Leader's Digest #56 (October 2021) by Leadership Institute

LEADERS ISSUE 56

OCTOBER 2021

DIGEST

GLOBAL

Brand Source: Photo from fabrikbrands.com

LEADERS

DIGEST

Publication Team Editor-in-Chief Ismail Said Editor Diana Marie Capel Graphic Designers Awang Ismail bin Awang Hambali Abdul Rani Haji Adenan

* Read our online version to access the hyperlinks to other reference articles made by the author.

Contents

ISSUE 56 I OCTOBER 2021

TIMEBOXING – THE ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY TOOL

EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE DURING CRISIS

GREAT LEADERS DEVELOP PEOPLE INTENTIONALLY

TO THRIVE, INTEGRATE BRANDING, LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNICATION

WHY GIVING BACK MAKES YOU A BETTER BUSINESS LEADER

GLOBAL BRANDING

AUTHENTIC THOUGHT LEADERSHIP – ROCKET FUEL FOR YOUR BRANDING

Read this issue and past issues online at leadinstitute.com.my/ leaders-digest Scan the QR code below for quicker access:

LET US KNOW If you are encouraged or provoked by any item in the LEADERS DIGEST, we would appreciate if you share your thoughts with us. Here’s how to reach us: Email: diana@leadinstitute.com.my Content Partners:

Leader’s Digest is a monthly publication by the Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service, dedicated to advancing civil service leadership and to inspire our Sarawak Civil Service (SCS) leaders with contemporary leadership principles. It features a range of content contributed by our strategic partners and panel of advisors from renowned global institutions as well as established corporations that we are affiliated with. Occasionally, we have guest contributions from our pool of subject matter experts as well as from our own employees. The views expressed in the articles published are not necessarily those of Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service Sdn. Bhd. (292980-T). No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the publisher’s permission in writing.

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From the

Editorial Desk

GLOBALLY LOCAL – LOCALLY GLOBAL? Initially global marketing programs were all about standardized product, packaging and communication activities to achieve a common denominator that had as its primary purpose to have effectiveness across cultures. This approach promised success on paper, was credible on the drawing board but failed. The entire system of rolling out a product on a global scale met with the main and ultimate stumbling block: potential consumers couldn’t related to a generic approach – that standardized approach. Whilst the product was not the actual issue, the packaging and the communication were non-congruent with the perception mechanism of the new, the global market. Colours and shapes of the packaging highlighted by advertisements that were centrally (at the HQ) produced backfired often as they went against local cultural norms, religious beliefs and differences in language understanding and appreciation. And this is when the strategy changed dramatically. Adapting the meaning and purpose of a product, even the product name to then be easily and quickly understood and internalized by a local market was the deal-maker. And those who have travelled the world looking to get the same product in another country know how this looks like. A global dairy company like FrieslandCampina gives one examples. The same milk that in Malaysia is known as Dutch Lady, has a different name and packaging in other countries, even in its HQ country, The Netherlands. Taking the concept of the re-strategising of a product, the same applies to services, and even the promotion of political, religious, artistic, athletic programs, even states of mind. If democracy is to become a global brand, and for that matter, communism for others, or reducing global warming, or instilling inclusivity in organizational cultures, imagine the challenge and actual requirements if one follows the Critical Proven Success Factor of ‘Going Glocal’ (global-local). Let’s take one example as a guide.

