Make your job work for you

This post came out from The Straits Times (17 August 2016)
Title - Make your job work for you

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Decide how you want to feel
2. Be grateful for what you have
3. Concentrate fully on your work
4. Make things work even better
5. Redesign your job

On Decide how you want to feel

• Choosing to feel happy and positive instead of depressed can lead to productivity and success at work, which reinforces happiness and sustains a positivity loop. 
• Conventional wisdom teaches us that we will only be happy when we are more successful, but recent research has shown us that the happiness equation is really the other way around. Only when we decide to be happy will we enjoy a productive day that spurs us on further during the week.

On Be grateful for what you have

• If helps to pick three things that you are thankful for during the week. Gratitude has a positive effect on self esteem.

On Concentrate fully on your work

• People 'in flow' lose themselves in a task, and feel 'out of time'. They may even feel exhilarated and unstressed while doing challenging work. To achieve productivity through the 'flow', keep distractions at your work area to an absolute minimum.

On Make things work even better

• When things are not working out, we tend to think about how to solve them. But a conventional 'fin-it-and-fix-it' problem solving method can result in fault finding behaviour that can further jeopardise morale. 
• Try adopting a more positive perspective by looking at things that are working, and building on them. By appreciating what is good and valuable in the present situation, you can discover ways to effect positive change for the future. 

On Redesign your job

• Modify your job by being responsible for more or fewer tasks, expanding or reducing your job scope, or changing how you perform your tasks. If you feel job crafting doesn't make much of a difference, think again. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Increase your return on failure

Article from Harvard Business Review by Julian Birkinshaw and Martine Haas

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Step 1: Learn from every failure
2. Step 2: Share the lessons
3. Step 3: Review your pattern of failure

On Step 1: Learn from every failure

• Begin by getting people to reflect on projects or initiatives that disappointed. Of course, this doesn't come naturally: Reviewing past problems isn't just tedious; it's painful. Most of us would prefer to invest our time looking forward, not back. 
• When something doesn't go as planned, it's an opportunity to challenge your default beliefs and adjust accordingly. We recommend spelling out what the project has taught you about each of these things: customers and market dynamics; your organization's strategy, culture and processes; yourself and your team; and future trends.
• These insights, of course, are the assets. Our exercise also has you compile a list of the associated liabilities - the projects direct costs in time and money, any external costs (reputation, for example), and any internal indirect costs (such as excessive consumption of management attention). 

On Step 2: Share the lessons

• While it's useful to reflect on individual failures, the real payoff comes when you spread the lessons across the organisation. As one executive commented, "You need to build a review cycle where this is fed into a broader conversation." When the information, ideas, and opportunities for improvement gained from an unsuccessful project in one business area are passed on to another, their benefits are magnified. 
• Shared learning also increases the likelihood of future initiatives. "The biggest mistake you can make as a leader is to shoot the messenger and bury the bad news," one executive noted. By reflecting on the positives, you build trust and goodwill and clear the pathway for others to take action on risker ideas.
• We recommend bringing senior leaders (across a unit or the whole organization) together on a regular basis to talk about their respective failures. These reviews work best when they are fast and to the point; takes place frequently, through good times and bad; and are forward looking, with an emphasis on learning. We call them Triple F reviews (Fast, Frequent, Forward looking).

On Step 3: Review your pattern of failure

• The third step is to take a bird's eye view of the organization and ask whether your overall approach to failure is working. Are you learning from every unsuccessful endeavour? Are you sharing those lessons across the organization? And are they helping you improve your strategy and execution?

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

3 career mistakes to avoid

This post came out from The Straits Times (25 May 2016)
Title - 3 career mistakes to avoid

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Job hopping without addressing the crux of the problem
2. Inflating your resume during interviews
3. Not pacing yourself and suffering from frequent burnouts

On Job hopping without addressing the crux of the problem

• If you tend to change jobs frequently, identify the underlying reasons. Can you communicate well with your co-workers? Can you manage stress and tight deadlines effectively?
• It is vital to recognise and address the root of the issue of reasons for leaving jobs. Sweeping problems under the carpet and changing your job constantly more often than not highlights a lack of commitment, which could also be reflected in other areas of life outside work. A thorough understanding of yourself plays a key part in every career move. 

On Inflating your resume during interviews

• Do not fall into the common pitfall of over-promising what you can do or over selling the skills you have during interviews. Understand what you are really able to do at your level, and accepting the value in all that you bring including your personal qualities is very important. 
• It is also a useful way to keep yourself level-headed and 'real' for your potential future employer. Re-evaluate if your skill sets, strengths, passion and values are in line with the job you applied for.
• People feel more fulfilled when their careers offer them meaningful opportunities to utilise their skills and prospects to shine in their chosen areas of expertise.

On Not pacing yourself and suffering from frequent burnouts

• Do you often feel physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted due to the demands of your job? This fatigue may also cause you to lose interest in other areas of your life, such as social and family interaction.
• Set aside time for relaxation. Give yourself a break from work. Set appropriate boundaries and refrain from checking e-mails or answering calls during your down time.
• Have an active life outside of work. Attending interest or hobby groups can help to make life more fulfilling and leave you feeling recharged. Keeping to a regular exercise routine helps to release the physical tension and stiffness resulting from sitting at your desk for long hours. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

How to enjoy your work

This post came out from The New Paper (13 April 2016)
Title -How to enjoy your work

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Focus on your passions
2. Work smart
3. Discover your calling
4. Enjoy working with people
5. Add value to your work
6. Get into the flow of things
7. Develop a strong sense of purpose

On Focus on your passions

• Where every working minute is actually passionate and full of positive emotions. 

On Work Smart

• Which simply means coming up with systematised methods that add real value, being efficient and effective, and making good money along the way.

On Discover your calling

• This is an inner sense of responsibility that makes you just want to do something. It is more than just your passion - it is an extension of you.

