The 5 Percent Tasks Only Leaders Can Do

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Enhancing leadership development through the power of visualization

We have been into leadership skills development since quite some time now. And have been very successful in conducting such corporate training programs for the leaders of various organisations. One major reason for our success, is the fact that we are a corporate training company that enjoys teaching leaders new and different kinds of methodologies. And that’s what sets our corporate training programs apart.

For every organisation, leadership skills development is very serious work, right? But aren’t our leaders also humans just like us! Don’t they also follow the adult learning pedagogy?

I know, I know. You’re probably wondering what adult learning pedagogy is. Well, just take it as learning by experience. And that’s something we all enjoy, isn’t it? We would rather learn by going through an experience and then reflecting on it, than being taught some complex theories that we can hardly associate with!

And that’s exactly what we follow in our leadership skills development programs too. Apart from teaching the leaders some of the typical leadership skills development theories, we also provide them with some interesting tools and techniques. These take them through experiences and add to their development in various ways.

One such tool is visualisation. It’s a very powerful tool that has benefitted many leaders.

Majorly, this tool is used for attracting what we want in life. So, if a leader spends time everyday visualising being successful, he increases his probability of achieving success. You see, visualisation works on the very popular ‘law of attraction.’ So, what you ask for, you get.

For increasing this probability further, we ask our leaders to also create action plans. So, once they have visualised what they want, they need to chart out a plan of action as to how they are going to reach there too. And this is followed up with checking their progress and clearing hurdles that may come in the way. Clearing hurdles is again a task that visualisation can help with. So, the process is a combination of visualisation and action, which takes the leaders to success.

Visualisation also helps in processing past stored emotions. When we visualise a particular incident of the past that still has some unwanted emotional charge on it, we actually start processing it by feeling it. This helps us letting go of the emotion and we can move forward, feeling happy and light. Thus, visualisation is a great tool that can help leader’s clear biases and improve their interpersonal relationships. It can also help them feel more positive when they are feeling down the dumps!

If you want to experience the power of visualisation and learn how to use this powerful tool, we recommend attending our corporate training programs. And we promise to teach you this valuable tool even if you are yet to become a leader

INTERDEPENDENCY OF TEAM BUILDING & LEADERSHIP SKILLS

We, at The Yellow Spot have delivered a large number of team building trainings and events in the past 11 years. It’s our favourite offering and we are so good at it now, that we can conduct a team building training without any preparation at all!

Surprised? I was just kidding. Well, not the part where I said it is our favourite offering and we are good at it. I was kidding when I said we can do it without any preparation. In fact, we don’t do any corporate training programme without proper planning and preparation well in advance. But yes, we thoroughly enjoy doing team building trainings. Why? Let me tell you.

We love it because team building training is one such training programme where we can touch base upon many skills at a time. Team building activities can bring out multiple learnings like;

1. Collaborating with our internal and external stakeholders
2. Communicating effectively within the team
3. Identifying team members’ skills and making use of them
4. Managing resources and time effectively
5. Planning and prioritisation of tasks
6. Being open to each other’s suggestions and feedback
7. Keeping the end goal in mind at all points of time
8. Increasing team bonding and trust
9. Building a positive culture, etc.

One of most important learning from team building training is the importance of having a leader and leadership skills.

I am sure some of you will say a leader needs to have separate leadership skills trainings where they learn leadership concepts. But trust me, team building trainings are great occasions to bring out the importance of leadership skills and what they entail. And why is that? Because a leader is nothing without his or her team. And there is no better ground to learn than with your team. After all, a leader is only a leader when he has followers! And so, learning about leadership is best done in the presence of one’s followers.

Always remember, a team will be well bonded if they have a good leader who binds them well and provides direction. Similarly, a leader can only be successful if he has a team who believes in him and draws inspiration from him. Now that’s called true interdependency!

How to increase your influence as a leader

Being able to influence people is very important for a leader. In fact, people will only follow a leader if he or she is able to influence them! Afterall, it’s about how impactful you are as a leader. And to be able to create that influence, a leader needs to have that capability. And if he doesn’t have its, it’s one that he can develop through a leadership training program.

