While most people spend most of their lives struggling to earn a living, a much smaller number seem to have everything going their way...
Instead of just earning a living, the smaller group is busily working at building and enjoying a fortune. Everything just seems to work out for them. And here sits the much larger group, wondering how life can be so unfair, so complicated and unjust.
What's the major difference between the little group with so much and the larger group with so little?
Despite all of the factors that affect our lives - like the kind of parents we have, the schools we attended, the part of the country we grew up in - none has as much potential power for affecting our futures as our ability to dream.
Dreams are a projection of the kind of life you want to lead. Dreams can drive you. Dreams can make you skip over obstacles. When you allow your dreams to pull you, they unleash a creative force that can overpower any obstacle in your path.
To unleash this power, though, your dreams must be well defined. A fuzzy future has little pulling power. Well-defined dreams are not fuzzy. Wishes are fuzzy. To really achieve your dreams, to really have your future plans pull you forward, your dreams must be vivid.
If you've ever hiked a fourteen thousand-foot peak in the Rocky Mountains, one thought has surely come to mind "How did the settlers of this country do it?"
How did they get from the East Coast to the West Coast? Carrying one day's supply of food and water is hard enough. Can you imagine hauling all of your worldly goods with you . . . mile after mile, day after day, month after month?
These people had big dreams. They had ambition. They didn't focus on the hardship of getting up the mountain.
In their minds, they were already on the other side - their bodies just hadn't gotten them there yet!
Despite all of their pains and struggles, all of the births and deaths along the way, those who made it to the other side had a single vision: to reach the land of continuous sunshine and extraordinary wealth. To start over where anything and everything was possible.
Their dreams were stronger than the obstacles in their way.
You've got to be a dreamer. You've got to envision the future. You've got to see California while you're climbing fourteen thousand-foot peaks. You've got to see the finish line while you're running the race. You've got to hear the cheers when you're in the middle of a monster project.
And you've got to be willing to put yourself through the paces of doing the uncomfortable until it becomes comfortable. Because that's how you realize your dreams.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Stress - A Modern Cause of Disease
By John Gaydon
Every day we are faced with a situation where our health is assaulted on all sides. There is not just one cause of disease. People get sick because of a number of converging changes. In Australia, according to government research, 50% of people aged 50 and over are considered to have some form of disability. 20% of children reported symptoms of Asthma to their Medical Practitioner in the past year, 30% of Australians over the age of 25 are at risk of Diabetes. Today we are faced with many enemies that simply didn't exist all those years ago.
Medical Science admits that they have no real answers to degenerative autoimmune diseases. They offer drugs to slow down the process while each of these has nasty side effects which can sometimes cause more problems than they solve. We have the twin problems of people having lesser quality of life from a younger age and living longer.
There are many forms of stress we face today that didn?€™t exist years ago and this stress is now acknowledged as a major factor in the rise of disease.
Sources of Stress
When it comes down to it, anything that places stress on our bodies will cause us to age prematurely and lead us down the path towards disease and eventually death. We believe that we can maintain a high quality of life and extend our lives by many years by understanding stress and taking action to reduce stress.
Green Harvesting
The practice of picking fruits and vegetables before they are ripe is commonplace in Western Society. Even most organic fruits and vegetables are transported green to market. Most of us have the experience of purchasing a green banana which never ripened. This was because the store forgot to give it "ripening gas"! All this is done in the name of convenience. Lack of vital nutrients caused by this process increases stress. We need the phytonutrients so our body can cope with the other stress factors.
Soil Depletion
Did you know that there was a time when the land was left to regenerate occasionally so that mineral levels would replenish! In the Feudal days they practiced crop rotation and leaving the fields "fallow" or uncultivated every third year. Modern farming practices have solved that problem. With the use of chemical fertilizers, we are now able to reap the same crops from a field year after year. This causes even less nutrition in our food. Studies show the modern potato has lost 100% of Vitamin A and 57% of Vitamin C compared to its sister in 1950. There is very real stress added by the lack of nutrients in our soil.
Toxins and Pollutants
There are 75,000 new chemicals in existence today that weren't around in 1950. These represent an odorless, colorless, and place stress on our bodies. Only 3% of these have been tested in humans and hardly any studies have been done on the effects of combinations of these nasty substances. Our bodies were simply not designed to handle the stress caused by these. Testing shows that everyone has some of every chemical in use today in their bodies. Everyone suffers from this stress. The most toxic part of your environment is carpet in your home. Inside our homes is generally 5- 10 times the toxicity of the exterior areas.
Poor Diets
This is well publicised. The proportion of junk or highly processed food in our diets is rapidly increasing. Additional stress occurs from digesting these nutrient deficient foods. Pace of life is such that many do not prepare meals any more. It causes too much stress! When you add this to processed foods in your supermarket, you will understand why obesity is becoming a major concern for governments. Unfortunately, the Supermarket chains are a powerful lobby group, so expect a lot of rhetoric, and little enforcement from our governments. They will offer advice, but leave it up to us to decide. Like it or not, our supermarkets are mausoleums where food lies in state!
Home and Work Stress
This is stress everyone will understand. Let's face it, with all the modern devices, etc, life is getting faster by the minute. If you have children you will know this. There is uncertainty in the job market and 95% of people are looking at a reduced lifestyle when they eventually retire. Talk about stress!! Work and home life are more demanding and this places a strain on our bodies. Every time we experience stress, vital minerals and nutrients are taken from our bodies. Unless we replace these, we will get sick.
What to Do About It!
Stress is a modern fact of life. The various forms of stress speed up degeneration of the body. Replacing missing vital nutrients including essential glyconutrients and antioxidants helps us neutralise stress. We can deal with modern stress. It requires action to replenish what is taken from us. At healthyaussie we offer solutions.
Every day we are faced with a situation where our health is assaulted on all sides. There is not just one cause of disease. People get sick because of a number of converging changes. In Australia, according to government research, 50% of people aged 50 and over are considered to have some form of disability. 20% of children reported symptoms of Asthma to their Medical Practitioner in the past year, 30% of Australians over the age of 25 are at risk of Diabetes. Today we are faced with many enemies that simply didn't exist all those years ago.
Medical Science admits that they have no real answers to degenerative autoimmune diseases. They offer drugs to slow down the process while each of these has nasty side effects which can sometimes cause more problems than they solve. We have the twin problems of people having lesser quality of life from a younger age and living longer.
There are many forms of stress we face today that didn?€™t exist years ago and this stress is now acknowledged as a major factor in the rise of disease.
Sources of Stress
When it comes down to it, anything that places stress on our bodies will cause us to age prematurely and lead us down the path towards disease and eventually death. We believe that we can maintain a high quality of life and extend our lives by many years by understanding stress and taking action to reduce stress.
Green Harvesting
The practice of picking fruits and vegetables before they are ripe is commonplace in Western Society. Even most organic fruits and vegetables are transported green to market. Most of us have the experience of purchasing a green banana which never ripened. This was because the store forgot to give it "ripening gas"! All this is done in the name of convenience. Lack of vital nutrients caused by this process increases stress. We need the phytonutrients so our body can cope with the other stress factors.
Soil Depletion
Did you know that there was a time when the land was left to regenerate occasionally so that mineral levels would replenish! In the Feudal days they practiced crop rotation and leaving the fields "fallow" or uncultivated every third year. Modern farming practices have solved that problem. With the use of chemical fertilizers, we are now able to reap the same crops from a field year after year. This causes even less nutrition in our food. Studies show the modern potato has lost 100% of Vitamin A and 57% of Vitamin C compared to its sister in 1950. There is very real stress added by the lack of nutrients in our soil.
Toxins and Pollutants
There are 75,000 new chemicals in existence today that weren't around in 1950. These represent an odorless, colorless, and place stress on our bodies. Only 3% of these have been tested in humans and hardly any studies have been done on the effects of combinations of these nasty substances. Our bodies were simply not designed to handle the stress caused by these. Testing shows that everyone has some of every chemical in use today in their bodies. Everyone suffers from this stress. The most toxic part of your environment is carpet in your home. Inside our homes is generally 5- 10 times the toxicity of the exterior areas.
Poor Diets
This is well publicised. The proportion of junk or highly processed food in our diets is rapidly increasing. Additional stress occurs from digesting these nutrient deficient foods. Pace of life is such that many do not prepare meals any more. It causes too much stress! When you add this to processed foods in your supermarket, you will understand why obesity is becoming a major concern for governments. Unfortunately, the Supermarket chains are a powerful lobby group, so expect a lot of rhetoric, and little enforcement from our governments. They will offer advice, but leave it up to us to decide. Like it or not, our supermarkets are mausoleums where food lies in state!
Home and Work Stress
This is stress everyone will understand. Let's face it, with all the modern devices, etc, life is getting faster by the minute. If you have children you will know this. There is uncertainty in the job market and 95% of people are looking at a reduced lifestyle when they eventually retire. Talk about stress!! Work and home life are more demanding and this places a strain on our bodies. Every time we experience stress, vital minerals and nutrients are taken from our bodies. Unless we replace these, we will get sick.
What to Do About It!
Stress is a modern fact of life. The various forms of stress speed up degeneration of the body. Replacing missing vital nutrients including essential glyconutrients and antioxidants helps us neutralise stress. We can deal with modern stress. It requires action to replenish what is taken from us. At healthyaussie we offer solutions.
20 Ways to Find, Sustain and Share Happiness
by Megan McDonough
The Dalai Lama says that we all share one common aspiration: we all want to be happy; no one wants to suffer. This universal desire binds us together. At some point the realization dawns that no matter how big the paycheck is, no matter how many degrees we get, no matter how nice the house and the white picket fence is, none of it can assure happiness.
What is it that does bring lasting happiness, no matter what the circumstance? The ancient poet and mystic Rumi gives us a clue when he says, “Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible.” The invisible world is within you, and it’s where lasting happiness resides.
Here are some suggestions for working in the invisible realm:
1. Look closely at what causes lasting happiness. Buying a new sweater might feel good for a moment or two, but looking closely you see that that sooner or later all new stuff loses its appeal, growing old and mundane. Reinforce in your mind that happiness is not the result of accumulating goods.
2. Savor the moment. When your child gives you a bear hug, live that experience fully, noticing every little detail. The same holds true for the boring meeting that’s putting you to sleep. As Leo Buscaglia, the author of Love, says, “Braille your world.” Being mindful doesn’t mean things will be good, just that you are aware of them as they are, without judgment.
3. Expand your awareness. See new perspectives by challenging your own beliefs. Expand your horizons by asking yourself, “What if…”.
4. Play. Between work, family, and grocery shopping, finding time to play can be just another chore. Forget picking up that gallon of milk on the way home from work today. Instead, tickle your children.
5. Practice gratitude. Focus your mind on all that you already possess, relegating that feeling of “needing more” to its proper place. If it works for Oprah, it can work for you.
6. Follow the yes path. Margaret Wheatley, best-selling author of Leadership and the New Science, says that when events call out yes, follow that path. It’s certainly easier than banging your head against the wall.
7. Take time for self-reflection. Since childhood, we’ve been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A much better question to ask is “How do I want to be?”
8. Choose to live your values. After reflecting on your personal values, instill them in your everyday actions.
9. Experiment. Philosopher Nietzsche said, “Life is a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves.” Give yourself permission to try something different, without obsessing over the outcome.
10. Listen. Get your mind off your own problems by lending an ear to hear others.
11. Stay present. As the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn has recommended in his many books, when you wash the dishes, just wash the dishes. The mind’s habit is to rehearse what the future holds or re-run life by mulling over past events. This moment is where life actually is lived.
12. Smile. It’s such a simple way to change your inner landscape and connect with others.
13. Know that life is finite. You are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Your life is precious. Live it fully.
14. Happiness is here, in this moment. George Bernard Shaw said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Know that there is nothing to magically “find” for happiness; it’s created through you.
15. Notice your breath. It’s not difficult to simply notice the air entering your body and then watching it exit, but it has a powerful effect. Use it to re-focus from the hectic outside world to an attitude of mindfulness.
16. Give. Whether you gift the gift of time, money, or knowledge, sharing transforms the mind.
17. Your path to happiness is uniquely yours. Thomas Merton said, “Looking for God is like seeking a path in a field of snow; if there is no path and you are looking for one, walk across the field and there is your path.” It’s the same for happiness; you make your own path.
18. Drop the guilt trip. Go ahead and have a night out with a friend. See the sappy show that your husband wouldn’t be caught dead at.
19. Spend time in nature. Get out of a world lit by fluorescent lights and divided by cubicles. Take a walk in the woods. At the very least put a plant in your office.
20. Go to bed early. Never underestimate the power of a good nights sleep.
Joseph Campbell, who’s best known for his forays into Mythology, cited a Polynesian saying to describe the state of humanity: “We are standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.”
What you are looking for—what we are all looking for—is as close as your own self. Happiness is the whale right under your feet.
The Dalai Lama says that we all share one common aspiration: we all want to be happy; no one wants to suffer. This universal desire binds us together. At some point the realization dawns that no matter how big the paycheck is, no matter how many degrees we get, no matter how nice the house and the white picket fence is, none of it can assure happiness.
What is it that does bring lasting happiness, no matter what the circumstance? The ancient poet and mystic Rumi gives us a clue when he says, “Work in the invisible world at least as hard as you do in the visible.” The invisible world is within you, and it’s where lasting happiness resides.
Here are some suggestions for working in the invisible realm:
1. Look closely at what causes lasting happiness. Buying a new sweater might feel good for a moment or two, but looking closely you see that that sooner or later all new stuff loses its appeal, growing old and mundane. Reinforce in your mind that happiness is not the result of accumulating goods.
2. Savor the moment. When your child gives you a bear hug, live that experience fully, noticing every little detail. The same holds true for the boring meeting that’s putting you to sleep. As Leo Buscaglia, the author of Love, says, “Braille your world.” Being mindful doesn’t mean things will be good, just that you are aware of them as they are, without judgment.
3. Expand your awareness. See new perspectives by challenging your own beliefs. Expand your horizons by asking yourself, “What if…”.
4. Play. Between work, family, and grocery shopping, finding time to play can be just another chore. Forget picking up that gallon of milk on the way home from work today. Instead, tickle your children.
5. Practice gratitude. Focus your mind on all that you already possess, relegating that feeling of “needing more” to its proper place. If it works for Oprah, it can work for you.
6. Follow the yes path. Margaret Wheatley, best-selling author of Leadership and the New Science, says that when events call out yes, follow that path. It’s certainly easier than banging your head against the wall.
7. Take time for self-reflection. Since childhood, we’ve been asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A much better question to ask is “How do I want to be?”
8. Choose to live your values. After reflecting on your personal values, instill them in your everyday actions.
9. Experiment. Philosopher Nietzsche said, “Life is a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves.” Give yourself permission to try something different, without obsessing over the outcome.
