The Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy: The MIND! The JOURNEY! The DESTINY! requires us to learn to be observant of what is going on in our lives. We must be fortunate not to be only observant but be able to think through issues, listen to and understand our emotions. Following that, we must control how we react because of such emotions. You can imagine how impossible this could be for young people to have to engage with their emotions and make sense of them. I would like to believe that I have been fortunate to be able to do that early in my life. Of course, as I was growing up, I could not label things as such. But the fact that I could now recall and attach meaning to so many of the happenings around my life now confirms that I was alert. I continued applying this practice, which I now call Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy, until today. I want, through my writing, to encourage you to try it as it would help you now and later in your life. As I was growing up, I had nobody telling me how powerful our brains are and that they store all the life events in our long-term memories, to retrieve them later in life. Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy should not be understood to mean replacing conventional mentorship and coaching. It complements it and should be applied together. But in the absence of a conventional mentor, self-mentorship and coaching become valuable. We are all capable of practicing it from our youth until the end of our lives. It never stops. It is a way of life, and it is powerful.
It also requires us to engage the abilities and powers of the brain, the organ that houses our mind, producing and harboring billions of thoughts that we generate. We need to be aware that the thoughts are generated by our conscious mind and acted upon by our subconscious mind. This happens often at times we do not expect it. It is better to learn to control which thoughts we harbor. The ideal is to keep as many positive thoughts as possible and throw away as many negative thoughts as possible. If we are battling with negative thoughts, we must request professional help to process and discard them. This must never be left unattended because we know that they will come back to haunt us later in our lives. For the Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy to be applied effectively in our lives, we must be aware of this functioning of our brain. We are going to need this capacity throughout our lives.
This philosophy requires you to use your life as a learning platform, recollect the lessons from previous life situations, and adjust how you react to similar situations in the future. You are expected to adjust your behaviors and practices accordingly. We must welcome life incidences and events as learning opportunities. You will, as you go through this book, realize that I have used my own personal and professional life events and experiences to conceptualize this Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy. I aim to share the insights with so many people that do not realize that the power is within themselves, and it is presented openly through their life events. That is my life purpose and calling. I do this by recollecting where it all began, the baseline of my life journey, the small village of Moripane, outside Jane Furse, Sekhukhune District, Limpopo Province of South Africa. I want to believe that I have been alert to the events from my childhood, responding to my emotions, and releasing the pressure by doing things. I mentored myself by being observant and learning on the go, always being futuristic. I have always been faithful and placed my hope on what the future would provide. At some stages, I got reminded that I was an idealist.
My small village was my support base by just making me feel welcome even though we were all poor. We grew up sharing everything about our lives. We shared peace, happiness, laughter, sorrows, food, and hunger. As we grew up and left that caring small village it became clear that life outside was very difficult. But I left that small village with so many qualities that saw me through life. That was when I started thinking deeply about what to call my methodology for life challenges.
I did not know then what to call it. But today I call it Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy: The MIND! The JOURNEY! The DESTINY! I apply my MIND to the JOURNEY that takes me to my DESTINY! I strongly believe that when the DESTINY is achieved it becomes the HERITAGE for the next GENERATION. This Philosophy is one such Heritage I would like to leave behind. If you are reading this book and you think that you need a Mentor and/or Coach, you do not know where he or she will come from, just know that you have a Mentor and Coach inside you. Reading through the entire book, as we publish it on the go, will confirm this fact, chapter after chapter, that Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy is real and practical. This is what coaches reveal to their proteges through coaching conversations.
As I share my professional journey through my formal basic education years the philosophy is more entrenched. Similarly, as I grew up in the village participating in the village sports activities, especially village football, I learned the ropes of life by observing and participating, confirming the self-mentorship and coaching philosophy. I will share with you that our cultural practices and traditions provide further opportunities to enrich our lives as we transition from one family to another as our parents get married to others. This is what happened to me, and the transition opened my world as I, for the first time could add a new family, and therefore learned new culture. I became culturally rich. But nobody told me that this was growth. I just figured it out and confirmed this later as I became educationally enlightened.
