Kuching Work Trip

This time work commitment has taken me to Kuching for 3 days.  I am grateful that part of my work involves volunteer work to help out a good cause, the Race Against Time 2012 which is a 5-km and 7-km run to raise awareness for organ donation.
We woke up at 5am today for preparations of the run, which would flag off at 6.45am.

Starting and Finish Line

Besides organizing the t-shirt and bibs hand out yesterday, this morning we were in charged of handing certificates of completion, caps and water bottles to all who completes.
Here's the cap we got as a souvenir.

An organ donation is a gift of life

Handling a Team

I realized I have blogged less and less about "Work" here, even though that is part of my theme.  Increasingly, it is difficult to keep a blog about work when there are so many challenges and I only want to blog about success and happiness and keep the negativity at bay.
Still I would like to be thankful for the learnings that I get, so that I keep improving myself.

Photo from: http://munei.co.za/team.html

One of the lessons is what do you do when you lead a team who may be less enthusiastic than yourself?
By "enthusiastic", I mean having the passion, the drive to go out there and execute the plans even though all the odds are against you. Doing whatever it takes doggedly, even though immediate results may not show.  And this is critical especially when you need urgency and action amongst your team to turn the situation around.
I spoke to several people regarding this, and the feedback was always the same.  When this happens, you talk to the team first, to ensure that they all understand the situation and what needs to be done.  If they know and they are still not doing it, it means that their hearts are not there with you anymore.
Worse, if there are negative people in your team, not taking ownership of their portion of work and even infecting the others with their defeatist attitude.
For most of these people, the solution is only to change the job environment.  This is where management skills will come in to handle the situation properly and objectively, not emotionally and judgmentally.  It is better this way for the person and for the manager.  The person in the team will have a chance for a new lease of life in a different work environment, and the manager gets to hire a fresh start who would not have all the burden of negativity of a long-ailing business environment.

For me, the most important is your immediate boss knows that you are doing all you can.  That way he or she can support you and vouch that you have tried your best.  In my capacity, if I am still needed here, I would do what I can, which includes weeding out the weak chain-links that do not work, and bringing in new links that will make the team stronger.  Sure, the results would be devastating for a while where the technical know-how and business relationships disappear with the old team.  But a fresh start works better than the same old doldrums of non-performance.

Golden Rules for Career Success

I had the opportunity to come across this article which was being circulated in our office, and I can't help but think, it is so true.  So I would like to share it here, for those of you who work in a corporate environment as I am now.

Image from www.autoprofessionals.com.au

Golden Rules for Career Success

Richard Moran : Working as a business consultant all over the world, I have discovered some basic career-related rules that everyone should know – but many don’t.

* Business is made up of ambiguous victories and nebulous defects. Claim them all as victories.

* Keep track of what you do; someone is sure to ask.

* Be comfortable around senior managers, or learn to fake it.

* Never bring your boss a problem without some solution. You are getting paid to think, not to whine.

* Long hours don’t mean anything; results count, not effort.

* Write down ideas; they get lost, like good pens.

* Always arrive at work 30 minutes before your boss.

* Help other people network for jobs. You never know when your turn will come.

* Don’t take days off sick – unless you are.

* Assume no one can/will keep a secret.

* Know when you do your best – morning, night, under pressure, relaxed; schedule and prioritize your work accordingly.

* Treat everyone who works in the organization with respect and dignity, whether it be the cleaner or the managing director. Don’t ever be patronizing.

* Never appear stressed in front of a client, a customer or your boss. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: In the course of human events, how important is this?

* If you get the entrepreneurial urge, visit someone who has his own business. It may cure you.

* Acknowledging someone else’s contribution will repay you doubly.

* Career planning is an oxymoron. The most exciting opportunities tend to be unplanned.

* Always choose to do what you’ll remember ten years from now.

* The size of your office is not as important as the size of your pay cheque.

* Understand what finished work looks like and deliver your work only when it is finished.

* The person who spends all of his or her time working is not hard-working; he or she is boring.

* Know how to write business letters – including thank-you notes as well as proposals.

