is isn’t a trick question.
Certainly you know the answer to the question: Who is the person who has been responsible for the life you live right now? YOU!
Everything about you is a result of your doing or not doing... Your income. Debt. Relationships. Health. Fitness level. Attitudes and behaviors.
I've often said that you are either creating or allowing everything that is happening in your life.
I think everyone knows this in their hearts, but often times people convince themselves into thinking that external factors are the source of their failure, disappointment, and unhappiness.
External factors do not determine how you live. YOU are in complete control of the quality of your life, by either creating or allowing the circumstances you experience.
When I hear people complain about the state of their life (be it their problems with personal finances, weight, their jobs, or general dissatisfaction), I like to help them see things differently.
If they feel “stuck” and unable to move forward for whatever reason, I ask them to scrutinize both what is working well and what isn’t working well in their life and see how they’ve arrived at where they currently are.
For example, if a woman tells me she’s unhappy with her weight—she travels frequently, and has no to time to exercise or seek healthy foods—I point out that her weight is not a result of her travels and schedule. It’s an outcome of what she chooses to eat and how she chooses to move, regardless of her daily agenda. Why not make a conscious effort to pre-plan healthy meals and snacks, even if it’s on the go, and sneak in 10 minutes here and 10 minutes there to be physically active (hey, I know some frequent flyers who make it a habit of running through airports!).
If you’re frustrated with any area in your life, then it’s time to take a little inventory.
Certainly there are wonderful things happening, whether it’s your job, your romantic relationship, your children, your friends, or your income level. Your accomplishments are just as important as your missteps.
First, congratulate yourself on your successes; and then take a look at what isn’t working out so well. What are you doing or not doing to create those experiences?
Watch out! If you find yourself beginning to complain about everything but the choices you’ve made, then you need to take a step back. See if you can stop blaming outside factors for your unhappiness.
When you realize that you—and only you—create your experiences, you’ll realize that you can un-create them and forge new experiences whenever you want.
How empowering is that!
You must take responsibility for your happiness and your unhappiness, your successes and your failures, your good times and your bad times.
All too often we choose to claim the successes and blame the failures on others or other circumstances. When you stop blaming, however, you can take that energy and redirect it to focus on shaping a better situation for yourself. Blaming only ties up your energy. Imagine roping all the energy into a positive effort.
Some ideas to make this happen:
1. Believe, Believe, Believe! Have unwavering faith in yourself, for good and bad. Make the decision to accept the fact that you create all your experiences. You will experience successes thanks to you, and you will experience pain, struggle, and strife thanks to you. Sounds a little strange, but accepting this level of responsibility is uniquely empowering. It means you can do, change, and be anything. Stumbling blocks become just that—little hills to hop over.
2. Take no less than 100% responsibility . Successful people take full responsibility for the thoughts they think, the images they visualize, and the actions they take. They don't waste their time and energy blaming and complaining. They evaluate their experiences and decide if they need to change them or not. They face the uncomfortable and take risks in order to create the life they want to live.
3. Stop complaining . Look at what you are complaining about. I’m fat. I’m tired. I can’t get out of debt. I won’t ever get a better job. I can’t stand the relationship I have with my sister. I’ll never find a soulmate in life. Really examine your complaints. More than likely you can do something about them. They are not about other people, other things, or other events. They are about YOU.
4. Make an immediate change. Are you unhappy about something that is happening right now? Make requests that will make it more desirable to you, or take the steps to change it yourself. Making a change might be uncomfortable for you. It might mean you have to put in more time, money, and effort. It might mean that someone gets upset about it, or makes you feel bad about your decision. It might be difficult to change or leave a situation, but staying put is your choice so why continue to complain?
You can either do something about it or not. It is your choice and you have responsibility for your choices.
5. Pay attention. Looking to others for help and guidance is helpful, but don’t forget to stay tuned in to yourself—your behavior, attitude, and life experiences. Identify what’s working and what isn’t. If you need to, write it all down. Then…
6. Face the truth and take action for the long term . You have to be willing to change your behavior if you want a different outcome. You have to be willing to take the risks necessary to get what you want. If you’ve already taken an initial step in the right direction, now’s the time to plan additional steps to keep moving you forward, faster.
Isn’t it a great relief to know that you can make your life what you want it to be? Isn’t it wonderful that your successes do not depend on someone else?
If you need just one thing to do different today, than you did yesterday, make it this:
Commit to taking 100% responsibility for every aspect of your life. Decide to make changes, one step at a time. Once you start the process you’ll discover it's much easier to get what you want by taking control of your thoughts, your visualizations, and your actions!
by Jack Canfield
Saturday, March 19, 2011
The Secret to True Happiness
Written by Jack Canfield
I believe there are several secrets to true happiness. The first is to truly love and accept yourself just the way you are. Most of us have to relearn how to do that. Teaching people how to develop self-esteem has been a huge focus of my work. The next step is to trust yourself: trust your feelings; trust your preferences; trust your intuition. Finally, you have to learn to trust the universe and to have faith that everything is unfolding as it should.
Another major key to happiness is learning to take 100 percent responsibility for everything that happens in your life. That means giving up all blaming and complaining about how the world is. It’s coming to grips with the idea that you are indeed the one who is creating your reality by the thoughts you think, the images you hold in your mind, the feelings you feel, the choices you make and the actions you do or don’t take. Once you truly get this, you can begin to create the life you want through intentionally using the power of your mind.
Along these same lines, we have to be willing to let go of our judgments about how other people should be. Most of our pain comes from trying to control things we have no control over and from believing that other people and conditions should be different than they are. When you give up judging and trying to control others, and focus instead on creating what you want for yourself, you find an inner peace from which you can more effortlessly create your life as you’d like it to be.
I believe there are several secrets to true happiness. The first is to truly love and accept yourself just the way you are. Most of us have to relearn how to do that. Teaching people how to develop self-esteem has been a huge focus of my work. The next step is to trust yourself: trust your feelings; trust your preferences; trust your intuition. Finally, you have to learn to trust the universe and to have faith that everything is unfolding as it should.
Another major key to happiness is learning to take 100 percent responsibility for everything that happens in your life. That means giving up all blaming and complaining about how the world is. It’s coming to grips with the idea that you are indeed the one who is creating your reality by the thoughts you think, the images you hold in your mind, the feelings you feel, the choices you make and the actions you do or don’t take. Once you truly get this, you can begin to create the life you want through intentionally using the power of your mind.
Along these same lines, we have to be willing to let go of our judgments about how other people should be. Most of our pain comes from trying to control things we have no control over and from believing that other people and conditions should be different than they are. When you give up judging and trying to control others, and focus instead on creating what you want for yourself, you find an inner peace from which you can more effortlessly create your life as you’d like it to be.
Tools For Success: Hour of Power_Jack Canfield
The Hour of Power is a highly effective tool I use daily, and it’s something I strongly urge you to do too!
So what is this Hour of Power exactly? It’s a full hour that is broken up into three 20-minute sessions:
20 minutes of exercise20 minutes of meditation20 minutes of reading (positive, uplifting material)You can switch the order of the 3 activities and you can also choose what hour of the day you’d like to reserve for your personal Hour of Power. I usually schedule my Hour of Power for the first hour I’m awake in the morning. This really jumpstarts my day, and allows me to feel energized, focused, and engaged.
And each day, I change my routine a tiny bit….so one day I might exercise by taking a 20-minute walk around my neighborhood. The next day I might jog on the treadmill. I’m also incorporating working on one of my new exercise goals -100 push-ups at once – into my exercise portion of Hour of Power. Whatever type of exercise you choose to do is fine; what’s most important is that you commit to doing it!
The same goes for the meditation portion of the hour. There are so many amazing meditation resources out there for everyone. Find one that you feel connected to, and spend 20 minutes really grounding yourself. There are so many different types of meditations CD and mp3s available, including FREE meditation downloads at iTunes.
And remember, you don’t need to be in a remote cave in India to meditate (although that would be pretty cool!). You can meditate almost anywhere….in your home, at a park, at the beach or a lake. Again, go with your internal guidance and find a place that you feel calm and present in, and use those 20 minutes to feed your mind, body, and soul.
