Enlarge. Excel. Evolve.

"She Was His Nirvana" And Other Stories on Love

2018-12-23T13:00:00.000+05:30

She was his Nirvana

“In the emptiness, you will find all that you desire, and all that you deserve”, she said and smiled.

“Will I also find unconditional love there?” he asked.

“When you will send some, it will bounce back double in size”, she answered.

She was a little sage indeed.

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“I am Serendipity”

“Ms Wisdom, where do I find serendipity?” he asked her.

“Chant the mantra, ‘I am serendipity’ and become serendipity in someone’s life. And then”, she paused.

“And then what?” he was bit by the curiosity bug.

“And then watch the dance of the Universe. Watch the flow of serendipity”, she smiled her mystical smile once again.
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“A Quantum Leap”

“Enough of step by step progress. I wish to take a quantum leap now”, he told the little sage.

“I always take quantum leaps. And the Universe too leaps by my side matching my rhythm”, she answered and then jumped.

She was a Zen story. She was a beautiful Zen story.
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“Twin Flame”

“You are my twin flame. And our relationship keeps switching from intensely passionate to intensely painful”, he sounded perplexed.

“I am your blessing. I am your lesson.” she replied and whispered, “And I am your Nirvana too”.

“Indeed, you are my journey. You are my destination”, he had finally begun to enjoy the questions.

No wonder he had nicknamed her, “The Little Sage”.
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“You are my Mirror”

“When I talk to you, I become aware of my strengths. When I chat with you I see my weaknesses. Are you my mirror or what?” he asked her.

“Yes I mirror your deepest desires, needs, and fears. I can also sense you feelings and moods” she answered.

“Sometimes I also experience flashes of inspiration and I suddenly know facts about you that I have never known before”, he replied.

“Perhaps you are my mirror too”, she smiled softly.

“Nice to know that ‘Ms Little Sage’. You appreciate me silently, when you speak my language and talk my vocabulary”, he laughed.

She preferred to be his constructive critic and did not appreciate him at his face.
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“I admire your Magnificence. I understand your Mess”

“You always admire my magnificence, but don’t you get tired of my mess? Don’t you get tired of my paradoxes?” she asked him. She was neither scared of brutal honesty nor vulnerability.

“I have my own paradoxes, my own mix of magnificence and mess”, he replied with equal brutal honesty.

“I do express my irritation with that sometimes” she shot back.

“That’s a choice you make. We are here to resolve our paradoxes, we are here to resolve our contradictions. Isn’t it?”

“Indeed. Till we find our Nirvana”, she was quick witted.
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“A Flicker of Light”

“Ms Little Sage, you came as a flicker of light in my life. Yet you have ended up as my enlightenment”, he appreciated her on her face once again.

“We are all enlightened souls covered with a foolish mind. We are all light bulbs covered with dust. I just helped you clear your dust”, she sounded modest.

“Are you the last step in my soul’s journey? Are you my last bond before I break free into Nirvana?” he posed his next question.

“As your soul chooses to flow. If you would you like to spread the light around you, I may join as your purpose partner and we will light up one soul after another like the lamps of Deepawali”, she was a strange mix of the soft and the strong.

“Oh that would be fun.

Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my friend”, he flashed his most winning smile.

“Two enlightened souls are friends for sure. They don’t need leaders. They don’t need followers”, she was not interested in dominating anyone perhaps.

And they began to walk into the light.
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Brief Profile

Dr Amit Nagpal is a business storyteller with a special interest in personal brand storytelling on social and online media. Inspirational storytelling of people is close to his heart and he likes to pen short stories on wisdom and love in his spare time. He has co-authored Amazon bestseller, “Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond”.

“From Marketer to Professor to Storyteller”, the six words tell his life story. He has been on a journey from unconscious storytelling in childhood to conscious storytelling in adulthood. He believes storytelling is omnipotent and can inspire, heal and build both brands and bonds.

To know more visit www.dramitnagpal.com.

What the Best Mentors Do?

2018-11-17T18:44:00.000+05:30

I was recently invited to speak on, “What best mentors do?” to a group of mentors / facilitators from Argentina who had come for a training program at School of Social Entrepreneurship India.

The session was organized at the scenic Zorba The Buddha, which is an oasis in itself in the Delhi NCR region.

I divided my session into six parts viz.

Mentoring Styles
Understanding Expectations
Asking Powerful Questions
Deeper Engagement
Monitoring Mentee Performance
Pillars of Mentor Mentee Relationship

A) Mentoring styles

I began with a discussion on the five major mentoring styles:-

1) Challenger- The mentor pushes the mentee and asks hard questions.

2) Cheerleader- The mentor encourages and even in case of a mistake points out to the mentee the learning from the mistake

3) Educator- The mentor teaches/ trains the mentee after understanding the mentee’s deficiencies.

4) Ideator- The mentor encourages and pushes the mentee to ideate, dream and brainstorm.

5) Connector- The mentor helps the mentee in networking with the right people-online or offline.

B) Understanding each other’s expectations

The mentor and the mentee need to understand the expectations of each other and in case there is a misfit or misalignment, the mentor can be changed in the initial stage itself. In case one of them feels that the expectations are unrealistic, the same needs to be communicated immediately to redefine the expectations.

To measure and monitor the mentee performance, the mentor can use CAV approach (refer to point E)

C) Asking right questions in the right way

The mentor and mentee need to be matched properly keeping in mind the mentoring style of the mentor and learning style of the mentee.

The mentor asks powerful thought provoking questions to push the mentee to introspect, understand areas of personal development and the relevant actions required to overcome weaknesses.

D) Deeper engagement for a fulfilling partnership

Once rapport is established between the mentor and the mentee, the two need to find ways to deepen the engagement and make it even more mutually beneficial exercise.

This step requires deeper understanding of each other’s preferences, personalities, needs, motivations and emotions.

E) Monitoring Mentee Performance (CAV approach)

To measure the performance of the mentee, CAV approach (Challenges, Actions and Victories) can be used. In the CAV process, the challenges/ goals are defined, actions are planned and milestones of progress (victory) are set by the mentee in consultation with the mentor.

The exercise helps in deepening the engagement also as the mentor identifies the weaknesses and deficiencies. The mentee contributes to the exercise by explaining the support required from the mentor to overcome weaknesses and deficiencies.

F) Four Pillars of Mentor –Mentee Relationship

Trust- The mentee needs to trust the mentor with the back story, personal issues which impact professional life etc.

Perspective- Both mentor and mentee need to understand, respect and appreciate each other’s perspective.

Observation- The mentor and mentee need to observe each other keenly to deepen the understanding of each other. The mentee can use this understanding to get the best out of the mentor by creating synergies or a mutually beneficial relationship.

Tough Love- Usually it is good to practice tough love (except when the mentee has a high level of self discipline / maturity). According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, tough love is love or affectionate concern expressed in a stern or unsentimental manner especially to promote responsible behavior.

Why Managing People is like Herding Cats- Conclusion

Warren Bennis has written a famous management book, “Managing People is like herding cats”. If we interpret the meaning it says, “Cats cannot be herded and people cannot be managed”. The uniqueness of each individual needs to be understood and appreciated and based on that a suitable leadership style has to be used.

The mentor needs to understand the uniqueness of the mentee, and accordingly decide an appropriate style, tools and approaches. The mentor can also change the style depending upon the situation.

I noted "Sometimes you will stumble upon a mentee wiser than you.
Give them the respect and appreciation that is their due" and concluded with a story:-

There was once a pair of acrobats. The teacher was a poor man and the student was a young girl by the name of Meda. These acrobats performed each day on the streets in order to earn enough to eat.

Their act consisted of the teacher balancing a tall bamboo pole on his head while the little girl climbed slowly to the top. Once to the top, she remained there while the teacher walked along the ground.

Both performers had to maintain complete focus and balance in order to prevent any injury from occurring and to complete the performance. One day, the teacher said to the pupil:

'Listen Meda, I will watch you and you watch me, so that we can help each other maintain concentration and balance and prevent an accident. Then we'll surely earn enough to eat.'

But the little girl was wise, she answered, 'Dear master, I think it would be better for each of us to watch ourself. To look after oneself means to look after both of us. That way I am sure we will avoid any accidents and earn enough to eat.'

Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing

2018-08-22T18:24:00.000+05:30

Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing

Publisher, IGI Global, USA

Global Release- September, 2018

Editors : Dr Pratika Mishra and Dr Swatti Dham

I am honored to contribute a chapter on "Understanding the psychology of new media audiences from a marketing perspective" in the upcoming book by IGI Global entitled, "Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing". The book will be released globally in September 2018.

The Story Behind the Book

Advergames lie at the intersection of interactive games and digital advertising. It creates a win win situation for the advertiser/ marketer who gets a chance to promote the products and the game player who gets a chance for entertainment and fun. Gaming is also potent as it creates a competitive spirit in the player and its high level of engagement makes it a powerful marketing tool.

The book takes a deep dive into the application of gaming in new media marketing. It has contributions from both academicians and practitioners and the manuscript was also reviewed by a pioneering practitioner and founder of advergames.com Anthony M. Giallourakis.

About the Book

The topics covered in the book include Digital Advertising, Gamification, Mobile Games, Optimal Gaming Experience, New Media Audience Psychology, Social Media Marketing and Virtual Reality. The Foreword to the book has been written by Anthony M. Giallourakis who has coined the term Advergames (and is also founder of the Original Advergames.com.)

Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing is a collection of vital research on the methods and applications of gaming in marketing, including its growth, recent trends, practices, issues, and main challenges. Highlighting a range of topics including digital advertising, media planning, and social media marketing, the book is designed for marketers, software developers, managers, business researchers, academicians, and graduate-level students seeking current research on new and innovative methods to reach and connect with audiences through games in a highly interactive, measurable, and focused way.

Contributors

Some of the chapters in the book and their contributors include:-

1. Advent of New Media Marketing Techniques: The Inevitable Disruption

Harshita Gupta, Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad, India

Saumya Singh, Indian Institute of Technology, Dhanbad, India

2. Food Advergames and Children: The Psychodynamics

Tanusree Chakraborty, Presidency University Bangalore, India

Raiswa Saha, SRM University, India

3. Gap Between Mobile and Online Advergames: The Possible Effects of the Optimal Gaming Experience-Flow

Tugce Ozansoy Çadırcı, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey

Aysegul Sagkaya Gungor, Isik University, Turkey

4. Nuances of Media Planning in New Media Age

Anandan Pandiyan Pillai, Performics. Resultrix, India

5. Click to Brick: Case Study of a Virtual Reality Company

Abhishek Gupta, GreyKernel Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., India

Abhishek Goyal, GreyKernel Technologies India Pvt. Ltd., India

6. Social Media as a Marketing Tool

Rajeshwari Krishnamurthy, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India

7. Gamification to Promote the Engagement in Healthcare and Wellness of Patients Under Therapeutic Care: Gamification and Healthcare

Surendra Prasad Mishra and Others, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, India

My Contribution

I have contributed Chapter 7 of the book entitled, “Understanding the Psychology of New Media Audiences From a Marketing Perspective”. This chapter evaluates how the psychology of audiences changes while they are evaluating products under the influence of traditional media versus their response to the marketers on new media. The chapter attempts to answer several questions such as :-

Do new media/ online audiences have similar psychology and behavior as offline audiences or is it different? If yes why is the psychology of new media audiences different from the audiences of traditional media? Why do marketers need to understand new media audience psychology to be effective?

The chapter looks at major aspects of psychology of new media users and corresponding actions which marketers need to take. For example it is easier to compare lifestyles on social media sites likes Facebook and Instagram and social media fuels the human tendency for social comparison. The users also tend to seek reassurance and validation from their network especially the first degree network. The marketer needs to keep in mind the human tendency for social comparison while designing campaigns.