* Never confuse a memo with reality. Most memos from the top are political fantasy.

* Eliminate guilt. Don’t fiddle expenses, taxes or benefits, and don’t cheat colleagues.

* Reorganizations mean that someone will lose his or her job. Get on the committee that will make the recommendations.

* Job security does not exist.

* Always have an answer to the question, “What would I do if I lost my job tomorrow?”

* Go to the company Christmas party.

* Don’t get drunk at the company Christmas party.

* Avoid working at weekends. Work longer during the week if you have to.

* The most successful people in business are interesting.

* Sometimes you’ll be on a winning streak and everything will click; take maximum advantage. When the opposite is true, hold steady and wait it out.

* Never in your life say, “It’s not my job.”

* Be loyal to your career, your interests and yourself.

* Understand the skills and abilities that set your apart. Use them whenever you have an opportunity.

* People remember the end of the project. As they say in boxing, “Always finish stronger than you start”.

Appraisal and Feedback

Before I met my current boss, I always thought appraisals and feedback were just something that has to be done without any real meaning to it.  Sure, an employee may have done well for the year, so you give him a pat on the back on the year end appraisal. And then you go through the motions of asking what are their career plans etc, and decide on some training they could go for the year.
However, my impression changed when I met my boss.  She took appraisals and feedback really seriously.   I even had a multi-rater feedback (which was a feedback form sent to colleagues and peers) to evaluate my strengths and weaknesses.
So here is a list of room for improvement that I have to take note of:
1. Setting clear directions and vision so that the team could drive towards that
2. Keep cool under stress
3. Exude greater presence during management meetings
4. Clear communication on support expectations - i.e how much time I could dedicate to supporting which portfolio
5. Field presence and interaction with customers
6. Give personal touches to the subordinates - don't cut to the chase all the time.  Respond to personal touch emails, such as when your boss or subordinate gives you a thank you email.
7. Work-life balance
I am grateful to my boss for an objective evaluation and identify certain action points that I can make to improve myself.  I think every employee and boss owes it to themselves and their colleagues to conduct meaningful appraisals, making it practical so that the person could make changes for the better.

Photo credit: Autoauction Windsor

The Final Race for 2010

At work, I am faced with the toughest challenge ever. Already behind our sales target for the year, our team is asked to not only deliver this quarter's target but also to catch up to some extent on the previous 9 months' shortfall. And yet I feel upbeat and positive about things.
That is because my boss, had forced me to run a business review with the team. I didn't want to hold the review at first because I thought it was a waste of time, the team would be better out in the field getting more sales instead of wasting 2 days at the office. However, the meeting proved to be very fruitful for us. We reviewed what we have been through so far, what had worked and what had not. Also, we emphasized the importance of still going the distance even if the task ahead seems so futile. Because if we throw in the towel now, we don't have a chance. But if we try, we still might hit something somewhere, even though we know we are far from our original target.
At the closing, my boss said something which really touched me. She said it to our team, who has taken a beating all year round due to poor sales performance. She said it despite the fact that we will not hit our original budget. She said, "Team, if you can show growth that is better than last year and give this all your might and do not give up, you can hold our chin up. And I will stand proud with all of you."

Sales and Growth

This year at work, the sales number required is very challenging.
That is to the point that sometimes I feel that I'm faced with an insurmountable task ahead.
However today I learnt 2 important lessons from my work:
1. If you can't get to the sales target, at least show credibility to the performance by showing growth over last year.
2. Even if the future looks bleak, at least do not give up even now itself.
If everyone has a defeatist attitude, he or she will give up, and the prophecy of failure becomes a reality. That is why no matter what, I must keep a positive mindset.
I am thankful for the many things in life that are going well, and I take this little setback as making me stronger to progress. I will not give up and I will rally the team to do this as well.

Photo copyright: Haruki, Scotland, Oct 2009; to use please post a comment & acknowledge source.

Work From Home Option

I am grateful that my company introduced a work from home option to office-based employees once a week. Today is the first day that I have made that happen successfully.

