work out a plan with your active and complete involvement and nudge you to work towards the agreed upon goals.

How life coaching works – The Process

Whether ascending the professional ladder or breaking out as an entrepreneur, the truth remains: We all need a little support, self-reflection and continual personal development. However, even in the best scenario, we suffer from blind spots that keep us from seeing the whole picture and our thoughts, habits and behaviors hinder our growth. Ditto for friends and family. While our loved ones may have the best intentions, they often cannot properly analyze and give actionable advice. Enter the life coach, who works with you to enrich your life:

  1. Identifying, prioritizing goals

For many people, the problem is not a lack of ambition but of clarity. Going through the motions every day, we find ourselves caught in the rat race, chasing a vision of success handed down to us, instead of one created intentionally. Therefore, it’s no surprise that so many people keep on doing “the right things,” i.e. attending college, landing a job and marrying, only to realize one day that they are unhappy.

But when you work with a life coach, you connect to yourself fully, letting yourself create the life based on your own standards. That might mean your becoming an entrepreneur, starting a side business or embarking on a passion in your free time. A life coach helps you connect to yourself to identify and prioritize these new goals.

  1. Transitioning to new identity

Life coaches are a wonderful help in times of great transition e.g. career shifts, divorce. A life coach can help you remain grounded in the middle of such huge changes. A reason why change is so difficult is that it challenges the stories we have created for ourselves. Questions like Who am I without this marriage or relationship? can be scary to face alone, but a life coach can help reframe the narrative so as to set you up for an empowering experience.

  1. Support and partnership

Life coaches offer support and comfort by challenging you with care to fix your goals courageously and with conviction and accountability. Coaching is an open partnership between client and coach where authenticity, connection and intimacy are the key to its success for which both partners must pull their weight.

A coach doesn’t serve as a yes man or healer. Rather, a coach reflects back to the client their potential to express inner brilliance in reality. By their regular interactions, the two create an ongoing relationship that the client may lean on for support.

Skeptical? Worry not, read on to find out!

Reasons for seeking a life coach

  1. Clarity in life

If you believe that everyone knows what they want from life, you are mistaken. A great many people have too many opportunities right before but they often take decisions that do not help them move towards their goals. A life coach helps you choose your priorities and inspires you to contemplate about your life so that you can decide on the most important things you should bring about. Gaining clarity can enable you to execute the tasks speedily as focus is the key to achieving life goals. 

 

  1. Peace of Mind

Our life is replete with many bitter experiences and unpleasant events and when we can’t share it with others, frustration, anger and tension begin festering in our mind. Though a supportive family and friends can be helpful, you may not feel comfortable sharing certain feelings with them. That’s when a coach comes in handy and works with you to create a new focus and a positive strategy to get you to your goals.

A life coach is always willing to listen to and understand you. Besides, they never judge you; rather, they encourage you to confide in them so that you share and bare all to help them work through your blocks and achieve your goals.

  1. Maximizing accomplishments

Accomplishing a goal provides a sense of fulfillment and motivates us further to improve our performance. But, many people often experience a void when they are unable to accomplish their goals, which demotivates them from trying further. Life coaches are keen to know about your passions and work with you towards actualizing them.  They push you to celebrate small successes, which are helpful in achieving bigger goals.

  1. Time savings

Time is everything; something you can’t borrow, buy or loan!  In retrospect, people often wish they had some more time but the bitter truth is: nobody gets more time. People tend to think that they can achieve things on their own and in fact, they can. But how quickly do you want to achieve your goal? Doing it all alone, you burden yourself with extra responsibility and things tend to get out of control sometimes and you lose focus.

As a navigator, a life coach assesses your present situation and work with you to help you get the desired results. The coach works like an accountability partner in your efforts and you can see a collective effort geared towards your goals.

  1. Money savings

Acting on misguided financial decisions can land you in a big soup, personally and professionally. Many overambitious people often fail to analyze their financial situation and make unprofitable investments. Such repeated financial failures can make a person irritated, aimless and apprehensive about the next move.

A good life coach knows well that life is a glorious end result of good planning. Life coaches provide you with an action plan with a step-wise approach to follow and align your financial objectives with your life goals. It can greatly enhance your affordability level and prosperity in life.

