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Weakness Are Strengths in Disguise.

Weakness Are Strengths in Disguise.

No matter how great a personality you have, how many supposedly innate strengths you possess, how much money you got, how beautiful or handsome you are, how brilliant you are or how you have succeeded in the past – none of these things matter on their own.

In my speaking session of human transformation, many participants are naturally obsessed with strength.

The favorite myth that we should focus on using mainly our strengths and focus less on working on our weakness, unfortunately, does not answer many grey areas.

The truth is, people are afraid of their weakness because facing our weakness undermine our confidence and we are not sure about handling the hard truth. But what lies behind that hard truth will help to strengthen, if not, reveal certain powerful qualities hidden from us.

Here are three new mind-shifting perspectives of how we can look at weakness directing us in the direction of revealing more of our strengths.

  Weakness reveals the power needed to build strength.

Using our body wellness as an example, for our body to absorb calcium efficiently to build healthy bones and teeth, we need a vital ingredient call Vitamin D.

When the two-power combined, magic happens. But the lack of either one of them means any more intake of calcium or vitamin D would not work.

Recognising our weakness is revealing the missing ingredients needed to build our current strength and discover new ones.

If I am poor in following through in a long-term project, by recognizing that weakness, I can consciously create a system around it. For example, breaking a long-term plan into a smaller chunk of milestones so that it is manageable.

Do not ignore it because it will always come back to haunt you.

  Weakness reveal the clues to a new system

When weakness surface, it is telling us there is a missing equation. Something need to happen before something happen is what I have always shared with the participant.

Build a new system through your weakness because it will help you to maneuver through the gap with relative ease in the future. By going through it, you discover the new answer in the weakness itself.

If I am weak in expressing myself during presentation or sharing, what I can do is to create a system of physically writing down three key points and no more.

To reinforce that, verbally rehearse the three points before the presentation, and repeating that pattern over a period will reveal more clues for you to find the right calibration.

Face the weakness head-on and go through it.

  Weakness reveals new courage.

If my natural strength is being a “smart” worker, it merely means that while I can find the shorter way to get there, it does not necessarily mean it’s the right way or a decision you have made under an appropriate amount of time and information. As such; we might have made a compromise.

By admitting that I need to roll up my sleeve and get my hand dirty if need be, surface new courage of believing in delivering not just a smart but an equally strong evidence-backed decision.

It is a powerful awareness that will multiply my credibility and influence with others and be known as someone who not only can get there efficiently but effectively too.

Discover the new courage in yourself through your weakness.

In summary, weakness is our hidden strength. Discover by recognizing the missing equation. Face the weakness head on and build a new system around it so that you will be able to reveal the new courage within you and magnify your strengths.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, a multiple award-winning leadership and behavioral transformation coach, captivating author and game changing professional conference speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to [email protected]

The post Weakness Are Strengths in Disguise. appeared first on Training Gear Asia.

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/weakness-are-strengths-in-disguise/

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Achieving Your Psychological Best At Work – Getting from low to high performance in split second.

I decided to write this article in one of the airports around the world, after successfully delivered a program on being our psychological best at work, and It dawned on me that all significant and perceived risky attempt starts with our mind.

There are only two doors that we can open in our mind. One that blocks our mind from an action, or the other that drives us towards action. In my current work on behaviour as a professional speaker and facilitator on influence and leadership, I realized that we tend to open the door that blocks us from the action.

A study conducted showed that our mind decides to be courageous 7 seconds before we decide to take that action physically. The hidden answer lies in what we need to do more of before that 7 seconds so that we can muster our courage to be at our psychological best every day, every time, in every space.

  MIND STRATEGY 1: LEVEL THINGS OUT

One of the most significant challenges we faced when we are about to make a big decision, make a crucial presentation to a senior stakeholder, or walking into a tight situation, is that we tend to magnify the power of the other party, so much so that we lose confidence in our position.

Confidence is a state of mind. By levelling things out is to put that person or the situation on the same level as you are. By placing everyone on the same level and footing, we can compose ourselves, versus trying to be someone we are not or desperately trying to impress.

By levelling out, we can make a proper decision without compromising.

  MIND STRATEGY 2: 100 PERCENT, ONE ITEM AT A TIME

Multiple tasking is a myth. We are not programmed to do that from day one. Giving ten percent each to ten items is not an effective way of living. Either you give 100 percent or none. Offering 10 percent is equal to none.

The study showed that each time we are distracted by our phone message and returning to the job takes on average one minute to be back in the zone. On average, we are distracted by our phone more than fifty times a day, that’s a good 50 minutes off effectiveness.

Stay on that task, giving them 100 percent, one at a time.

  MIND STRATEGY 3: PAUSE OFTEN

One of the most precious commodities today is the ability to stop, pause and to think before taking action. Majority of people are rushing from one task to the next without giving too much thought to their strategy.

Pausing, help us to be more conscious of the choices we made and not fall into following the crowd and missing opportunities. Are you pausing enough?

Starting today, Make a conscious choice to level out. Take one item at a time with one hundred percent dedication, together with a conscious effort to pause by taking time out to think.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, a multiple award-winning leadership and behavioural transformation coach, captivating author and game changing professional conference speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to [email protected]

The post Achieving Your Psychological Best At Work – Getting from low to high performance in split second. appeared first on Training Gear Asia.

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/achieving-your-psychological-best-at-work-getting-from-low-to-high-performance-in-split-second/

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PPI versus KPI (Featured On The Straits Times – 12 October 2018)

Do we put more emphasis on result or people? In our fast-paced world today, we tend to get caught up with Key Performance Indicator (KPI), when the fact is that humans are the ones delivering the KPI, which we called the People Performance Indicator (PPI).

When you get the people right; you will get the result right. It’s a straightforward equation.

