Tips for being an Effective Coach: Great Leaders to be Great Teachers

We can shape the leaders of tomorrow by teaching them today.

People who are effective in influencing others have the ability to communicate effectively and have the ability to teach effectively. This essentially means that good leaders have the ability to communicate and teach. There is a chance that a person may be able to teach yet not lead, but a person who leads successfully also teaches successfully.

In order to ensure that people at every level understand the priorities of the moment, you need to simply teach them. In this way, they can be developed into leaders of tomorrow.

Following are some tips that will help us to become better leaders, as such better teachers:

1) It is not about You; It is about Them

When you are going to communicate, always understand you are not the star. It is not about you. It is about the people with whom you are trying to communicate. They are the one that matters most.

2)Study your Students well

Great trainers know their material as well as their students well. To know your material and not your students, it simply means that you have something to give, but no effective method to deliver it.

3) Teachers should create a safe environment so that students dare to take risks

It is important for you as a leader to create such an environment where there’s a sense of security for the person you want to develop. Learning requires the room for mistakes to be made. When the atmosphere and the environment allow room for vulnerability and mistakes, material is absorbed very quickly and effectively. If students are not allowed to make mistakes during the training period, then when?!

4) Great teachers radiate Passion as well as Purpose

The difference between a mediocre teacher and a great coach / trainer is not expertise. It comes down to passion – passion for the material and passion for sharing information and experience with the students.

5) Students learn more when teachers share Goal-Setting with them

Most students fail to see the gap between where they are and where they need to be. Teachers need to conduct and inculcate Goal-Setting activities with the students. This is because if you lose you fail to see that gap, you cannot gauge and will lose your incentive for learning.

6) Communicate Clearly & Simply

The essence of teaching and learning is essentially communication, and the biggest challenge that leaders face is whether student understand them. Always remember, Context is more important than content. This meaning having more energy in the class is more important than having great amount of data, because the level of energy will easily convert effectively the data to become valuable information for the students.

7) Practice Vulnerability without Loosing Credibility

To many people, being a teacher or a leader means appearing as though they are invincible and knows all the answers. Any sign of vulnerability or ignorance is seen as a sign of weakness. These people can make the worst leaders, as such the worst teachers. We see a lot in Top Schools where the teachers are usually scholars in their higher education. They are taught with a mindset to not to fail. Be honest about what you know and what you don’t know with your students. Do not try to give them a false answer as you will lose even more credibility that way. We do have to emphasize the things that we know very well and the things that we can actually teach.

8) Teach with Passion

The best form of teaching is not data-crunching. Effective teaching should be personal and with passion. The things you can share with your own heart will mean so much more to your students than anything out of an ordinary textbook. Everyone can read and “teach” from a textbook – but is that teaching?!

9) Repetition of Process

In order for your students to remember the things you have taught them, the best way is to give it to them more than once. It can be through summary, additional notes, mini tests, or simply by asking them questions over and over again in an ad-hoc basis.

10) Ask Good Questions

Effective trainers understand that learning is about exploring the unknown and that it begins with questions. It should be questions that actually seek thoughtful answers from your students.

11) Stop sending them data but teach them how to think

Data does not make your students become much better. The best way for them to learn something is to think about it. Once they picked up the skills of effective thinking, learning will become easier and on a long-term basis.

12) Stop Talking & Start Listening

Effective learning should be a two-way process. It should be a dialogue between the students and the trainer. In order for the students to learn effectively, it is therefore very important to listen to them to find out about their learning progress. Remember it is not what we the trainers want to teach, it should be what the students want and need to learn that matters.

13) Let your students teach each other

Great trainers and coaches understand that their students have the ability to communicate and teach each other, many times more effectively than they can. Peers normally relate to one another better than students do to teachers. Partner-Sharing and Class-Sharing are good activities to conduct. Many Train The Trainer programs available always highlight this as a very important factor for effective coaching, but many do not practice it as they fear that others may say that they are not doing their job in “teaching”.

