Feature-positive effect scenario.

Feature-positive effect scenario.


This particular effect is well utilized by the prevention campaign.


In a campaign against smoking – “smoking can cause cancer” is having more impact and a powerful effect than “No smoking can save you from cancer”.


Take yet another example. Suppose a company manufacture salad dressing cream, having a fairly high level of cholesterol content. What they will do? They will put a label on the container packing listing twenty-odd vitamins and other mineral contents by conveniently omitting cholesterol.


It’s natural, the consumer will not notice the absence of cholesterol easily. On the other hand, reading twenty-odd vitamins and other mineral contents they will feel more safe and well informed.

Maybe they will consume the dressing without any hesitation.


This is known as a feature-positive effect scenario.


In short, we have problems with perceiving non-events. We are blind to what does not exist.

We do not appreciate peacetime until there are a wartime and emergency situation.

If we are healthy, we hardly think thank god we are not sick.

When we get off the plane, we hardly think, thankfully it did not crash.


In other words, we place greater emphasis on what is present than what is absent.

Emotional intelligence is the part of leadership aura.

Challenging times when everything is going against, when things are going low, hopes are falling, negativity is all around, in such situations reveal the true character and maturity of a leader. 

It is during such times that your team, your people, your employees need guidance, compassion, and understanding the most. 

The best leaders step forward and lead from the front by an example when the going is the toughest.

It is the worst thing to happen if as a leader you disappear from the scenes leaving your people in the lurch, on their own.

Pandemic is one of such situation, where the leaders in every sector of life need to lead by an example

To what degree a leader can live up to and can accomplish that feat depends on how strong your emotional intelligence/leadership competency is.

Emotional intelligence is a part of the leadership aura that is actually visible to the outside world. 

People can make out your instability if you become emotionally vulnerable.

To lead successfully during times of exceptional stress, you need to be in the best emotional shape. 

You need to convey self-confidence and inspire courage even though you fall apart emotionally, from within.

Original to be unoriginal.

Whenever I sit down to write, I am invariably struck with the fear that thoughts I’m going to share is not original of mine.  

I feel scared that whatever I’m going to pen down might already have been thought before, written before, said before, by someone somewhere.

If we take a human history of hundreds of, thousands of years, it is safe to assume that someone, somewhere, at some point in time, has done all of these already. 

Ours is an innovation obsessed society, the fear of getting exposed as an unoriginal is true paralyzing.

Every day we strive hard to remain and portray different to remain in the competition. But, the irony is, what we feel original is no longer is an original. 

In fact, it’s the recycling of thoughts and ideas. We just update them to reflect our present needs and status. We fear being labeled as unimaginative or non-creative.

It’s important to remember that despite the thoughts and concepts that repeat throughout the time, our filter of feelings, our past experience, and our own perspective, our own interpretation makes them different.

Our exclusivity is born, not from our thoughts, but through our sharing of these ideas, through our own voice.

People dont hire coaches impulsively.

People don’t hire Coaches impulsively.

It’s not a product or service you are paying for, it’s an investment.

People just don’t drop by your website the first time and decide- ‘yes here is the coach I am looking for’ without exploring more.

People feel interested in coaches who resonate with them and who they think they like and would like to know them more closely.

It’s difficult to build up that kind of relationship from your website with a first time visitor.

You may have several pages on your site with blog posts, posts going back to 2010, or still older. It’s obvious to anyone who is visiting your website that you have been at this a long time and have relevant experience. This alone wouldn’t be enough, people would like to dig further in.

For new or newer coaches that isn’t usually the case.

The purpose of your website shouldn’t be to sell.

Through your website give people the option to contact and hire you, but your website should be largely focused on getting people on to your list.

Once you do that, you can then start to build a relationship with them by supplying a stream of high-quality content.

There is no point in knowing how to use your list if you don’t know how to build your list

Building a list isn’t easy, but if you can take the time to figure it out, then you’re in a great position to be successful because you have a group of people who to a certain extent much value what you do.

Coaching practice

Success as a Coach requires time, focused action, commitment, and a quite a few high-level skills to differentiate yourself from others and to generate a large enough community of prospective clients who can fill your pipeline as paying clients.

A general survey about coaching needs confirms that of all the people that reach out to pursue coaching, only 40% are actually ‘coachable,’ and out of those, only 30% end up signing up for coaching services.

In my opinion, coaching is meant for strata or group or culture that exist at the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs – the level of ‘self-actualization.’