We want the people to deliver the KPI because it’s what determines our bonus and pay cheques, but often, we force the deliverables without investing in the source – the people.

There is a funny saying regarding the topic of investing in the people, and it goes like this: The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) says to the Chief Executive Office (CEO), “what if we invest in the people and they leave?” The CEO went on to say. “what if we do nothing and they stay?”

It is not about whether people stay or leave because one thing is for sure – they will go. The question is whether your talent will return?

  ARE YOU INVESTING IN YOUR PEOPLE’S GROWTH?

One of the top reasons people stay in an organisation is because they are experiencing growth in their self and career. This means that employees today are more willing to stretch themselves to learn new things, take on a challenging task and raise their game.

As leaders, are you investing in your staff’s growth? If the answer is no, there is a high chance you are not growing either.

And the outcome of not investing in the PPI is that your talent will leave you sooner than expected. Employees today are highly agile. Therefore, you should neither under-estimate their potential, nor take their presence for granted.

  ARE YOU EXPANDING THEIR FLEXIBILITY?

A great PPI enables people to do things they have never done before. We live in a world today where past, proven and tested methods might not work any longer.

We face new challenges every day, so people need to be highly flexible and adaptable to changing landscape. By focusing on the PPI, people tend to take on almost any challenge.

  ARE YOU MULTIPLYING THEIR INFLUENCE?

Most leaders would ask: “How does my team’s sphere of influence relate to me?” Leaders need to build the network for our team so that they can get things done. More groups are now created by an organisation based on business needs and not by function.

By investing into PPI, leaders can build bridges and network within their organisations so that staff can get things done faster.

Gone are the days where KPI can get you to your destination. Without investing in people, you put a cap on what you are capable of doing, because as cliché as it might sound, if you want to go far, go together.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, a multiple award-winning behavioural transformation coach and professional leadership speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to [email protected]

The post PPI versus KPI (Featured On The Straits Times – 12 October 2018) appeared first on Training Gear Asia.

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/ppi-versus-kpi-featured-on-the-straits-times-12-october-2018/

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Learn How To Use Influence Positively (Featured On The Straits Times – 5 October 2018)

More than 60 years of research and study has been done on human behaviour and influence, and it points to one thing – human behaviour can be highly predictable if we know the various triggers?

We need to challenge our beliefs about influence. Here are three conventional belief about influence that have been redefined with a new paradigm suited to today’s world.

  Influence equals Trust.

The key to building influence is not about building trust. Leaders I spoke to agreed that before they can influence, they need to build trust. However, that perspective might not be useful as a starting point.

The question to ask is, what needs to happen before trust can happen? Because trust is just an outcome.

The answer is that the relationship needs to be built before trust can happen. Relationship leads to trust and trust leads to influence. We are willing to be influenced by someone provided there is a genuine and strong relationship in the first place.

When the relationship is sound, the trust will naturally follow, which allow the leaders to create a more positive influence.

New Paradigm 1: Influence is not about building trust. It’s about, first, building relationships.

  Influence equals charisma

All the people I asked agreed that a person must have charisma before he can influence someone. But no one has a standard definition of charisma.

There are many ways to increase the likability quotient. One of the ways is to exchange favours with someone. When we do that over an extended period, a relationship is formed and likability is increases. This is one of the many systems that we can learn.

New Paradigm 2: Influence is not about charisma, it’s about likability.

  Influence equals authority

When influence is involved, there is no authority in the equation. I have always shared with leaders and participants that influence is for people and authority is for task.

We use authority to get a task done. For example, giving me a report by 3 pm today is a task. Unfortunately, authority is a mental short-cut, and anyone with authority tends to use them as a quick way to get things done. This ultimately destroys the leader’s credibility and influence with their people.

If you want your people to walk the extra miles, resolve a crisis, have the best intention and make the best decision for all, you need to deploy positive influence. Using too much authority will make you appear heavy-handed and diminish your approachable and likability as a person.

New Paradigm 3: Influence is for people and authority is for task.

  As digital and automation take over our routine job, it gives us more time to have a conversation with people. This makes influencing a crucial ability to get things done in a new era.

After all, It’s the people who get things done.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, a multiple award-winning behavioural transformation coach and professional leadership speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to [email protected]

The post Learn How To Use Influence Positively (Featured On The Straits Times – 5 October 2018) appeared first on Training Gear Asia.

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/5231-2/

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Retaining talent’s

RETAINING TALENT

Organizations struggle with the concept of talent retention. Often, activities held to engage their staff are just done so that they can be ticked off a checklist. Such activities lack purpose so they do not work. Therefore, an organization must change its perspective and strategy to improve and make an impact.

It is not just about attracting and engaging talents, but also retaining them. And if they have already left the organization, how can they be drawn to return to?

Holding a career conversation is a practical move that can help.

TALK ABOUT IT

A career conversation is highly useful, especially today, when technology disruption is everywhere.

This enables people to be aware of new trends and opportunities and focus on the new skills and abilities required. Instead of waiting for things to happen, employees are more motivated to act on what’s required to get the ball rolling.

Career conversation is about exploring the various possibilities of an individual’s growth with the company. it does not necessarily lead to a promotion or increment. Instead, it explores an individual’s personal growth in term of his abilities, so that he is ready when opportunities come along.

ATTRACT THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Employees are looking for place where they can develop various aspects of their capabilities, and not just to work.

So your organisation will have a higher chance of drawing interest if it is one where leaders watch out for their people by giving them opportunities to grow and stretch their capabilities.

Businesses can go for short-cuts by using compensation and benefits to attract people. But they are likely to lose staff more quickly than they can attract interested candidates because the proposition is not sustainable, and the talents are smarter than that.

After all, why should talents invest their energy in a company where there is no effort invested in their personal growth?

ENGAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES

Many so-called engagements come and go, never fully living up to expectation because they are all short-term.

Real engagement is a way of living. Any engagement that does not embed itself into an organisation is just an intervention, and lead to failure.

Career conversation makes perfect sense because it addresses what is practical to an employee – their career growth.

The company may not be able to promise a promotion and increment, but it can develop their employees by offering them multiple opportunities that benefit the bottom line and effectively enable engagement to take place.

WELCOME TALENTS TO RETURN

A company may lose a talented person without even knowing the real reason because the person did not have a chance to showcase his ability or was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

By having a career conversation, a company can position itself as a place of possibilities and growth.

Even if a talent decides to leave such a company today, there is a possibility that that he may return in future because he understands that its leaders believe in taking a vested interest in engaging their staff.

Now, the question is whether your organisation is place of growth.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioural transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and conference speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/retaining-talents-image/

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The science of happiness

THE SCIENCE OF HAPPINESS

To many people, happiness continues to be a myth. Many remain in search of that happiness through tangible outcomes, be it a promotion, money, or buying more stuff that eventually ends up in the storeroom.

I called it the “accidental happiness” – short-lived happiness that requires us to keep looking repeatedly for that tiny shots of happy chemical to keep us going.

In my leadership facilitation and coaching over the years, I have made it a point to raise the awareness of my participant by emphasizing the importance that one should “BE happy” (that’s why we are called human BEings), versus chasing after happiness.

When you can be happy no matter where you are, success will eventually come to you. Here are three areas of happiness that power up your performance at work:

HAPPINESS IMPACTS OUR BRAIN CHEMISTRY

Being happy helps us to be more optimistic in life. Learn how to be happy, and optimism will follow. Being in a state of happiness also help our nervous system to move from fight and flight into calmness and poised to act.

We think more rationally, and with it, the ability to positively regulate our emotion and feel energized and ready to plan for the future. People with happiness and hope have their brain chemistry set up for success.

They might experience momentary downturn, but they pick themselves up faster than the rest because they have well-programmed their brain to do so.

HAPPINESS MAKE YOU A BETTER VERSION OF OURSELF

Being in a state of happiness allows us to be more creative in our thought process. More importantly, it helps us to be more adaptable to our environment.

If an organization is undergoing a transformation process of reshuffle and resizing, we can be pretty sure that team with happy people will take on the journey transformation more positively.

Being happy also gives us more energy and supports us in making smarter decisions and managing complexity better. In short, happy people perform better than the unhappy people.

HAPPINESS BOOST YOUR PERFORMANCE AND INCOME OVER TIME

Can we be happy at work?

The answer is yes. When you work with people you like and respect, and vice-versa, you will enjoy going to work every day. A healthy relationship is the backbone of every successful organization.

A study revealed that having a healthy relationship at work boost employee satisfaction by 50 percent. Also, people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely as others to engage fully in their work.

HAPPINESS IN A NUTSHELL

A simple yardstick of happiness is; Do you get up each day and keep trying, especially during trying times? Happiness is not just being happy when things go well, but also how you cope during tough times.

Article by: Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and conference speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/the-science-of-happinesss-image/

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The true spirit of leadership’s

The True Spirit of Leadership.

If you search online for what the term leadership means, you will get a whopping 765 million results. But one that particularly stood out for me is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this”.

The definition of “leading a group of people or the ability to do this”, speaks volumes, because not everyone has the ability or can harness the ability to lead.

The definition also resonated with me too because it focuses on one’s ability – and not one’s titles or position, but the behavior and action that one must adopt to become a leader.

Often, people are promoted based on how capable they are in their work. The day you become leader is the day you need to be highly proficient in people building and not task building. Unfortunately, all of us start from the ground when it comes to this, as there is no blueprint on people building.

But here are three simple tips for people building:

LEAD THE PEOPLE TO LEAD THE BUSINESS

There are a myriad of leadership programmes out there. But during my interaction with my leadership participants. I tell them that if there is one thing they must not forget, it is the fact that the credibility of your people determines the credibility of your leadership.

FORGET ABOUT KPI, REMEMBER PPI

It is not your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) but your People Performance Indicators (PPI) that matter.

If your people are growing in their job, learning new things and growing as a team, your KPI is a given. But if a leader chooses KPIs over the PPIs, he has chosen a mediocre path for himself.

The PPI has great potential in achieving over and above what a KPI can give.

A PPI can build a great team but a KPI cannot. A PPI improves a team’s overall identity and a KPI can’t. A PPI can cause a leader’s credibility and influence to skyrocket over time and a KPI cannot do that.

Why settle for less when your team can be so much more? As a leader, you should not get caught up in the KPI frenzy.

DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS ON PEOPLE BUILDING

Leaders earn their privileges because of the people they lead and serve.

The privilege is given by their people not their titles. Leader must stop assuming that the privilege is an entitlement.

While I was working with the United Nation, there was a time where we had trekked several kilometers through mountainous terrain and were all exhausted.

We sat down and the first thing I saw was one of our team-mates passing a bottle of water around to quench our thirst, but the bottle was passed first to our commander.

Not because he was our commander – but because he had earned the privilege of having it first because we say so.

In other words, the privilege was given to him by use – the very people he led.

Article by: Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and mind-provoking conference speaker on topics of influence and leadership. Email him at [email protected]

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/the-true-spirit-of-leaderships-image/

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Make Career Success Your Personal Mission

Take control of the direction you want to go in and the milestones you want to achieve, for career development and success should be a personal responsibility.

Gone are the days where you expect your employer to lay out a career path for you. Today, employees and their employers are encouraged to work together to facilitate one another’s success journey.

Plan to Succeed

A simple way is for every employee to design his career blueprint and enable an open conversation with the managers and leaders who are trained to facilitate and coach the people to success.