And last but not least, the third portion of your Hour of Power is 20 minutes of reading. Get your hands on positive, uplifting material – it could be from an online magazine, a book, journals or articles. But again, find something that excites you and that you’ll look forward to reading. By reading positive material, your subconscious will be emerged in the affirmative, which helps you to remain in that positive state throughout the day.
I’d suggest test-driving the Hour of Power for 30 days. After 30 days, see what worked well and what didn’t. Try moving your hour to different times of the day. Did having your Hour of Power in the morning work better for you than having it at night? Or vice versa?
Remember, you can always change the terms of your hour…it is YOUR Hour of Power. But have fun with it. And know that it’s extremely effective in centering you, uplifting you, and helping you create a powerful, positive day
So what is this Hour of Power exactly? It’s a full hour that is broken up into three 20-minute sessions:
20 minutes of exercise20 minutes of meditation20 minutes of reading (positive, uplifting material)You can switch the order of the 3 activities and you can also choose what hour of the day you’d like to reserve for your personal Hour of Power. I usually schedule my Hour of Power for the first hour I’m awake in the morning. This really jumpstarts my day, and allows me to feel energized, focused, and engaged.
And each day, I change my routine a tiny bit….so one day I might exercise by taking a 20-minute walk around my neighborhood. The next day I might jog on the treadmill. I’m also incorporating working on one of my new exercise goals -100 push-ups at once – into my exercise portion of Hour of Power. Whatever type of exercise you choose to do is fine; what’s most important is that you commit to doing it!
The same goes for the meditation portion of the hour. There are so many amazing meditation resources out there for everyone. Find one that you feel connected to, and spend 20 minutes really grounding yourself. There are so many different types of meditations CD and mp3s available, including FREE meditation downloads at iTunes.
And remember, you don’t need to be in a remote cave in India to meditate (although that would be pretty cool!). You can meditate almost anywhere….in your home, at a park, at the beach or a lake. Again, go with your internal guidance and find a place that you feel calm and present in, and use those 20 minutes to feed your mind, body, and soul.
And last but not least, the third portion of your Hour of Power is 20 minutes of reading. Get your hands on positive, uplifting material – it could be from an online magazine, a book, journals or articles. But again, find something that excites you and that you’ll look forward to reading. By reading positive material, your subconscious will be emerged in the affirmative, which helps you to remain in that positive state throughout the day.
I’d suggest test-driving the Hour of Power for 30 days. After 30 days, see what worked well and what didn’t. Try moving your hour to different times of the day. Did having your Hour of Power in the morning work better for you than having it at night? Or vice versa?
Remember, you can always change the terms of your hour…it is YOUR Hour of Power. But have fun with it. And know that it’s extremely effective in centering you, uplifting you, and helping you create a powerful, positive day
The 10 Most Important Minutes of Your Day
Using Visualization to Harness the Power of Your Subconscious Mind
January 1 is traditionally a time for setting goals. But within weeks, many people lose their motivation and abandon their New Year’s resolutions.
If you want to buck the trend and not only maintain your momentum, but also increase your chances of success, supplement your goal setting with visualization.
Harness the Subconscious Mind
Visualization – seeing the goal as already complete in your mind’s eye – is a core technique used by the world’s most successful people. Visualization is effective because it harnesses the power of our subconscious mind.
When we visualize goals as complete, it creates a conflict in our subconscious mind between what we are visualizing and what we currently have. Our minds are hard-wired to resolve such conflicts by working to create a current reality that matches the one we have envisioned.
Visualization activates the creative powers of the subconscious mind, motivating it to work harder at creating solutions. You’ll also notice new levels of motivation and find yourself doing things that normally you would avoid, but that will take you closer to success.
The third way visualization boosts success is by programming the Reticular Activating System (RAS), which serves as a mental filter for the 8 million bits of information that are streaming into our brains at any one time.
The RAS thinks in pictures, not words. Daily visualization feeds the RAS the pictures it needs to start filtering information differently. As a result, your RAS will start to pay attention to anything that might help you achieve your goals – information that it otherwise might ignore.
Live in the Moment
Although a daily practice of visualization is vital, we don’t need to spend all day thinking about our goals for this technique to work. In fact, spending too much time in visualization can rob you of something essential – living in the moment.
Daily rituals help to establish the right balance between thinking about the future and living in the moment. Start by picking a time during which you’ll review your goals and visualize your success. Ideally, do this twice a day – first thing in the morning and right before you go to bed. The process typically will take 10 minutes or less.
If you meditate, do your visualizations immediately after your meditation. The deepened state reached during meditation heightens the impact of visualization.
For greatest effect, read your goals or affirmations out loud. After each one, close your eyes and create the visual image of the completed goal in your mind.
To multiply the effects, add sound, smells, and tastes. Most importantly, add the emotions and bodily sensations you would be feeling if you had already achieved your goal. Research has revealed that images or scenes that are accompanied by intense emotion will stay locked in our memory forever. The more passion, excitement and energy we muster during visualization, the more powerful the results will be.
Once you have visualized each goal as complete, it’s time to release. Let go of your goals, and spend the rest of your day being in the present moment.
Be Present Instantly
An easy way to instantly become present is to focus on your bodily sensations. It’s impossible to focus on our bodies and be in the past or the future at the same time.
For example, focus on your left foot right now. What are you feeling? Pay attention to the sensation for a minute. Then notice what you’re feeling in your right foot, and spend a few moments really feeling the sensation. If you were able to pay attention to your feet, congratulations. You were absolutely present.
If you find your mind drifting to the future throughout the day, let go of any fears or worries that arise. Shift your thoughts to what you want the future to look like when you get there. Then bring your awareness back to the moment.
As the saying goes, “Today is a gift—that’s why it’s called the present.” Use visualization to achieve your goals, but invest the majority of your time enjoying the gift of today.
Written by Jack Canfield
January 1 is traditionally a time for setting goals. But within weeks, many people lose their motivation and abandon their New Year’s resolutions.
If you want to buck the trend and not only maintain your momentum, but also increase your chances of success, supplement your goal setting with visualization.
Harness the Subconscious Mind
Visualization – seeing the goal as already complete in your mind’s eye – is a core technique used by the world’s most successful people. Visualization is effective because it harnesses the power of our subconscious mind.
When we visualize goals as complete, it creates a conflict in our subconscious mind between what we are visualizing and what we currently have. Our minds are hard-wired to resolve such conflicts by working to create a current reality that matches the one we have envisioned.
Visualization activates the creative powers of the subconscious mind, motivating it to work harder at creating solutions. You’ll also notice new levels of motivation and find yourself doing things that normally you would avoid, but that will take you closer to success.
The third way visualization boosts success is by programming the Reticular Activating System (RAS), which serves as a mental filter for the 8 million bits of information that are streaming into our brains at any one time.
The RAS thinks in pictures, not words. Daily visualization feeds the RAS the pictures it needs to start filtering information differently. As a result, your RAS will start to pay attention to anything that might help you achieve your goals – information that it otherwise might ignore.
Live in the Moment
Although a daily practice of visualization is vital, we don’t need to spend all day thinking about our goals for this technique to work. In fact, spending too much time in visualization can rob you of something essential – living in the moment.
Daily rituals help to establish the right balance between thinking about the future and living in the moment. Start by picking a time during which you’ll review your goals and visualize your success. Ideally, do this twice a day – first thing in the morning and right before you go to bed. The process typically will take 10 minutes or less.
If you meditate, do your visualizations immediately after your meditation. The deepened state reached during meditation heightens the impact of visualization.
For greatest effect, read your goals or affirmations out loud. After each one, close your eyes and create the visual image of the completed goal in your mind.
To multiply the effects, add sound, smells, and tastes. Most importantly, add the emotions and bodily sensations you would be feeling if you had already achieved your goal. Research has revealed that images or scenes that are accompanied by intense emotion will stay locked in our memory forever. The more passion, excitement and energy we muster during visualization, the more powerful the results will be.
Once you have visualized each goal as complete, it’s time to release. Let go of your goals, and spend the rest of your day being in the present moment.
Be Present Instantly
An easy way to instantly become present is to focus on your bodily sensations. It’s impossible to focus on our bodies and be in the past or the future at the same time.
For example, focus on your left foot right now. What are you feeling? Pay attention to the sensation for a minute. Then notice what you’re feeling in your right foot, and spend a few moments really feeling the sensation. If you were able to pay attention to your feet, congratulations. You were absolutely present.