Being a leader is all about having people look up to you and follow you. And this can only happen if you are able to influence your people.

So how do you create that influence as a leader?

Well, a leadership training program covers a lot of things that help in creating an influence as a leader. Let me help you with a few:

·         Giving responsibility – This is the most important thing that you need to do as a leader. Delegate tasks and give the authority to your people to complete them.  By doing this you give them an opportunity to do tasks and take the accountability for it. This will also make them feel that you believe in them. It’s definitely worth attending a good leadership training program to understand how to delegate well.

·         Supporting them – This will make your people feel that you are always there for them. Provide them with any kind of support they need to perform better in their roles and deliver better results.

·         Develop them – Take the initiative of their development. That is your responsibility as a leader. Coach them as and when required. By developing your people and upgrading their soft skills, they will do a better job and will also feel that you care about their development and growth.

·         Motivate them – Encourage your people at all points of time to achieve more than they think they can. Uplift them when they are down.

·         Lead by example – As they say, ‘practice what you preach’. If there is something that you expect your followers to do, ensure that you yourself practice that first. https://theyellowspot.com

5 Things to learn from the world’s top leaders

Recently, we witnessed one of the greatest events in our country; the landing of Chandrayaan 2 on the moon. I know it didn’t go as well as we all would have wished for, but the entire event was no less than a leadership training program for me!

It was a spectacular event. One of those rare occasions where the entire country was awake post mid night, cheering on for science and showing their support to their nation. We may not have been entirely successful that day, but there was definitely plenty to learn from. And a lot that we would love to reflect on in a leadership training program.

That night, we witnessed two great leaders – our Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi and the ISRO Chief Dr. K. Sivan.

It was amazing to see how the prime minister of the nation managed to be there for our team of scientists throughout the process, really not caring about what time it was! In fact, that particular night and the next day morning he attended multiple events and meetings back to back at different locations of the country. But he still made it a point to go back to ISRO to meet the scientists again in the morning. And the best part about it was that he did all of this travelling, contributing to each event and being there for his countrymen with the same enthusiasm.

There were three big things here that we can learn from a leader like him. One, be there for your team fully and look forward to their work and achievements. Two, support and motivate your team when they fail and show them the positive side of those failures. And three, be enthusiastic about each and every task that you do irrespective of its importance. And always remember, enthusiasm is infectious and can spread extremely fast!  And that I can vouch for when we conduct team building activities as a part of our leadership training workshop!

Coming to our second leader; Dr. K. Sivan. Two qualities that I absolutely admired about Dr. Sivan were his humbleness and ability to express his true emotions in front of the entire nation. Although Dr. Sivan was the leader of the nation’s space research organisation and was highly educated, he was so humble. And he was not afraid of showing his emotions when he broke down while talking to the Prime Minister. Now that, I would say that is true emotional intelligence, an important aspect of every leadership training skills!

It takes courage to do that. To cry when you fail especially when you are in a position like him. And that too with the whole world looking at you! He could have been afraid of being judged as weak and incompetent. But he didn’t let that stop him. Instead he did what felt right in that moment.

There is a common myth that a leader can never be weak. He can never show his vulnerable side to his people. But I think it’s quite the contrary. True strength comes from being who you truly are and not being afraid to show it to the world, even if they tag it as weakness! And that is what is truly inspirational in a leader, his human-ness.  

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP

Can leadership be taught through a leadership skills training? Isn’t it a quality that comes from within?

Well, that’s absolutely true. It is a quality that comes naturally to some people and one that many seem to be just born with! But it is also a skill that can be developed over time.  For example, consider the case of people who have newly become leaders in an organisation. Most of them have risen to this level because they were technically very sound and do not have any prior experience in this field nor the natural flare. Yet they flourish. How? By learning the skill. And that’s exactly what leadership skills training is for.

Talking about what effective leadership is, I remember the movie 300. It’s one of my favourite movies. Here I want to make a reference to the prequel, that’s the second part of the movie. The one where king Leonidas is defending the hot gates with his army of 300. That movie really shows what an effective leadership is!