To be fair to the company, whenever an employee works from home, he/she must adhere to 2 criteria:

1. Be fully contactable via phone, email and sametime at the stipulated normal working hours of the day.

2. Be able to come back to office or meet customers when needed.

It's almost like working from office, only that on this day, home is the office.

The only difference is I get to see my baby daughter awake in the morning for a bit longer before she goes to her babysitter. And I get to have lunch normally with my family members. And I don't need to get stuck in the traffic jam commuting to and from work.

It's also nice to be sitting in my "home office" in a t-shirt and not having to dress up for work ;-)

Thank You

These past months I have been living in a dream. Loss of staff coupled with the busy budget season at my company have caused me to work late hours, and still I am behind time in most projects. I feel tired and burdened and spend so little time with my babies.
But this is a blog that serves to remind me of my blessings. I have a wonderful understanding family which works like clockwork even without my presence. I have a generally contented baby who goes to bed at 9pm and sleeps through the night to 6am. She has been doing that since she was 4 months old, much earlier than her brother and sister. I have a new apartment now, for which I have secured 2 tenants, and now looking for the 3rd tenant.
I am grateful for all the things that I have and glad that everything is going well for me. I am healthy and able to work and I enjoy dealing with my colleagues and my customers, even when sometimes, things look so daunting.
Recounting these blessings makes me grateful and contented, and to think of other less fortunate people who needs my help.
Thank you, thank you, thank you, I am contented and I am blessed.

Rejuvenation

These past few weeks I have been caught in a whirlwind of marketing plans preparation for next year, including the very critical numbers game. This is when the CFO challenges our assumptions for sales and growth, fieldforce and marketing expenses. Usually we would project a growth that is in line with the market trend and expenses would increase less than the sales growth.
I guess I must count myself lucky. The CFO has a lot of faith in my brands. Although my brands command brand equity, they are very old and have a lot of competitors. Yet the top guns challenged me to grow 4 times above market rate by pumping in more resources for next year.
Sometimes I think, even the big player-competitors which are pumping in money now has very little growth, yet I am expected to deliver a huge growth because it is believed that my brands have been neglected when the sales were outsourced to another company.
I need to rejuvenate my brands. Not only that, I need to rejuvenate my own mindset. Only with that then I am able to rejuvenate the imagination of my team. Otherwise everyone would think the same way as I am thinking now, that it is almost impossible.
I will be positive. I will think "can do", and try my best. My CEO says there is a difference between a stupid target and a stretch target. I just need to know which is which ;-)

Photo courtesy of Stuart Seeger, http://www.flickr.com/people/stuseeger/

Ms. Octopus & her Juggling Act

I want to pen down this incident so that when I am retired one day, I can read about this and laugh. Last Monday morning, 31 May, I was alone in the house with 3 kids. J went back to his hometown with both his parents as they had to attend a funeral. The natural thing for me to do was to take leave and stay home. Unfortunately I had an important meeting at 11am, and even after testing water with my boss, I had a feeling that taking leave was not an option.
So I took the 2 kids to their "Aunty Van" driver who took them to school, with baby in tow in the morning, arranged for the teacher at the daycare to take them in after school, and I would pick them up when I got home from work. As for the baby, I'd arranged with my mom that I would take the baby to her for the day. I fed Baby Xin, changed her and got ready for work. I put all the baby stuff (bottles, milk powder, diapers, clothes, the works) in a bag hanging by the pram, put the baby in the pram, and on me I had my handbag, laptop bag, another bag for my documents, and my breastpump & bottle. When I thought I was finally ready, I took the lift down, pushed the pram to my car, strapped the baby in her carseat, threw the pram in the boot, strapped myself in the car and voila! I was ready to go.
Just as I was driving out of the guard house, I suddenly remembered something was missing. The kids' towels, change of clothes and snacks. These were requested by the daycare teacher earlier when I asked her to care for the kids. Thinking that I did not want to be carrying an extra set of things on Monday, I had specifically asked J to help send those to the teacher last Saturday, and of course, he had forgotten. And sure enough, on Monday morning I forgot these things as well, even though I had seen the bag of stuff lying around.
Only that I remembered just in time. I turned back, parked the car, and for one crazy moment I wanted to leave Baby Xin strapped in her carseat while I run upstairs to grab the crucial bag. Sanity returned and I unstrapped her, grabbed my keys and up the lift I went. After getting the bag, while waiting for the lift, I had beads of sweat on my face, and I was hoping, "Please, let the lift with working ventilation come." - because the other lift's ventilation was not working. And up came the lift without ventilation. Sigh.....
After that, I was really off to go to my mom's.
I arrived work at 10am.
And then, I was told, one of the crucial attendees of that all-important 11am meeting, was on emergency leave. Meeting was called off.
Now I remember why I want to retire young....