If you find your mind drifting to the future throughout the day, let go of any fears or worries that arise. Shift your thoughts to what you want the future to look like when you get there. Then bring your awareness back to the moment.
As the saying goes, “Today is a gift—that’s why it’s called the present.” Use visualization to achieve your goals, but invest the majority of your time enjoying the gift of today.
Written by Jack Canfield
Structure Actions Around Your Core Genius
When I talk to people who have a hard time achieving goals, one of the most common excuses I hear is “but I don’t have enough time.” If you can’t find extra time to invest in the pursuit of your goals, it’s time to reprioritize your responsibilities.
Successful people know that to achieve their goals and greater levels of accomplishment, they must structure their lives to maximize time spent on their core genius. Your core genius is the one thing that you love to do because it’s effortless and a whole lot of fun. And if you could make money doing it, you’d make it your lifetime’s work.
In most cases, your core genius is directly tied to your passions and life purpose. My core genius lies in the area of teaching, training, coaching and motivating. Another core genius is writing and compiling books. Along with my co-author Mark Victor Hansen, I have written, co-authored, compiled, and edited more than 100 books.
Successful people make their core genius a priority, delegating everything else to the rest of their team. Compare that to other people who go through life doing everything, even the tasks they’re bad at or that could be done more cheaply, better, and faster by someone else. They can’t find the time to focus on their core genius because they fail to delegate even the most menial duties.
When you delegate the grunt work (the things you hate doing or those tasks that are so painful, you end up putting them off), you get to concentrate on what you love to do. You make faster progress on your goals, and you get to enjoy life more.
So why is delegating routine tasks and unwanted projects so difficult for most people?
Surprisingly, most people are afraid of looking wasteful or being judged as being above everyone else. They are afraid to give up control or reluctant to spend the money to pay for help. Deep down, most people simply don't want to let go.
Others simply have fallen into the habit of doing everything themselves. "It's too time consuming to explain it to someone," they say. "I can do it more quickly and better myself anyway."
Delegate Completely
One of the strategies I use and teach is complete delegation. This means that you delegate a task once and completely, rather than delegating it each time it needs to be done.
When my niece came to stay with us one year while she attended the local community college, we completely delegated the responsibility of grocery shopping to her. We told her she could have unlimited use of our van if she would buy the groceries every week. We provided her with a list of staples that we always wanted in the house (eggs, butter, milk, ketchup, and so on), and her job was to check every week and replace anything that was running low.
In addition, my wife planned meals and let her know which items she wanted for the main courses (fish, chicken, broccoli, avocados, etc). The task was delegated once and saved us hundreds of hours that year that were instead devoted to writing, exercise, family time, and recreation.
Where Do You Spend Your Time?
Most entrepreneurs spend less than 30% of their time focusing on their core genius. In fact, by the time they've launched a business, it often seems entrepreneurs are doing everything but the one thing they went into business for in the first place.
Many salespeople, for example, spend more time on account administration than they do on the phone or in the field making sales, when they could hire a part-time administrator to do this time-consuming detail work.
Most female executives spend too much time running their households, when they could easily and inexpensively delegate this task to a cleaning service or part-time mother's helper, freeing them to focus on their career or spend more quality time with their family.
Don't let this be your fate. You can trade, barter, pay for and find volunteers to help with almost everything you don't want to do, leaving you to do what you are best at, and which will ultimately make you the most money and bring you the most happiness.
Become a Con Artist
Strategic Coach Dan Sullivan once stated that all entrepreneurs are really con artists. They get other people to pay them to practice getting better at what they love to do.
Consider speaker Anthony Robbins. People pay him big money to practice his core genius. He’s arranged his life to maximize the amount of time that he is engaged in his core genius. He spends time doing what he loves, and the better he gets, the more money he earns.
Of course, most of us are not quite yet at the level of Tony Robbins. But we can take a cue from his level of focus.
For the next week, take note where you spend your time. What duties do you perform out of habit? Which do you do because you don’t want to take the time to delegate it to someone else? Finally, how much time do you spend on your core genius … and how many more hours could you invest in this area if you delegated some of your responsibilities?
Achieving greater success and joy in life starts by identifying your core genius. Delegate everything else so you can focus on what you love to do
Written by Jack Canfield
Successful people know that to achieve their goals and greater levels of accomplishment, they must structure their lives to maximize time spent on their core genius. Your core genius is the one thing that you love to do because it’s effortless and a whole lot of fun. And if you could make money doing it, you’d make it your lifetime’s work.
In most cases, your core genius is directly tied to your passions and life purpose. My core genius lies in the area of teaching, training, coaching and motivating. Another core genius is writing and compiling books. Along with my co-author Mark Victor Hansen, I have written, co-authored, compiled, and edited more than 100 books.
Successful people make their core genius a priority, delegating everything else to the rest of their team. Compare that to other people who go through life doing everything, even the tasks they’re bad at or that could be done more cheaply, better, and faster by someone else. They can’t find the time to focus on their core genius because they fail to delegate even the most menial duties.
When you delegate the grunt work (the things you hate doing or those tasks that are so painful, you end up putting them off), you get to concentrate on what you love to do. You make faster progress on your goals, and you get to enjoy life more.
So why is delegating routine tasks and unwanted projects so difficult for most people?
Surprisingly, most people are afraid of looking wasteful or being judged as being above everyone else. They are afraid to give up control or reluctant to spend the money to pay for help. Deep down, most people simply don't want to let go.
Others simply have fallen into the habit of doing everything themselves. "It's too time consuming to explain it to someone," they say. "I can do it more quickly and better myself anyway."
Delegate Completely
One of the strategies I use and teach is complete delegation. This means that you delegate a task once and completely, rather than delegating it each time it needs to be done.
When my niece came to stay with us one year while she attended the local community college, we completely delegated the responsibility of grocery shopping to her. We told her she could have unlimited use of our van if she would buy the groceries every week. We provided her with a list of staples that we always wanted in the house (eggs, butter, milk, ketchup, and so on), and her job was to check every week and replace anything that was running low.
In addition, my wife planned meals and let her know which items she wanted for the main courses (fish, chicken, broccoli, avocados, etc). The task was delegated once and saved us hundreds of hours that year that were instead devoted to writing, exercise, family time, and recreation.
Where Do You Spend Your Time?
Most entrepreneurs spend less than 30% of their time focusing on their core genius. In fact, by the time they've launched a business, it often seems entrepreneurs are doing everything but the one thing they went into business for in the first place.
Many salespeople, for example, spend more time on account administration than they do on the phone or in the field making sales, when they could hire a part-time administrator to do this time-consuming detail work.
Most female executives spend too much time running their households, when they could easily and inexpensively delegate this task to a cleaning service or part-time mother's helper, freeing them to focus on their career or spend more quality time with their family.
Don't let this be your fate. You can trade, barter, pay for and find volunteers to help with almost everything you don't want to do, leaving you to do what you are best at, and which will ultimately make you the most money and bring you the most happiness.
Become a Con Artist
Strategic Coach Dan Sullivan once stated that all entrepreneurs are really con artists. They get other people to pay them to practice getting better at what they love to do.
Consider speaker Anthony Robbins. People pay him big money to practice his core genius. He’s arranged his life to maximize the amount of time that he is engaged in his core genius. He spends time doing what he loves, and the better he gets, the more money he earns.
Of course, most of us are not quite yet at the level of Tony Robbins. But we can take a cue from his level of focus.
For the next week, take note where you spend your time. What duties do you perform out of habit? Which do you do because you don’t want to take the time to delegate it to someone else? Finally, how much time do you spend on your core genius … and how many more hours could you invest in this area if you delegated some of your responsibilities?
Achieving greater success and joy in life starts by identifying your core genius. Delegate everything else so you can focus on what you love to do
Written by Jack Canfield
The Power of Determination
Written by Jack Canfield
Taking action is essential if you want to achieve your goals, dreams and desires. To ensure that you stay in action, one of the most important qualities you must develop is persistence.
During your journey to greater success, you will encounter roadblocks, hardships and challenges. There will be times when you will want to quit, give up, and go back to doing something else. The one quality that will guarantee your success is the willingness to stick with it, to see it through to the end and to refuse to settle for anything less than your dream.