To know more, you can click here:-

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Dr Amit Nagpal, Chief Blogger, Enlarge Excel Evolve

Murtaza Ali Khan- Biryani With Blogger II

2018-05-20T13:20:00.000+05:30

"Biryani with Blogger" is a series on blogger interviews where Chief Blogger, Enlarge Excel Evolve Dr Amit Nagpal chats with prominent bloggers of the world over a plate of Biryani.

The second interview in the series is with leading film review blogger of India Murtaza Ali Khan

Dr Amit Nagpal -After doing an MBA in Marketing, how come you decided to be a film review blogger? Please share your journey in brief.
Murtaza Ali Khan -I got introduced to the world of cinema during my second year of engineering. Soon I started reviewing movies on IMDB.Com. After completing my graduation I joined a leading IT company which took me to Chennai. While in Chennai, I got to watch a bunch of newly released Hollywood movies like Inception, Salt, Knight and Day, among others. It was during this time I started toying with the idea of taking up film reviewing as a full-time profession. It was quite tough managing time in Chennai as I was not only working full-time as an IT professional but I was also simultaneously preparing for MBA. After working for about a couple of years in the MNC I quit to pursue my MBA from Delhi Technological University. It was during the first year of MBA that I got introduced to the power of digital marketing and social media. Yes, I had been using social media since my engineering days but it was only during my MBA that I actually began to understand its true potential. The fact that we managed to organize a couple of highly successful national level events at the university during the first year itself with the help of Facebook proved to be a real eye-opener. I realized that posting reviews on IMDb wasn’t enough. I needed an independent platform. Now I had a personal blog which I rarely used. So I decided to revamp it as a movie blog. The first thing that I did was to republish all my IMDb reviews on the blog and within a month I had 10,000 hits from all around the globe. Within months my blog’s traffic quadrupled and I knew I was not blogging in vacuum.

Dr Amit- Which are your favourite genres in international and Hindi cinema? Name one favourite film in each genre.

Murtaza- Western and Film Noir are my favorite genres. And in many ways they are exact opposites. While one deals with hope the other is all about cynicism. The interesting thing about these genres is that over the years they have found new ways of keeping themselves relevant. While Film Noir has made way for Neo Noir, Western has made way for Revisionist Western. In Indian cinema we will see Film Noir influences right from early Guru Dutt films like Baazi and Jaal to more recent films like Manorama Six Feet Under and Mithya. As for the Western genre you will see its influences on films like Sholay to more recent ones like Gangs of Wasseypur and Babumoshai Bandookbaaz. While my all time favorite Western film is Once Upon a Time in the West, my favorite Film Noir is Touch of Evil.

Dr Amit - Name three favourite directors of yours and what makes them your favourite?

Murtaza - My three favorite most directors are Akira Kurosawa (Japan), Andrei Tarkovsky (Russia), and Satyajit Ray (India).

I adore Kurosawa for his storytelling brilliance that transcends the barriers of genre and language. While he made Samurai epics like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo he was equally capable of making Shakespearean adaptations like Throne of Blood and Ran. He could make minimalistic masterworks like Dersu Uzala and mystery thrillers like Nora Inu and High and Low. The visuals in his films are so powerful that they are impossible to forget.

I love Tarkovsky for his brilliant long takes. Unlike Kurosawa, he often dealt with complex themes and subjects. In fact, his films like Solyaris and Stalker are amongst the most complex films ever made. Apart from employing complex themes his films are also marked by allegory and symbolism to counter the Soviet censorship at the time. His film like Andrei Rublev and The Mirror are perfect examples of this.

As for Satyajit Ray, I don’t think that any other Indian filmmaker has done more than Ray to popularize Indian cinema to the whole world. Ray’s filmography consists of masterworks like Jalsaghar, Nayak, Pather Panchali, Shatranj Ke Khilari, Kanchenjungha, etc. It’s difficult to think of another filmmaker whose humanistic works left such a strong impression on audiences the world over.

Dr Amit - Why did you name your blog A Potpourri of Vestiges ? Please share the story.

Murtaza - Well, actually the name “A Potpourri of Vestiges” translates to a collection of memories. That’s exactly how I see movies… as a collection of memories. Actually, I had earlier given the name to a facebook photo album featuring my college buddies.

Dr Amit - What role can traditional media like TV and newspapers play in making cinema more effective as an instrument of social change?

Murtaza - I feel a lot of the times we tend to overlook the true power of cinema. I have always believed that cinema is the most powerful means of communication ever devised because the message propagated through cinema can reach everywhere and to everyone. I think we are yet to tap its true potential and media (both traditional as well as new media) has a very important role to play in it.

Dr Amit- What are the strengths and weaknesses of Bollywood vis-a-vis Hollywood?

Murtaza- We all know that Hollywood is nigh unparalleled when it comes to its big budgets and the use of technology. But, I believe Bollywood’s biggest strength is how it seamlessly employs song and dance into storytelling. Now, Hollywood too has an entire genre called the Musical dedicated to dance and music but I feel Bollywood’s approach is far more natural. Now, I am not really a big fan of item numbers but if you look at the Hindi films over the years you will notice several examples wherein the song and dance sequences actually allow the film’s narrative to flow seamlessly. Often these sequences allow the protagonists to express themselves in the manner that normal dialogues wouldn’t allow. Also, as Elleke Boehmer and Stephen Morton explain in their book Terror and the Postcolonial with reference to the movie Dil Se: “The songs and their exotic locations in the film were very important in masking the impossible reconciliation between the two protagonists by evoking pure fantasy though the phenomenon called the liminal space of dreaming.”

Dr Amit- Anything else you would like to share with our readers.

Murtaza- All I would like to add here is that in today’s competitive environment it is passion that is the single most important thing needed to thrive as a professional. We should only do things that we are passionate about. Doing a thing for the sake of it is just not good enough. Maybe there was a time when we could have survived doing something we hated but that’s a thing of the past. In today’s cutthroat times it is only through passion that we can truly excel. Success may not be immediate but if you have the passion then sooner or later you will attain it.

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Murtaza Ali Khan is a Film Critic, Columnist, and Blogger @ A Potpourri of Vestiges, HuffPost and Cafe Dissensus. His blog has won several awards and ranks No 2 in film review category on Alexa across the world.

To know more about his blog and him visit- A Potpourri Of Vestiges

"A New Dictionary" and Other Stories on Wisdom and Life

2018-05-08T09:52:00.002+05:30

Mini Stories on Wisdom, Love and Life

"A New Dictionary"

"Stop using these terms viz. scarcity, office politics, Monday blues, pain, pressure, mind games and so on. Throw away the old dictionary as I am going to gift you a new one", he told her.

"And what terms are there in the new dictionary?", she asked inquisitively.

"The new dictionary will have a completely different set of terms. Abundance, collaboration, Unconditional love, healing, passion, soul, serendipity and so on", he replied.

And together they began a new journey into a new world.
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"Single Child"

"Why are you lost in thoughts so often?", he asked her.

"You can never understand me. You have never experienced the kind of loneliness I have been through as a single child", she replied.

"Human story is a story of loneliness. Everyone experiences It, be it for hours, days or years. Yet the only solution is to move from loneliness to aloneness because nobody can be by our side all the time", he continued.

"I thought loneliness and aloneness were more or less same", she was prompt.

"They are as same as fire and water. Loneliness is painful but aloneness is joyful. Loneliness or aloneness is a choice we need to make. Only when we love ourselves and our company we can be alone and joyful", he explained.
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"You be You. Because I am I"

"Finally I can be I now", she told her coach

"And what does that mean?", he was impressed as well as surprised with her new found confidence.

"Finally I am comfortable in my skin. I am comfortable with myself. Some personality traits I have worked & improved upon and rest of them I have accepted gracefully", she replied with an inner confidence that inspires.

What made her truly charismatic now was the natural way & ease with which she carried herself. Surprisingly even camera couldn't make her conscious anymore.

She left everyone in a state of Awww now....yes in awe of her authenticity.....and in awe of her magic.
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The Playful Smile

"What is so special about my smile? So many people have beautiful smiles.", she asked.

"There is something playful about your smile which makes it special", he knew the answer well.

"Are you trying to say that I have a naughty smile?", she liked to cross question.

"Children have naughty smiles. Adults have playful smiles", he answered.
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"In Love With Life"

"You are writing lot of romantic stuff these days. Are you in love with someone?", she asked him.

"I am always in love. Sometimes in love with a person, sometimes with nature, sometimes with inner divine and .........sometimes with the life itself", he replied without an after thought.

"Ahaan. So that's the story", she smiled.
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"Were You a Professor in Previous Birth?"

He- Were you a professor in your previous birth? You are such an intellectual, books lover and an old head on young shoulders....a professor in so many ways.

She (innocently)- How do I know what was I in my previous birth?

He- (starts laughing) I was just pulling your leg.

She- Oh really.

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Brief Profile

Dr Amit Nagpal is a business storyteller, bestselling author and digital storytelling coach. He specialises in brand storytelling (on social media) and executive presence. You can write to him at amit@dramitnagpal.com.

“The Vibes in the Photo” and other Stories on Vibes

2018-05-08T09:25:00.000+05:30

Mini Stories on Wisdom and Life

"Vibes"

"Your vibes are so positive and calm. In fact I get conscious about my vibes in your company", he complimented her.

"Thanks for the compliment. But why should you get conscious. I didn't get that", she asked.

"Your vibes make me wonder how positive my vibes are. That's it. That is the second compliment in fact", he replied.

"Oh really?", she grinned with a wide smile.
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"The Vibes in the Photo"

"Ehhh, just look at this photo.
Your friend on your left has a really beautiful smile.", he told her.

Surprisingly she was not getting jealous, so he continued, "Oh she has a smile almost as beautiful as yours."

"Ahaan" was all she had to say. He had failed to make her jealous inspite of all the sincere efforts. Or may be she was good at hiding her feelings.

He added, "And your other friend on your right, it seems she has faced exceptional struggles in life. Am I right?"

She replied with an astonished look this time, "This is so true. I didn't know, you can read faces also."

He began to laugh, "Every face tells me a story. Actually I can sense the vibes even in a photo and part of my face reading comes from experience."
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"A Calming Energy"

"Your vibes are usually so calming. Your company calms me too", he told her.

"What do you mean by 'usually'?", she asked.

"When you are thinking of me, you tend to get excited. Rest of the time you are calm", he pulled her leg.

"Actually when I am thinking of you, I am the most calm", she was quick witted.

________________________

"Intelligence of the Universe"

"I think both of you are so compatible. Why are you avoiding him?", he asked her.

"I feel too attracted to him. That's why", she promptly replied.

"If you are scared of falling in love, it means you are already in love", he advised.

"Oh no. Don't confuse me further", she sounded puzzled.

"I think your vibes match too much with his vibes. And you must trust the intelligence of the Universe more than your own", he whispered in his soft voice.

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Touch Me Not or Vibe Me Not -A Story of a Super-Sensitive Soul

"Why do I find it so easy to write, yet so difficult to say?", she asked herself.

And she added, "I am feeling so shy, while I am writing this. Why do I find it much easier to describe a kiss than to perform a kiss? I am a funny character for sure."

She was on her annual reflection vacation and what could be better for reflection than the majestically mysterious Himalayas. She kept questioning herself, "But then aren't we all funny and idiosyncratic in our own unique ways? Aren't we all cracked pots with cracks at different places?"

And the reader could imagine and visualize the shy author that she was. From one cursory glance at her photo even an idiot could make out that she was one of those super-sensitive souls.

Touch me not types? No, "Vibe me not" suited her more.