10. Listen. Get your mind off your own problems by lending an ear to hear others.
11. Stay present. As the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn has recommended in his many books, when you wash the dishes, just wash the dishes. The mind’s habit is to rehearse what the future holds or re-run life by mulling over past events. This moment is where life actually is lived.
12. Smile. It’s such a simple way to change your inner landscape and connect with others.
13. Know that life is finite. You are not guaranteed a tomorrow. Your life is precious. Live it fully.
14. Happiness is here, in this moment. George Bernard Shaw said, “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Know that there is nothing to magically “find” for happiness; it’s created through you.
15. Notice your breath. It’s not difficult to simply notice the air entering your body and then watching it exit, but it has a powerful effect. Use it to re-focus from the hectic outside world to an attitude of mindfulness.
16. Give. Whether you gift the gift of time, money, or knowledge, sharing transforms the mind.
17. Your path to happiness is uniquely yours. Thomas Merton said, “Looking for God is like seeking a path in a field of snow; if there is no path and you are looking for one, walk across the field and there is your path.” It’s the same for happiness; you make your own path.
18. Drop the guilt trip. Go ahead and have a night out with a friend. See the sappy show that your husband wouldn’t be caught dead at.
19. Spend time in nature. Get out of a world lit by fluorescent lights and divided by cubicles. Take a walk in the woods. At the very least put a plant in your office.
20. Go to bed early. Never underestimate the power of a good nights sleep.
Joseph Campbell, who’s best known for his forays into Mythology, cited a Polynesian saying to describe the state of humanity: “We are standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.”
What you are looking for—what we are all looking for—is as close as your own self. Happiness is the whale right under your feet.
Talent magnets
FOR the last three years, Fortune magazine has been compiling a list of the top 100 companies to work for in the United States. The list was compiled by surveying nearly 100,000 employees of some 1,500 firms.
Getting ranked as a top employer is like winning half the battle in the war for talent. But what makes these organisations talent magnets? And what makes them so appealing?
While perks and pay could be some of the possible incentives why people are attracted to these companies, these are not the only reasons why they are on one of the most coveted lists in the business world.
One evident trait among these employers is that they understand that talent comes in all shapes and sizes. These employers have a hiring policy that values diversity. They recruit based on a fundamental principle of equal opportunity for all — the best person gets the job.
It is not hard to understand why top companies adopt these practices; it has become a tool for survival in the 21stcentury business environment.
With talent becoming more mobile and scarce, diversity is no longer optional. Therefore, it is in the best interest of companies that they work towards this approach.
Take Starbucks Coffee Company as an example. Jumping 21 notches from 29th position in 2006 to eighth in 2008, it recruits and selects employees based on merit and welcomes all qualified applicants, regardless of personal attributes like race, gender, age, religion, disability and marital status.
By observing fair employment practices, Starbucks strives to create a work environment that is conducive to attract and retain its talent.
To be a non-discriminatory employer, firms need to practise consistent and fair selection criteria throughout all stages of the recruitment process.
During the recruitment process, the selection criteria must be specific and relevant to the job requirements.
Employers could state the amount of experience, the specific skills and educational qualifications required for the job.
Employers should, however, refrain from using age, race, language, gender, marital status and religion as selection criteria as they are irrelevant to the job.
In cases where the job is physically demanding, employers should state clearly that the job requires candidates to handle heavy loads.
In addition, while it is human nature to want to hire people you are familiar and comfortable with, such behaviour should not be encouraged as it is not effective or efficient in the business world.
With fair and merit-based hiring, employers cast a wider net to capture the potential talent, and this increases the chances of hiring the best-qualified person for the job.
The need to place repeated recruitment advertisements is reduced and opportunity cost is also trimmed as the lead time is shortened while waiting for the new employee to come on board.
In addition, such practices boost productivity because the new hire is able to perform and deliver results with minimal training, and the human resources department is able to focus on more strategic and productive issues instead of operational tasks.
Besides recruitment, employers should also be fair in remuneration. Pay should be reflective of the value of the work, performance and contribution of the employee and free from any subjective aspects such as age and gender.
Finally, employers should also have a fair and objective performance appraisal system in place to ensure all staff are evaluated impartially and rewarded appropriately.
It may seem like a tall order to embrace fair employment practices, but with ageing populations and shrinking birth rates, employers can no longer rely on age-old practices.
The sooner employers embrace fair employment practices and diversity, the better equipped they will be to handle new business challenges.
Ultimately, the reward is a more competitive workforce hired based on talent, which in today’s business environment, allows a company to differentiate itself from competitors.
Article by Josh Goh, senior corporate services manager of The GMP Group.
Getting ranked as a top employer is like winning half the battle in the war for talent. But what makes these organisations talent magnets? And what makes them so appealing?
While perks and pay could be some of the possible incentives why people are attracted to these companies, these are not the only reasons why they are on one of the most coveted lists in the business world.
One evident trait among these employers is that they understand that talent comes in all shapes and sizes. These employers have a hiring policy that values diversity. They recruit based on a fundamental principle of equal opportunity for all — the best person gets the job.
It is not hard to understand why top companies adopt these practices; it has become a tool for survival in the 21stcentury business environment.
With talent becoming more mobile and scarce, diversity is no longer optional. Therefore, it is in the best interest of companies that they work towards this approach.
Take Starbucks Coffee Company as an example. Jumping 21 notches from 29th position in 2006 to eighth in 2008, it recruits and selects employees based on merit and welcomes all qualified applicants, regardless of personal attributes like race, gender, age, religion, disability and marital status.
By observing fair employment practices, Starbucks strives to create a work environment that is conducive to attract and retain its talent.
To be a non-discriminatory employer, firms need to practise consistent and fair selection criteria throughout all stages of the recruitment process.
During the recruitment process, the selection criteria must be specific and relevant to the job requirements.
Employers could state the amount of experience, the specific skills and educational qualifications required for the job.
Employers should, however, refrain from using age, race, language, gender, marital status and religion as selection criteria as they are irrelevant to the job.
In cases where the job is physically demanding, employers should state clearly that the job requires candidates to handle heavy loads.
In addition, while it is human nature to want to hire people you are familiar and comfortable with, such behaviour should not be encouraged as it is not effective or efficient in the business world.
With fair and merit-based hiring, employers cast a wider net to capture the potential talent, and this increases the chances of hiring the best-qualified person for the job.
The need to place repeated recruitment advertisements is reduced and opportunity cost is also trimmed as the lead time is shortened while waiting for the new employee to come on board.
In addition, such practices boost productivity because the new hire is able to perform and deliver results with minimal training, and the human resources department is able to focus on more strategic and productive issues instead of operational tasks.
Besides recruitment, employers should also be fair in remuneration. Pay should be reflective of the value of the work, performance and contribution of the employee and free from any subjective aspects such as age and gender.
Finally, employers should also have a fair and objective performance appraisal system in place to ensure all staff are evaluated impartially and rewarded appropriately.
It may seem like a tall order to embrace fair employment practices, but with ageing populations and shrinking birth rates, employers can no longer rely on age-old practices.
The sooner employers embrace fair employment practices and diversity, the better equipped they will be to handle new business challenges.
Ultimately, the reward is a more competitive workforce hired based on talent, which in today’s business environment, allows a company to differentiate itself from competitors.
Article by Josh Goh, senior corporate services manager of The GMP Group.
The heros behind the leaders
THERE must be thousands of articles or books written on the subject of leadership and countless conferences, training workshops or courses on the same subject.
A pertinent question is can tribes exist with all chiefs and no people. Organisations consisting only of leaders would have lots of ideas on which directions to head towards, but who is going to follow them?
All leaders, except the one at the very top, have to follow someone else, whichever level they belong to. Leaders are also followers. Not everyone in an organisation has to be a “leader” though one would expect a manager to have good leadership skills.
Who then are his followers? In a flat organisation, many managers have no subordinates. They manage and lead laterally. Their “followers” are their fellow managers.
Therefore, in any organisation, followership skills are just as critical to its success as leadership skills. All employees would benefit from training in followership skills including those identified as potential leaders for grooming and nurturing.
Regrettably, the focus on management and leadership skills has turned attention away from this essential need.
Waiting to lead
Back in my early marketing days, training programme participants would return to their jobs all fired up with newly acquired skills all ready to lead, only to realise that they had no followers on whom they could apply their skills.
The human resource department was well aware of the situation, and it became evident when its vicepresident ended the introductory pep talk of a workshop I attended with a cautionary piece of advice: “Don’t automatically expect increased management and leadership responsibilities back at the job.”
Within a year, there weren’t many left from that batch in the company. Many readers can identify with the feelings of those “frustrated leadersin- waiting”.
What about those who have posttraining opportunities to practise leadership? I had an interesting experience with two such “leaders” in a teambuilding exercise. Finally, they were left with each other. Both were reluctant followers, or rather, nonfollowers. They were still very much aware of their loyalty to each other as team members but had drifted apart to “do their own thing”.
The right stuff
Should followership skills training be a basic part of all employee orientation in an organisation? Yes. After all, we will be followers while only a few will have leadership roles.
As early as two decades ago, Robert E. Kelley in his 1988 landmark article in the Harvard Business Review, In Praise Of Followers, drew attention to the importance of followership. He wrote: “In an organisation of effective followers, a leader tends to be more an overseer of change and progress than a hero. As organisational structures flatten, the quality of those who follow will become more and more important.”
Inevitably, apart from a few publications, this revolutionary concept was eclipsed by the world’s growing preoccupation with the topic of leadership, until a milestone conference was held on Rethinking Followership in 2006. This was one of the annual Kravis-de Roulet series of leadership conferences in the United States.
While the conference provided an academic platform for the exchange of models and researched concepts, it was also an opportunity for practitioners from various organisations, including Nasa and Ernst & Young, to share their experiences of applying the concepts to practice with amazing results.
It is time to recognise the impact that effective followership has on the success of our organisations, whether public or private. This needs to be in the form of skills training included in the orientation programme of new recruits as well as an appropriate motivational programme.
Reward the follower
Followers who are recognised and rewarded for their commitment to corporate goals, acceptance of responsibilities as followers and courage to question or challenge leadership decisions contribute as much to organisational advancement as good leaders.
For instance, would the milk scandal in China have happened if there had been responsible and courageous followers?
However, more fundamentally, we need to change our concept of followers as being “second-class citizens”.
Organisational followers have as much a place in this world as leaders. They should also be encouraged to acknowledge the power they have and develop a symbiotic and mutually respectful relationship with their leaders.
Article by Amy C S Loh, a management and training consultant with LCC Management and Training Consultancy.
A pertinent question is can tribes exist with all chiefs and no people. Organisations consisting only of leaders would have lots of ideas on which directions to head towards, but who is going to follow them?
All leaders, except the one at the very top, have to follow someone else, whichever level they belong to. Leaders are also followers. Not everyone in an organisation has to be a “leader” though one would expect a manager to have good leadership skills.
Who then are his followers? In a flat organisation, many managers have no subordinates. They manage and lead laterally. Their “followers” are their fellow managers.
Therefore, in any organisation, followership skills are just as critical to its success as leadership skills. All employees would benefit from training in followership skills including those identified as potential leaders for grooming and nurturing.
Regrettably, the focus on management and leadership skills has turned attention away from this essential need.
Waiting to lead
Back in my early marketing days, training programme participants would return to their jobs all fired up with newly acquired skills all ready to lead, only to realise that they had no followers on whom they could apply their skills.
The human resource department was well aware of the situation, and it became evident when its vicepresident ended the introductory pep talk of a workshop I attended with a cautionary piece of advice: “Don’t automatically expect increased management and leadership responsibilities back at the job.”
Within a year, there weren’t many left from that batch in the company. Many readers can identify with the feelings of those “frustrated leadersin- waiting”.
What about those who have posttraining opportunities to practise leadership? I had an interesting experience with two such “leaders” in a teambuilding exercise. Finally, they were left with each other. Both were reluctant followers, or rather, nonfollowers. They were still very much aware of their loyalty to each other as team members but had drifted apart to “do their own thing”.
The right stuff
Should followership skills training be a basic part of all employee orientation in an organisation? Yes. After all, we will be followers while only a few will have leadership roles.
As early as two decades ago, Robert E. Kelley in his 1988 landmark article in the Harvard Business Review, In Praise Of Followers, drew attention to the importance of followership. He wrote: “In an organisation of effective followers, a leader tends to be more an overseer of change and progress than a hero. As organisational structures flatten, the quality of those who follow will become more and more important.”
Inevitably, apart from a few publications, this revolutionary concept was eclipsed by the world’s growing preoccupation with the topic of leadership, until a milestone conference was held on Rethinking Followership in 2006. This was one of the annual Kravis-de Roulet series of leadership conferences in the United States.
While the conference provided an academic platform for the exchange of models and researched concepts, it was also an opportunity for practitioners from various organisations, including Nasa and Ernst & Young, to share their experiences of applying the concepts to practice with amazing results.
It is time to recognise the impact that effective followership has on the success of our organisations, whether public or private. This needs to be in the form of skills training included in the orientation programme of new recruits as well as an appropriate motivational programme.
Reward the follower
Followers who are recognised and rewarded for their commitment to corporate goals, acceptance of responsibilities as followers and courage to question or challenge leadership decisions contribute as much to organisational advancement as good leaders.
For instance, would the milk scandal in China have happened if there had been responsible and courageous followers?
However, more fundamentally, we need to change our concept of followers as being “second-class citizens”.
Organisational followers have as much a place in this world as leaders. They should also be encouraged to acknowledge the power they have and develop a symbiotic and mutually respectful relationship with their leaders.
Article by Amy C S Loh, a management and training consultant with LCC Management and Training Consultancy.
Perfectionist trap
SOME women feel that they have to be perfect in everything they do at work. They want all of their work and all of their ideas to be brilliant,” reports Carol Deutsch, a communications consultant in Asheville, North Carolina in the United States.
Particularly in a new job, Deutsch adds, women often hold themselves up to an impossibly high standard of performance.
New jobs — especially when they are the result of a promotion — can be overwhelming and often cause women to doubt their abilities to perform well. “So much to learn. So much expected. Maybe I made the wrong decision,” they often lament.
“The person in a new position may interpret her lack of knowledge about the role to mean that she isn’t qualified to perform,” acknowledges Dr Joan Harvey, in her book, If I’m So Successful, Why Do I feel Like a Fake?
“She might even begin to believe she has misled her employer about her abilities. These feelings of being incompetent cause the person to try to be perfectionist. She doesn’t want to make one little mistake because she thinks that will be people’s clue to her tragic flaw.”
The best way to avoid the perfectionist trap? Expect to make mistakes, and forgive yourself when you do. Also, do not be afraid or reluctant — as women often are — to ask for help or advice.
