Gita Coaching Course Outline

Dear ISKCON Leaders
Please accept my humble obeisances
All glories to Srila Prabhupada

I thought that you and devotees you serve might be interested in a three-day coaching skills course. Last October we had this course at the Gita College in Radhadesh, Belgium. Below is the report and comments of the students that attended and here's the course outline:

Day 1

Session 1 - Introduction to Coaching
The Spirit of the Gita Coaching, DVD 1: Legacy (2:30 min), Discussion

Session 2 - Attitudes and Qualities of a Coach Five Attitudes, Attitudes Self Assessment, Four Core Qualities of a Life Coach, Exercise: Being Understood, Exercise: Other Qualities, DVD 6: Stone (8:00 min), Discussion

Day 2

Session 3 - Goal Setting
Introduction to Goal Setting, Goals within a Life Coaching Context, Language of Goals and Coaching, SMART Goals, Choosing the Goal from the Bhagavad-gita As It Is, DVD 15: Wildly Important (5:00 min), Discussion

Session 4 - Coach-Client Relationship
Establishing Rapport, Exercise: Rapport Test, Breaking Rapport, Three Sensory Types of People, Honesty, Exercise: Your Spiritual Ethics, Understanding, Coach as Servant, Discussion

Session 5 - Coaching Skills
Listening, Exercise: 3-minute Listening, Questioning, Turning Problems into Opportunities, Promoting Action, GITA Coaching Model, Personal Action Plan (one thing that will have the greatest positive impact)

Day 3

Session 6 - Coaching Skills in Action (10:30 - 12:00) DVD 14: The Nature of Leadership (3:30 min), Mutual 20-minute coaching session with the GITA Model, Discussion, DVD: Krsna Vision and awards

Sample Coaching Sessions
45-minute sample coaching sessions for those devotees who would like to experience coaching right away.

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Developing life coaching skills might help devotees in their personal lives, in cooperating with other devotees and in their preaching efforts. Let us know if you are interested in having this course for your people. In the meantime, you may check this Gita Coaching site for more info, success stories and some Hare Krsna rock music.

Here's the report from the Gita College course:

Gita Coaching and Mentoring Course
Gita College Radhadesh
9-11 October 2005

Facilitator: Akrura dasa

25 devotees attended, mainly Radhadesh leaders, Gita College leaders, and BC second-year students:

14 Men:

1. Yadunandana (Spain)
2. David (Holland)
3. Navanitacora (Germany)
4. Dina Dayala (Croatia)
5. Yugala Kisora (Croatia)
6. Aravindaksa (Belgium)
7. Jagatera Hari (Switzerland)
8. Visvatma (Switzerland)
9. Re'em (Germany)
10. Tattvavit ACBSP (USA)
11. Visnumurti (New Zealand)
12. Josef (Switzerland)
13. Rabin (Belgium)
14. KrsnaKumara (Canada)

11 Ladies:

1. Vrinda (Switzerland)
2. Kancana-vali (England)
3. Anupama (Croatia)
4. Sudevi (Germany)
5. Gopisvari (Ireland)
6. Jaya Bhadra ACBSP (Canada)
7. Rupa Manjari (Belgium)
8. Krsna Sakti (Belgium)
9. Alakananda (Serbia)
10. Yadurani (Belgium)
11. Maja (Slovenia)

After the course, the following devotees started serving as coaches for other coaches and students:

1. Alakananda (dd) KKD (Gita College - BE)
2. Gopisvari (dd) RNS (Radhadesh - BE)
3. Jagatera Hari (das) (Zurich - CH)
4. Jaya Bhadra (dd) ACBSP (Radhadesh - B)
5. Bhakta Josef Imseng (Gita College - BE)
6. Kancana-vali (dd) SRS (Radhadesh - B)
7. Tattvavit (das) ACBSP (BBT)
8. Visnu Murti (das) (BLS Gita College - BE)
9. Visvatma (das) (Zurich - CH)
10. Yadunandana (das) SDG (Gita College - BE)
11. Yadurani (dd) SDG (Radhadesh - B)
12. Yugala Kisora (das) PCD (Gita College - BE)
13. Bhaktin Maja Blatnik, Ljubljana, SLO
14. Sudevi dd RNS, Germany
15. Bhakta Rabin Bangoer (Gita College - BE)

Leaders of the College said they want to have a full-fledged 5-7 day VTE Coaching Course. We'll get input from other devotee coaches and professionals before finalizing the course materials.