You will hear about my dynamics of being a herd-boy scholar, exchanging going to school and looking after my grandfather’s livestock, bi-weekly, with my cousin, Dan Phaphedi Patjane. I learned to catch up on the school syllabus by taking textbooks with me to the field. That was at primary school. I did not realize that I was learning to be resilient and hardworking so early in my life. That was character-building. People felt sorry for me and thought I was being troubled. But the love that my grandfather, Jimson Phaphedi “Modifa” Patjane, was giving me as I was performing these duties was overwhelming. I never developed the idea of being ill-treated. I treasure the life lessons he exposed me to. There was nothing I wouldn’t do at his homestead.
Growing up in the rural village of Moripane I knew that every one of us was regarded as the child of the village. Mentorship opportunities by the elders and experts of the village were galore. I grew up combining the roles of a herdboy, domestic chores, and schooling which all provided me with a solid foundation for my later personal development out in the public. And of course, as schools were scattered in the region, going to school was a daily mission. We however enjoyed the trips to these faraway schools. The long walks to school were like being in a mobile storytelling arena. Day in and day out we discussed the many issues about our villages, schools, and everything about our lives, including our career ambitions and dreams. The boys always discussed the village football which was big in the Sekhukhune District. It was the biggest inspiration in this rural region of our country.
For the boy child education was not complete until he went to the traditional mountain school, i.e. undergoing circumcision ritual in the field, at which the many challenges of life are taught by the elderly mentors. This was for me a transition into manhood and a new stage of my life. I did not think hard about it at that time. I just enjoyed the transition and continued to build on the lessons without being judgemental about what we were put through. By the way, this was one transition my mother so much wanted me to undergo. I still remember how excited she was when she took me and handed me over to the elderly men at Marulaneng, a Kgosi Phetedi, in Sekhukhune. We traveled from Madibong village the night before and were welcomed by the relatives at the village.
We later in the evening went over to the royal kraal. It was at this point that we were separated from our mothers and the leaders of the regiment took over. Nothing was explained in advance to me. Everything we did was always a surprise. As I reflect now, I am proud of the orderly way things were unfolding from one moment to the other.
The entire period at the mountain school was a revelation to me. I was one of the elderly participants in the ritual, having taken a break from school where it was already clear in my mind that I would pursue education after completing the mountain school ritual. So, I was fully present, noting everything that the elderly traditional mentors were putting us through. I even helped the head mentor in checking and counting the participants (“koma”). The rest of the details out there in the mountain I will leave out as it is culturally not appropriate to disclose such happenings to the general public. In my language, there is a saying: “Koma re bolela kgororwana, khupa marama re hwa le yona”. It means that we do not disclose what happens at the mountain school to the general public. It remains a sworn secret. It is a learned discipline to keep confidentiality in life. So, I am not the one to do that through this book, which I would like it to be a dependable reference book for everybody.
The day I came back home, my mother was the happiest woman on earth. I greeted her with great joy. The experience she gave me by allowing me to go to the mountain school, especially at Marulaneng, was the best of my life in the traditional context. Of course, then, I did not think much about it. In hindsight, I realized that I was one of the luckiest people to attend the mountain school, be well looked after even though I had no elder brother and a father to take care of me while there. I am my mother’s first born. I was equally mentored and taken care of like all other participants. I was such an observant and fully present participant. I can still relate to my learning journey there at the mountain school. It is a chapter in my life that has solidified my resilience in life. That was the beginning for me to go out in the world. My mother released me with full knowledge that I had learned to be fully responsible for my life. And, indeed, she was right. I never put my foot wrong since then. I took full ownership of my mistakes and celebrated all the successes with full intent. This was the beginning of my Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy: The MIND! The JOURNEY! The DESTINY! even though I only became consciously aware of it in 2005 and named it such.
If it is not mountain school that anchored me, it is likely to be the formal schooling at those rural schools, the village football I played at Moripane Scientists Football Club, and then later Sunday school at the Lutheran Church at Ga-Moloi was Madihlaba. In my grandfather’s house, my uncles’ wives played a key role in exposing me to the church. When my grandfather, Jimson Phaphedi Patjane, joined the church and was baptized, the whole family converted to Christianity. Once, again, in hindsight, this was the entry into another chapter of my life. I followed and trusted the process of the time. I attended Sunday school and got confirmed. I did not stop playing village football, going to school, looking after livestock, and doing domestic chores at my grandfather’s house. I wish I had a way of capturing all the lessons I made from these multiple things that I grew up doing. I notice that I was a youth with multiple interests, strong internal drive, compliant, and always willing to be involved. Self-mentoring and coaching was the process on the go that saw me through. Due to my positive outlook on life, I did not even realize the struggle that was ahead of me.
