BRAIN/LANG/GralInt-El segundo idioma y el cerebro bilingüe

The following information is used for educational purposes only.





El segundo idioma y el cerebro bilingüe


17 mayo, 2015 por F.M.


La mayoría de las personas valora hoy el aprendizaje de una segunda lengua como algo positivo para la vida. Por las posibilidades profesionales, laborales o académicas que el conocimiento de otros idiomas otorga, por la facilidad de comunicación mundial, por el acceso a material diverso. También, en muchos casos, por el prestigio social que otorga tal o cual lengua. Pero hoy la ciencia comprueba que los beneficios van aún mucho más allá.

Según algunos investigadores, dominar dos o más lenguas nos haría más ágiles para resolver ambigüedades o conflictos y priorizar tareas. Otros investigadores sostienen que los bilingües tienen siempre los dos idiomas disponibles y deben constantemente decidir cuál es la lengua adecuada a cada contexto. Relacionan esto con una mayor capacidad para seleccionar la información relevante y descartar la que no lo es. Esta tarea depende de un sistema de control ejecutivo que se encarga de dirigir los procesos de atención que usamos para planear y resolver problemas.

Al estudiar el bilingüismo y su relación con la moral y la toma de decisiones, se descubrió un fenómeno llamado “efecto del lenguaje foráneo” que refiere a que los bilingües tienden a tomar decisiones más racionales cuando actúan a partir de información recibida en una lengua extranjera o dan respuestas más utilitarias ante dilemas morales que implican una participación personal. Esto se debe a que la segunda lengua, siempre que no se haya estado inmerso en esa cultura, no activaría los centros emocionales de la manera en que lo hace una lengua primera.

El bilingüismo también impacta en la salud. Se estima la reserva cognitiva que genera el dominio de varias lenguas sería un factor de protección ante el deterioro cognitivo.
Diversas experiencias registran que los bilingües sienten que su personalidad cambia según el idioma que utilizan. Sería clave vincular estos datos con estudios sobre las lenguas para ver su relación con las ideas circulantes en la sociedad.

Las neurociencias demuestran los beneficios del cerebro bilingüe.Es necesario comprender esto para ayudar a revertir las ideologías sobre las lenguas y las culturas discriminatorias, injustas e inapropiadas. El escritor paraguayo Augusto Roa Bastos, ganador del premio Cervantes, reflexionó sobre esto en ensayos y entrevistas. Contaba en una de éstas, de 1978, que “uno de los prejuicios equivocados de mi padre fue prohibirme que aprendiera el guaraní.”

Las personas atribuyen a las lenguas valoraciones socialmente compartidas, producto de procesos histórico-políticos, y correlacionan estas representaciones con sus hablantes. Si una lengua ha sido históricamente estigmatizada, a veces ese saber no es asumido con valor favorable y es posible que, como consecuencia, los padres, la escuela y la “sociedad culta” no lo transmitan. No es así. La ciencia comprueba que la práctica de distintas lenguas es un valor positivo en sí. Y la literatura, que el valor de una lengua está dada, como diría el propio Roa Bastos, “por la verdad de las representaciones que irradia al ser concebida y construida sobre el foco de la energía social y bajo la ley del tiempo.”













Fuente:https://facundomanes.com/2015/05/17/el-segundo-idioma-y-el-cerebro-bilingue/

GralInt-7 tips para renovar tu casa

The following information is used for educational purposes only.


7 tips para renovar tu casa


Unas ideas que te ayudarán a refrescar la imagen de tu casa.

¿Quieres aprovechar que "año nuevo, vida nueva" pero en tu casa? Bueno entonces estos 7 tips que puedes aplicar hoy a tu casa harán que se vea y se sienta mejor, lista para iniciar bien el año - y no te costarán nada.