Here are three cornerstones that shift the paradigm of career success.

1. Invest in yourself early

Most people tend to wait to be sent to workshop and skills upgrading.

Don’t’ wait for things to happen. If we believe in compounding interest, then we should also believe we should start investing in ourselves early.

Chasing for an opportunity is, in fact, easier rather than waiting for one. When you invest in yourself early, you will open up opportunities that are easier for you to “chase” and achieve.

2. Take control of your blueprint

Know what you want and find out how to achieve it.

By doing so, you effectively manager your emotion, creativity, purpose and the meaning in what you do. In turn, you get to enjoy your work.

People can only have fun in work provided if their Growth Indicator (GI) – a term that I coined – increases. The more you increase your GI, the more fun you will have.

3. Calibrate your mental bandwidth.

“The more money I earn, the more successful I am” is an adage no longer so relevant today.

In fact, for some people, the more money they make, the more debts they have. If this happens, the person will only be in survival mode at work.

He will only do the very minimum because no matter how hardworking he is, he will only get the same salary every month. Thus, he will have no bandwidth to think about growth.

Finding meaning

We work for money, but we live for meaning.

If you can manage our money well, you can invest more time in creating meaning and growth in your work by building a relationship with people and making a difference.

My favourite saying: “Happy people increase their chance of a promotion.”

By just watching their financial baseline, happy people have the mental bandwidth to adopt a thriving mindset, and can afford to attend courses and invest in themselves because they have the resources to do so.

These people will also be more confident and upbeat amid uncertainties because they have created a psychological safety net for themselves. Consequently, they consciously avoid the surviving mentality.

In short, money is not the issue – you need that psychological safety net so that you can thrive. Career Success is a personal mission. Starting today, invest, control and calibrate for greater success.

Article by: Joseph Wong, multiple award-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and mind-provoking speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

Take control of the direction you want to go in and the milestones you want to achieve, for career development and success should be a personal responsibility.

Gone are the days where you expect your employer to lay out a career path for you. Today, employees and their employers are encouraged to work together to facilitate one another’s success journey.

Plan to Succeed

A simple way is for every employee to design his career blueprint and enable an open conversation with the managers and leaders who are trained to facilitate and coach the people to success.

Here are three cornerstones that shift the paradigm of career success.

1. Invest in yourself early

Most people tend to wait to be sent to workshop and skills upgrading.

Don’t’ wait for things to happen. If we believe in compounding interest, then we should also believe we should start investing in ourselves early.

Chasing for an opportunity is, in fact, easier rather than waiting for one. When you invest in yourself early, you will open up opportunities that are easier for you to “chase” and achieve.

2. Take control of your blueprint

Know what you want and find out how to achieve it.

By doing so, you effectively manager your emotion, creativity, purpose and the meaning in what you do. In turn, you get to enjoy your work.

People can only have fun in work provided if their Growth Indicator (GI) – a term that I coined – increases. The more you increase your GI, the more fun you will have.

3. Calibrate your mental bandwidth.

“The more money I earn, the more successful I am” is an adage no longer so relevant today.

In fact, for some people, the more money they make, the more debts they have. If this happens, the person will only be in survival mode at work.

He will only do the very minimum because no matter how hardworking he is, he will only get the same salary every month. Thus, he will have no bandwidth to think about growth.

Finding meaning

We work for money, but we live for meaning.

If you can manage our money well, you can invest more time in creating meaning and growth in your work by building a relationship with people and making a difference.

My favourite saying: “Happy people increase their chance of a promotion.”

By just watching their financial baseline, happy people have the mental bandwidth to adopt a thriving mindset, and can afford to attend courses and invest in themselves because they have the resources to do so.

These people will also be more confident and upbeat amid uncertainties because they have created a psychological safety net for themselves. Consequently, they consciously avoid the surviving mentality.

In short, money is not the issue – you need that psychological safety net so that you can thrive. Career Success is a personal mission. Starting today, invest, control and calibrate for greater success.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple award-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and mind-provoking speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

from Training Gear Asia http://www.traininggearasia.com/make-career-success-your-personal-mission/

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Make Career Success Your Personal Mission (Featured on The Straits Times – 19 July 2018)

Take control of the direction you want to go in and the milestones you want to achieve, for career development and success should be a personal responsibility.

Gone are the days where you expect your employer to lay out a career path for you. Today, employees and their employers are encouraged to work together to facilitate one another’s success journey.

Plan to Succeed

A simple way is for every employee to design his career blueprint and enable an open conversation with the managers and leaders who are trained to facilitate and coach the people to success. Here are three cornerstones that shift the paradigm of career success.

1. Invest in yourself early

Most people tend to wait to be sent to workshop and skills upgrading.

Don’t’ wait for things to happen. If we believe in compounding interest, then we should also believe we should start investing in ourselves early.

Chasing for an opportunity is, in fact, easier rather than waiting for one. When you invest in yourself early, you will open up opportunities that are easier for you to “chase” and achieve.

2. Take control of your blueprint

Know what you want and find out how to achieve it.

By doing so, you effectively manager your emotion, creativity, purpose and the meaning in what you do. In turn, you get to enjoy your work.

People can only have fun in work provided if their Growth Indicator (GI) – a term that I coined – increases. The more you increase your GI, the more fun you will have.

  3. Calibrate your mental bandwidth.

“The more money I earn, the more successful I am” is an adage no longer so relevant today.

In fact, for some people, the more money they make, the more debts they have. If this happens, the person will only be in survival mode at work.

He will only do the very minimum because no matter how hardworking he is, he will only get the same salary every month. Thus, he will have no bandwidth to think about growth.

Finding meaning

We work for money, but we live for meaning.

If you can manage our money well, you can invest more time in creating meaning and growth in your work by building a relationship with people and making a difference.

My favourite saying: “Happy people increase their chance of a promotion.”

