WNS Global Services PDF

*\ * **Slide 1**  **Say:** Good morning everyone! Welcome to the session on 'Knowing your winning formula'. Let us begin today's workshop with an interesting story. **Narrate the following story with the right modulation:** There lived a 10-year-old boy who decided to study...

*\ * **Slide 1**  **Say:** Good morning everyone! Welcome to the session on 'Knowing your winning formula'. Let us begin today's workshop with an interesting story. **Narrate the following story with the right modulation:** There lived a 10-year-old boy who decided to study judo despite the fact that he had lost his left arm in a devastating car accident. The boy began lessons with an old Japanese judo master. The boy was doing well, so he couldn\'t understand why his master made him repeatedly practice only one move, besides his rest of the training on attack, defense and stance. The boy wanted to quickly progress to learning new things. But his mater insisted that he practice the same one move over and over again. \"Sensei,\" the boy finally said, \"Shouldn\'t I be learning more moves?\" \"This is the only move you know, but this is the only move you\'ll ever need to know\" the sensei replied. The boy didn't understand this but he had faith in his master, so he continued to train. Several months later, the sensei took the boy to his first tournament. Surprising himself, the boy easily won his first two matches. The third match proved to be more difficult, but after some time, his opponent became impatient and charged; the boy deftly used his one move to win the match. To his own surprise, the boy was now in the finals. This time, his opponent was bigger, stronger, and more experienced. For a while, the boy appeared to be overmatched. Concerned that the boy might get hurt, the referee called a time-out. He was about to stop the match when the sensei intervened. \"No,\" the sensei insisted, \"Let him continue.\" Soon after the match resumed, his opponent made a critical mistake: he dropped his guard. Instantly, the boy used his move to pin him. The boy had won the match and the tournament. He was the champion! On the way home, the boy and sensei reviewed every move in each and every match. Then the boy summoned the courage to ask what was really on his mind. \"Sensei, how did I win the tournament with only one move?\" \"You won for two reasons,\" the sensei answered. \"First, you\'ve almost mastered one of the most difficult throws in all of judo. And second, the only known defense for that move is for your opponent to grab your left arm and this is your winning formula!!\" **Say:** Evaluate the past and the present -- everyone who is successful, is successful because they had their unique winning formula. Let's question ourselves -- 'How often do we underestimate our own strengths?' Each of us have been through situations where we doubt ourselves -- our skills -- we even doubt our core strengths. It's easy to doubt ourselves. However, to develop the confidence that is unshakable, is challenging. It takes a lot of conviction to believe that we can accomplish what we have set out for ourselves. When situations test our conviction, instead of being self-confident we dwindle with self-doubt. This workshop is going to make you question the deepest believes you have about yourself and help you craft your own winning formula! **Ask:** Are you ready to embark on this amazing journey with me? Elicit Response. Move to the next slide. **\ ** **Slide 2** **Time Required:** 30 minutes **Materials Required:** - Stacking cup set -- 1 Nos. ([click](https://www.firstcry.com/fair/fair-stacking-cup-set-pack-of-13-color-may-vary/1832292/product-detail?ref=GoogleShopping_5_Building-Blocks,-Construction-Sets-and-Stacking-Toys!!SEM_GSN_Smart_Shopping_Toys_Gaming-building_blocks,_construction_sets_and_stacking_toys!!&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6cHoBRDdARIsADiTTzYrFyQL-itd5R8DXBtK3JpAyBVUtHHv2dJHY-2Vuy0gby-NXjjrissaAkRXEALw_wcB) for the reference image) - Blindfolds (2 Nos.) **Instructions for the Trainer:** - Divide the participants into teams of 5 members each. - One person in each team will be blindfolded. (needs to be chosen by their respective teams themselves). - Once they are blind folded, arrange for a table where the cups are placed in a jumbled and unorganized way. - Each team gets one minute, where the blindfolded person arranges the cups one above the other like in the picture. The rest of the team can give instructions to the blindfolded person and guide him/her. - The participants will be given 3 mins as strategy time, where they will come together to decide on a strategy for this activity. - Use a stopwatch to give turns to all the teams and evaluate the completeness of the stack. **Note: I**f the arrangement in the room can be made to accommodate 2 such settings, conduct this activity simultaneously for the rest of the teams. **Say:** You all made a great attempt. I would want you, as a team, to discuss the answer to the following questions -- 1. Did you have a goal in this activity? What was it? *(Yes. It was to stack the blocks)* 2. Did you have a strategy? What was it? *(Yes. It was \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_)* 