Refresca tu espacio

Sobre todo en invierno, tu casa puede sentirse encerrada. Entre mantener las ventanas cerradas, cortinas o persianas pesadas y cosas que dejas que se acumulen, poco a poco empiezas a sentirte estresado o ansioso y no sabes por qué. Antes de hacer un cambio dramático, comienza ventilando toda tu casa. Aprovecha un día con buen clima y abre las ventanas de par en par.


Limpia todo lo que esté en desorden


Si tu resolución de año nuevo fue ser un master de la limpieza y la organización, seguro ya eres un experto. Y si aún no eres todo un experto, comienza por una tarea pequeña: esos objetos que se empiezan a acumular apenas entras a tu casa: las llaves, recibos, zapatos. Regresa todo a su lugar.


Y vuelve a limpiar

Si te encuentras ordenando y reordenando permanentemente tu casa, tal vez es porque tienes demasiadas cosas. Es hora de deshacerse de lo que ya no te sirve: no sólo cosas viejas o rotas, sino también prueba a tener menos cosas en general. Realmente necesitas 3 cepillos? 20 vasos? 4 sweaters negros?. Vende o dona las cosas que estén en buen estado.


Quita los obstáculos


Puedes interpretar esta idea de varias maneras. Remover un obstáculo puede ser algo físico como un mueble que tienes que esquivar e interrumpe el flujo natural entre las habitaciones. O también una especie de obstáculo mental, como no permitirte usar los colores que realmente quieres en tu decoración. Piénsalo, es hora de quitar ambos. Cambiar la disposición de los muebles de tu sala o de tu recámara te hará sentir como en un nuevo espacio.


Algo natural

Retoma esa conexión con la naturaleza con elementos naturales dentro de tu espacio. Pueden ser desde flores de temporada, plantas, hierbas aromáticas o ramas de árboles. Agregando estos elementos a tu casa en un lugar donde los puedas ver te hará sentirte en contacto con la naturaleza.


Ajusta los pequeños detalles

Podrías pensar que un gran cambio siempre significa mucho movimiento, pero no siempre es así. Muchas veces es necesario sólo dar una vuelta por tu casa para hacer pequeños ajustes, como enderezar los cuadros, algunos libros o accesorios fuera de lugar. Así, todos esos pequeños detalles hacen la diferencia en tu decoración y tienen un impacto significativo en la belleza de tu hogar.


Muestra tu pasión

Te gusta pintar? La música? Sea cual sea tu hobby o tu pasión más allá del trabajo, no lo escondas. Deja que forme parte de tu espacio para que éste hable de tí y te sientas inspirado en toda tu casa.


¿Qué tal? Estos tips los puedes aplicar a tu espacio cada vez que sientas que necesitas un cambio. Y para ayudarte a encontrar el toque final, visita gaiadesign.com.mx para encontrar todo lo necesario para amueblar y decorar tu espacio.







Fuente:http://www.msn.com/es-ar/estilo-de-vida/hogar-y-jardin/7-tips-para-renovar-tu-casa-desde-hoy/ar-BBxJGo6?li=AAggPN3&ocid=mailsignout

GralInt-Phrases

The following information is used for educational purposes only.

"If somebody had the priviledge and the 

honor of walking into your life, 

living and growing with you,

and they didn´t have the good sense to stay,

you need to be glad to be rid of them."


Iyanla Vanzant

"Failure isn´t the end of the road. It´s a big 

red flag saying to you, "wrong way",

turn around."

Oprah Winfrey

"Things without all remedy should be 

without regard;what´s done is done."

Lady Macbeth







Source: Google Images/Phrases from their authors

COACH/GralInt-Tips for Effective Coaching:6 Essential Coaching Tips for Managers and HR Professionals

The following information is used for educational purposes only.


Human Resources

Tips for Effective Coaching

6 Essential Coaching Tips for Managers and HR Professionals

Chris Ryan.Caiaimage/Getty Images


June 28, 2016


Want to find out about the essential components of a coaching relationship? Executives, managers, and others interested in career growth and development increasingly turn to a business coach for a personally tailored development process. They turn to coaches rather than to training for their ongoing leadership development.