  1. Follow your dreams

We all are dreamers and this capacity to visualize a better future lets us live our life more fully and motivates us to bear hardships to achieve our goals. But, quite often, these dreams are ambitious, which makes us skeptical about their achievability. Getting validation and encouragement for our dreams is one of the most enriching benefits of having a life coach. A life coaches can separate your professional and personal lives and understand your aspirations from a neutral viewpoint. It can put you on the right path in life so that you go ahead confidently and make the first big move.

  1. Overcome obstacles

The hurdles in our path often limit our progress and often, we become detached from our goals altogether. And in this process, action – only way to overcome obstacles – suffers a lot. A life coach stimulates positive changes and encourages you to be courageous in confronting life. A life coach helps you recognize those hurdles and by acknowledging them, you can develop a different attitude towards these challenges. It lets you focus your energy and on an effective plan of action to move forward.

  1. Different attitude

We all experience joy, sorrow, hardship, challenges and accomplishments. Developing a different approach to these emotions can help us see them with wisdom. You can reap the true benefits of having a life coach by developing the attitude of looking at hardships as challenges. This change in approach can bring about seminal consequences.

Challenges change you and lead to personal growth. Consequently, you begin to love challenges as a means of to gaining greater freedom, wealth and happiness. It keeps you focused and when you combine it with action, you are bound to get amazing results.

  1. Freedom from Anxiety

We often get caught up in stress and anxiety, which are major obstacles in our life journey. They can cause poor self-esteem, lack of confidence and nervousness etc. Having a life coach helps you accept that you need to live your life rather than waste energy on getting stressed and anxious. Good life coaches know that stress is inevitable in life and work with you to find ways to control the stress in your life so that you feel rejuvenated for life.

  1. Support in tough times

While tackling challenges, we always seek the support of others as it makes us feel better. Confronting problems single-handedly for a long time increases the chances of committing more mistakes. Life coaches make you realize that challenges are important for you to learn wisdom.

A life coach probes deeper and evaluates the problematic areas for you and with constant support, helps you get rid of the problems. At times, you may not be looking for a solution; rather, you may want to know whether you are headed in the right direction. A life coach pinpoints your limitations so that you can enjoy peace of mind and gain the strength and confidence to look ahead.

  1. Innovative Ideas

Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come!

Whatever grand achievements mankind has made were once just an idea in someone’s mind. Ideas are the building blocks of inventions, development and careers and can transform the world. A life coach can help you achieve life-transformation by giving you the right questions to discover your key ideas.

A life coach can help you find out the ideas, which match your needs and individual characteristics. Life coaching can foster innovation and creativity and generate good ideas, which can open up multiple opportunities in life.

  1. Balanced life

Many areas of our life like career, family, social circle and health need constant attention. So we have multiple roles and start facing problems when a particular area consumes most of our energies. As a result, we begin seeking balance in life so that we can give equal focus to all the roles.

A life coach understands that the imbalance among these key areas may be causing complications. Therefore, they guide us on how to acknowledge our priority areas like career, finances, health, entertainment and ensure that we evolver a  balance to ensure positivity and satisfaction.

  1. Accountability

A great benefit of having a life coach is that they inspire you to believe in getting the right result by using the right techniques. Our behavioural patterns may hold us back from living our life fully but a life coach provides you with opportunities to discover yourself and make you realize that the only way to make progress is action. Thus, you can easily quit the habit of making excuses for procrastination and become accountable for your own doings. Such personal growth is made much easier with a life coach.

  1. Purpose of Life

We can be distracted easily in the absence of a clear idea about what we want from life. Life coaches always ask you the most significant questions – “What’s the purpose of your life? What is significant to you and why?” The answers to these questions can be life-changing.

Life coaches often get to meet people who are unaware of the direction of their lives due to a lack of purpose. Having a meaningful purpose in life drives us to move on, accomplish tasks, learn from failures and get satisfaction from success.

A life coach can change our behavioral patterns to bring positivity and inspiration in our life to seek more from it. It can motivate people to believe in themselves and live a life of well-being and happiness. We often tend to forget that every person on the earth is a significant part of this universe and, if they contribute positively, the world would be a better place to live in. Life coaches can enable you to see your true self and make you realize the purpose of your life.

  1. Confidence booster

We would love to excel professionally but often, we lack the confidence and the vigour to step up and make a change. Many of us have limiting self-beliefs which restrict our opportunity to explore and follow the examples set by others. That way, we ignore the unique beauty and opportunities of our own life journey.

Life coaches remind us of our uniqueness and emphasize that our aim is to set examples through successes and trials. They encourage us to be self-sufficient so that we follow our own path rather than others’ onions let guide us. With self-reliance, we can approach life confidently and achieve success on our own terms.