14) Different student require different approach

To be an effective trainer, we need to understand that different students learn differently. Some are visual, some are audio while others are kin static. We need to engage the class of students in as many ways as you can. We should include a mixture of white-board presentation, reading aloud by students, power-points and class participation in order to be effective in coaching them.

15) Never stop coaching

Effective teaching is about the quality of the relationship between the teacher and the student, and it does not stop there when the class is over. It should be an on-going process. Great trainers should be leaders that are always passionate about what they are doing, imparting what they are learning and passing it on to others as quickly as they possible can. The goal of a great leader is to impact his students by learning how to communicate effectively. Even if you data is good, their ability to receive it and turn them into valuable information is based upon your ability to communicate it effectively across to them.

For current teachers, tutors and trainers, I hope the above tips will help you to become better coaches for your students.

The Lovely Cat that grace my house

Haha. Yes. Indeed this post and thus the 2 videos below is on a lovely pet cat that grace my house. She actually came to my at 3 different times over the span of 2 months. Apparently, this lovely pet cat has run out from her master's house and lost its way.

Just too cute and adorable that i have to take several pictures and videos about the cat. If you happen to be a cat lover, i believe you will find this cat very very lovely. Meow!

Trouble-Shooting Your Printer

Have you ever experienced the frustrations of using your printers when you are in a rush. Murhphy's Law always happened to catch us unexpected. Here you are trying to rush out your business proposals, and the printed images have turned out patchy and blurred. In fact, just last week, i thought my 3-in-1 Canon Pixma MP110 has given up on me - each time i pressed "print", the paper will be jammed inside the printer.

I almost sold this printer to old goods collector, until "Always Lovely" came over to help me troubleshoot the printer. It reminded me to NOT kick the printer as yet. What we need to do is to check the print cartridges to see if they might be dirty and need a spot of housekeeping.Cartridge nozzles tend to get dirty after a few months of use. When that happens, printing quality suffers.

To clean the ink cartridges, click the Maintenance or Services tab on your printr driver. Select the Clean cartridge option. The printer will automatically clean the nozzles of the cartridge. If the blurry images persist, you may be out of oink. Just replace the cartridge.

Want to Find Cheap Deals To Travel Europe?

I was reading the papers today and found out about an interesting short article contributed by Stephanie Gwee in Digital Life. It introduces Eurocheapo.com where we can get insider tips on how to stretch our dollars while travelling in Europe.

We can sleep cheap, eat thrifty and traipse around on a budget, anywhere from Amsterdam to Salzburg to Munich. There are loads of information on transportation options, restaurants and stores for those on a shoe-string budget.

In addition to that, editors of that website shared some unannounced budget hotels all around Europe and pen reviews of the place. It gives opnions on service standards to food quality. All the hotels are clustered neatly by its easy to comb through the list.

It is really a very comprehesive yet simple site to go through. Europe, here i come
!

Recommended Books (Self Mastery) - Tuesday with Morrie

This is a simple book with simple messages. It's a reminder to appreciate the simple, little things in life. It's a reminder that when you're dead, the things you've accumulated and the things you've done will disappear. What will remain is the ways that you've affected or touched other people.

Live fully and in the moment. Treat others with respect, kindness, love, and dignity. Seek joy. However, these messages are easily lost given the constantly increasing pressures we all face. This book is a guide to a way that you can live your life where you'll be able to look back at the end and feel peace and contentment.

This is the true story of a man who spends the last weeks of his life leaving a message through recorded interviews with one of his students. The resulting book has luckily reached the world and graced the New York Times Bestseller list for well over a year.

Morrie is dying a disease known as ALS and his student Mitch, the author of this book has come back to spend quality time with him after 16 years spent in the business world. "Tuesday mornings" is their time together and Morrie, though paralyzed and gasping for every breath, is imparting knowledge till the end.
Over the years he has found a purpose and how to fill his life with joy. He has learned that it is not the material things in life that make it worthwhile, but the people and the giving, the feeling of being whole and a connection to the universe through participation.