Human Resources staff and managers need to get on board as coaches or miss this exciting opportunity to influence the next evolution of your organization's management potential.


According to Winston Connor, formerly an HR Vice President and currently an executive coach, "Coaching is a different delivery system for training, since training, especially with long term managers and people who are further along in their careers, is not working.

"The coach works with the manager to tailor the training program in skill areas where we will have an impact. The coach helps managers make behavioral changes needed for growth."

Connor advises that coaches need to be, "clear on the competencies that have impact on the bottom line. Measure them. Provide support for growth and change. Then measure again."

Connor thinks the HR person should be the change agent within his organization: "He has the opportunity to provide the leadership needed, to become a part of the coaching venture, rather than an obstacle to progress."

Connor also warns internal HR practitioners against, "trying to repackage old skills as coaching.

In the consultancy approach, the HR person brings solutions. He is the expert. In coaching, we don't bring the answer. We bring a system, a process for helping the client discover the answers."

You Need Permission to Coach

The effective coach defines the boundaries of her relationship with each manager.


Is she a trusted advisor and friend? Does she listen and provide feedback? Or, does she help the manager obtain 360-degree feedback and develop action plans to increase his capability as a leader?

The agreement the HR professional develops with each manager can be different. The coaching role must be agreed upon to work.

Most importantly, the HR specialist pushes the window with each manager to assist her to grow professionally to promote the success of the organization and of the individual.

Christine Zelazek, SPHR, Director of HR at the Mennonite Home of Albany, Oregon, offers her key strategy for the HR coach: "Set the situation up so the person asks for help, rather than me forcing the help upon her."

The Coach Is Not in Control

The HR professional is a resource for managers who seek out her services. She does not control the relationship or the actions and decisions of the person she is coaching. At best, the HR manager forms a partnership with the coached manager that results in good choices for the organization and personal growth for the manager.


The manager, however, makes the final decision about what she will do in any given situation.

Your knowledge, your effectiveness as a communicator, your developed relationship with the manager and your perceived competence will impact a manager's willingness to use your coaching input.

Be a Knowledgeable Coach and Resource - Tell the Truth When You Don't Know the Answer

A manager or supervisor seeks input from you most frequently when she is uncertain about how she handled a particular situation. Or, she seeks input prior to making a mistake in her handling of an issue.

More recently, managers seek targeted assistance from a coach with their own growth as managers. This means you will most often receive the most difficult and delicate questions. After all, why consult you when she knows the answer?

Recognize too, that sometimes the manager is seeking reassurance and confirmation and may already know the answer to the question she is asking. You will enhance her capabilities and self-esteem if you ask her what she thinks, and where possible, confirm that her answer is the correct path. Your role as a coach is to strengthen her competency, not to demonstrate that you know the answers.

When you don't know the correct answer or are speculating about the right course of action, tell the truth. It is far better to say you don't know, that you will check and find out, than to appear to have all of the answers, and give bad advice. You will ruin your reputation and undermine your credibility as a coach forever.

Help the Manager Develop Her Own Solutions


People generally know what is the right or appropriate thing to do. Often your job is to draw the answer out of the individual. If you give the person the answer, the manager is less likely to own and fully enroll in the solution or answer.

Winston Connor suggests the coach say to the manager, "Let's explore the possibilities. What is it that you really want?" He feels that the "result will be stronger and richer because we fostered ownership."

You can provide options and recommend resources. You can give your opinion. You can answer questions, but ultimately, the answer must be the manager's. (This is the type of question, you may want to ask: How do you think the situation should be handled? What have you considered doing? What do you think you need to do to move to the next level?)

Practice Highly Honed Communication Skills for Coaching


Listen to hear the specific needs of the manager who seeks your assistance. Don't automatically assume that this question or this situation is like any other you have encountered. Give your customer your full attention and take in information that will lead to insightful, personalized responses to the manager's questions.