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Interview with Meenu Mehrotra, Relationship Coach

2018-04-30T11:40:00.002+05:30

Meenu Mehrotra is a Relationship Coach. Her coaching style is based on empowering souls to grow & deepen enriching relationships with self & others. She is based in Gurgaon, India.

Dr Amit Nagpal-How can a person improve his or her intuition?
Meenu Mehrotra- Intuition is NOT a gift as perceived by most. It is an inner guidance system which all of us are blessed with but it has to be used to be made strong- just like any other muscle in the body.

The best way to improve intuition is to start listening to your inner voice and act on it, even if it defies logic and reasoning. Intellect has no role here. It’s all about being still and listening to that small, feeble voice that guides you to act in a particular way all the time. Intuition is a whisper and to hear it, one has to go within and be in silence.

Meditation is a great tool to be more intuitive.

Being mindful is another powerful tool to strengthen one’s intuition. Just being aware of what’s going on inside and outside of you, listening to your body- observing the reaction of your body to emotions and feelings can teach you a lot. The signals and signs are everywhere all the time. You just have to be more observant.

Interestingly, one way to improve intuition is to beat the saboteur in you. Saboteur is the part of you that sabotages your empowerment and management of your truth. So each time, you feel like doing something but your saboteur convinces you, “Not now, later”, it is the best time to do it and beat your saboteur. It will improve your self esteem and the higher self esteem you have, the more intuitive you become.

Dr Amit- What are archetypes? How do they help in developing better self awareness and contribute to personal development?

Meenu- Archetypes are your intimate companions, guardians, & allies that provide the foundation for your personality, drives, feelings, beliefs, motivations & actions. Each archetype has a light and shadow side. Archetype is the language through which the divine talks to you. It is a universal pattern of power that you were born with. It’s in your blood & bones.

Each one of us has 12 archetypes and 4 out of these are survival archetypes which are common to all and form the trunk of the tree of rest of the 8 archetypes- Child, Victim, Prostitute & Saboteur.

Getting to know your archetypes gives you a deeper understanding of your light and shadow sides which can further help us understand our relationship with power- what empowers us and what dis-empowers us; where do we hold power and where we lose it- in our relationship to self and with others. Going deep down to know these forces is how we develop self esteem and soul stamina. They test us, strengthen us and give us direction about where the divine wants us to move.

Knowing your archetypes is knowing yourself as never before. We are more than our habits and we can know ourselves deeper only through archetypes, which is the symbolic language of the universe which can decode and discern what heaven is telling us. It accelerates and enriches the type of change that happens in your life because it’s a language that fundamentally maneuvers light and not matter. It heightens self awareness as no other tool of personal development can and is probably most powerful tool to understand self and others & the dynamics of inter-personal relationships.

Dr Amit- What is spiritual healing? How is it different from emotional healing?

Meenu - Spiritual healing is healing from the soul. Its deep and dirty work where you confront your deepest shadows and heal them by using various healing modalities. It is a part of emotional healing and is not separate from it. Deep emotional healing can only stem from spiritual healing. And each time we heal, we heal our ancestors as well. So healing is an empowering way to live and we all need to heal on a daily basis whether we feel we have no apparent reason or issues to do that. It’s like cleansing of the soul on a daily basis just like we clean our homes regularly, even if we do not see any visible dust or muck.

Dr Amit- How can creativity be used as a healing tool?

Meenu- Creativity is about living in the present moment, in the here and now and creation can never happen in the past or future. Whether we draw, paint, write, sculpt or do any other creative job, it has to be birthed in the present moment. And to heal, creativity can be a wonderful and powerful tool. Each time we feel low or depressed, or even if we are dealing with a chronic emotional issue, creating something like drawing, doodling, painting, or writing a poem/ story can bring us right to the present moment and raise our vibration in an instant. And once we pursue this as a regular healing tool, we can raise our vibration as a soul on a permanent basis and we become more open and flexible to receive and give love and heal easily.

Dr Amit-You talk about empowering people especially women. What tools do you use for empowerment of women?

Meenu- There are many tools I use for empowerment- inspiring and motivational talks for breaking their social and mental conditioning, helping them look at everything from a higher dimension; teaching them to be emotionally practical; EFT (emotional freedom technique) ;Meditation techniques; Archetypal consulting, Angel card reading; NLP techniques; Journaling as a healing tool, Energetic shifting through affirmations & chants; Storytelling. I innovate the tools as per the client’s needs. It is more customized than general. Empowerment and healing is an intimate process and different things work for different clients.

Dr Amit- Relationship with self is the foundation of relationship with others. How do you help people build better relationships with themselves and others?

Meenu- Self love is the highest form of love and lack of it is probably the root cause of all relationship issues. So in order to teach people how to love themselves more, one has to facilitate them to develop a higher self esteem, strengthen their soul stamina, teach them ways to deal with their fears & doubts, guide them how to listen to their intuition and be less judgmental and work on their child, victim, saboteur and prostitute archetypes.

It’s all about doing the inner work in order to develop a healthy relationship with your own self first which will organically lead to better relationship with others. It’s about the power and vibration you carry as a coach, that will impact and raise the vibration of your client in return. A client is an exact mirror of the coach so once you are energetically aligned with your client, reaching out and empowering them to become better, higher versions of themselves becomes an enriching journey for the coach as well.

As they say, What I seek, is seeking me. It’s not only the thirsty that craves for water; the water too looks out for the thirsty.

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Media Laws and Ethics- An Introduction to Legal and Ethical Issues in Journalism

2018-04-13T12:45:00.004+05:30

"Media Laws and Ethics-An Introduction to Legal and Ethical Issues in Journalism" is a compilation of chapters by renowned media academicians and journalists. Dr Vartika Nanda is Editor of the book (HOD-Journalism, LSR College for Women) and the Foreword has been written by renowned media expert K.G. Suresh, Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication / IIMC, New Delhi.

The Story Behind the Book

As Dr Vartika Nanda points out in ‘My Word’, the book has been compiled with special focus on the varied dimensions of media ethics and also the complex world of law pertaining to the issues of media. It is an attempt to clear the cobwebs and create a platform where one can open new windows for discussion.

Collaboration and Co-creation are the new norms of digital society. The book is a pioneering attempt in co-creation by bringing academicians and students together. As she points out in the end, “The purpose was to bring the academicians and the students together in the process of learning because it is after all, a mutual exercise. We hope that we have succeeded”.

From the Foreword

The book is a call for soul searching for journalists. Prof KG Suresh discusses the current state of media in India in his Foreword to the book. In the last paragraph, he emphasizes, “The book is a clarion call for soul searching in a profession which has the crucial responsibility of disseminating unadulterated information to one fifth of humanity. The promotion and preservation of ethics is critical to the credibility of the media. As the fourth pillar of democracy, media does not have many options”.

Contributors

The book has 12 chapters by leading academicians and practitioners from the field of media and mass communication.

1. Media Ownership, ‘Paid News’ and Private Treaties ; New Threats to the Public Sphere in India

(Prof Keval J Kumar, Adjunct Professor, MICA, Ahmedabad)

2. Going ‘Live’- A Transformative Phenomenon

(Prof Archana R Singh, Professor & Chairperson, School of Communication Studies, Punjab University, Chandigarh)

3. Constitutional, Legal and Ethical Aspects of Media Trial by TV News Channels
(Dr Susmita Bala, Professor and Head, Department of Journalism & Mass Communication, Delhi Metropolitan Education, IP University, Delhi)

4. Ethical Standards of TV News ; Self Regulation and the Role of News Broadcasters Association (NBA) and Broadcast Editors Association

(Hemant Kaushik, Senior Special Correspondent, Aaj Tak, Academic Head, Broadcast Journalism Programme, India Today Media Institute, New Delhi)

5. Journalistic Dark Arts : Legality and Ethicality of Sting Operations and Phone Tapping

(Charu Chandra Pathak, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, KR Mangalam University, Gurgaon)

6. Constitutional and Legal Aspects of Commercial Speech and Misleading Advertisements

(Dr Ambrish Saxena, Academic Head, Zee Institute of Media Arts/ ZIMA and Zee Institute of Creative Arts/ ZICA)

7. Legal Aspects of Advertising

(Dr Arvind Kumar, Head, Department of Commerce, LSR College for Women, New Delhi)

8. Right to Information; Media and Ethical Perspectives

(Albert Abraham, Assistant Professor of Journalism, Kamala Nehru College, University of Delhi)

9. Social Media and Social Responsibility

(Nawal Kishor Prasad, Indian Information Service, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, New Delhi)

10. Self Regulation in Context of New Media (Social and Online)

(Dr Amit Nagpal, Associate Professor and Head- Department of Media Marketing, New Delhi Institute of Management)

11. Social Media : Freedom of Expression, Legal and Ethical Parameters

(Dr Rachna Sharma, Assistant Professor, Department of Journalism, LSR for Women, New Delhi)

12. Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)

(Dr Archana Kumari, Assistant Professor, Department of Mass Communication and New Media, Central University of Jammu)

Case Studies and Glossary have been compiled by students of LSR College for Women and the students have done an admirable job.

My Contribution

I have contributed a chapter on “Self Regulation in context of New Media (Social and Online). The chapter covers the following areas:-

a) Characteristics of social and online media

b) Need for Self Regulation

c) How do we regulate ourselves

Some of the sub-topics in the last section include self regulation in social media profiles, reflection as a tool for wisdom, authenticity in storytelling and handling sensitive issues.

For further queries, you can write to me at amit@dramitnagpal.com or Dr Vartika Nanda at vartikalsr@gmail.com.

Buy on Amazon

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Dr Amit Nagpal, Chief Blogger, Enlarge Excel Evolve

Are You the Leader You Want to Be

2018-03-06T10:25:00.002+05:30

8th March is celebrated globally as International Women's Day and I thought of celebrating the day by celebrating women leaders.

"Are you the leader you want to be?" is a book by two women leaders who are inspiring hundreds of women by their own example and also earning accolades especially from the leaders in information and technology industries.

Manbir Kaur is an Executive and Leadership Coach based in India and Kathy Mitchell is a Certified Professional Coach currently based in Malaysia.

In this tête-à-tête with Dr Amit Nagpal, Manbir Kaur shares the purpose behind the book and why storytelling is woven in the whole book.

Dr Amit Nagpal- How is leadership in technology sector different from the other sectors?

Manbir Kaur- I have experience working for technology companies and I can definitely say that we in technology get conditioned in a certain way over the years and our brains and styles are greatly influenced by this. Some of us who have been into technology for decades, knowingly or unknowingly see our personal lives also from a project plan’s lens. This is natural and to be expected.

Technology Leaders are in general-Execution focussed, Tech minded, Tangible deliverable focussed and Deadlines driven.

The world of technology is facing a sea of change with AI and Machine learning leading the way. Leaders need to align and truly engage the teams in order to survive this fast paced environment.

Our book presents the HUMAN framework for helping leaders to build great teams.

Dr Amit- You have used story telling to illustrate HUMAN framework, tell us what it is all about?

Manbir- Every component of the HUMAN framework is elaborated using a story of the journey of a leader, Arun, who is struggling to engage his team. Arun is a Project Director, who has recently joined this organisation and has been assigned to a new project. Before this job, he has been successful through his hard work and his personal drive to deliver. This current project, which he has been leading, is much bigger in scope, and he is struggling to deliver. His leader Anupam gives Arun a warning to “Either get in shape or get shipped out”. So, he is under significant pressure to survive.

At this juncture Rohit, a senior colleague, who is also an old friend comes to his rescue and like a guardian angel, helps Arun transform into a great leader using the HUMAN framework. The story covers the journey including self-doubts of Arun, his challenges, the discussions he has with Rohit and how he realizes that great leadership is much beyond running a tight ship.