By just watching their financial baseline, happy people have the mental bandwidth to adopt a thriving mindset, and can afford to attend courses and invest in themselves because they have the resources to do so.

These people will also be more confident and upbeat amid uncertainties because they have created a psychological safety net for themselves. Consequently, they consciously avoid the surviving mentality.

In short, money is not the issue – you need that psychological safety net so that you can thrive. Career Success is a personal mission. Starting today, invest, control and calibrate for greater success.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple award-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and mind-provoking speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

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from TrainingGearAsia http://www.traininggearasia.com/5140/make-career-success-your-personal-mission-featured-on-the-straits-times-19-july-2018/

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Retaining Talent (Featured on The Straits Times – 15 March 2018)

Organizations struggle with the concept of talent retention. Often, activities held to engage their staff are just done so that they can be ticked off a checklist.

Such activities lack purpose so they do not work. Therefore, an organization must change its perspective and strategy to improve and make an impact.

It is not just about attracting and engaging talents, but also retaining them. And if they have already left the organization, how can they be drawn to return to?

Holding a career conversation is a practical move that can help.

.

TALK ABOUT IT 

A career conversation is highly useful, especially today, when technology disruption is everywhere.

This enables people to be aware of new trends and opportunities and focus on the new skills and abilities required. Instead of waiting for things to happen, employees are more motivated to act on what’s required to get the ball rolling.

Career conversation is about exploring the various possibilities of an individual’s growth with the company. it does not necessarily lead to a promotion or increment. Instead, it explores an individual’s personal growth in term of his abilities, so that he is ready when opportunities come along.

.

ATTRACT THE RIGHT PEOPLE

Employees are looking for place where they can develop various aspects of their capabilities, and not just to work.

So your organisation will have a higher chance of drawing interest if it is one where leaders watch out for their people by giving them opportunities to grow and stretch their capabilities.

Businesses can go for short-cuts by using compensation and benefits to attract people. But they are likely to lose staff more quickly than they can attract interested candidates because the proposition is not sustainable, and the talents are smarter than that.

After all, why should talents invest their energy in a company where there is no effort invested in their personal growth?

.

ENGAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES 

Many so-called engagements come and go, never fully living up to expectation because they are all short-term.

Real engagement is a way of living. Any engagement that does not embed itself into an organisation is just an intervention, and lead to failure.

Career conversation makes perfect sense because it addresses what is practical to an employee – their career growth.

The company may not be able to promise a promotion and increment, but it can develop their employees by offering them multiple opportunities that benefit the bottom line and effectively enable engagement to take place.

.

WELCOME TALENTS TO RETURN

A company may lose a talented person without even knowing the real reason because the person did not have a chance to showcase his ability or was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

By having a career conversation, a company can position itself as a place of possibilities and growth.

Even if a talent decides to leave such a company today, there is a possibility that that he may return in future because he understands that its leaders believe in taking a vested interest in engaging their staff.

Now, the question is whether your organization is place of growth.

.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioural transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and conference speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

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The Science of Happiness (Featured on The Straits Times – 15 June 2018)

To many people, happiness continues to be a myth. Many remain in search of that happiness through tangible outcomes, be it a promotion, money, or buying more stuff that eventually ends up in the storeroom.

I called it the “accidental happiness” – short-lived happiness that requires us to keep looking repeatedly for that tiny shots of happy chemical to keep us going.

In my leadership facilitation and coaching over the years, I have made it a point to raise the awareness of my participant by emphasizing the importance that one should “BE happy” (that’s why we are called human BEings), versus chasing after happiness.

When you can be happy no matter where you are, success will eventually come to you. Here are three areas of happiness that power up your performance at work:

HAPPINESS IMPACTS OUR BRAIN CHEMISTRY

Being happy helps us to be more optimistic in life. Learn how to be happy, and optimism will follow. Being in a state of happiness also help our nervous system to move from fight and flight into calmness and poised to act.

We think more rationally, and with it, the ability to positively regulate our emotion and feel energized and ready to plan for the future. People with happiness and hope have their brain chemistry set up for success.

They might experience momentary downturn, but they pick themselves up faster than the rest because they have well-programmed their brain to do so.

HAPPINESS MAKE YOU A BETTER VERSION OF OURSELF 

Being in a state of happiness allows us to be more creative in our thought process. More importantly, it helps us to be more adaptable to our environment.

If an organization is undergoing a transformation process of reshuffle and resizing, we can be pretty sure that team with happy people will take on the journey transformation more positively.

Being happy also gives us more energy and supports us in making smarter decisions and managing complexity better. In short, happy people perform better than the unhappy people.

HAPPINESS BOOST YOUR PERFORMANCE AND INCOME OVER TIME

Can we be happy at work?

The answer is yes. When you work with people you like and respect, and vice-versa, you will enjoy going to work every day. A healthy relationship is the backbone of every successful organization.

A study revealed that having a healthy relationship at work boost employee satisfaction by 50 percent. Also, people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely as others to engage fully in their work.

HAPPINESS IN A NUTSHELL

A simple yardstick of happiness is; Do you get up each day and keep trying, especially during trying times? Happiness is not just being happy when things go well, but also how you cope during tough times.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple award-winning leadership and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and mind provoking speaker, author and an expert on influence without authority. Email him at [email protected]

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The True Spirit of Leadership (Featured on The Straits Times – 1 June 2018)

If you search online for what the term leadership means, you will get a whopping 765 million results. But one that particularly stood out for me is “the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability to do this”.

The definition of “leading a group of people or the ability to do this”, speaks volumes, because not everyone has the ability or can harness the ability to lead. 

The definition also resonated with me too because it focuses on one’s ability – and not one’s titles or position, but the behavior and action that one must adopt to become a leader.

