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Creating agile, purpose-driven thinking

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Celebrate the good of 2021 and learn from the rest

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Every year is a challenge, good times and bad, and we have a choice.  Choose to celebrate the good and learn from the bad. 

When we learn from an experience, we create meaning.  The experience doesn’t decide if it were good or bad.  We make that decision.  Every moment in our lives we get to choose what happens next.  2022 is here and I choose to celebrate the good times and learn from the rest.

Celebrate good times, learn from the rest.

Our choices give us options…

If you’ve ever heard the expression; “You can only play the cards you are dealt”, you know that a card game is about chance.  Each time you get a new card or place one on the table, you have new choices.

Life somehow works the same way.  We start with who we are, attractive, eloquent, or homely and misunderstood.  Choose what you do with the traits/cards you’ve been dealt. Often we allow ourselves to be defined by them and let others choose how we see ourselves.

If we consider what others believe to be beautiful, valuable, or worthy, people like Barbara Streisand, Thandie Newton, Meryl Streep or even Alek Wek would not be seen as who they are today.

Don’t let others play your cards, this is your life, your experiences and you decide where you want to go. 

We are poised to step into 2022

Celebrate the good times, learn from the bad and don’t be afraid to pick a card, any card…

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

Share your heart this Festive Season.

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The festive season is a time that we get to spend with our families and friends.  It is special as it reminds us of who we are, the families we grew up in and the people we chose to be our friends. 

Many times, we lose sight of the true value of this time of year.  We spend time Christmas shopping, reminiscing of times spent together and worrying about which unruly family member will behave in character and draw every ounce of patience from your tired soul.

Turn towards the light

Instead of finding the well-known and dreaded flaws…

Let us turn our backs on our feelings regarding people’s intolerant behaviour and we embrace that light within ourselves that warms people to us.  People are not that one thing that annoys us, they are more than what we see.

This year, find what beauty is hidden in the people around you.  They don’t often show their kindness behind their gruff exterior or their bullish behaviour. 

People are sometimes stuck in old patterns or habits that protect them from harm.   The philosophy of the enneagram1 teaches us that we are more than these behaviours and we often use outdated or ineffective ways to interact. 

Look for the meaning behind the behaviour and you will find the beauty of the real person hiding behind their coping mechanism.

Everyone has value

We have lost so many along the way, let us take this time to share our hearts with one another.  It is what makes us beautiful.

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

Discover today what could take you into the future.

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A year passed and I feel as if I were sitting next to a stream.  2021, anticipated with optimism, fled into a blur of thoughts, events, work and study.  It is hard to pinpoint what we’ve gained over this time, but each of us has lived this year with courage and strength. 

Its time to look forward, using the experience we gained from the past.

Reflect and discover what we can take forward into 2022, an anchor of sorts, that we can cast into the unknown.

How could we prospect for this discovery?

Here are 7-steps to discover the value from experiences you’ve had over the year:

  1. Find a memory or experience you had during 2021, good or bad.
  2. Use a pen and paper to describe it to yourself in as much detail as you can recall.
  3. Explore what you felt and what you were thinking at the time.
  4. Consider what you felt was good or bad about the experience.
  5. Find any sense you can make of the situation, write any thoughts that come to mind.
  6. Think of how else you could have experienced the situation, what else you could do or think about it.
  7. Decide on what you could do if the same experience happens in future.

Everyone’s experience is unique to them.

No one can live your life, and the value of your experience is that you become more of YOU, every year.  What did 2021 teach you, and how could it equip you for 2022?  Only you can know.

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

Leaders in the workplace need soft skills more than ever

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Here are 10 soft skills that leaders will need to influence their teams

Leaders need to cultivate soft skills to produce results

Leaders need support in the workplace

People have changed. The pandemic has raised many concerns for humanity and driven the adoption of digital transformation so fast that companies are playing catch-up.

So many new aspects of work have surfaced. Remote working causes feelings of isolation and burn-out as people no longer have a separate place to work and live.

In some ways, we have gained productivity as there is no need to travel between work and home, but some people are lacking the discipline to “switch-off” and balance their work and home lives effectively. What people need is a person to coach them through their response to the pandemic, the changes everyone is experiencing with many people finding it hard to cope.