Listen also for what the individual is not saying verbally. Watch facial expression, body language, and movements. Listen to the tone of voice and any expressions of emotion. Ask open-ended questions to draw out the manager, such as, "tell me what you are considering doing." Questions that appear to seek out motives such as, "why did you do that?" will shut the discussion down.

The Coach Is Always an Educator


As an HR professional or manager in a coaching role, you educate managers and supervisors as you work with them as a supportive partner and coach. Your goal is to make them self-sufficient. You give them the tools they need to be successful in their business-related and interpersonal functions.

You assist by supplying a process they can follow to build their own skills. A manager should leave an HR professional feeling stronger, more knowledgeable, and more capable of addressing the opportunities in the future.


"There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great." --G.K. Chesterton







Source:https://www.thebalance.com/tips-for-effective-coaching-1917836

COACH/MANAG/GralInt-7 Coaching Tips for Your Managers and Leaders

The following information is used for educational purposes only.




7 Coaching Tips for Your Managers and Leaders

9/6/16.

“Managers need to stretch, challenge, and coach their high-potential employees… Without multi-dimensional dialogue about these issues, managers tend to hold on to their high-potential people instead of helping them along an intentional developmental pathway. High-potentials then may interpret this as a lack of company support and will be inclined to look elsewhere.”

– Ron Ashkenas, The Paradox of High Potentials, Harvard Business Review


Developing coaching skills in leaders is one of the best things you can do for your business. Coaching skills can help with key employee retention, performance improvement, skill improvement, and knowledge transfer.

While there are other important leadership skills and competencies, coaching is central to improving the performance of entire teams.

A study conducted by Bersin by Deloitte showed that organizations with senior leaders who coach effectively and frequently improve their business results by 21 percent as compared to those who never coach.

7 Coaching Tips for Managers


1. Ask good questions. Great questions lead to great answers, and great answers lead to great conversations. It is crucial that managers develop strong relationships with your employees. This will help them determine if employees are curious, have the capacity to perform and improve, and have a positive attitude.

2. Meet the employee on the employee’s terms.


3. Coaches are motivated by the success of others, and that requires a relentless focus outward. Coaching requires both encouragement and empowerment. Managers must work with employees to build one-on-one relationships that result in improved performance.

4. Understand how to guide conversations. This is where communication skills and emotional intelligence really come into play. Managers must guide conversations by asking questions not by giving direction or directives. Employees learn and grow the most when they uncover the answers themselves.

5. Reinforce effective listening skills to make sure that the feedback is understood by the employee. Show managers and coaches how to ask follow-up and clarifying questions to do this and make sure every communication is clear and understood by all parties.


6. Managers have a central role in the success of the development programs of their employees. No other person has as much influence over the productivity, engagement and learning as the manager over her direct reports. Support both the employee and manager in this effort.

7. Teach the importance of coaching in the moment. Learning is best when things are occurring. Employees learn best by doing, so coach as you go!




Daniela Ibarra

Marketing Specialist at BizLibrary



Source:http://www.bizlibrary.com/article/7-coaching-tips-managers-leaders/

LEAD/MANAG/COACH/GralInt-The Key To Effective Coaching

The following information is used for educational purposes only.





4/28/2010

The Key To Effective Coaching


Business coaching has gone from fad to fundamental. Leaders and organizations have come to understand how valuable it can be, and they’re adding “the ability to coach and develop others” to the ever-growing list of skills they require in all their managers. In theory, this means more employee development, more efficiently conducted. But in reality, few managers know how to make coaching work.

According to the 2010 Executive Coaching Survey, conducted by the Conference Board, 63% of organizations use some form of internal coaching, and half of the rest plan to. Yet coaching is a small part of the job description for most managers. Nearly half spend less than 10% of their time coaching others.

With such limited time devoted to coaching, organizations need to be sure their managers know how to do it right. To improve the quality and impact of your coaching efforts, start by giving your individual managers tangible information about how to coach their direct reports. Typically, managers meet their coaching obligations by giving reviews, holding occasional meetings and offering advice. For coaching to be effective, they need to understand why they are coaching and what specific actions they need to take.