We had morning programs, mini kirtanas before the sessions, DVD clips, role play, interactive exercises, out-of-classroom discussions, football, and great prasadam. At the end we distributed maha burfis and glorified each student.

Akrura das had thirty-minute coaching sessions with five men and seven ladies, plus two one-hour sessions with Yadunandana dasa, the Principal of the Gita College.

Here are some comments of the attendees:

Thank you so much for a very interesting course. I will (try to) do something!!!
Kancana-vali devi-dasi

There's a lot of potential in your courses as follow up is involved in a very substantial way. Thank you.
Visnumurti dasa

You are giving me vision and hope.
Navanitacora dasa

Thank you very much for fanning the faith in "the light at the end of the tunnel"! One of the qualities of a Vaisnava is that he is daksa - expert, and this only comes through strong determination. Thanks a lot for this wonderful service.
Sudevi dasi

You are doing wonderful service for Srila Prabhupada's mission and the devotees. Thank you.
Yadunandana dasa

Thank you for your empowering teaching and coaching! I hope that Sri Sri Panca Tattva will inspire you to come to Ljubljana again, so that also Slovenian devotees will have an opportunity of your association.
Bhaktin Maja

Thank you very much.
Visvatma dasa

Thank you very much for the empowering course. An eye opener and very practical. Hare Krsna and success with your service.
Yadurani devi-dasi

Thank you very much for wonderful service.
Bhakta Josef

Very valuable and necessary for devotees. I hope you'll continue the service that you do. Go for it!!!
Yugala Kisora dasa

Your conviction about the importance of Gita Coaching is a great source of inspiration and dedication for the persons who listen to you. I'm starting to use what you taught us. Thank you.
Anupama devi-dasi

Thank you for this useful service of Gita Coaching.
Bhakta Re'em

Thank you for sharing your expertise and realisations. Wish you all the best with your spiritual and professional life.
Bhakta Rabin

It's astonishing how you've managed to summarise in only 6 sessions such a vast topic as coaching! Congratulations! Thank you.
Alakananda devi-dasi

All glories to your amazing mission to help devotees help themselves! I admire your jolliness and simultaneous sense of direction!
Vrnda devi-dasi

Thank you very much to share your opulences with us, in a service attitude towards Krsna and His devotees.
Jagatera Hari dasa

Thank you for this great intro to coaching. Please keep up the good work! We need this so badly among our family of devotees.
Gopesvari devi-dasi

Thank you very, very much.
Aravindaksa dasa

Gita Coaching Course in Split Croatia (20-22.10.2006) Feedback

Very useful!

Opportunity to become deeper, better, clearer, to know myself. It seemed to me in the first part that our effoert was stressed more than Krsna's mercy.

Thank you very much! It was very instructive. It would be wonderful to have such enthusiatic coaches around. I learned how to encourage others without criticising. It was very beneficial to understand how much we can help others to find their own solutions to their problems, without imposing our own opinion. As a client, it is important to be sincere with your coach. The course is excellent!

All was useful. Repeat it!

Many impetuses and useful insights for improving the quality of our own efforts. More time for the course and better punctuality.

The whole course was useful. Ki jaya! Should be few minutes longer.

I learned how to help myself and others. The attendance should have been bigger. People should have been animated and made interested more.

This course was a total ecstasy. This way of talking and helping, and maybe even a non-direct way of preaching was exactly missing. Could you do more of such seminars?

Many things have become more clear and I feel I got new tools for working on myself.

Gita Coaching Course (10-12.11.2006) Feedback

Thank you very much for the conversation here in Ljubljana. It helped me a lot. I hope I will be able to repay some day.
Vasudeva Datta, Sankirtana Leader, ISKCON Ljubljana

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Many things were useful at the Gita Coaching Course. I learned about the power of questions and how to make them, about importance of listening, about small steps towards achieving great goals, that solutions are really within ourselves, and so on.

Very useful vas also practical part where we were coaching each other. I did it with my wife. We were both were nicely surprised that it went quite well.
Personally I believe that individual personal help and assistance to devotees and especially to leaders is one of the important issues presently in ISKCON globally. Success in this area could be the foundation for further developing other programs, projects and so on.

Seminar was well prepared. You know the theme of coaching very well, you are very god and enthusiastic teacher. I liked your sense of humour which made good atmosphere. I liked presentations of devotees and also the professional videos.

I would like to thank you for coming to our temple and sharing your knowledge, skills and experience with us.

Bhakta Marko, ISKCON Ljubljana