Often, people are promoted based on how capable they are in their work. The day you become leader is the day you need to be highly proficient in people building and not task building.   Unfortunately, all of us start from the ground when it comes to this, as there is no blueprint on people building.

But here are three simple tips for people building:

  1. LEAD THE PEOPLE TO LEAD THE BUSINESS

There are a myriad of leadership programmes out there. But during my interaction with my leadership participants. I tell them that if there is one thing they must not forget, it is the fact that the credibility of your people determines the credibility of your leadership.

  2. FORGET ABOUT KPI, REMEMBER PPI

It is not your Key Performance Indicators (KPI) but your People Performance Indicators (PPI) that matter.

If your people are growing in their job, learning new things and growing as a team, your KPI is a given. But if a leader chooses KPIs over the PPIs, he has chosen a mediocre path for himself.

The PPI has great potential in achieving over and above what a KPI can give.

A PPI can build a great team but a KPI cannot. A PPI improves a team’s overall identity and a KPI can’t. A PPI can cause a leader’s credibility and influence to skyrocket over time and a KPI cannot do that.

Why settle for less when your team can be so much more? As a leader, you should not get caught up in the KPI frenzy.

  3. DON’T TAKE SHORTCUTS ON PEOPLE BUILDING

Leaders earn their privileges because of the people they lead and serve. The privilege is given by their people not their titles. Leader must stop assuming that the privilege is an entitlement.

While I was working with the United Nation, there was a time where we had trekked several kilometers through mountainous terrain and were all exhausted.

We sat down and the first thing I saw was one of our team-mates passing a bottle of water around to quench our thirst, but the bottle was passed first to our commander.

Not because he was our commander – but because he had earned the privilege of having it first because we say so.

In other words, the privilege was given to him by use – the very people he led.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and mind-provoking conference speaker on topics of influence and leadership. Email him at [email protected]

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Are You Demotivating Your Staff (Featured on The Straits Times – 2 Feb 2018)

The million-dollar question on most leader’s minds is – how can they motivate their people?

When I am asked that question, I say that that a more useful question to ask is not how we can motivate our people – but what we say or do as leaders that demotivates others.

There is no point trying to motivate employees when the environment or leaders do not do what is required to inspire staff.

I believe that everyone came in with a full tank of motivation when they first joined the company. Unfortunately, the level of this tank of motivation diminishes over time – be it because of the job, people, office politics or a boss who demotivates his staff.

Here are three things leaders often unconsciously do that demotivate their people.

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1. Telling them what to do.

How far an organization empowers its staff depends on how willing leaders are to grant some degree of autonomy to them.

More often than not, employers are unable to let and trust that their people can deliver the goods – simply because doing so comes with a risk of being held accountable when the results of such empowerment are less than satisfactory.

Most people do not like to be told what to do. When leaders dish out instructions, they are actually suppressing any ideas that employees have and discouraging them from exercising their wisdom and creativity.

Employees like their leaders to be able to use their talent creatively – so make sure you do so if you are their leader.

For instance,  when delegating a task to an employee, say: “I’d like you to have a look at this and tell me what you would do if you were in my shoes.”

When the employee comes back to you with his thoughts, exchange ideas and possibilities with him. Empower him by saying: “if I were in your shoes, these would be my options, but since you are in charge, I would like you to decide what is more useful to you.”

The point:Let the employee make his own choices.

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2. Interrupting a discussion

Studies has shown that if a leader allows a group to arrive at a decision through he should not interrupt the discussion. If not, you may come across as a leader who micro-manage everything – right down to what they say and think.

Yet, there is a good timing when you can join the discussion – the halfway point. For instance, If the meeting is scheduled to last 30 minute, you can come in at the 15-minute mark.

Research has shown that the halfway point works as it is likely that the group has had enough information to clock a milestone by then. By appearing at the halfway point, you can value-add for the team to make a sound decision.

The point:Leaders should enter discussion at the half-way point.

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3. Lack of Feedback

Constructive feedback is crucial to the team’s journey.

Giving feedback is a form of motivation because it provides clarity of what has been working well and how employees can improve. Most of us thrive on progress – and nothing beats doing something well and discovering a better way to get there.

The entire team will become more motivated when feedback is given and received consistently. This is not just about how the team can improve – but how the leader can grow with regard to how he communicates and get things done with a reasonable amount of autonomy.

The challenge is for a leader to get over his ego if they want motivated staff. When expectations are clear, employees will go all out to make things happen without the leader having to try too hard to motivate them.

The point:Give and received feedback regularly.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and thought-provoking conference speaker on topics of influence and leadership. Email him at [email protected]

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The Winner’s Mindset (Featured on The Straits Times – 23 March 2018)

I was at a leadership seminar with senior leaders recently. As we touched on the topic of success, a participant said that to succeed, a person needs to have a winner’s mindset.

When I asked what makes a winner, I received great answers and insights.

What exactly is the winner’s mindset? Do people naturally have it, or do we need to create it? Although most people would agree that having a winner’s mindset is important, only a few live by it.

Let’s look at three simple and yet hard truth to formulating a winner’s mindset.

  1. It is not enough to just visualize, believe and achieve. 

To win, you need to do more than visualise, believe and achieve. There is something basic and yet more that we failed to recognize. The winner’s mind-set normally refers to the journey of success – but in fact, it points to how the journey of success is a journey of failures in disguise.

The toughest part in the success journey is not about believing, but believing after each failure, and continue to believe after multiple failures.

  2. Failures will recur unless you learn your lesson.

The winner’s mind-set is a mental model, and the mental model come from lessons we learn. Such lessons do not come from success, but failures. But not all people learns the lessons quickly. Some may even miss the lessons entirely. When that happens, they will continue to fail until they get the lesson.