On Enjoy working with people

• Which is what working is about. If you like people and want to help others, working with people is a joy. You can go to great lengths and deal with all kinds of people without getting negative feelings.

On Add value to your work

• Over time, you will make good money from your work. When this happens, wouldn't you want to work harder and earn more?

On Get into the flow of things

• Where time passes without you realising. People who are in the flow often find that work is effortless, because it is so smooth and totally in line with their inner selves.

On Develop a strong sense of purpose

• Where you will get limitless energy and be able to go on when everyone quits. A strong sense of purpose is what keeps people awake, and it will make your work purposeful. It will help you to go on working without any mental fatigue, because you find your work meaningful. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

5 secrets of successful people

This post came out from The Straits Times (14 April 2016)
Title - 5 secrets of successful people

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Be proactive and make things happen
2. Engage in lifelong learning
3. Turn failure into advantage
4. Focus on making small continuous improvements
5. Share what you can with the needy

On Be proactive and make things happen

• Instead of reacting to events and waiting for opportunities, successful people venture out to create their own chances, and in doing so, create their own destinies. They channel their time and energy into aspects within their control, or take concrete actions to improve situations. 

On Engage in lifelong learning

• Successful people believe that learning comes in many forms, beyond formal educational institutions like school and universities. They often continuously expand their knowledge and read widely across multiple disciplines. Most importantly, they apply their acquired knowledge to be more productive and efficient or improve the quality of their work.

On Turn failure into advantage

• Successful people know that failure is an opportunity to learn something new or to finetune the way certain things are done. They learn from their mistakes to increase their chances of success, and do not perceive obstacles as barriers to success but learning experience. 

On Focus on making small continuous improvements

• Go-getters take conscious control of their lives, set goals and work towards achieving them. However, it is easy to give up when our goals seem insurmountable. Divide your foal into small manageable ones that can be achieved one step at a time.
• Making minor incremental improvements will eventually culminate in significant changes over time.

On Share what you can with the needy

• When a person is successful, he or she is likely to possess extra resources to share with the less fortunate. Being charitable makes us aware of the hardships the lower strata of society struggles with, keeps us firmly grounded and deters us from being too caught up in our own success. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Get your work noticed - Get due recognition from your boss without blowing your own trumpet by following these steps

This post came out from The Straits Times (11 September 2008)
Title - Get your work noticed

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Key decision makers
2. Highlight success
3. Right timing
4. Strategic relationships
5. Publicise your efforts

On Key decision makers

• Within every office, there are a select number of people who make the decisions. Identify who they are and develop a target list. Look at their areas of responsibility and think about how you an come into contact with them.
• If you are involved in a piece of work that relates to their area, introduce yourself and pick their brain on how they think the project should be developed. The best way to do this is organise a brain storming session. As part of the session, provide a brief background on what has been achieved so far before going in to the latest project. The session will expose key personnel to your work, probably for the first time. 

On Highlight success

• Initiating contact with decision makers could be made part of a post project debrief to look at its results in a fact finding way. Solicit feedback from those involved on how processes can be improved. 
• When communicating a win, make sure you publicly thank the members individually for their efforts and contribution. Highlight the ownership and collaboration of the project. Your team members will appreciate your acknowledgement and will be more receptive to working with you in the future.
• When communicating successful results, offer it in a way that can help colleagues in their campaigns. You might develop the project into a case study. While the results and products employed in future projects may differ, the principles and project methodology used to achieve the results are timeless and can be reused. 
• It is also a good move to ensure the discussion positions your boss in a good way in front of his superiors. However, if he is taking all the kudos when delivering the news up the chain, take control of the communication process.

On Right timing

• Most middle and senior managers have gatekeepers who shield them from the barrage of people wanting a piece of their time and concentration. 
• When sending reports, include these people in the distribution list and send it after work hours, usually before 8am and after 6pm. The senior manager you are intending to target is more likely to open his own email at this time rather than rely on a personal assistant.

On Strategic relationships

• In today's work environment, where performance is more closely scrutinised, time in office and length of service counts for little. Career progression is still made through relationships.
• If you click with a senior manager and you gain his confidence, you have a greater chance of moving up. But do your research. Observe and understand their work style. Are they hierarchical, big on ideas, but lax on detail, micro-managers or collaborative types? Once you have pinned down the style, run your meeting in a similar fashion.

On Publicise your efforts

• If your company has an internal communication process such as a staff newsletter, approach the editor to see if he would be interested in profiling a story on your project. Emphasise that it was a team effort and ensure that it spreads the kudos evenly. You do not want to look self-serving. 
• When developing reports, you should tap into your manger's hot spots of interest. If he finds financial issues interesting, include return on investment data in your report. If sales is his forte, mention the number of additional clients on the books.
• In addition, provide comparisons to past projects, especially if your findings add new or better insights. You should also ensure that the report is easy to read. Information presented graphically works well. Put the most important and best results at the top, so that they stand out.

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Perform like a pro - Nine strategies to help you become more effective at work

This post came out from The Straits Times (23 September 2012)
Title - Perform like a pro

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Plan and prepare
2. Be resourceful
3. Hone your skills
4. Be objective
5. Collaborate
6. Set targets
7. Free your mind
8. Stay vigilant
9. Be effective

On Plan and prepare

• When you plan, you internalise the events and have a better idea of how you should go about your duties. Apart from planning, you also have to prepare. Start by being clear about your roles and responsibilities and keeping abreast of the changes occurring around you. 

On Be resourceful

• One of the qualities that all organisations clamour for in their people is resourcefulness. Being resourceful requires you to develop the ability to look at challenges objectively and come up with strategies to overcome them.
• A fundamental quality of resourceful people is the innate ability to leverage o their strengths and overcome their weakness. 
• The ability to tap on the capabilities of others is also important. This means outsourcing what you cannot do well yourself to others to maxmise your core skills.

