A "tough" leader @ work

I see many managers / leaders handled their staff with their own 101 ways. However sometimes they will start to question themselves if the method they used is the right one. For me, one of the “must read” book when you faced dilemma being a leader, is to refer to my favourite book called “The One Minute Manager” by Dr Blanchard and Spencer Johnson. Below is an interesting story from the book that makes me realised that as a leader, we must first master the method of “dush” before knowing the “sayang” to our subordinates.

Once upon a time, an emperor appointed a second in command. He called this prime minister in and, in effect, said to him, "Why don’t we divide up the tasks?" Why don’t you do all the punishing and I’ll do all the rewarding?" The prime minister said "Fine. I’ll do all the punishing and you do all the rewarding.” This emperor soon noticed that whenever he asked someone to do something, they might do it or they might not do it.
However, when the prime minister spoke, people moved. So the emperor called the prime minister back in and said, "Why don’t we divide the tasks again? You have been doing all the punishing here for quite a while. Now let me do the punishing and you do the rewarding." So the prime minister and the emperor switched roles again.

Within a month the prime minister became the emperor. Why? What happen?

The emperor had been a nice person, rewarding and being kind to everyone at first; then he started to punish people. People said, "What’s wrong with that old codger?" and they threw him out on his ear. When they came to look for a replacement, they said, "You know who’s really starting to come around now—the prime minister!". So, they put him right into office.

Start reading! And enjoy the journey to be One Minute Manager.

Celebrate your wins!

WOW~ Yesterday was my company (People Reengineering Consultancy) 1st year anniversary. Time flies! I only realise it this morning after my prayers. So I took some time to reflect on the progress I had made for the past 1 year. Hm.....still on the right track! :) In fact I know that many organization is now busy with the half yearly performance appraisal review too! Have you gone through your appraisal with your superior? Share with me if you want my advice. lols

This morning I log into facebook and saw my cousin ask this question "Why we need to celebrate our wins?" I shared "In life, we have ups and down. Very often, we tends to think about the "misfortune" (past bad experience/incidents) we had in life. Thus, celebrating our wins can anchor the good feelings in us and creating self-confidence and momentum to move on....". I always count my blessings despite all the challenges that I had to go through since childhood. Sometimes I even tell my friends that I am very happy now (我觉得自己很幸福) because along the way, I realised letting go the attachment of negative emotions make you feel lighter.

And most importantly I alway celebrate my success, be it SMALL, MEDIUM or BIG success. Treat myself a good sushi meal, entertain myself with an inspiring movie, go for a short holiday, or (save money) free myself one day doing what I like at home......as a mean of reward to myself. So nice isnt? Every part of it make you a better person, every part of it make your life more fulfilling! So, start celebrate your wins!

The meaning of "L.O.V.E"

Yesterday ended my 2 days seminar in Port Dickson. The participants were fantastic. I am inpired by their enthusiasm and passion for life. Most of them are in their 20s, no doubt they have "unlimited energy" to go through all the challenges in the program. Yet what really makes me happy is they really put their "heart" in learning. You can feel the joy in them and it infects you too!

Sharing on the part of "L.O.V.E" is the most touching session. I saw one youtube elaborating LOVE as below:

L - Listen emphatically to others. Listen what is inside their heart.

O - Obligate to what others had sacrificed for you - our family members, friends, colleagues etc.

V - Value the differences in age, gender, race and their model of the world

E - Excuse others for their mistakes and encourage them to do better.

Some of us give our love to our family members and the people we know. Some even willing to give to those that they dont know (doing charity services, helping the disables etc). Unconditional love spread throughout the world and touches every single life! How big is your love?

The "Zen & Zest" of Life

Last 2 days we have Greeea..aat time together in Kundasang, Ranau, Sabah. We went to a resort called Zen Garden. Beautiful place. I love conducting training here because of the fresh air and cool weather. It makes me feel so near to the nature and it connects to my inner world. I can see Mount Kinabalu clearly when the sky is bright. It looks so great! It is a wonderful world, isn't it?
You guys/gals enjoy so much playing together, laughing together, crying together, teasing together and having personal breakthrough together this 2 days. I think the program matches with the concept of "Zen" (in buddhism) meaning "living in the present moment, the NOW!"

I see some of you really "transform" and willing to take charge of your life, decided to create new chapter in life that is near to your heart. I can see your energy level is higher compare to the first day you walk into the training hall. Some of you really surprises me with your enthusiasm and changes after the training. I want to salute to you because you are making your life a better one now!

I feel very touch during certain activities because some of you have the courage to stand out to share your feelings and let is just flow out naturally. I can see the happy tears filling your eyes when you talk. Actually it gives me greater strengths and confident reassuring myself that what I am doing for my life is right and meaningful. I want to add value to your life.