The tips that I’m going to share with you today for effective leadership are with reference to the same movie. They are very powerful and will be able to help you too. So here goes…

1. An effective leader makes his team feel secure when he or she is with them. And that’s when the team completely trusts the leader and looks up to him or her. It’s just like in the movie how the army felt secure with their king. And they trusted him to the extent that they were ready to die for him.
2. Knowing the team and their soft skill set. As a leader you must know the strengths and the improvement areas of your team members. It is only then can you delegate tasks appropriately and trust the team to complete them. Which I must say is a very important aspect of leadership skills training. Leonidas knew the best of 300 that were perfect for defending the hot gates. He also knew who should go back to Sparta during the crucial time.
3. Clarity of goal. An effective leader is always clear of the team goal. It is his vision that makes the team achieve higher goals. For the team to work towards and achieve that goal, the leader’s vision has to be clear. Just like Leonidas was extremely clear of the goal to destroy Xerxes and his forces and defend the hot gates from his forces.
4. Courage and motivation are extremely important. The leader and his team will face many challenges while achieving their goals. However, setbacks should not bring the team’s morale down. And this is the leader’s responsibility. The leader should have the courage to face the challenges and motivate the team to face them too. That one line that kept the Spartans going was, their king saying “Spartans never retreat. Spartans never surrender”. That was all the 300 needed to stand behind their king and ride to glory.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. Movies are larger than life and may be a little beyond reality. I agree. But the motivation and learning we get from them are truly inspirational. And if you look at them closely, you’ll realise that they give some of the tips that are spoken of in a leadership skills training. So, we should make it a point to learn whatever we can from them and try to implement the learning in our day to day lives. That’s what keeps our lives interesting. Isn’t it?

CORPORATE TRAINING IS A NECESSITY FOR TRANSFORMING PEOPLE

Corporate training companies are preferred by big and small organisations over their internal developmental team. Why? Because, a corporate training company has solid experience and holds a neutral perspective towards the organisation and its employees.

Organisations today have understood the importance of training and development for their employees. They very well know, that for the organisation to grow and move to the next level, it is important that the capability of their people keeps increasing with time. For that, they need to be developed and their capabilities need to be enhanced on regular basis.

For a company to come up with new solutions and upgrade themselves to sustain in this rapidly growing and changing environment, new ideas are a requisite. And for new ideas to be generated, people need to be creative. Trainings help people learn new ways and methods to do things differently and more effectively. And learning even the smallest of things like an excel shortcut, can improves a personal effectiveness which will benefit the person himself and eventually the organisation.

Continuous development is therefore a must. And for that corporate training, a necessity.

Corporate training has proven to be a great way for developing and transforming people for better productivity and personal growth. Exactly, what corporate training companies work on. They help organisations in developing and transforming their people which eventually helps them in transforming the organisation for a better future.

And do you know why corporate training companies are so good at creating the desired change? Because they help you in finding out the exact challenge/s your people are facing and provide you with solutions for the same. And the best part of it is, that it is client specific.  Solutions are tailor made for each organisation to address their specific issues and remove the problem from the root!

Thus corporate training companies help big time in addressing various ground level issues that your people may be facing and are having a difficult time solving.

Importance of coaching skills training

Coaching skills training

Coaching skills training is very important for every Manager. And I got proof of that once again while conducting a Managerial Skills session.

The role of a Manager encompasses looking after his team along with getting the work done. Unfortunately, many Managers tend to focus on the latter while completely forgetting the former. They are so busy with deadlines and piles of projects that they forget that in order to get the best out of their team, they need to spend time developing them. They also need to understand that delegation is not just about dumping work on your team members. Its about supporting the team complete the tasks so that they learn through them and are able to go to the next level. And this is exactly where coaching skills training comes into the picture.

So why does a Manager need to have good coaching skills? Simply to support their team members. And why coaching skills specifically and why not training skills? Because some team members need support when it comes to their attitude and its coaching that will be able to fix that.