One good vote, one bad vote

Due to tight deadlines, I am finding it a challenge to blog this past week. So here is a quick update on work.
This week, 2 senior vacant positions came about in my company. Immediately I thought of my friend who had been jobless for almost 9 months since her company closed down. She had expressed that she would like to go back to work.
So imagine my surprise when I emailed to her about the positions, and she said that she had heard lots of bad vibes from a mutual friend about my company.
I just smiled and shrugged and I was not going to reply her email. First of all, positions of that level are hard to come by. Secondly, my colleague (the mutual friend) tends to be more negative and tends to complain about work, but all in all, he is doing well. Thirdly, I am also in this company and I am very happy here.
Why do people choose to listen to the negative instead of the positive?

Rejecting an Offer from Another Company

Continuing from my post of Leaving vs. Staying Back, here is what I learnt about the "right" process to do when rejecting a job offer.
If you have been offered a job by another company, you would then get an offer letter which you have to sign within a stated time period, usually within a week. Signing on that letter means that you have agreed to join them.
Usually candidates would wait for the offer letter before tendering in their resignation. With the letter, they have a firm document in hand - they have a job in another company. They would then let their current employer know that they are planning to resign and submit the resignation letter. During this period, if the company wants to retain the employee, negotiations would take place, and then the candidate would make the final decision.
The unspoken ethics about this procedure is not to sign on the offer letter first before letting your current employer know of your intention to resign. That shows your company that you would like to give them a chance to retain you. If you have already signed on that letter, then what can the company do? (Unless your company is really crappy and you wouldn't think twice about leaving). However, nowadays, many younger generation employees think nothing about putting their signature down on that letter. They think they can still reject the new company if things work out alright at the old company - as if the signature carries no weight at all.
In my experience, the candidate confirmed joining my company and signed on the letter, and then gave 1 month's notice to his old company. During that period, his company decided to woo him back and succeeded. It took the candidate a total of 2.5 weeks after signing the offer letter to tell me that he won't be joining us after all. Imagine my frustration - I lost 2.5 weeks because during the time I thought he accepted, I stopped interviewing others. I also lost my 2nd choice because that candidate decided to accept another job after hearing that we didn't offer her the job. The results were devastating to me. I had to start interviewing all over again and it was already so late - my project timelines were thrown off course.
My boss always said it is ok to reject a company's offer on 2 conditions: 1. You have not signed on the offer letter and 2. You don't take too long to tell them. That's because if you are good, your company will fight to keep you. So if you reject an offer, the other company would understand that you really are that good. But be considerate, let them know early so that they, too, can move on. And have integrity, your signature should mean that you intend to keep your end of the bargain. The CEO's signature on the offer letter guarantees that you have a job, so why shouldn't your signature guarantee something to them?

