Time to change!

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LADIES and gentlemen, we are now moments away from 2014. If you are an employee, most of you will be looking forward to this time of the year as it may mean year-end holidays and bonuses.

Some of you may also be busy making your New Year resolutions. But if you are a business owner, you may be busy coming up with your business plan for next year.

Planning for the year ahead requires a bit of both reflecting on the past and looking forward to the future. Apart from my own annual business plan, as a marketing consultant, I also help some of my clients come up with their marketing plans for the year ahead, or elements of the plan.

The first order of the day is to narrow down the objectives and then come up with goals and plans to achieve those goals.

Naturally, the goals and objectives are always positive and geared towards growth. But any marketer or business owner will tell you, the marketing plan is always one of the plans that are changed the most throughout the year. Depending on what the company is offering and which market they operate in, for some companies, the marketing plan can be so fluid and dynamic that it can be changed as frequently as once a month or week.

Marketers have it tough and I often tell people who aspire to be marketing managers or want to be hired as one that if you are the type of person who likes routine work or following a set of rules, you are not suitable to be a marketer. People who are successful marketers are not just required to be able to change quickly when it comes to their marketing activities but also know how to run faster than the pack. Basically you cannot provide strategic marketing direction without knowing what is ahead or at least having the foresight to understand what will take place.

But change is something not everyone can embrace with open arms, especially for entrepreneurs. It always feels safe to stick to the same business model or plan every year. They think that as long as that plan is not “killing” the business, why not? For example, I am always amazed by one of my friends who is still using a very old handphone (I think it is eight years old) while I have already changed three phones in the span of that period.

He can afford a new one, but stubbornly refuses to get one. Two years ago, his nephew had enough of his stubbornness and bought him a touchscreen smartphone. When I met this friend again recently, I saw he was still using the old phone. I asked about the new phone and he said it was sitting in his drawer as he found it just too troublesome to transfer all his contact details from the old phone to the new one. He was comfortable with the functions of the old one and did not feel like learning the functions of the new phone.

He does not realise just how much he is missing out on.

While there are few people like my friend, I think sometimes entrepreneurs can be like that when it comes to things they need to change in their business. It could be a non-performing employee whom they know they should have let go a long time ago, but just did not want to for fear of rocking the boat.

So they end up paying for non-performance year in and year out, to the detriment of the business.

It could be products they need to retire from their offerings or offices or outlets they need to relocate. It could also be about learning new things or new technology and starting from zero again.

All are hard and uncomfortable decisions especially when change is involved. Change is risky and can be a scary path, but if deep down we know and realise that the change will bring about something better, then we should not be afraid to change. Now is the time.

Contributed by Jeanisha Wan

Jeanisha doesn’t like last minute changes, but equates the need to change with water that needs to be constantly flowing to be fresh. She is more fearful of having her business end up like the water in the Dead Sea. Talk to her at talk2jeanisha@gmail.com. Happy New Year!

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Dumb Leadership Mistakes Smart Managers Avoid

7 Dumb Leadership Mistakes Smart Managers Avoid

Martin Zwilling, Forbes Contributor

Many professionals in business, from startups to multi-nationals, assume that team leader or executive is an appointed position, and the skills come with the title. In reality, leadership is best demonstrated while not in a position of authority, and is a skill that must be sharpened every day of your life.

Most experts agree that leadership, as perceived by people around you, is more about behavior than it is about specific skills or knowledge. Darryl Rosen, in his new book “Table for Three?” illustrates this with humor for each of fifty dumb mistakes that smart managers don’t make. The leadership one is setting a poor example by your own actions (“Do as I say, not as I do.”)



His rendition, including the following seven examples of poor leadership behavior, that I have seen all too often in startups, illustrate how your actions affect others around you:

1. Blame others for everything. An entrepreneur’s passion for an idea often prompts them to blame others or external events for setbacks, rather than themselves, so that they can maintain some semblance of self-esteem and control. This “attributional bias” may be understandable, but is perceived by associates as poor leadership.
2. Worry and fret about everything. Precious little of what we worry and fret about ever happens, so don’t share every concern with associates. At best, it comes across as lack of confidence, or more likely sounds likely trying to make excuses for possible later failures. Team members want leaders who calm their worries, not amplify them.
3. Criticize others and the company. Managers who speak critically of team members, customers, friends or family members, have something going on within them that needs to be examined. There is some aspect of self that they find unacceptable. Real leaders are recognized as willing to look in the mirror, and learn from what they see.
4. Complain about being overwhelmed. Overwhelm is a feeling that always precedes growth, and is a state in which your brain is developing new pathways and connections. Starting a business or a new organization will always cause self-doubt and insecurity. Real leaders embrace and manage these feelings, rather than complain to associates.
5. Do 10 things at a time in a mediocre fashion. Entrepreneurs or managers who claim to be able to do multiple things at a time must never use this as an excuse for poor quality. Associates will quickly conclude that mediocrity is good enough. Even one task done with mediocrity can be the kiss of death for any business, or any career.
6. Appear disorganized and manage things haphazardly. Doing things haphazardly is prone to mistakes. In business, when you are making mistakes, it’s costing you time and money. With associates, making mistakes will cost you in productivity and morale, and will kill their image of you as a leader. Worse yet, associates will follow your example.
7. Fail to see the positives in others. The key here is to maintain a positive mindset. Leadership is all about finding positives, for business growth, for competitive advantage, and people development in your organization. Managers and entrepreneurs need everyone in their organization accentuating the positive, not amplifying the negatives.