3. Did your strategy go as planned? *(No/Yes)* 4. Were all your team members committed to your strategy? If not, why? *(Yes/No)* **Say:** In this activity we all had a task to do. It was to arrange the stack of cups. Likewise, in our everyday life we all are engaged in doing various tasks, aren't we? Elicit response. **Say:** Again, in this activity we were clear about our team's goals and what we wish to accomplish. Similarly, in our everyday work life, it is important that we have ***clarity*** on our goals and objectives. Like we experienced in this activity, if we do not know or are unclear about what we should do with the cups, it doesn't matter what we actually do in that one-minute time given to us. Hence, the first principle of a winning formula is ***Clarity***. **Ask:** In the 3 mins time given to us to strategize, we were, as a team, able to come up with a strategy. Am I correct? Elicit response. **Say:** If we have a goal to accomplish, a direction that we are headed in, it is also important that we device a strategy for ourselves. A strategy that works for one person will not necessarily work for another person. And hence, you will have to customize your game plan. And this is what differentiates, the successful and the not so successful. Customizing your strategy is the second principle of a winning formula. For example, if your goal is to minimize your error percentage, *identify by how much percentage you wish to reduce it by. By when do you want to accomplish this? Determining the answers to these questions (Clarity*) is the first step. The second step is to design a customized strategy for yourself. What your colleague might have done to reduce his errors might not necessarily help you reduce yours. *Hence, having a customized plan/strategy is critical.* **Ask:** Now, for instance, let's say you have a fool proof strategy, however you do not have the conviction and commitment to do what it takes to execute your strategy, would you be able to achieve your goal? Elicit response. **Say: For example, let's consider that none of you in the team followed the strategy that you all designed during your strategy break. Would you be able to reach your goal? It** is highly likely that there would have been chaos during the 1 min of execution. Hence, the third principle of the "winning formula' is to be committed to the formula you have written for yourself. Before we learn more about winning formula, lets us agree that there are 3 principles without which our formulas won't work. Remember, a winning formula works only when we follow these three principles -- Clarity, Customization and Commitment. - Be clear about where you want to go - Customize your success strategy - Be committed to your strategy Clarity, Customization and Commitment is what we all need in order to devise our winning formula. **Say:** This session will be an exciting journey where we will introspect a lot, question ourselves and derive our ***core strengths*** which will help us to WIN. **Ask:** Are you ready for this journey? **Note:** Elicit response and move to the next slide. **\ ** **Slide 3** **Say:** Let's do a fascinating and quick activity. (Based on the psychometric tool -- Picture Perception Test) Look at the pictures displayed on the slide. What are your thoughts about the pictures? It can be what you understand of the pictures or simply, what you see in the pictures. **Note:** Give the participants 2 minutes to ponder over the pictures. Participants may write few pointers if they'd like to. **Say:** Please share with me what you understand from these pictures? **Note:** Elicit response. Do not restrict the participants' flow of thoughts. Allow them to flow freely. **Say:** It's great to hear what these two simple pictures could mean to each one of us. (The trainer should take a decision on when to introduce this debrief to the participants. When any of the participants respond close to the meaning of the debrief -- the trainer can develop on that thought and drive the following points.) - We all feel accomplished for different reasons. What makes me feel accomplished will not necessarily make someone else feel accomplished. - Like in picture 1, the joy and happiness for having achieved something is seen more in the boy who has won the 3^rd^ prize and not the 1^st^ prize. In picture 2: the girl with just one flower is happy while the other girl with a garden of flowers is not. - Hence, the definition of success is different for each one of us. This is because each of us have different purposes in our lives. - If you have always procrastinated exercising and one day you decide to break the habit & hit the gym -- you feel elated owing to the success of having broken the habit. When you compare this sense of accomplishment with someone who has always been exercising, you would realize that the definition of success is completely based on the purpose that one has for his/her own life. Hence, the first winning formula is -- (move to the next slide) **\ ** **Slide 4**  **Say: Know Your Purpose!