Today, however, due to current pandemic situation and also our economic crisis has pushed millions of people down, several levels of the hierarchy down– to the level of “safety” so that their primary focus has now shifted on financial security and safe working conditions and not on getting coached.

If you’re interested in starting a practice or a business as a life coach during these times,

it’s utmost important to seriously evaluate yourself, your abilities and talents, your passion for coaching, and your commitment to launch and maintain a thriving coaching practice.

I am not trying to discourage you from following your dreams but to present a realistic picture of what’s essential in running a successful coaching practice today. This is not only for coaching alone but it is applied to any business in present times.

Planning delusion.

‘Planning delusion.'


Planning delusion we normally come across when people work together in the field of politics, business, or on science projects.


In such a case, a group tends to overestimate time duration and benefits and underestimate cost and risks.


So, the question arises why aren’t we natural-born planners?


One of the basic reasons could be ‘wishful thinking.'


What it means, we want to be successful and achieve the ultimate in everything we take on our hands.
Secondly, we become so much focused on the project that we tend to overlook other outside influences.

We tend to forget that unexpected events sometimes topple our plans.


Every morning, you prepare your ‘things-to-do list.’ How often does it happen with you that everything is ticked by the end of the day?


Does it happen always?


Or every other day?


Or once in a week?


Or like any other normal people you may achieve it once in a month.


What it shows? It shows that you systematically take on too much.


Put it more bluntly, your plans are absurdly ambitious.


If your plans fail, it is perfectly acceptable, if you are a total novice.


But, if you are preparing ‘your to-do list’ for years and you know your capabilities well.


It is unlikely that you overestimate them very fresh every other day.


You learn from your experience in other areas, so why there is no learning curve when it comes to planning?


Even though you realize that most of your previous endeavors were extremely optimistic, still you believe, with all serious note, today the same workload is eminently doable.


This is called planning delusion.

Envy effect

‘Envy’ effect.


If you are put into three different situations, which will disturb you the most?

1   1)  Your colleague gets the hike and you don’t. 2) Your junior salary brought to your level and you remain at the same. 3) In this pandemic, everyone goes in to pay cut, yours is more due to seniority.

If you get disturbed more by situation 1 is quite natural and normal. And maybe conventionally you are not abnormal.


This is an expression of a specific emotion called ‘Envy’.


Let us understand what things spark envy? May be status, health, talent, beauty, ownership, fame, stardom, etc.,

In fact, ‘Envy’ is many times invariably confused with ‘Jealousy’. Maybe because the external reactions in both the case are identical.


Yet, it’s important to know the difference between the two.


Example- The subject of envy is a thing like status, money, talent, beauty, etc., while the subject of jealousy is the behavior of a third person.


Envy requires two people while jealousy needs three.


Paradoxically, we envy people of similar age, career, background as ours.

We don’t envy big businessman or we don’t envy CEO.

Aristotle rightly said ‘Potter envy Potter.’


The only way you can curb ‘envy’ is to stop comparing yourself with others and form your own competence circle and fill it by yourself, create a niche where you are the BEST.

Success is scary

Success is scary!

We hear many people saying this, but just couldn’t understand well, how success can be scary?

I realized unless you go through this experience you will not understand this.

In fact, our normal belief is we are afraid of failing but in reality, it’s a fear of succeeding.

If we recall our experience right from our childhood to the adult stage, failure is relatively common for all of us. We think it’s a part of our life. We don’t feel too much as we fail, and things get back to normal of its own.

Whether you take our experience from school exams or sports events or competitions we have been programmed or engineered to take failure as a predictable event. On the other hand, success is unpredictable.

It may sound unconvincing but if we think rationally, it’s happening like this for all of us.

Success means, asking for change. And as a normal human being, we fear change.

Hence, when we are thinking about succeeding in something, indirectly we are questioning ourselves – ‘What if what I get is not really what I wanted?’ or ‘Am I really deserve to succeed?’ or “What if someone judges me and make me feel isolated?’

Change is always uncomfortable. However, we all have some areas of our life that we want to upgrade. So, we need to overcome this fear to succeed.

We have two options: either experience the fear but still do it anyway or stay where you are.

Coaching through writing

When you run a business, the business experts will ask you to create your ‘Brand’, something unique about ‘You.’

When you take up coaching as your profession, the coaching experts will say you choose your ‘Niche.’

But of course, when we get into coaching, we tend to look multi-dimensional. At least in the beginning, because we ourselves don’t know what is our Niche and who all are our prospects.

So, it is hard to narrow down ourselves to just one simple specialization.