On Hone your skills

• Improve on your organisational skills by first being clear about the real nature of your job and what the organisation expects of you. To be proactive, you need to use your initiative to find out the best way to complete tasks and achieve the results your bosses expect.
• By meeting organisational goals, you also develop your own career goals as the management beings to take notice of your skills and give you more responsibilities.

On Be objective

• The key to thriving in the organisation is having the right attitude towards your work. Learn to see things objectively and positively. Analyse your personality and natural ability - your aptitude - and strive to develop these to their fullest potential.
• Having the right attitude also means that you see failure as an opportunity to find new ways to solve the problems that confront you.

On Collaborate

• The proactive person is the ultimate collaborator. When you develop the ability to collaborate with others in your organisation, you will be able to build rapport.
• This is crucial because you need to get things done with the help and support of other people. In today's workplace, your reputation as a team player will stand you in good stead.
• Building strong networks with your communication skills will give you an edge as you move up the corporate ladder.

On Set targets

• This activity helps you to have a clear picture of where you are heading and how you are going to get there. Targets help you to stay focused and effective - you do the right thing rather than do things right.

On Free your mind

• Having an independent mind allows you to view situations objectively. You weigh the options and consequences available rationally and come up with workable solutions.
• Do not allow yourself to be swayed easily by what others think.

On Stay vigilant

• Be alert to changes taking place around you. One way to become more vigilant is to record in a notebook your thoughts and feelings about certain incidents and carry it around with you.
• Note down the times when your gut feeling or intuition turned out to be correct or when you made a false assumption. 
• If you do this regularly, over time, you can become very good at spotting trends and taking a proactive approach to address the situation.

On Be effective

• Efficacy is about producing a desired result. This involves doing something efficiently and effectively. 
• Efficiency means doing something well; effectiveness is doing the right thing appropriately. There are many people who are highly efficient but totally ineffective.
• This is primarily because they have not figured out what their priorities are. Instead, they focus on tasks that are not important while the real problems remain unresolved. 
• If you have to choose between efficiency and effectiveness, you are probably better off striving for the latter. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Grow your relationships - Improve your business success by building strong ties with your associates

This post came out from The Straits Times (10 December 2008)
Title - Grow your relationships

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Focus
2. Target
3. Define
4. Align
5. Outreach
6. Renew

On Focus

• Know what you want, personally and professionally. Think of this as strategic planning over the next couple of years.

On Target

• Identify the people who are important to your goals. Create a map to clearly identify the appropriate groups and specific individuals.

On Define

• After identifying and prioritising the individuals, define what you can do for them (generosity) and create appropriate messages to reach out to them.

On Align

• Align your goals with your associates. Prepare, train and align your goals with people from your company and who are necessary to the execution of your plan.
• Externally, align your friends in charge of the key accounts and anyone else who can help. Ask yourself if these individuals are aware of your goals and whether they are aligned with them.

On Outreach

• Reach out to targeted individuals through a combination of meetings, events and something I call "pinging" - quick, casual greetings done in any number of ways.
• Establish regular contact with key people in your network so they constantly keep you in mind when opportunities arise. Remember, out of sight is out of mind. 

On renew

• Your goals and plans are dynamic and must be continuously refreshed and renewed at least twice a year. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Assessing the obstacles that hinder your ability to make decisions can point you in a fresh direction

This post came out from The Straits Times (26 August 2008)
Title - Get to the root of the problem - Accessing the obstacles that hinder your ability to make decisions can point you in a fresh direction

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Lack of clear objectives
2. Lack of clear constraints
3. Lack of clear perspectives
4. Difficulty with emotions
5. Difficulty in selecting the right option

On Lack of clear objectives

• Making a decision requires a clear objective. For example, if you want to yo sell your property to quickly raise cash, but the developer wants to redevelop the place.  However, you prefer to sell it to someone else who will want to preserve the house.
• In this situation, until you figure out if your true objective is to raise capital or conserve the house, the sale is in jeopardy. Revisit your decision question (Should I sell my property) and your main objective (I need to fund for a business venture).
• Your objective is to identify the fastest way to raise the capital needed. This may lead you to take up the offer or look for other alternatives to raise the money.

On Lack of clear constraints

• When you hear words like 'budget constraints' you normally think that nothing much can be done about it. The focus is usually on the boundary of the constraint and not what can be done within it.
• A good decision maker embraces constraints and works within them to create the right outcome. Of course, too many obstacles make it difficult to arrive at a solution. So it is important to identify only the key constraints in the decision process.

On Lack of clear perspectives

• The lack of fresh perspectives is one of the key hurdles that hampers decision making. It is more difficult for a person to look at the situation from another angle if he has a vested interest in a decision. 
• A good decision maker must be able to shift his focus, look at his constraints and assumptions objectively and understand the limits of his thinking.

On Difficulty with emotions

• Almost all decision making models view emotions as a hindrance to good decisions. Yet many successful businessmen, fund managers and traders make decisions based on their gut instinct. This is not without merit.
• Your intuition has been honed by years of decision making success. The higher your rate of success, the easier the decision will be. And the outcome is not half as bad. Instead of ignoring the key element of our humanity, we should learn to use it to greater effect.

On Difficulty in selecting the right option

• Experienced decision makers face difficulties in selecting the right option because of the possibility of a bad outcome. This fear paralyses the decision maker as the outcome is being delayed waiting for the 'right time' or 'more information'. 
• How much more certain will you be if you wait for the appropriate timing and right amount of information? Sometimes, the longer you wait, the greater the chance that circumstances have shifted out of your favour and the higher the chance of a bad outcome. If a decision has to be made, make it fast. Choose the option that meets all your constraints, complements your decision objective and the amount of resources you have and hold the least or most manageable business risks. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Surviving outside your comfort zone

This post came out from The Straits Times (30 June 2008r)
Title - Surviving outside your comfort zone

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Break down your goals
2. Keep calm
3. Ask for guidance
4. Expect setbacks

On Break down your goals

• The ideal way to achieve career goals is to break them down into smaller goals. This helps to maintain a momentum of achievement which makes the end result easier to reach. Once these goals are safely realised, it is then time to set new ones. It can be easy to forget these principles of goal-setting when you find yourself thrown into the deep end.