Leaders could coach their people to achieve balance.

Coaching is such a valuable skill as it helps people to acquire new skills and practice them effectively. As a leader here are some behaviours and skills that people find important to cultivate.

1.Transparency

2.Listening Skills

3.Appreciation of and encouraging Teamwork

4.Trustworthiness

5.Consistency and Reliability

6.Willingness to Change

7.Rewarding and Recognizing Employees

8.Empathy and Sensitivity

9.Making Decisions (and Accepting Responsibility)

10.Conflict Resolution (Rather than Conflict Avoidance)

The next step is to practice these behaviours

The workplace is challenging and every leader wants to be seen as supportive, decisive and fair. By focussing on the listed attributes a leader will be able to engage his people and gain their support. This is easier said than done and therefore, I make my services available to businesses and corporates as an external coach.

Being an external coach helps me to be objective, clear-headed and effective. In order to solve a problem, it is better to see it clearly without preconceived ideas and coaching is one of the best tools to identify problems…wherever they may hide.

Contact me for more information

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

“Diversity Is A Business Asset, Coach Your Teams To Bring Out The Best In Them”

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Coaching helps professionals, managers, and business owners to connect with their people and their customers.

South Africa is one of the most culturally diverse countries in the world. We are the rainbow nation and herein lies the challenge for leaders to have a strong ability to connect with all the people in their teams.

South Africa’s value lies in our people

If you’ve ever heard the phrase, “The whole is greater than the sum of the parts” you may not have linked to the diversity of a team, but there is a business case for diversity being an asset.

The Business Case

The ‘business case’, which argues that ‘increasing diversity would enable organizations to utilize the talents and abilities of all employees, which may be critical for success in an increasingly complex and dynamic business
environment’ 1(Qin et al., 2014: 138)

How do we leverage diversity in teams?

I found myself asking this same question and found many pieces of research suggesting that team coaching helps, but more interestingly diversity also reaches the coach as a person. “To operate within an organizational context, coach practitioners need to develop an awareness of their own responses to diversity. It is vital that coach practitioners understand their own prejudices, biases, limiting thinking and life conditioning.” 2

Coaching with the Enneagram

When I started my coaching business, I decided to use a scientifically-backed tool to assist me with getting to know my clients and their context. I use the Enneagram to help people identify their self-limiting beliefs and find their true perspectives.

All my clients have found the enneagram valuable and it has helped each client to progress. I’ve found personal value in the Enneagram and use the insights in my life daily.

I’ve qualified to do team coaching with the Enneagram

The Enneagram links into diversity as it helps each person be their best, but also find the best in their team-mates. It helps people to grow as a team and I am glad I’ve invested the time to be qualified in a tool that will have great value to my clients and their businesses.

Contact me if you would like to know more about the Enneagram and diversity coaching for teams

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

Further Reading

  1. Qin, J., Muenjohn, N. and Chhetri, P. (2014). A review of diversity conceptualizations: Variety, trends, and a framework. Human Resource Development Review, 13(2): 133–157.
  2. The Sage Handbook of Coaching (pp.238-255) Edition: One Chapter: 13 Publisher: Sage Editors: Tatiana Bachkirova, Gordon Spence, David Drake

Use the appreciative inquiry method of coaching to…

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Appreciative inquiry as a coaching method has a different focus. Did you know there are different types of focus when coaching?

Where is your focus?
Your focus is where your attention is, and we are better if we pay attention.

1) Focus on what needs to be fixed, changed or improved.

Many traditional coaching methods look at where you can improve, what you can change to get more of what you want. The challenge with these forms of coaching is that your focus is on understanding the problem, where it exists, why you see it as a problem… You focus on the problem. This limits your vision and scope of possibilities.

2) Focus on what is working, why its working and how you can get more of that.

Appreciative inquiry is a coaching method that looks at things that you are doing well. Where you feel you are successful and then asking the questions around; Why its working? What are you doing to make it happen?

By changing your focus, it becomes easier to work towards a positive change, because your Imagination & Will motivates you to manifest what you want.

It is not that appreciate inquiry ignores problems or difficulties in life; rather it shifts attention to what is the desired future. For that future to be created, problems are resolved or become inconsequential.