Leaving vs Staying Back Depends on What You Really Want

There was a time when I looked out of my current company for another job. That job would have given me the promotion to business unit manager and the salary increase which I sought. Although I liked my job very much, I couldn't see how I could be promoted in the near future and therefore had to look out, after 6 years of being in the same position.
When the offer came, I really felt very uncomfortable as my bosses were very good people to work with. Before receiving the offer letter which was supposed to be ready the next day, I spoke to my manager about leaving, about how difficult that decision had been for me, and what opportunity awaited me outside.
She said it was such a good thing that I came to her first, before signing on the offer letter. That was because I was showing consideration to my company by giving them a chance to hear me out on what I wanted, and see if they could something about it. If I had just signed the letter and threw in my resignation, that would have been totally heartless and untactful, even in this dog-eat-dog corporate world, especially when I had very supportive bosses who had invested time in grooming me. Since I had such a good reason to leave - promotion - I certainly had no qualms about sharing my plans with them. To my surprise, they said I didn't have to leave at all. A new position similar to what I was seeking had opened up and they were going to announce that for internal applicants! And they would be supportive of my application since they had that career plan for me anyway.
At that time, I still considered to leave as I had given the outside company so much hope about joining them. My big boss intervened and asked me to stay. I remember saying, "Just let me go, I'm just a brand manager, you can find someone to replace me in a month or 2." But he said he would never find another me, and I was very touched.
I stayed back. And there are unspoken ethics about the way to reject the other company as well, which I would share in my next blog. The gist of it was, if I could get to where I want to be in my current company with a supportive environment that I already know, there was really no need to leave and to reestablish my performance, stature and level of trust in a new environment. Even if it meant forgoing that high salary jump, for the time being.

Think before you leap

A colleague of mine recently resigned to accept another job which he hoped would give him new things to learn, sharpening of skills in formulating strategies and exposure in marketing management of 2 countries.

Our industry circle is very small, and my boss and I had heard some unfavourable things about the people managing that company. So we gave our colleague ample warnings without sounding too much like we were saying bad things just because we wanted him to stay back. In fact, I said only enough to convey the most relevant information, and encouraged him to get feedback from other people, including our clients who certainly had dealings with that company as well. However, blind in his enthusiasm for a new start, better pay, and promises by that company's HR department, he refused to do his research homework. The only people he clarified with were the HR execs of that new company.

So we sent him off with a farewell dinner and well wishes, and my boss looked for another person to fill his position.

2 weeks after he started work there, he called me and asked to come back! I thought he was joking and said, "Haha! Very funny!" and began to advise him that it was only teething pains and things would work out well after he got used to the new environment and systems there. But he was serious about coming back. So I told him to talk to the boss.

Unfortunately, my boss had already offered his job to the new replacement. He was too late.

I asked him why he wanted to come back, and he said that he was misled about the situation in that company. Instead of being able to formulate strategies, these came "top down" from the USA, which he was not allowed to change to suit local situations. Instead of providing marketing support with very much of a free reign, he had to consult the regional marketing manager who is in charged of Asia Pacific, but because she is based in Malaysia, that manager has 10 fingers in the Malaysian pie. In a nutshell, his expectations for career development there were not met.

Moral of the story: Do your homework before you go. The hiring HR execs could either intentionally hide certain facts, or they are simply "blurr" as well.

What's in a Platinum Card?

I just came home from meeting a client over drinks in Midvalley today. After discussing business, we talked about other trivial things, including the benefits of having a platinum credit card, which in my opinion is very few and far between.

After that, on the way to the carpark at Gardens, I passed by the washrooms beside Isetan. Thinking that I did not want to be caught in the traffic jam outside Midvalley with a full bladder, I decided to visit the washroom when I was stopped by a sign at the counter.

Premier Washrooms - RM5 per entry. ("What?!")
Free Entry for Holders of the Following:
Isetan card - ("I don't have...")
Robinsons card - ("Ok, I didn't bring...")
Platinum cards of any banks - ("Hey, I took it out today to call the bank to cancel it...")

And voila! I pulled it out of my handbag, showed it at the counter and walked right in.
And since I've forgotten to call the bank, I think I will keep the platinum card, and cancel the gold instead. What's in a platinum card? I didn't even apply for it, it was sent by the bank, and has a low credit limit. Maybe it should include this line as one of the benefits: "Free entry into the premier washrooms of Midvalley." ;-)

My experience with Interviews

In the beginning when I had to interview, I was always uncertain. How to determine the quality of the candidate, how to review, how to bring out the best in people - everything to me was just gut feel and guess work. But my boss insisted that I do it anyway, and she will provide the backup support being the 2nd interviewer.