“When you move into a new position, seek advice from two types of people: those who have many years’ experience in a job like the one you will be taking, and those who have recently made the transition,” recommends Donna Hansen, former police chief of Fort Myers in Florida.
“The best advice I got came from a police chief who told me, ‘Go with your own style.’ No one can really tell you to do this or that — you have to be true to yourself and do things at your own speed. Moreover, it’s important not to model behaviours you don’t like or that don’t feel right, because that’s what ultimately ends up giving us ulcers and heart attacks.”
In summary, don’t expect too much too soon — either of yourself or your employees. Take time to take charge. Get to know the people you will be working with. And realise that you will make mistakes, and they will not necessarily stain your reputation or dash your career aspirations.
By handling top-priority tasks well and getting the word out to the right people, your occasional missteps will be overlooked. Learn to live with the mistakes you have made ... and learn to move on!
Article by Connie Glaser, a best-selling author and expert on gender communication and women’s leadership issues in the US.
Particularly in a new job, Deutsch adds, women often hold themselves up to an impossibly high standard of performance.
New jobs — especially when they are the result of a promotion — can be overwhelming and often cause women to doubt their abilities to perform well. “So much to learn. So much expected. Maybe I made the wrong decision,” they often lament.
“The person in a new position may interpret her lack of knowledge about the role to mean that she isn’t qualified to perform,” acknowledges Dr Joan Harvey, in her book, If I’m So Successful, Why Do I feel Like a Fake?
“She might even begin to believe she has misled her employer about her abilities. These feelings of being incompetent cause the person to try to be perfectionist. She doesn’t want to make one little mistake because she thinks that will be people’s clue to her tragic flaw.”
The best way to avoid the perfectionist trap? Expect to make mistakes, and forgive yourself when you do. Also, do not be afraid or reluctant — as women often are — to ask for help or advice.
“When you move into a new position, seek advice from two types of people: those who have many years’ experience in a job like the one you will be taking, and those who have recently made the transition,” recommends Donna Hansen, former police chief of Fort Myers in Florida.
“The best advice I got came from a police chief who told me, ‘Go with your own style.’ No one can really tell you to do this or that — you have to be true to yourself and do things at your own speed. Moreover, it’s important not to model behaviours you don’t like or that don’t feel right, because that’s what ultimately ends up giving us ulcers and heart attacks.”
In summary, don’t expect too much too soon — either of yourself or your employees. Take time to take charge. Get to know the people you will be working with. And realise that you will make mistakes, and they will not necessarily stain your reputation or dash your career aspirations.
By handling top-priority tasks well and getting the word out to the right people, your occasional missteps will be overlooked. Learn to live with the mistakes you have made ... and learn to move on!
Article by Connie Glaser, a best-selling author and expert on gender communication and women’s leadership issues in the US.
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Sharpen your business acumen
MANAGERS and employees need to understand the “big picture” to effectively contribute to the overall success of the company.
Company leaders want chief learning officers to align educational offerings with the organisation’s strategic objectives. That is not an easy challenge but developing strategic alignment and business acumen is critical to improving a company’s bottom line results.
Business simulation
Books and lectures can help. But business acumen is best developed experientially. Learners must be able to analyse situations, ask questions, discuss issues with other learners, consider options, make mistakes and see results.
Although there are a variety of ways to accomplish this kind of experiential learning, leading corporations have found that simulations, which mirror reality and allow learners to experiment in a safe environment, are among the best methods.
There is a rising trend in companies of using business simulations to communicate their strategic direction and to teach employees about cross-functional collaboration.
As Confucius said: “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”
Characteristics of effective simulations.
1 LEARN BY DOING
When you need people to understand new concepts, change behaviour and improve performance, put away the manuals and cancel the slide show.
People learn by doing. You need to develop tools that make difficult information easy to understand. Customised simulations recreate genuine corporate challenges and situations so people have a chance to test new skills and explore new concepts in a realistic but risk-free environment.
2 DISCOVERY APPROACH
Users begin the simulation without a great deal of prior knowledge about the process. They may have received the context around the initiative at hand, background information on the simulation storyline, a description of issues currently facing the simulated company, and perhaps a tutorial on using simulation features.
They may go through a series of profiling questions or other type of assessments to determine their knowledge or experience. Once in the simulation, users decide on a particular role to play in the simulation, and then enter the storyline. This approach allows users to move through the simulation and “discover” what they know or don’t know. If they need help, or are unprepared to continue, they may access supporting resources or use additional tools.
3 BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
What’s the point of running someone through a simulation if his performance does not change? There is a need for instructionally sound simulations that focus on motivating behavioural change. Simulations should support a desired change of behaviour that affects a particular initiative, process or system.
4 CONSISTENT FEEDBACK
Feedback is one of the defining characteristics of simulation. Users are immersed in a storyline, and have control over their progress. Therefore, it is critical that they receive consistent, high-impact feedback on their progress, the results of their actions, and opportunities for improvement. Feedback is provided so that users can assess their current situation, analyse their options for moving forward, and measure the results of their actions.
Better approach
Well-designed simulations have capabilities that are far greater than those of other learning and communication methods. For example, simulations offer the ability to:
● Anchor an initiative or a new business process throughout the workforce in a way that is fast, consistent, and compelling;
● Evaluate the “as-is” state and plan the “to-be” state, to communicate, to provide context, to integrate — all in the service of getting the desired results from a particular business transformation or initiative;
● Be used at every level of the organisation; and
● Monitor performance to gauge how well a team, unit or organisation is adhering to a new process and the level of teamwork.
The bottom line
Now is the time when this type of training solution and people development is most needed. Successful companies must focus on sharpening the strategic alignment and business acumen of their managers and employees. A simulation promotes better transformational decisionmaking skills development and helps to break down the undesired silo mentality or internal functional barriers. The customised simulation programmes help managers to understand the big picture; it also provides a safe environment within which to experiment with innovative ideas and bold strategies. — Source: Straits Times/Asia News Network
Article by Kristian Borglin, managing director, BTS Asia Pacific
Company leaders want chief learning officers to align educational offerings with the organisation’s strategic objectives. That is not an easy challenge but developing strategic alignment and business acumen is critical to improving a company’s bottom line results.
Business simulation
Books and lectures can help. But business acumen is best developed experientially. Learners must be able to analyse situations, ask questions, discuss issues with other learners, consider options, make mistakes and see results.
Although there are a variety of ways to accomplish this kind of experiential learning, leading corporations have found that simulations, which mirror reality and allow learners to experiment in a safe environment, are among the best methods.
There is a rising trend in companies of using business simulations to communicate their strategic direction and to teach employees about cross-functional collaboration.
As Confucius said: “Tell me, and I will forget. Show me, and I may remember. Involve me, and I will understand.”
Characteristics of effective simulations.
1 LEARN BY DOING
When you need people to understand new concepts, change behaviour and improve performance, put away the manuals and cancel the slide show.
People learn by doing. You need to develop tools that make difficult information easy to understand. Customised simulations recreate genuine corporate challenges and situations so people have a chance to test new skills and explore new concepts in a realistic but risk-free environment.
2 DISCOVERY APPROACH
Users begin the simulation without a great deal of prior knowledge about the process. They may have received the context around the initiative at hand, background information on the simulation storyline, a description of issues currently facing the simulated company, and perhaps a tutorial on using simulation features.
They may go through a series of profiling questions or other type of assessments to determine their knowledge or experience. Once in the simulation, users decide on a particular role to play in the simulation, and then enter the storyline. This approach allows users to move through the simulation and “discover” what they know or don’t know. If they need help, or are unprepared to continue, they may access supporting resources or use additional tools.
3 BEHAVIOURAL CHANGE
What’s the point of running someone through a simulation if his performance does not change? There is a need for instructionally sound simulations that focus on motivating behavioural change. Simulations should support a desired change of behaviour that affects a particular initiative, process or system.
4 CONSISTENT FEEDBACK
Feedback is one of the defining characteristics of simulation. Users are immersed in a storyline, and have control over their progress. Therefore, it is critical that they receive consistent, high-impact feedback on their progress, the results of their actions, and opportunities for improvement. Feedback is provided so that users can assess their current situation, analyse their options for moving forward, and measure the results of their actions.
Better approach
Well-designed simulations have capabilities that are far greater than those of other learning and communication methods. For example, simulations offer the ability to:
● Anchor an initiative or a new business process throughout the workforce in a way that is fast, consistent, and compelling;
● Evaluate the “as-is” state and plan the “to-be” state, to communicate, to provide context, to integrate — all in the service of getting the desired results from a particular business transformation or initiative;
● Be used at every level of the organisation; and
● Monitor performance to gauge how well a team, unit or organisation is adhering to a new process and the level of teamwork.
The bottom line
Now is the time when this type of training solution and people development is most needed. Successful companies must focus on sharpening the strategic alignment and business acumen of their managers and employees. A simulation promotes better transformational decisionmaking skills development and helps to break down the undesired silo mentality or internal functional barriers. The customised simulation programmes help managers to understand the big picture; it also provides a safe environment within which to experiment with innovative ideas and bold strategies. — Source: Straits Times/Asia News Network
Article by Kristian Borglin, managing director, BTS Asia Pacific
Land a job in tough times
You may get your foot into the door of your prospective employer’s office with an impressive curriculum vitae (CV), but it is the other soft skills that hiring managers look at, especially in a tight employment market.
Beyond a good CV, you need to be able to focus on getting a few things right to leave a great impression with your interviewer. These include highlighting your achievements, being specific about your contributions, using the right words and coming across as professionally or commercially savvy. These will make you stand out from the competition.
Here is how you can double your chances of landing that job:
Show your business acumen
Knowing your own area of work and executing it well is not complete without showing the awareness of the commercial or business impact of your role.
When sharing your achievements, display your business acumen by sharing how they impact business operations or revenue.
In tough times, employers will be more selective and not just hire people who only fulfil the role, but who also understand the business fundamentals and value-add.
Be “tuned in”
The ability to articulate your answers in a lively manner is crucial in capturing your interviewer’s interest and attention. Going on and on about your achievements or experience may bore the interviewer and cause him to lose interest.
Some interviewers love details; some loathe them. You need to size up your interviewer’s level of interest and attention span by his body language. Remember, eyes speak volumes. If he looks away often, you may be boring him. Answer the question directly and do not oversell or undersell yourself.
Choice of words
Refrain from using big words or complicated analogies to illustrate a point. Keep it simple and speak clearly. What is more important is the flow and structure of your conversation.
Be confident and positive
Exuding confidence and positive energy lends a person charisma. On the other hand, arrogance, a lack of confidence and negative energy will cost you the job.
Having confidence shows you have the skills and experience to go for it. Positive energy gives the perception that you are not a quitter and you have a life and work attitude that will be resilient during tougher times.
Technology know-how
The world is wired up. You need to come across as technologically savvy and not resistant to new technologies or ideas. From computers to mobile phones, being technologically savvy is no longer a choice.
Have a sense of humour
An interview will be a chore for both parties if it is not punctuated with some humour or wit. Having a good sense of humour or being witty helps you to connect to your interviewer. Remember to stay poised and professional; do not break into hysterics.
Look smart
You need to look smart and professional in an interview. Personal grooming — your attire, your hair, nails, make-up and accessories — completes the whole look. When in doubt, keep to basic colours and minimal make-up or accessories.
Honesty is the best policy
If you are asked a tricky question by the interviewer, never try and answer it too quickly. Be honest and acknowledge that it is a tricky or interesting question, then chew on it for a moment before attempting to answer.
Sincerity and honesty are traits that are invaluable and hiring managers would often choose a great attitude over aptitude.
Offer references
Be ready to offer work references and referees if your interviewer expresses his concerns over various aspects of your suitability.
Nothing beats a real-life testimonial from someone who has worked with you. It also provides a glimpse into your ability to establish and maintain good work relationships and contacts.
Article by Yeo Gek Cheng, Director, IT&T, Hudson Singapore, a provider of permanent recruitment, managed solutions and talent management services.
Beyond a good CV, you need to be able to focus on getting a few things right to leave a great impression with your interviewer. These include highlighting your achievements, being specific about your contributions, using the right words and coming across as professionally or commercially savvy. These will make you stand out from the competition.
Here is how you can double your chances of landing that job:
Show your business acumen
Knowing your own area of work and executing it well is not complete without showing the awareness of the commercial or business impact of your role.
When sharing your achievements, display your business acumen by sharing how they impact business operations or revenue.
In tough times, employers will be more selective and not just hire people who only fulfil the role, but who also understand the business fundamentals and value-add.
Be “tuned in”
The ability to articulate your answers in a lively manner is crucial in capturing your interviewer’s interest and attention. Going on and on about your achievements or experience may bore the interviewer and cause him to lose interest.
Some interviewers love details; some loathe them. You need to size up your interviewer’s level of interest and attention span by his body language. Remember, eyes speak volumes. If he looks away often, you may be boring him. Answer the question directly and do not oversell or undersell yourself.
Choice of words
Refrain from using big words or complicated analogies to illustrate a point. Keep it simple and speak clearly. What is more important is the flow and structure of your conversation.
Be confident and positive
Exuding confidence and positive energy lends a person charisma. On the other hand, arrogance, a lack of confidence and negative energy will cost you the job.
Having confidence shows you have the skills and experience to go for it. Positive energy gives the perception that you are not a quitter and you have a life and work attitude that will be resilient during tougher times.
Technology know-how
The world is wired up. You need to come across as technologically savvy and not resistant to new technologies or ideas. From computers to mobile phones, being technologically savvy is no longer a choice.
Have a sense of humour
An interview will be a chore for both parties if it is not punctuated with some humour or wit. Having a good sense of humour or being witty helps you to connect to your interviewer. Remember to stay poised and professional; do not break into hysterics.
Look smart
You need to look smart and professional in an interview. Personal grooming — your attire, your hair, nails, make-up and accessories — completes the whole look. When in doubt, keep to basic colours and minimal make-up or accessories.
Honesty is the best policy
If you are asked a tricky question by the interviewer, never try and answer it too quickly. Be honest and acknowledge that it is a tricky or interesting question, then chew on it for a moment before attempting to answer.
Sincerity and honesty are traits that are invaluable and hiring managers would often choose a great attitude over aptitude.
Offer references
Be ready to offer work references and referees if your interviewer expresses his concerns over various aspects of your suitability.
Nothing beats a real-life testimonial from someone who has worked with you. It also provides a glimpse into your ability to establish and maintain good work relationships and contacts.
Article by Yeo Gek Cheng, Director, IT&T, Hudson Singapore, a provider of permanent recruitment, managed solutions and talent management services.
Provide the right coaching
The good news is that companies are spending money on training and executive coaching. The bad news is that some of that money is paying for haphazard and poorly planned training or coaching activities, with little to show in terms of enhancing the quality of the company’s workforce and their performance.