When a new head of an organization with global experience takes on the leadership of a local enterprise, what can happen. 1) This person will drive a sense of internationalization in terms of processes, internal and external communication protocols, and standards of professionalism. In short, realign the local mindset towards a global one. The bigger purpose, the global excellence objective is the guiding light. And with adequate inclusion of the local sensitivities, leadership support, continuous coaching and mentoring the organization will transform; or 2) The new head, having been given the green light to do what will lead to global positioning is suddenly faced with local mindset blockages. Comformity, traditionalism and the fear of losing control can bring the entire global branding effort to a halt. And this halt becomes frustrating, debilitating, a waste of time, energy and money. Game over!; or 3) This initially adulated person fails to bring the necessary elements for transformation within the local cultural dimensions, that local ‘DNA’, smoothly and with secure anchoring. And the opposite can also create havoc. Transferring a prominent, successful, and credible leader to another environment – a new country-culture, for example – who cannot adapt to that new environment by trying to push the local approach of the previous place, may soon have to be recalled. This has happened many times with ambassadors and strategic alliance setups, where nonadaptation issues, be these conscious or sub-conscious grew in power and lead to a costly collapse. Global branding is complex, and one doesn’t have to go out of a local environment to practice it. Do you, as the leader, in one way or another – at home, at work, while doing your hobby – apply global standards of professionalism, inclusivity, openness? If yes, apply to be a global ambassador for anything!

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Source: Photo by Bruno Figueiredo on Unsplash

TIMEBOXING – the Ultimate Productivity Tool – BY ROSHAN THIRAN

• • • Focus

Client work

Marketing

Admin

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Writing, Planning, Site updates

Proposals, Invoicing, Follow ups

Create graphics

Proposals, Invoicing, Follow ups

Writing, Planning, Site updates

Flex time, Catch up

05:00 - 05:30

Wake up routine

05:30 - 06:00 06:00 - 06:30

Reading, Social, Chat

06:30 - 07:00 07:00 - 07:30

07:30 - 08:00 08:00 - 08:30 08:30 - 09:00

Project work

09:00 - 09:30 09:30 - 10:00 10:00 - 10:30

Emails, Social, Break

10:30 -11:00 11:00 - 11:30

Project work

11:30 - 12:00 12:00 - 12:30

Lunch Break

12:30 - 13:00 13:00 - 13:30 13:30 - 14:00 14:00 - 14:30

Project work

Calls, Status updates

Project work

14:30 - 15:00

Timeboxing

Source: Photo from https://clockify.me

Time Management Technique 4

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Use Timeboxing to Do More in Your Life In 2012, I read Daniel Markovitz’s article, explaining that to-do list do not work and make us less productive due to the paradox of choice. Simply put, with a to-do list, we tend to become overwhelm with choices (our brain can only handle a max of 7 choice whilst some of our to-do list may have up to 50+ options of tasks!) and so become crippled in trying to figure out what to do. With to-do list, we tend to focus on the easier tasks and sometimes leaving the tougher (possibly more important) tasks for never. A better way instead of to-do list, is to transfer your task into your calendar. Putting your work into your calendar, helps you overcome the crippling “paradox of choice” and allows you to focus on what needs to be done. So, how do we do this?

Why Timeboxing? Putting items into your calendar is sometimes termed “time-boxing,” a term taken from agile project management and introduced by James Martin in his book, Rapid Application Development. Generally, what you schedule into the calendar, gets done. Don’t schedule it, there is a high likelihood it doesn’t get completed. And personally, from my own experience, when I actually allocate time to complete a task (on my calendar), only then do I have the time to complete it. With non-stop meetings and constant distractions happening all around (especially now with so many people working from home), ensuring we block time in our calendars for the task we need to do is critical. But blocking alone is not enough. In fact, there is a reason why we call the concept time-box and not just time-block (i.e blocking time on your calendar). There is a huge difference between the timeblock and timeboxing. Here is a quick understanding of simply blocking time in your calendar vs timeboxing. When you block time in your calendar (timeblock), you allocate a certain period to do a piece of activity or work. At the end of the timeblock, if you haven’t finished your work, you would add additional time to