Coaching focuses on helping another person learn in ways that let him or her keep growing afterward. It is based on asking rather than telling, on provoking thought rather than giving directions and on holding a person accountable for his or her goals.

Broadly speaking, the purpose is to increase effectiveness, broaden thinking, identify strengths and development needs and set and achieve challenging goals. Research from the Center for Creative Leadership has boiled down the skills managers need to coach others into five categories:


1) Building the relationship. It’s easier to learn from someone you trust. Coaches must effectively establish boundaries and build trust by being clear about the learning and development objectives they set, showing good judgment, being patient and following through on any promises and agreements they make.


2) Providing assessment. Where are you now and where do you want to go? Helping others to gain self-awareness and insight is a key job for a coach. You provide timely feedback and help clarify the behaviors that an employee would like to change. Assessment often focuses on gaps or inconsistencies, on current performance vs. desired performance, words vs. actions and intention vs. impact.


3) Challenging thinking and assumptions. Thinking about thinking is an important part of the coaching process. Coaches ask open-ended questions, push for alternative solutions to problems and encourage reasonable risk-taking.


4) Supporting and encouraging. As partners in learning, coaches listen carefully, are open to the perspectives of others and allow employees to vent emotions without judgment. They encourage employees to make progress toward their goals, and they recognize their successes.


5) Driving results. What can you show for it? Effective coaching is about achieving goals. The coach helps the employee set meaningful ones and identify specific behaviors or steps for meeting them. The coach helps to clarify milestones or measures of success and holds the employee accountable for them.


You should seed your organization with coaching role models. All managers need some guidance on the whys and hows of coaching, but most organizations can’t afford to train them on a large scale, so the least you can do is make an effort to create a culture of coaching. The key is to create a pool of manager-coaches who can be role models, supporters and sustainers of a coaching mindset.

When you select the right people and invest in their development and position them as coaching advocates, you plant the seeds for expanding coaching well beyond the individual manager-direct report relationship. Your role models demonstrate effective coaching both formally and informally, and they help motivate others to use and improve their own coaching capabilities.

Always link the purpose and results of coaching to the business. Managers have to know the business case for coaching and developing others if they’re to value it and use it effectively. Where is the business headed? What leadership skills are needed to get us there? How should coaches work with direct reports to provide the feedback, information and experiences they need to build those needed skills? Set strategic coaching goals, tactics and measures for the organization as well as including coaching as an individual metric.

Finally, give it time. It’s not surprising that managers feel they don’t have enough time for coaching. Even if you make learning and coaching explicit priorities, time is tight for everyone. But as your coaching processes and goals become more consistent and more highly valued, in-house coaching will take root. Your managers will have a new way to develop and motivate their direct reports. Individuals and groups will strive to build new skills and achieve goals. And your business will be on track to a more efficient, comprehensive system of developing people.

Candice Frankovelgia is the coaching portfolio manager for the Center for Creative Leadership.



Source:http://www.forbes.com/2010/04/28/coaching-talent-development-leadership-managing-ccl.html

LEAD/COACH/GralInt-Coaching Skills Every Leader Needs To Master

The following information is used for educational purposes only.



OCT 27, 2015

Coaching Skills Every Leader Needs To Master


William Arruda



We hear a lot about coaching these days. More and more professionals have an executive coach COH +1.40%. The movement is even bringing coaching inside companies. International Coach Federation (ICF) Executive Director Magda Mook says, “The trend is very real. There’s a growing number of leaders and managers eager to adopt a coaching style to their work environment. More and more companies and organizations are providing this kind of training to their best performers.”

Magda cites a study on coaching in organizations conducted in 2015 by ICF and the Human Capital Institute (HCI). Their research revealed that 81% of the organizations surveyed planned to expand their scope of managers/leaders using coaching skills. By comparison, they plan a 72% increase in the use of internal coaches and a 35% increase in the use of external coaches.