** Why? Like we discussed in the previous activity, we feel accomplished only when we find purpose in what we do. It's a question all of us should ask ourselves. Why do we do what we do? Here are some important reasons why we need to seek our life\'s purpose -- **1. It helps us to unlock our true potential** You may have been criticized for your strengths in the past and hence do not view them as talents at all. For instance, let's consider that your core strength has been to take initiatives and be highly communicative. However, in your school, you have been warned for being very talkative. Due to this criticism, you start ignoring this natural talent. The more you understand your life\'s purpose, the more it will bring your core strengths to your conscious awareness. Thus, you will be able to unlock your true potential by developing and applying these strengths in your work. **2. Our passion for life** Imagine, at the beginning of everyday, you feel enthused about how much value you can add to the lives of others. Whether you are the CEO of an organization or a software developer, knowing the larger purpose will give you an immense sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. Only when you see that there is a larger purpose to the job that you are doing every day, will your mornings start with a deeper sense of satisfaction and joy. Only when your life\'s purpose is aligned with your work, will you feel that your passion for life is ignited. With these thoughts in mind, let's do a quick activity before we get into a mini-project where you will identify and pen down your purpose. **\ Slide 5** **Time Required:** 15 minutes **Setting:** This is an individual activity. The images will be displayed one at a time and the participants will be asked to write down their answers. Care should be taken so that the participants do not discuss the answers with each other. The images can be displayed quickly, one after the other, so that no room is given for the participants to discuss. Upon questioning, they will shout out their answers. Debrief with the help of the pointers given below. **Materials Required:** None **Say:** Here is another interesting task. The task is very simple. A few images of great people from the past will be displayed. You will write down **one quality that is closely associated with the person you are seeing on the screen. Refrain from discussing with others.** Do not write based on the answers of others. There are no right or wrong answers. Just pen down the traits or quality that is strongly associated with the people shown in the picture. **Note:** Most likely, the participants would have said love/peace for Mother Teresa, arrogance for Hitler, non-violence for Mahatma Gandhi, innovation for Steve Jobs, leader for Indira Nooyi and terrorism for Osama bin Laden. **Say:** My question was very open to you all, yet most of you have written similar answers, right? **Ask:** Why do you think this happened? **Note:** Elicit response. **Say:** This is because though there are many things we do in life, there are a few traits or qualities that we will be known for. For example, Hitler was also an artist and had passion for architecture. Do we know him for any of these? No, we only know him for the cruelty that he meted out to the Jews. This is what he stands for. The purpose that you decide for yourself will be the way others will remember you. For example, when your purpose is to make a difference in the lives of people, your actions change. You become more considerate to others and this will eventually define you as a person. **Say:** Here is an assignment for you all. (distribute the ME -- card). In 4 sentences, write down in the card how you would like to be defined by others. **Note:** Give the participants a 5 minutes and elicit responses from a few. **Say:** Great. Now this is where you want to go. What you have written down in the card, is who you want to be. Let us now learn, how this definition will help you to write your purpose. **Note:** Move to the next slide. **\ ** **Slide 6**  **Say**: Now that we have written down the things that we wanted to be known for, we are very close to knowing our purpose. These 4 statements will guide us to write our purpose statement. Amy Wrzesniewski, Yale School of Management researcher says, "People who consider their work to be a calling tend to be more satisfied than those who think of their work as "just" a job." Let us understand what having a purpose really means - **For example --** - A Software Developer is working on developing a health-related app. If he/she doesn't understand the purpose of his/her job role, he/she could get bogged down by the timelines and the stress involved. However, when he/she realizes that the purpose of his/her job is **to create an app which can aid so many in making their lives/lifestyle healthier,** he/she would work with more passion and develop more tolerance to workplace stress. - A vegetable seller who understands that his/her purpose is to '**help the neighborhood stay healthy by providing them clean and fresh vegetables**' will have a different approach towards his/her customers. While he/she might still bargain, he/she would observe the purchase behavior of his/her regular customers and advise them to buy more greens or other vegetables -- if they buy greens occasionally. Working with purpose is inherently about aligning with yourself. If we aren't, we will spend most of our energy in tasks that do not add value. Now it is time to find our own professional purpose. **Say:** Let's engage in a quick individual activity. **Instructions**: - Take 5 mins to write down the larger purpose of what you do every day. - While writing the purpose, refer to the ME card and try to tie it with your purpose. - There are no right or wrong answers. Just ask yourself the question 'why'. **Note:** Give 5 minutes to the participants to write. **Say: Remember this purpose will now redefine how you look at the tasks you do.