Maybe over the years, and with a good amount of experience it might be possible to reduce to one ‘Niche’.

Just yesterday, I have public my blog site and I was literally dwelling on my WHY- why I write a blog?

I was searching for one line WHY, something you can call as a ‘Mission statement.’

I have spent quite a bit of time to write some fancy, catchy mission statement- the WHY.

I just gave a thought- I believe in coaching and that is what I am doing.

And I found my WHY- ‘Coaching approach through Writing’.

As per International Coach Federation definition, “Coaching is partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their potential- Personally and Professionally.”

And this is where Coaching comes in.

So, my WHY for writing blogs is with an idea that everyone can learn new insights, look at things from a different perspective, reflect upon, and take a different outlook.

Come as you are, nothing more nothing less, read my blog, and see if it makes any difference in your outlook and approach.

https://mycoachmycompass.blogspot.com/

blogsite

I’ve been putting words out on LinkedIn, almost over a year.

To be very frank, putting words on the internet, especially on social media and that too on a professional platform, can be a scary job, at times.

Because no matter what you say, no matter how you say it if more than 10 people are reading, someone is probably going to read or interpret something incorrectly.

Somehow, I’ve held back many words over the last year, especially during the period of pandemic and lockdown. Because it needed to be held back — they were words that were better-shared face-to-face with trusted people, in the form of sharing compassion or in the form of offering to coach or just simple support.

But, there are other words that needed to be shared, but I preferred to hold back because I felt that some percentage of the people would probably not agree, or might overreact, or just miss the essence of my point, although the majority of the people probably would have been inspired and encouraged by the same words.

In January 2020, I have created my blog site and I have been writing there for a couple of months. I have kept it private to myself because I felt it’s my own personal feelings and perception I am writing it down and moreover, I am a bit irregular too.

I am still feeling nervous to share my blog site but I wish to take a step ahead.

https://mycoachmycompass.blogspot.com/

What would be a piece of advice for someone in my position?

where do we live? In pond or in ocean?

A pond is a small water body.

It has limited water and space.

During heavy rains, there comes extra water from rain, but there comes a time that water gets fully consumed, and the pond gets dried up puts making lives difficult who are depending upon the pond.

On the other hand, an ocean is immense, large, and enormous.

It has seemingly unlimited water and an abundance of space in every dimension.

It can turn out to be unpredictably stormy and dangerous, but there is always enough to go around, and yet more is left over.

In which world are we livening in?

The one that appears to be safe, but have limited resources:

·         Where after a dry or drought spell you really wonder how long you can survive?

·         Where competition is fierce and new inhabitants are treated with fear and suspicion?

Or you want to thrive in the world that has unlimited resources:

·         Where there is enough for everyone who is ready to put hard work and who has the sharp eyes to grab the opportunities that are all around?

·         Where there is no need to fear competition because there is ample scope for all?

We need to decide whether we are living in a pond or in the ocean?

Whether living in a place of scarcity or abundance?

The difference lies in our perspective.

If we understand it, we can correct our perspective.

Ships don't sink due to water around them.

Ships don’t sink due to water around them.

They sink because of the water that gets on the ship.

We’re all surrounded by various problems.

There are a number of things we need to be afraid of, feel threatened of.

You may not be in favorable circumstances.

Many odds going against you and life may seem stormy.

But you should not feel defeated by what goes around you.

You will be defeated when you let it get inside you.

I’ve met a lot of people who were incredibly successful despite unfortunate upbringings amidst of chaos and hardship.

Because they are resilient, they are able to thrive.

They are virtually unshakable and unsinkable due to the stormy sea surround them.

You too can be unsinkable.

You too can thrive becoming resilient, provided you do not let in the stormy water inside you.

One compelling reason that holds you back.

One compelling reason which holds you back..!

Over the last few months, I’ve met and have offered to coach some people who are having big dreams and aspirations.

But each of them has said to me that they had a compelling reason ‘Not to’ pursue their dreams.

There can be a number of reasons:

v  It’s not the right time to begin.

v  I am not qualified enough.

v  My family is my first priority.

v  I guess I don’t have the right experience.

v  I see a lot of risks inside.

v  I don’t know what if it doesn’t work for me.

v  I don’t want to face an embarrassing situation in front of all.

v  I think I don’t have enough courage to jump into.

v  I haven’t prepared my backup plan yet.

v  I should have tried at an early age, not now.

v  It’s good to have dreams but not all dreams come true.

Some of these reasons are expressed verbally and some are withheld within.