Be Willing to Pay the Price
Achieving goals and dreams usually requires some level of sacrifice. It might mean putting everything in life on hold in favor of working toward your dreams, investing all of your savings, or giving up a few hours of sleep each night. Many people proclaim to want to achieve their goals, yet are unwilling to pay the price it takes to make their dreams a reality.
No one knows this better than Olympic athletes. According to John Troup, writing in USA Today, “The average Olympian trains four hours a day at least 310 days a year for six years before succeeding. Getting better begins with working out every day. By 7:00 AM most athletes have done more than many people do all day.”
Although becoming an Olympic athlete is probably not in your future, you can become world class in whatever you do by putting in the disciplined effort to excel at your profession, craft or trade.
However, before you can choose to pay the price, you must know what the price is. If you don’t know what will truly be required to make your dreams a reality, investigate what it will take to achieve your desired goals. Research the costs other people have had to pay to achieve dreams similar to yours. You may even want to interview these individuals to discover the sacrifices they had to make along the way.
You may find that some costs are more than you want to pay. Only you can decide what is right for you and what price you are willing to pay.
But if the price is something you are willing to pay, commit yourself to achieving your dream – no matter what it takes. The willingness to do whatever is required is the magic ingredient that helps you persevere in the face of challenges, setbacks, pain and even personal injury.
Adversity and Discouragement Is Inevitable
No matter how well you plan and how well you execute your plan, you are bound to meet with disappointments, setbacks and failure along the way to your ultimate triumph. Sometimes, you will encounter what seem like overwhelming odds. At other times, the Universe will test your commitment to the goal you’re pursuing.
Adversity is a great teacher. It gives you the opportunity to develop your inner resources of character and courage, requiring that you learn new lessons, develop new parts of yourself, and make difficult decisions.
Whenever you confront an obstacle or run into a roadblock, brainstorm three ways to get around it, over it, or through it. There are a number of ways that will work, but to find them, you must first look for them.
The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist, the more likely your success will be.
As Confucius wrote more than 4000 years ago in China, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Taking action is essential if you want to achieve your goals, dreams and desires. To ensure that you stay in action, one of the most important qualities you must develop is persistence.
During your journey to greater success, you will encounter roadblocks, hardships and challenges. There will be times when you will want to quit, give up, and go back to doing something else. The one quality that will guarantee your success is the willingness to stick with it, to see it through to the end and to refuse to settle for anything less than your dream.
Be Willing to Pay the Price
Achieving goals and dreams usually requires some level of sacrifice. It might mean putting everything in life on hold in favor of working toward your dreams, investing all of your savings, or giving up a few hours of sleep each night. Many people proclaim to want to achieve their goals, yet are unwilling to pay the price it takes to make their dreams a reality.
No one knows this better than Olympic athletes. According to John Troup, writing in USA Today, “The average Olympian trains four hours a day at least 310 days a year for six years before succeeding. Getting better begins with working out every day. By 7:00 AM most athletes have done more than many people do all day.”
Although becoming an Olympic athlete is probably not in your future, you can become world class in whatever you do by putting in the disciplined effort to excel at your profession, craft or trade.
However, before you can choose to pay the price, you must know what the price is. If you don’t know what will truly be required to make your dreams a reality, investigate what it will take to achieve your desired goals. Research the costs other people have had to pay to achieve dreams similar to yours. You may even want to interview these individuals to discover the sacrifices they had to make along the way.
You may find that some costs are more than you want to pay. Only you can decide what is right for you and what price you are willing to pay.
But if the price is something you are willing to pay, commit yourself to achieving your dream – no matter what it takes. The willingness to do whatever is required is the magic ingredient that helps you persevere in the face of challenges, setbacks, pain and even personal injury.
Adversity and Discouragement Is Inevitable
No matter how well you plan and how well you execute your plan, you are bound to meet with disappointments, setbacks and failure along the way to your ultimate triumph. Sometimes, you will encounter what seem like overwhelming odds. At other times, the Universe will test your commitment to the goal you’re pursuing.
Adversity is a great teacher. It gives you the opportunity to develop your inner resources of character and courage, requiring that you learn new lessons, develop new parts of yourself, and make difficult decisions.
Whenever you confront an obstacle or run into a roadblock, brainstorm three ways to get around it, over it, or through it. There are a number of ways that will work, but to find them, you must first look for them.
The longer you hang in there, the greater the chance that something will happen in your favor. No matter how hard it seems, the longer you persist, the more likely your success will be.
As Confucius wrote more than 4000 years ago in China, “Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”
Saturday, March 05, 2011
strategic speed, focus on people
People — not just pace and process — matter in ensuring companies are faster and more successful at executing business plans and strategies, says Forum Corp CEO Edwin Boswell.
Unfortunately, the biggest mistake that companies make in pursuing speed is an over-attention to processes, systems and technologies, says Boswell in an interview via Skype on July 20. The interview with Boswell, who is based at the global management consulting firm’s headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts in the US, was organised by Forum Asia and business consulting firm I-deo Asia Ltd.
According to findings from his recently launched book, Strategic Speed, which he co-wrote with colleagues Jocelyn Davis and Henry Frechette Jr, faster companies had an average of 40% higher sales growth and 52% higher operating profit than companies that had rated themselves as slower in strategy execution.
The book is based on Forum Corp’s two-year Global Speed Survey that encompassed a literature review of 500 books and articles from the last 20 years, a global survey of 343 leaders conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit and 18 in-depth case studies of “faster companies” that successfully executed major strategic initiatives at a faster-than-average pace
“When we started on the survey two years ago, the global financial crisis had just hit and the world’s financial markets were turned upside down. Companies had to adapt and change plans to survive and they had to think about speed and execution as it was an intersection of both,” he said.
What differentiated faster companies from the slower ones was their focus on mobilising people through three areas — clarity, unity and agility, says Boswell.
“Employees at faster companies have a higher level of clarity about strategy and direction because leaders take the time to ensure their staff have a clear understanding of the strategy and more importantly, their individual roles,” he says.
Leaders at faster companies ensured the strategy was clearly understood and there was buy-in from employees, and were involved throughout the implementation of new initiatives by providing coaching, support, removing obstacles and being in touch with employees.
Faster companies also recorded higher levels of unity — employees showed a stronger commitment to the strategy and worked as a team to meet the goals — as well as higher agility in adapting to new opportunities and risks in the environment.
Corporate heads at speedier organisations also pay attention to the “energy climate” of their workplaces to ensure it brings out the best in their employees, especially in times of change, says Boswell.
Supervisor behaviour determines whether the energy climate is positive or negative, he explains, adding that when organisations implement new strategies, managers tend to let motivation levels drop after the initial burst of excitement is short-lived.
Citing Vodafone global CEO Vittorio Colao as an example, Boswell says that leaders at faster companies trust their employees. In Colao’s case, the CEO instilled a high climate of responsibility and accountability by entrusting the purchasing for the whole Vodafone group to his supply chain management head Detlef Schultz.
“Faster companies are good at not just establishing what the new strategies are but they’re good at communicating the progress against the goals of such initiatives. Human beings are motivated when they know they’re making progress,” says Boswell.
Cultivating experiences is another common practice at faster companies, he says. Leaders take the time to step back, capture lessons learnt and share them with their employees, and “organisations as a whole get smarter”, he says, adding that faster companies engaged in these best practices two or three times more frequently than slower organisations.
According to the survey, organisations on average abandon 50% to 70% of their strategies because the strategies fail to take hold or fail to achieve results within the expected time — which Boswell attributes to “companies confusing production for strategic speed and doing too many initiatives”.
He says slower organisations fall into the speed traps of focusing on doing things faster, which results in short-term gain and is not sustainable as people burn out faster.
“Some firms take shortcuts and start projects without adequate buy-in or planning. At the end of the day, employees have no idea what they’re doing. Faster companies focus on a few critical things instead of pursuing a lot of initiatives,” he says.
While Boswell acknowledges that speed is valued differently across different cultures, he says the major challenge for companies in achieving strategic speed is that leaders don’t make time to engage employees.
“If managers only have a few hours, bring staff together and engage them in conversation over lunch. Leaders don’t have to do all the talking. Just spend time, ask questions and listen more to your employees … it doesn’t have to cost millions of dollars,” he says.