For example, if you fail to get a job that you want, the lesson might be how we can handle your emotion better the interviewer asks a tough question. But people who don’t get the lesson are those who brush the encounter off as an accident, or the interviewer being picky.

  3. Most people are not update their success mental model.

The continuous updating of your success mental model is crucial to your success. Each failure helps to update your mental model of success over time. Over time a person develops a winning mind-set because he has discovered what a winning mind-set means to him.

It may seem strange, but if you don’t’ fail, you don’t have a success blueprint or model to begin with.Some people require three failures to update their success mental model, while others requires more failures to learn the lesson the universe is trying to teach them.

Whatever it is, failures are important markers that formulate our success blueprint, and most importantly, are critical to building the winner’s mind-set.

In parting, like to share with you one of my personal quote; Fail Early. Fail Soon and Succeed with Ease. And yes, Easy is the last thing.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and thought-provoking conference speaker on topics of influence and leadership. Email him at [email protected]

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The Power Of Career Conversation (Featured on The Straits Times – 22 Feb 2018)

The majority of organizations that I came across, face the uphill task of retaining their employees. Leaders and managers, often believe their talents will always be there for them.

They assume that their employees need to hold on to their jobs, hence they neglect to look after their growth. If leaders and managers continue to take their employees for granted, they are going to lose them, along with their influence and credibility.

What is a simple but powerful way to keep talents motivated, wanting to come to work every day? The answer is – have a career conversation.

Here are three key insights into why having the career conversation is a critical ability for leaders to harness if they want to take own careers and teams to the next level.

  People want to grow

Focusing on growth empowers your employees to take on projects and challenges that they normally would not. This is important because we grow through challenges tasks – we will never improve if we work only on easy assignments.

If leaders can understand their employee’s aspiration in life and be a part of their journey, they will certainly have a reward greater than any financial return – their commitment. A team full of committed individuals is powerful because they can move mountains and makes the seemingly impossible, possible.

All these are achievable only if leaders carry out a career conversation with employees to discover what they want. The best leaders are those who take the time to understand their employee’s aspiration and motivations

As a result, such leaders often have the most committed teams that are able to over-deliver every time.

  Delegate purposefully.

Through career conversations, leaders understand their employee’s motivation and what make them tick.

As a result, they strategically allocate projects that are aligned with that individual’s motivations. Due to the high intrinsic motivation, there is no need for the leader to look constantly over the employee’s shoulder. This enables him to run on his own and deliver without constant monitoring.

This frees up the leader’s time to focus on more important battles. When team members grow, the team grows. Taking on bigger challenges.

The time and effort invested in a career conversation reduces the possibility of people leaving for a higher pay package somewhere. They remained highly motivates with the growth opportunity that cannot be replaced by another organization.

  Calibrate constantly.

A career conversation is an excellent way to engage in topics that are close to an employee’s heart. Leaders should have a constant calibration of the person’s performance now and then based on the career conversation – and not just the performance appraisal.

There is nothing to appraise if the person is already motivated to fulfill his or her promise during the career conversation. When key performance indicators are aligned to one’s career and aspiration, meeting those expectations is just a matter of time.

A career conversation is an almost fool-proof technique. It works like a charm, but not many leaders do it. That is why only a few leaders succeed with their teams.

In summary, I always tell leaders and managers that the question to ask is not how we can retain talent, but: “How do we ensure our talents return to us one day?”

That is a question that changes the entire ball game.

  Article by:

Joseph Wong, a multiple award winning leadership and behavioral transformation coach, captivating author and game changing professional conference speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to [email protected]

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Y-SIZE Your Influence (Featured On The Straits Times – 18 July 2017)

Y-SIZE YOUR INFLUENCE Motivating and Igniting Gen-Y Success At Work.

I have often shared with others that I feel like a Gen-Y in a Gen-X body? Perhaps in my early years in my career, I have been doing things the Gen-Y way. Not surprisingly, I have a lot of fun working with Gen-Y because I am so like them – age is not an issue here but simply our perspective.

I recently caught up with a former polytechnic student (who is a Gen-Y) that I had taught. It’s been four years since I last taught him, and it was a great session catching up again in person. This time, however, I was the student learning about what he has discovered as a working adult.

It is through this conversation that reinforced my belief in the strength of Gen-Ys, and how we can put that power into work as we coach and motivate them towards greater success. Or to be exact, even more successful than we are.

The following key perspectives show how we can help to coach and motivate Gen-Ys into becoming the person that they want to be, and sky-rocketing your team’s performance into space! Start Y-Sizing your perspective today.

Y-SIZE Your Perspective 1: They Climb Corporate Ladder Horizontally.

Gen-Ys are open to exploring multiple experiences. They appreciate the power of possibilities and enjoy learning new skill and knowledge now and then, which is the reason they ask “why?”

To not ask a question is to not learn, and not learning means missing out on possibilities. An interesting behavior given to them is called FOMO (Fear Of Not Knowing).

It is precisely this FOMO that they are able to scale vertically and, most importantly, horizontally, across an organization because they dare to take risk, asking question and gathering information to get up to speed, and making them highly flexible.

Gen-Ys may potentially of a new workforce that might not necessarily be interested only climbing the corporate ladder, but jumping horizontally to expand their bandwidth of knowledge, skill and exposure to accumulate vast amount of experiences making them highly valuable in the new workplace today.

With the number of promotions capped at the top, Ge-Ys, prefer to accumulate a wide arsenal of experiences and become a subject matter expert, which is essential to thriving in our dynamic environment today where anything can be outdated overnight, but extensive experiences won’t.

  Y-SIZE Your Perspective 2: They Don’t Stay In Safe Harbor.

There is a wrong perception that the Gen-Ys have a short-term view of where they would like to go or what they wish to become. The fact is, they do have a long-term view, but there is a rationale for why they look for the “short term”.