In fact, the last reason in the above list is powerful and has a way of over-whelming every other reason.

It will convince you that what you think is right.

These reasons can hold us back and become imaginary in their size and magnificence.

The bigger challenge for us is to take away their power.

To minimize their effect and compulsion.

It’s not that we have to ignore the compelling reasons outrightly, but we need to remember that these reasons are holding us back.

Remember, there are reasons that say why you can’t, and there are also reasons why you can.

Choose your focus.

Dig a well, if you can...

Dig the well in the Desert, if you can…!!

I love the imagery here - when you are walking through a dry desert, check if you can dig a well for other travelers to feed them water.

I am sure we all can all participate in doing this.

Example –

We can bring a smile on some faces when everyone else looks dull and overwhelmed.

We can encourage a few of them when others have given up on their hopes.

We can preserve the enthusiasm and passion of some people when others are facing frustration and loss of interest.

When can kindle hope when the situation looks bleak and dreary.

We can make a positive difference in other’s life.

We all are going through different life situations but still, we can do this.

When you walk through the dry valley of life, you can dig a well for other travelers passing by.

I have decided to do it, have you?

Action instinct

'Action instinct'

In a penalty situation, the ball takes less than  0.3 sec to travel from kick to goalkeeper.

There is no time for the goalkeeper to watch the ball and dive in that direction.

He has to make a decision before the ball is kicked.

We have seen many times in penalty shootout, the kicker kicks the ball right in the center of the goalpost, and yet we have seen the goalkeeper diving on the right side or left side.

Even the goalkeeper knows well that standing in the middle would have 33% of chances to save the goal, but still, they dive.

Why?
The answer is: 'Appearance'.

It looks more impressive and less embarrassing to dive to the wrong side although, than freezing in the center and still watch the ball sail past.

This is called 'Action instinct'- look active, even if it achieves nothing.

The 'action instinct' comes in to play when a situation is new or unclear.

In new or shaky circumstances, we feel compelled to do something, anything.

We as a society at large still prefer an action that doesn't yield anything rather than remain sensible and do not act.

Framing is important.

'Framing' is important.

"Hey the dust bin is full, need to be emptied."
"It would be a great help to me if you can empty the dust bin.".

It's not what you say but how you say makes things happen.

In psychology, it is termed as 'framing'.

We respond differently to the identical situation how it has been presented.

On a buffet table two items are labelled differently. One is labelled as ' 99% fat free' and the other one is labelled as '1% fat content'.

Most of the people will choose the former one.

Framing is more widely used in Financial Products.

The brochure will have nice graphical presentation of the performance and they will go in past years back enough from which the upward trend is just emerging.

Take a case of a newly launched car who put emphasis on highlighting the mileage and car tyres.

Most of the buyers will overlook the engine, braking system and interior.

The mileage and tyre becoming the selling point.

So, 'framing' is very important in everything.

Fear of losing

'Fear of losing.'
We fear loss more than we gain.
Emotionally, a loss 'weighs' about twice that of similar gain.
That's why if you want to convince someone about something, don't focus on the advantages, instead highlight how it help them to overcome disadvantages.
Fear of losing something motivates people more than the possible gain of an equal amount.
Example- If you are selling an electric hose gadget to a customer, you must highlight how much money they will lose without the gadget rather telling them how much money they would save having the gadget.
This is natural and we can't deny it.
Evil is more powerful than good. We are more sensitive to negative than positive change.
We remember bad behavior longer than a good gesture.
In short, for us, an unrealized loss isn't as painful as a realized one.

Endowment effect

'Endowment effect'
The endowment is something like possession or near ownership.
A teacher in a secondary school classroom distributed coffee mugs to only half of the strength of the classroom and told the students either they can take home the coffee mug or they can sell at the price they feel okay.
The teacher also asked the other half of the students how much they are willing to pay price for the coffee mug.
One would expect that roughly 50% of students will be willing to trade- either sell or buy a mug. But in reality, the percentage of trade was much much lower than expected.
Because the owner of coffee mug was not ready to sell it below X price while the buyer was not ready to pay more than 50% of X price.
This is nothing but endowment effect.
Here seller become emotionally attached with his possession and thus overestimate it's value.
We consider things to be more valuable the moment we own it.
In short, if we are selling something, we charge more than we are willing to pay if we have to buy it.

Its the action behind the scene

It is the action behind the scene

When you’re watching the high voltage drama, high pot sporting events, whether it is for football or for basketball or for cricket, there were times when we used to believe that the best motivational speech from the respective coach before the high drama game will make that team win.