We all know how difficult it is to change our behaviour. So, you can well imagine how tough it would be to alter our attitude! And the depth of the intervention and attention required for the same can only be met through a suitable coaching intervention.

Coaching Skills training is therefore extremely important for every Manager.  He must have the right skills to be able to coach his team members. And what may be the right coaching skills you may ask? Well he needs to be able to listen well without interrupting, ask suitable questions and be comfortable being silent wherever required. He should be able to provide a safe space for the team member to open up and share his thoughts and emotions on the issue at hand.

The Manager also needs to be a facilitator and allow the team member to find his own solution rather than providing him with ready-made solutions. This not only increases their buy-in towards finding a solution, but also the commitment with which they take appropriate steps towards the solution. This in turn helps the team member think on his own feet, thereby making him independent and self-sufficient for the future.

Being able to coach his team himself also increases ownership and accountability of the Manager. Team Bonding improves with team members and the Manager works towards creating a strong cohesive team. It also increases the respect that team members have towards their Manager. It makes them more open and able to share not only professional issues but also their personal issues.  And you know who is the happiest person of all? The human resources manager. He can now focus on his work as all the Managers are capable of handling their own teams and do not need the HR to intervene every now and then.

In short, it’s a win-win for everyone. The Manager, his team, other teams that interact with this team, vendors, customers and the organisation on the whole. And how did we do this? By simply giving coaching skills training to our Managers. A magic wand that can really create wonders!

Hmm… So, have you taken your coaching skills training?

Top 3 Benefits of leadership skills training

I was conducting a leadership skill training last week for a client. It was for a bunch of young leaders who were comparatively new to the role. And therefore, we had to go to the basics. After all, there’s really no sense in going to something very advanced when the basics are where you really need to work on!

I must say, the participants were also very open to learning. They were open to learning more on how they could practically ‘practice’ the basics rather than jumping towards ‘knowing’ the more complex. And so I thought I’d share with you some of the benefits they got from this leadership skills training. It may be of help to you too and give you insights into what you can do to be a better leader.

1. Self-Awareness: Most of us our so lost in our thoughts that we are unaware of all that is happening within us. Therefore, having a finger on our thoughts, emotions, feelings and reactions is of utmost important. Not only does it help us in staying in the present moment, it also helps us in becoming emotionally more intelligent. We can manage our emotions as well as the reactions that we tend to succumb to so often! And although most leadership skills trainings do not focus on this aspect, if you ask me, its absolutely essential.

2. Interpersonal Communication: A leader needs to be a good communicator; whether it be with his subordinates, peers or even with the top management. He must be able to say what he wants clearly and receive appropriate responses from those he communicates with. However, many leaders fall back on communication, especially due to their personality styles. Learning how to overcome such barriers for smoothening communication is therefore essential. It adds great value to the leader as well as the leadership skills training, he is attending!

3. Managing Tasks: Most of the times, leaders get overwhelmed by the number of tasks they need to complete. It’s difficult as they have to manage not only their own tasks but those of the teams they look after too. Therefore, delegation is a skill that forms an integral part of a leadership skills training. Leaders need to understand the best way to delegate to their subordinates, taking individual skill sets and their commitment into consideration. This can make completion of tasks a lot easier for them and their subordinates and also help them get more done in their day.

These were just some of skills that we sharpened during this leadership skills training. I would love to hear your experiences on the same. Do let us know what valuable skills you picked up from a leadership skills session you may have attended…

Daily Dose of Leadership Training

Leadership Training or for that matter leadership, is a very broad term and is applicable to everyone, whether it is the watchman of the office, the CEO of a big company, a father or a husband at home. However it is often misunderstood as a term that most people link to leadership positions they hold in the society or in organizations.

So let's understand leadership a little more in depth to be able to know what it actually means.

I would like to share a real life scenario where i experienced leadership capabilities in a fried fish seller recently.

There is a fried fish seller who operates from the road near our office and I eat fried fish every other day from him. His fried fish are fresh and very tasty.

