LEADERS ISSUE 02
DIGEST
15 FEB 2018
INSPIRING LEADERS The CEO Journey: Becoming The Executive Who Can See What Lies Ahead In 2018 Where Is The Heart Of Your SMART Goals?
PG. 8
Here Are Some Secret Keys To Unlock Teamwork
PG. 10
What Can Malaysian Businesses Expect In 2018? Content Partner
This fortnightly publication is dedicated to advancing our understanding of leadership and putting it into practice for organisational development.
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PUBLICATION TEAM EDITORIAL
Editor-in-Chief Segaren Senior Editor Siti Rahanah Amat Dollah Assistant Editor Samson Tan Graphic Designer Awang Ismail bin Awang Hambali Abdul Rani Haji Adenan
CONTENTS
ISSUE 2 I 15 FEBRUARY 2018
03 The CEO Journey: Becoming The Executive Who Can See What Lies Ahead In 2018
06 Where Is The Heart Of Your SMART Goals?
08
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Here Are Some Secret Keys To Unlock Teamwork
What Can Malaysian Businesses Expect In 2018?
11 Inspirational Quotes
11 Jokes
LEADER’S DIGEST IS A FORTNIGHTLY PUBLICATION BY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE OF SARAWAK CIVIL SERVICE FEATURING ALL THE LATEST SURROUNDING THE TOPIC OF LEADERSHIP. NEW TRAINING PROGRAMMES IS ALSO A HIGHLIGHT ALONGSIDE SOME OF THE FEEDBACK GATHERED FROM THE TRAININGS ORGANISED BY THE INSTITUTE. THE PUBLICATION ALSO FEATURES SPECIALLY SELECTED WRITE-UPS RELATED TO EACH THEME OF THE ISSUE, THROUGH ITS CONTENT PARTNER, LEADERONOMICS.
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The CEO Journey:
Becoming The Executive Who Can See What Lies Ahead In 2018 BY PETER LAM
change so rapidly that we must keep our “ Times and conditions aim constantly focused on the future.
“
Whether you’re managing a start-up, family business or publiclisted company, we’re living in highly turbulent times. There is even an acronym coined to describe this situation – VUCA – for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous times or conditions. It has become a buzzword.
“Like it or not, we’re in a world of constant and rapid change.” Just a decade ago, the iPhone was launched. And within a few short years we saw the death of BlackBerry, the Nokia phone and the Palm electronic organiser. And it sent Microsoft, HewlettPackard and Dell reeling too. Slowly, digital photography came into the picture as well, and it caused the ultimate collapse of the once-great Kodak. In more recent years, we’ve seen the emergence and rapid rise of data-driven companies like Airbnb, Uber, and our own home-grown Grab. These and other similar companies have become known as “disruptors” – they changed the whole market dynamics. Airbnb is the largest accommodation provider yet they own no hotels. Can boutique hotels still thrive? Similarly, Grab and Uber own very few vehicles of their own, yet they are now the largest “taxi providers”. Some former taxi drivers are now Grab drivers. How will conventional taxi companies respond? Adding on to all the free sharing and texting mobile apps like WhatsApp, and you see telecommunications service providers struggling to maintain their Average Revenue Per Unit, also known as ARPU, which is a key measure of business and financial performance. Think about what electric and autonomous cars will do in the near future. How will oil companies and manufacturers be affected?
– Walt Disney
All things digital
The digital economy has been making waves in recent years too. Traditional media companies are flogging content online and offering all kinds of deals to attract subscribers to their new online platforms – hoping to balance or recoup the steady readership/viewership and revenue declines of their traditional media like television (TV) and newspapers. So many of us are now getting our news from our mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets or even the less prevalent laptops. Such trends are also caused by the YouTube habit and the convenience of making short videos and sharing on our social media channels. It’s just so easy that even my 77-year-old aunty is on Facebook! Everyone is producing content that it has even led to the ‘fake news’ phenomenon.