This is due to a gap between what an organisation’s management want training to achieve and its execution by training managers, trainers, consultants and executive coaches.
Management generally want to get clear and straightforward answers to one question before they agree to invest in training: “How do we get business results or improved performance from training or coaching?”
The emphasis is on business results, and not on just having done “20 programmes this year”, which is how one training manager responded to a question on his achievements for the year. The focus should be on results, not activities.
So, what is the relationship between an intervention (such as coaching or training) and business performance? Neville Osrin, a consultant in Hewitt’s Talent and Organisational Change Practice says, one also needs to look at intervening variables, such as the quality of leadership and employee engagement.
Business results occur when skills taught during a training activity or goals set during a coaching session are applied on the job, thereby improving job performance.
Here are some tips to ensure that the organisation gets business results from its investment on training or coaching:
Relevance
Training and coaching activities must be linked to business needs and not just to the latest and hottest fad in town.
Interventions must originate from business needs — for instance, a bank’s need to increase revenue by getting the tellers to cross-sell more — and not from simply responding to intermittent training requests without sufficient analysis to determine the reason for that request.
For example, a request like “Can you send the telephone operator for a telephone techniques course?” is not a need but a suggested solution. The real business need could be to reduce customer complaints about having to wait a long time for calls to be picked up.
If that operator has to answer 2,500 calls a day, the problem is not necessarily a lack of telephone techniques. It could be a situation of work overload, and training alone might not help.
Another example is the need to help top sales performers move to the next level of performance. In this case, what may be needed is not another sales training programme but possibly to engage executive coaches to work with them individually.
Performance-based
Once business needs are identified, the next step is to identify what specific performance needs to be improved to either overcome a business problem — for instance, too many rejections from customers — or to fulfil a business opportunity, such as enabling staff to sell a new line of products.
Proper training identification (TNI) must be carried out to provide valuable inputs to ensure that the training programme is designed to improve performance.
Proper support
Too often, training or coaching results in the person going back to a working environment that does not support the learning experiences he or she has just gone through.
A typical example is the employee who goes for a seminar on motivation, gets “excited” and returns to a working environment that regularly demotivates her. In six months, she is back to her original self.
One reason could be that the training programme was designed without sufficient pre-analysis. This would have enabled some customisation of the programme, where the learning would be related to actual work situations.
The same goes for coaching — the employee must be empowered to take the action needed to achieve performance goals set together with his coach, otherwise the whole exercise is futile.
Article by K.C. See, the founder of the Quest Group and the Institute of Business Coaches.
This is due to a gap between what an organisation’s management want training to achieve and its execution by training managers, trainers, consultants and executive coaches.
Management generally want to get clear and straightforward answers to one question before they agree to invest in training: “How do we get business results or improved performance from training or coaching?”
The emphasis is on business results, and not on just having done “20 programmes this year”, which is how one training manager responded to a question on his achievements for the year. The focus should be on results, not activities.
So, what is the relationship between an intervention (such as coaching or training) and business performance? Neville Osrin, a consultant in Hewitt’s Talent and Organisational Change Practice says, one also needs to look at intervening variables, such as the quality of leadership and employee engagement.
Business results occur when skills taught during a training activity or goals set during a coaching session are applied on the job, thereby improving job performance.
Here are some tips to ensure that the organisation gets business results from its investment on training or coaching:
Relevance
Training and coaching activities must be linked to business needs and not just to the latest and hottest fad in town.
Interventions must originate from business needs — for instance, a bank’s need to increase revenue by getting the tellers to cross-sell more — and not from simply responding to intermittent training requests without sufficient analysis to determine the reason for that request.
For example, a request like “Can you send the telephone operator for a telephone techniques course?” is not a need but a suggested solution. The real business need could be to reduce customer complaints about having to wait a long time for calls to be picked up.
If that operator has to answer 2,500 calls a day, the problem is not necessarily a lack of telephone techniques. It could be a situation of work overload, and training alone might not help.
Another example is the need to help top sales performers move to the next level of performance. In this case, what may be needed is not another sales training programme but possibly to engage executive coaches to work with them individually.
Performance-based
Once business needs are identified, the next step is to identify what specific performance needs to be improved to either overcome a business problem — for instance, too many rejections from customers — or to fulfil a business opportunity, such as enabling staff to sell a new line of products.
Proper training identification (TNI) must be carried out to provide valuable inputs to ensure that the training programme is designed to improve performance.
Proper support
Too often, training or coaching results in the person going back to a working environment that does not support the learning experiences he or she has just gone through.
A typical example is the employee who goes for a seminar on motivation, gets “excited” and returns to a working environment that regularly demotivates her. In six months, she is back to her original self.
One reason could be that the training programme was designed without sufficient pre-analysis. This would have enabled some customisation of the programme, where the learning would be related to actual work situations.
The same goes for coaching — the employee must be empowered to take the action needed to achieve performance goals set together with his coach, otherwise the whole exercise is futile.
Article by K.C. See, the founder of the Quest Group and the Institute of Business Coaches.
Get your priorities right
LATE one night, a dozen friends of mine from the coaching profession and I walked into a small coffee shop in Greenhills, Manila. All of us, ready for a jolt of caffeine, gathered at the counter.
The attendant, who seemed to be cleaning up the place, was aghast at the crowd in front of him and declared the shop was closed.
“Wow, what time do you close?” said Susan, the wealth coach.
“Uh, 10pm, ma’am” replied the attendant.
“But, it’s only 9.55pm now!” she said, with an edge to her voice.
“Yes, ma’am but one of our rules is to close at exactly 10pm and I don’t think we will be able to achieve that and yet serve all of you,” he replied.
Now here was a clash of goals and ideals. Should the man have focused on specific goals or looked at the big picture and made the sale?
For the attendant to make a decision in light of the coffee company’s strategic intentions, he would have to be given a lot more meaningful information rather than just a few points against which his performance would be measured.
He would have to juggle his decision-making between the six generic performance indicators that every business strategist leans upon: competitive advantage, flexibility of action, financial performance, resource utilisation, quality of service and innovation. He would have to choose between being excellent with resource utilisation and increasing the financial performance of his outlet.
Now, the thrust of leadership training is not so much about strategy and decision-making but more towards providing quality feedback and coaching others. It aims to elicit, through conversations, leadership qualities from you and others.
So, imagine, a month later, the attendant is sitting in front of you and you have got to talk him about the evening a dozen or more customers lined up in front of him five minutes before closing and the fact that he had told them that the outlet was closed. Here is an NLP [Neuro-Linguistic Programming] presupposition that you can utilise: “There is a positive intention motivating every behaviour, and a context in which every behaviour has value.”
You have got to realise that his choice at that moment was based completely on the knowledge he had of the issues involved in that scenario. The outcome of his decisions may or may not have been in alignment with the company’s overall strategy but his intentions were absolutely positive.
You could then, through questioning and dialogue, upgrade his decision-making skills for the future. You would have to start with the assumption that behind his behaviour was a positive intention and then work your way forward and upward. That would be your leadership in action through NLP.
That evening in Greenhills, Susan, the wealth coach, gently influenced the attendant into taking our orders. He failed to close on time but succeeded in raising his financial performance for the day.
The attendant, who seemed to be cleaning up the place, was aghast at the crowd in front of him and declared the shop was closed.
“Wow, what time do you close?” said Susan, the wealth coach.
“Uh, 10pm, ma’am” replied the attendant.
“But, it’s only 9.55pm now!” she said, with an edge to her voice.
“Yes, ma’am but one of our rules is to close at exactly 10pm and I don’t think we will be able to achieve that and yet serve all of you,” he replied.
Now here was a clash of goals and ideals. Should the man have focused on specific goals or looked at the big picture and made the sale?
For the attendant to make a decision in light of the coffee company’s strategic intentions, he would have to be given a lot more meaningful information rather than just a few points against which his performance would be measured.
He would have to juggle his decision-making between the six generic performance indicators that every business strategist leans upon: competitive advantage, flexibility of action, financial performance, resource utilisation, quality of service and innovation. He would have to choose between being excellent with resource utilisation and increasing the financial performance of his outlet.
Now, the thrust of leadership training is not so much about strategy and decision-making but more towards providing quality feedback and coaching others. It aims to elicit, through conversations, leadership qualities from you and others.
So, imagine, a month later, the attendant is sitting in front of you and you have got to talk him about the evening a dozen or more customers lined up in front of him five minutes before closing and the fact that he had told them that the outlet was closed. Here is an NLP [Neuro-Linguistic Programming] presupposition that you can utilise: “There is a positive intention motivating every behaviour, and a context in which every behaviour has value.”
You have got to realise that his choice at that moment was based completely on the knowledge he had of the issues involved in that scenario. The outcome of his decisions may or may not have been in alignment with the company’s overall strategy but his intentions were absolutely positive.
You could then, through questioning and dialogue, upgrade his decision-making skills for the future. You would have to start with the assumption that behind his behaviour was a positive intention and then work your way forward and upward. That would be your leadership in action through NLP.
That evening in Greenhills, Susan, the wealth coach, gently influenced the attendant into taking our orders. He failed to close on time but succeeded in raising his financial performance for the day.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
How to win through productivity in an unsure economy
This much, at least, is clear: The global economy is wavering. A predicted US recession and widespread inflation spell possible trouble worldwide.
However, any agreement among top economists stops right there. Divided expert opinion sees today's situation as anything from a blip on the screen to the beginning of a doomsday scenario.
So, what's the smart HR response? Preparing for a long-term recession could mean eroding the talent investments, mechanisms and networks the company has worked hard to put in place. Then again, sitting tight and crossing one's fingers clearly isn't prudent.
The answer for most companies rests somewhere in between: Prepare for a short-term downturn while focusing on the larger emerging issues — a multiyear battle against wage and commodity inflation. The critical solution is productivity.
Don't panic — you'll destroy capability
It has been widely predicted that the US is heading into recession, if it is not already in one. However, Asia- Pacific is expected to continue being the engine of growth for the world economy. More recent data suggests that emerging markets in Asia-Pacific are forecast to grow in 2009, albeit at a slower rate.
We see companies across many industries bracing themselves — and yet, so far, most are just waiting and watching. The labour market remains tight, especially for skilled professionals, with no decrease in attrition.
The message for HR executives: Take no dramatic action. Responding to predictions of a "gloom and doom" scenario means dismantling the structure and systems you've spent many years and a great deal of money establishing. We believe an overzealous response would be a mistake for three reasons:
First, after rounds of dramatic layoffs and reorganisations during previous economic downturns, most global companies today are leaner than ever. There is virtually nothing — and no one — left to cut without serious organisational impact.
Second, letting go of the careful hires your company has worked diligently to engage would mean the write-off of a substantial multi -year effort in recruiting and retention. As witnessed during previous cycles, employees have excellent memories. During better times, they remember the actions their companies took back when the going got tough.
Finally, when business turns around, you'll need the talent capabilities you've built more than ever. Casting off your talent investments could leave your organisation crippled in the face of a rapid rebound.
At the same time, we recommend three steps companies should be taking to prepare:
Don't over-employ. While we don't necessarily advocate broad-scale layoffs, we do suggest being more careful (and taking more time) in the hiring process. All new hires should be subject to a disciplined review of their business cases, taking into account current economic conditions.
Review your severance policy and plans. Understand the true costs of separating with employees, and develop a staff reduction plan for use if conditions worsen.
Most important, begin to view everything you do through the lens of productivity. The concept of productivity is hardly new, but we believe it represents the best hedge against economic downturns and inflation.
Productivity protects against recession and inflation
In the 1970s, Japanese-style "lean" manufacturing drove productivity gains. In the 1980s, access to capital encouraged expansion. In the 1990s, the technology boom spurred productivity and growth. Today, we see the type of productivity driven by human capital as the success factor most likely to lead companies out of the economic trouble ahead.
What does an emphasis on productivity mean beyond business as usual at most companies? For HR professionals, it means taking a business analytics perspective towards human capital and relating business drivers to productivity. Getting back to basics, remembering what your economic model is and then making sure your employees are specifically set up to support that model will be critical. If your employees are not driving metrics related to your business strategy on a daily basis, something needs to change.
To that end, Watson Wyatt's WorkUSA® 2006/2007 study found that companies with high levels of employee engagement and line of sight boast significantly higher financial returns than those with low levels. In short, the most engaged employees are far more productive, make better use of assets, work more effectively and deliver higher returns to shareholders than other workers:
The average productivity per employee for companies with high employee engagement is US$276,000 (RM993,000), compared with US$236,000 for those with low engagement. For a Standard & Poor's 500 Index company with 20,000 employees, this difference could translate to US$800 million in annual revenues.
Companies with highly engaged employees reported a five-year total return to shareholders (TRS) of 20%; those with low engagement reported no shareholder returns over a five-year period.
Companies with highly engaged employees also reported a market premium of 22%, compared with 14% for those with low engagement.
HR can help boost long-term productivity
Your company's HR team has the opportunity to play a critical role in helping the organisation avoid the pitfalls of this potentially threatening economy. You can boost the productivity of every employee in the company and hedge against the core economic concerns of the future that focus on inflation.
Organisations that react to the current economic environment by being proactive and productivity-focused, as opposed to being reactive and cost-focused, stand the greatest chance of emerging successful.
How to drive talent productivity
In today's economic environment, companies have a strong incentive for driving talent productivity. Successful organisations are taking the following steps to improve employee productivity and the company's financial strength:
Develop specific performance metrics for the organisation that are tied to key business outcomes. Use an analytical process focusing on core business fundamentals to determine which measures of performance are best suited to drive the organisation in the right direction.
Integrate these metrics into the company's performance management system. Cascade measures throughout the organisation to ensure alignment among overall company, unit and individual productivity goals.
Create a talent management programme focused on acquiring, enhancing and deploying the key skills required to achieve the various sets of business and operational goals. Ensure the organisation has the right people in the right roles at the right time to be successful.
Modify reward programmes for executives and the broader employee population to reinforce goals and provide strong differentiation between high performers and lower performers. Use the entire gamut of reward vehicles (for examples, base salary, annual incentives and long-term incentives) to create a portfolio of tools that management can use to drive and sustain company performance.
Drill down into mission-critical, customer-facing and operational units to maximise individual and team productivity. Recognise that the most significant opportunities typically occur in sales, customer service, research and development, operations and manufacturing.
Focus on the productivity of the HR team itself, creating opportunities to continuously improve. Develop meaningful metrics for HR tied to organisational productivity and talent effectiveness.
However, any agreement among top economists stops right there. Divided expert opinion sees today's situation as anything from a blip on the screen to the beginning of a doomsday scenario.
So, what's the smart HR response? Preparing for a long-term recession could mean eroding the talent investments, mechanisms and networks the company has worked hard to put in place. Then again, sitting tight and crossing one's fingers clearly isn't prudent.