It is no longer the case these days.

The team that wins is the one that is best prepared for the contest.

It’s the team that has worked hard to get trained, to get conditioned.

It’s the team where the team players play for each other and every player fully understands the importance of their role in the team.

It’s the team that learned how best they can utilize each other’s strengths and cover up the weaknesses.

A great leader, don’t spend much time preparing rosy words or fancy speeches would be anyway will be forgotten in the heat of game battles.

A great leader is direct, to the point more of action than of words.

A great leader understands well that it’s the behind the scenes actions that will deliver the results that he wants.

Tell a story effect

Tell a story' effect
Stories are dubious entities.
They simplify and distort reality and try to filter out certain things that don't fit in the story.
Take the case of media, the 'Tell a story' effect rages like a wildfire.
Example- an under-construction bridge collapsed at midnight and 2 labors lost their lives, 3 got injured.
What we read the next day?
We hear the story of two unlucky laborers, where they came from, where they were going, why they took shelter below under-construction bridge etc.
We read a complete biography of them.
Also about the injured one, how magically they escape from a sure shot death etc.
If possible, the media will print one to one interviews of survivors.
In this entire story, we missed the important aspect of why the bridge collapsed, whether due to the weak section, due to fatigue or any design flaws?
It is likely, media will investigate the past history of bridge contractor, how corrupt he is, how many bridges he has constructed, and if previously similar mishap has occurred, etc..
This is because the stories attract us. That is why the entertainment side of the incident is prioritized over relevant facts.
Advertisers have learned to take advantage of this 'Tell a story' effect. Instead of focussing on item' benefits, they create a story around it.
Surprisingly, the narrative is irrelevant sometimes but we find them irresistible.

Outcome Prejudice

Outcome prejudice'
We tend to evaluate decisions based on outcomes than by the process.
Let us consider an illustration:
There were 3 Heart surgeons named A, B, and C.
All of them were competent enough and quite dependable.
Once they were put to a test.
They were asked to perform 2 heart surgeries each and they will be evaluated based on the outcomes they will generate.
Surgeon A did the surgeries, no one died.
Surgeon B did his part of surgeries, one patient, become critical, and the other survived.
Surgeon C did his part of surgeries, both patients died.
What inference can be derived from this?
From the outcomes, naturally, Surgeon A is more reliable and dependable. However, it should not be the case because the sampling don't for evaluation is not large enough to derive any strong conclusion.
Moreover, only doctors who are expert in that field, having sufficient knowledge can make conclusion based on operating procedures, the conditions at the time of surgery and patients condition before surgery.

In short, we need to assess the process and not the result.
It means, never judge a decision purely based on results, especially when randomness or external factor has major role to play in it.

If you like me, I like you.

Have you ever realized that a smart salesperson use 'Mirroring Techniques?'

They use 'people like you if you are similar in appearance, accent, background, or interests.

It means if there are more similarities chances of winning order are better.

Mirroring Techniques work on the same principle. The salesperson tries to adapt and copy the gesture, language, nodding, and facial expressions of his prospective customers.

If his customer speaks, slowly with a softer tone, the seller speaks slowly and softly too.

That makes him likable in the eyes of a customer and thus the selling will take place more likely.

We find people appealing who like us and praise us.

Yes, compliments work wonders, even if they sound hollow as a drum.

So, if you are a salesperson, make your customers feel that you like him and you value his talk, even if this means outright open flattery. On the other hand, if you are a customer judge the product on merit and not who is selling.

Forecast illusions

Every day In our life we come across various kinds of forecasts and predictions, but how reliable they are?
What incentive does this forecaster would be having?
Are they mere attention seekers?
The problem is these so-called experts enjoy free rein with very negligible negative consequences.
If they strike it right, they are lucky and get publicity.
If they go completely off, they face no penalties - either in terms of financial or in terms of their reputation.
This win-win situation virtually proves as an incentive for them to churn out one after another prediction.
In fact, the more forecasts they generate, the more they become coincidentally correct.
In fact, it is imperative to check the ratio of predictions made by the predictor, how many predictions went wrong out of how many predictions he made.
The most important is to judge what is predictable and what is not.
With the changing scenario, we get different predictors - whether it is for crude oil price or stock market rise and fall or real estate market trend, etc..
There is a saying " Predicting a future us easy...getting it right is difficult."
We have a few predictions which turn out to be right.
So, use your judgment, how far you want to go with it!!