On Keep calm

• The most important thing in a situation like this is to remember to keep calm. Take your time tackling difficult tasks or making difficult decisions. Try not to take unnecessary risks or let yourself be rushed. It is a good idea to develop your own method for working through these challenges.
• Your method may be something as simple as putting your thoughts down on paper in the form or pros and cons, or perhaps going for a walk outside the office to clear your mind.

On Ask for guidance

• When faced with a difficult decision, don't be afraid to ask for guidance from others. Ideally, you should have a mentor whom you can go to in times of difficulty. 
• Find someone you trust and respect, and don't be afraid to ask for help - it is not a sign of weakness and should not be perceived as one. Asking for feedback on the way you handled things is often the best way to learn.

On Expect setbacks

• Understand that you will probably have disappointments and setbacks. You will be required to do things you have never done before, and this means you may not always get things right the first time.
• Setbacks won't be much fund at the time, but once you have achieved your goals, you will look back and appreciate them for the invaluable learning experience they provide. Achieving your goals will be much sweeter if they took considerable effort and resilience to get there. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Practice five strategies to stand out and get noticed at work

This post came out from The Straits Times (21 February 2014)
Title - Rise and Shine - Practice five strategies to stand out and get noticed at work

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Be sociable and network
2. Help your colleagues succeed
3. Accept responsibilities
4. Get involved
5. Stay away from politics

On Be sociable and network

• If you are always hiding behind your computer and keeping your head down, no one will know you even exist. People may not even know who you are. Spend a few minutes at the start of the day or at lunchtime to meet and greet your colleagues. Chat to people you don't usually chat with when you see them in a lift or in the pantry. Smile at a stranger, you may make a new friend.
• It is important to develop and nurture relationships at work. When you are visible, you will be noticed. When you are noticed, you will be the top of mind for that new project, and you will get more help than someone who does not network.
• Keep building your network outside working hours too; socialising with colleagues after work is a great way to get to know them better and be a real team player.

On Help your colleagues succeed

• A lot of our careers are a direct result of helping others become successful. As we helped to create opportunities for others, doors have opened for us too. 
• Helping others is a great sign of collaborative relationship, great teamwork and self confidence. You can help others as well as yourself by developing a close relationship with all your colleagues. 
• Show you are constantly working together, helping each other, guiding each other and providing each other with hands on support. And don't forget it works both ways. While you are helping others, be just as enthusiastic about learning from your colleagues. In this way, you are building mutually productive and rewarding relationships where everyone wins.

On Accept responsibilities

• If you say "It's not my job", that will get you noticed for the wrong reasons. Perhaps take on something that requires creative thinking, or event organising, or something else you are interested in that is not particularly in your job scope.
• But a word of warning here: Be sure you still manage all of your current responsibilities well. The last thing you need is to get noticed for the wrong reasons.

On Get involved

• Don't be someone who just does his work and then goes home. Get involved in your company's events. These are ways to get seen and noticed, and to make new friends too.

On Stay away from politics

• Don't get caught up in any of the negativity in office politics. Instead, keep focused on being positive, effective and productive, and creating an impact at work. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Work like a new hire

This post came out from The Straits Times (31 May 2008)
Title - Work like a new hire

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Love what you do
2. Strive to impact others
3. Stay curious always
4. Mix with like-minded people

On Love what you do

• One way to rediscover your passion is remembering what got you into doing what you are doing now in the first place. Which aspects of your job are you truly passionate about?
• Start identifying what really matters to you and work on the areas that you value most in your career. Take pride in what you love doing and pursue it relentlessly. 
• If your current job does not allow you to do that, it might be best to rediscover that passion in an organisation or environment that does or encourages that - so that you can thrive and make a career out of the things you love to do.

On Strive to impact others

• People who constantly seek to impact others through their work often retain a high level of passion in what they do.
• If you want more meaning in your job, you might want to explore how you can transform your passion into a passion for others - how you can impact your environment or the people around you. It is not how you begin, but how you end that matters.

On Stay curious always

• Many people feel stuck in their careers because they are not learning anything new. One of the ways to keep that motivational flame in you going is to constantly fuel it with ideas, information and news relevant to your work. 
• Unless you are undoubtedly the best in the industry, there is always something to learn, something that you can do much better than your peers or your competitors. Identify the areas in which others are doing better than you, and make it your mission to outperform them.
• Incorporate continuous learning as an integral part of your job, and develop an insatiable curiosity and appetite for anything and anyone that is relevant to your line of work.
• When you are constantly on a quest for more knowledge to improve yourself, it expands your horizons greatly and keeps you from feeling stagnant and bored.
• You owe it to yourself to live up to your passion and let it drive your career, instead of allowing it to become a stumbling block in your life.