This remarkable book is a best seller and continues to stay on the best seller list because in my opinion most people down deep understand the truth of Morrie's basic philosophy that people living exclusively in a materialistic world generally do so to replace what they feel is missing from their lives even though they may not be consciously aware, at the moment, of what precisely is "missing." I found out what I missed after spending some quality time with myself reading couple of such Self-Mastery book.

I encouraged you to read this book with an open heart and an open mind.

Experience a different kind of life,
Sean

Recommended Book (Self Mastery) - An Hour to Love, An Hour to Love

Below is Richard Carlson's favourite poem, by Norma Cornett Marek titled:



"If Tomorrow Never Comes"

If I knew it would be the last time
that I'd see you fall asleep,
I would tuck you in more tightly
and pray the Lord, your soul to keep.

If I knew it would be the last time
that I see you walk out the door,
I would give you a hug and kiss
and call you back for one more.

If I knew it would be the last time
I'd hear your voice lifted up in praise,
I would video tape each action and word,
so I could play them back day after day.

If I knew it would be the last time,
I could spare an extra minute or two
to stop and say "I love you,"
instead of assuming you would KNOW I do.

If I knew it would be the last time
I would be there to share your day,
well I'm sure you'll have so many more,
so I can let just this one slip away.

For surely there's always tomorrow
to make up for an oversight,
and we always get a second chance
to make everything right.

There will always be another day
to say our "I love you's",
And certainly there's another chance
to say our "Anything I can do's?"

But just in case I might be wrong,
and today is all I get,
I'd like to say how much I love you
and I hope we never forget,

Tomorrow is not promised to anyone,
young or old alike,
And today may be the last chance
you get to hold your loved one tight..

So if you're waiting for tomorrow,
why not do it today?
For if tomorrow never comes,
you'll surely regret the day,

That you didn't take that extra time
for a smile, a hug, or a kiss
and you were too busy to grant someone,
what turned out to be their one last wish.

So hold your loved ones close today,
whisper in their ear,
Tell them how much you love them
and that you'll always hold them dear,

Take time to say "I'm sorry," "please forgive me,"
"thank you" or "it's okay".
And if tomorrow never comes,
you'll have no regrets about today

Recommended Books (Self Mastery) - An Hour to Live, An Hour to Love

It has been sometime since you last hear from me, perhaps close to 2 weeks. I was down with a persistent flu bug that kept me away for a long while. The medicine that was prescribed by Doctors did not make it any better - they made me so drowsy each day. For now, i am just glad that i am back to normal health.

During that period that i was bed-ridden, i received a gift - a non-fiction book that is supposed to keep me company while i am still on the bed. The book is "An Hour to Live An Hour to Love", by the Bestselling Author of "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff", Richard Carlson & his wife Kristine Carlson. It is a small book with only 61 pages to read, but, the it is a profoundly moving book that shows the importance of treasuring each day as the incredible gift it is.

Richard Carlson's sudden, tragic death in December 2006 left millions of fans reeling, but even their many letters, calls, and emails couldn't erase the loss felt by his wife Kristine. To try to come to terms with her loss, she poured over 25 years of love letters, reliving the memories and cherishing her late husband's memory.

But one letter stood out. Richard had written to his wife on their 18th wedding anniversary and attempted to answer the question:

"If you had one hour to live and could make just one phone call,

Who would you call?

What would you say?

Why are you waiting?"

This book is certainly a great gift to someone you love, someone you cherished, or simple to someone that you have neglected all this while. Just as Kristine put it in her book:

"I hope that you pass this on to someone special and remember what Richard said often: "You will be remembered most, not from your accomplishments in life, but for how well you lived and how much love you carried in your heart." Treasure the gift of life, and enjoy this true story of the best gift ever given."