your calendar to finish the work. With timeboxing, at the end of the time period you culled out for the work, you declare the work done, regardless of whether the work was completed or done partially. This means that you very strictly adhere to the time limits to get the work done. This drives you to completion. Why is this so? According to Parkinson’s Law, “work expands continuously as to fill up the time available for its completion.” Simply stated, if you allocate 4 hours to complete a task, even if the task may take only 30 minutes to complete, you somehow will subconsciously expand your work so that the task would take 4 hours. Work keeps expanding the longer you have. By timeboxing, you force yourself to be efficient and complete the work in the given time. There are many other benefits to Timeboxing. Here are a few more benefits: • Some tasks which you hate to do (which more likely will be schedule to the later parts of your calendar) will eventually get done. In your to-do list, somehow those tough tasks never see the light of day as new tasks crop up and are given priority over older, harder tasks. By scheduling it, one day, eventually, the day you scheduled it for will come up, and then you will work on it. • Because of the strict time limits you impose on specific tasks, you will become more efficient and find the best and fastest way to get those tasks completed. • As you know there is only a limited time (say 25 minutes to complete this task), you will probably end up being less distracted and more focused on closing this task. You will also be mindful that once the 25 minutes is over, your task is done, regardless if you did a half-baked job on it. Knowing that time you have is all the time you have on this task will make you a lot more focused on the task. • For perfectionists, timeboxing will allow you to be OK with good work (but not necessarily perfect). Once the time is up, the time is up. Timeboxing is a great tool for perfectionists who never quite complete any work, as they are constantly working and improving on it. Not necessarily bad, but we do need to close out and ship our work.

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Starting Timeboxing

The Question

So, how do we start timeboxing? Start by opening your calendar and blocking out specific amounts of time in your calendar for tasks that need to be completed. If your to-do list has 150 tasks, start spacing them out in your calendar based on the time you think you will need to complete the task. Don’t worry if you make mistakes initially on time allocation. You get better with experience on how much time would be needed for the task. But block specific time.

Now, a question you will invariably ask me is “what if I start working on a task and I get into the zone/flow and am really really productive and don’t want to stop when my time is up?” I usually respond with this simple analogy. Sometimes, I start watching a movie, and it turns out to be a really bad movie. Yet I somehow can’t remove myself from switching off the TV and moving to another better movie. And likewise, I sometimes watch a great episode of one of my favourite Marvel heroes and after the episode is over, I get so excited, I want to watch the next episode. Before long, I have watch 5 episodes and 4+ hours have passed by.

You will also notice something very quickly. If you have 100 task to complete for this week and you start allocating them based on your calendar, you will quickly realise you just don’t have the time to complete all the task. If that is the case with you, then you must learn to say no. Many of us take on way too much and just by this simple activity of calendaring our tasks, we learn how “crazy” we are in expecting to finish so much in the limited time we have. Just say No! Remember, timeboxing means setting a fixed amount of time for a particular task. Just as you would schedule a meeting for 30 minutes, followed by another meeting for an hour after that meeting, the same applies for the task you have scheduled. At the end of the 30 minutes, you allocated for meeting 1, you close out the meeting (even if there is much more to discuss) and move to meeting 2. The same goes with your task. You close out after the allocated time and move on to the next scheduled task. And remember, for bigger, more complex task, you can break it down into smaller chunks of timeboxes and schedule it over a week or a few weeks (depending on your deadlines).

Being in flow is great, but more importantly, is to understand and appreciate the importance of time. Time is perishable and not replaceable. We need to guard our time precociously. Even if we are in the flow, once the time is up, we need to move to the next task or meeting or activity in our schedule. More importantly, is we need to be wise about our scheduling. Schedule appropriately and we will become extremely productive.

TimeBoxing Everything Timeboxing not only works for tasks. I personally actually even timebox activities that are important to me. I timebox exercise and even lunch. You do need to get your nutrients to remain healthy. We sometimes work ourselves to death, we forget to schedule in basic necessities like exercise and good food. And when I say good food, do allocate time to possibly walk the extra 10 minutes to a “healthier” lunch option vs grabbing some junk food from the office pantry or the nearby 7Eleven. And don’t forget to timebox in time for family and activities with kids and your significant other. Also, it is critical to take breaks after each task. Schedule in the break. Even if it is a 5-minute break. These breaks are critical for us to rejuvenate and refresh ourselves to take on the next task scheduled.