On Mix with like-minded people

• You will be surprised at the amount of positive energy you can get from being in the same room with like-minded people - people who share the same dreams, hobbies or passion as you do. This is something magical about listening and talking to others in the same industry or job - who may be equally enthusiastic or even more passionate about their work than you are - and hearing about their experiences first hand.
• Surround yourself with the "newly passionate" - people who are new to the job and brimming with fresh confidence and pride in their work. Their relentless pursuit of success and learning will serve as a strong reminder of how ardent you used to be when you first get into the job, and may help inject a fresh perspective to your work.
• You can continue to maintain a high level of energy and passion not only through learning from them, but also by teaching, coaching, mentoring and sharing with others what you know. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

The road to innovation - Organisations must first ask themselves what they want to achieve

This post came out from The Straits Times (20 February 2016)
Title - The road to innovation - Organisations must first ask themselves what they want to achieve

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Keep in touch with our customers' needs and industry shifts to ensure that we have a pulse on what is of real value to our customers and organisation.
2. Have an open mind. Be enriched by the diversity that different people, environment and life experiences bring. Stay curious and keep our minds stimulated. This richness of input will create a corresponding richness of output in our thinking.
3. Have a reasonable margin of risk tolerance to fuel the spirit of adventure in us. If we only want to stick with the safe and proven, we will never venture into the unknown and discover exciting opportunities ahead.
4. Question old assumptions. Assumptions that worked in the past cannot remain inviolable when circumstances have changed. We need to break the frame created by old assumptions and avoid groupthink. Question orthodoxy and think afresh.
5. The ability to understand linkages between things seemingly unrelated is what drives innovative thinking. This depends on the diversity of the ideas and experiences that we expose ourselves to.
6. Finally, be enthusiastic about innovation. Passion and openness to others' ideas will in turn enthuse and encourage them to think differently. Ideas breed ideas and success breeds success.

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Be an effective listener

This post came out from The Straits Times (8 June 2012)
Title - Be an effective listener - Increase workplace productivity by lending an ear to your employees

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Benefits
2. An active process

On Benefits

• Creating a trusting environment - Managers who listen effectively make people feel valued and encourage the sharing of ideas and thoughts. 
• Objective decision making - Through effective listening, managers get more information and feedback from their staff. This allows issues to be understood and examined with greater depth and basically support the making of careful, informed decisions.
• Resolving workplace conflicts - Volatile emotions can be diffused when people feel they are being listened to. The feeling of not being heard is a major reason for workplace aggression and rudeness. Managers who practice effective listening are better able to anticipate and reduce inter-personal conflicts and seek resolution through win-win solutions.
• Playing multiple roles -  Effective listening also helps managers play other important roles in the organisation as mentors, coaches and counsellors.

On An active process

• Objective - Must be to truly listen to what the speaker is saying and to fully understand the meaning, ideas and concepts being presented. This involves a deliberate effort to concentrate entirely on the conversation.
• Focus - Involves focusing entirely on the speaker, maintaining appropriate eye contact and playing careful attention to the spoken words and speaker's body language. The listener must concurrently avoid emotional, physical and cultural distractions like wandering thoughts, background noise, speaker's way of dressing, his accent or choice of vocabulary.
• Emotional detachment - Must remain attentive to the content and context of the conversation by detaching himself from personal prejudices and unproductive emotional triggers such as anger, fear and shame. This helps to keep situations from spiralling out of control and is especially important when cultural assumptions and biases can become serious barrier to the listening process.
• Encouragement - Give encouragement to the speaker without interrupting by deferring judgement and counter arguments. Also, show the speaker that you are listening through appropriate body language, facial expressions and gestures. 
• Evaluation - Come to a clearer understanding of the speaker's message without jumping to conclusion based on emotional filters and incomplete information.
• Acknowledgement - Respond appropriately and respectfully by summarising what the speaker has said, to make sure that the message has been understood. Ask questions, make comments and assert your opinions with sensitivity. This helps to convey to the speaker that you have been listening but are not necessarily agreeing with everything that has been said. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Build better relationships - Earn the respect and trust of your colleagues with these tips

This post came out from The Straits Times (27 February 2012)
Title - Build better relationships - Earn the respect and trust of your colleagues with these tips

Some pointers that I've got are:

1. Value the relationship
2. Communicate effectively
3. Provide solutions
4. Don't blame people
5. Be reliable
6. Be professional
7. Always give your best
8. Treat everyone equally
9. Resolve any conflicts quickly
10. Have informal meetings
11. Share credit
12. Pick your battle wisely

On Value the relationship

• You need to invest time and effort to understand your colleagues' needs and to deal with obstacles. Even if you try and fail, at least you've given it your best shot.

On Communicate effectively

• This forms the foundation for a positive working relationship. Open lines of communication keep information, opinions and support flowing. Put yourself in your colleagues' shoes and respect their points of view that may be different from your own.

On Provide solutions

• Some employees spend a disproportionate amount of time identifying problems. Thoughtful solutions take more effort and will earn you respect and admiration. 

On Don't blame people

• You alienate your colleagues when you play the blame game. Focus on the process and issues that cause and employee to fail. Publicly identifying and blaming others for failures will only earn you enemies.

On Be reliable

• In an organisation, work is interrelated. If you fail to meet deadlines and commitments, you affect the work of others. Always keep commitments. If you can't, make sure the affected employees are kept up to date. Provide a new deadline and make every possible effort to honour it. 

On Be professional

• Never participate in gossip or discuss your colleagues' business behind their backs. People will trust you and know that what they tell you is safe and in your hands. Relationships thrive only when trust is present.

On Always give your best

• When working on a project together, always be the person who is willing to do extra to strengthen the collaboration and the outcome or product.

On Treat everyone equally

• No matter their position within your organisation, all people are equal. They just have different jobs. 

On Resolve any conflicts quickly

• Unresolved conflicts festers under the surface in organisations. Unresolved conflicts undermines relationships and mutual, purposeful progress towards accomplishing personal and organisational missions.

On Have informal meetings

• When meeting with someone with the specific purpose of developing your relationship with that person, think about holding the meeting in a setting in which he will feel comfortable. When people are relaxed, they tend to share what is important to them more openly.

On Share credit

• Take the time to thank, reward, recognise and specify the contributions of the people who help you succeed. This is a sure-win method to build effective work relationships.

