Greetings!

Good Self, Bad Self

Do you walk your talk? Most of us like to think that we mean what we say and say what we mean.

Then why do we keep saying we will quit doing this, or start doing that, and we find we keep on doing the same old things? Most New Year's resolutions end up abandoned shortly after they were made. We are not liars. We are sincere at the time. But sooner or later, we find ourselves faced with conflicting emotions, convictions, and our real actions.

Most of the time we kid ourselves with a system of delusions and denial. We say we are one kind of person, while doing things that are contrary to our desired image. Psychologists call it "cognitive dissonance," a state of discomfort when we say one thing but do another. We will go to any lengths to avoid that feeling, hence we construct an elaborate system of delusions, denial, and some behaviors we don't even notice, to face the fact that we aren't acting like the person we believe we should be. We don't have time for that. Negative emotions get in the way of our being productive and focusing on the tasks and goals at hand. So we live with incongruencies and denial, and our battling inner selves seem to be just part of who we are. We find a way to excuse ourselves. We are forgiving of our inconsistencies. We're only human, after all.

The problem is this: that entire conflicting undercurrent zaps our energy and spirit. The price we pay by not facing these paradoxes is fatigue, irritability, and lack of energy. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to maintain the different sides of our personality in some sort of harmony. Most people don't recognize the extent of their inner complexity. We run into trouble when we set goals that do not take into account the differing sides of our personalities. We have competing selves and competing commitments. On the one hand, we may truly be health conscious and want to maintain a set of healthy standards. On the other hand, we are also committed to having fun and enjoying life. These two values may compete for our attention, and usually the goal of immediate pleasure will win out over delayed satisfaction.

We may value family life and work hard to give our family things that provide pleasure and comfort. But what happens when our commitment to work and financial success interferes with spending time with children and spouses? What about our sense of orderliness? What happens when the focus on just getting things done overrides getting the most important things done?

Human beings are complex animals with competing drives and a multitude of values. It is not easy to know oneself well. How do you gain self-awareness so that appropriate goals and priorities can be set? Try to identify 3-5 values and priorities that motivate you strongly. Then identify any competing values that also must be satisfied. Many times something we value has an opposite that we also value. These competing values must be reconciled in your mind.

Once you identify your strongest desires and the competing drives that vie for your attention and focus, revise your goals and priorities to honor both sides of your personality. Try setting realistic goals that will allow for both sides of your competing values.

Both sides of you will love you for it!

What Are the Benefits of Coaching?

The notion of coaching originated from sports, but nowadays there are lots of different types of coaching. However, in this article we'll look at the two main types: life (personal) coaching and business (corporate) coaching.

Benefits of Corporate Coaching: Organizational Development

• Increase of performance. This is perhaps the main advantage, without which, coaching literally would have no sense. Coaching develops the best qualities of people and teams and enables the usage of these qualities at work for the benefit of the organization. Thus using coaching in management significantly increases staff productivity.


• Improvement of relationships at work. Questions asked during the coaching process add value both to the person being asked and his/her answers. Thus an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust is being established. Good relationships at work provide the fertile ground for staff productivity, while the instructions and directions typical for the directive style of management aren't likely to bring such positive changes.


• Staff development. Staff development means not only educational seminars and trainings, but also unlocking the inner potential of the company's employees. Whether the employees are going to develop themselves or not depends mainly on the company's management style. Initially, all of us have great potential, which can be revealed through coaching. Coaching allows the employees to develop themselves directly in the workplace, thus increasing their efficiency.


• Flexibility and adaptability. Improving competitiveness in the market requires such skills as flexibility and adaptability. Coaching aids in quickly adapting to every kind of change, which is quite important in today's business world.


• Staff motivation. Often, people work under their own will, not under constraint. Coaching helps people to fully develop their potential, increase their self-esteem, and thus raise the quality of their work. Of course at the same time people become motivated to be productive and work efficiently.

Benefits of Personal Coaching: Personal Development

• Life quality improvement. The most important constituent of a person's quality of life is emotional satisfaction. This factor must be taken into account in regard to HR management. When using coaching, apart from improving relationships, every employee gets higher emotional satisfaction from their work, which can help motivate them to perform at their best.


• Creativity. Coaching itself and the working environment created by it encourages employees to make creative suggestions. At the same time, employees aren't afraid of being laughed at or rejected. Moreover, they are motivated to put forward their suggestions to improve business processes. And one creative idea, when properly evaluated and accepted, generates lots of new ideas.


• Fast and effective response to critical situations. If people feel an atmosphere of respect and recognition, they're always ready to stand for the company's interests in critical situations. Working overtime and temporary changes to the working environment won't be a great problem for them and will be accepted with understanding. Moreover, the employees will do their best to avoid such a situation, and will handle it themselves, without any direction from management.


• Unlocking hidden resources and potentials. Coaching creates an atmosphere of trust and confidence, where a person discovers inner resources that they didn't know about earlier. The coach's questions help the coachee to see the ways of achieving their goals. Coaching helps a person to find their inner 'assembly point,' from which the way of approaching goals becomes clear.

We can talk about the benefits of coaching for a long time. Today it's indeed the most effective personnel management style, a powerful tool, which allows achieving amazing results. Coaching is not a theory. First of all, it's a practice that's not difficult to master, but at the same time, extremely efficient. To make sure it works, all you have to do is try to use coaching at work, and the results could well be positive, even the first time.