Recommended Book (Self Mastery) - For One More Day

I got this book as a gift from my soulmate. It was a great surprise for me when she passed the book to me on a special occasion. Reading through another of Mitch Albom’s classic brings out another surprise to me….the “surprise” how much we have neglect our love ones. I ask myself after finishing up the book – should I love and forgive after those people I love are no longer around? Yes. I have found my answer.

For One More Day is a magnificent story of love, forgiveness and redemption. The story is about the Benetto family as retold by Chick Benetto after recovering from an attempted suicide. In the retelling of his family's story we meet Chick's parents, sister, wife and daughter. Secrets are revealed through supernatural encounters and love is restored to a soul that wasn't sure it deserved it.

Highly recommended for people that are so crazily chasing the tangibles in this life, and have neglected people that they love around them.

Recommended Book (Self Mastery) - The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Such a small book but what a big message it sends to the reader. THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN by Mitch Albom is the follow up novel to his very popular TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE. Both have similar themes - living and dying - but HEAVEN takes on a different approach. This is a book I want to share with everyone!

I got this book when someone recommended it to me and when I started reading it I couldn't put it down. It leaves you wondering if you ever made a difference in someone's life here on earth. Then it makes you wonder who the five people you will meet in heaven are. This book was truly inspirational. It makes you want to go out into the world and try and make as big as impact on people's lives.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven is an amazing novel that blooms with surprises as it explores a mystery only heaven can unfold. It explores the meaning of our lives on earth and how lives and their incidences overlap with those of others. Heaven holds the secret that one affects the other and the other affects the next, in a circle, in a loop, in which all endings are also beginnings.

The message I got from Mitch Albom at the end was that Eddie could have been anyone of us and that we do not need to wait for our turn to meet our five people in heaven to recognise that whatever we are doing now has meaning and has purpose in wonderful and beautiful ways and that we should never allow ourselves to belittle our lives.

I recommend anyone to read this book whether you believe in heaven or not, and whatever religious group that you belong to. It's an absolutely amazing book.

Enjoy the process in this lifetime,
Sean

Poker as a Sport In Olympic Games ?

(Pix By MichelleCan)

Contrary to popular belief that Poker is purely about gambling, it is a sport that is widely recognized worldwide.
Poker is seen as a sport in the same way billiards, chess bowling, and golf are not athletic sports but sports nevertheless.

Bridge is an Olympic sport and there is talk of poker being accepted into the International Olympic Committee. Singapore has also allowed Betfair to host online poker tournaments to qualify for the Singapore Asian Poker Tour. Hence, it is clear that poker is does not mainly revolve around gambling as a lot of thinking skills are required to play this game.

Dr Barry Blight, who worked as a lecturer (a great statistician)at the London School of Economics, has carried out research into the extent of skill involved in games.

He said: "There is a great deal of skill in poker. It's a combination of two types of skill, assessing the chances of the cards and the bluffing skill, it's very complex.

"Working out the probability of cards is a small part of the game.

"It's very difficult to define skill in games. If players can make a decision that can affect the outcome of the game, then it involves skill.

"There are a lot of decisions in poker; involving the cards and the mood of the opponents."

Train The Trainer Program Certification

As mentioned in my earlier posts, I have just completed my 5-days Intensive Train The Trainer program at Singapore Expo, Singapore. It was not as easy as I initially expect it to be. The program is really intensive, with lots of on-the-spot practice and very short breaks in-between. There are also instances that we are asked to go to the stage (in front of 540 people) to practice what we have learned just a few minutes ago. Awesome event! Here is the Train the Trainer Certification to inspire myself to give the best values of knowledge to my students:


Being a trainer can be one of the most exciting and fulfilling professions on the planet, but if you’re missing some critical knowledge and skills, it can be a major struggle which is why most people in the training and speaking arena are poor presenters.