  1. Feel Revitalized

Have you observed a child closely, how freely and energetically they approach everything? But over time, adults lose this adventurous streak. Life coaches can bring about a big change in our approach as their probing questions act as a stimulus, which creates excitement to make us feel renewed.

Life coaches are pros at asking meaningful questions, which motivate us to have a different outlook towards life and awaken our creative impulses lying dormant. As a result, you begin to feel as though your life were an adventure again.

Life coaches are gaining more and more popularity these days. That’s because, what they do actually works! Their work has […]

The Importance of Interpersonal Skills

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You’ll need good leadership and organizational skills at every stage of your career, from working on a project with your coworkers to engaging with a client. Good leadership skills are necessary to get the best out of any workplace encounter. Communication, problem-solving, teamwork, mentoring, and other soft skills are also used with interpersonal skills. However, not everyone is born with outstanding interpersonal ability. Any person must gauge and brush up on their skills. Here are several tried-and-true methods for honing this ability.

Interpersonal skills are more than a catchphrase in the workplace. They are what distinguish you as a good communicator, coworker, manager, and mate.
They’ve been around since the dawn of civilization. And, however you like to name them – cognitive skills, emotional intelligence, organizational skills, interpersonal interaction – these are the characteristics and strategies with which you can become a trustworthy and social individual, as well as a successful colleague, team player, and leader. Interpersonal skills, as the name means, are the abilities that help one to communicate with others.

Can Interpersonal Skills Be Taught?

Yes, we will teach them to our children by our actions, thoughts, and values. It is preferable to begin teaching them at a young age. It isn’t very easy to alter one’s attitude after one’s been trained. You all know Hrithik Roshan, the heart-throb of the nation, but do you know that he had stage fear and used to stammer. Surprised? Yes, Hrithik suffered from stammering problems and had to practice his speech for hours to make them come out in a flow. But with his dedication and hard work, he made it possible to overcome the problem. Today, you cannot believe that he was scared to talk to people because of his issues.
Instead of making yourself suffer, the best thing is to work it out, and things can get better.

How Can One Develop Interpersonal Skills?

We must engage in practices that emphasize the value of cooperation, relationships, and unity. To improve interpersonal skills, we must first learn to love, respect, and trust one another, regardless of race, creed, faith, age, education, or history.

  • Practice Active Listening

Be aware of what your coworkers are doing, whether it’s a friendly chat or a work-related educational one. You will improve your interaction with your coworkers by practising active listening. Rahul Gandhi is known to be an aspiring leader of the country but is never taken seriously. People troll him and make jokes about him. Why? Because he lacks the skills that can make him look serious. He takes everything lightly, and thus even his party members do not consider him a good leader.

  • Monitor Feelings

It is common for humans to be emotional from time to time. The office, on the other hand, is not the place to voice your complaints. Reduce the feelings, whether you’re annoyed, sad, frustrated, or upset. This client of mine was going through emotional turmoil. She was depressed in her personal life and could not make a balance between her professional and personal life. She used to cry on small things at her workplace that was affecting her performance and image.
One day her friend brought her to me, and I listened to all her issues. I told her to take counselling, in which I helped her monitor her feelings. Not only did the sessions make her keep things balanced, but they also made her confident. Now, she is happy in her job and is also coming out of her depressed state.

  • Master The Art Of Saying No

At work, disagreements are inevitable. There’s nothing wrong with sharing your frustration with your coworkers, but how you do so has a significant effect on your friendship. Unresolved conflicts negatively influence growth but resolve the dispute quickly and easily to foster stronger mutual interest and a more productive partnership.

I had this friend of mine who used to work in an MNC and was a fresher. She used to work a lot and meet her targets well on time. Still, her team leader used to bombard her with work and pinpoint her single mistakes. Slowly a time came when she had so much workload that it became impossible for her to meet the targets and deadlines. Finally, she was chucked out of a job.

The other day she met me, and I told her that all she needs is the art of learning to say no. If she had said no earlier, then her mates must have understood the scenario. It is the best thing to say no rather than be sweet. I counselled her, and today she has a new job and leads a team of her own.

  • Become A Part Of Educational Programmes

If you lack leadership skills and don’t know where to begin, you can enrol in personalized training classes such as anger management, stress management, professional ethics, and so on. You can take classes and be an active participant to learn new things to boost confidence and come out with the best.
I recall a case in which an employee was offended at a meeting with one of his supervisors.

