No idea is bad idea
How many times you have heard this? ‘No idea is bad idea!’ Yet how many times you’ve become disappointed that your idea was not selected? You felt managers / organization are bias? Well, you should never feel such away. Sometimes our ideas are ahead of time. And not suitable for current situation in hand. Have a habit of keeping track of the ideas. You may never know, one day it will become a Big savior or Big hit. Or it will pave way for you to come up with many more great ideas. I’ve experienced that multiple time in my creative journey. As far as you can come up with an idea, have confidence to share it openly, you are doing great. You don’t need endorsement from anyone.
Little Things
We believe we are too busy for anything. And we keep all the simple joy away from ourselves. Do you agree with me? I was introduced to observing and enjoying beauty of nature when I was an undergraduate, 20 yrs ago. It was Dr Kader Ibrahim, who spoke about appreciating small things of nature and getting abundance in return, in one of his seminars for undergraduates. Somehow, I picked it up for life. About 10 years ago when I read Monk Who sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma the habit built even stronger in me. This technique helps to overcome stress and pressure in no time. It also allows us to realize our full potential to be creative and innovative. As usual Give It a go. And share it if you like it.
Leadership Writeup
😅Leadership is not easy, why? Because it involves people in every aspect, don’t you think so? People are complex beings isn’t it? 🫣 Especially in a demanding service industries like health care. Its all about people from end to end and the setting is very complex. 🧬 Multiple departments, cross functions shift work kind of things makes it dynamic yet complex. I had an opportunity to work with Mawar Medical Centre’s Leadership team in recent days. Discussing about challenges in their day to day work the team obviously came up with challanges involving people. 🔥 This seem to be common across the health care sector as they have to manage high absenteeism, non-team players, high retentions, miss understanding and lot more from employees. 🔥 On patients, it is always about managing they pain, their emotions and doing their best with available resources to keep the patients as comfortable as possible for best end results. Therefore, the people mastery module helped the team to strategies their human approach through: 💊 decoding complexity of human behaviour.💊 understanding human potential beyond surface. 💊 using proven and practical techniques to overcome challenges. The participants being people oriented, they were thrilled to experiment the strategies through activities during training and ready to implement them for shared growth and success. 🤗 How about your organisation? Is people mastery is important to your team?
Good or Bad?
When purpose, value and actions are not aligned towards the same direction, we tend to burn bridges. Not everyone can meet our expectations, at all times. Not just out of accumulated multiple bad experiences, sometimes it happens in the very first meet. Sometimes such experiences strengthen our purpose and value, allowing parties involved to realize we mean business. Thereafter, the relationship might eventually get better, as they realign to meet our business need. And sometimes it might be over for once and for all. Is that bad? Maybe not. As it set all parties involved free from toxic experiences which will eventually decrease productivity. Pleasing every single business connection may not be productive. It may lead to compromises which may hurt the integrity of the business and us.
Former Manager
I’m sure you are familiar with this, ‘It was not us! It was the former management / leadership!”. Often happens when there is a change in management / leadership. Why does this happen? Probably, Lack of engagement with former management. Lack of confidence in the former management’s decision. Lack of understanding why certain decision was made the way it was made. Self-gain to escape or achieve something which is important at this point of business. Survival need to support current leadership. and the list may go on and on. This is a reflection of an organization’s culture. And it is a poor culture where the existing employee / new management is very shallow in approaching issues at hand. It is important organization build their new leadership with strong minds where an issue is approached as an issue and not in the expense of a former employee. Let’s work together in forming a good work culture and build strong new leaders.
Finger Prints
What an interesting quote by late Elvis Presley 🤗 Value and Ethics goes hand in hand and shapes not only individuals but also organizations to stand tall and make their mark. Ethics and values play an essential function in magnifying human capital which in turn is significant for any business and society. Ethics can give real and practical guidance to an individual. Ethics & values make an individual privy that their choices have repercussions both for themselves and others. Thus, ethics & values build trustworthiness, management skills, polish up decision making, and provides long term benefits. Violation of ethics in human capital can lead companies into a world of legal trouble, in both the civil and criminal sphere. A well-designed ethics training program helps the business improve employee morale and resolve all the legal and illegal business issues. As a result, the employees get inspired and work more productively. Need any training around that area, kindly contact me. Thank you for inspiring quote for this writeup Elvis 🙏 Get in Touch
Confrontation
What to do when your leader puts you in cold storage? Nadiah, a 32-year-old team lead in a PR firm. She has been with the firm for about 5 years. And she has been doing well. For past 1 year she has not been given any important projects, including her common projects. Nadia felt she has been put into cold storage and wondering how to go about it. In the first coaching session I learned Nadiah had a hick up with a client which has been brought to her manager. The manager was not happy about it. Though the manager settled the issue on his own with the client, he did not address it with Nadiah. The manager might have developed discomfort with Nadiah and framed her into something which she may not be like: ⏩ not capable to handle high profile clients or ⏩ not reliable all together or ⏩ just displeasure due to the frustrating fix he happened to take upon hermistake How can Nadiah overcome this issue? Below were some action steps discovered to helps Nadiah through coaching: to arrange for an official meeting with the manager to clarify why she is not given much opportunity off late to apologize for what happened in the last project to share her side of story and point of view to the short coming to highlight her positive contributions to the organization in the past to assure she is eager to contribute positively towards the company to communicate effectively by being clear, curious and calm Nadiah was not comfortable to do it. At first it looked like a confrontation to her. She put it to rest. After some time, she braved it. Of course, she practiced her effective communication before fixing the appointment. It worked for her. Her manager had a change of perception and apologized for keeping her in cold storage. After a day she was assigned on important projects and off she goes busy, productive and happy. If you are in similar situation, give it a go with the 7 point discovery shared above. Just remember to make the communication effective. The purpose is important, clarify.