 This particular time that i visited him, he had just come back from a long holiday of over 3 months and I was wondering where he had been. When i asked him, he said that he had taken a break as the fish market is closed for 3 months of the monsoon season. I asked what he was doing for those 3 months and he said he drove an auto riksha for around 8 hours a day during these months.

 The next question I asked him was how he managed his house expenses with this business of fish selling being a part time business, to which he answered that it was difficult and he was just about able to manage. He also said that he was quite happy as he did not want to slog and do additional work like other people in his locality.

The Happy Fisherman

 I wondered what could be the reason behind him not being interested in working harder and making more money for his family and finally landed up asking him. 

His answer was that he had 3 sons and spent a large part of the day in teaching them and ensuring that they get the best of education, love and nurturing. He said that as a part of his efforts his 2 sons were doing very well at school and he wanted them to grow and not be a fish seller like him. If he would have not spent time with his children then they would also have no future like him and would end up on the road. His wife was also at home and ensured she was available for the children and the husband all the time. The family was thus fully focused together in their goal of bringing up their children and giving them the best environment.

 I felt it was great to see the foresight of a father who was illiterate and had no formal education and I felt truly inspired. 

Now this was an example of pure leadership for me, where the father of the house had a larger vision for his family and children. He understood how not to get sucked into the daily routine of life and to keep his vision strong and worked on it day by day. He was also self aware and felt that earning loads of money was not as important as his children’s future.

If you look deeper into this story you can learn some valuable lessons like

• Managing self & time,
• Self sacrifice for others,
• Simplicity of life
• Decision making,
• Long term growth,
• Alignment of vision with actions,
• Team work.

Such examples are all around us at all points of time and there is a lot to learn from them and then experiment and imbibe into our routine life.  In fact it's easier to learn from the little things in life rather than trying to digest big theories!

We, at The Yellow Spot, feel that it all begins with starting to know the Self and learning how to manage the self. Managing the self requires insights into ones thoughts and feelings which leads to greater awareness  and what you get aware of can be more easily changed and most of the time even changes automatically!

It is said by the great mystics that "all change is only possible outside when you get in touch with your inside" and how true it is.

At The Yellow Spot, our leadership training programs focus on helping you to start observing yourself and the way you behave. We firmly believe that no leadership program can be successful unless it is able to bring change inside the individual and hence all our leadership skills training emphasize on the same.

Self Awareness is however also a process. It is not something that happens overnight and requires lots of patience and continuity. We deploy tools like the Gestalt Therapy, NLP, Transactional Analysis, Vipassana and Mindfulness as well as Human Process Labs to catalyse the process.

Our focus is on the whole individual rather than over one aspect of him. Once self awareness is developed, all other skills get easily imbibed. In fact we have to actually make individuals unlearn a lot to be able to start learning and practicing once again!

If you would like to be a part of our Leadership Training workshops, you can get in touch with us and visit our website page at http://www.theyellowspot.com/ for more details about our Leadership Training and other Soft Skills and Behavioural Training.

What Leadership Skills Training You Must Have As You Scale Your Company?

A lot has been written and read on how entrepreneurs should lead their startups, but very little material is present on how the entrepreneurs need to lead their startups as it scales up in order to accommodate growth. The founders indeed require some sort of leadership skills training when the company moves from the beginner level to the growth level. The leadership tactics must scale up as the startup scales up. During the early stages of the company, the leaders need to give a different set of directions to their staff so that the operation continues at a warp speed. But as it continues to grow, a more evolving structure is required that requires the leader to use a different sort of tactics.

 

Here's the set of skills a leader must incorporate to lead the company in the right manner:

·      Turn Managers Into Leaders

When a company moves towards growth, it witnesses a transition where each of the individual contributor is set to essay a different role, from managers to that of a leader. In a blink of eye, the role of a manger becomes more challenging and innovating as he is all set to wear the hat that of a leader. There must be a clarity in the transition that will come when the necessary training has been taken. The managers must know their personal as well a team responsibilities. To turn your managers intoeffective leaders all sorts of support and resources must be given.