Dr Amit- Tell us more about HUMAN framework

Manbir- The HUMAN framework is a no-fluff way to help you engage and mobilise your teams when you work for a technology organisation, or if you have been a technologist yourself. This framework works elegantly to take out, to a large extent, the subjectivity and brings in the objectivity and measures around this critical area. HUMAN is a foolproof methodology, which lays down a step-by-step process to take care of your people engagement needs.

i. HUMAN starts with Heeding yourself, helping you to become aware of yourself, starting from within and looking at some fundamental traits such as your trustworthiness, competence, resilience etc. The idea is to enable you to see things from your own perspective.

ii. Once you become more aware of yourself, then Understanding your team members (part of framework) helps you to understand each of the team member.

iii. The Messaging part then helps you start crafting effective messages and communications to engage your team members more effectively at work.

iv. The Acknowledging part of the framework helps you create an effective program around recognizing and motivating your team members.

v. The Nurturing part of the framework will then prepare you to help team members reach their own potential, becoming great leaders by themselves.

In short, the HUMAN framework covers the complete aspects of being a great and effective leader who is known to have the best teams ever.

Dr Amit- Why have you used storytelling to explain your framework?

Manbir-There is no better way of experiencing the framework as a practical experience of a leader in a tough spot. The dialogues between Arun and Rohit will help dispel majority of the doubts that one might have when staring with a new framework. The progress of Arun, week over week and his success in learning the framework and putting it to an effective use, will give the reader an idea of what to expect and how much an effort it might take.

It also brings out practical techniques like “accountability partner” and importance of being honest with the exercises. The story shows the transformational power of the framework.

Dr Amit-Tell us about how you and Kathy complemented each other.

Manbir- Kathy and I have a common interest in helping technology leaders. Both of us are equally passionate about leadership development and acknowledge the lack of specific literature in the technology space. Kathy, with her experience in HR and leadership development, greatly complemented my experience on the business verticals within technology companies.

Kathy was the one who was instrumental in helping to decide the current “coaching style” of the book. Together, we have been on this journey for the past three years and the result of our labour is available today as our book.

Dr Amit- Please share the highlights of your journey with Kathy as co-authors.

Manbir-Journey with Kathy Mitchell has been really amazing. We started working together somewhere in 2014. Without her support this book would not have seen the light of the day. Together we worked hard to make the book to be easy to read, relevant, easy to implement, a no-fluff framework, a handbook that leaders can come back to anytime they want, full of examples, with practical tools etc.

I am proud to say that the book is all that and more. I believe that book can help make a difference to millions of leaders! I hope that we can reach out to all them and help them be their best selves.

Dr Amit- Tell us who should read this book.
Manbir- Anybody who plans to be a great leader, and let’s just keep in mind that Leadership is title agnostic. It doesn’t matter if people report to you or not, if you want to lead people, take them along on the journey to success, you can use this book.

You could be a CEO, a Vice President or a manager, as long you have a need in you, to improve, and help your team improve and make your team ready to face the fast changing environment and still come out winning, you can put the HUMAN framework to use.

Dr Amit- All the best Manbir to you and Kathy for the success of the book.
Manbir- Thanks Dr Amit.

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The book has received excellent reviews from eminent leaders and coaches including Marshall Goldsmith, Kulmeet Bawa, Vijay Rai, Rajan S Mathews, Andy Stevenson, and Ankit Agarwal among others.

Cultivating a Digital Mindset

2018-03-03T18:22:00.000+05:30

Dr Uttara Pattanaik on Digital Mindset

Digital mindset it a set of behavioral and attitudinal patterns which are purpose and value driven, connect people and aim for excellence. The digital transformation calls for a culture that is based on equanimity, collaborative & co-operative approach, open mindedness, gratitude, trust and appreciation.

Defining values and role modelling the same in a consistent manner will build trust, ownership and allow people to walk the extra mile to make the transformation successful.

(Dr Uttara Pattanaik speaking on Digital Mindset at Digital Transformation in Context of New India -The Summit held at NDIM, New Delhi)

In a digital transformation initiative, while technology is the key enabler, the actual critical success factor is culture. It is all about people’s mindset and behaviour. This must be led from top, enabled by HR and constantly reinforced by leadership behavior. Continuous communication at all levels is crucial. It is important for people to understand why digital. A deliberate effort to demystify digital and establish a common understanding in a language that people relate to is a must.

In any organization, through digital transformation, we aim to transform the business, right? The reality is that the business will only transform if your people do. One has to bring people along in this journey. Change is uncomfortable, so one has to continuously remind people why Digital Transformation is required – the market context, business context and client context. It is important that everyone in the company feels that they have a role to play and that they can make a positive impact and can make a difference to the success of the journey. Transparency, open channel of communication, acknowledging difficulties, helping each other can make this journey easier.

Following are the 3 fundamental requirements of a digital mindset:

1- Collaborative Leadership Approach

o Leaders and transformation champions have to be knowledgeable yet empathetic towards the disruptive environment

o Calls for consistent role modelling, equanimity and connectedness

o Encourage an ambidextrous culture that encourages both structured and innovation mindset

o Hold the space for safe environment that allows employee to experiment, learn, share, improvise and customize from real experience.

o Be open, respectful and inclusive – Encourage different mental models with divergent worldviews.

o Be non-judgmental, embrace Diversity / Inclusiveness - Respectful of diverse perspectives

o Encourage people to complement each other, not duplicate

· 2- Openness for learning and change

o Employees must have curiosity for new information

o Continuous and collaborative learning is must.

o Transformation champions must keep it simple, demystify digital transformation and make it relatable to all

o To ensure ownership, explain why it required (market context / business context/client context), relevance to each function and the individual roles and responsibilities in their circle of influence.

o Connecting global views to local is must.

3- Exploration and Risk taking

o Explore beyond the obvious

o Be comfortable with ambiguity

o Be vigilant yet supportive

o Transformation champions while responsible for driving and supporting change, must also assure employees that old will be sustained for stability

o Continuous training, experimentation and improvisation is required.

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Brief Profile

Dr. Uttara Pattanaik is an ICF Certified Leadership & Life Coach, Mentor, Personal Mastery Expert and a Strategic Leadership Advisor. She is the founder of Uttara Pattanaik Consulting Services (UPCS), a organization that enables organizations/teams/Individuals to be their best version.

Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, Uttara worked for 18 years in healthcare industry in senior leadership positions at national & international levels. She leverages her business, leadership, diversity experiences coupled with coaching and NLP skills to enable people to maximize their full potential.

Have you Arrived and Other Stories on Wisdom

2017-12-18T12:23:00.000+05:30

Mini Stories on Wisdom

Have you arrived?"

"How will I come to know that I have arrived and achieved success?", he asked the coach.

" When you develop the courage to laugh at yourself. When your confidence begins to exceed your inferiority complexes, you have arrived in the true sense", the coach answered.
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"Just Few Friends"

"The saying goes, 'Even if you have a thousand friends, you have not a friend to spare.
Even if you have a single enemy you will meet him everywhere'
Don't you think you have very few friends?", he asked her.

"True. I am different with a story of my own. I can only connect with people if I trust them enough to tell my story. And they care enough to listen to it. And I believe you need few friends and many acquaintances", she had a surprising clarity about what she wanted in life.

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"Heart Walls"

"She is such an unemotional person.Why do you make yourself vulnerable by loving such an unexpressive robot?", his friend asked him.

"Nobody is unemotional. People who are the most sensitive build the hardest heart walls as a defense mechanism. They are just too scared of being hurt once more", he replied.

"You are courageous indeed. All the best my dear", the friend replied.

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Lemons, Apples and Coconuts

Life threw lemons, she made lemonade.
Life threw apples and she made juice this time.
Life threw more lemons & apples and she was used to them by now.

And then one day she got tired of life's challenges and badly felt a need for a break.
Yet life didn't give her a break and threw a coconut rather. First time she feared she would break down but surprisingly she didn't.

She had never realised that what didn't kill her was actually making her stronger. One fine day she realised she had become an "Iron lady".

By now even life had got tired of throwing stuff at her. Had she passed the stress interview of life with flying colours?

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"Hints"

"He kept shaking my hand for a pretty long time. 54 seconds to be precise. Was he giving me some hint? Can you enlighten me please?", he asked her.

"Interesting. Probably yes. May be he wants to collaborate closely. Or may be he admires something about you", she replied.

"Admires? Hmm. Are you trying to pull my leg 'Her Highness?'", he smiled.

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Digital is Magical and I am Loving It

2017-12-02T18:12:00.001+05:30

Ten Years of Digital: 2007- 2017

I began my digital journey in 2007 and recently completed ten years in the virtual world. Here are some of the landmark moments of the journey:-

2007
- Started my digital journey with research on New Media (how TV news channels were using social and digital media) as part of my PhD.
- Started active micro-blogging on Orkut and later Facebook

2009

Joined LinkedIn

2010
- Launched blog “Enlarge Excel Evolve”
- Joined Twitter (@DrAmitInspires)
- Awarded PhD (New Media)

2011
- Blog listed on Alltop Business within six months of launch (2nd most popular blog in business category)
- Stories published on reputed media (Forbes.com, Hindustan Times) about my pioneering journey
- Started speaking on Personal Branding and Storytelling at prestigious platforms starting with DMA (and later spoke at PRSI, STC, Headstart Foundation and so on)
- Started corporate training on "Storytelling on social media" with corporate communications team of Accenture.

2012
- My book “The 7 Joys of Life” is launched by renowned statesman Dr Karan Singh
- Included in 100 Most Influential Indians Online by Pinstorm India Influencers
- Launched personal portal (dramitnagpal.com)

2013
- Addressed CIOs on "Spirituality and Personal Branding" at Tata Communications event. Co speakers included Dr Ram Charan.
- Started digital storytelling content development for clients with AL Services team (clients served include Jaipur Rugs, AMA Herbal Laboratories, ODpedia, BRICS Chambers, leading doctors (of Medanta, Artemis Hospital, and Paras Hospital) etc
- Organised 30 day International Story Blogathon with leading storytellers from the world participating in the competition on my Blog.

2014
- Interviewed by Runa Magnus (Iceland) on "Crafting Your Brand Story" (podcast)
- Invited to speak at Google Hangout by Sherry Nouraini (Founder, Captive Touch, USA) on “Building a Personal Brand through Storytelling”
- Launched eBook "I too want to be a Storyteller"
- Enrolled for Story U Online, USA course in business storytelling under leading global voice Michael Margolis. (2014-15)

2015
- Conducted public workshop on "The Power of Storytelling", Holiday Inn, Mumbai (Antworks Education)
- Conducted a webinar on Email marketing through storytelling (organised by Juvlon)
- Interviewed by Lianne Picot, Voice America on "Inspiring through Story"

2016
- Launched our book “Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond” co-authored with Dr Prakash Hindustani (book became an Amazon Bestseller after six months). Multi city launch of the book included Indore, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Surat.
- Conducted workshop on "Personal Branding for Journalists" at Indore Press Club, Indore.
- Conducted Faculty Development Workshop on Digital Storytelling as a Teaching Tool at BIMTech, Greater NOIDA- Organised "Kinship through Storytelling" with Michael Margolis at New Delhi
- Convener, Blogging and New Media Summit, New Delhi Institute of Management

2017
- Invited by ICF/ International Coach Federation (Delhi NCR chapter to conduct a session on “Personal Branding & Inspirational Storytelling for Coaches”
- Received Dr S. Radhakrishnan Memorial National Media Network Award 2017 (social media category)

- Received Blogger of the Year Award from ASMA, Pune

- Guest on “Economy Today talkshow“ on DD News (Using Digital Tools for Startups)
- Led the digital team for Smart India Hackathon 2017 Grand Finale at NDIM #SmartIndiaHackathon became No 1 trend on Twitter for 2 days.
- Convener- Digital Trasformation in context of New India-The Summit, New Delhi Institute of Management

Digital is Magical. And the journey continues.