Unfortunately, the biggest mistake that companies make in pursuing speed is an over-attention to processes, systems and technologies, says Boswell in an interview via Skype on July 20. The interview with Boswell, who is based at the global management consulting firm’s headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts in the US, was organised by Forum Asia and business consulting firm I-deo Asia Ltd.
According to findings from his recently launched book, Strategic Speed, which he co-wrote with colleagues Jocelyn Davis and Henry Frechette Jr, faster companies had an average of 40% higher sales growth and 52% higher operating profit than companies that had rated themselves as slower in strategy execution.
The book is based on Forum Corp’s two-year Global Speed Survey that encompassed a literature review of 500 books and articles from the last 20 years, a global survey of 343 leaders conducted by the Economic Intelligence Unit and 18 in-depth case studies of “faster companies” that successfully executed major strategic initiatives at a faster-than-average pace
“When we started on the survey two years ago, the global financial crisis had just hit and the world’s financial markets were turned upside down. Companies had to adapt and change plans to survive and they had to think about speed and execution as it was an intersection of both,” he said.
What differentiated faster companies from the slower ones was their focus on mobilising people through three areas — clarity, unity and agility, says Boswell.
“Employees at faster companies have a higher level of clarity about strategy and direction because leaders take the time to ensure their staff have a clear understanding of the strategy and more importantly, their individual roles,” he says.
Leaders at faster companies ensured the strategy was clearly understood and there was buy-in from employees, and were involved throughout the implementation of new initiatives by providing coaching, support, removing obstacles and being in touch with employees.
Faster companies also recorded higher levels of unity — employees showed a stronger commitment to the strategy and worked as a team to meet the goals — as well as higher agility in adapting to new opportunities and risks in the environment.
Corporate heads at speedier organisations also pay attention to the “energy climate” of their workplaces to ensure it brings out the best in their employees, especially in times of change, says Boswell.
Supervisor behaviour determines whether the energy climate is positive or negative, he explains, adding that when organisations implement new strategies, managers tend to let motivation levels drop after the initial burst of excitement is short-lived.
Citing Vodafone global CEO Vittorio Colao as an example, Boswell says that leaders at faster companies trust their employees. In Colao’s case, the CEO instilled a high climate of responsibility and accountability by entrusting the purchasing for the whole Vodafone group to his supply chain management head Detlef Schultz.
“Faster companies are good at not just establishing what the new strategies are but they’re good at communicating the progress against the goals of such initiatives. Human beings are motivated when they know they’re making progress,” says Boswell.
Cultivating experiences is another common practice at faster companies, he says. Leaders take the time to step back, capture lessons learnt and share them with their employees, and “organisations as a whole get smarter”, he says, adding that faster companies engaged in these best practices two or three times more frequently than slower organisations.
According to the survey, organisations on average abandon 50% to 70% of their strategies because the strategies fail to take hold or fail to achieve results within the expected time — which Boswell attributes to “companies confusing production for strategic speed and doing too many initiatives”.
He says slower organisations fall into the speed traps of focusing on doing things faster, which results in short-term gain and is not sustainable as people burn out faster.
“Some firms take shortcuts and start projects without adequate buy-in or planning. At the end of the day, employees have no idea what they’re doing. Faster companies focus on a few critical things instead of pursuing a lot of initiatives,” he says.
While Boswell acknowledges that speed is valued differently across different cultures, he says the major challenge for companies in achieving strategic speed is that leaders don’t make time to engage employees.
“If managers only have a few hours, bring staff together and engage them in conversation over lunch. Leaders don’t have to do all the talking. Just spend time, ask questions and listen more to your employees … it doesn’t have to cost millions of dollars,” he says.
Top body language mistakes to avoid in a job interview
Job seekers with shifty eyes, reluctant smiles or fidgety limbs may be hurting their chances of landing a job.
A survey by market research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of human capital solutions provider Career Builder of over 2,500 hiring managers in the US reveals that not making eye contact (67%) is the deadliest sin a potential candidate can make. Not smiling (38%) and fidgeting too much (33%) are the next two major no-nos, according to the survey conducted between May and June.
Hiring managers also really dislike bad posture (33%), weak handshakes (26%), and the defensive posture of crossing your arms over your chest (21%). Job candidates who betray nervousness by playing with their hair or touching their faces too much will turn off a further 21% of hiring managers. Finally, over-gesticulating puts off 9% of hiring managers.
“In a highly competitive job market, job seekers need to set themselves apart in the interview stage,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of human resources for CareerBuilder in the survey released July 28. “All that pressure, though, may have some job seekers making body language mistakes that don’t convey a confident message. To avoid these faux pas, and ensure you’re remembered for the right reasons, try practising ahead of time in front of a mirror, or with family and friends,” she added.
A survey by market research firm Harris Interactive on behalf of human capital solutions provider Career Builder of over 2,500 hiring managers in the US reveals that not making eye contact (67%) is the deadliest sin a potential candidate can make. Not smiling (38%) and fidgeting too much (33%) are the next two major no-nos, according to the survey conducted between May and June.
Hiring managers also really dislike bad posture (33%), weak handshakes (26%), and the defensive posture of crossing your arms over your chest (21%). Job candidates who betray nervousness by playing with their hair or touching their faces too much will turn off a further 21% of hiring managers. Finally, over-gesticulating puts off 9% of hiring managers.
“In a highly competitive job market, job seekers need to set themselves apart in the interview stage,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of human resources for CareerBuilder in the survey released July 28. “All that pressure, though, may have some job seekers making body language mistakes that don’t convey a confident message. To avoid these faux pas, and ensure you’re remembered for the right reasons, try practising ahead of time in front of a mirror, or with family and friends,” she added.
Competitive advantage through people
Basic strategy once taught us that the road to success was through differentiation and that differentiation could be based on cost competitiveness, occupying a niche or having a particular business focus. That, of course, is all very well. However, what is the key to, firstly, selecting the right strategy and, secondly, executing it (bearing in mind that most strategies fail due to poor execution)?
The CEO of one of the world’s largest media companies takes this further — in his view, people (or talent) are the ultimate differentiators. They will deliver the high levels of customer service, innovation and be the ambassadors of your brand. This is the reality. The right people is what it takes to execute strategy — great strategic plans are simply a starting point.
Talent management is the means of recruiting, developing and retaining those people with high potential who will not only help develop strategy, but more importantly, execute it. In its simplest form, it is how organisations align the skills they need with people around strategic objectives.
ACCA conducted a survey of talent management in 2006 and later in 2010. The results for Malaysia in 2010 were very revealing. Of those surveyed 99% thought it was quite or very important, even after a severe economic downturn. Indeed the vast majority of people clearly recognise the positive impact talent management will have on developing future leaders, making sure people have the right skills, and in succession planning. In addition, 83% thought it was important or very important in keeping staff engaged and morale high and the same percentage see it as important or very important to achieve organisational strategy.
The case for positive business impact therefore seems to be clear. However, it does seem that there are issues around the availability of talent management and the effectiveness of some current practices.
While a majority of people see talent management as being more important post-crisis, it is recognised that some tough decisions had to be made during it. For instance, in Malaysia, on average, 63% of organisations either put recruitment on hold, scaled back programmes, used agencies less or reduced their training budgets. We don’t yet know what the impact of this will be, but generally lower investment tends to result in slower growth.
More positively, more than 60% of organisations have a talent management programme in place. The issues however tend to be how those programmes are managed. Generally, they are not coordinated across the organisation, with each department doing its own thing. Therefore the organisation doesn’t benefit from economies of scale or the cross fertilisation of talent. Additionally, access to programmes is often limited to those at senior levels and this does not necessarily prepare the next generation of managers and leaders.
The research also indicates that the levels of investment have increased since 2006, with there being good access to training courses, conferences, mentoring and coaching programmes. Interestingly though, in Malaysia (and elsewhere), the majority of investment is in training courses even when the intended beneficiaries state that coaching and mentoring would be a more effective method of development (and probably more cost effective too). There is a lesson, therefore, around reconsidering how we allocate training and development budgets — in good times and bad.
The results of talent programmes suggest that less than 50% of people see them as having achieved success in terms of supporting organisational change, meeting future skills requirements and delivering the organisational strategy. Talent management can deliver those things, but not the way we are currently practising it.