The answer for most companies rests somewhere in between: Prepare for a short-term downturn while focusing on the larger emerging issues — a multiyear battle against wage and commodity inflation. The critical solution is productivity.
Don't panic — you'll destroy capability
It has been widely predicted that the US is heading into recession, if it is not already in one. However, Asia- Pacific is expected to continue being the engine of growth for the world economy. More recent data suggests that emerging markets in Asia-Pacific are forecast to grow in 2009, albeit at a slower rate.
We see companies across many industries bracing themselves — and yet, so far, most are just waiting and watching. The labour market remains tight, especially for skilled professionals, with no decrease in attrition.
The message for HR executives: Take no dramatic action. Responding to predictions of a "gloom and doom" scenario means dismantling the structure and systems you've spent many years and a great deal of money establishing. We believe an overzealous response would be a mistake for three reasons:
First, after rounds of dramatic layoffs and reorganisations during previous economic downturns, most global companies today are leaner than ever. There is virtually nothing — and no one — left to cut without serious organisational impact.
Second, letting go of the careful hires your company has worked diligently to engage would mean the write-off of a substantial multi -year effort in recruiting and retention. As witnessed during previous cycles, employees have excellent memories. During better times, they remember the actions their companies took back when the going got tough.
Finally, when business turns around, you'll need the talent capabilities you've built more than ever. Casting off your talent investments could leave your organisation crippled in the face of a rapid rebound.
At the same time, we recommend three steps companies should be taking to prepare:
Don't over-employ. While we don't necessarily advocate broad-scale layoffs, we do suggest being more careful (and taking more time) in the hiring process. All new hires should be subject to a disciplined review of their business cases, taking into account current economic conditions.
Review your severance policy and plans. Understand the true costs of separating with employees, and develop a staff reduction plan for use if conditions worsen.
Most important, begin to view everything you do through the lens of productivity. The concept of productivity is hardly new, but we believe it represents the best hedge against economic downturns and inflation.
Productivity protects against recession and inflation
In the 1970s, Japanese-style "lean" manufacturing drove productivity gains. In the 1980s, access to capital encouraged expansion. In the 1990s, the technology boom spurred productivity and growth. Today, we see the type of productivity driven by human capital as the success factor most likely to lead companies out of the economic trouble ahead.
What does an emphasis on productivity mean beyond business as usual at most companies? For HR professionals, it means taking a business analytics perspective towards human capital and relating business drivers to productivity. Getting back to basics, remembering what your economic model is and then making sure your employees are specifically set up to support that model will be critical. If your employees are not driving metrics related to your business strategy on a daily basis, something needs to change.
To that end, Watson Wyatt's WorkUSA® 2006/2007 study found that companies with high levels of employee engagement and line of sight boast significantly higher financial returns than those with low levels. In short, the most engaged employees are far more productive, make better use of assets, work more effectively and deliver higher returns to shareholders than other workers:
The average productivity per employee for companies with high employee engagement is US$276,000 (RM993,000), compared with US$236,000 for those with low engagement. For a Standard & Poor's 500 Index company with 20,000 employees, this difference could translate to US$800 million in annual revenues.
Companies with highly engaged employees reported a five-year total return to shareholders (TRS) of 20%; those with low engagement reported no shareholder returns over a five-year period.
Companies with highly engaged employees also reported a market premium of 22%, compared with 14% for those with low engagement.
HR can help boost long-term productivity
Your company's HR team has the opportunity to play a critical role in helping the organisation avoid the pitfalls of this potentially threatening economy. You can boost the productivity of every employee in the company and hedge against the core economic concerns of the future that focus on inflation.
Organisations that react to the current economic environment by being proactive and productivity-focused, as opposed to being reactive and cost-focused, stand the greatest chance of emerging successful.
How to drive talent productivity
In today's economic environment, companies have a strong incentive for driving talent productivity. Successful organisations are taking the following steps to improve employee productivity and the company's financial strength:
Develop specific performance metrics for the organisation that are tied to key business outcomes. Use an analytical process focusing on core business fundamentals to determine which measures of performance are best suited to drive the organisation in the right direction.
Integrate these metrics into the company's performance management system. Cascade measures throughout the organisation to ensure alignment among overall company, unit and individual productivity goals.
Create a talent management programme focused on acquiring, enhancing and deploying the key skills required to achieve the various sets of business and operational goals. Ensure the organisation has the right people in the right roles at the right time to be successful.
Modify reward programmes for executives and the broader employee population to reinforce goals and provide strong differentiation between high performers and lower performers. Use the entire gamut of reward vehicles (for examples, base salary, annual incentives and long-term incentives) to create a portfolio of tools that management can use to drive and sustain company performance.
Drill down into mission-critical, customer-facing and operational units to maximise individual and team productivity. Recognise that the most significant opportunities typically occur in sales, customer service, research and development, operations and manufacturing.
Focus on the productivity of the HR team itself, creating opportunities to continuously improve. Develop meaningful metrics for HR tied to organisational productivity and talent effectiveness.
5 steps to a new job
YOU need to be extra resourceful when you are looking for a job in tough economic times. Here are five things you can do to boost your job search:
1 Ask the right question
Do not ask if your contact knows of a job opening. Instead, ask for his expert advice on your job hunt. Be specific about the kind of support you would like, such as:
“I would appreciate your looking over my resumé to see if I’m showcasing my best strengths.”
“Do you know anyone at XYZ Company? It is on my list of companies I would like to work for, and I would like to talk to someone there to get an insider’s view.”
“You have hired a lot of people through the years. Would you be willing to do a mock interview with me? I have not been in that situation for a long time.”
“I want to change directions with my career. Would you brainstorm with me about how I can use my expertise in new arenas?”
2 Tell tales of triumphs
Think about your successes and be ready to tell stories that show you serving the customers, saving the day, solving the problem, leaping tall buildings in a single bound ... you get the idea.
Use this formula to edit upbeat examples of your success. Stories stick, make you memorable and teach people to trust in your expertise.
Here is how you can tell a good story to your interviewer when he says: “Tell me about yourself.”
Focus on your talent
Example: “My strength is in managing multi-generational, multi-cultural teams.”
Share a situation
Example: “When my company merged its data centres in three locations, we were not getting the synergies and efficiencies we expected.”
Outline the problem
Example: “I soon realised that we had a big problem. Employees at one site were all men over 50 who were set in their ways. Employees at the other two sites were all fresh grads, both men and women, full of ideas and innovations, and from multiracial backgrounds.”
Demonstrate a solution
Example: “I hired a highly recommended consultant/trainer who ran a two-day off-site programme that initiated a dialogue among all the diverse participants.”
Highlight the significance
Example: “The results were dramatic — we had decreased tension and increased productivity.”
3 Party with strangers
The challenge for job hunters is to expand their contacts quickly.
Ask a long-time contact to have a party and invite only people you don’t know — an instant way to beef up your job hunt contact list.
You probably think people are either networking contacts — or not.
It is not that simple. Your network includes acquaintances, associates, actors, advocates and allies.
Acquaintances are people you have met through someone else, such as your neighbour’s boss or your wife’s best friend in high school.
Associates are people who share membership in a group you belong to, such as your neighbours, your health club buddies or your professional association co-members.
Actors are people with whom you are exchanging valuable information or resources or have done so in the past.
Allies are the very few people who are interested in furthering your career and are part of your life — for example, a former boss with whom you consult on career decisions.
Acquaintances are especially valuable when you are job-hunting because they can be bridges into circles you are not known in.
4 Show Uncle Fred your resumé
Sit down with members of your family whom you can talk to about your resumé and career success stories. Do the same thing with leisure-time contacts, neighbours and friends. They probably do not really know what you do and whether you are good at it.
This exercise will help you translate your experience and expertise from the jargon of your profession into a language that anyone can understand. And it will force you to focus on the bottom- line benefits of what you do.
For example, if you are a health information systems analyst, you will have to explain that you look at information from emergency rooms in all the hospitals in a region to find patterns of illness that indicate an epidemic.
5 Minimise the risk of helping you
Handing someone your resumé and asking him to pass it along rarely works.
Recognise that people will not help you find a job until they trust that you will not reflect poorly on them.
Think about the metaphors: You are asking them to go out on a limb, put their good name on the line and stick their necks out.
Make helping you comfortable by teaching your contacts about your character and competence — the building blocks of trust. Tell career stories that they can remember easily and relate to their contacts.
Article by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon, authors of How To FireProof Your Career: Survival Strategies For Volatile Times.
1 Ask the right question
Do not ask if your contact knows of a job opening. Instead, ask for his expert advice on your job hunt. Be specific about the kind of support you would like, such as:
“I would appreciate your looking over my resumé to see if I’m showcasing my best strengths.”
“Do you know anyone at XYZ Company? It is on my list of companies I would like to work for, and I would like to talk to someone there to get an insider’s view.”
“You have hired a lot of people through the years. Would you be willing to do a mock interview with me? I have not been in that situation for a long time.”
“I want to change directions with my career. Would you brainstorm with me about how I can use my expertise in new arenas?”
2 Tell tales of triumphs
Think about your successes and be ready to tell stories that show you serving the customers, saving the day, solving the problem, leaping tall buildings in a single bound ... you get the idea.
Use this formula to edit upbeat examples of your success. Stories stick, make you memorable and teach people to trust in your expertise.
Here is how you can tell a good story to your interviewer when he says: “Tell me about yourself.”
Focus on your talent
Example: “My strength is in managing multi-generational, multi-cultural teams.”
Share a situation
Example: “When my company merged its data centres in three locations, we were not getting the synergies and efficiencies we expected.”
Outline the problem
Example: “I soon realised that we had a big problem. Employees at one site were all men over 50 who were set in their ways. Employees at the other two sites were all fresh grads, both men and women, full of ideas and innovations, and from multiracial backgrounds.”
Demonstrate a solution
Example: “I hired a highly recommended consultant/trainer who ran a two-day off-site programme that initiated a dialogue among all the diverse participants.”
Highlight the significance
Example: “The results were dramatic — we had decreased tension and increased productivity.”
3 Party with strangers
The challenge for job hunters is to expand their contacts quickly.
Ask a long-time contact to have a party and invite only people you don’t know — an instant way to beef up your job hunt contact list.
You probably think people are either networking contacts — or not.
It is not that simple. Your network includes acquaintances, associates, actors, advocates and allies.
Acquaintances are people you have met through someone else, such as your neighbour’s boss or your wife’s best friend in high school.
Associates are people who share membership in a group you belong to, such as your neighbours, your health club buddies or your professional association co-members.
Actors are people with whom you are exchanging valuable information or resources or have done so in the past.
Allies are the very few people who are interested in furthering your career and are part of your life — for example, a former boss with whom you consult on career decisions.
Acquaintances are especially valuable when you are job-hunting because they can be bridges into circles you are not known in.
4 Show Uncle Fred your resumé
Sit down with members of your family whom you can talk to about your resumé and career success stories. Do the same thing with leisure-time contacts, neighbours and friends. They probably do not really know what you do and whether you are good at it.
This exercise will help you translate your experience and expertise from the jargon of your profession into a language that anyone can understand. And it will force you to focus on the bottom- line benefits of what you do.
For example, if you are a health information systems analyst, you will have to explain that you look at information from emergency rooms in all the hospitals in a region to find patterns of illness that indicate an epidemic.
5 Minimise the risk of helping you
Handing someone your resumé and asking him to pass it along rarely works.
Recognise that people will not help you find a job until they trust that you will not reflect poorly on them.
Think about the metaphors: You are asking them to go out on a limb, put their good name on the line and stick their necks out.
Make helping you comfortable by teaching your contacts about your character and competence — the building blocks of trust. Tell career stories that they can remember easily and relate to their contacts.
Article by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon, authors of How To FireProof Your Career: Survival Strategies For Volatile Times.
Why people love charismatic leaders?
UNITED States president Barack Obama, US presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, Japan’s former prime minister Junichiro Koizumi, Britain’s Tony Blair, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the late Pope John Paul II are just a few of the many people on the world stage to be accorded the epithet “charismatic”.
Charisma, literally “the gift of grace”, is a somewhat allusive term that describes the personal appeal or magnetism that gives an individual influence over a large number of people. It is also a term that is being used with increasing frequency in the business and political arenas. So what exactly is charisma and what might we expect from a charismatic leader?
Charismatic people are able to inspire others, often by their oratorical skills. Also they have this unique ability to sense and to articulate their audience’s emotions and inner feelings. They are intuitive and inspirational and are able to use these qualities to cultivate a universal appeal.
As George W. Bush himself acknowledged: “I have good instincts and relate well to all kinds of people.” Although not generally credited with being charismatic, President Lyndon Johnson was reputed to have a “psychiatrist’s capacity” in understanding people.
Charismatic people have the ability to make everyone that they communicate with feel important. Charismatic leaders have a gift for defining a vision and moving people towards the future. Frequently, this is propelled by a crisis. In the absence of a crisis, they need to create one or, at least, make people aware of a sense of crisis or urgency.
This can then be translated into a mission that needs to be accomplished. When elected to the White House in 1960, John Kennedy was able to focus upon civil rights and poverty as a way of making Americans feel that they were rallying behind him as part of a noble cause.
Two decades later, Ronald Reagan, “the great communicator”, was able to rally the Americans in his crusade against the “evil empire” or the Soviet Union to similar effect.
People are often more forgiving when a charismatic leader makes a mistake. In some instances, it can actually endear the leader in that it makes them appear fallible and, in the same vein, more human.
As John Kennedy commented in the aftermath of the abortive Bay of Pigs initiative: “The worse I do, the more people love me”.
Bill Clinton walked away from the Monica Lewinsky episode having escaped impeachment and with his popularity still intact.
It is said that 1960 was a turning point as far as US elections were concerned. This was when the youthful and charismatic JFK defeated his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon. The crunch was a televised debate in which Nixon appeared tired and haggard. He allegedly refused the services of the television company’s makeup specialist. Kennedy’s campaign managers were able to exploit this to Kennedy’s advantage with the catchy phrase: “Would you buy a used car from this man?”
There is a tendency to assume that charisma is a trait that all leaders should possess. But it can also be destructive. Charismatic leaders are often at their best when there is a crisis or at the inception of a company or new venture.
They offer bold, simple, unambiguous solutions which they inspire others to pursue with unwavering commitment. The flip side of this is that charismatic leaders are prone to becoming bored with day-to-day administrative issues and with detail, and often find it difficult to accept information or views incompatible with their own world view.
Attribution theory suggests that we are more likely to make positive attributions in the case of a charismatic leader. In other words, they are perceived as being “good” leaders simply by virtue of the fact that they are charismatic.
Possibly the one historical leader who has been credited as possessing charisma even though he is universally reviled was Adolf Hitler. Hitler had one skill that surpassed everything else. He knew what made his followers tick.