Something common among us in the region was transitioning from one school to another as we developed. I have had to take such decisions of transitioning from one school to another on my own, young in my life. I often did not even have anyone to discuss this with. I was fortunate that my guardians were very supportive of my decisions. Somehow, they trusted my decisions and believed in me. But this was so since I was on my own without a father. It was a relief to them that I was very independent and lived responsible life. I do not know where this came from. I can only call it self-mentorship and coaching. Hence, I am writing this book to suggest that when there is no one to guide you in life, you can guide yourself by having a positive outlook on life, being multi-interested, trusting the processes, development and growth, being futuristic in approach, learning from being observant and fully present, and valuing every experience that all your life stages are teaching you. You develop amazing self-reliance and strong will. I did not realize then that I was on the journey toward discovering my life purpose, life task, and calling. It is only now that I can locate the point. It was written all over me. But I could only formulate it in the 90s and confirmed it in the 20s that mine is about – FACILITATING THE DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH of fellow human beings through Individual, Organisational, and Community Development Initiatives. Today this is my professional career and enterprise. Hence, my organization, COMETSA GoC International (Pty) Ltd is a provider of Human Capital, Management, and Leadership Development through Coaching, Mentoring, Advisory, Facilitation, Consulting, Events Management, Conferencing, Workshops, Seminars, Networking, and PMS LEKGOTLA Networks (PMS = Professional Management Services). This will become more evident in the future chapters of this book as I take you through my full life journey.
Moving to the boarding school, in my case to Boaparankwe College in Arabie, outside Marble Hall, was like slowly going away from your roots. You start coming back home lesser and lesser. The transformation inside you, if not controlled can lead you astray. In my case, I was motivated by my desire to acquire as much knowledge as possible to solve the potential crisis back at my mother’s house. I spent most of the school holidays at the boarding school, studying in the library, only going home for short periods. I was fortunate that my school, Boaparankwe College, allowed me to stay behind on campus. Since our school was next to Tompi Seleka Agricultural College, which always had students around even during the holidays, there were always people to spend some time with. I took advantage of that. This was the learning, development, and growth opportunity that appeared like a luxury to some that I was not going to miss. Something told me that that was the turning point and the opportunity to prepare for the transition to the higher institutions of learning I would capitalize on.
However, at certain points in life, you are mature to know that you need life counselors. I was fortunate to befriend one of my high school teachers, Mr. Lucas Mphahlele Tshehla, a very principled and disciplined teacher. He taught me Agricultural Science in high school. This was the first time and a short while in my life journey that I could refer to someone as my mentor. He played a key role in my transition to the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg for my tertiary studies. He connected me with his brother in Soweto and made it possible for me to attend the then famous Winter School in Johannesburg. This was after, out of my curiosity, I saw the advert at our college library, and had applied to participate in the Winter School program. I was accepted but did not know how I was going to make that happen. The typical problem associated with self-mentorship & coaching behavior and practice. You often activate things only to find yourself stuck. However, the positive about it is that one never looks at the reasons why things cannot happen. We always look at the positive side of life, believing that where there is a will there is a way. I attended the Winter School program. During the program, I stayed at the house of the brother of my mentor in Soweto. This gave me a level of confidence I never had before. After winter school, I knew that I would do well in the final matric examinations. I was to mentor myself further and conditioned myself to focus on everything there is to be done to go and study in Johannesburg. Once again, I did not know how that was going to happen as I had no relatives there and I certainly knew that without a scholarship that caters for both my living and study needs it would be impossible for that to happen.
Back at my college, I worked harder than ever before. But I was starting to be wiser than just working harder. One day, as I was studying in the college library, I saw a promotion to participate in the Science Week Olympiad. Our college was already aware of it and invited some of us to participate in it. I enrolled for it, took the test. During the December holidays of that year, I got a message from our college that I was successful, and I should join other students of the then Lebowa Homeland Government at the then Kwena Moloto College of Education in Seshego for an educational tour of the South. I connected with the driver of my college at the Boaparankwe College who drove me to Seshego. This was the best education tour of my life. We toured the now Gauteng Province (it was then just known as Southern Transvaal), visited the Planetarium at Wits University Campus, Sasol Plant in Sasolburg, Pretoria Zoological Garden, and had some lectures on careers. In hindsight, this is what Self-Mentoring & Coaching delivers when one is continuously plugged, active, and fully present. It is now beautiful when reflecting on it. But it is something that I did not copy from anyone. I just had that desire and multi-interest which I believe is something we can activate in any of our youth today. That is the objective of this book and I hope by reading it many youth will feel like they have a mentor and a coach by their side. I did not have such privilege.