Biryani with Blogger : Dr Uttara Pattanaik, Executive Coach

2017-12-02T16:32:00.000+05:30

"Biryani with Blogger" is a series on blogger interviews where Chief Blogger, Enlarge Excel Evolve Dr Amit Nagpal chats with prominent bloggers of the world over a plate of Biryani.

The first interview in the series is with Dr Uttara Pattanaik, Executive Coach / Leadership Coach.

Dr Amit - You have a different take on Strategy and Leadership. Can you please explain that?
Dr Uttara- Strategy and Leadership are most over used words in most organization. It is hyped, over-rated and positioned as hierarchical. I look at it differently. According to me, strategy & leadership is central to professional and personal growth. Each one of us, irrespective of where we are and what we do, need to be strategic in our approach and discover our leadership style to maximize our full potential and discharge our responsibilities to the best of our abilities.

Each individual needs to discover their leadership potential in order to be effective. Actually leadership is an attitude and can be acquired. Also, everyone’s leadership style is different and they must adopt a leadership style that fits well with their value system and personality.

Strategy is the path that takes us from where we are now to where we want to be. I do not wish to oversimplify strategy, but would like to emphasize that being strategic is not rocket science. This is a skill that can be learnt and is beneficial for all. The terms tactic and strategy are often confused: tactics are the actual means used to gain an objective, while strategy is the overall campaign plan, which may involve complex operational patterns, activity, and decision-making that govern tactical execution. Strategic planning is a “must have” skill for each individual who wish to grow and evolve. For achieving all important milestones of our life, we do adopt some kind of strategy. Understanding the basics of strategy makes a person effective to achieve more. Also, the strategist has to be responsible for the execution also. Any strategy that is not realistically executable is only a good thought.

Dr Amit- What makes the leaders effective?

Dr Uttara- According to me an effective leader has to have 3 things: Content, Character and Consistency. Content can be acquired, but character is inherent to the person. And consistency can be only practiced if the intent is genuine. In order to demonstrate or deliver the above, a leader must be honest, authentic, high on integrity, must have respect for people while striving for excellence. Only a secured leader can demonstrate these values and virtues, because they are comfortable with their own self, their strengths, vulnerability and state of being. That’s why they can learn, collaborate, share, respect, spread positivity and demonstrate equanimity in the state of chaos.

Dr Amit- In context of collaboration on social media, I say, “it’s all about moving from I, me, mine to you, we, us” What are your thoughts on collaborative leadership style?

Dr Uttara- While “I, me and mine” is important in the context of accepting yourself, self-love, self-care, the collaborative leadership style is all about US, WE, Inclusion, diversity, teamwork, shared learning etc. A collaborative leader also has to respect own self, be comfortable with oneself, but once he / she steps into a leadership role, his job is different. Now it is not about the individual, it is about the people and bringing the best out of them. His job is to create a healthy, transparent, collaborative environment where his people can communicate freely, learn, experiment, take risk, share and excel as a team. Collaborative leaders recognize the importance of interpersonal relationships within a team, as well as the power of collaboration across various functions in an organization to enhance success. Following are key attributes of collaborative leadership style:

Teamwork: A collaborative leader does not control, but rather inspires others and works together as a team.
Flexibility: Collaborative leadership means that the process of decision-making is truly collaborative – it does not have a pre-determined outcome when it begins. One needs high level of flexibility to accept the team decision as long as it is in the best interest of company.
Collaboration: Collaborative leadership is also about breaking down walls and hierarchies, and building close, cross-functional relationships which are based on communication and trust. It requires strong relationship skills, and a great deal of influence to be able to lead a horizontal team – one where the leader does not restrict their focus only to their team, but instead embraces their peers in the wider team.
Transparency: Unless information is shared regularly and openly across an organization, it is not possible to create an atmosphere of trust and collaboration. A collaborative leader ensures that a steady stream of information, updates and business intelligence passes across collaborative teams to facilitate better decision-making, and to improve agility.
Conflict Management: When people are encouraged to openly voice their opinions it is natural that conflicts emerge. A collaborative leader understands that such constructive conflict is necessary for the growth of the organization and for refining rough ideas and improving the end result. In constructive conflicts, the process becomes as important as the end result where individuals come together to redefine or strengthen their relationship for the greater good of all parties involved.

Dr Amit- How does a leader promote success of other people/ team members?
Dr Uttara- A leader’s job is to understand the strengths of each team members and how the combined resources of the team can achieve excellence by complementing each other. The leader must create a transparent, healthy working environment that encourages and empowers team members to discuss their strengths and weaknesses in the context of organizational goal and brainstorm how they can maximize on each other’s strengths to achieve quality result. Open and timely recognition and celebration of individual strengths in the team will encourage each team members to work on their strengths as a pool of combined resources to excel. It also encourages the team to be in a “US” mode, feel strong as a team, understand each other’s leadership styles, respect processes, facilitate shared learning, depend on each other and understand that they are the strongest when they function as a team, not as individuals. This allows the leader to celebrate each team member’s contribution to the end goal, celebrate success, set examples, inspire people to set higher goals, energize people and spread positivity.

Dr Amit- Please share your thoughts on openness in context of leadership.

Dr Uttara- Fairness, openness and consistent behavior of a leader are fundamental to create trust in an organization. Only a secured leader with high integrity and respect for people can demonstrate these behaviors. An organization whose leaders promote openness or transparency, where employees trust each other, have freedom in communication and sense of belongingness, is a happy organization. When people are happy, relaxed and positive, they are more engaged, energized and empowered. Such organizations are bound to create magic!

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Brief Profile

Dr. Uttara Pattanaik is an ICF Certified Leadership & Life Coach, Mentor, Personal Mastery Expert and a Strategic Leadership Advisor. She is the founder of Uttara Pattanaik Consulting Services (UPCS), a organization that enables organizations/teams/Individuals to be their best version.

Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, Uttara worked for 18 years in healthcare industry in senior leadership positions at national & international levels. She leverages her business, leadership, diversity experiences coupled with coaching and NLP skills to enable people to maximize their full potential.

The Journey from Finding Our Passion to Becoming Our Best Version

2017-10-24T19:16:00.002+05:30

A Conversation with Dr Uttara Pattanaik

Dr Uttara, an ICF certified Coach enables organizations/teams/Individuals to be their best version. Let us find out how.

Dr Amit-How does one identify one’s passion?

Dr Uttara- Have you heard of “Ikigai”? Japanese say, Finding and igniting your “Ikigai” or a sense of purpose is the key to living a long happy life. According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai. An ikigai is essentially your reason for BEING or the reason to wake up every morning. This is similar to passion but holds a strong "purposeful" connotation. Ikigai is also believed to be the union of 4 elements: What you love doing, what you are good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for.

According to Ikigai, passion is the outcome of “What you love doing” + “What you are good at (your strengths)” with an overarching purpose, that acts a guiding light throughout your life’s journey. There may be many things that you are good at and also enjoy doing, but there may be few things that give you deep satisfaction, inner joy and a sense of timelessness. These activities when performed for long hours, even in difficult situations or in challenging environments, may drain you physically, but stimulates you mentally, fill your heart with fulfillment, joy, containment, a sense of calmness and you look forward to do it again. This may be your passion. Discovering your passion requires deep reflection, soul searching, self-awareness, willingness to take risk and explore. It is an inward journey that may seem challenging in the beginning, but definitely worth exploring. Locating our source of happiness and meaning to life is something that we owe to ourselves.

Dr Amit-How many of us really know who we are and what does that actually mean?

Dr Uttara- Have you noticed that if you ask a person, “Tell me something about yourself”, most people will tell you what they do, but hardly anyone will tell you who they actually are! More I am working with people, I am realizing that very few people are aware about who they are, what defines them, what is their identity. Think of a huge Banyan tree…what do you see? Trunk, branches, leaves, flower, fruit etc. right? Will this tree be standing strong with all its beauty and magnanimity, if its roots are not healthy? NO. Similarly, our inner self or who we are is made up of our purpose, values, principles, unique strengths…..that each individual is bestowed with. That is our roots; our core that defines us….which remains more or less same, no matter how old we are or what titles we have. We call it our BEING. Strangely, we invest all our energy in building our DOING. We forget that if we are self-aware, or familiar with our BEING, nurture our BEING, we can easily self regulate or manage ourselves well in all kinds of situation, creating magic in our DOING. In most cases, we do not know who we are and therefore unable to take care of our BEING. When our BEING dies or suffers, the DOING automatically is messed up. When you are suffering inside, mentally upset, confused, sad, angry or depressed, how can you do something well? Both self-awareness and self-regulation are two important aspects of emotional intelligence.

Dr Amit- Are people basically good or bad?

Dr Uttara-I personally feel, each individual is a good person, is powerful and has good intent, set of values and principles. But he/she may not be aware of his/her own resources or lacks a life purpose. It is only a situation that drives them to behave in a specific manner. Because they are unaware of their inner-self, do not have a purpose, they are not able to regulate their own behavior. That’s why coaching can transform people because it helps an individual to connect with the inner resources, identify the purpose, values, overcome fears / self-limiting beliefs, shift perspectives and create the world of possibilities enabling the individual to be their best version.

Dr Amit-Limiting beliefs are often an obstacle in human performance. How do we rewire the human beliefs?

Dr Uttara-Self-limiting beliefs inhibits one’s growth. They stop us from attaining our goals. Most of us have certain self-limiting beliefs which we may have picked up over the years from social conditioning through people we trust, or our own mental constructs based on our experiences. And few coincidental personal experiences and failures further reinforce those beliefs. We gradually build the walls of self-limiting beliefs, brick by brick in our mind and they tend to become unbreakable. Overcoming self-limiting belief is liberating and helps us to win the inner game that can create a new world of possibilities.

Coaching helps a person to identify the self-limiting beliefs, accept that you have it, understand what it does to you, untangle the knots to have a deeper insight regarding the origin of it and supports the coachee to overcome it slowly and make impossible possible. This is a liberating experience and we owe it to ourselves to free ourselves from our own self-limiting beliefs and be our best version.

-------------------

Brief Profile

Dr. Uttara Pattanaik is an ICF Certified Leadership & Life Coach, Mentor, Personal Mastery Expert and a Strategic Leadership Advisor. She is the founder of Uttara Pattanaik Consulting Services (UPCS), a organization that enables organizations/teams/Individuals to be their best version. Prior to her entrepreneurial journey, Uttara worked for 18 years in healthcare industry in senior leadership positions at national & international levels. She leverages her business, leadership, diversity experiences coupled with coaching and NLP skills to enable people to maximize their full potential.

From Digital Mindset to Digital Transformation to New India

2017-10-21T15:36:00.002+05:30

Digital Transformation in context of New India-The Summit

There is a Chinese proverb,

"If there is light in the soul,
There will be beauty in the person.
If there is beauty in the person,
There will be harmony in the family.
If there is harmony in the family,
There will be order in the nation.
If there is order in the nation,
There will be peace in the world"

Only the peace of individuals can leads to peace in the world eventually. In a similar way, creating digital mindset (nurturing traits such as creativity, collaboration and transparency) in individuals will lead to New India in the long run. To elaborate:-

If individuals develop digital mindsets

There will be transformation in organisations

If there is transformation in organisations

There will be a better society

If the society keeps evolving

We will create a New India of our dreams.

Digital Transformation in Context of New India-The Summit was organised at NDIM (New Delhi Institute of Management), New Delhi on October 7, 2017 at its Tughlakabad Campus. Renowned HR professional and angel investor Dr Prasanth Nair inaugurated the summit. Pankaj Gupta, AVP-Strategic Alliances and New Initiatives, Times Internet delivered the keynote and well known radio jockey RJ Manish Azad Radiowala (FM Rainbow, All India Radio) presided over the event.