On Pick your battles wisely

• Sometimes letting a colleague's differing opinion prevail to gain support on other more important issues may be the best thing to do. Give in on the little decisions, or those that appear to be more important to the colleague. You'll easily gain support for the decisions that are important to you. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

The Art of Evangelism

Article from Harvard Business Review by Guy Kawasaki

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. About evangelism
2. Schmoozing
3. Public speaking
4. Social media

On About evangelism

• When you become an effective evangelist, you don't just promote your organisation - you set an example for other employees. You show that you are a passionate, engaged team member. You inspire your colleagues. And you demonstrate your leadership ability. Look around your office and you'll see evanglists everywhere - the EVP who regularly contributes to conference panels; the teammate who tweets about industry research; the executive assistant who puts photos of new products in her Pinterest feed. They are the kinds of leaders companies want in their ranks today. So you should develop the skills yo uneed to join the club. 
• In my experience, there are three ways to effective evangelize: old-fashioned schmoozing, public speaking, and social media.

On Schmoozing

• It's much easier to evangelize to people you already know or people who already know you. The process of building such social connections is what we call schmoozing. If you're hesitant about this, because you are shy or you consider it offensive or manipulative, you need to change your mind. Doing this helps you to discover what you can do for someone else, and is the key to building the extensive, long-lasting, and trusting relationships that will make people believe what you have to say about your organisation. 
• Get out - Schmoozing is contact sport. You can't do it from your cubical, so force yourself to walk around the office, visit different floors and corporate locations, attend trade shows, conventions, seminars, conferences, and cocktail receptions.
• Ask questions - Good schmoozers don't dominate the conversation. They initiate it and then shut up and listen.
• Unveil your passions - If you can talk only about your job, you're a boring person. Successful schmoozers are passionate about multiple and diverse interests. A benefit of those passions is that they provide additional ways to connect with people. 
• Follow up - Send an email or call within 24 hours of meeting someone. Few people ever follow up, so the ones who do distinguish themselves as worth knowing.
• Email effectively - Email is a key tool. Make sure to optimize your subject lines and keep your messages short and simple, resend unanswered emails as a nudge, and always respond within 48 hours. 
• Make it easy to get in touch - Many people who want to be great schmoozers fail because they don't print their cell numbers on their business cards or include contact information in the signature area of their emails. Don't create hurdles to connection.
• Do favours - I believe there's a karmic scoreboard that tracks what you do for people. If you want to be a world-class schmoozer, ensure that your number on that scoreboard is high.

On Public speaking

• Deliver quality content - It's much easier to give a great speech if you have something to communicate. If you don't have anything to say, decline the opportunity. If you don't want to decline, do some research and find something interesting to say. That is 80% of the battle.
• Omit the sales pitch - Don't spend your time promoting yourself and your organisation or denigrating the competition. The worst speech you can give is one that people can interpret as a sales pitch.
• Customise - Tailor the first three to five minutes of every speech you make to the audience you're addressing that day. This will demonstrate that you've done your homework and have made an effort to provide a valuable and special experience. Try to find a personal link to the audience.
• Focus on entertaining - Many speech coaches will disagree with this, but they probably don't speak 50 times a year, as I do. My theory is that the goal of a speech is to entertain. If people are entertained, you can slip in a few nuggets of information. But if your speech is dull, no amount of information will make it great.
• Tell stories - The best way to relax when giving a speech is to tell stories - about your youth, kids, customers, things you have read. When you tell a story, you lose yourself in the storytelling. Good speakers are good storytellers, great speakers tell stories that support their message. 
• Circulate in the audience beforehand - Heighten interest in your success by meeting your listeners before the speech. Talk to them. Let them make contact with you - especially people in the first few rows. Then, when your're onstage, you'll see their friendly faces and your confidence will soar.
• Control what you can - If you have a choice, speak at the beginning of an event and ask for a small room. A  just-seated audience is more apt to listen to you, laugh at your jokes, and follow along with your stories, and a packed room is a more emotional one. It is better to have 200 people in a 200 seat room, rather than 500 people in a 1,000 seat room. 

On Social Media

• Offer value - Good stuffs come in four forms: information (what happened?), analysis (what does it mean?), assistance (how do I do that?) and entertainment (what the hell?)
• Be interesting - Many people mistakenly assume that their followers want to read about a narrow band of subjects. To do so would be boring, which doesn't work on social media. You should think more broadly.
• Take chances - Social media favour the bold, so don't hesitate to express your feelings and agenda. Take strong stands on issues that affect you, your organisation and your customers. 
• Keep it brief - People make snap judgments and move along if you don't capture their interest quickly. 
• Be a mensch - A mensch is a kind and honorable person who does the right thing the right way. Share other people's posts, make positive and intelligent comments, and suggest resources and solutions. Especially when you're curating, every post should contain a link, which sends traffic to the source as an act of gratitude, enables readers to learn more, and increase your visibility and popularity with bloggers and websites.
• Add drama - Every post should contain 'eye candy' in the form of a photo, graphic, or a video. If you have more than four paragraphs, try to use a bulleted or numbered list. 
• Tempt with headlines - I find posts titled "How to...", "Top 10..." or "The Ultimate..." irresistible. These words say to me, This is going to be practical and useful.
• Use hashtags - Hastags connect posts from people all over the world and add structure to an otherwise unstructure ecosystem. When you add hashtag to a post, you are telling people the post is relevant to a shared topic.
• Stay active - Be active I mean three to 20 different posts a day. As long as your posts are good, you can share more than that. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Fooled by experience - What you think you've learned may be wrong. A guide to figuring out the real lessons

Article from Harvard Business Review by Emre Soyer and Robin M. Hogarth

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. We focus on what we can see
2. We trust our circle of advisers
3. We overvalue our own experiences
4. 6 ways not to be fooled