Source: Photo by Kama Tulkibayeva on Unsplash

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TimeBoxing Meetings

A few more quick tips:

I have written previously on meetings and how sometimes it can be a waste of time. By timeboxing meetings where specific decisions need to be made, you force everyone collectively to make decisions based on the time allocated. Remember, regardless of time allocated, people will always use the full extend of the time. So if its just a quick decision that needs to be made, allocate very short time and get the consensus to move forward.

1. Always try to schedule your hard tasks first. No one likes pain but by completing your hard tasks first, you get to work on the easier tasks later in the day, and when you complete, you will feel less pain (pain was earlier in the day). I wrote about this I my article about pain, and also shared the Wayne Rooney Story. 2. Make sure you reward yourself after each task. The rewards can be simple rewards, like, taking a break, a short snooze. food, or a nice drink or a short YouTube video (But do note that if you keep rewarding yourself with ice-cream after each task, you may end up with diabetes!). Charles Duhigg in his excellent book “The Power of Habit” shares that when you create a habit like timeboxing, the end of the cycle needs to end with a reward. So, find simple rewards (i.e a hug from your significant other) that excites you at the end of completion of a task or a number of tasks. 3. Use the Pomodoro technique developed by Francesco Cirillo. The technique basically recommends that you should schedule your task into 25 minute periods, followed by a 5 minute rest or reward period (this is where you can reward yourself with an ice-cream or chocolate for the great work you did the past 25 minutes) 4. Finally, make time visual. Keep a timer near you. Make sure the alarm rings when it your time is up. These visual cues are critical for you to be conscious of your time limit and to make sure you are aware of the need to keep to your commitments and timing. Also, make sure your task is set for a time set that works for you. The human mind cannot concentrate on a task for more than 90 minutes. So, ideally never allocate any tasks for more than 90 minutes.

You can also timebox your own personal morning planning meetings. Each day, start the day with a short 15 minute planning meeting for yourself. Start your day by going through your schedule, making an necessary changes (based on urgency and importance) and prepare yourself for the day. This ritual should be timeboxed into your calendar and it is a critical ritual to start the day. If you don’t do this, you may end up questioning your schedule later in the day (i.e why am I doing this task, when my boss told me yesterday to get this other task done). Get this all out of the way at the start of your day, so when you start, you can go full steam ahead with no distraction or questioning your schedule.

Final Thoughts Remember, when you first start off it may be painful, especially for big tasks. You will get better at breaking down that book that you want to complete in 2 years, into writing 1000 words daily for 2 hours and timeboxing the 2 hours in your calendar. But once you figure out how to break down the big tasks, you will find yourself extremely productive.

To a productive and exciting time ahead. Happy timeboxing! ROSHAN THIRAN Roshan is the Founder and CEO of the Leaderonomics Group. He believes that everyone can be a leader and “make a dent in the universe”, in their own special ways.

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Great Leaders Develop People Intentionally BY GREGG VANOUREK & BOB VANOUREK

Source: Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

How To Implement Effective Development Practices? Triple crown leaders—ones who build excellent, ethical, and enduring organizations or teams—focus not just on recruiting great people but also developing them intentionally. They focus on developing people systematically and continually. Unfortunately, many leaders fail miserably when it comes to developing people. Most organizations leave development mostly up to individuals, acting on their own initiative, in their “spare time.” What a waste. Such a passive approach is likely to yield little. According to “The State of Talent Management”, a study of seven hundred senior leaders, most organizations hold their executives and managers accountable for achieving business results, but only 10 percent hold executives accountable for developing their direct reports, and a paltry 5 percent indicate that their managers consistently demonstrate the ability to develop employees.

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If businesses managed their money as carelessly as they manage their people, most would be bankrupt. The great majority of companies that control their finances don’t have any comparable processes for developing leaders or even pinpointing which ones to develop.