Other than a more efficient allocation of resources, there are other reasons why these programmes may not always succeed or proceed. Understandably over the last 12 to 18 months, organisations felt they had other priorities and therefore talent management was not a focus for them. This lack of focus may have meant that the programmes have languished without support from the top. Another reason is some questioning (by less than 20% of the companies surveyed) on the cost of running a talent programme while not being clear on what the ROI is and how to measure it.
Going forward, expect things to be different. Over the next 12 months, as the economy improves and organisations grow, there will be more pressure to ensure we have people with the right capabilities. Competition for talent and staff turnover will increase while it becomes more important but more difficult to recruit.
This brings us full circle to where we started — effective talent management programmes. We have seen that access to talent programmes will need to be increased to more junior management levels and there will need to be a greater focus on using the more effective methods of coaching and mentoring. Talent programmes prosper when there is support from the top and when they are seen as one of the organisational priorities. Where possible, they should be coordinated centrally and provide opportunities for cross fertilisation of people with different skills and technical abilities. On the whole great strides have been made in the four years since 2006 particularly given that there has been a very serious economic crisis. One can only imagine how much further we might have come without it.
by Tony Osude is the head of Professional Development Global at ACCA
The CEO of one of the world’s largest media companies takes this further — in his view, people (or talent) are the ultimate differentiators. They will deliver the high levels of customer service, innovation and be the ambassadors of your brand. This is the reality. The right people is what it takes to execute strategy — great strategic plans are simply a starting point.
Talent management is the means of recruiting, developing and retaining those people with high potential who will not only help develop strategy, but more importantly, execute it. In its simplest form, it is how organisations align the skills they need with people around strategic objectives.
ACCA conducted a survey of talent management in 2006 and later in 2010. The results for Malaysia in 2010 were very revealing. Of those surveyed 99% thought it was quite or very important, even after a severe economic downturn. Indeed the vast majority of people clearly recognise the positive impact talent management will have on developing future leaders, making sure people have the right skills, and in succession planning. In addition, 83% thought it was important or very important in keeping staff engaged and morale high and the same percentage see it as important or very important to achieve organisational strategy.
The case for positive business impact therefore seems to be clear. However, it does seem that there are issues around the availability of talent management and the effectiveness of some current practices.
While a majority of people see talent management as being more important post-crisis, it is recognised that some tough decisions had to be made during it. For instance, in Malaysia, on average, 63% of organisations either put recruitment on hold, scaled back programmes, used agencies less or reduced their training budgets. We don’t yet know what the impact of this will be, but generally lower investment tends to result in slower growth.
More positively, more than 60% of organisations have a talent management programme in place. The issues however tend to be how those programmes are managed. Generally, they are not coordinated across the organisation, with each department doing its own thing. Therefore the organisation doesn’t benefit from economies of scale or the cross fertilisation of talent. Additionally, access to programmes is often limited to those at senior levels and this does not necessarily prepare the next generation of managers and leaders.
The research also indicates that the levels of investment have increased since 2006, with there being good access to training courses, conferences, mentoring and coaching programmes. Interestingly though, in Malaysia (and elsewhere), the majority of investment is in training courses even when the intended beneficiaries state that coaching and mentoring would be a more effective method of development (and probably more cost effective too). There is a lesson, therefore, around reconsidering how we allocate training and development budgets — in good times and bad.
The results of talent programmes suggest that less than 50% of people see them as having achieved success in terms of supporting organisational change, meeting future skills requirements and delivering the organisational strategy. Talent management can deliver those things, but not the way we are currently practising it.
Other than a more efficient allocation of resources, there are other reasons why these programmes may not always succeed or proceed. Understandably over the last 12 to 18 months, organisations felt they had other priorities and therefore talent management was not a focus for them. This lack of focus may have meant that the programmes have languished without support from the top. Another reason is some questioning (by less than 20% of the companies surveyed) on the cost of running a talent programme while not being clear on what the ROI is and how to measure it.
Going forward, expect things to be different. Over the next 12 months, as the economy improves and organisations grow, there will be more pressure to ensure we have people with the right capabilities. Competition for talent and staff turnover will increase while it becomes more important but more difficult to recruit.
This brings us full circle to where we started — effective talent management programmes. We have seen that access to talent programmes will need to be increased to more junior management levels and there will need to be a greater focus on using the more effective methods of coaching and mentoring. Talent programmes prosper when there is support from the top and when they are seen as one of the organisational priorities. Where possible, they should be coordinated centrally and provide opportunities for cross fertilisation of people with different skills and technical abilities. On the whole great strides have been made in the four years since 2006 particularly given that there has been a very serious economic crisis. One can only imagine how much further we might have come without it.
by Tony Osude is the head of Professional Development Global at ACCA
ow Singapore bosses manage and reward people
Singapore’s Institute of Banking and Finance held its annual conference recently and the theme was “Talent and leadership strategies”. Here’s what several senior industry players chose to highlight during a panel discussion.
OCBC breaks down the barriers
David Conner, director and CEO, OCBC, stressed two things regarding HR policy at his firm: 1) a focus on outcomes; and 2) empathy. The former means that employees should not simply work in their own narrow job silos. They must also help to build the bank’s overall market share.
And, “empathy” isn’t as fluffy as it sounds. For example, Conner says OCBC has a programme that gets different teams together and gives them the power to improve a bank-wide process, such as risk management. Instead of being “literally at war with each other”, teams break out of their silos and employees get the chance to contribute ideas about how the firm operates.
SGX gets tough (and goes soft)
The old “socialist approach” to compensation at the Singapore Exchange, in which staff used to receive an equal bonus percentage, is now a distant memory, says Seck Wai Kwong, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer at SGX. There is now a “culture of high performance” at the exchange that rewards top achievers. “We want to be a caring organisation, but we also want to help our top performers,” he says.
He says SGX has renovated two rooms in which staff can access guidance counsellors on an anonymous basis and talk about “any problem” they have. “We want to focus on the mental health of the staff … I once heard that burnout happens not when people work too hard, but when they don’t have a sense of purpose.”
Hedge-fund managers don’t really do HR
“A hedge fund is the antithesis of a big corporation,” says Peter Douglas, principal, GFIA. Most hedge-fund managers try hard not to be leaders because it keeps them away from the business. “A successful hedge-fund manager turns up at work, gets direct feedback and returns home with as few interruptions as possible,” he adds.
But, what about more junior staff? Highly structured, bank-style HR doesn’t come into play here either. “The motivation for non-principals is the apprenticeship factor of learning from people who are very good at what they do,” Douglas says. About 80% of these employees could be better compensated at an investment bank, he adds. “But would they have more control over their career? Absolutely not.”
Talent turf war in transaction banking as DBS gets hiring
DBS is the latest firm to step up its search for transaction-banking staff in Asia, but it is recruiting in a sector suffering from an increasingly serious skill shortage.
In recent months, the bank has already poached professionals for its global transaction services (GTS) division from Citi, HSBC, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and RBS. It plans to add 25 to 30 more people this year as part of expansion plans for the business across Asia.
The Singaporean firm is not alone in wanting transaction bankers — ANZ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered are also recruiting, according to one headhunter who asked not to be named.
Tom McCabe, who heads DBS’s 300-strong GTS team, says the battle for staff in Asia is even greater than the competition for new business. “There are not enough qualified people who understand cash-management techniques well enough to offer advice to companies,” he told the Singapore Business Times.
Recruiters agree with McCabe’s assessment of the employment market. Farida Charania, CEO, banking and financial services at Nastrac, describes hiring levels as “very active”.
“Last year was focused on revenue generators. However, this year the headcounts have been released and there is a great demand for people in product, implementation and strategic functions,” she adds.
Transaction banking — which incorporates areas such as cash management, trade finance and custodianship — provides a relatively stable source of recurring income for banks. The sector did not suffer from major layoffs during the global financial crisis, so there is not a large pool of unemployed transaction bankers in Asia.
Charania says banks are trying to fill the talent gap by bringing in bankers from outside the region. “While compensation levels are not being raised, the recent two years of turmoil have made the East very attractive for the professionals from the West.”
— efinancialcareers.com
OCBC breaks down the barriers
David Conner, director and CEO, OCBC, stressed two things regarding HR policy at his firm: 1) a focus on outcomes; and 2) empathy. The former means that employees should not simply work in their own narrow job silos. They must also help to build the bank’s overall market share.