Are charismatic leaders born? Or can charisma be developed? Charismatic leaders cannot be created, but individuals can cultivate charismatic traits.
They do so by cultivating an optimistic view and using passion as a catalyst for generating enthusiasm, and by focusing on a common threat or goal. In other words, it is possible to project charisma without being inherently charismatic.
To millions of people, Pope Power arrived in 1978 when Karol Wojtyla strode onto the world stage. Pope John Paul II was the first Pope to have had the epithet “charismatic” bestowed upon him by the world’s media. He was able to reach out to Catholics and non- Catholics alike.
Yet history has identified a pattern. Charismatic leaders replace non-charismatic leaders and vice versa. For example, Tony Blair replaced the more downbeat John Major as British Prime Minister in 1997. Likewise, Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown is not noted for his oratorical skills. Often described as “quiet and contemplative”, Pope Benedict XVI is again different from his predecessor.
Charisma can mask more fundamental and enduring qualities that a leader may or may not possess. Only time and history will tell whether a charismatic leader lives up to people’s expectations of him.
Article by Paul FitzPatrick
Charisma, literally “the gift of grace”, is a somewhat allusive term that describes the personal appeal or magnetism that gives an individual influence over a large number of people. It is also a term that is being used with increasing frequency in the business and political arenas. So what exactly is charisma and what might we expect from a charismatic leader?
Charismatic people are able to inspire others, often by their oratorical skills. Also they have this unique ability to sense and to articulate their audience’s emotions and inner feelings. They are intuitive and inspirational and are able to use these qualities to cultivate a universal appeal.
As George W. Bush himself acknowledged: “I have good instincts and relate well to all kinds of people.” Although not generally credited with being charismatic, President Lyndon Johnson was reputed to have a “psychiatrist’s capacity” in understanding people.
Charismatic people have the ability to make everyone that they communicate with feel important. Charismatic leaders have a gift for defining a vision and moving people towards the future. Frequently, this is propelled by a crisis. In the absence of a crisis, they need to create one or, at least, make people aware of a sense of crisis or urgency.
This can then be translated into a mission that needs to be accomplished. When elected to the White House in 1960, John Kennedy was able to focus upon civil rights and poverty as a way of making Americans feel that they were rallying behind him as part of a noble cause.
Two decades later, Ronald Reagan, “the great communicator”, was able to rally the Americans in his crusade against the “evil empire” or the Soviet Union to similar effect.
People are often more forgiving when a charismatic leader makes a mistake. In some instances, it can actually endear the leader in that it makes them appear fallible and, in the same vein, more human.
As John Kennedy commented in the aftermath of the abortive Bay of Pigs initiative: “The worse I do, the more people love me”.
Bill Clinton walked away from the Monica Lewinsky episode having escaped impeachment and with his popularity still intact.
It is said that 1960 was a turning point as far as US elections were concerned. This was when the youthful and charismatic JFK defeated his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon. The crunch was a televised debate in which Nixon appeared tired and haggard. He allegedly refused the services of the television company’s makeup specialist. Kennedy’s campaign managers were able to exploit this to Kennedy’s advantage with the catchy phrase: “Would you buy a used car from this man?”
There is a tendency to assume that charisma is a trait that all leaders should possess. But it can also be destructive. Charismatic leaders are often at their best when there is a crisis or at the inception of a company or new venture.
They offer bold, simple, unambiguous solutions which they inspire others to pursue with unwavering commitment. The flip side of this is that charismatic leaders are prone to becoming bored with day-to-day administrative issues and with detail, and often find it difficult to accept information or views incompatible with their own world view.
Attribution theory suggests that we are more likely to make positive attributions in the case of a charismatic leader. In other words, they are perceived as being “good” leaders simply by virtue of the fact that they are charismatic.
Possibly the one historical leader who has been credited as possessing charisma even though he is universally reviled was Adolf Hitler. Hitler had one skill that surpassed everything else. He knew what made his followers tick.
Are charismatic leaders born? Or can charisma be developed? Charismatic leaders cannot be created, but individuals can cultivate charismatic traits.
They do so by cultivating an optimistic view and using passion as a catalyst for generating enthusiasm, and by focusing on a common threat or goal. In other words, it is possible to project charisma without being inherently charismatic.
To millions of people, Pope Power arrived in 1978 when Karol Wojtyla strode onto the world stage. Pope John Paul II was the first Pope to have had the epithet “charismatic” bestowed upon him by the world’s media. He was able to reach out to Catholics and non- Catholics alike.
Yet history has identified a pattern. Charismatic leaders replace non-charismatic leaders and vice versa. For example, Tony Blair replaced the more downbeat John Major as British Prime Minister in 1997. Likewise, Blair’s successor, Gordon Brown is not noted for his oratorical skills. Often described as “quiet and contemplative”, Pope Benedict XVI is again different from his predecessor.
Charisma can mask more fundamental and enduring qualities that a leader may or may not possess. Only time and history will tell whether a charismatic leader lives up to people’s expectations of him.
Article by Paul FitzPatrick
Measure your success
Throughout Asia — especially in Hong Kong, Singapore and China — I hear of advertisers’ need for transparency in an objective online measurement method. The issue businesses have is, how do they measure the quality and frequency of visitors to a website?
In the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, the only statistics available were the ones that the Internet Service ProvidersWeb Server Logs measured. However, that is far from being accurate.
Other providers of site-centric measurement are notables like Omniture and Google’s Analytics products, which is, incidentally, “free”.
However, where the site centric measurement tool places the Java Script Code or 1x1 Pixels to determine or count a visit can significantly alter how many page views are registered.
Working previously in that field, I was surprised to hear of a client who placed three sitecentric tools on their pages and got totally divergent results.
But no matter how well they measured a site’s traffic, one could not get information about a competitor’s traffic or for another website that one does not control.
At Hitwise, comparative measurement is done by tracking Internet users at the country level. In Singapore, for example, it is close to 1.5 million Internet users and globally it is 25 million users.
Reporting on visits, page views and session duration of all sites can help to provide “objective” means of comparing websites’ performances.
Not only can you rank sites that offer similar content and benchmark them according to their relative number of visitors, page impressions generated and timed sessions logged, but you can also look at which websites all those local online users are going to.
This means you can assess the actual effectiveness of an online advertisement by looking at how much more traffic it generated for the advertiser.
You can map this out using Hitwise’s Clickstream product by assessing/charting the surge of traffic following an online campaign.
You might think that Double Click or Ad Serving Companies can do that too.Well, the data they have is based on ads that actually ran. It only tells you when someone has clicked on an Ad.
It does not say anything about the number of visitors to that page, page impressions generated or time sessions.
When it comes to measurement and those who profess to provide data on how Internet users are surfing theWeb, there are also other providers like Comscore or Nielsen’s market intelligence.
They have a vastly different methodology. Nielsen’s tracks a few of the major publishers while Comscore gathers data via opt-in panels.
This means that an Internet user would have to willingly allow a panel -based measurement organisation to install software on their Computer so as to track their online activity.
Activities such as checking the weather as well as visiting banking sites and financial institutions are in theory being tracked for the willing panelist.
There are many ways to measure Internet consumption, depending on what you require the data for.
In these tumultuous financial times, marketers cannot afford to be complacent and simply advertise on what worked in the past.
Make those marketing dollars count and generate branding outcomes that can give you the most value.
Contributed by Daniel Yen, country manager, Hitwise Hong- Kong and Hitwise Singapore. He works with clients on solutions for their competitive intelligence needs.
In the early days of the Internet in the 1990s, the only statistics available were the ones that the Internet Service ProvidersWeb Server Logs measured. However, that is far from being accurate.
Other providers of site-centric measurement are notables like Omniture and Google’s Analytics products, which is, incidentally, “free”.
However, where the site centric measurement tool places the Java Script Code or 1x1 Pixels to determine or count a visit can significantly alter how many page views are registered.
Working previously in that field, I was surprised to hear of a client who placed three sitecentric tools on their pages and got totally divergent results.
But no matter how well they measured a site’s traffic, one could not get information about a competitor’s traffic or for another website that one does not control.
At Hitwise, comparative measurement is done by tracking Internet users at the country level. In Singapore, for example, it is close to 1.5 million Internet users and globally it is 25 million users.
Reporting on visits, page views and session duration of all sites can help to provide “objective” means of comparing websites’ performances.
Not only can you rank sites that offer similar content and benchmark them according to their relative number of visitors, page impressions generated and timed sessions logged, but you can also look at which websites all those local online users are going to.
This means you can assess the actual effectiveness of an online advertisement by looking at how much more traffic it generated for the advertiser.
You can map this out using Hitwise’s Clickstream product by assessing/charting the surge of traffic following an online campaign.
You might think that Double Click or Ad Serving Companies can do that too.Well, the data they have is based on ads that actually ran. It only tells you when someone has clicked on an Ad.
It does not say anything about the number of visitors to that page, page impressions generated or time sessions.
When it comes to measurement and those who profess to provide data on how Internet users are surfing theWeb, there are also other providers like Comscore or Nielsen’s market intelligence.
They have a vastly different methodology. Nielsen’s tracks a few of the major publishers while Comscore gathers data via opt-in panels.
This means that an Internet user would have to willingly allow a panel -based measurement organisation to install software on their Computer so as to track their online activity.
Activities such as checking the weather as well as visiting banking sites and financial institutions are in theory being tracked for the willing panelist.
There are many ways to measure Internet consumption, depending on what you require the data for.
In these tumultuous financial times, marketers cannot afford to be complacent and simply advertise on what worked in the past.
Make those marketing dollars count and generate branding outcomes that can give you the most value.
Contributed by Daniel Yen, country manager, Hitwise Hong- Kong and Hitwise Singapore. He works with clients on solutions for their competitive intelligence needs.
What if I lose my job?
IN THIS volatile working world, you have to accept that no job is for life. You may need to change jobs and careers several times in your working life.
Job transitions skills can be developed to help make this transition easier for you. By applying these simple ideas you can improve your skills, keep your self-esteem intact and find something suitable.
1 Get support
Your company has restructured and you have lost your job. After the initial shock, anger and despair, it is time to move forward. Surround yourself with family and friends and let them know about your situation. Stay in contact with those you care about and continue your social activities. It is easy to avoid people or stop socialising but make sure you do not do this. Your support crew will encourage you and also keep their eyes open for job opportunities for you.
2 It’s not personal
Redundancy is becoming a common term in the workforce, so do not take this personally. Remember, it is the job that has been axed, not you. You have transferable skills that can be used in a variety of industries.
3 Set up an environment to assist your job search
If you are working from home, set up a basic office to include a phone, stationary, postage supplies, computer and printer. If you have small children and pets, keep them out of this area. Ask your children not to answer the phone while you are job searching. If you are using a job café or other facilities, be prepared. Ensure you have all the details you need to apply for any job that appeals to you, including your up-to-date resumé, your referee’s details and an e-mail address.
4 Get involved
Find out the groups that meet regularly in your area and get involved. These could be local networks or community events. This is a great way to meet new people, make new contacts and find out what jobs are available close to home.
5 Watch your language
Avoid using words like “unemployed” or “doing nothing”. Your full-time job is finding a new role you will enjoy.
6 Create an up-to-date resumé
Give a detailed description of the achievements in each role and the time you have spent in the position. Provide all contact details including phone number (land line and mobile), e-mail address and, where possible, a fax number. If you do not have a fax at home, find someone who does and ask them if you can use their number.
7 Be well-groomed
It only takes seven seconds to make a first impression. Make the most of your seven seconds by smiling when you greet someone. Invest in a good suit. If you don’t have one, borrow one for your job interviews. Polish your shoes, wear minimal jewellery and ensure your hair is clean and neat and tidy. People will remember you when you look good.
8 Stay motivated
Finding a new job is hard work. It can frustrate and disappoint you when you receive letters telling you that you did not get the job you applied for. Stay focused and remind yourself that there is a role out there just for you, and you need to stay positive until you find it.
Article by Neen James, a US-based productivity expert, author, speaker, trainer and consultant.
Job transitions skills can be developed to help make this transition easier for you. By applying these simple ideas you can improve your skills, keep your self-esteem intact and find something suitable.
1 Get support
Your company has restructured and you have lost your job. After the initial shock, anger and despair, it is time to move forward. Surround yourself with family and friends and let them know about your situation. Stay in contact with those you care about and continue your social activities. It is easy to avoid people or stop socialising but make sure you do not do this. Your support crew will encourage you and also keep their eyes open for job opportunities for you.
2 It’s not personal
Redundancy is becoming a common term in the workforce, so do not take this personally. Remember, it is the job that has been axed, not you. You have transferable skills that can be used in a variety of industries.
3 Set up an environment to assist your job search
If you are working from home, set up a basic office to include a phone, stationary, postage supplies, computer and printer. If you have small children and pets, keep them out of this area. Ask your children not to answer the phone while you are job searching. If you are using a job café or other facilities, be prepared. Ensure you have all the details you need to apply for any job that appeals to you, including your up-to-date resumé, your referee’s details and an e-mail address.
4 Get involved
Find out the groups that meet regularly in your area and get involved. These could be local networks or community events. This is a great way to meet new people, make new contacts and find out what jobs are available close to home.
5 Watch your language
Avoid using words like “unemployed” or “doing nothing”. Your full-time job is finding a new role you will enjoy.
6 Create an up-to-date resumé
Give a detailed description of the achievements in each role and the time you have spent in the position. Provide all contact details including phone number (land line and mobile), e-mail address and, where possible, a fax number. If you do not have a fax at home, find someone who does and ask them if you can use their number.
7 Be well-groomed
It only takes seven seconds to make a first impression. Make the most of your seven seconds by smiling when you greet someone. Invest in a good suit. If you don’t have one, borrow one for your job interviews. Polish your shoes, wear minimal jewellery and ensure your hair is clean and neat and tidy. People will remember you when you look good.
8 Stay motivated
Finding a new job is hard work. It can frustrate and disappoint you when you receive letters telling you that you did not get the job you applied for. Stay focused and remind yourself that there is a role out there just for you, and you need to stay positive until you find it.
Article by Neen James, a US-based productivity expert, author, speaker, trainer and consultant.
Keep your spirits up
During the current economic turmoil, there is a considerable amount of uncertainty and fear about the future.
However, recessions and market slowdown are also times for organisations and leaders to take stock and realign their goals.
Visible leadership
Strong leadership is required during recessions. It is easy to make money when the market is doing well, but it requires skill and leadership to navigate a company out of a downturn.
In these times, leaders need to spend more time on the ground, listen to the market, watch trends and engage with their teams.
Build bonds
While it is normal for business contracts to be on hold during uncertain times, it is also important to reach out to your customers. Show them that you genuinely care by finding out how they are doing.