What about transitioning from high school to higher institutions of learning like college and university? What kind of challenges does one have to face? This is a million-dollar question. But I had to plunge into the situation and survive. The shock of university life was just too much. For the first time, I felt overwhelmed. My basic education had not prepared me enough for this kind of pressure at the university. I became disoriented, made several wrong decisions, and became scared of failure for the first time in my life.
I was also disappointed and felt rejected as the apartheid government of South Africa then made it difficult for us, black students, to settle easily on campus. We were not allowed to reside at the campus-based residences. We were accommodated at Glyn Thomas House at the Baragwanath Hospital, outside Soweto, and had to travel daily to the campus. It was almost like you are wanted and at the same time not wanted on campus. The government purposefully took their time before we could receive the official letter of approval from the Bantu Affairs Department to study at the then-white university, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits).
For the second time, I experienced the brutality of the apartheid system of government in South Africa. The first time was back home where I had witnessed people being forcefully moved from their original villages and dumped on less fertile grounds. Their livestock died because of poor grazing fields and lack of water. They had not been provided with proper structures for life at these new places they were moved to.
So, I asked myself that the only sin we had committed to be housed outside the campus and having to wait for the study permit was being black. This daily travel put a lot of strain on me. The city life was also not easy as everything required money on campus. I had to be careful not to run out of money.
I also had chosen a degree for which I was not equipped. That was a Bachelor of Pharmacy and had not done Physical Science in high school. This was the first time my self-mentorship and coaching philosophy did not seem to work. By the time we received the official permit to study at the university I was very exhausted and disinterested in my degree. It was almost at the middle of the academic year. I decided that I was going to keep the first year studying only two courses that I knew I would pass. I would then change the degree to studying Bachelor of Commerce in the following year. This strategy, indeed, kept me on campus for the following year. But that was the last time my scholarship by Mobil Oil would support me. I will come back to this university education dynamics in Chapter 14 of this book, titled, University Education.
What also shaped my Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy was the way I transitioned from the institutions of learning to the world of work. This happened without me realizing that I was orchestrating it in a way. My decision to change from a Bachelor of Pharmacy to a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of the Witwatersrand was a blessing in disguise. By joining the commerce stream, I could participate in the business type of organizations on campus. One such organization was AIESEC, https://aiesec.org, a global platform for young people to develop their leadership potential through international internships and volunteer opportunities. It is a non-governmental, and not-for-profit organization that was founded in 1948. It is entirely run by youth for the youth. This was my first encounter with volunteer development organizations and my development journey was started as a result.
During December 1985 vacations AIESEC organized a work exposure assignment for me at Barclays South Africa regional office in Johannesburg. It was during this period that I slowly met formal mentors and experts who would volunteer insights and knowledge. I was still going with the flow and absorbing knowledge on the journey of my life. At that time, I did not know where my life was going to end. My assignment was supposed to last for a month. Someone at the company forgot to tell me not to come back in January 1986. I came back and they only discovered at the end of January that I have been working throughout the month. Of course, they had to pay me my January salary. This came in handy for me.
But I was not going to go back to the university. I had already decided to transfer my studies to the University of South Africa (UNISA) and was ready to start the long journey of distance learning (commonly known as correspondence studies). It was fashionable in South Africa then to study through correspondence while working. Believe me, this is the most difficult way to study for a degree. I take my hat off to all those who acquired their degrees through correspondence, myself included. I told myself that it was going to be the beginning of my life-long learning journey. I would never stop working and go study full time. My circumstances and that of my family (my mother’s homestead) would not allow that. I became content with this reality.
In February 1986 I spent a month with a friend’s company, Mr. Magesh Moodliyar, learning to sell insurance policies. That was going to be my full-time job while at the same time attending to my UINSA studies toward a Bachelor of Commerce (BCom). I had forgotten that while I was doing vacation assignment at Barclays, I used to spend lunchtime at my desk so that I could read my boss’ Star newspaper. I had come across an advertisement by the German company called Mannesmann Demag (Pty) Ltd. It was about new a dual-training program run by the South Africa – German Chamber of Commerce and Industry. They were going to participate, and were looking for young blacks to apply.