The primary objective of the event was to gather some of the best known professionals in the area of digital transformation and discuss how digital tools can help in creating a “New India” and share examples and case studies of successful organizations and products. The Summit also intended to inspire the audience to support PM Modi’s vision of a New India. There were 4 themes/ sessions including:-

1) Digital Mindset and Digital Transformation- The theme covered digital transformation of organisations, digital mindset of individuals, Operations tech, FinTech, Legal Tech, Cloud computing and so on. The session was moderated by Mr Puneet Singh Bhatia, Director-Marketing, Axtria.

2) HRTech as a transformation tool- The theme covered new applications of digital technologies in HR such as social recruiting, employer branding, HR analytics, employee engagement and talent management software and so on. The panel discussion was moderated by renowned HR professional and angel investor Dr Prasanth Nair (based in Mumbai).

3) MarTech as a transformation tool- The theme covered marketing technology, marketing automation, social media marketing, web analytics and new concepts like social selling, conversion rate optimization and so on. The session was moderated by Kapil Gupta, CEO and Co-Founder, OMLogic.

4) Digital Media and Online Journalism - The theme covered the role of online journalists and bloggers in digital transformation, various aspects of online journalism and blogging such as new media psychology, viral marketing, blogging on taboo topics, blogging on Bollywood and so on. The session was moderated by Ajay Mishra, Program Head, Economy Today, DD News.

The welcome address was given by Dr VM Bansal, Chairman, NDIM and valedictory address by Sh B. Narayanan, IIS , Additional Director General (Social Media), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India. He is also Additional Director General, Press Information Bureau, Government of India.

Here is a slideshow with some pictures and highlights of the event:-

A Foreword That Touched Hearts and Souls

2017-10-02T10:56:00.000+05:30

My coach Jennifer Sertl recently wrote the Foreword to our book "Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond". It has touched thousands of hearts and given a beautiful beginning to our book. And as they say, "Well begun is half done" I am reproducing the Foreword for the blog readers.

Foreword

“If a story is not about the hearer he [or she] will not listen . . . A great lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar.”

―John Steinbeck

All cultures throughout time have use stories to keep history alive, teach community and create demand. Ever since language began – we were telling stories on walls in caves and now we are telling stories on walls in clouds. Stories are how we breathe. We know now that robots are being taught empathy through literature. So clearly stories transcend technology. Stories are primal. As children we are great at telling stories. We know so many stories by heart. Why is it then that when people are asked to tell stories as adults there is trepidation, fear and even sometimes denial of the value? As children we were not afraid of being judged; as adults we want to get the story right. A significant paradigm today is that authenticity is more significant that perfection. Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond is a vital handbook for this global and digital age. What Dr. Amit Nagpal and Dr. Prakash Hindustani have given you here is a working framework with a checklist and clear guidance on how to cultivate your voice, amplify your voice, and ultimately use your voice as a fulcrum by which to leverage a goal, cause, company, or community that is important for you. It goes like this:

identityà voice à conversation à tribe à community à platform

Whether we like it or not, we are all on a global stage and our impact is being measured. Already we are hearing about people getting jobs based on analytics and the concept of you being more an algorithm than flesh is gaining momentum. Passively you are participating in your story: every “like”, “RT” or endorsement both subtle and explicit is telling a story about who you are and what you value. Your auto-autobiography is being written by simple responses on social sites. Whether we like it or not, stories are being told about us based on analytical data and doors are being opened or closed. We can let that happen accidentally. We lose our leverage and our power if we are passive. Dr. Amit Nagpal and Dr. Prakash Hindustani urge you to claim some control of what data points say about who you are at your core and what you value. The place to regain control is to discover your voice, cultivate your voice and ultimately reverse engineer the qualities you would like to leave behind in your digital trail. They address this at an individual level; they address this at a corporate level. This book is for everyone who understands that we are in the storytelling economy whether you believe it or not, like it or not. Invest the time and energy to get some clarity and claim your voice from two experts who have helped individuals and business all over the world.

As this is being written we know that there are one billion people active on Facebook. 310 million active users are on Twitter. More than 100 million people use Instagram every month. Archimedes says,”give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it and I shall move the world.” The world is being moved both in positive and negative forces based on how individuals are organizing communities at scale. The Arab Spring is one of the best examples of how powerful these mediums are even to overthrow a government. The idea of “brand management” is laughable as businesses need to realize that the consumer owns the brand and marketing divisions are more for listening than for positioning. Today an individual can be a brand. As a simple example I joined in May 2009 and realized it was a global platform. The best I could do was to share ideas and concepts that would transcend cultures. Like a lighthouse I had a strategy to participate in a constant pattern of engagement and emitted a certain point of view like an S.O.S pattern. Immediately individuals and organizations began to affirm the value of this point of view. Like a lighthouse, I didn’t try to catch anybody. I didn’t change to be more seductive. I simply honored my voice in a constant way and found that those who valued my point of view found me. I have 85 countries and 525 cities following my work. One boat that came in is Dr. Amit Nagpal. Through resonance an immediate bridge between India and New York was constructed. We choose to collaborate together simply because the synergy was so powerful.

Through expertise in television, journalism and blogging Dr. Amit Nagpal and Dr. Prakash Hindustani have been scanning the macro, interviewing and featuring branding thought-leaders, and synthesizing best practices. It is fantastic to see the way they have organized this very easy format. It is an active workbook. They define terms, help you understand all the tools available and help you set a framework that allows you to clarify, own, and claim the impact you want to have. There are methods for individuals. There are methods for those within an organization working to capture the gestalt of their business pulse. Building credibility in the storytelling economy requires continuity on the themes that matter most. Decisiveness of your filter and commitment to it will allow you to avoid information overload. Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond asks you the questions that will allow you to carve out your clarity. Whether you think you are or not, you are creating impact in social space. Impact is not an option. The question is do you know what kind of impact you are causing? Is the impact you are making worthy of you at an aspirational level? Will your choices open doors for you today and tomorrow? There are answers to these questions and you will find them in this field book. It will be an active informative process and will lead to many very positive doors opening. The one that will mean the most to you will be unexpected and full of serendipity.

May your storytelling journey be illuminating and fulfilling.

Jennifer

Jennifer Sertl

@jennifersertl

Co-Author Strategy Leadership & the Soul

Founder Agility3R

Buy book on Amazon.com or Amazon India

_____________________

Mind Lost, Heart Won

2017-09-10T10:33:00.000+05:30

It was an honour to receive the 33rd Dr S Radhakrishnan memorial National Media Network Award from the hands of Sh. Ram Niwas Goel, Hon'ble Speaker, Delhi Legislative Assembly.

Feeling as if I am back to square one. I mean back in the company of my journalist friends. My mind was in media management for so many years............yet my heart was always there in journalism (and with journalists), .....writing (and with writers)......blogging (and with bloggers). The tug of war between the heart and the mind continued for a long time.

One of the reasons I enrolled for a PhD in media marketing was to stay in touch with my journalist friends. Even my first book shared the
story of TV news in India.

And then one fine day the Universe listened to the "deep longings" of my heart and made me a blogger. Of late I have evolved into more of a storyteller.

The heart finally emerged as the winner in the tug of war and the mind accepted its defeat gracefully. Three cheers to the Magic of the Universe.

From right to left- Dr Amit Nagpal, Respected Sh Ram Niwas Goel ji (Hon'ble Speaker of Delhi Vidhan Sabha), Sh Rajendra Pal Gautam ji (Hon'ble Minister of Social Welfare, Art, Culture and Language, Govt of NCT of Delhi) and Dayanand Vats (Organizer and National General Secretary, AIFJWA), at Hansraj College Auditorium, Delhi University

Thank you All India Freelance Journalists and Writers Association for bestowing me with the honor of 33rd National Media Network Award. Other awardees included Ms Jyotsna Bedi (Producer and anchor, Zee Hindustan), Naina Yadav (Anchor, Zee Hindustan), Ms Meghna Sen (Reporter Editor, Business Standard), Sh Deepak Dobhal (Anchor, Rajya Sabha TV), Sh Manish Azad RadioWala (Radio Jockey, FM Rainbow), Sh Gaurav Agrawal (Sr Producer & Anchor, CNBC Awaaz), Sh Chandan Kumar (Sr Editor, msn.com), Sh Umesh Singh (Reporter, PTI Bhasha), and Sh Surender Kumar (Sr Producer, Lok Sabha TV)

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Brief Profile

How We Created a Bestseller in Just Six Months?

2017-08-14T17:56:00.003+05:30

Using Twitter and Other Tools for Book Marketing- A Success Story

“No matter how good intentions you may have, people look only at your presentations.

No matter how good presentations you may have, God looks only at your intentions”

Great marketing starts with a great product. A great product creates a pull and requires lesser selling efforts. Our first priority as authors was to give a great experience to our readers and create a reader friendly book. With team efforts, the first edition was sold within 6 months.

We used the following strategies to make the book an Amazon Bestseller:-

Creating a great product- The book is the first book by Indian authors on the topic. It has plenty of illustrations, cartoons, examples and case studies to make it easy to read as well as practical to apply. Renowned cartoonist Ismail Lahari, (Editorial Cartoonist, Dainik Bhaskar) has created the cartoons for the book.

The book has several infographics and screenshots and is especially useful for creatives, introverts and professionals. It has dedicated chapters for doctors, journalists, social entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, women and so on. The back cover of the book has reviews by leading global storytellers viz. Jeff Rock, Dr Sally Fox and leading Indian blogger Shail Raghuvanshi. The Foreword to the book has been written by renowned agile leadership expert Jennifer Sertl based in New York.

The authors have tried to understand pain areas of various professionals and made an honest attempt to suggest practical solutions.

Online and offline distribution- The book has been well distributed on all prominent online platforms (Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Just Dial and so on) as well as popular retail chains (and stores) such as Oxford. Team Story Mirror under the guidance of Devendra Jaiswal (Co-Founder and Head-Marketing) has done a great job.

Bulk buying by corporates- Many companies in the banking, IT, pharmaceutical, media and real estate sectors have purchased the book in bulk and distributed it to their top management.

Targeted marketing on Twitter- Twitter was extensively used to promote the book to those who are interested in personal branding and social media. Targeted marketing is one of the major advantages of digital marketing and we have been doing it successfully with Twitter.
Twitter handle

Facebook Page (and promoted posts)- The FB page was used to share visual content (quotable quotes) which were created by the publisher’s team. The best posts were boosted / promoted to the right target audience. We have received a very enthusiastic response from Facebook users.
Facebook Page

Blogs- Blogs were used to promote the book to relevant segments such as professionals, creatives and introverts. An attempt was made to co-relate the reader’s pain area with the book and how personal branding becomes a solution.
Personal Branding as an empowerment tool
Why Introverts are often misunderstood and what they can do about it?

Adding book title at the top of author profiles- The book title and the link to buy the book was added on the social media profiles of both the authors right at the top on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Quora, Google + and so on.

Highlighting features of the book (Ten reasons series)- A ten reasons series was created to explain the major features of the book to the potential readers.

Personal gifting to celebrities- As co-author Dr Prakash Hindustani has been an award winning and renowned Hindi journalist for more than 3 decades, he gifted the copies of the book to celebrities from all walks of life including Lok Sabha Speaker Smt Sumitra Mahajan, CM of Chattisgarh Dr Raman Singh, lyricist Rahat Indori, cricket commentator Sushil Doshi, Governor of Harayana Kaptan Singh Solanki, and so on.