Doing what you love doing is a blessing! Even though I spend very little hours sleeping for the past few nights preparing for the program, I did not feel tired. In contrary, I felt so energized by the wonderful team spirit, I feel so empowered and self-fulling. I think this is called the "Zest" of life! Are you doing what you passionate about NOW???!!! If yes, let's strive on!

Change can happen NOW!

It was a fruitful and wonderful experience for me attending a series of weekends classes for Master Practitioner in NLP, TLT and Hynopsis. I know that you are starting to wonder what are all these stuff....well, it is good to wonder because it means that you are thinking. Haha........now I can start adding values to my clients as I acquired more healing tools and methods. It was such a valuable course. We overcome our inner fear, personal breakthrough, changing new values, practice modeling and most thrilling is that we need to go through the voluntary "test" of walking on fire and EAT fire! (nothing else to eat?). Honestly speaking, I passed the test :). And If I can do it, I am sure you can do that too!

Do you believe in the law of attraction? Well, within 1 week after the program, someone came to me for help. At first I wasnt aware that she had a problem. Then later when I look into her eyes and her facial expression, I realised she need some help. Thus, I went through with her to uncover the problem and found out the root cause. I taught her using "collapse anchor" to overcome her negative feelings.

The next day I went to the office and ask her if she feels better. To my surprise, she says that she is already 100% congruent with herself. I was "shocked" to know that the method is so impactful. That makes me realised that "change can happen NOW!" Sometimes we tend to give ourself a lot of excuses, reasons and logics that we need time to change some of our unwanted behavior yet this girl proved to me that we can choose NOT to believe that! If she can, why not you?

Customer Service

Few days ago, My clients brought me to one of the so called "No.1" hotel in their state. As I had heard many good remarks about this hotel, I was so eager to have a look at the place and expecting the "wow" services there. To my surprise, the employees are not well-trained at all. My clients booked the meeting room earlier. When we arrived, we asked for the direction to our meeting room but we got the typical answer "I dont know! I am not sure! Nobody tell me about this!" (If anything happen, NOT my fault!). Then came the second staff when he saw us about to leave. He answer "Of course we have the meeting room, please follow me". He brought us to a few meeting room which are "messy", expecting us to wait for them to clean up. (Wrong strategy, No results!). I wonder if the management understand the importance of customer service.

There are many incidents when I approached the customer service officer or front desk, he ro she will look at me with a "sour" face as if I owe them "$$$" but in contradict their badge is flowered with words such as "service with smile". What a pity! I believe an organization must always match the company's vision, mission or even core values in line with the employee's behavior at the work place. Communications play an importance role in making sure all levels of employees understand the directions, values and expected behaviors to build the company image and culture. One way to do this is to set clear KPI (key performance indicators) with 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent) ratings with clear elaborations on each. These will also serve as a SOP (Standard Operating Procedures) for them to upgrade their skills.

Please rate yourself as below. It covers for both internal or external customer.

1 (very poor) - No alertness in customer services. Very lacking of smiling face and eye contact. Don't like to greet customers and often received complaints and negative feedback.

2 (poor) - Low alertness in customer services. Greet with smiling face and having eye contacts to selective customers only. Most of the customers do not feel happy about the services.

3 (Average) - Customers' basic needs are met. No complaint about the services and no "wow" as well.

4 (Good) - Greet all customers with smiling face, having eye contacts during communication. High alertness at work. Customer requests are dealt promptly and satisfactorily.

5(Excellent)- Greet all customers with smiling face, having eye contact during communication and high alertness. Customer are deligheted with "wow" (gave compliments to him/her).

Where are you?

Inspirations and Motivation

It has been quite some time I did not write my blog. As a matter of fact, I thought that no one actually log in and read my sharings. To my surprise, when I came to Kota Kinabalu and met Mary yesterday, she told me that for quite some time I "neglected" my blog. I got a shock when I knew that some other ex-colleagues such as Flavia and Sumi oftenly checked on my blogs too! They want to seek for some new inspiration and motivation at work and in life.

As an apology for that, I would present a gift to my dearest and loyal supporters with this 2 wonderful youtube clips :) which gave me much realization of individual potential provided we determine long enough to achieve our dreams.

Both the clips show that ordinary people turn into extraordinary figures overnight. They look too normal on the outside, like you and me. Yet, you will realise how wonderful they are when they perform. So, my dear friends, bear in mind that both had spend years and years to cultivate their interest, determination to continue what they like to do, endless effort to improve their skills, until one day they appear to be a "star". If you want to be a star, start preparing now, maybe after 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, or even 35 years later like Susan Boyle, finally your talent being recognized and overnight you become the "superstar".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leL4smXXiDU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY