Salters are keen observers of the Malaysian political scene. To stay on top of things, we follow a clutch of blogs. Here’s one by Marina Mahathir which we found illuminating.

10:30am – Empathy. Mid-morning in the Main Ballroom of the Cititel Hotel, Bob Tschannen-Moran of Life Trek Coaching International is well into his session on the “Principles and Practice of Empathy in Coaching.” He plays a clip featuring renowned horse whisperer Monty Roberts. Roberts developed an approach to training horses that broke away from earlier methods which frequently caused serious injury to horses. Participants flinch when they see archival footage of a horse being brutally forced into submission. The trainer appears impassive, and bent on breaking the horse. Bob remarks that “in coaching, some coaches actually show up with that kind of energy.” Needless to say, little is accomplished that way.

Monty Roberts believes that “no-one has the right to say ‘You must, or I’ll hurt you.’” He has also said, “I want horses to work not out of fear, but out of willingness. To destroy the willingness in a horse is a crazy, unforgivable act.”

Bob invites participants to reflect on the connection to coaching. “Coaching without empathy,” he says, “destroys the willingness.”

Bob also highlights a somewhat more unexpected truth: empathy is more efficient. “If you demand, force and punish,” Bob says, “it can take all day.” But when your efforts are grounded in empathy, you get better results more quickly. “Some in the coaching business say, ’I don’t have time for all this empathy stuff!’” Clearly, they are missing the point entirely. Bob reminds participants that “if you act like you only have 15 minutes, it will take all day. But if you act like you have all day, it will only take 15 minutes.”

11:03am – It’s not about giving advice. Meanwhile, nearby in Matahari 3, career and executive coach Angela Spaxman is sharing her experiences involving a particular client. This client successfully went “from frustrated IT manager to energized entrepreneur.” This sparks off a discussion about what it means to coach someone.

Angela worked with the IT manager for a long time before the shift occurred in his mind. She remembers the moment: “That was the time when I could see him having a little bit of a different thought than everything he had had before.” A coach can get a sense of a client’s potential within the first few minutes of talking to him, but the process cannot be pushed, and the coach must understand this. The coachee, after all, “is the one who has to deal with all the facts of his life.”

The objective of career coaching, Angela reminds her group, is “to create a supportive and empowering thinking environment. It is not about giving advice or giving solutions.”

Later I will hear similar comments in M.Shanmugam’s group. As a coach, “you listen and listen and listen.” It is agreed that listening, and the concentration that is required, can be exhausting. “How many people can you coach a day?” Shan later asks the coaches in his group. The average answer is three, with most agreeing the ideal is two. One coach says she has coached more – “but then after that I had to lie down on the floor, close my eyes and take a moment to recover!”

11:35am – Organisation vs individual? In another room, M. Shanmugam of Teamcoach international is talking about coaching within organisations. With individual career coaching everything can be aligned with the client’s agenda. But with career coaching within organisations, there is potentially a conflict of interest between the needs of the organisation and those of the individual. What happens, for example, if the best thing for the individual is for him or her to leave the organisation?
Shan believes an organisation must keep the big picture in mind, and look beyond its own needs. “If you can provide leaders to the nation, you should be proud of it,” he says.

Besides helping organisations in terms of retaining and engaging employees, career coaching is also about out-placing. This arises when the fit is wrong. Angela Spaxman believes that “If they are not quite right for where they are currently, then it is also about helping them find a place that is right for them.” Ultimately, it is to the benefit of all – an unhappy employee is of no use to the organisation.

Photos: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.

[Photo 1] The list of speakers at ICC-KL 2012 featured coaches from the US, Canada, Hong Kong and Malaysia. (seated, L-R) Dr Tih Sio Hong, Bonnie Chan, Dr Susan Meyer, Megan Tschannen-Moran. (standing, L-R) Angela Spaxman, Bob Tschannen-Moran, M. Shanmugam. (not in photo) Prof Dr Mohd Fauzi Mohd Jani, who delivered the Opening Address.

[Photo 2] Bob Tschannen-Moran delivering the Keynote Address.

[Photo 3] The panel discussion featuring (L-R) Dr Hamidah Marican, Angela Spaxman, Prof Dr Mohd Fauzi Mohd Jani and Bob Tschannen-Moran.

[Photo 4] The 2-day programme included practice sessions and role play.

[Photo 5] Angela Spaxman in the concurrent session on career coaching.

toptenofinterest.wordpress.com

I love lists. I don’t know about you but I still have notebooks with lists scribbled from decades past!

In university, the lists were pretty mundane — books to read before writing the poli-sci essay, points to make at the dreaded class discussion and, at the end of my studies, steps to take to find that much-needed job.

Over the next couple of years, the lists tended to be straightforward and sometimes rather urgent: immediate steps to take to stay slim, supermarket stuff or there would be no food on the table that evening, workbooks for school, meds for the kids, and later, my parents.
These days, however, some of my lists are more interesting.

I have one for books to buy and read every year, must-watch movies and, most important of all, places to see before I kick the bucket.

Of course, I don’t always make it to the bottom of each and every list. Alaska has been on my travel list for 10 years now and I doubt that I will get there any time soon.

But lists have a way of making you feel you’re on the way to achieving something. A good list could make you feel that you are in control of some parts of your life.

This sounds lame but it often gives me a thrill to tick off items done on my many lists, even if it’s just for toothpaste and cat food!

Among other things, this article says lists can keeps you focused. I do agree. There are many by-ways along the Path of Life and like me, you will be tempted to take some of them. But if you have that one major list which has the essential elements for fulfillment and satisfaction, you will never stray far from your true north.

Before it’s too late, all companies, big and small, should have a social media policy. The reasons are laid out in this smartly-designed infograph which appeared on Mashable yesterday.

It tells you why you would need such a policy, the kind of social media training your staff should have (employees are cleverly categorised into 4 types!) and the horrendous consequences of not having a social media policy!

Still not convinced? Check out the infograph!

From Mashable: “Who needs an expensive social media consultant when you can train your employees in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn best practices yourself?

This Mindflash infographic breaks down the types of social media users you’ll find in your company — the digital native, savvy technologist, reluctant user, digital newby and digital contrarian — and how to approach training each of them.

This guide also highlights an important fact: 76% of companies do not have a clearly defined social media policy. Whether or not you have an explicit policy, make sure you’re aware of the way everyone in your company represents your brand.

What do you think its most important for companies to teach their employees about social media? Share your best practices in the comments.”

Berita ini disiarkan oleh akhbar Harian Metro. Sila layari link di bawah untuk berita penuh.

http://www.hmetro.com.my/articles/Bukan4tapi6isteri/Article

Performance and life coaching, tools to help improve quality of work and life in the 21st century, are fast gaining ground in Malaysia.

To support and nurture the burgeoning interest in coaching, an International Coaching Conference – ICC-KL 2012 – will be held in Kuala Lumpur’s Cititel Hotel on April 4-5.

ICC-KL 2012, organised by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and Teamcoach International Sdn Bhd, will bring in coaching experts from various parts of the world to talk about the rapidly evolving methods in coaching to assist individuals, groups, organisations as well as the nation.

The conference theme is “Nation Building and Organisational Development Through Individual Growth.” ICC-KL 2012 is being co-sponsored by the International Association of Coaching (IAC), one of the world’s leading non-profit certifying organisations.

Across the globe, especially in developed countries, coaching is increasingly regarded as a critically important method for improving performance at work and in life. While training is about imparting skills to someone who does not possess them yet, coaching is about helping one look within to discover strengths and talents, and to use them for maximum positive impact in one’s life and work.

Key forms of coaching include life coaching, career coaching, financial coaching, creativity coaching and transition coaching.

Research has shown that coaching is not only useful in the workplace, but also in schools, universities, and at the community-level. “Coaching helps us to clarify our goals, listen more intently and focus on solutions rather than problems. Coaching can also take the nation to the next level,” says Captain (Rtd) M. Shanmugam, founder of Teamcoach International Sdn Bhd.

Conference co-organiser, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and SMEs Development (UKM-CESMED), has already trained eight lecturers and two administrative officers in the art of coaching. Many more from UKM and other public universities are showing interest in learning how to become certified solutions-based coaches.

The conference’s theme reflects its aim to explore how coaching – typically carried out on an individual basis – can benefit the entire nation. As such, the sessions will focus on three distinct but deeply interlinked goals: developing the individual, growing the community, and building the nation.

“Coaching is about going from where we are now, to where we want to be. This also happens to be the single most important question that is confronting us as a nation. Therefore, it makes sense for us to find ways to ‘coach the country,’” notes Capt. Shan.

The conference will bring together some big names in coaching such as IAC Immediate Past President Bob Tschannen-Moran who will talk about the principles and practice of empathy in coaching.
Capt. Shan will address aspects of the local context in a session entitled “Organisational Coaching Program: A Malaysian Case Study.”

Other speakers include Certified Organisational Performance Coach Dr Tih Sio Hong (Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Business, UKM) and UKM coaches, who will share UKM stories in coaching and transforming individuals; Angela Spaxman, Past IAC President; Megan Tschannen-Moran, author of Evocative Coaching: Transforming Schools One Conversation at a Time; and Bonnie Chan, a Hong Kong-based specialist in cross-cultural coaching and succession planning.

Beyond the concurrent sessions and facilitated conversations, the conference will provide ample opportunity for participants to network.

For more information, contact: Shan at 012-398 9383 or Grace at 012-273 2747.
Email: ICC@teamcoach.com.my
Website: http://www.ukm.my/icc/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/International-Coaching-Conference-KL-2012/304570296251583

“On the Web customers always leave a trail. Everywhere they go they leave digital footprints. So, we have this unusual combination of the empowered, confident customer about whom we know an increasing amount.”

For a full reading, here’s the link http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/nt/2012/nt-2012-03-05-Web-impact.html

From abine.com

Online dating is hardly a new phenomenon – thanks to the rise of the internet the trend took off in the 90s, with it’s impact in pop culture first seen in the 1998 Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks rom-com ‘You’ve Got Mail’.

Nowadays there are more online dating sites available than you can shake a stick at, but does that indicate their effectiveness in finding good matches? An article in the New York Times suggests that, even with the scientific algorithms behind these matchmaking activities, success is not guaranteed.

Authors Eli Pinkle and Benjamin Karney, who are both professors in social psychology, write “the past 80 years of scientific research about what makes people romantically compatible suggests that such sites are unlikely to do what they claim to do.” Which is a fair thing to say, seeing how difficult it is even in real life to find someone you’re compatible with. It’s only logical that it becomes more difficult to do online.

However, that’s not to say that it’s not possible. I know one woman who was meeting an array of supposed ‘perfect matches’ from a certain dating site, only to be majorly disappointed in them by the end of the date. Just as she was about to call it quits, she met a man that she connected well with, fell head over heels for, and married a few years later. And our own Rose personally knows three couples who met online and eventually got married as well!

Ultimately online dating services just add another dimension to the dating game, and illustrates more clearly how tricky it is to be lucky in love.

Click here to see the infographic in more detail.