And, “empathy” isn’t as fluffy as it sounds. For example, Conner says OCBC has a programme that gets different teams together and gives them the power to improve a bank-wide process, such as risk management. Instead of being “literally at war with each other”, teams break out of their silos and employees get the chance to contribute ideas about how the firm operates.
SGX gets tough (and goes soft)
The old “socialist approach” to compensation at the Singapore Exchange, in which staff used to receive an equal bonus percentage, is now a distant memory, says Seck Wai Kwong, senior executive vice-president and chief financial officer at SGX. There is now a “culture of high performance” at the exchange that rewards top achievers. “We want to be a caring organisation, but we also want to help our top performers,” he says.
He says SGX has renovated two rooms in which staff can access guidance counsellors on an anonymous basis and talk about “any problem” they have. “We want to focus on the mental health of the staff … I once heard that burnout happens not when people work too hard, but when they don’t have a sense of purpose.”
Hedge-fund managers don’t really do HR
“A hedge fund is the antithesis of a big corporation,” says Peter Douglas, principal, GFIA. Most hedge-fund managers try hard not to be leaders because it keeps them away from the business. “A successful hedge-fund manager turns up at work, gets direct feedback and returns home with as few interruptions as possible,” he adds.
But, what about more junior staff? Highly structured, bank-style HR doesn’t come into play here either. “The motivation for non-principals is the apprenticeship factor of learning from people who are very good at what they do,” Douglas says. About 80% of these employees could be better compensated at an investment bank, he adds. “But would they have more control over their career? Absolutely not.”
Talent turf war in transaction banking as DBS gets hiring
DBS is the latest firm to step up its search for transaction-banking staff in Asia, but it is recruiting in a sector suffering from an increasingly serious skill shortage.
In recent months, the bank has already poached professionals for its global transaction services (GTS) division from Citi, HSBC, JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and RBS. It plans to add 25 to 30 more people this year as part of expansion plans for the business across Asia.
The Singaporean firm is not alone in wanting transaction bankers — ANZ, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered are also recruiting, according to one headhunter who asked not to be named.
Tom McCabe, who heads DBS’s 300-strong GTS team, says the battle for staff in Asia is even greater than the competition for new business. “There are not enough qualified people who understand cash-management techniques well enough to offer advice to companies,” he told the Singapore Business Times.
Recruiters agree with McCabe’s assessment of the employment market. Farida Charania, CEO, banking and financial services at Nastrac, describes hiring levels as “very active”.
“Last year was focused on revenue generators. However, this year the headcounts have been released and there is a great demand for people in product, implementation and strategic functions,” she adds.
Transaction banking — which incorporates areas such as cash management, trade finance and custodianship — provides a relatively stable source of recurring income for banks. The sector did not suffer from major layoffs during the global financial crisis, so there is not a large pool of unemployed transaction bankers in Asia.
Charania says banks are trying to fill the talent gap by bringing in bankers from outside the region. “While compensation levels are not being raised, the recent two years of turmoil have made the East very attractive for the professionals from the West.”
— efinancialcareers.com
The leadership challenge — building a culture of diversity and inclusiveness
What role did the leadership (both the boards and senior executives) within financial institutions play in causing the global financial crisis (GFC)? Certainly, journalists, politicians, academics and even many business people have argued or admitted that leadership must be held accountable for the actions of those employed by the organisations they manage and govern. The leadership was either aware of and sanctioned the risks that these employees were taking on behalf of the institution’s shareholders, or were unaware but should have been aware given their role as the stewards of shareholders’ funds.
It has become clear in the aftermath of the GFC that many senior executives and board members were simply unaware of or did not have the technical expertise and/or experience to fully appreciate the risk profiles of their organisations. However, there have also been revelations of unacceptable (from the perspective of prevailing community standards) and even illegal behaviour which led to some of the lax underwriting decisions in the American and British housing markets. In order to better understand the aspects of leadership failure that contributed to these behaviours, it is important to first understand the role of leadership within an organisation.
Leadership typically undertakes the following activities:
• Developing a vision for and establishing the values of the organisation;
• Determining the mission and objectives consistent with the vision and values;
• Setting strategy and deciding on the investments required to achieve the mission and objectives;
• Obtaining the resources (financial and people) necessary for and monitoring the progress of strategy implementation; and
• Evaluating the return on investments that have been made and taking the actions necessary to ensure these returns meet with shareholders’ expectations.
In fulfilling the accountabilities described above, leaders exercise a significant influence on the culture (the collective values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours) of their organisation.
Some leaders make choices along the dimensions of vision, values, mission, objectives, strategy and investments that result in a homogeneous and exclusive or divisive workforce and organisational climate. Others make choices that lead to a diverse yet inclusive work environment. Participants within, journalists covering and academics who have studied the global financial services sector have observed that the sector was characterised by a relatively homogeneous and exclusive culture.
Workforces in the financial services sector, more than most, were male-dominated with divisions, departments and teams often consisting of people with similar educational backgrounds and demographic profiles, many of whom were recruited from the same past employers. The resulting culture was epitomised by the following characteristics:
• Extremely long working hours with physical health, family-life and mental/emotional well-being often sacrificed in the pursuit of success;
• Aggressive behaviour in the workplace which often spilled over into harassment and bullying;
• A focus on individual performance relative to peers (evidenced by the overuse of league tables) rather than team performance based on achievement against absolute targets; and
• An obsession with measuring success and achievement almost exclusively through the excessive compensation packages on offer.
Many banks in the US and Europe were traditionally led by senior executives from their corporate finance businesses (which earned fees primarily from advisory services pertaining to initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and so on). However, in the last two decades, these institutions began to generate a greater proportion of their profits from proprietary and client trading activities and therefore many of these organisations began to be led by executives from these businesses. The cultural attributes mentioned above were especially prevalent among the sales and trading staff in these financial markets business units.
In most financial institutions, there are a number of policies and principles in place that serve as checks and balances on excessive risk-taking. However, in organisations where the culture described above exists, many of these checks and balances are weakened or rendered ineffective. For example, many financial institutions have policies in place requiring staff to take compulsory annual leave of a minimum duration. In situations where the employees taking leave are in roles which routinely expose the financial institutions to credit, operational or market risk, this compulsory-leave policy enables the staff relieving in the role to review decisions or positions that have been taken for any breaches of risk management policy or regulations.
However, in cultures described above employees often do not take leave because of their excessive workloads or for fear of losing their roles to overly competitive peers.
Many financial institutions also have “whistleblower” policies and mechanisms to ensure that employees speak up and expose breaches of policy and regulation when they uncover them. However, the effectiveness of these policies as a means of mitigating excessive risk-taking is eroded by cultures which are based on homogeneous workforces that emphasise conformity with the views of the group. This “group-think” undoubtedly led to the proliferation of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) and credit default swaps (CDS) which spread globally the credit risk arising from the poor underwriting decisions in the US and UK housing markets, despite the inherently risky nature of these instruments.
Evaluating, recognising and rewarding performance based on the relative achievement of individual employees compared to their peers created a climate of internal competition that may have contributed to the poor credit underwriting decisions in the housing markets which precipitated the GFC.
So, how can the leaders of financial institutions ensure that they create a diverse and inclusive culture, especially for the future, to ensure that the climates within their organisations do not become conducive once again to the excessive risk-taking that led to the GFC? Conventional approaches to promoting diversity tend to focus on demographic quotas/targets including those for gender, age, race, religion and sexual orientation. These demographic segments serve as effective proxies to measuring the diversity of workforces but in themselves are insufficient. It is equally important for leaders to measure the culture of organisations on a regular basis (there are many tools available to do so) and to launch initiatives to redirect the culture in the event it departs from the diverse and inclusive environment that will promote long-term, sustainable success.
Hopefully, this article has clearly demonstrated the role that poor human resource (HR) policies and practices played in contributing to the GFC and will enable leaders and HR executives within the financial services sector to make the changes necessary to avoid a recurrence in the future.
by Dharma Chandran is a human capital partner and performance and reward leader with Ernst & Young Far East Area
It has become clear in the aftermath of the GFC that many senior executives and board members were simply unaware of or did not have the technical expertise and/or experience to fully appreciate the risk profiles of their organisations. However, there have also been revelations of unacceptable (from the perspective of prevailing community standards) and even illegal behaviour which led to some of the lax underwriting decisions in the American and British housing markets. In order to better understand the aspects of leadership failure that contributed to these behaviours, it is important to first understand the role of leadership within an organisation.