On We focus on what we can see

• In the business environment, the outcomes of decisions are highly visible, readily available for us to observe and judge. But the details of the decision process, which we can control far more than the result, typically don't catch our attention. If the aim is to learn from experience - mistakes as well as success - acknowledging that process is crucial. 
• The tendency to over-reward the results of a decision and under-reward its quality is known as the outcome bias. This bias can influence our actions in subtle ways. 
• A good outcome can lead us to stick with a questionable strategy, and a bad outcome can cause us to change or discard a strategy that may still be worthwhile. 
• A focus on outcomes can also influence our sense of ethics. A Harvard Business School working paper finds that "the same behaviours produce more ethical condemnation when they happen to produce bad rather than good outcomes, even if the outcomes are determined by chance." In other words, if everything turns out OK, we're more likely to think that the decision was not just effective but also morally sound. 
• Our attention to outcomes - and disregard of the processes that create them - makes solutions seem more valuable than preventive actions. A decision maker who solves a burning problem can be identified and rewarded, while one who takes action to avoid the same problem is far harder to spot. 
• Among outcomes, successes are more visible than failures. The business world is awash with success stories. Relying on stories of successes and on analyses of what those successes have in common is as unreliable a practice as it is popular. 
• Observing the common managerial practices of existing organisations can mislead us in a couple of ways. First, failures can share some of the same traits as successes. Second, if certain factors always lead to failure, we won't be able to discover them by studying on successes. 
• Ignoring failures has another effect. It masks the failure rate. It the rate is high, chances are there is no magic formula for success. And if there's no magic formula, then a manager can't be faulted for missing it. By concealing the prevalence of failures, the environment makes it more difficult for us to learn from them. Instead, we are fooled into thinking that we have more control over success than we actually do.

On We trust our circle of advisers

• Honest feedback - an unbiased, undistorted assessment of one's experience - is essential for improving decisions. Yet decision makers are often surrounded by individuals who have incentives to feed them censored and self serving information - and these people are not necessarily a crowd of yes-men. 
• Censorship is a powerful tool for influencing opinion. Restricting the information that reaches decision makers installs a strong bias in their perceptions. Even if we are aware of the existence of censors, it can be difficult to think beyond the immediate available information. Our intuitions are often shared by the evidence we recall, no matter its relevance - a tendency cognitive scientists call the availability bias. 
• Leaders run the danger of being surrounded by followers who fool them with flattery and isolate them from uncomfortable realities. In this way, flattery can be an especially powerful filter. 
• Your demeanor can make matters worse. Shooting the messenger doesn't facilitate healthy communication. Indeed, welcoming criticisms is hard, especially for people with a high status. 
• Censorship and a desire for conformity give decision makers a distorted view of their strategic competence, a bias that can result in their downfall. 
• Executives who are surrounded by people who agree with them may also experience decreased creativity and problem-solving abilities. Conceiving an idea, a strategy, or a methodology is rarely a solo act. A successful creative endeavor involves input from a diverse set of people. If everyone is simply trying to confirm, the group cannot benefit from people's background, perspectives and experiences.

On We overvalue our own experience

• We can't place all the blame for our distorted view of the world on the environment and our inner circle. Some of the lame lies with us. Our own reasoning ability can sabotage how we collect information and evaluate evidence. We end up learning the wrong lessons from our experience - even when it's possible to learn the right ones. 
• One issue is that we tend to search for and use evidence that confirms our beliefs and hypotheses, and we gloss over or ignore information that contradicts them - an exercise of selectively building and interpreting experience known as confirmation bias. We can easily support our beloved superstitions, spurious correlations and bogus connections. This natural tendency of the human mind hinders competent decision making. 
• Some see external, information-rich big data as a possible remedy, but data is subject to the same kinds of bias. If analysts cherry-pick information to suit managers' expectations, managers will be reassured about their decisions and see no need to improve them. And once misleading insights are data-approved, they are even harder to challenge. 
• Another issue is our memory. The philosopher John Staurt Mill wrote in On Liberty, "There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realised, until personal experience has brought it home." Mill's sentiment assumes that we record and remember events accurately. We don't. 
• In addition to the poor quality and reliability of our memory of experience, there is the crucial problem of quantity. The issue is sampling variability: A manager's personal experience is inevitably based on small samples of incidents that are most likely unrepresentative of the whole context. 
• Our belief in the relationship between the past and the future also can interfere with our view of the world. Predictions based on experience make the crucial assumption that the future will resemble the past. 
• Managers should be aware that just because something seems obvious after the fact does not mean that it could have been predicted. Decision makers often fall into this hindsight bias, which can lead to overconfidence and illusions of control. When it comes to effective decision making, not knowing that you cannot predict is a bigger sin than not being able to predict. 

On 6 ways not to be fooled

• Sample failure - Failures and the process that lead to them are doomed to stay in the dark unless special occasions are created to share their experiences of defeat. To identify what could be done better in the future, companies can also conduct decision postmortems to analyse underlying processes. Of course, the goal of learning must dominate the natural tendency to assign blame. 
• Don't miss near misses - Another often ignored event is the near miss, a failure that's disguised as a success, but only because there are generally no dire consequences. Having a risk-free, anonymous reporting channels can reduce close calls and disastrous mistakes in many sectors.
• Pursue prevention - Recognising a potential problem requires a different approach than solving an actual problem. One strategy is to harness employees' collective talents by allowing people to raise concerns about the firm's operations. Many companies' incentive mechanisms work exactly to the contrary, and employees often hesitate to speak up for fear of reprisal or being labeled a nuisance. Employees should be made to feel comfortable reporting issues to the very top - even obliged to do so. 
• Disagree - To devise healthy strategies, executives need to hear many perspectives, including feedback that is critical of their own actions. Executives should surround themselves with people from diverse backgrounds and promote independent thinking in their team. 
• Disconfirm - Rather than finding clues that corroborate your hunch - all too easy in an information rich world - start by asking yourself how you could know you were, in fact, wrong. What evidence would contradict your belief and how likely is it hat you would see it? One technique is to use this thought experiment: Imagine that you are already in the future and things have not turned out as you had oped. Now use your new hindsight to ask how this might have happened. If you do go the route of using big data, refrain from revealing your hopes and dreams to the data scientists you hire to collect and mine information. Ask questions in a way that prompts them to look for caveats that would endanger your mission but that doesn't reveal what you actually hope they'll find. 
• Lose focus - It may seem that to mine our experience for valuable lessons, we must focus on the experiences we think really matter. In fact, a narrow perspective can be a serious impediment. When people focus too much on an issue or a task, they inevitably miss out on unexpected opportunities. Being open to the unexpected is also critical for individuals. A wide perspective can help, giving new meaning to our varied experiences and allowing us to learn from them and draw on them in surprising ways. The result is often serendipitous discovery and innovation. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