** **For example, Ravi is working as a technical support executive and his purpose is to make a difference by helping people adapt to new technologies. Thus, when a customer calls with a query, he not only helps by answering the query but also asks if the customer has any concerns about using the product. This might not be a part of his job role, but he would still want to do it because he wants to make a difference in that customer's life.** **When you understand the bigger picture of how what you are doing impacts the world around you, your approach changes and adds more meaning.** Now that we have learnt about the first formula which is 'know your purpose', let us move to the second formula with a quick quiz. **\ Slide 7** **Time Required** -- 10 Mins **Setting:** This is an individual activity. **Say:** How many of you have participated in quiz competitions before? Elicit response. **Say:** Great. We are going to take a quiz now. But this quiz will be different from the ones you would have taken earlier. Normally in a quiz, you would be given questions and are expected to answer those questions. But now, once the question is displayed on the screen you will first ask yourself -- do I know the answer to this question? -- Your answer would be -- I know, I don't know or I might know. Whatever be the answer of this question, write it down first and then answer the actual question on the slide. Are my instructions clear? Elicit response. **Say:** Ensure that you do not peep into the answers of those next to you and ensure that you are honest with yourself. **Note: Administer the quiz. Have the participants write down what they know, what they do not know and what they might know. Reveal the answers and let the participants self-evaluate.** **Say: Hope the quiz was interesting. What I am particularly interested in is your answer about what you know and what you do not know.** 1. **If your answer had been, I know and also got your answer right -- Great!** 2. **If your answer was -- I don't know and you got it wrong -- Amazing! -- You know that you do not know something** 3. **However, if you had written -- I might know and you believe in that and you still got it right -- trust me its luck.** **Move to the next slide to explain further.** **\ ** **Slide 8**  **Say: According to Warren Buffet, the well-known American Business Magnate --** 1. **What you know is your circle of competence. Remember those logos that you were sure about the answer. Those are the competencies/areas that you are an expert at. These will fall under the circle of competence.** 2. **There is a larger area where you are very clear that you do not know -- which is out of your scope. Relating back to the previous activity -- If your answer had been 'I don't know' -- this falls outside both the circles in the picture on the slide. What you don't know is out of your scope.** 3. **There is another area which falls between your circle of competence and the area which is out of your scope. This is the area where you think you might know (but actually you don't) -- this is our concern. Here you might have made a guess and you might have also got it right -- but remember, you were lucky enough to get it right. If you observe, you will find that most of your mistakes fall under this category. This is because there is a lot of uncertainty involved while operating from this area.** **Let us learn what Warren Buffet, the person who created this concept has to say. According to Buffet - The simple formula to succeed is to honestly define what we really know and stick to those areas. Our circle of competence can be widened, but only slowly and over time. Mistakes are most often made when people stray from this discipline.** **Many a times we commit errors when we work in the area where we think we might know something but actually we don't. As we saw in the quiz, sometimes we might get lucky and get things in our favor. However, this confidence is dangerous. We will be successful only when we learn to work from our area of competence and then slowly work on expanding it.** **Remember, instead of operating from the position of doubt, it is always better to say that you do not know and work towards knowing what you don't know.** Now that we have learnt that working from our circle of competence is the key to success -- our second winning formula is -- (move to the next slide) **\ Slide 9** **Say: KNOW YOUR STRENGTHS.