Leadership typically undertakes the following activities:
• Developing a vision for and establishing the values of the organisation;
• Determining the mission and objectives consistent with the vision and values;
• Setting strategy and deciding on the investments required to achieve the mission and objectives;
• Obtaining the resources (financial and people) necessary for and monitoring the progress of strategy implementation; and
• Evaluating the return on investments that have been made and taking the actions necessary to ensure these returns meet with shareholders’ expectations.
In fulfilling the accountabilities described above, leaders exercise a significant influence on the culture (the collective values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours) of their organisation.
Some leaders make choices along the dimensions of vision, values, mission, objectives, strategy and investments that result in a homogeneous and exclusive or divisive workforce and organisational climate. Others make choices that lead to a diverse yet inclusive work environment. Participants within, journalists covering and academics who have studied the global financial services sector have observed that the sector was characterised by a relatively homogeneous and exclusive culture.
Workforces in the financial services sector, more than most, were male-dominated with divisions, departments and teams often consisting of people with similar educational backgrounds and demographic profiles, many of whom were recruited from the same past employers. The resulting culture was epitomised by the following characteristics:
• Extremely long working hours with physical health, family-life and mental/emotional well-being often sacrificed in the pursuit of success;
• Aggressive behaviour in the workplace which often spilled over into harassment and bullying;
• A focus on individual performance relative to peers (evidenced by the overuse of league tables) rather than team performance based on achievement against absolute targets; and
• An obsession with measuring success and achievement almost exclusively through the excessive compensation packages on offer.
Many banks in the US and Europe were traditionally led by senior executives from their corporate finance businesses (which earned fees primarily from advisory services pertaining to initial public offerings, mergers and acquisitions and so on). However, in the last two decades, these institutions began to generate a greater proportion of their profits from proprietary and client trading activities and therefore many of these organisations began to be led by executives from these businesses. The cultural attributes mentioned above were especially prevalent among the sales and trading staff in these financial markets business units.
In most financial institutions, there are a number of policies and principles in place that serve as checks and balances on excessive risk-taking. However, in organisations where the culture described above exists, many of these checks and balances are weakened or rendered ineffective. For example, many financial institutions have policies in place requiring staff to take compulsory annual leave of a minimum duration. In situations where the employees taking leave are in roles which routinely expose the financial institutions to credit, operational or market risk, this compulsory-leave policy enables the staff relieving in the role to review decisions or positions that have been taken for any breaches of risk management policy or regulations.
However, in cultures described above employees often do not take leave because of their excessive workloads or for fear of losing their roles to overly competitive peers.
Many financial institutions also have “whistleblower” policies and mechanisms to ensure that employees speak up and expose breaches of policy and regulation when they uncover them. However, the effectiveness of these policies as a means of mitigating excessive risk-taking is eroded by cultures which are based on homogeneous workforces that emphasise conformity with the views of the group. This “group-think” undoubtedly led to the proliferation of collateralised debt obligations (CDOs) and credit default swaps (CDS) which spread globally the credit risk arising from the poor underwriting decisions in the US and UK housing markets, despite the inherently risky nature of these instruments.
Evaluating, recognising and rewarding performance based on the relative achievement of individual employees compared to their peers created a climate of internal competition that may have contributed to the poor credit underwriting decisions in the housing markets which precipitated the GFC.
So, how can the leaders of financial institutions ensure that they create a diverse and inclusive culture, especially for the future, to ensure that the climates within their organisations do not become conducive once again to the excessive risk-taking that led to the GFC? Conventional approaches to promoting diversity tend to focus on demographic quotas/targets including those for gender, age, race, religion and sexual orientation. These demographic segments serve as effective proxies to measuring the diversity of workforces but in themselves are insufficient. It is equally important for leaders to measure the culture of organisations on a regular basis (there are many tools available to do so) and to launch initiatives to redirect the culture in the event it departs from the diverse and inclusive environment that will promote long-term, sustainable success.
Hopefully, this article has clearly demonstrated the role that poor human resource (HR) policies and practices played in contributing to the GFC and will enable leaders and HR executives within the financial services sector to make the changes necessary to avoid a recurrence in the future.
by Dharma Chandran is a human capital partner and performance and reward leader with Ernst & Young Far East Area
M’sians desire better work-life balance
Malaysians want a better work-life balance in addition to having salaries that match their work responsibility, according to a survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
The Managing Tomorrow’s People survey found that 45% of the Malaysian respondents do not mind shouldering more responsibilities at work as long as they are paid accordingly, with over 36% of them desiring a better balance between work and life.
The PwC report, released last month, explores the work aspirations and expectations of 5,000 professionals worldwide, including 133 Malaysians in early 2010.
The results closely mirrored the worldwide responses in a global trend towards value over pay, it said.
“Malaysian companies are coming out of the crisis, racing to capture opportunities in the emerging markets, but are still focused on cost efficiencies as more volatility is expected in global conditions.
“Consequently, instead of hiring, existing employees are being asked to do more with less,” said PwC Malaysia advisory services executive director Kartina Abdul Latif in a recent statement.
Kartina said the survey indicated that employees are feeling the pressure with a large number hoping for better work-life balance and a third choosing flexibility in working arrangements as the most important work benefit besides salary.
“Employers who push their workers to deliver more, without monitoring and reviewing the impacts, will end up hurting themselves. A disconnect between what employers want and what employees actually deliver could mean an exodus of the most talented over the next decade,” she said.
The survey also found that 43% of employees placed importance on delivering value and 44% valued companies whose values matched their own.
Having a powerful social conscience intrinsic to the organisation’s brand and a “green” sense of responsibility will be critical for companies of the future, it said.
“42% (versus 41% globally) of employees felt that this was true compared to 32% (versus 35% globally) who said organisations would have to embrace technology and the power of social networking,” it said.
The survey also found 43% of women and 42% of men choose themselves as the ideal employer, compared to 33% in the global survey.
However, many Malaysian employees may not feel our environment is conducive to entrepreneurs with only 19% expecting to be self-employed specialists in the next decade, it said.
The survey also found that 54% of employees desired a career path where they establish a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship with a major corporation, in which they acquire valuable experience across a variety of roles.
The Managing Tomorrow’s People survey found that 45% of the Malaysian respondents do not mind shouldering more responsibilities at work as long as they are paid accordingly, with over 36% of them desiring a better balance between work and life.
The PwC report, released last month, explores the work aspirations and expectations of 5,000 professionals worldwide, including 133 Malaysians in early 2010.
The results closely mirrored the worldwide responses in a global trend towards value over pay, it said.
“Malaysian companies are coming out of the crisis, racing to capture opportunities in the emerging markets, but are still focused on cost efficiencies as more volatility is expected in global conditions.
“Consequently, instead of hiring, existing employees are being asked to do more with less,” said PwC Malaysia advisory services executive director Kartina Abdul Latif in a recent statement.
Kartina said the survey indicated that employees are feeling the pressure with a large number hoping for better work-life balance and a third choosing flexibility in working arrangements as the most important work benefit besides salary.
“Employers who push their workers to deliver more, without monitoring and reviewing the impacts, will end up hurting themselves. A disconnect between what employers want and what employees actually deliver could mean an exodus of the most talented over the next decade,” she said.
The survey also found that 43% of employees placed importance on delivering value and 44% valued companies whose values matched their own.
Having a powerful social conscience intrinsic to the organisation’s brand and a “green” sense of responsibility will be critical for companies of the future, it said.
“42% (versus 41% globally) of employees felt that this was true compared to 32% (versus 35% globally) who said organisations would have to embrace technology and the power of social networking,” it said.
The survey also found 43% of women and 42% of men choose themselves as the ideal employer, compared to 33% in the global survey.
However, many Malaysian employees may not feel our environment is conducive to entrepreneurs with only 19% expecting to be self-employed specialists in the next decade, it said.
The survey also found that 54% of employees desired a career path where they establish a mutually beneficial, long-term relationship with a major corporation, in which they acquire valuable experience across a variety of roles.
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