Kogan Page © 2021 Excellence in Coaching1

How it works

Simple and effective

The appreciative inquiry coaching model has 4 phases:

  • Discovery; looks at what your strengths are and how you use them.
  • Dream; considers what you want and helps you to envision what you want.
  • Design: helps you to place your attention on what you want and define the steps you need to take.
  • Destiny: helps you to motivate yourself, by experiencing and fulfilling your “future dream” in the present.

Contact me if you would like to know more

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

Further reading

  1. Excellence in Coaching: Theory, Tools and Techniques to Achieve Outstanding Coaching Performance, Fourth Edition
  2. Appreciative Inquiry | Better Evaluation

Taking the right action isn’t always easy, having more information helps. Gain insights through coaching.

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I called my business Disclosure because my purpose is to discover and share insights. Knowing what to do is half the fight, the other is taking action.

Graphs show you what you want to see.

The truth about insight…graphs are the starting point.

Working in companies and consulting to business for over 20 years has given me insight into the workings of modern companies.

Managers and leaders spend time in meetings, concentrating on graphs and reports that offer a version of the truth but fails to communicate the reality.

A recent article from McKinsey and Company1 is a good example of how two versions of the truth differ but still hold true. It seems to be a matter of perspective.

Figure 5: What is most important to employees-
Figure 5: What employers think is important to employees

The question is what truth do we believe…

The best way is to start is by using the information you have to gain insights from the business. Check your understanding and ask questions.

5 tips to help you find the reality.

Conversations: I’ve found that talking to everyone in the business, from the tea lady to the cleaning crew or even cultivating relationships with employees will keep your finger on the pulse.

Environment: Creating a safe environment where people feel heard and their issues are addressed will help you focus on what matters and take the right action. It’s the small things, like hygiene factors. Walmart’s turnaround started with returning toilet-seat covers2.

Remote work: It’s hard for people to communicate on electronic channels, assessing how a change or message is received is even harder. Give people time to think, and pick up the phone to hear what they have to say.

Coaching: The pandemic has affected people in ways we are only starting to understand. Coach them through this time, it may even help you.

Focus on the people: Your role as manager or team leader has changed from simply pushing the numbers or hitting the target. People will drive their KPI’s when you help them do their best.

The greatest strides are made in conversation, not in a boardroom.

Talk to me about what coaching can do for you?

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact

Further reading / sources

1. Making the Great Attrition the Great Attraction | McKinsey

2. Walmart US CEO Asked Workers to Email Him Their Biggest Complaints (businessinsider.com)

You have the ball!

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This image is a powerful reminder that a Coach is a person that helps you reach your goals.

Take it and score!

Coaches have a unique opportunity to provide perspective, they help you to see things for what they really. Linking your goal to your goal with clarity and purpose.

I have helped many people find what holds them back and helped them create a plan to overcome obstacles and self-defeating behaviour. I remind them that they deserve everything they work for and that success is not a dream, it’s a realisation of a plan.

SMART GOALS

Everyone may have heard of SMART Goals. In my experience, it’s a simple but effective tool to get you to start making your dream a reality. I use it and many of my clients use it as a starting point.

  • S – Specific: Identify in detail what you want to achieve. If you want to lose weight, or save money, specify how much…i.e I want to save R500 in 3 months.
  • M – Measurable: Can you see if you are on track to meet your goal. Are you haflway there, or only a quarter. Understand why and see how you can make it Achievable
  • A – Achievable: Aim low and gain confidence as you succeed. If you’re only able to save R100 per month, setting yourself up to fail will demotivate you.
  • R – Realistic: If you love sweets, cakes or extra snacks, will you be able to cut down on them, have a plan on what you will be able to do and work towards that. In many cases diets don’t work because they are unsustainable. If you gradually change your eating habits, the weight will stay off.
  • T – Time-bound: Have you set yourself a time-line that you can track your progress. If you know you have a specific deadline, you can work towards meeting it. If your goal is to lose weight, but you never give yourself a check-point. It will always happen tomorrow.

Accountability

Coaches help you stay on task and can assist you with holding yourself accountable. The ball is yours…time to score

Rita Govender 
“creating agile, purpose-driven thinking”.

email: rita@disclosure.co.za

call: +27 82 804 6391

contact