The ‘new oil’ industry
Now comes Big Data and suddenly we have a whole industry called Data Analytics and a new era – moving from information technology to data technology. Smart phones and the internet have made data abundant, ubiquitous and far more valuable. Whether you are going for a run, watching TV, roaming in a shopping mall, or just sitting in heavy traffic, virtually every activity creates a digital trace. This means there are more “raw materials” for the data analysis “factories”. Indeed, many have termed data as the new crude oil! There’s also the burgeoning of e-commerce which has recently made Amazon the top company on Wall Street and allowed Jeff Bezos to rival (if not overtake) Bill Gates as the richest person in the world.
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Starbucks plus Alibaba roastery experience
Just three weeks ago in Shanghai, China, Starbucks opened their second and only international reserve roastery outlet in collaboration with Alibaba. At 30,000 square feet, it is the largest Starbucks outlet in the world. The American coffeehouse chain has collaborated with Alibaba for its first-of-its-kind store that will provide an enhanced customer experience by adding virtual and augmented reality (AR) to its menu. Alibaba and Starbucks are leveraging advanced technology to offer customers a thoroughly interactive in-store experience. It allows customers to use their mobile devices within the roastery to receive new-age AR experiences. This is possible through the custom-designed roastery digital web-app platform or on Alibaba’s Taobao app. That’s innovation in the retail scene for you. This merger of online and offline shopping is dubbed the ‘new retail’ by Alibaba and is expected to offer more efficient, flexible and fulfilling shopping experience to its customers. As if all this is not enough, there is artificial intelligence, machine learning and Industry 4.0 too! Not to mention fintech, cryptocurrencies, block chain technology, etc.
Rise of the millennials
In this VUCA and digital landscape, the chief executive officer (CEO) has to grapple and navigate the team and the business in the data age. Yes, the world is changing fast. Competition and customer demands are constantly changing. The workforce is changing too. By 2023, 70% of the world’s workforce will be the hotly-debated Millennials. Yet, many CEOs have not really changed their mindsets and paradigms. Going into 2018, CEOs need to learn to see around corners if they haven’t already. In Malaysia, many CEOs of family-run businesses and public-listed companies need to change their mindsets, beliefs and approach. They need to have the courage to disrupt what’s ahead of them before their competitors do. There is an urgent call for major shifts in their leadership, communication and collaborative styles. Strategic thinkers see the new and different world and understand that old ways of thinking are no longer useful. As author Ayn Rand aptly wrote: “You can ignore reality, but you cannot ignore the consequences of ignoring reality.”
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The many hats of a CEO
More importantly, leaders need to bring change to their people and the organisation. But, it has to start from the top, with the CEO being the Chief Empowerment Officer, Chief Education Officer, Chief Engagement Officer, or Change Execution Officer. Change has to be led from the top, sometimes at board level, and driven throughout the organisation. It’s not an easy task, but you can rebirth your company that might otherwise suffer from mediocrity, or worse, irrelevance. You can still build greatness into your business. In fact, with all these developments, the playing field is more level now so smaller players stand a fighting chance to take on the global giants – only if they embrace change well, and embrace it now.
Your next action steps
If you’re ready, your question would be, “How do we go about doing this?” I recommend a four-step process: 1. A candid audit and review. 2. Deciding and setting clear company priorities. 3. Team alignment and culture. 4. Preparing a talent plan, including your own personal development plan. Here’s a brief outline of the process and some coaching questions to guide you. 1) Do a candid review or post-mortem on 2017 Good CEOs are constantly observing and taking away lessons from their team’s wins and losses. As brutally honest as possible, ask yourself: • What were the company’s three biggest accomplishments this year? • How can we capitalise on the strengths that led to those successes? • What were the company’s three biggest failures/misses this year? • What were the root causes, and how can we address them next year? For even more insight, discuss these questions with your executive leadership team and record the top answers. 2) Decide and clarify priorities for 2018 Where do you want to be by the end of 2018? From where you are now, what are the top two or three priorities? Depending on the size of your organisation, what are the next two or three?
It seems obvious but you should not have more than half a dozen priorities. If everything is a priority, then nothing is. What gaps need to be filled to achieve what we want by the end of 2018? What’s our theme for the year?
Concluding thoughts
I can tell you from personal experience that covering these areas now will pay great dividends in the coming year.