I had multiple conversations with Gen-Ys, many shared that while they might not currently know what they would like to become, eventually it will come to them. However, they prefer not to go straight to the safe harbor (i.e. predictable route).

In fact, one of them shared that instead of going along the conventional track of university and then getting a job, he decided to have a job first to discover how reality is. He decided to head out for the ocean before deciding when to return to the harbor. This creates the wrong perception that they are impatient for the result. A fun Gen-Ys reply was to become the CEO in just a month!

Gen-Ys today prefer not to follow the conventional track of what is traditionally done. While they appear not to have long-term view (which is actually not true), they are definitely able to do what many of us do not even dare to try, that is, to stop, look and decide at an appropriate time.

Given a choice, they prefer not to rush into something not so useful or risk doing something for the sake of doing.

Y-SIZE Your Perspective 3: They Know The Price of Freedom

To the Gen-Ys, freedom is the ability to execute a plan accordingly to what they envision. I know of Gen-Ys who are willing to work late into the nights for many days, with an average pay package and yet, deliver exceptional results.

The reason is simple – they are working for what they truly stand for and their inputs are highly valued and appreciated by their team members and leaders. I can’t remember the numerous real stories of how Gen-Ys surprised their employers with highly practical ideas that translate into business solution and results.

Freedom to them is about having the bandwidth to do things in a creative ways aligned to their passion. Gen-Ys are in fact very loyal employees if they are following a leader they respect, who values their input, and most importantly, giving them opportunities to grow. The reason they leave is simple. They no longer feel they are growing.

To successfully Y-Size Your Influence, you need to first be a leader who is willing to value their perspective and to give them plenty of opportunities, helping them to grow. When a Gen-Y asks you “Why?”, why not asking them: “Why do you think so?”

Article by:

Joseph Wong, a multiple award winning leadership and behavioral transformation coach, captivating author and game changing conference speaker of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd. Email to [email protected]

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Believe In Their Success and They Will Believe In Yours (Featured On The Straits Times – 29 Aug 2017)

A common question I receive from leaders and managers whom I am privileged to train: in what context do you want to increase your influence? Is it about influence at work or influence on a personal level with your people?

If it is about influence at the workplace per se, it is easy because leadership comes with a certain amount of authority, and authority is for task-related matters. To have influence over task related issues is relatively easy – just use authority.

But authority is only for the task, not people. A more precise question to ask is: “how can I have more influence over people’s heart and mind? So that when I need them to go the extra mile, they will.”

This is one question that will change the entire landscape of leadership. People do expect leaders today to have vested interest in their personal career success. Unfortunately, we do not see much of this happening in the workplace, because the majority of leaders in the past did not receive such career support and thus assume it is not important to the younger leaders today. Or simply there is no time for such conversation.

This is where leaders will eventually lose their talent to better leaders who take a vested interest in their people’s career. Leaders who take the time to build and grow their people have greater influence in tough times. After all, if they are your team members, then their success have a direct impact on you.

How do we as leaders coach our people to greater career success, thus becoming truly influential leaders in the 21st century? Here are some quick pointers with one fundamental truth in mind”

THE TRUTH ABOUT WHY WE GO TO WORK.

People go to work not because they want to work, nor do they work solely for money – they are also searching for a place to grow.

Leaders need to understand that the workplace needs to be a place where people can grow. One of the top reasons why people leave an organization is because they are not longer growing. People are programmed to achieve and excel – the day we are left with no purpose and meaning in our work is the day we seek change.

The hard truth is, retaining talents is the leader’s responsibility, not the organization. The key is how leaders can keep the talents in the team, thus making it possible to achieve milestones and miracles.

To kick-start your people career success, here are three key questions a good leader should ask:

HOW CAN I HELP YOU TO SUCCEED?

Every team members needs to have their personal career blueprint drawn up in areas that they would like to excel and achieve.

For example, wanting to go for a particular certification so that he can apply the new skills to his work, being exposed to a particular project or field of expertise to increase his knowledge and know-how.

Leaders can identify those areas and explore organizational resources to support the cornerstones of success in an employee’s blueprint, and eventually they will value-add to the organization with the resources given to them – a simple law of reciprocity.

IN WHAT AREAS ARE YOU NOT GROWING?

Identify what I call the “shadow”. Shadows are areas where employees know they have to do, but somewhat did not perform as well as they want to, or are unaware of their hidden limitation.

This is the part where coaching is crucial in identifying the real reason – not having resource support or a lack of formal process or know-how to tackle the problem – and revealing the gaps that can be addressed.

If it is a skill gap, then a training program might be a good starting point. But if it is not, it could be due to a trait that is not in the employee’s nature, requiring futher follow-up and support from the leaders.

WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MORE OF?

This question probes further into discovering what will make the person goes the extra mile, be highly resourceful into looking for solutions, and reveal the real meaning and purpose of this person in his work.

Leaders who are great at identifying this area, put the person into projects where he can shine, because of the initiatives the person naturally takes in his “zone”.

This is the part where strength assurance comes into play. A leader can identify how this person does best in a particular situation – It can be the ability to transform a chaotic situation into an orderly one.

It could also be the ability to come up with a creative and practical solution during a bottleneck, or simply a natural gift when in simplifying things for easier understanding, providing the team a clear perspective for his next move.

Leadership in the new arena today requires a leader to be out of their cubicle and start “storming” the ground to engage and connect with their people. To coach them to greater career is a must-have attribute of a good leader.

Leaders who want their people to succeed do best in these areas, and they can amplify their influence far beyond their workspace. People respect these kind of leaders, and endeavor to be a part of their team.

Article by:

Joseph Wong, multiple awards-winning talent development and behavioral transformation coach of TrainingGearAsia Pte Ltd, and conference speaker on game-changing leadership and influence. Email him at [email protected]

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