·      Vigilant Must Be In Traits

A lot of leaders commit this mistake of remaining vigilant only in the initial stages of the business and as the business climbs the ladder, the vigilant attitude just vanishes. A number of leadership programs, gave the direction to the entrepreneurs to identify the unmet needs of the target audience and address them in real time. For identifying and satisfying the unmet needs, a vigilant attitude is the basic necessity.

·      The Leader's Presence

The entrepreneurs as leaders tend to be physically present every time when the organisation is young. But as the company scales, the presence of the leader physically as well as mentally tends to decrease in the company. According to a research conducted by a leadership training company in Mumbai, a manager tends to waste as much as 80 % of the time on things which have no correlation with the long term value of the company. Thus, this transition from presence to absence may impact the company in a negative manner. In case the entrepreneurs can not visit the company on a regular basis, they must make sure that communication effectiveness is maintained in the organisation.

·      Administrative Duties

When the company expands, the administrative duties tend to become wider. As the company expands further, there comes a point when the company needs to make the decision of handling the administration in its own hands or outsourcing the same to some assistant organisation. If you don't decide on these lines, the interest of the employees will be at stake and that would affect the productivity of the employees in an adverse manner.

Leadership Training to Develop Your Instinct

Are you opting to be a good team leader? Do you want to gain leadership training from the top training companies India? Then you have made the right choice because attaining leadership skills training will enhance your personality and improve your team managing skills. There are certain institutes for leadership skills training Mumbai that offer you to join them and provide you complete training with their advanced courses. The trainings are conducted by the best professionals from around the country who are experts in this field. The trainers will educate you with all the team building methods and practices which are required to run an industry.

 

Ideas for Team Building

The training will guide you through the important factors of team building like communication practices, planning and managing resources, dividing work based on the team member’s abilities, and lots more. A number of debate programs are organized in order to judge your communication skills and body language, which are even a part of the program. Team building practices are practically taught in the training which let you deeply understand the factors.

 

Technically Skilled

Technical programs like computer training, project management training and risk management training are delivered to candidates. With the development of the industrial sector, technology has become a compulsory qualification for every candidate. So getting into the leadership training will require you to learn this too. The progress of work, project analytics and reports will be stored in an online database, and so you need to learn the basic technology skills in order to implement these.

 

So if you are in Mumbai and aiming forward to make a career as a leader then go ahead for the training given on leadership skills. A majority of companies are offering this training to bring perfection in their employees. To build a great team and manage it with responsibility leadership skills training is a must requirement for every candidate.

Why Organizations Should Invest In Top Training Companies In Mumbai For Soft Skill Training Of Employees

While technical skills play an extremely important role in ensuring the success of a professional, the need to develop soft skills is also increasingly vital and absolutely necessary to grow further. With the changing times, the attitude and expectations of internal and external customers have undergone considerable changes, they expect exceptional services which excel beyond 100%. That is why most business organizations stress on enhancing the soft skills of their employees to ensure better work culture for sustained growth and profitability. To fulfill the above needs and enhance the capabilities of their employees these organizations would want to hire the services of  top training companies in Mumbai and across the country.

 

What Are Soft Skills

Soft skills are the traits of individuals that determine their behavior and attitude towards themselves and others in their personal and professional lives. Having the right values, interpersonal skills, ethics, emotional intelligence and positive attitude can go a long way in making an individual capable of solving problems, motivating himself and others around him as well as playing a vital role in achieving ones and teams goals.

 

Significance Of Soft Skills

In the recent years, organizations have realized the fact that right mix of technical and soft skills in every employee is essential not only for building a positive work environment but also to ensure sustained growth and profitability of the business as a whole. In fact it would not be wrong to say that soft skills help businesses to exploit the full potential of employees with specific technical skills. The importance of soft skills in the modern day work environment can be understood with the help of the following example.

 

For professionals aspiring to take on managerial responsibilities, leadership skills training plays an important role in enhancing traits such as listening to what their peers and juniors have to say, presenting ideas, resolving conflicts and even helping to develop strong professional relationship between team members.

 

The development of soft skills within the entire workforce can pave the way for great professional success of individual employees besides ensuring their personal growth and enhancing their social skills and interpersonal behavior.