Make sure each priority is articulated as SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) goal statements. Discuss them with your leadership team and your board. You must be able to defend why those are the priorities. 3) Check your team alignment, talent capabilities and your corporate culture Human capital in your organisation is so vital it would be foolish not to take an active role in evaluating and growing it. Ask yourself: • Do we have the right leadership team in place? If not, why not? • What strategic hires might we need to make in 2018? • Have we defined the company’s leadership competencies? Are these still relevant or do they need to be updated? • Is the entire team aligned with the above priorities? • What conditions must be present to achieve total alignment? • In the absence of rules and oversight, a company’s culture and how its employees operate determine its success. When did we last review our corporate culture?
Make it an awesome and trailblazing 2018!
4) Preparing for your own personal development Besides a talent plan, what’s your plan for your own personal development? Many CEOs arrive at the position without much preparation for the specific demands of their new role. What do you need to do to stay on top of the game? The best CEOs I know are committed to continuous improvement of their own leadership and management skills. I recommend: • Reflecting on your personal successes and failures as CEO last year. • Privately asking each of your board members for two areas in which you could improve. • Consider writing down books to read, people to meet with, groups to join, and events/conferences to attend.
Having spent 22 years in leading multinational companies, Peter Lam has been a highly sought-after business and executive coach for the past 15 years. He would love to hear your thoughts and can be contacted at editor@ leaderonomics.com or on LinkedIn.
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Where is the
HEART of your What is your heart telling you today?
SMART GOALS?
And 5 questions to ask yourself as we begin the New Year… BY LAY HSUAN, LIM
We talk a lot about setting personal and career goals at the beginning of the year as this exercise helps us to have a clear picture on what, when, why and how we want to accomplish things for the year. One of the commonly used guide for setting goals is the SMART tool, which many of us understand as specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound. No doubt, these elements are important in ensuring our success, and involve much of our strategic thinking capacity.
Don’t ignore the ‘heart matters’ in your SMART goals.
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What about the “heart matter” that is involved in these objectives? Let us explore a different kind of SMART.
SINCERITY
MINDFULNESS
ACCOUNTABILITY
RELATIONSHIP
TEAMWORK
SINCERITY
MINDFULNESS
ACCOUNTABILITY
RELATIONSHIP
TEAMWORK
Sincere or authentic people consistently uphold what is true and just. They are genuine in their words and deeds, often showing real care for people around them.
Mindfulness is the practice of cultivating a purposeful and focused awareness on the present moment.
This is viewed as being answerable to somebody (including yourself!) for something we have committed to do.
We can facilitate greater teamwork when a relationship is built on trust and accountability.
They are often learners to new ideas and life lessons, and are highly appreciative of feedback from others.
In today’s hectic living, we are constantly multitasking. Our mind is always distracted, making us absent mentally even though our body is present.
Question: Is your goal exclusively about building your own “throne”, or are you building a “castle” together with your team?
Start by making the conscious decision to listen attentively to the people you interact. Also, don’t make judgments too quickly.
Leaderonomics faculty partner Joseph Tan mentioned that there is no use getting people in your organisation engaged if they are not accountable for their actions.
Family, friends and coworkers have played their part in walking alongside you through words of encouragement, guidance and coaching.
Question: While setting your eyes on the finishing line, what are some of the things you can do to be more mindful of yourself, and others around you?
Without accountability, a great plan remains a farfetched dream as nobody owns it to see it through. Question: What are the channels of communications you’re using (and how frequent) when presenting your “account” to your accountability partner(s)?
In short, where we are today is mostly dependent on the quality relationships we have in our lifetime. Question: With regard to your goals, are your relationships based on a “touch-andgo” basis or are you building a long-term relationship with your team members and customers?
When people are rooted on common values, it is easier to communicate expectations across the organisation. We may have our personal goals, but collectively with one heart and mind, we can achieve more. Question: What are some of the things you can do together to cultivate team spirit?
In conclusion
We become lifeless when the heart stops beating. What is your heart telling you today while you set your personal, professional and organisational goals? Go on and incorporate the heart in your SMART goals and keep them alive and well. Lim Lay Hsuan Lay Hsuan is the content curator for Leaderonomics.com. She writes occasionally and is the caretaker for Leaderonomics social media channels. She is happiest when you leave comments on the website, or subscribe to Leader’s Digest, or share Leaderonomics content on social media.