** The key here is to capitalize on your circle of competence. What lies inside your circle of competence are your strengths. Let us now learn why knowing our strengths matters. **Ask:** Why is it important to know what our strengths are? **Note:** Elicit response **Say:** There can be many reasons why you should know your strengths. The primary reason is that it gives you the awareness of the behavior that will help you achieve your objective. For example, some of you would have observed that you never panic during adverse situations. Some of you have a tendency to take control and be in action. There are the situations which makes the best use of your communication skills. Some of you communicate as a leader and dare to take risks. All of you will have your own set of skills. These skills are a pattern that you have observed in yourself and this comes naturally to you. This pattern is your core strength. This is not one skill -- this pattern is a combination of traits, behaviors and skills that is aiding you to succeed. All of you would have different, distinct skills that you use most of the times in most critical situations***.*** Many people, when questioned about their strengths, tend to say that communication is their strength. However, communication skills are skills which like many other skills, they have managed to master through practice. Hence, it is not their strength, it is a skill that they have managed to master. Let us now learn how you can identify the patterns which are your core strengths. **Slide 10**  **Say:** Like we discussed a while ago, strengths are some recurring patterns of behavior that one executes consistently and nearly perfectly. For example -- you have observed that you are a person who is very careful about all your decisions. You carefully prioritize your day and decide on what to do first. You also take extra effort to meticulously understand the root cause of your customer's problem. This quality is your strength. You sense the unpredictability of the world and prefer to make decisions carefully, after weighing out all the options. You are as careful in your personal life as you are with your professional one. Hence, this pattern is your core strength. Let's have a closer look at this example -- You can observe that this example is a combination of 3 things -- talent, knowledge and skills. - Talents are your naturally occurring patterns of thought, feeling and behavior. For example -- being an extrovert or being careful in decision making. - Knowledge consists of facts and lessons learned. (lessons about those decisions that work and those that don't) - Skills are the steps of an activity. (communication skills or using decision making models) These three combines to create your strengths but none of them can substitute the other. Of these, talent is the most important. Without a natural talent for an activity, you might enjoy some level of success but you are probably not going to excel. In the same vein, knowing your talents but not polishing them via learning more (knowledge) or practice (skills) isn't likely to lead you to excellence. It would be good advice for you to discover your dominant talents and then find a way to acquire the knowledge and skills you would need to refine. Now that we have understood the definition of strengths, let us now learn how to identify our natural talents. **\ ** **Slide 11** **Say:** Now that we have a better understanding of what strengths are, let us learn about **how to identify our natural talents.** **This will be an individual exercise.** Here are the steps that will help us find our natural talent. **Note: Give the participants 2 minutes to introspect after each step**. **Allow them to write down their thoughts**. Correct and guide the participants whenever and wherever necessary. **Step 1: Step back and watch yourself**: Find out more about how you react naturally to situations or circumstances. For instance, when you explore your hobby of public speaking by joining forums like Toastmaster, you might realize that being an extrovert/inclined to building strong relationships is your natural talent. **Step 2: Look out for what interests you:** There has to be something you're interested in, passionate about, or willing to learn more about. Identify that passion. You might be passionate about playing chess. This can give you a clue - maybe your natural talent is that you are analytical. You might harp on numbers and data to prove your point. Now, from your passion you have arrived at your natural talent. **Step 3: Look back at your upbringing:** Looking into your past can help you figure out what your talents are. What type of activities were you drawn towards as a child? What did you want to be at the age of 14? What recurring themes or patterns can you spot if you think about your past? Answer to these questions can take you closer to finding your talent. For example, let us have a closer look at someone who, during his/her childhood has experienced the following: When Jan was younger, she used to love reading books to her parents. Throughout grade school, whenever the teacher asked someone in the class to read, she would raise her hand. In school, she would have to take vocabulary tests. A week before the test they would be given a set of words to study. Jan would wait until about 10 minutes before they had to take the test, memorize all the words, and ace it every time. It was clear to her that her life's mission was to use words to make an impact on others. This person had a gift of communication and it allowed her to reach people through writing, hosting, explanations, descriptions and speech. This was Jan's natural talent. **Ask:** Can you tell me what is yours? **Elicit a few responses.