I understand that the secret to success in this business is to learn from the masters – people who speak to groups of hundreds or thousands at a time. The only problem is that most trainers in this category would never reveal their innermost secrets to success and the psychology behind every move they make. T. Harv Eker, with his team of master facilitators, will. That is the reason that I signed up for it and it is well-worth the dollars.The Train the Trainer Certification program has increase my confidence in this arena by a thousand-fold.

Here is just a portion of what I have learned:
• Designing a powerful program from A-Z.
• How to control the energy in the room.
• A proven blueprint to market your seminars and yourself as a speaker/trainer.
• How to use “Accelerated Learning” techniques so your participants learn faster and remember more.
• A step-by-step process for getting started and making sure my students will enjoy their class

This program is going to change my life – personally and professionally.

Millionaire Mind Intensive by T.Harv Eker

I just came back from a 5-days Intensive program by T. Harv Eker known as TRAIN THE TRAINER I. It was an AWESOME event that will certainly stay with my for life. Before i talked more about this program, i was reminded by Harv Eker on this saying: “If you don’t use it, You will loose it!”. This make me realized that i have not done something that i told myself to do late last year when i have attended the Millionaire Mind Intensive when T. Harv Eker first came to Singapore. That is to share with people that knows me.

That was the 1st time that T.Harv Eker and his crew from Peak Potentails (from North America) actually bring programs to Asia. This was the Millionaire Mind Intensive in Singapore on Dec 07. T.Harv Eker went from zero to millionaire in only 21/2 years using the principles he now teaches. He combines his unique brand of “street-smarts with heart” with a team of deicated and energetic people to provide courses that change lives.

Eker is also the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling book: Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth, the perfect introduction to some of the key wealth mangement methods taught in the Millioanaire Mind Intensive. The book has been translated into 26 languages and has shown people all around the world how to create total financial freedom. I will do a book review of the book soon.

This video shows T. Harv Eker and Rob trying to demonstrate the INTENSE BREAKTHROUGH LEARNING. There is a FEAR in us, subconsciously, and this is the Thing that is preventing us from maximizing our potentials. Here, T.Harv Eker shows us how to break our Fear metaphor by breaking a 1cm diameter arrow with our neck.

The principle is simple: If you want to change how you deal with your finances on the outside, you’re going to need to change how you think about money. You are going to have to learn the “inner game” of wealth building. By going within, make the changes, and your outer world will manifest what you choose. The video below shows how i personally overcame the arrow and this overcame the FEAR inside me for success.

Train The Trainer Program by T.Harv Eker

Dear avid readers,

Just want to let you know that you will be hearing less from me for the next 2 days as i will be away for a 5-Days Intensive Bootcamp on "Train The Trainer" program organized by Singapore Success Resources and North America PeaK Potentials Inc. In fact, today is already the 3rd day of the event and i must say that the program is AWESOME! I have learnt new ways to engage, motivate the people and find new strategies to help people to better relate the Chemistry Theories to everyday lifes, so that they can learn Chemistry in a "natural" and enjoyable fashion.





This bootcamp is high in energy and there are just some outrageous things that we are doing (yes! not just learning alone)that i felt it might be the best motivational and training course i ever been too. I had just done an outrageous performance on stage of about 100 people. Feeling is AWESOME at this moment, having completed my performance. WOW! Share with you the video (on youtube) real soon. Stay tuned.






Time now is 1.50am and i have only managed to reach my house and change to my sleeping "suit". This program is really intensive -It starts at 9am in the morning and will end each day at 12.30 am in the wee hours. Physically, i am tired but mentally and emotionally, i am super-charged up. I just can't wait to learn more in the next 2 days and impart my skills in my coaching program to help people further. It is worth it!

Alright, time for me to go rest as i need to wake up at 6.30am. Please continue to provide me your feedbacks and i will be back to active blogging in 2 days time.

Cheers
Sean