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Here are some Secret Keys to unlock Teamwork Developing an effective culture of constructive communication
BY KHAULA RAMEEZ
Khaula (pronounced Haula) is a corporate intern at Leaderonomics. She is from the Maldives, currently doing her Masters in Managerial Psychology. Apart from her interest in organisational psychology, she is very passionate about understanding body language and criminal behaviours.
“ While there are many benefits to working as a team, “
not all of them can be as effective as we expect.
Steve Jobs explained teamwork using the story of an old man showing him how really ugly rocks can turn into incredibly beautiful ones after putting them in a can with some grit powder and liquid. The friction that was created among the rocks while they were in the tin made them come out as beautiful and polished ones. The idea is that, as individuals, we can be fairly ordinary. But when we are within the tin can of “teams”, we go beyond our comfort zones.We fight, we argue and we are exposed to different viewpoints. Through this process, teams can mould their members in a way that they not only become great team members but also better version of themselves. There are several benefits of teamwork. These include a marked increase in efficiency, problem solving skills and effective communication.
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In fact, in some cases, teamwork can turn out to be more catastrophic and unproductive than individuals working separately. This is due to a lack of team cohesion and an inability to reconcile the differences between team members. Different personalities, perspectives and approaches to work coming together to achieve a goal definitely has its own challenges. For this reason, getting the team on the same page and making them work together is a time consuming and difficult task for managers. So, managers take a look at their teams and ask: “Are they at their peak performance? Or are they breaking each other apart?” Improving team performance? Sounds great! But how?
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BUILDING A CULTURE OF TRUST
ENCOURAGING TEAMWORK
Choosing the right people
The success or failure of a good team begins with its members. Finding people who can understand – or more accurately, empathise – with one another, is half the job done already. Additionally, getting people with the right talent in relation to the task at hand will increase the effectiveness of the team.
Building a culture of trust
Knowing that each of the members is trying to achieve the same goal and that team members will be there for support whenever needed, creates a culture of trust. This can improve performance and group cohesion which, in turn, sparks their creativity and sense of innovation. When there is trust, taking a risk or trying something new suddenly seems far more possible and even exciting.
Encouraging teamwork
Encouraging teamwork at the workplace can be done by simply rewarding good teamwork, identifying and resolving existing issues and creating a fun team environment.
Emphasising constructive criticism
Leaders need to guide team members on conflict resolution. For instance, encouraging members to speak to one another directly and have clear guidelines on how to resolve issues within the team will not only improve effective communication, but also build a culture that is more solutionoriented.
Team building
Team building exercises are an excellent approach to improving teamwork. Through these exercises, members improve their skills, get to know each other better, and develop deeper connections in a fun and exciting environment.
EMPHASISING CONSTRUCTIVE CRITISM
TEAM BUILDING
Although organisations spend a lot of money and resources on various team building retreats, oftentimes they report a lack of improvement in team effectiveness. For instance, outdoor and group problem-solving activities in the name of team building may not be as effective as most people believe it to be. While these exercises enhance relationships and teams have a good time engaging in them, at the end of the day, they often go back to their routine work style with little to no improvement. One reason for this is that team building exercise like these fail to address the real issues in the work environment. One of the most effective approaches to team building is to do simulations, which bring the complexities of real-life scenarios and operations into a safe, guided and controlled environment. These simulations provide a platform for members to work together to complete a specific task in which their conflicts such as lack of trust, poor communication and ego become evidently clear. These issues can then be discussed during the debriefing session. This is where team members can address those issues and relate it back to their workplace. Such simulations gives a holistic view of team performance at the workplace and insights to resolve conflicts through feedback from members. As mentioned earlier, bringing teams together to work at their best in synergy is a difficult task. There could be various factors that’s making your team unproductive that you may not be aware of. Identifying those factors and getting to the root of the problem is key in building an effective team.