One Monday morning while sitting at the office, Mr. Magesh Moodliyar’s company, I received an urgent call from the CFO at Mannesmann Demag that they had been looking for me. I was needed at the class that same morning by the head of the program as they had started with the lectures. The walk from Marshalltown to Auckland Park that morning was the longest walk of my life. I arrived at the class and was welcome with delight by Dr. Ludwig and fellow learners from other German member companies of the Chamber. That was how my participation in the Commercial Advancement Training Scheme (C.A.T.S) started. As the saying goes, the rest is history. I was happy that my friend, Mr. Magesh Moodliyar, was also happy and wished me well in the program. He is still my friend today.
I will touch more on my C.A.T.S and Mannesmann Demag journey in chapter 15 of this book, titled, Encounter with German Dual-Training Model. It is at the C.A.T.S where formal mentorship was introduced to me and many other young black South African learners then. The combination of that formal mentorship, my self-mentorship, external mentorship from organizations like the Black Management Forum (BMF) that I was a member of, and informal life mentorship from the South African society created phenomenal career development and growth in my life. I will tell more about this transition from the academic to the world of work in chapter 16, titled, Short and Impactful Career Move.
Many black South Africans benefited from the Black Advancement Programs of the eighties that were spearheaded by stalwarts like the late Reverend Leon Sullivan, the African American Baptist, and civil rights activist, of the Sullivan Code fame. It was clear then that South Africa was going to experience a change that would usher in an era of black participation in the economy. It was, however, clear that the black South Africans were not ready for this new era due to many years of their exclusion from economic participation by the apartheid government policies.
I, together with other young black South Africans, was allowed to go and train in Germany under a scholarship from the Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft e.V. in Cologne. The expansion of my insights into formal mentorship was a delight for me. The Carl Duisberg Centres, where we learned the German Language, in Cologne had a slogan that caught my eyes and affirmed my decision to have accepted the scholarship. It stated, “Foreign Training is an Investment in the Future”. Every time I would find myself reflecting on our program in Germany, I would have this slogan in my mind and regained momentum.
The decision to apply for the scholarship to go and study in Germany was taken by me independently. I did not even think about what that would mean for my mother who was looking forward to me working and changing her economic situation back at home. She just heard from me that I was going to Germany for further development instead of working in South Africa after the two years of training at the C.A.T.S program. I did not even know how I was going to support her and my brothers while in Germany. But I was not going to forfeit the opportunity for overseas training. That flight on Lufthansa 747 aircraft to Germany was my first flight ever. It remained historical. It was not about the flight though, but the beginning of another chapter in my journey into the future. Then I could not imagine how that future looked like. But I had hope and it happened. I will come back to this part of my life in Germany in chapter 17 of this book, titled, Overseas Adventure.
My mother experienced this new chapter of my life. She lived to see me grow to the professional career levels and establishment of my organization COMETSA. I thank her for being the kind of a mother she was to me. She would never be on my way to do something I so desired. May her Beautiful Soul Rest in Peace! [Ke Mme Johannah Lebea Modipadi Tsima! Robala ka Khutso Modipadi a Modifa le Mologadi! Wena Lebee la Matlapsadi Letsega Mollo! Dikgolo Tsa Tla Ka Go Ora! Lebee La Ngwana Seroka Sa Mokwala!].
Sharing my experiences from studying, working, and living overseas, the impact that my self-mentorship & coaching philosophy had on my work back home, plus the integration of this foreign with domestic experiences is what today’s economies of the world require. It should not happen with few individuals. For as long as nations of the world exist together there is an imperative that knowledge exchange should be seen as a necessity rather than a privilege or favor for the few. This should be made available to the members of our companies early in their careers. I will come back to these thoughts in chapters 19, Life at Cologne City, and 22, Life at Frankfurt (am Main) City. In these chapters, I am sharing with you the kind of activities I was involved in, as part of and looking forward to my return to South Africa.
It does not matter where and what you do in the world, you must always bounce back to your home base. That is what I learned during my two stints in Europe. Your home base is where you regain your strength. It is because of development needs back home that made me want to always come back home. That is where I multiplied myself by giving back, especially in the form of knowledge sharing with young people. I was privileged to be able to do this at my employers, my own company (COMETSA), and in the community. This is my favorite topic, and I will delve deeper into the two chapters later in the book, chapter 23, First Homecoming, and chapter 25, Second Homecoming.