In my business, I often meet people who have lost their jobs. A close friend in outplacements once said to me: “We can play a part in making sure that the people we care about land safely.” It does not matter if you cannot help everyone — just let them know you care.
Attract success
In a recession, the first question most frequently asked is, “How’s business?” Usually, most people tend to share how bad the situation has been.
When I first came across the words, “Success attracts success”, I stopped dead in my tracks. I began to think about the messages that I had sent out to my clients and employees. I decided to conduct a little experiment whereby I made a pact with my team to tell anyone who cared to know that business has been good.
Often, people were curious how we kept our profits up. Initially, we made up all sorts of reasons. After about two weeks, business got better and from then on, we made money in every recession. I don’t think it had to do with what we said. Rather, it was how we projected ourselves — attitude fuels altitude.
Continuous learning
Inspire your team members, especially your leadership team. Get them to go out and motivate others. Great things can be achieved with upbeat teams. Engage their minds with new projects, plans, learning activities and success stories.
Take stock
Use this time to reflect on matters on a business level and on the personal front. Use this time to upgrade the skills of you and your teams. Make time to re-organise and re-prioritise: spend more time with your family and reconnect with your old friends.
Opportunities open up when you network, so get out and meet more people. This is also a good time to embark on community work as working with the less fortunate can be enriching and uplifting.
Gain ground
Do not cut back completely on marketing activities. In fact, the reverse may be true, as you can actually gain ground over your competitors. The idea is to find activities that would make you stand apart from others in the playing field. Combining business with community is something I favour personally.
Many organisations will take the opportunity to rationalise costs, create savings through various means including outsourcing, offshoring and resizing.
Take an interest in how your organisation is adapting to these changes. Also, track your competition to see how they are addressing the market. This will give you clues on where your industry is heading and what you need to do to help your organisation thrive in these conditions.
Monitor expenses
As a business owner, I feel that there is plenty of room for this activity. Question everything: monitor hidden costs, wastage and also consider opportunity costs. Leaders also need to lead by example by cutting back on their own costs.
Put on a smile
Your behaviour shapes your mood and outlook. Expand your energy and circle of influence with positivity. You can start by counting your blessings and finding your sense of humour. Have fun, and you will attract people to your cause like a magnet.
Article by Laletha Nithiyanandan, vice-president, Asia-Pacific, Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group.
However, recessions and market slowdown are also times for organisations and leaders to take stock and realign their goals.
Visible leadership
Strong leadership is required during recessions. It is easy to make money when the market is doing well, but it requires skill and leadership to navigate a company out of a downturn.
In these times, leaders need to spend more time on the ground, listen to the market, watch trends and engage with their teams.
Build bonds
While it is normal for business contracts to be on hold during uncertain times, it is also important to reach out to your customers. Show them that you genuinely care by finding out how they are doing.
In my business, I often meet people who have lost their jobs. A close friend in outplacements once said to me: “We can play a part in making sure that the people we care about land safely.” It does not matter if you cannot help everyone — just let them know you care.
Attract success
In a recession, the first question most frequently asked is, “How’s business?” Usually, most people tend to share how bad the situation has been.
When I first came across the words, “Success attracts success”, I stopped dead in my tracks. I began to think about the messages that I had sent out to my clients and employees. I decided to conduct a little experiment whereby I made a pact with my team to tell anyone who cared to know that business has been good.
Often, people were curious how we kept our profits up. Initially, we made up all sorts of reasons. After about two weeks, business got better and from then on, we made money in every recession. I don’t think it had to do with what we said. Rather, it was how we projected ourselves — attitude fuels altitude.
Continuous learning
Inspire your team members, especially your leadership team. Get them to go out and motivate others. Great things can be achieved with upbeat teams. Engage their minds with new projects, plans, learning activities and success stories.
Take stock
Use this time to reflect on matters on a business level and on the personal front. Use this time to upgrade the skills of you and your teams. Make time to re-organise and re-prioritise: spend more time with your family and reconnect with your old friends.
Opportunities open up when you network, so get out and meet more people. This is also a good time to embark on community work as working with the less fortunate can be enriching and uplifting.
Gain ground
Do not cut back completely on marketing activities. In fact, the reverse may be true, as you can actually gain ground over your competitors. The idea is to find activities that would make you stand apart from others in the playing field. Combining business with community is something I favour personally.
Many organisations will take the opportunity to rationalise costs, create savings through various means including outsourcing, offshoring and resizing.
Take an interest in how your organisation is adapting to these changes. Also, track your competition to see how they are addressing the market. This will give you clues on where your industry is heading and what you need to do to help your organisation thrive in these conditions.
Monitor expenses
As a business owner, I feel that there is plenty of room for this activity. Question everything: monitor hidden costs, wastage and also consider opportunity costs. Leaders also need to lead by example by cutting back on their own costs.
Put on a smile
Your behaviour shapes your mood and outlook. Expand your energy and circle of influence with positivity. You can start by counting your blessings and finding your sense of humour. Have fun, and you will attract people to your cause like a magnet.
Article by Laletha Nithiyanandan, vice-president, Asia-Pacific, Kelly Outsourcing and Consulting Group.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
Make the right choice
ARE we born with our ideal career written into our genetic code? Is a doctor, engineer, stock broker or businessman born with the predisposition to become one, and is it just a matter of identifying our inborn talents?
The answers to these questions bring us back to the recurrent “nature versus nurture” debate that raises its head in many scenarios.
If nature alone does not have a predominant role in determining the right career for an individual, then this brings into play a vast range of possibilities.
Upbringing, social environment, role models, opportunities and information access all contribute to shaping a person’s inclinations.
This means also that by deliberate choice and exposure to new experiences and training, a person has the potential to make a radical change in his career choice.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the third president of the United States, distinguished himself also as a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia.
He poses a direct contradiction to “purists” who speak against delving into more than one professional pursuit and counsel against pursuing many interests in one’s lifetime.
While not many may match Jefferson for brilliance, most would welcome diversity and variety in their lives as an effective antidote to boredom and staleness.
Fulfilling the requirements for a job involves many different aspects, including specific training and skills required, propensity for perseverance and teamwork, workplace climate and the immediate work context.
Differences in any of these variables would impact how people with different personalities are likely to perform in their jobs. Determining whether a person fits the job would have to take into consideration specific characteristics of both the candidate and the job context.
A strong interest in a number of different vocations may pose a challenge to a person who needs to decide on a specific course of training or study to pursue any one of the various interests.
To narrow the choice down at any particular point in time, you need to engage in a process of rational and systematic decision-making.
Weighing options
This involves several sequential steps. The process begins with amassing as much objective information as possible about all strongly liked vocations on your shortlist.
The next step is to make a list of the job characteristics and demands of each job. For each item, you should assign a positive or a negative to indicate whether that item is valued personally in a positive or negative way.
To make evaluation easier, a weightage from -10 to +10 may be assigned to each job item. By tallying up the assigned points, a score can be obtained for each job.
You can then see clearly how the various jobs map out in terms of valued attributes and in total.
Sometimes you are not clear about your feelings about various attributes, or you may not sufficiently understand implications and outcomes of different job requirements.
Talking over the issues with various “experts” in each of the job fields can provide valuable details to make an informed decision.
Sorting out your personal feelings about various jobs can be done with family members, friends or with a career guidance counsellor.
A professional counsellor would contribute some degree of impartiality, which may be more difficult for family and friends who may have an opinion on what you should choose to do.
Jobs can be classified in several different ways. They can be mostly outdoors or indoors, dealing with equipment, documents, people, animals, metals, earth or agriculture.
The nature of the work can be clerical, technical, professional, managerial or trade and business. Training required may vary from OJT (on-the-job) only, to days, months or years of specialist knowledge and skills training prior to commencing work.
Specialist skills required can range from excellent psychomotor coordination (for complex man-machine interface work settings), to a keen nose (for perfumes, wine quality determination), spatial conceptualisation (architecture, structural and civil engineering), mathematical ability and abstract reasoning (for complex decision-making involving multiple factors).
Across vocations, there are certain valued qualities that you can bring to the workplace. These include patience, perseverance, desire to produce a high quality output, capacity for collaborative teamwork, thirst for continuous learning, setting high achievement goals, having an agreeable temperament without compromising on discussion and disagreement where appropriate.
Psychologists have proposed several ways of understanding personality differences. A broad-brush approach separates extroverts from introverts. While it is relatively easy to identify a painfully shy person, and a consistently loud and dominant person, many people fall somewhere in between, depending on the context and the element of familiarity.
In today’s global marketplace, you have to be competitive and to win assignments as well as to deliver highquality output. But it is also important to acquire skills to work effectively in the international arena.
The ability to appreciate and accept different cultural, religious and ethnic practices is also important, irrespective of the career you choose.
Article by Dr Elizabeth Nair, CEO ofWork & Health Psychologists.
The answers to these questions bring us back to the recurrent “nature versus nurture” debate that raises its head in many scenarios.
If nature alone does not have a predominant role in determining the right career for an individual, then this brings into play a vast range of possibilities.
Upbringing, social environment, role models, opportunities and information access all contribute to shaping a person’s inclinations.
This means also that by deliberate choice and exposure to new experiences and training, a person has the potential to make a radical change in his career choice.
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), the third president of the United States, distinguished himself also as a horticulturist, statesman, architect, archaeologist, paleontologist, author, inventor and founder of the University of Virginia.
He poses a direct contradiction to “purists” who speak against delving into more than one professional pursuit and counsel against pursuing many interests in one’s lifetime.
While not many may match Jefferson for brilliance, most would welcome diversity and variety in their lives as an effective antidote to boredom and staleness.
Fulfilling the requirements for a job involves many different aspects, including specific training and skills required, propensity for perseverance and teamwork, workplace climate and the immediate work context.
Differences in any of these variables would impact how people with different personalities are likely to perform in their jobs. Determining whether a person fits the job would have to take into consideration specific characteristics of both the candidate and the job context.
A strong interest in a number of different vocations may pose a challenge to a person who needs to decide on a specific course of training or study to pursue any one of the various interests.
To narrow the choice down at any particular point in time, you need to engage in a process of rational and systematic decision-making.
Weighing options
This involves several sequential steps. The process begins with amassing as much objective information as possible about all strongly liked vocations on your shortlist.
The next step is to make a list of the job characteristics and demands of each job. For each item, you should assign a positive or a negative to indicate whether that item is valued personally in a positive or negative way.
To make evaluation easier, a weightage from -10 to +10 may be assigned to each job item. By tallying up the assigned points, a score can be obtained for each job.
You can then see clearly how the various jobs map out in terms of valued attributes and in total.
Sometimes you are not clear about your feelings about various attributes, or you may not sufficiently understand implications and outcomes of different job requirements.
Talking over the issues with various “experts” in each of the job fields can provide valuable details to make an informed decision.
Sorting out your personal feelings about various jobs can be done with family members, friends or with a career guidance counsellor.
A professional counsellor would contribute some degree of impartiality, which may be more difficult for family and friends who may have an opinion on what you should choose to do.
Jobs can be classified in several different ways. They can be mostly outdoors or indoors, dealing with equipment, documents, people, animals, metals, earth or agriculture.
The nature of the work can be clerical, technical, professional, managerial or trade and business. Training required may vary from OJT (on-the-job) only, to days, months or years of specialist knowledge and skills training prior to commencing work.
Specialist skills required can range from excellent psychomotor coordination (for complex man-machine interface work settings), to a keen nose (for perfumes, wine quality determination), spatial conceptualisation (architecture, structural and civil engineering), mathematical ability and abstract reasoning (for complex decision-making involving multiple factors).
Across vocations, there are certain valued qualities that you can bring to the workplace. These include patience, perseverance, desire to produce a high quality output, capacity for collaborative teamwork, thirst for continuous learning, setting high achievement goals, having an agreeable temperament without compromising on discussion and disagreement where appropriate.
Psychologists have proposed several ways of understanding personality differences. A broad-brush approach separates extroverts from introverts. While it is relatively easy to identify a painfully shy person, and a consistently loud and dominant person, many people fall somewhere in between, depending on the context and the element of familiarity.
In today’s global marketplace, you have to be competitive and to win assignments as well as to deliver highquality output. But it is also important to acquire skills to work effectively in the international arena.
The ability to appreciate and accept different cultural, religious and ethnic practices is also important, irrespective of the career you choose.
Article by Dr Elizabeth Nair, CEO ofWork & Health Psychologists.
Think like a pro
Yesterday, we learnt that frames are part of the system of filters that people use to view things. They function like mental templates through which messages are processed.
To reframe is to change the terms of reference in a behaviour, information or event. You interpret information differently and view things in a different perspective.
The success of Soichiro Honda, for example, came about when he reframed a problem into a business opportunity. After World War II, cars and petrol were expensive, so the bicycle was a common mode of transport in Japan.
Honda wondered how he could get around faster. His solution: He attached a small motor to his bicycle. A neighbour saw him riding the motorised bicycle and asked for one as well.
Later, against the advice of the Japanese government, Honda began to manufacture cars. To build his brand’s reputation in the car market, he entered Honda cars in the prestigious Formula One races.
Honda overcame the many obstacles he faced as he believed that success is borne out of failure. He leaves behind a legacy of more than 470 inventions and 150 patents to his name. According to his famous 4Ps motto, he believed that “persistence propels potential into perfection.”
REFRAMING PATTERNS
To get out of your old way of seeing things, here are some reframing patterns that can change the way you think:
1 OUTCOME FRAME
Identify and get agreement on the outcome you want to achieve. What specifically do you want? Do you have the resources to accomplish it?
Obtain feedback from others to seek clarity on your outcome. If there is no clarity, then you have a weak foundation for your decisions and judgment.
2 EVIDENCE FRAME
It directs attention to a representation of a desired state. Ask yourself: “How will you know when you have it?” and “What will you accept as evidence?” All the tasks and strategies you embark on must be moving towards your outcome.
3 “AS IF” FRAME
Project yourself in the future as if you have attained your outcome. Think, feel and act as if you are already successful. What do you see, hear and feel? Reflect on your achievement and ask: “What strategies and steps did I take that led me to my success?”
This opens up possibilities that are restricted by prevailing conditions. Start your conversation with phrases like, “Let’s assume that ...” or “If this happens ...” If a key executive is absent in a meeting, ask yourself what he would say if he were present.
By projecting these scenarios, you visualise the intended outcomes and can work towards achieving them.
4 AGREEMENT FRAME
Use any points of agreement to lead to a desired outcome. These include “I agree with your goal to become the head of the HR department” or “you should consider working for an MBA to boost your chance of success.”
5 RELEVANCY CHALLENGE FRAME
Keeping your objective in mind allows you to stay on track and challenges unrelated activities. Ask yourself: “How does what I do relate to my target of becoming a sales director?”
6 BACKTRACK FRAME
This is helpful for recapitulating and clarifying what had been earlier discussed or to check if there is consensus all around.