Leadership and improvement is about taking small steps forward, and evolving just a bit each day. Think evolution, not revolution. Anyone can change one behavior a month, or eliminate one mistake, and suddenly you too can be an “overnight success.”

Of course, correcting leadership mistakes is only the beginning. There are at least 49 other ways to go wrong in navigating workplace relationships, problem-solving approaches, time management, credibility, and business effectiveness. How many have you avoided recently in your job?

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All work and no play !

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By CHRISTINA CHIN sunday@thestar.com.my

According to a survey, Malaysians are spending too much time at work. Should we change our work culture to emphasise quality and productivity rather than long hours?

DRAUGHTSMAN David Lee likes to play Michael Buble's song Home near knock-off time at his office.
“When Buble sings I wanna go home, I've got to go home', I'll turn up the volume. But my lady boss never gets the hint,” he grumbles.

Lee, 36, says his boss has a tendency to call for a meeting or an “emergency” brainstorming session at 5.45pm. The staff only get to leave the office at 8pm most days and when there is a project deadline to meet, they burn the midnight oil.

For many Malaysians, the long hours that Lee and his colleagues spend at the office is not something unusual. In fact, about a third of the Malaysian working population spend over 11 hours at the office daily, giving the ant colony a run for its money in the title race for “most hardworking”.

According to a global survey that polled some 12,000 business people in 85 countries, Malaysians are not only clocking more hours at work but bringing their office load back home as well.

About 47% of Malaysian workers take tasks home to finish more than three times a week, compared to 43% globally; 15% regularly work more than 11 hours a day, compared with 10% globally.



The survey by Regus, the world's largest provider of workplace solutions, also found “a clear blurring” of the line separating work and home with long-term effects, noting that such over-work could be damaging to both workers' health and overall productivity as workers may drive themselves too hard and become disaffected, depressed and even physically ill.

As Budget 2012 pushes for the retirement age of civil servants be raised from 58 to 60 and the proposed Private Sector Retirement Age Bill empowering the Government to stipulate the retirement age of private sector employees, Malaysians look set to contribute even more to the country's economy. And they expect better rewards.

Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) president Mohd Khalid Atan says the Regus survey confirms what the union has always known.

“The MTUC has been calling for higher remuneration and better benefits for a long time now because we've always known how hard Malaysians work. Unfortunately, employers always say that our workers are not productive enough even when we ask for minimum wage. I honestly don't know by what standards they are measuring our productivity. Perhaps with this survey, employers will finally see the light,” he says.

National Union of Bank Employees (Nube) assistant general-secretary A. Karuna agrees.
Karuna, who is also the Nube Kuala Lumpur branch secretary, says bank employees work late because they don't have a choice.

“The cost of living, especially in big cities, is too high and employees have to work more to earn overtime to make ends meet.

“By offering higher basic salaries, employers are fulfilling their corporate social responsibility because their staff will be able to earn a decent living and still have time for the family,” she adds.

Malaysian Employers Federation (MEF) executive director Shamsuddin Bardan points out that employees are paid overtime when they stay late, so it's a non-issue.

“Generally speaking, 40% of the salary of those not in managerial positions are derived from overtime claims. If those in managerial positions are able to better manage their own time, they won't have to stay back as often.

“Of course, there must be a balance between quality living and delivering at the office but it really depends on how efficient the individual is at time management.

“If you cannot meet your deadlines and refuse to put in the extra effort to get things done, your performance and career advancement may be affected,” he adds.

 Some actually bring their work home or to trendy coffee outlets just to show that they are busy.


“I suppose they want their friends and relatives to see how important they are. So for some, it's a question of showing off how important they are in a company. It's more of an ego-stroking exercise,” Shamsuddin muses.

Human resource practitioner S.C. Lim who manages a head-hunting agency in Petaling Jaya, says local employers expect their staff to stay back.

Some even arrange for meetings in the evenings, expecting the employees to linger on.

“They think it's alright to do that,” she observes.

“Western countries or even orang putih managers based in Malaysia do not expect or believe in employees staying back after work. They believe in productivity and quality rather than longer hours of work, which may not produce better results.”

Lim, however, warns that an employee will not be offered a job regardless of how skilful or qualified he or she is if the person can't work late.

She notes that while it's true Malaysians bring work home, it may not necessarily mean that we're a really hardworking lot.

“Our work culture is such that no reasonable time period is given for one to perform a task well. Almost every company here expects immediate solutions and responses.

“Keen competition has left most people with no choice but to deliver despite the unreasonable time frame given, hence the culture of longer working hours and bringing work home,” says Lim.

Asian Academy of Management (AAM) executive committee member and past president Prof Datuk Dr Ishak Ismail says it's wrong to have a negative perception of those who leave the office punctually at knock-off time.

“What's more important is efficiency and productivity. Unfortunately, the reality is that most clock-watchers are not committed to getting the job done well because they are preoccupied with arriving and leaving on time,” he says.

“As employees, you have to accomplish certain tasks. Bringing work home is not a problem but it's up to you to make sure that it doesn't disrupt your family time.”

Dr Ishak questions why there is still inefficiency if Malaysians are really working that hard.

He believes it's because the eight working hours have not been fully utilised in a proper manner.
  
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy



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