When Stephen shared with the SMC member about a book called “Influencer : The Power to Change Anything, I was curious as to how it works. Then the digging and the searching in the World Wide Web begins.
Influence is so powerful that it can change hearts, minds and behaviour to produce meaningful, sustainable results. In order to make changes inevitable, the six sources of influence are able to give powerful strategies to create rapid, impactful, and permanent change in our personal life and the people around us.
This made me relate to the conversation that I had with Ser Yen on Friday morning after finishing work review with a teacher. I shared with her about what I gathered and observed during the work review sessions with 4 teachers for that week. I observed that teachers who thought through about their personal mission have a sense of direction and clarity. They were able to identify their core values and beliefs. They were able to spell out their strategies clearly about teaching and learning. Reasons being ,during personal mission development, we should examine and evaluate the things we want, the persons we are, the things we want to do, and the person we want to become.
This made me wonder if teachers who were vague and unsure about their purpose of life have no or little personal motivation and ability. Personal motivation is what drives us internally and externally to succeed in whatever we want to succeed in. Without personal motivation, we wouldn't be able to accomplish anything. The problem with personal motivation is that many vital behaviors are boring, frightening, scary or uncomfortable. According to an author (JD), the most powerful motivation is personal motivation. The most powerful personal motivation is when you connect to values. This leads to how to connect people through their values.
The importance of values
By discovering a person core values, one will gain a valuable understanding of just who they are, which is a very important aspect of personal growth. Thus, we can assist teachers in finding out their most important values through conversation.
You can do this by asking a few simple questions. Examples of these are:
• I’m just curious what things are most important to you in life?
• I was wondering, on a day to day basis what sort of things do you place value on?
• In the long run what is really important to you?
• If you were to lose everything what would you miss the most?
• If you were to get what you really want in life what would that give you emotionally?
Research has shown that being in touch with your personal values contribute significantly to personal motivation.
To conclude, in order to change our own behavior or the behavior of others , it is critical to deal with personal motivation through personal mission statement.
References:
http://sourcesofinsight.com/2009/06/14/influencer-training-day-2/
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-to-connect-with-people-through-their-values
http://johnglanvill.com/values-and-beliefs/
http://www.cogtech.usc.edu/publications/clark_fostering.pdf
Totally agree. Now the tricky part is "how to connect to pupils through their core values?"
ReplyDeleteMore likely than not, a lot of them are not clear what their core values are. They have not realised that / internalised that yet.
Thanks for this really deep, and thoughtful reflection on personal mission and values.
ReplyDeleteI am inspired and impressed with your research and perception of the connection between personal and organisational mission: we can't go anywhere without the former.
Suan Ching has posed a true challenge for us: to know our own values and thus our mission. Once each of us know our values and mission, then we can articulate them to others who can help us be true to them, holding us accountable to our own values and mission.
This is a great start to developing a culture of true care and learning.
Keep up the great thoughts and actions, Azlin.