** **Step 4: Feedback:** Your friends, family members, acquaintances and even strangers are all giving you clues to help you discover your talent. For example, your friends might have always pushed you to speak with their parents when in trouble, because they trust your ability to be convincing. This can be your natural talent. Let's take a look at these different sources of feedback. Friends/Family -- What do your friends compliment you on? What do your friends find difficult that you think is easy? What do they ask your advice on? You can think about the answers to these questions yourself. You can also ask your friends what they think.  Strangers -- Stranger feedback can be even more useful than feedback from people you know. After all, they're strangers, so they have no reason to give you compliments that aren't genuine. Have you ever received a compliment from a stranger? What did they say? I've been told that I'm articulate, have a nice voice, and that I sound intelligent. Think back to the random things' strangers have said to you and put those pieces together to form a picture. For example, a stranger might have complimented you for your quick wittedness. This could be your natural strength. **Step 5: Listen to what you can talk about.** What can you talk about without stopping? Everybody has a subject they could talk about for days if someone was willing to listen to them. For example, you are very keen on following the news and keeping yourself updated with current affairs. This trait of being eager to stay updated and your quest to learn can be your natural talent. Now that we have learnt about each of these steps, let us do an activity where we will try to identify our core talent. **Note:** Post the 4 steps, **ask few participants to share their talents** with the class and why they think of it as their talent. **Questions that the trainer can use to further help the trainees to identify their natural talent:** - Are there particular tasks I can do easily at work? - What kind of activities I am easily drawn to? -- E.g. organizing - What kind of activities I seem to pick up quickly? -- E.g. Meeting someone - In which activities did the "steps" just come to you automatically? E.g. Event Planning - During what activities have you had moments of subconscious excellence, and you think, "How did I do that?" E.g. building rapport - What activities give you a kick, either while doing them or immediately after finishing them, and you think, "Oh, when can I do that again?" -- E.g. serving someone **Examples of talents for the Trainer's reference**: detail oriented, constant need for achievement, impatient for action, orderly and planned, need for precision, curious about people, senses emotions of those around, easily understands complex issues, sees potential in others, the need to include others, compulsion to take charge, likes to challenge people. **\ ** **Slide 12**  **Say:** Now that you have identified your natural talent, you are just a step away from defining your behavioral pattern which is your core strength. It's time to do a quick recap of what core strength constitutes -- It comprises of your natural talent, skills and knowledge. Let us now get into a simple exercise. On the slide is a strength that has been defined. Bifurcate the same into Talent, Skill and Knowledge. **Note:** Give participants 2 minutes to think and debrief with the following key. **Key:** Natural talent: tendency to seek orderliness Skill: being organized, well-disciplined, punctual Knowledge: the know how required to establish and maintain orderliness and structure around you **\ ** **Slide 13** **Say: Now it's time to identify your strengths. With the knowledge of your talent and ability to distinguish talent, skill and knowledge -- define your strength.** **Time:** 15 mins **Note: Give the participants 5 minutes to think through this and identify their strength.** **Now facilitate a discussion where each person illustrates their strengths and also identifies 2 situations where this pattern has helped them. You as a facilitator should motivate the participants to share their thoughts without any inhibition. Correct the participants when it is required and ensure that the pattern qualifies to be their core strength.** **Ask the following questions:** 1. **Do you think this pattern has been repetitive?** 2. **How has this pattern helped you?** 3. **What did you do to develop that skill?** 4. **How can you use this strength in your personal and professional life?** 5. **What have you achieved at work with the help of this strength?** **Note: Have as many participants as possible to share their thoughts. Refrain from being judgmental and guide the participants appropriately.