I have had the benefit of Manya’s consulting services since 2001 to 2009: First in my capacity as a Director of the local office (Gemini Consulting) of an international management consulting firm CGandY, & currently through YSA, a local management & leadership development consulting practice. Manya’s skills, experience & contribution have been a great asset to us. She has proven herself to be a bridge, particularly during the development of one of our instruments, a biographical questionnaire called LifePi (Life Path Insights). She has assisted YSA greatly with the training & development of analysts & in building our analyst capacity to work with LifePi information.
A master analyst, Manya prepared expert LifePi reports (individual & group) for top executives & middle management clients. Through her work over the years, she has made a significant impact on the development of our clients’ emotional self-awareness & leadership capacity. Her input enhances participants’ knowledge of their strengths & weaknesses, providing a strong & resourceful platform for individuals to continue developing their own leadership in an ongoing manner.
Manya Gittel has consulted for us at the UNDP for an HIV & AIDS programme in the work place. She brought in the methodology of theatre into the development work we did. She has the strengths of mastery & flexibility in her work, making it possible for us to create a new hybrid initiative that we believed worked very well for the exercise in Botswana. The exercise was innovative, creative & inspiring.
Manya has the rare ability to approach a project as a learner & team player, despite her personal mastery over specialized sections of it, making her able & comfortable with responding to crisis & change. She spends time working on her preparation & responds well to a focused brief, building on it at every opportunity. What impressed me significantly was her inclination to reflect on an exercise once completed & starting on a conversation for the way forward.
It was an interesting & fruitful exercise for me & I look forward to the next opportunity of working with her.
Life coaching has enabled me to understand and acknowledge my strengths and weaknesses and then, to practise integrating these strengths and weaknesses in a positive way which means that the outcome of any given situation becomes more beneficial to all. Through working towards being more self-aware and mindful, I am learning to adopt a more truly authentic and neutral approach in both personal and social relationships which, in turn, allows confidence and true authenticity to continue to develop. The choice of how I embrace/behave/react and deal with difficult, hurtful, happy, sad or frightening events, remains mine. Above all, I have realised, that life is a continual journey of learning, and on-going self-actualisation and that it takes continual conscious practice, but the understanding I am gaining, allows personal boundaries to be present in a more naturally assertive way rather than a confused muddle and puddle of expectations.
Towards the end of the coaching course, it was interesting to see how carefully structured Manya’s coaching sessions were and how professionally they were conducted. It has been an insightful, enlightening, hugely beneficial and also a mutually open and honest experience.
Manya consulted to YSA from 2002 to 2009. Her extensive expertise lies in her ability, as an analyst, to engage with client information, & to quickly to become aware of how each individual respondent lands up confronting the same patterns of stress & dilemma, over & over again.
She’s expert at drawing upon a wide range of behavioural & psychological principles to craft effective & practically relevant guidelines for clients about how their stress & coping patterns reinforce one another, & how these can be managed in the moment. This is done by focusing on the individual & the natural work team individuals’ form part of at the office. She identifies what stimulates the individual positively, & what provokes them negatively. Some of Manya’s insights will be known, others will take the client totally by surprise. Either way, through her reports, Manya facilitates in-depth understanding for the client, by the client.
Manya is also a great collaborator. When this is mixed with her initiative & integrity she makes it easy for YSA to partner with her.
On September 8-10, 2004 the entire UN staff in Botswana went for a retreat in Palapye. The entire second day was devoted to the theme of Exploring new realities in response to HIV & AIDS', taken forward … under the creative guidance of Manya Gittel. According to the evaluations by staff, this was clearly the most exciting part of the retreat, not least thanks to Manya's sensitivity to the issues & her ability to involve all staff, from the youngest driver to the highest Head of Agency.
Thanks, Manya. The feedback is clear, rich & meaningful. I really appreciate what you have done for us. Hope we can work together again some time in the future.
South Africa