How to have effective working relationships

This post came out from The Straits Times (3 February 2016)
Title - How to have effective working relationships

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Staying positive
2. Building long lasting relationships
3. Handling tough people

On Staying positive

• The workplace is an extension of your daily life, and just like in life, it is always good to surround yourself with positive people at work. That does not mean you avoid people you do not get along with. Try to make the best out of any situation and focus on being in positive situations to succeed at work. This will in turn increase the confidence your colleagues have in you. 
• It is important to maintain good relationships with everyone regardless of their role, seniority, and influence on your career progression. Over the course of your work, you may disagree with others but it does not mean you should not have a good relationship with them. Maintain healthy debates and discuss on matters, yet leverage on combined skills and expertise for the overall benefit of the team and company.

On Building long lasting relationships

• Trust is an important component of any relationship, be it personal or professional. Building up the trust people have in you by demonstrating empathy, effective listening, respecting differences in opinions, accepting and celebrating diversity at the workplace, handling failures with accountability instead of blaming others, and recognising effort and achievements. 
• The foundation of all these acts is a sincere desire to develop positive relationships which can drive appropriate and sustainable behaviour.

On handling tough people

• The most common habit people have is to let a strained relationship worsen. Communication is important when it comes to talking to a boss or colleague who may not see eye to eye with you. There may be tough and uncomfortable conversations but you just have to brace yourself and face the situation if this is a colleague you want to have a smoother working relationship with.
• Initiate a private, preferably face-to-face conversation. It is important to be able to see his or her body language in order to fully understand and move past the situation.
• Be honest, positive, open and do not be confrontational about the purpose of your meeting.
• Be factual. Ask open-ended questions that effectively probe the problem. For instance, if he or she points out some of your negative traits, ask him or her for specifics as well as what would be an ideal situation should the incident happen again. The more descriptive, the better.
• Listen. Respond when appropriate but do not defend yourself or react emotionally. The objective of the conversation is to get the other party to open up about what they are bothered about. You want to be able to agree with each other and move forward sincerely. 
• If the person does not wish to communicate with you, try again another time using a different approach. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Five time saving work tips

This post came out from The New Paper (26 January 2016)
Title - Five time saving work tips

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Prepare in advance
2. Wake up earlier
3. Plan your day
4. Ask questions
5. Find uninterrupted time

On Prepare in advance

• Are you always forgetting items or getting dressed in a hurry in the morning? Avoid leaving things until the last minute. 

On Wake up earlier

• Sleep early, and wake up 10 minutes earlier to give yourself a slight buffer. Waking up earlier boosts your mental alertness and puts you in a better mood because you feel less stressed about being late. 

On Plan your day

• Think about what the day holds in store for you in the morning before you reach the office. If you have a long work commute, think about what you need to do for the day on the bus or train so you know better what to expect.

On Ask questions

• When faced with a challenging assignment, get a clear picture of what you need to do before starting. This prevents you from doing the assignment wrongly, which is what may happen when you rush into a task before you understand what is required.

On Find uninterrupted time

• If you are constantly being interrupted at work, find other ways to complete your assignments on time. If your office is noisy, work on your laptop in a meeting room during lunch, or refrain from checking your email or chatting with your colleagues until you have completed your tasks. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big

Go the extra mile to add value

This post came out from The New Paper (21 January 2016)
Title - Go the extra mile to add value - Some initiatives in the office goes a long way

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Keep everyone in the loop
2. Step out of your comfort zone
3. Don't doubt yourself
4. Recognise areas for improvement
5. Be a champion of new ideas
6. Learn from your mistakes

On Keep everyone in the loop

• Communication is key. Be sure to communicate with those who are connected with your work - be it your peers, supervisors, managers, or stakeholders. Our decisions and actions can impact others.

On Step out of your comfort zone

• Every endeavour requires some risk taking. Be ready to seize opportunities to display some initiatives and act with confidence.
• Learn from constructive comments and ignoring malicious criticism will give you the belief and confidence that you need to take the initiative when necessary.

On Don't doubt yourself

• Being confident entails keeping a delicate balance that many people have difficulty with. Over-confidence can lead to arrogance, whereas a lack of confidence causes self-doubt that will hinder your ability to demonstrate initiative. 

On Recognise areas for improvement

• Set aside some time to perform your daily tasks as if it is the first time you are doing them. View such tasks with a set of fresh eyes. In doing so, some elements of the process may be improved and in turn result in greater efficiency, and may even save time and costs. "Good enough" is never enough.

On Be a champion of new ideas

• Don't settle for the old way of doing something just because that is what has been done for years. There could be a more efficient way of doing it.
• Do your homework. Ensure you understand all aspects of your proposal - including its limitations, before you recommend a change or improvement to a product, service or process.

On Learn from your mistakes

• Sometimes, the most well thought out plan can fail in execution. When mistakes occur, use them as learning opportunities. Take the responsibility to look after an issue or event by finding the answer is what it means to show initiative. 
• Don't give up on demonstrating initiative because of a single negative experience. Use the experience wisely to ensure such mistakes or omissions will never recur. 

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big