“The truth is that teamwork is at the heart of great achievement
“
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PEOPLE
- John Maxwell Issue 2 I Feb 2018
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What Can Malaysian Businesses Expect In 2018? BY PRETHIBA ESVARY
MANY business leaders to whom I’ve spoken in the past few months have warned that next year is going to be yet another tough year for Malaysia. This can be affirmed by an article in The Star earlier this month, where it was reported that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expects the Malaysian economy to grow at a slower pace of between 5% and 5.5% in 2018. How will this affect businesses? To get a better idea of what to expect in 2018 and what leaders can do in preparation, Leaderonomics spoke to a few business leaders. Here are their thoughts: Increased efforts in sustainability
Employee burnout due to expectations
Technology intrusion and lack of skills
Uptrend of mobile technology
Kim Lim, co-founder and CEO of The Picha Project
Joseph Tan, CEO of Leaderonomics Good Monday
RA Thiagaraja, CEO of K-Pintar
Datuk Kenny Goh, CEO of Macrokiosk
Trend: Leaders can expect a lot of work and discussions on sustainability due to rising issues of global warming, poverty and refugees.
Trend: Leaders can expect more burnt out performers.
Trend: In 2018, leaders are going to see a lot of technology intrusion in their day-to-day businesses.
Trend: 2018 will be a tougher year indeed. There is, however, good prospects for the mobile technology industry as more and more companies (start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises and large conglomerates) are already leveraging mobile technology for their businesses.
We have to start learning or adapting to them because I strongly believe sustainability is the future. From a social enterprise point of view, we can still expect challenges no matter which year we are in. But I believe that that’s what makes social entrepreneurs or inclusive business owners even more important than ever; the work they do is highly crucial in protecting the future of mankind. Solution: Social entrepreneurship and inclusive business have to increase and be highly promoted in Malaysia. As leaders, we must start studying them and form a larger support group to enable the establishment, improvement and growth of such initiatives. A parting message from me is this: It is important to be very openminded to what’s ahead, whether it’s technology, economy or education. We need to find a balance in applying these changes into the work we do. Be persistent and do not give up when a challenge is thrown at you, as the challenge is there for a reason.
With increasing expectations for high performance, busy employees will become even busier and productive people will face the added burden to pick up the slack for the nonperformers. It is no longer just about talent management, but about talent investment – organisations need to customise their approach in helping their talented employees to achieve not only just professional growth but personal growth as well. Leaders cannot expect sustainable performance without an intentional investment in the well-being of their people. Take care of your people and they will take care of the business. Solution: Develop a strong team of great managers. No matter how inspiring the vision is, the execution gap lies in the strength of the people managers and team leaders.
Leaders will then be faced with a challenge of not having enough competent staff or lack of staff with new skillsets to run the business in a digital and Industry 4.0 environment. This means the skills gap will become wider. Solution: Leaders need to start practising agile management and leadership in their organisation. They also need to focus on their existing talent because talent is one of the most expensive commodities. One of the biggest challenges today is in attracting and retaining quality talent. Therefore, investing in providing industry qualification and new skillsets to help grow employees is crucial for talent retention and attraction.
There are four vital roles a great manager needs to grow into: How to identify talent How to set clear expectations How to motivate and engage How to develop others
In fact, there are a lot of mobile wallet services coming into Malaysia, with the biggest example being Alipay. It’s good to see that the government is very supportive of this industry. Solution: Leaders should have an open mind and widen their perspective. Just because we invest more doesn’t necessarily mean we will lose more. Also, in order to see results, we don’t need to invest billions in technology! IT isn’t like manufacturing where you purchase X amount of machines to achieve a certain target.
It’s not going to be a one-time investment, but rather a perpetual investment that can be done according to the pace of your business.
Good luck! Prethiba Esvary Prethiba is a writer and content curator with Leaderonomics. She is passionate about impacting people through the written word. She believes that our lives are solely written by us, andthus the power to change for the better lies with us.
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Take airlines and banks for instance. They are already utilising mobile technology for security purposes through the use of mobile QR, mobile one-time password and console.
The most important thing is to take the first step in investing into digital initiatives.
You might be drawing up a blueprint of what’s not been done before and it’s very important to constantly experiment, fail and try again.
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If you think about it, everyone is already on mobile and, due to challenging times ahead, businesses will more likely look for alternative solutions that can enhance business efficiency.
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- Inspirational Quotes -
- Inspirational Jokes -
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BUILDING LEADERS OF EXCELLENCE Proposed new campus facility for Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service at Rampangi, Santubong
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