So I went ahead, and most of the time I was unable to make a judgment about how good people are even after I've interviewed them. I would do a quick summary of the person and let my boss see him too. Then we will reconvene and she will tell me what she has picked up from her observation. I learnt to read cues, verbal or non-verbal, and asking critical questions that will help open up the candidates and help us understand them better.

Over the course of a few interviews, I found that I knew better already. I can now make a quick judgment, and profess my opinion confidently when I am recommending for 2nd interview, or cut short the interview and let the candidate go. I found myself confidently expressing: "I like this candidate." Or "No, Boss, you don't need to see." It's amazing! Although I didn't like interviewing at first because I was always so unsure, now I found that the extra interviews that I do actually hone my skills.

Of course, interviews are not foolproof. There will still be hiring mistakes. But my boss has been through enough interviews to make the odds better. And it is great to be learning under her guidance. I still learn a lot from her, especially the 50-50 cases.

A Blessing in Disguise

In my post entitled A case of Pride and Prejudice I talked about the interviews that I was conducting to hire a manager. Well, unfortunately the chap that I picked decided not to join us after signing the letter of acceptance for 2 weeks. Because he took so long to make a decision like this, I also lost my 2nd choice, who accepted another job after being declined by us. And I also lost a lot of time because in the time that the chosen chap "accepted" the job, I wasn't interviewing to look for other candidates. I was disappointed, to say the least.
I was not going to blog about this since my principle is to blog only about the happy things. But yesterday something happened that turned this into a fortunate event. With a heavy heart, I started the 2nd round of interviews; and was pleasantly surprised by the quality I saw in this batch of candidates. I already liked one of them very much, and in my judgment I think she is better than the first chap I picked.
Now I know that everything happens for a reason. I may have to wait longer and do more in order to bridge over this difficult period without my "right arm" but at least this new arm is strong and passionate and has a good attitude. So the first person's refusal is really a blessing in disguise.

Sydney business trip

Last week I was on a business trip to Sydney. The trip was short - only 4 days, but it was very intense, from business meetings to training to dinners. I hardly saw daylight there.

However, here are some photos that I took. The night shot is of Darling Harbour, the day shot is the Botanical Gardens taken from my room window. It is a beautiful and safe city, easy to walk around in the autumn weather. I am thankful the trip went well, and even more thankful to be home after that, safe and sound with my babies in my arms.

Packaging vs. Substance

Years ago when I was a junior marketing executive, my country manager (CM) asked me to make a presentation to her big boss, the VP of Asia Pacific, who was visiting our country. At that time I was tied up with a lot of work. To create an additional presentation on powerpoint would take up a lot of time, mainly because I was not very good with powerpoints, and also to tell my story I needed to literally draw out the focus map.
Well, I decided not to draw on powerpoint in order to save time. When the VP came, I told him the story of our business armed with my words, and a pencil and paper. I started drawing the various components of business at the table when I was presenting to him. My CM nearly fell off her chair! Luckily the presentation went well. When I retell this story nowadays, we always have a good laugh about how I was a rash and brave executive to use this kind of shortcuts in front of the big boss. I guess that I stayed true to myself- if I can get the message across, why waste time with the packaging when I really have the substance?
Nowadays, unfortunately, I can't use the paper and pencil anymore. This is to avoid the perception of non-preparedness, sloppiness and lackadaisical attitude. But luckily I am much better with powerpoints already ;-)

A favour from a friend

My colleague went to the USA last week for a week-long meeting. Being women, when the USA is being mentioned, Coach handbags and accessories come to mind. She said when she had a chance, she was going to grab a few bags for herself. I then asked her if she mind getting me one, and this is what she came home with.
According to her, the one that I requested was 6 months outdated, and this is one of the latest designs in the USA.
I am so touched as she said she spent a lot of time before finally choosing this bag for me. It is a luxury item as I am one who does not believe in spending a fortune for accessories. But this bag lifts my spirits - one of the good things in life, through a huge favour from a friend.