Genashtim started offering workplace counselling services to its employees around June 2018. Our counsellor is Marcia Evans from Jamaica. Marcia is a HR professional who is passionate about counselling and has been richly blessed with a love for people. I was aware of the fact that employees do face various work-related and personal challenges and stresses, and I felt the need to engage someone externally for this purpose. The thought of counselling for our people came to me whilst I was watching one of my favourite series, “Billions”. I want Marcia to be our Wendy Rhoades. I also feel that the need for counselling is more profound in Genashtim as the vast majority of our people do come from more challenging situations and conditions than the normal employees in any company.

Counselling is available to everyone in Genashtim. They can choose to do this themselves, or can be referred by their G-Tribe leaders, or their supervisors. The intention is to provide a “safe place” so that everyone can be fearless about booking a session to work through their issues with the counsellor. Marcia does not disclose to anyone who she has been counselling. She speaks to me on a regular basis to tell me about any common issues which have arisen, which I should do something about. Again, she never discloses who. I also give her some updates on the issues that we have been facing in the company, so that she has the proper context to do her job properly.

Counselling helps employees see their problems in a different, usually brighter light. It gives them a different perspective and a changed mindset. Counselling helps them to refocus and get back on track. The counsellor may be able to help employees find their own solutions, but failing that, they will be given suggestions on how to cope with the issues.

#Genashtim #WorkplaceCounselling #Billions

I attended a short training session this morning on Blue Ocean Leadership. I am not going to comment about the quality of the training and the topic, but rather on the mode of delivery.

It was just a two hour session. The most engaging parts of the session was when videos were played. There were a couple of rather interesting videos. But I could have watched them on Youtube, I presume.

Halfway through the session, one of the participants starting raising questions, and did this quite a bit. Her issue was how to convince her leadership to adopt this Blue Ocean Leadership concept. After a while, I had to intervene that the issue she has is a dysfunctional leadership, and that this is not the topic of this workshop.

There were quite a number of questions coming from the participants, which is a credit to the trainer and also the topic. However most people just jumped in whenever they had something to ask or to say, and the loudest voice would prevail.

I also saw a fellow who kept trying to put his hand up, and never got his turn. We are talking about a rather small group of about a dozen people.

I could not help comparing this to the discussion boards which we use in our eLearning environment. I would not have to spend time reading the questions and exchanges with the instructor which were not related to the topic and of no interest to me. Also, every single participant can ask any number of questions, and each time, he/she would be just as loud as everyone else.

It took me 40 minutes to drive to the location, a bit of a struggle to look for a car park. All in all, it took me 4 hours to attend a 2 hour training session.Павелкокак приехать в германию