Back home, my Self-Mentorship & Coaching Philosophy led me to embark on sharing what it had brought to my life with the deserving youth, professionals, community-based organizations, professional bodies, employing organizations (companies), enterprises, and institutions of learning. Of course, these are now delivered as my professional and business offerings. My social entrepreneurship principles are balanced with my commitment to contributing to the commercial interests of my company. We have, however, established a sister non-profit making and membership-based organization to COMETSA GoC International (Pty) Ltd, called COMETSA Friends & Supporters Club NPO, https://www.cometsaclub.africa . It is home to many members, friends, and supporters. It is through it that we continue volunteering our expertise, knowledge, and experiences to the benefit of the generations after us, the deserving communities, and organizations. The organization welcomes both individual and corporate membership. The applications can be done online using the above homepage address.
I am sharing more insights on the number of programs and projects I got involved in since my return to my home base. For example, in chapter 26 I refer to my role at Siemens South Africa as a Commercial Administrator and Head of Commercial Training, plus my secondment by Siemens to the Black Management Forum (BMF) as the Manager for their Johannesburg Branch. In chapter 27, I share light on my years as a volunteer Public Relations Officer (PRO) at the then Wits University Football Club which was plying its trade in the then National Soccer League (NSL). In chapter 32, I am writing about my time at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), the business school of the University of Pretoria, where I was a Program Manager for the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment Project. And lastly, in chapter 33, I reflect on my role in facilitating the establishment of the Dr. Richard Maponya Institute for Skills and Entrepreneurship Development, working closely with the University of Johannesburg.
Since returning home, my transition from company to company presented me with the opportunity to learn a lot about myself as a consultant, facilitator, manager, and leader in various industries. I am sharing my corporate journey, the beautiful moments, and lessons learned from some of the companies I have worked with within the following chapters of my book: chapter 28 (At Absa Bank), chapter 30 (At Sasol), chapter 31 (at Motorola Southern Africa), and lastly, I reach the pinnacle in chapter 36 (The Future! Story of COMETSA).
On the 24th of November 2005 I professionally developed and formulated this philosophy to entail the following pillars and descriptors that guide my private and professional life,
THE MIND
- Plugged and Active Mind
- Sharing Mind
- Futuristic Mind
- Inquiring Mind
THE JOURNEY
- Enthusiastic Promotion of Ideas
- Give as I learn
- Retain and Invest my Earnings
- Search for new Opportunities
THE DESTINY
- Productivity and Profitability
- Social Responsibility and Caring for the Others
- Growth and Sustainability
- Renewal and Survival
Personal Commitment: I decided to embark on a life-long learning journey very early in my life, but I refined it over many years. I am still perfecting it today. I have incorporated the teaching, coaching and mentoring of others as I learn. The new technologies that come with the 4th industrial revolution era are making this much more practical and enjoyable. I will expand on this in chapter 18, Life-Long Learning Practice.
I invite you to join me on this journey of unpacking all these chapters of the book. This is a book that is written using modern technology, instantaneously indulging you as it is being written. It is a digital book published on the go online on our homepage, COMETSA Online, as it is written. By following us at, https://www.cometsa-goc.com, you are part of its evolution. You will learn as it unfolds. Of course, you are also able to leave your comments at the end of each chapter.
The Reader’s Key Takeaway(s) and Reflections from the Chapter: As you leave your comments, we would like you to be guided by the following points.
- Confirmations: What has been confirmed for you after having read this chapter, from a self-mentorship and coaching perspective?
- Aha (Light Bulb) Moments: At what point(s) did you experience aha moments in the chapter, i.e. light bulb moments. That is the point(s) at which a penny dropped and you felt enlightened.
- New Insights: What are the new insights that you have gained from reading this chapter?
- New Knowledge: Reflect on the new knowledge (private or professional) you gained from this chapter.
- Take Home: What are you taking home from this chapter? What would you like to share that other people in your circle of stakeholders?
- New Practices: What are the new practices in your private and professional life you are going to apply as a result of reading this chapter?
- New Behaviours: What are the new behaviors in your private and professional life that you are going to adopt as a result of reading this chapter?