The employee’s resignation was handed to me, and I was deeply saddened by his decision. I wanted to meet with him to figure out why he took such drastic action. As we spoke, I heard that the employee’s resignation was due to his superior’s actions, which had such a bad effect on him that he was willing to quit his employment. As a business mentor, I encourage learning and assisting people in making good decisions. So I wanted to assist him by referring to him as a mentor or a counsellor. ‘What would you do if your father scolds you the same way your senior did?’ I asked the employee. ‘Are you about to leave the house?’

The response to the query was a resounding ‘NO.’ The employee, on the other hand, could not grasp what I was trying to say. So I came up with the idea of describing some corporate ethics and adjustment tips. I explained to him how we sometimes judge all about ourselves based on what we learn from others. Agency politics does not exist; it resides only in the imagination of an employee. Building relationships between juniors and seniors is an important aspect of working in an office.

‘A wall is made up of bricks, just like an office is made up of bricks, and having a place in the office wall, being the strong brick, depends on an employee,’ I said.
Leaving the case is never a viable option; combating it is. Many people go through this process of resigning their jobs every day for a number of reasons. Workplace tension, rigid supervisor problems, work disputes, time management, and other factors may all play a role. I still use the expression,
It is preferable to be chastised by intelligent people than to be congratulated by fools. You should help your juniors learn from you at work, and you should also be open to learning from your seniors.

The employee realized that he had made a mistake by responding too quickly. It is in this sense that workplace therapy will be helpful.
Workplace therapy is a short-term nature management service that supports all of an organization’s divisions equally. This is where interpersonal skills can help you.

  • Maintain A Healthy Body Language

Body language is crucial for good communication. Nonverbal communication is powerful. When engaging with others, practice posing in a friendly manner and smiling. I met this lady at a kitty party. We were all sitting there and chatting, but this one used to smirk a little and did not talk much. Being in her 20’s, she was beautiful, but the lack of confidence in speaking with others made her sit alone. I went to her and had a word, and there she was in my office the next day.

I began helping her in her skills which grew her confidence, and now she is a successful and well-known face in the media. This makes me feel happy that just by talking to others and understanding their problems, you can work wonders in their lives.

  • Show Sincere Interest In Your Employees

You spend eight hours a day with them, so it makes sense to care about them outside of work. Knowing a little about their personal lives will strengthen your bond with them.

  • Communication Skills

While organizational skills are critical, communication skills significantly affect your employment and work satisfaction. There are a few things you can do to boost your ability in this area. For example, Barack Obama is known to be the most humble President of the United Nations. He made a mark in his citizens’ hearts because of the skills with which he used to interact with them. He never showed that he is the President but was very sober with everyone. On the other hand, Trump is said to be the leader who was not loved at all. Why? It is not that he was bad but because he portrayed himself in front of everyone. He was reserved and self-centred.

Must Read:: How A Life Coach Can Help You With Effective Communication Skills For Growth?

How Can Life Coaching Help You Develop Interpersonal Skills?

With validated coaching tips, you can start making great first impressions right away. You won’t have to try to set up a conversation. There are simple steps you should take to begin interacting with more people right away. Coaching will help you grow the gift of gab. Soft skills or social skills are other terms for people skills. Whatever you want to call them, they’re important for getting something out of existence.

Coaching can motivate you to develop your leadership skills so that you can:

  • Overcome negative self-perceptions.
  • Benefit from stronger bonds.
  • Make progress with your career.
  • Increase your sales.
  • More people to meet
  • Get much more fun.

Conclusion
At a personal level, being able to connect efficiently would help you as an individual. Imagine having a chat with someone but not having the curiosity, patience, or expertise to pay attention to what they’re doing. This really does happen.
Listening is a capability that cannot be underestimated. {Read here>> Importance of Listening Skill in Personality Development} Accepting feedback, ideas, and recommendations is critical to one’s personal growth and progress. Other people also have insightful things to discuss, and being able to hear from them can be very beneficial to you. To advise my staff and create a supportive climate, I use a number of strategies and methodologies.
Interpersonal skills can help you develop your personality. You can get to indulge in activities and be the star performer at your workplace. If you are facing issues in your workplace or want to spill your heart out with some serious issues, then I, Life Coach Ritu Singal, can be your path shower.

You’ll need good leadership and organizational skills at every stage of your career, from working on a project with your […]

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