So with the move to make leaders inside companies become coaches (or at least become familiar with coaching techniques), I thought it would be valuable to give Forbes readers some tips for being a great coach. With that goal, I reached out to some of the most revered and successful executive coaches to get their best advice for leaders who want to integrate coaching into their daily grind:

From Executive Coach Ora Shtull, Founder of OraCoaching:

To go from good to great, every manager need only adopt a coach’s #1 tool: the question.

A leader who reduces the need to be the smartest in the room and have all the answers will motivate her team, win allies, and create the capacity to grow personally. A question can open a conversation: What’s going on? It can dig deeper: Tell me more. I’d like to better understand. A smart question will seek perspective: What is your view on this? A savvy question can also show trust and encourage growth: How might you solve this problem?


Kara Exner, Founder of Nine Lions Coaching concurs with Ora’s focus on using questions. She says:

Notice if your own tendency is to rush straight to finding a solution for your team member or to fixing their problem for them. Leaders who invest the time asking questions to foster a team member’s self-discovery see a bigger payoff: Direct reports are more empowered to make their own decisions, more engaged with their work, and even go to the boss with questions less frequently.

Instead of responding with a quick answer and sending direct reports on their way, try leading with a question: “What do YOU think some options are?” “What would YOU do?” “What are the pros and cons of each option?”
Observe the situation with your team members; they may be seeing a situation from only one point of view. Ask questions that help them to see other alternatives.
Ask questions to increase their awareness of their goals and to help them discover what is important to them about achieving their goals.

From Shira Ronen, Founder of Spectrum Consulting:

The best tip I have for managers is to embrace the mantra, "When in doubt, communicate." Adopting a coaching style of leadership is all about communicating better and more. It leads to high motivation, productive delegation, and trust. The trick to communicating better is asking open-ended questions and truly listening to the answers.

Early managers who are learning how to delegate and lead a team can speed up their learning curve by asking these questions of their reports:

"How would you like to see yourself growing in this role?”

“How would you approach this issue?”

“How do you view this past year? How do you think you’re doing?”

When you’re a senior leader, your relationships with colleagues become more critical. The astute executive will set up 1 on 1 meetings with colleagues (allies and objectors alike) to build alliances and eliminate conflict. Some of the questions you'll want to ask of your peers are:

“You seem frustrated. Can we chat about what’s going on?”

"I'd like to learn more about your point of view on X. Do you have some time to discuss it?"

"Before I share this with the CEO, I'd love to hear your perspective...”


In many organizations managers are promoted because of their high-level technical skills. This means they often arrive in their new role having not received any leadership training. As leadership requires a shift from “achieving through doing it myself” to “achieving through enabling others to do it,” leaders need the skills of facilitating clear, structured, productive conversations. So, as conversations are the work of leadership, incorporating communication as a coaching technique makes real sense.

Karen Tweedie PCC, a Partner in Access Leadership Australia continues the theme of communications. She says “Better conversations mean better relationships, which lead to better output." Below are a few tips to help the coaching leader support direct reports or other key stakeholders:

1. See yourself as a thought partner, listen for potential (of people and ideas)

2. Keep your questions open-ended (be willing to be surprised)

3. Encourage self-discovery (encourage colleagues to find their own answers to their own challenges)

4. Put your attention on the person in front of you, not the issue

5. Expect that the person is capable of discerning the best approach

6. Empower the other person to succeed – remove obstacles, provide resources

7. Maintain accountability, celebrate effort and results

If you are looking for a meaningful way to enhance your leadership skills, put the wisdom of top coaches into action.

Use the power of asking questions for personal branding. Download my complete list of 50 eye-opening questions to ask yourself when uncovering your brand here.



Source:http://www.forbes.com/sites/williamarruda/2015/10/27/coaching-skills-every-leader-needs-to-master/2/#4fb90a201352