Tony Achmat’s Award Sparks a New Idea

In February 2017, our friend and renowned business coach Tony Achmat was invited to Mumbai, India, to receive the Global Trainer and Leadership Developer Award at the 25th Jubilee Global HRD Congress. It was a well-deserved recognition following 27 years working with the corporate community in Europe.

As he prepared his acceptance speech, we discussed the issue of values. It was a subject he taught in countless training and coaching sessions before and one that I had spent countless hours discussing with my own clients, as we developed their vision and mission statements or creative projects.

In Mumbai, Tony presented the idea of defining three core personal values. His were being Candid, Engaged and Human – a bulletproof combo that made him a truly exceptional consultant and trainer. By then I also knew mine – Creativity, Light and Transformation. Yet I felt that a major gap existed for people who never came across this subject before. Three values simply weren’t enough. Who wouldn’t want to put Love or Freedom on that list?

Our friendly but heated discussion was the spark of this project. But it wouldn’t have come if both of us didn’t have over twenty years of experience behind us trying to teach it and promote it, not to mention lifetimes of trying to implement and stand for our own values.