Blog reviews- The book has been reviewed by several prominent bloggers across India and some of the links of the book reviews are given below:-
Shruti Bhutani, Gurgaon

Prem Rao, Bangalore

Alka Ranjan Hyderabad

Prakashan BV, Bangalore

Ira Sahai, Gurgaon

Gifting to social media influencers- Dr Amit Nagpal is asocial media expert and is well connected with social media influencers and he sent review copies of the book to social media influencers across India.

Challenging the leader(Dummies series)- On Amazon, lot of people were buying our book and the famous Dummies series book together. In one of their social media posts, the authors have directly challenged the leading book in the subject “Personal Branding for Dummies”. The readers were asked to buy both the books and compare which one was more relevant for the Indian or eastern cultures.

Amazon reviews- We have received very good reviews of the book and out of the 14 reviews received so far, 13 have rated the book as 5 star and only one person has rated it as 4 star (aggregating 4.9 stars).

Multi city launch- The book was launched in several cities of India including Indore, Ahmedabad, Surat and Chandigarh and received lot of attention from the mass media also.
Webdunia review
Review by Collector, Indore
Spectrum News, Chandigarh

International Reviews

The international reviews have started flowing in. The book is now available globally via amazon.com.

Review in New Zealand newspaper

Review by Prof Anand Tomar, UK

Author interviews on blogs and mass media- The authors were interviewed by several renowned bloggers and journalists.

A Potpourri of Vestiges
Free Press Journal

Promotional Talks - Talks were organized at several MBA and other institutes to promote the book including BM Munjal University, International Coach Federation (Delhi NCR chapter), Indore Press Club, Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chandigarh Press Club, South Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Ahmedabad Book Club and so on.

Creating Mystery- Suspense is one of the most powerful storytelling tools. To create suspense, we added ‘Beyond” to the book title. Suspense makes reader wonder what's going to happen next, and that's why we named it-Personal Branding Storytelling and "Beyond" to create a mystery.

We would also like to thank all our friends and well wishers who have spread the word about the book and made it a bestseller.

Buy on Amazon India| Story Mirror | Snapdeal | Shop Clues | PayTM | Flipkart

Amazon.com | Just Dial | Infibeam |

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About the Book

The book has been co-authored by Dr Amit Nagpal and Dr Prakash Hindustani. It has been published by Story Mirror (Delhi/ Mumbai). It is divided into three parts viz. a) Personal Branding, b) Storytelling and c) Beyond Storytelling. The book also includes case study on PM Narendra Modi, Anand Mahindra and Steve Jobs.

The book takes the reader on a journey from branding to bonding and from personal branding to inspirational storytelling.

Why Introverts are Often Misunderstood and What They Can Do About It

2017-07-09T14:17:00.001+05:30

And Why I Champion the Cause of Introvert Empowerment

Let us take a look at how introverts are misunderstood and what they can do about it.

Myth / Misunderstanding 1- Introverts are often Nervous

Fact-Introverts are Shy

Recently when I was invited to speak at a public platform for 2 minutes, I began with a dose of humour, “It takes me 2 minutes to settle down with a new audience. By the time I will settle down, my time would be over”.

Introverts are shy and tend to act as extroverts (in speaking, mentoring etc) when they are passionate about the subject. The shyness of introverts is often misunderstood as nervousness, and they need to correct this perception. Sometimes one can correct this perception by being straightforward about it or stating the fact in a humourous way.

Myth / Misunderstanding 2- Introverts are often Moody

Fact- Introverts are Sensitive

Introverts have above average sensitivity (and some of the highly introverted people are also HSP or Highly Sensitive People). They can easily read the energy of people, their body language, when people are being fake, when people are disguising base feelings with higher emotions and so on.

Sometimes they can be disturbed by the unauthentic behavior of some people and withdraw as they get turned off. The paradox is that their sensitivity is both a blessing as well as a curse for them. It is a curse when the sensitivity makes them uneasy or when their faces becomes the indexes of their minds. Sensitivity is also a blessing as they can identify fake people and fake behavior very quickly.

Highly introverted people are also likely to be empaths, intuits and spiritual healers.

Myth / Misunderstanding 3- Introverts are often Loners

Fact - Introverts are Serious

Introverts are not loners, though they want their alone time at regular intervals to recharge their batteries. Unlike the popular perception that introverts dislike people, they actually love to bond with few people (and have professional relationships with the rest). Introverts usually do not enjoy small talk and tend to prefer serious/ deeper discussions.

In fact, introverts do not enjoy superficial stuff and prefer taking a deeper dive, be it in discussions or relationships. That's exactly why they often tend to build lifelong bonds. Introverts also prefer to be alone than in uncomfortable company. They are usually comfortable in their own company in any case.

Passionate People are Often Misunderstood

Passionate people are often misunderstood (as if they have a hidden agenda behind the enthusiasm). As Susan Cain points out in her book, "Introverts tend to have one or two strong passions ......and are more likely to be driven by inner reward (passion and satisfaction) than outer rewards". Unfortunately their passion is likely to be misunderstood too.

Introverts are Gifted Coaches

Introverts also tend to be highly effective coaches /mentors as they tend to understand the needs of individuals/ coachees very well. Recently during my session on "Personal Branding and Inspirational Storytelling" at International Coach Federation (Delhi NCR chapter), I had an interesting discussion with the coaches / audience on the topic of introversion (towards the end of session). I believe, "Introverts are gifted with coaching/ mentoring skills and my interactions with coaches validated my views."

Personal Branding as a Empowerment Tool

I can empathize with introverts because I have been through the pain myself. Over the years, I have learnt to adapt to situations and balance introversion and extroversion. Yet I remain an introvert at heart and ambivert in my behavior. Since 2012, I have been championing the "cause of empowering of introverts" and have successfully worked with several introverted clients.

In an aggressive (and often pushy) world we live in, personal branding becomes an empowerment tool for introverts, and they can learn to pull in their audience. Introverts are also likely to look within all the time (to introspect if they have gone wrong), and as a result, tend to focus on personal development and self-improvement rather than playing the blame game.

So my dear introverted reader, you just need to learn to manage the perception and remember introversion is a strength in today's world and not a weakness anymore.

Feel free to write to me at amit@dramitnagpal.com, if you still have queries or doubts.

Related Posts

"Introverts are Sweet Souls" and Other Stories

"Introverts Take Over the World" and Other Anecdotes

Resources for Introverts

_______________________________

Nine Books, One Story

2017-06-21T17:05:00.006+05:30

Celebrating 10 years as Published Author (2007-2017)

"There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed."- Ernest Hemingway

My Journey as Writer
My journey as a writer (or rather poet) began with a Hindi poem in 1985 as a school student. For a long fifteen years I only wrote poetry except a piece or two of prose. I began writing magazine articles around 2001 and blogs around 2010. I had became a published author in 2007, when a case study written by me was included in a reputed book "Marketing in the New Global Order" (edited by IIM Indore Professor Tapan K Panda)

In the past decade, I have written 3 books (and 3 chapters in 3 books) about diverse subjects. Obviously some people feel surprised by the range of topics I have written about and ask me about my focus area. When I took a deeper look, I realised the common thread in my books and contributions has been storytelling.

The Books
My first book, "From News to Infotainment to Tamasha" was based on my PhD thesis and told the story of TV news in India, its past, present and the likely future.

My second book "The Seven Joys of Life" (with Foreword by Alan Jacobs) shared anecdotes /stories from my own life. I have shared many of my mistakes, failures and learning, which make it a very authentic read.

My third book, "Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond" with co-author Dr Prakash Hindustani (with Foreword by Jennifer Sertl) discusses storytelling on social and digital media in detail.

The Chapters Contributed

I have contributed a chapter (audio interview) on personal branding through storytelling.

in an audio book "You B You". The audio book has been compiled by Runa Magnus, well known personal branding expert (based in Iceland) and has interviews of 8 personal branding experts from across the world on various aspects of personal branding.

"Marketing in the New Global Order", has a case study story (Hatsun Foods-Excellent Brain behind the Supply Chain). as my contribution The book has been edited by well known professors viz Prof Tapan K Panda and Prof Naveen Donthu.

Recently I contributed a chapter (Self Regulation in context of New Media) in another book entitled, "Media Laws and Ethics" which has contributions from the top media academicians in the country. The book has been edited by renowned news anchor & journalist turned academician Dr Vartika Nanda and has a Foreword by KG Suresh, renowned media expert and Director General, Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi.

In 2018, I have contributed 2 interesting chapters. One is a chapter entitled "People Storytelling in context of Employer Branding" in People Management in 21st Century-Practices and Challenges, McGraw Hill Education. Another chapter is on "Understanding the Psychology of New Media Audiences from a Marketing Perspective" in the book by IGI Global entitled, "Application of Gaming in New Media Marketing"

Another chapter contributed by me in Amazon global bestseller "Holistic Wellness In The New Age " talks about how storytelling can be used as an emotional healing tool.

Writing is Painstaking

Writing is painstaking as one needs to sculpt words. One needs to rewrite and edit at least 2-3 times to create good content. To create great content, one may needs 5 or more rounds of editing and word sculpting.

I learnt ‘Word sculpting’ from Dr Janet Smith Warfield, a well known author based in Florida, USA. It requires cutting the flab or removing unnecessary words, making it more impactful by adding emphasis, dramatization if required and so on.

A Final Word

Though the topics of the nine books are varied, yet storytelling is the common thread in all the nine books. It has been an interesting dive in the ocean of storytelling from brand storytelling to inspirational storytelling, from anecdotes to personal brand storytelling, from employer brand storytelling to new media storytelling and from storytelling as a healing tool to case study storytelling.

Three cheers to the power of Story and Storytelling.

Links to Buy
Amazon India
Amazon.com
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Flipkart
Holistic Wellness in new age is available on Amazon France, Amazon Spain, Amazon Australia and Amazon Brazil.

Related Posts
How we created a bestseller in just six months?

-------------------------------

Brief Profile

Dr Amit Nagpal, PhD is a Business Storyteller, Speaker and Digital Storytelling Coach. He is one of the pioneers of digital storytelling in India. After working for more than two decades in academics, and corporates (including publishing, television and digital marketing), he realised teaching is meditation and storytelling is his Nirvana.

He is also Chief Inspirational Storyteller at AL Services. AL Services has co-created stories of some of the most inspiring people in India and abroad. He tweets at @DrAmitInspires.

Personal Branding as an Empowerment Tool

2017-05-30T19:18:00.000+05:30

Life is unfair”, we all would have uttered these words at some point of time in our lives. In spite of being equally competent, many of us lose out at the workplace because we are/ were :-

not educated at a premier b-school or
educated in a small town or
gentle/ unassertive nature or
introvert or
from poor / middle class family with no connections or
are physically challenged or
suffer due to gender stereotypes and so on.

Playing at a Level Playing Field

Here is an empowerment tool, which will put you at par or may be ahead in the career race. A book which guides you how to share your KVP (knowledge, victories and passions) to create a brand which helps you overpower your weaknesses. Here are a few examples of the value of personal branding:-

A CXO who was expecting to become a CEO was disappointed when his organisation recruited someone else. Thanks to his personal branding and frequent speaking assignments at conferences, he soon got an opportunity to become the CEO of another organisation.

An entrepreneur wanted to network with senior government officials and ministers and realised that while everyone knew about his organization, very few people knew about him.

A lady General Manager broke the glass ceiling and rose fast in the ranks to become CEO as her strong leadership skills were well known inside and outside the organisation thanks to her blogs.

A physically challenged manager became the CXO and member of his company’s board because he had written a book which brought to the fore his persevering spirit and his inspiring success story against all odds.

A young entrepreneur whose start up was little known in the business world quickly got an angel investor thanks to her personal credentials, her MBA from a premier business school and her goodwill among friends and family.

The book intends to handhold the reader on the journey from personal branding to inspirational storytelling, from base feelings to higher emotions, from “I, me, mine” to “You, we, us”. We cannot make the life fair. Yet this book will help you create a level playing field to increase your odds of winning.

About the Book

Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond is first book by Indian authors on the subject. The book is divided into three parts viz Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond Storytelling. The first part focuses on the basics of personal branding, the second part focuses on various aspects of storytelling and the third part focuses on interesting concepts like how to appear as an interesting person in your social media profiles.

The first part has dedicated chapters on writing skills, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Quora, Youtube, Blogging, email signature, online metrics and offline branding tools. The second part has dedicated chapters on digital storytelling, social media storytelling, inspirational storytelling and wisdom on social media. The third part ventures beyond storytelling into becoming an interesting person and so on. ‘Beyond storytelling’ is intended to create mystery and curiosity in the reader.

The book is similar to an idiot’s guide/ book for dummies in terms of its simplicity in assisting the reader in building up his/her personal brand in social circles irrespective of profession and field of thought. What one would learn by trial and error over a period of time, this very interesting book does for you in just few pages.

The book is co-authored by Dr Prakash Hindustani and Dr Amit Nagpal. While Dr Prakash is a mass media expert with more than three decades experience in print and television, Dr Amit is social and online media expert with more than two decades of experience in publishing, media and digital marketing.

The book has been published by Story Mirror, Gurgaon/ Mumbai.

Buy on Amazon | Story Mirror | Snapdeal | Shop Clues | PayTM

Book Reviews

Dr Amit Nagpal & Dr Prakash Hindustani have created a comprehensive guide to personal branding, designed to be particularly relevant to entrepreneurs and working professionals in India. They take a wealth of knowledge about branding and make it engaging and easy to apply. Whether one is new to personal branding, or exploring it deeper, there's something that will be useful to everyone. From the art of optimizing social media to the details of how to dress professionally to fit with a brand, the authors provide an enormous range of tools and relevant tips. And the material on storytelling is a great resource. Even reading the book outside of India with my background in business storytelling, I found much to chew on, and trust that this will be a "must read" for my Indian colleagues.

Sally Fox, Ph.D. Engaging Presence, Seattle /Washington, Organizational Consultant and Story Catalyst, USA

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Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond by Dr. Amit Nagpal and Dr. Prakash Hindustani is a playbook for success using two of the most effective strategies in life and business. Each section provides a concise explanation of what you need to know and why. Tips are included so you can return to the text when you need help. But it's more than a business guide. The authors have taken a more holistic view and the content includes emotional and spiritual aspects as well. The result is a distillation of many years of knowledge and hard-won wisdom. This book will accelerate your path to success, save you lots of time, and help you to avoid many costly mistakes.

Jeff Rock, Founder and Chief Story Listener, Swift River Coaching, USA

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"This is one of the finest books that I have come across that travels beyond the boundaries and limitations of stereotype personal branding and storytelling funda. What is so entirely gripping about this book is its selfless simplicity in assisting the reader in building up his/her personal branding/image in social circles irrespective of profession and field of thought. What one would learn by trial and error over a period of time, this very interesting book does for you just in a few pages! A must read!"

Shail Raghuvanshi, freelance journalist, editor, book reviewer and poet

(Poetry included in collection of 20 best women poets in India, launched by Former President Smt Pratibha Patil)

Bon Voyage.

10 Unique Features of the Book

Social Networking to Social Bonding
From Branding to Bonding-The Journey
Art of Perception Enhancement
Beyond branding and storytelling
Stories and Case studies
Integrating social and mass media through storytelling
Chapters dedicated to specific professions
Tips and Tricks
Cartoons, Screenshots and Infographics
Reader friendly style

Your Story is Your Brand

2017-05-30T11:35:00.000+05:30

Your story is your brand. But which brand do you build and which story do you tell -organisation or people? Organisations want to build organisation brands, yet people prefer to read people stories.

This is one of the greatest paradoxes of branding. It has no simple solutions and the answer varies from situation to situation. One point is common viz to align personal brand with organisation brand, to align people story with organization story and to find the delicate balance. A balance where organisation brand benefits due to the CEO or entrepreneur brand and vice versa.

Organisational stories need to be interwoven with people stories to make them more effective and catchy to read.

Twitter and Personal BrandingSocial media is slightly biased towards people branding, because people want to converse and build relationships with people and not faceless organizations. Social media platforms are also social networking platforms after all.

While Twitter has a bias towards personal branding, LinkedIn has a bias towards organisation or employer branding. LinkedIn has no celebrity pages unlike Facebook. One of the main features of Twitter is, your followers come to know of who you know and who you talk to, which is useful from personal branding point of view.

Aligning Personal Brand with Organisation Brand
Another view is that organisation brand is a like a house and each personal/ employee brand is like a brick. This is especially true for knowledge based organisations of today. A company may get business because of personal brand of its salespeople or domain experts/ consultants. In fact organisations in USA are training their salespeople on personal branding.

Personal Branding for SMEs
Storytelling is the most powerful branding tool, be it organizations, startups, products or people. Earlier branding was done only through mass media which was expensive and out of reach of SMEs and professionals. Social media is a game changer in that sense. Digital storytelling has a variety of formats ranging from text to visual, from PPT to podcast besides video of course.

Personal Branding for Startup Founders
Startups can also grow faster using the personal brands of their founders. Building organisation brands is a long and more complex journey. If the startup has a one year old brand and Founder has a 25 year old (personal) brand, it goes without saying who has more credibility.

What is your take? Which story do we tell and why?

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Brief Profile

"Love...Deep. Intense. Unconditional" and Other Stories on Wisdom

2017-04-05T12:47:00.000+05:30

Love...Deep. Intense. Unconditional.

She traveled, traveled and traveled. May be when people want to discover the meaning of life, they start "Wondering". And when people feel restless to experience....deep, intense and unconditional love, they start "Wandering".

Her parents had been affectionate yet there is a human longing for a deep connection with one person. One person who is special and makes us feel special. Traditional Indian fathers often start distancing themselves from their daughters when they grow young. They start preparing for their princesses to move on and don't want the father-daughter bond to become a barrier.

Her travels took her to strange places and even stranger people. Her own life had been no less stranger than fiction. She also wanted to resolve a paradox of her life. While the Universe had usually gifted her what she deeply longed for, yet there was something still missing.

Two desires make people extremely restless. Most of the wanderers yearn for a magical love. And those who have seen it all & done it all have another deep longing......as if their soul keeps pressing the remote buttons pushing them on the journey to Nirvana.
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A "Bond" that led to "Nirvana"

What a paradox it was! Finally she had found her 'Mr Right' and formed a strong emotional bond with him. Yet the irony was that his name itself was 'Nirvana'. How could she form a bond with freedom? How could he be free anymore with a bond? Bonds and freedom don't go together. Or do they?

May be there was no paradox. It was in this "bond" that both of them will find their "freedom". It was this bond which will take both of them on a journey to eternal freedom, to their Nirvana
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Twinkle in the Soul

"Everybody is somebody's fool, goes the famous song. What made you fall in love with me?", she teased him.

"The bright twinkle in your eyes. And they say eyes are the mirror to the soul", he replied.

"Just the twinkle in the eyes got you fooled?", she continued.

"Something more, the twinkle in your soul which is a reflection of the twinkle in your eyes", he answered with conviction.
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"Words can't express the soul"

"Sometimes you wish to say something yet you suddenly stop. You are a master of words. Why do you fall silent then ?", he sounded puzzled.

"Words can express the mind. Words can share the beauty of the heart too but not beyond. Fortunately or unfortunately words can't express your soul", she replied with her strange calm.

"Then how does one understand other person's soul", he was curious.

"Sense it in the energy. Feel it in the vibes. And the masters actually read it in the eyes", she continued.

She always surprised him with those powerful utterances of wisdom. And at times the surprises rather turned out to be pleasant shocks.
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Brief Profile
Dr Amit Nagpal, PhD is a Business Storyteller, Speaker and Digital Storytelling Coach. He is one of the pioneers of digital storytelling in India. After working for more than two decades in academics, and corporate (including publishing, television and digital marketing), he realised teaching is meditation and storytelling is his Nirvana.

He is also Chief Inspirational Storyteller at AL Services. AL Services has co-created stories of some of the most inspiring people in India and abroad. He tweets at @DrAmitInspires.

Personal Branding for Journalists

2017-03-28T11:26:00.000+05:30

Personal Branding and Inspirational Storytelling for Journalists

Journalists already know the power of media and storytelling. So building a personal brand is easy for them. In fact, it is the news anchors/journalists, which actually bring audience to the respective media, with their own personal reputation, credibility and brand.

Audience is loyal to journalists more than media organisation
Be it print or TV, people read / watch their favourite journalists and news anchors. In my view loyalty for media organisations is much lesser than the loyalty for journalists. Sweta Singh has reached such a celebrity status in a short span of time that she was invited to Kapil Sharma's comedy show recently. Many senior journalists have created their own media organisations.

The Power of Storytelling

Storytelling is the easiest way to build a personal brand and journalists are great storytellers. In fact, news is actually called a news story. Inspirational storytelling is the most powerful tool for personal branding.

Conveying expertise, passion and thought leadership

If a journalist is passionate about the sports beat or current affairs, the passion can be conveyed in the brand building exercise. The passion can also be used to build the brand as an expert in the domain or sometimes convey the thought leadership work done in a particular domain.

Social Media Tips

But what journalists need to learn is the social media tips and tricks besides the principles of brand management of course. Each social media platform is unique and understanding this uniqueness and capitalizing on it is an essential step in the journey.

Personal Growth and Viral Marketing

The main tool for success on social media is viral marketing (or other people sharing your content). Other people share your content when the content is excellent or they have a good relationship (soft corner for the content creator) or they have a pride in associating with the person. Social Media success becomes easier with a collaborative mindset and developing the right mindset and wisdom is crucial.

Wisdom for handling criticism

Journalists often use a high risk strategy when they come up with breaking news, expose (do sting operations) and add masala to make the story catchy. So the news story in such cases sometimes attract strong responses and personal attacks. Trolls and fake accounts can add to the problems. Handling this after effect with wisdom is crucial for the personal brand of a journalist.

Understanding the technical side of digital

For success in the online world, one also needs to understand the SEO basics, social media optimization techniques, blog traffic techniques, email marketing, web analytics and so on. The digital tools available are increasing everyday and it’s easy to learn things from someone who knows the rules of the game.

Offline branding and miscellaneous tools

Personal Branding is a universe in itself with infinite tools available. Other useful tools for journalists include e-books and books, newsletters, guest blogging, article marketing and so on. The activities must be aligned with the short and long term objectives behind brand building.

Disassociation
Some trends like paid news, sensationalism, political bias etc have damaged the reputation of mass media in general. Even journalists who are into serious journalism get impacted by the bad reputation.

Tips for Journalists
As part of my book launch at Indore Press Club (Personal Branding, Storytelling and Beyond), I shared few tips on personal branding for journalists esp in social media context. You may watch the video below:-

So dear journalists and news anchors, you deliver news stories to the world;

now it is time to tell your own story.

Buy the book on Amazon | Story Mirror | Snapdeal | Shop Clues | PayTM

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Brief Profile
Dr Amit Nagpal, PhD is a Business Storyteller, Speaker and Digital Storytelling Coach. He is one of the pioneers of digital storytelling in India. After working for more than two decades in academics, and corporates (including publishing, television and digital marketing), he realised teaching is meditation and storytelling is his Nirvana.

He is also Chief Inspirational Storyteller at AL Services. AL Services has co-created stories of some of the most inspiring people in India and abroad. He tweets at @DrAmitInspires.

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Mind Lost, Heart Won

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Your Story is Your Brand

"Love...Deep. Intense. Unconditional" and Other Stories on Wisdom

Personal Branding for Journalists