Change
Change, akin to metamorphosis 🤔As leaders, managers or executives of organizations, it is important to strategize the process for rewarding outcome 🤗 Change Management is a process like metamorphosis which involves time and struggle to get out of comfort zone, to reap a worthy outcome. Like seeing a colorful butterfly out of cocoon after days and due struggles. It requires patience, effective strategies, support and constant evaluation for improvement. Here are 5E tips for leaders to use in implementing change effectively: 📌 Engage with VisionShare the Big Vision and potential outcome which will benefit theorganization and the employees. This will motivate them to endurechange. 📌 Effective CommunicationBe transparent about changes & share the discomfort they mayhave to endure without hesitation. This will enable them to mentallyprepared to face the changes or challenges. 📌 Encourage Active ParticipationInvolve team to come out with ideas to absorb changes easily andeffectively. Being the end user of a process or system, teams’ idea mightbe more practical, or it will allow them to take ownership. 📌 Empower with SupportSupport the team with trainings which equips them with technology,techniques and tools to perform better with the changes. 📌 Exemplary LeadershipShowcase positive mindset towards the change as leaders and go groundto work along with the team setting good example for employees toaccept change comfortably. Give it a go 😀 or share your thoughts to make the 5E even more effective 🤗
Are you creative?
Are you creative? 🤯 Some may raise their hands to hit the ceiling, some may lift it half way and most will be wondering if they are creative. Creativity, is about going beyond limitations and imagining best possibilities for:🎯 solution to problems🎯 new inventions for enhancement The level of creativity may differ from one to another, depending on exposure, surroundings/ culture, experience, mindset and learning. But everyone are creative. Maybe some may need techniques to unleash and discover their creativity for improved productivity and growth 📈 Had a privilege to work with a F&B sales team. A well mix of Malaysians from all over the country with one mindset, to grow. They were a fun bunch, therefore breaking the shield of ‘I am not Creative’, was not hard. They easily grasped it and came up with some interesting solutions to improve their sales. Tips: Become aware that you are creative. Trust me you don’t have to be artistic. Become playfully enthusiastic to solve a problem. Learn brainstorming the right way. Design, decide and test the final idea. Remember nothing starts with perfection but it will eventually become perfect.
Artifical Intelligence
Magic moments are worth capturing, isn’t it? 😍 One of my clients told me, “Ms Veera, it’s very hard for my team to try any new technology, especially Ai. We have given them video guides and IT support. Tapi tak nak try lah dia pe”. I asked her, “why do you think they are reluctant?” This were some of the reasons she gave me from her observation: comfortable with status-quo cumbersome to learn something new doubt and fear of scam video guides are not interactive, maybe don’t know future benefits maybe age factor Understanding where she’s coming from we did an Ai Powered Presentation Skills training for a small group of her team. It was a 2 days session: 🧭 We enlightened them how technology and Ai are giving them the power to manage their time effectively. 🧭 We promised them that we will travel along with them for the 2 days, guiding them at their pace to ensure at least they take away some 20-30% of knowledge. To my surprise, they stayed fully engaged and excited. Every time there was ‘wow’ exclamation now and there. When we moved into Canva & ChatGPT it was ‘Aha’ moment to them. Some of them took video of the Magic tool usage in Canva and shared it to their loved ones. Every now and then the fear of safety arised. We guided them to check the clauses, internal IT Integrations and protection measures. Sometimes it’s the EQ that helps new learnings made easy. The human touch, the empathy, the assurance and the willingness to walk together makes a difference 🤓 I remember how my mom use to struggle with new remote controls. Though we make fun of her, she eventually learned by saying ‘show me’. And she was a pro within days when dad showed it to her with loads of patience 👫