Sunita is an Executive Coach, Trainer and Consultant. She is of Indian origin and was born in London before moving to Geneva in 1992. She has a Psychology background (specialising in Occupational Psychology) and a Post Graduate in the Development and Training of Adults. She also completed a Masters in Ressources Humaines, Coaching et Gestion des Carrières at the University of Geneva.
During her 25 years experience Sunita's drive has always been to help people to do their best and hence led her to create Walk The Talk.
In her free time Sunita is a Mentor for the Branson Center of Entrepreneurship and a proud member of the School in The Cloud Team.
Personal branding has become a buzzword in recent years and it is commonly accepted that each and every one of us is a brand except we just don't know it…..
But as luck would have it I have just finished reading an excellent book about Personal branding by John Purkiss and David Royston-Lee of Brand You — Turn Your Unique Talents Into A Winning Formula and as the authors state in their book, “Building your brand is about discovering the talents you love to use, as well as your values and your purpose. Everything else – including your goals, objectives, aims and personal brand statement – flows from these discoveries about yourself.”
I have used exercises in this book with countless clients (including myself) and some younger clients too (my boys aged 13, and 17)….and it always works; it always gives clients a richer understanding of who they are and always gives them a clearer indication where they want to be. Most significantly it gives a better insight into their own personal brand, their own identity and their own talents.
Here is what to do
- Start with a blank sheet of paper. In a column on the left hand side, make a list of the high points – or peak experiences – in your life.
- Your high points could occur in any area of your life, including school, university, work, hobbies, travel, time with your family or playing sport.
- The more experiences you identify and note down, the more material you have to work with.
- The second step is to question each high point. Which talents were you using and which did you enjoy the using the most?
- With what kind of people? In what kind of situation? You may notice themes connecting the high points. This will tell you the talents you love to use and the way you enjoy using them.
- Now it is time to discover your values — the things you believe are important.
- On another blank sheet of paper, make a list of everyone you admire. Think of your family, friends, current and former colleagues, famous people, fictional people, cartoon characters and so on. Even if you admire someone for one particular attribute, and nothing else, you should still include them on your list.
- Now note down the qualities you admire about each person. It's entirely up to you what you write. Again, it does not have to be socially acceptable.
This exercise can be done individually or in a group. It is really very insightful.
As they say in their book “once you have an understanding of your talents and your values, you have the basis for building a very strong brand.”
Good luck!
References: John Purkiss is the co-author with David Royston-Lee of Brand You — Turn Your Unique Talents Into A Winning Formula http://www.brandyou.info/
Bio
Sunita Sehmi was born in London and is of Indian origin. She has a Psychology degree and a Post Grad in the Development and Training for Adults from the University of Surrey.
She began her career in the recruitment industry where she worked in Executive Finance Recruitment in the city of London. Upon her arrival in Geneva, she completed the advanced level Cambridge University training certificate (CELTA) and thus began a career in teaching, training and development. She has taught English and Communication skills both in companies and in educational institutions for over twenty years. She is now the founder of Walk The Talk. www.walkthetalk.ch
Sunita lives Geneva with her husband and their two boys. She is currently studying towards a Masters in Career Management and Coaching at the University of Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchatel and Fribourg.
Hello, Namste, Bonjour
Kindness
Kind·ness/ˈkīn(d)nis/
Noun: The quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.
A lot has been said about the importance of kindness at school, and later on in your personal life and at work. There is some well-documented evidence about the importance of kindness. Notably in the book “The Power of Nice: How to Conquer The Business World with Kindness” by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, the authors support the idea that it pays to be nice at work and openly advocate that nice people finish first.
But how do we instil these values in institutions, organizations and schools? How do we communicate this message to staff and, in reality, where does the “be kind to others” crusade begin?
In a heart-warming article in the Harvard Business Review, Bill Taylor reminds us that small gestures can send big signals about who we are. He takes heed of the wise words of Jeff Bezos, (founder and CEO of Amazon.com) where in a lecture to Princeton students he advocates, “it's harder (and more important) to be kind than clever”…Mr Bezos clearly states that the lesson is that kindness begins in childhood and we are undisputedly modelled and influenced by the adults around us. And if we are lucky enough to have kind-hearted role models well that’s a real bonus in our future lives.
Photo by Simon Whitehead, www.threebythree.co.uk
Those of you like me, who are back from their sunny destinations, will understand my aching heart… longing to be back in the arms of carefree, mindless, fun- filled activities and basking in the glow of overall enjoyment overload.
But for now my vacances d’été seem like a distant memory etched somewhere in my mind. I am desperately trying to seize these moments (on an hourly basis :-) if only to convince myself that it was neither a dream nor a figment of my imagination!
But my holiday did not start as well as I had hoped and although it was a small hitch in the scheme of things (world poverty, the euro crisis and whether the Spice girls will indeed reform again) I was irritated and concerned….
Photo by Simon Whitehead: http://threebythree.ch/
Bonjour, Hello, Namaste
Some interesting research has come out regarding praising children. Researchers found that children who were given too little or indeed too much praise had low self-esteem. So can children spot false praise and why does too much and too little have the same effect?
Having lived and worked in a Franco, Indo and Anglophone set-up, praise definitely has a cultural bias, each culture having its own attitudes and beliefs concerning praise. Depending on our schooling system and our parents views, our own idea of praise is somewhat shaped by these experiences and this can have lasting effects on us later on in life….
I take the example of when I worked in London. My boss, who was a great manager, was so quick to point out when the team did something wrong, but when we were doing it right nothing, nada, not a dickey bird …
Indeed, a client I once worked with told me, when discussing the importance of praise, that when things went wrong he reacted immediately and gave the appropriate feedback…but when things went well he did not respond as promptly…
Hello, Bonjour, Namaste,
I remember when I first started working in Geneva I bought a great book called “Is that what you really mean?” by Paul Hancock. The book takes 50 common errors and illustrates them with humorous pictures....and this got me thinking…(yep it happens to the best of us sometimes). With the rise of non-native speakers of English increasing at a rapid rate, clear communications from native speakers to non-native is going to put the spotlight on us English mother tongue speakers and how we communicate..
So what can we do? How can we make sure that we are understandable and our message is understood?
- Speak slower?
- Avoid idioms and slang?
- Check understanding?
Yes all of the above help and have been accepted as universal tools and well documented but in my opinion what’s really important is acknowledgement from native speakers.