** **\ ** **Slide 14**  **Say:** With your understanding of strengths tell me, where should your focus be -- on strengths or on your weakness? **Note:** Elicit response. **Say:** There were Gallup studies which were conducted amongst 1016 adults -- The results were that 59% of them identified weakness as the area of focus to succeed. Hardly 14% of people spent most of their day playing to their strength. Focusing on weakness might prevent failure. But focusing on strengths leads to success!! The most successful people in any field in the world have kept their focus on their strengths and not their weaknesses. And that's why they have achieved success. I am sure Bill Clinton and Steve Jobs have had glaring weaknesses but they definitely didn\'t achieve success by focusing only on them. To make it clearer, let's take the example of Don Bradman, one of the greatest batsman of all times and also known as 'the Don'. He was known for his brilliant batting abilities and for record breaking innings. The reason he achieved success and popularity was because he focused on something which was his strength - batting. Now, look at our own lives. Most of us have the tendency to complain and grumble about something which we aren't good at. But have we ever thought about how life will be if we focused on our strengths? Let's take another example: If you are terrible at planning tasks but excellent at being creative then what might make you successful? You already have answered this question in your mind. While you can continue to work on improving your planning skills, a strong focus on your creative skills can help you be amongst the top creative professionals in the organization. Now that we have understood that focusing on strengths will lead to success, let us now learn to build on our strengths. **\ ** **Slide 15** **Say: You have already identified your strengths. And you have also learnt that shifting from weakness orientation to strength orientation is the secret to improvement. But, will merely identifying your strengths lead to success?** **Elicit response.** **Say: No. You will also have to work on these strengths and improve upon them. Remember, even the highest quality of diamond needs to be polished. Now, how do you refine your strengths?** **1. Knowledge. To build your strengths, you will need two kinds of knowledge: factual and experiential.** **Factual knowledge includes content, the facts of any activity or learning. For example, to learn how to fly, you must have the factual knowledge of learning call sign protocols. To learn to sell, you must know your product's features. Excellence is impossible without factual knowledge.** **Experiential knowledge cannot be taught in classrooms or found in manuals. Some of it is practical but it can take on a multitude of forms. For example, you learn to ride a bicycle by experience, not by mere knowledge.** **2. Skills. Mere knowledge will not help you to develop your strength. Hence you must practice the learnt knowledge so that it gets developed as a skill. For example, you might have learnt about various shortcuts in Microsoft Excel from a workshop or online course. However, unless and until you practice it every day, that knowledge doesn't get translated into skills.** **3. Talents. As defined earlier, talent is a naturally occurring pattern of thought, behavior or feeling that can be used to produce performance. As long as this pattern can be applied productively, even seemingly negative traits such as obstinacy or nervousness can be used to perform better. They are the single, most important part of strength-building, primarily because - to perform consistently near perfection, you will have to perform as naturally as you can.** **With this knowledge I am going to introduce you to the last winning formula.** **\ ** **Slide 16**  **Say:** Unlike the other two formulas we learnt so far, the third formula is something that you have to design by yourself. Interesting right? Remember the 3 fundamental principles of a Winning Formula that we learnt at the beginning of the workshop? Elicit responses and say - Clarity, Customization and Commitment. Hence, here we are customizing our formula. Who better than you can decide what you should do to strengthen your skills and strengths? So, let us focus our energy to come up with a meticulous SMART plan which is timely, realistic and actionable. Remember, you should be committed to formula 3 and work on it to be able to achieve the purpose you have defined for yourself. Are you ready? **Note:** Elicit response. **Time:** 15 minutes **Instructions:** 1. Distribute the formula card. 2. Give the participants enough time to fill the details in the card. 3. Have a quick discussion around the formulas of a few participants. **Say:** (After completion of the activity). This card is the key to your development and progress. No one has dictated this to you. No one has imposed this onto you. You have crafted this for yourself. Hence, it is your responsibility to be committed to it and action it knowing that this will take you where you want to go. Pin this card on your workstation for it to be a constant reminder of what you want to accomplish. Move to the next slide. **\ ** **Slide 17** **Note**: The trainer should elicit the top 3 key takeaways from the participants.