For example, if you are running a marathon with your managers as part of a branding exercise, you can ask: “Are we agreed that taking part in the marathon is the right thing for our company image?”
Article by Michael Lum, a licensed American Board of Neuro- Linguistics Programming (NLP) and American Board of Hypnosis trainer.
To reframe is to change the terms of reference in a behaviour, information or event. You interpret information differently and view things in a different perspective.
The success of Soichiro Honda, for example, came about when he reframed a problem into a business opportunity. After World War II, cars and petrol were expensive, so the bicycle was a common mode of transport in Japan.
Honda wondered how he could get around faster. His solution: He attached a small motor to his bicycle. A neighbour saw him riding the motorised bicycle and asked for one as well.
Later, against the advice of the Japanese government, Honda began to manufacture cars. To build his brand’s reputation in the car market, he entered Honda cars in the prestigious Formula One races.
Honda overcame the many obstacles he faced as he believed that success is borne out of failure. He leaves behind a legacy of more than 470 inventions and 150 patents to his name. According to his famous 4Ps motto, he believed that “persistence propels potential into perfection.”
REFRAMING PATTERNS
To get out of your old way of seeing things, here are some reframing patterns that can change the way you think:
1 OUTCOME FRAME
Identify and get agreement on the outcome you want to achieve. What specifically do you want? Do you have the resources to accomplish it?
Obtain feedback from others to seek clarity on your outcome. If there is no clarity, then you have a weak foundation for your decisions and judgment.
2 EVIDENCE FRAME
It directs attention to a representation of a desired state. Ask yourself: “How will you know when you have it?” and “What will you accept as evidence?” All the tasks and strategies you embark on must be moving towards your outcome.
3 “AS IF” FRAME
Project yourself in the future as if you have attained your outcome. Think, feel and act as if you are already successful. What do you see, hear and feel? Reflect on your achievement and ask: “What strategies and steps did I take that led me to my success?”
This opens up possibilities that are restricted by prevailing conditions. Start your conversation with phrases like, “Let’s assume that ...” or “If this happens ...” If a key executive is absent in a meeting, ask yourself what he would say if he were present.
By projecting these scenarios, you visualise the intended outcomes and can work towards achieving them.
4 AGREEMENT FRAME
Use any points of agreement to lead to a desired outcome. These include “I agree with your goal to become the head of the HR department” or “you should consider working for an MBA to boost your chance of success.”
5 RELEVANCY CHALLENGE FRAME
Keeping your objective in mind allows you to stay on track and challenges unrelated activities. Ask yourself: “How does what I do relate to my target of becoming a sales director?”
6 BACKTRACK FRAME
This is helpful for recapitulating and clarifying what had been earlier discussed or to check if there is consensus all around.
For example, if you are running a marathon with your managers as part of a branding exercise, you can ask: “Are we agreed that taking part in the marathon is the right thing for our company image?”
Article by Michael Lum, a licensed American Board of Neuro- Linguistics Programming (NLP) and American Board of Hypnosis trainer.
Change the way you think
THE gambling king of Macau, Stanley Ho, owns a chain of international casinos. According to Forbes, he ranks 104th among the world’s richest men.
He made his fortune from the Chinese passion for the game of chance. He once said: “When times are bad, the Chinese gamble. The odd thing is when times are good, the Chinese also gamble — so I win both ways.”
This is a perfect example of how reframing — creative thinking — propelled Ho to become the richest man in Macau.
FRAMES
Frames are part of the filters through which you view events in life. Frames determine your perception of things. As you are exposed to millions of bits of information daily, your brain gives them meaning and categorises them.
To create and find new solutions, you have to reframe. This is in line with what Albert Einstein once said: “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”
REFRAMING
Framing is similar to thinking inside the box. No matter how big or colourful the box is, it is still thinking within the same box. However, if you reframe, you change the box.
To reframe is to change the terms of reference and the way you view things, people and events. By reframing, you derive new meaning.
If a new meaning is formed, it changes the way you think, feel and act. Reframing requires more attitude than skill. You can ask yourself: “What other meaning can this give?” or “What does it mean?”.
In my first book, I Once Wore Diapers, the key message is reframing failure as “delayed success”.
Reframing can be applied to all types of situations. Although it is a mental process, it can bring immediate change to the way you act. It may be difficult to change the way others behave, but you can certainly change the way you act. Reframing restructures your experiences and gives you more options.
You can reframe by looking at the context and content differently.
LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES
If you tell bizarre tales in your office meeting, you will be considered a weirdo. But those same stories could be fabulous content for a book on fiction. Or, boring your audience in a seminar makes you look bad, but it is brilliant at getting rid of unwelcome guests.
In context reframing, you can change the time or place. This involves finding another situation where the inappropriate behaviour becomes appropriate.
For example, losing your temper in the office is unprofessional, but it is excusable if your subordinates keep repeating the same mistake.
Think of different contexts in which people will respond differently to the same behaviour. Ask yourself in what situations would this be useful.
INJECT NEW MEANING
In content reframing, you can give another meaning to a situation by asking “what else could this mean?”
High interest rates are ideal for lenders but bad for borrowers. Traffic jams cause motorists to fume, but politicians reframe it as an indicator of a high standard of living. As Major General Oliver P Smith famously put it: “We are not retreating! We are just attacking in a different direction!”
You frequently blame external factors for your problems. However, the real cause lies within you and your perceptions. Ask yourself what you can add to bring about a different meaning or change a person’s response to a situation.
Reframing helps you to break free from your old mindset. It expands the horizon of your thinking, allowing you to think laterally. Successful executives reframe all the time. Where ordinary people see problems, you can reframe them as opportunities.
Article contributed by Michael Lum, a licensed American Board of Neuro-Linguistics Programming (NLP) and American Board of Hypnosis trainer.
He made his fortune from the Chinese passion for the game of chance. He once said: “When times are bad, the Chinese gamble. The odd thing is when times are good, the Chinese also gamble — so I win both ways.”
This is a perfect example of how reframing — creative thinking — propelled Ho to become the richest man in Macau.
FRAMES
Frames are part of the filters through which you view events in life. Frames determine your perception of things. As you are exposed to millions of bits of information daily, your brain gives them meaning and categorises them.
To create and find new solutions, you have to reframe. This is in line with what Albert Einstein once said: “The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the same level of thinking with which we created them.”
REFRAMING
Framing is similar to thinking inside the box. No matter how big or colourful the box is, it is still thinking within the same box. However, if you reframe, you change the box.
To reframe is to change the terms of reference and the way you view things, people and events. By reframing, you derive new meaning.
If a new meaning is formed, it changes the way you think, feel and act. Reframing requires more attitude than skill. You can ask yourself: “What other meaning can this give?” or “What does it mean?”.
In my first book, I Once Wore Diapers, the key message is reframing failure as “delayed success”.
Reframing can be applied to all types of situations. Although it is a mental process, it can bring immediate change to the way you act. It may be difficult to change the way others behave, but you can certainly change the way you act. Reframing restructures your experiences and gives you more options.
You can reframe by looking at the context and content differently.
LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES
If you tell bizarre tales in your office meeting, you will be considered a weirdo. But those same stories could be fabulous content for a book on fiction. Or, boring your audience in a seminar makes you look bad, but it is brilliant at getting rid of unwelcome guests.
In context reframing, you can change the time or place. This involves finding another situation where the inappropriate behaviour becomes appropriate.
For example, losing your temper in the office is unprofessional, but it is excusable if your subordinates keep repeating the same mistake.
Think of different contexts in which people will respond differently to the same behaviour. Ask yourself in what situations would this be useful.
INJECT NEW MEANING
In content reframing, you can give another meaning to a situation by asking “what else could this mean?”
High interest rates are ideal for lenders but bad for borrowers. Traffic jams cause motorists to fume, but politicians reframe it as an indicator of a high standard of living. As Major General Oliver P Smith famously put it: “We are not retreating! We are just attacking in a different direction!”
You frequently blame external factors for your problems. However, the real cause lies within you and your perceptions. Ask yourself what you can add to bring about a different meaning or change a person’s response to a situation.
Reframing helps you to break free from your old mindset. It expands the horizon of your thinking, allowing you to think laterally. Successful executives reframe all the time. Where ordinary people see problems, you can reframe them as opportunities.
Article contributed by Michael Lum, a licensed American Board of Neuro-Linguistics Programming (NLP) and American Board of Hypnosis trainer.
Retain your staff
Attracting and retaining good employees continues to be a top priority for organisations across all industries. Recruiting the best talent is only half the battle; keeping them is the other half.
Flexible working arrangements can be successful in keeping your key staff. An increasing demand for a pro-family environment, a dearth of talent, the problem of poaching and the high cost of attrition can entice firms to adopt these arrangements.
Here are some points to consider when implementing them:
1 A fitting arrangement
For any alternative work arrangements to work, employers must first identify their suitability. It should not interfere with the effectiveness of work relationships, and employers must ensure staff can cope with the flexibility.
2 Employee satisfaction
Employee retention is centred on individual satisfaction. Organisations must recognise the clash between life and work and be prepared to deal with their employees’ personal commitment, like childcare and eldercare.
3 Responsible parties
Planning and executing flexible work arrangements should be a collaborative effort between managers and the human resource (HR) department. HR staff can help managers gain a perspective on how an alternative work plan can benefit the organisation.
4 Communication
Communication is crucial for flexible work arrangements to work. Both the employee and manager must have clear expectations of the new role and set key performance indicators (KPIs).
Managers must also keep in touch with employees during a flexible arrangement. Work plans have to be constantly reviewed and revised as well.
5 Provide adequate support
The failure of some employee retention programmes is partly attributed to a lack of support from the executive management team. Management support is crucial, as it demonstrates to employees that the firm will do what it can to ensure employee job satisfaction.
Managers are more likely to embrace and implement a flexible schedule if the management team authorises it.
6 Equip the employees
Staff who choose a flexible work arrangement need specific technology to do their jobs effectively and stay connected with their team and manager.
Alternative work plans
There are several types of flexible work arrangements that should be assessed for the suitability of different groups of staff.
To enhance their talent pool, firms can consider adopting part-time work arrangements to attract fitting candidates who are unable to commit to full-time hours. Part-time work is also a good way to ease senior employees into eventual retirement.
Similarly, flexible working hours allow employees to work at times that suit them, offering a better work-life harmony. Employers can benefit from this arrangement, as they are able to offer additional services to clients or extend operating hours or both.
Working from home is another viable option that enables employees to keep a closer eye on things at home while enjoying greater autonomy at work. At the same time, employers save costs on office space, recruitment and training.
Reaping the benefits
Adopting flexible work arrangements can impact employee performance and engagement significantly. By leaving work organisation to their employees, companies become more focused on performance instead.
The trust and empowerment given to employees encourage freedom and promote satisfaction. This affects engagement and productivity positively.
The benefits of flexible work arrangement are not for employees alone. Companies that have implemented flexible working arrangements have an increased ability to attract, retain and motivate high performers and experienced candidates.
Firms also enjoy reduced absenteeism, as employees no longer have to take time off to fulfil their personal commitments, therefore improving staff well-being and increasing productivity.
Making it work
With today’s technological advances, flexible work arrangements are more widely practised.
However, employers need to recognise that flexible work arrangements are not always appropriate for all employees, jobs or industries.
Employees must be aware that separating work and personal time can be challenging. They must be able to meet deadlines with minimal supervision as well.
To help staff cope with the isolation that comes with alternative work arrangements, managers should maintain adequate contact with them.
The best option is to try out flexible working arrangements on a trial basis, so that managers and staff can evaluate the success of the programme.
Article by Alma Othman, regional managing director of GSI Executive Search.
Flexible working arrangements can be successful in keeping your key staff. An increasing demand for a pro-family environment, a dearth of talent, the problem of poaching and the high cost of attrition can entice firms to adopt these arrangements.
Here are some points to consider when implementing them:
1 A fitting arrangement
For any alternative work arrangements to work, employers must first identify their suitability. It should not interfere with the effectiveness of work relationships, and employers must ensure staff can cope with the flexibility.
2 Employee satisfaction
Employee retention is centred on individual satisfaction. Organisations must recognise the clash between life and work and be prepared to deal with their employees’ personal commitment, like childcare and eldercare.
3 Responsible parties
Planning and executing flexible work arrangements should be a collaborative effort between managers and the human resource (HR) department. HR staff can help managers gain a perspective on how an alternative work plan can benefit the organisation.
4 Communication
Communication is crucial for flexible work arrangements to work. Both the employee and manager must have clear expectations of the new role and set key performance indicators (KPIs).
Managers must also keep in touch with employees during a flexible arrangement. Work plans have to be constantly reviewed and revised as well.
5 Provide adequate support
The failure of some employee retention programmes is partly attributed to a lack of support from the executive management team. Management support is crucial, as it demonstrates to employees that the firm will do what it can to ensure employee job satisfaction.
Managers are more likely to embrace and implement a flexible schedule if the management team authorises it.
6 Equip the employees
Staff who choose a flexible work arrangement need specific technology to do their jobs effectively and stay connected with their team and manager.
Alternative work plans
There are several types of flexible work arrangements that should be assessed for the suitability of different groups of staff.
To enhance their talent pool, firms can consider adopting part-time work arrangements to attract fitting candidates who are unable to commit to full-time hours. Part-time work is also a good way to ease senior employees into eventual retirement.
Similarly, flexible working hours allow employees to work at times that suit them, offering a better work-life harmony. Employers can benefit from this arrangement, as they are able to offer additional services to clients or extend operating hours or both.
Working from home is another viable option that enables employees to keep a closer eye on things at home while enjoying greater autonomy at work. At the same time, employers save costs on office space, recruitment and training.
Reaping the benefits
Adopting flexible work arrangements can impact employee performance and engagement significantly. By leaving work organisation to their employees, companies become more focused on performance instead.
The trust and empowerment given to employees encourage freedom and promote satisfaction. This affects engagement and productivity positively.
The benefits of flexible work arrangement are not for employees alone. Companies that have implemented flexible working arrangements have an increased ability to attract, retain and motivate high performers and experienced candidates.
Firms also enjoy reduced absenteeism, as employees no longer have to take time off to fulfil their personal commitments, therefore improving staff well-being and increasing productivity.
Making it work
With today’s technological advances, flexible work arrangements are more widely practised.
However, employers need to recognise that flexible work arrangements are not always appropriate for all employees, jobs or industries.
Employees must be aware that separating work and personal time can be challenging. They must be able to meet deadlines with minimal supervision as well.
To help staff cope with the isolation that comes with alternative work arrangements, managers should maintain adequate contact with them.
The best option is to try out flexible working arrangements on a trial basis, so that managers and staff can evaluate the success of the programme.
Article by Alma Othman, regional managing director of GSI Executive Search.
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