If I ask you if you think you are creative, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Your answer is probably based on whether you have any “artistic skills” or not. In general, we tend to equate only the arts with creativity. For example, if there were an interesting painting nearby, you would certainly call it creative. But do you find your mom’s cooking creative? Do you find a campaign carried out to benefit people in the society creative? Many of us don’t. However, creative simply means, “creating something out of nothing.”
Tag: Facilitation
I never thought that waiting in a security check queue could be so much fun and full of learning. It was a Monday morning rush at the Delhi airport. You would have to pay extra attention to even see the floor through thousands of travelers on a busy day like this. 
A long queue is the perfect place to really test your patience. I spotted a business leader standing in one of these long queues. I recently read his interview that got published under a popular leadership column. While he was waiting for his turn, someone cut him in line. That made this corporate honcho lose his cool. A person who was quite centered a minute back was now behaving like a nagging child. Suddenly everything and everyone around him became a problem for him, as if the entire world turned negative for him in a jiffy. His behavior caught my attention and made me think about what ticked him off; maybe it was the person who cut in line or perhaps that incident just acted like a trigger that blew this leader’s mental peace of mind. When we talk about the qualities of great leaders, centeredness is unquestionably one of these attributes.
Take your car on a journey without refueling and you will soon run out of gas. Chances are that you would end up on the highway alone. On an empty tank, the car will not move. Today, everyone is running in this fast paced world, aiming to get ahead. Some are running for money and others for success, but do we know the price we pay in the process? “Evaluate the cost before you invest” – be it in stocks or achieving your goals. We are running without knowing the price we have to pay in terms of failed relationships, deteriorating health, and lack of meaning. Here are the three reasons why you must take a break.
In today’s world the only way to stay current is to look to the future; that is, to improve, progress, and develop yourself professionally and personally. At FocusU, one of the methods we use for self-development is writing. In one of our earlier blogs, Do Facilitators Need to Write?, we discussed the merits of writing as a tool for understanding and expressing a topic eloquently. But what if you get stuck before you ever reach that place of expression? Well, we understand that difficulty and are here to offer up some ideas!
It was 10:00 in the evening and another day on the job. All the guests were dancing and relishing the best of the cocktails. I was behind the bar with some fellow bartenders and was surrounded by hundreds of guests. In between all that action I could hear one lady screaming – she was trying to get our attention. My fellow bartender asked her, “How can I help you ma’am?” She asked for a cup of hot milk. My friend said “unfortunately we don’t serve that here” and moved on with his work. It got my attention and for some reason I asked her to wait. I spoke to the chef and arranged a hot cup of milk for her. Later my friend asked me why I did that even though we were short on staff. He said, “You can’t satisfy every guest. What difference does it make anyway?” I had a smile on my face and said, “I just made a difference to that lady.”
There is something better than silence in a presentation, and it is humour! Great speakers enthuse the world with a web of stories and one-liners that not only make an impact but tickle the funny bone as well. In my quest to add flavour to my workshops, I picked up several books on making effective presentations and searched the internet for the best practices to handle tough situations using humour. Below are a few ways which could save you during tough situations.
Continue reading “Funny One-Liners To Make You A Better Presenter”
It was 3 hours into the session and the participants’ eyes were moistening; some were openly dabbing away the stray tears that refused to be confined. It was past 10pm, well past the official timeline set by the leader to wrap up, however no one was in a hurry to leave. They were all glued to their seats.
Continue reading “Why Opening Up Is Important For Team Building?”
We all like to have some keepsake of our happy moments. Photos and video are the most common ways to capture memories. For making a video, you need to carry a camera, a laptop with video editing software, and of course you need your team. With these ingredients, you can definitely make a team video. Before the gathering starts, decide upon what kind of video is desired – what should the overall essence of the video be? There is lots of video editing software available that enables one to edit a video using different themes. If it’s a team video there would likely be some sort of action happening in that meeting, get together, or offsite. Be clear upon the agenda and just get started!
What’s the one thing that comes to your mind thinking about KFC? The Chicken Recipe. What’s the one thing you recall when thinking about Starbucks? I don’t need to answer that. What’s the one thing that strikes your mind when you think of Toyota? It’s Quality. What’s the one thing that hits the cord when you think of Martin Luther King Jr.? “I have a dream.” What about when you think of Shahrukh Khan? It’s entertainment. Top companies and people know how to brand themselves because they know the secret to personal branding. It’s your index finger. Didn’t get the point? Make a fist with the index finger sticking out. Yes, the secret is this index finger. Here’s how: think of the index finger as a symbol of the one thing that you would like to associate with, which would define your personal brand. Here are five ways to develop your personal brand:
Continue reading “Five Killer Strategies To Develop A Personal Brand”
Fear is quite natural. It is a biological way for our bodies to tell us that something is not right. Almost all of us have fear of something or other in life. The irony is that humans are actually born with only two fears – the fear of falling and the fear of sudden sounds. So, where did all the other fears come from? All these fears have been the product of some prior experience, people’s feedback, or our imagination. After the two natural fears, the single most common fear across the entire globe is: stage fright!