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– Ram Charan and Bill Conaty, The Talent Masters 8

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The Benefits of Developing People Organizations that develop people well gain many benefits, including: • • • • •

increased performance greater productivity higher talent retention increased customer satisfaction healthier organizational culture

The benefits show up not only in organizational results, but also in individual lives. The development work increases not only individual potential but also group potential. The benefits compound. When done very well, it can transform an ordinary organization into a talent rocket ship. How to do it well?

Developing People: Effective Practices

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What is needed is people who are interested not in being leaders as much as in developing leadership in others.

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– Ella J. Baker, civil rights and human rights activist Whose responsibility is people development? Developing people is not solely the job of human resources. Nor is developing people just sending them off for a few days of training. Development is a critical responsibility of all leaders and must be ongoing. Actually, developing people should be part of everybody’s work. Excellent people development unleashes potential, initiative, innovation, and leadership. It generates inspired and committed followers. Here are some effective development practices: •

Leadership and stretch assignments. Leadership is experiential. The best way to develop leadership is to give people actual leadership assignments—challenging projects (sometimes called “developmental pulls”) that stretch them somewhat, accompanied by coaching and direct and timely feedback. People often learn best from their mistakes, so letting leaders make mistakes, as long as those mistakes are not too costly, can be a great way to advance their development. Aspiring leaders should seek leadership opportunities proactively— whether at work or in the community—and volunteer often for stretch assignments.

Personal feedback. The days of the annual or even quarterly performance reviews are done. Supervisors should provide regular and constructive feedback, mostly in one-on-one sessions. The process should include inviting people to open up and talk about what they’re struggling with and why, with mutual discussion of how they might overcome obstacles. See our article, “How to Give Effective Feedback—A Communication Superpower”. • Often, surprising and helpful insights come from 360-degree reviews, in which people receive feedback from all directions, including supervisors, peers, and people they manage. • Mentors can be a tremendous asset for aspiring leaders and high-potentials, providing guidance about long-term issues, career paths, and much more. Leading organizations often match younger and more experienced employees so that twoway feedback between them can enhance the performance of both. If your organization does not actively facilitate mentorship, then take the initiative and ask a leader you admire to observe you and meet periodically. • Professional coaches can help workers gain greater self-awareness, set and achieve goals, contribute more effectively to the team, work more productively with others, communicate more effectively, and increase career and life satisfaction. Some leading organizations hire coaches for groups of their employees and make them available at no charge to the group and the group members individually, with assurances of confidentiality for what group members might be struggling with. • Peer groups. Leaders can benefit from the dialogue of small peer groups meeting regularly, building trust, sharing personal and professional hardships, best practices, and delving into challenging issues in a safe and confidential environment. (A creative version of this is a “situational workshop,” in which a small group of workers—including workers facing challenges and more experienced colleagues acting as mentors—meets regularly (e.g., weekly) to go over a work challenge and how it was handled and then to brainstorm new ideas for how it could have been handled. Often, experienced mentors see new options for responding that the workers didn’t even consider in the heat of the moment.) • “Psychological safety”: a shared sense that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking, such as floating a new idea for improving performance, raising a concern, or admitting a mistake. To create psychological safety we must build trust. Stephen M. R. Covey has noted that with high trust in organizations, speed increases and costs decrease. •

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Job rotation programs help people learn different sides of the organization, develop new relationships, and stretch their skills. Leading organizations regularly rotate people to jobs temporarily, even outside their functional specialties, to broaden their experience. Try regularly putting a finance person into a marketing or IT role for a few months while one of those folks spends some time in finance. Then repeat over and over. Personal and career development. Smart organizations today go beyond professional development and assist with the personal and career development of their people, recognizing the importance of aligning professional work with people’s personal values and aspirations. Each worker should have a personal development plan that they update regularly and talk through with their manager (and mentor or coach). At IKEA, they have a worker self-assessment tool to identify strengths and weaknesses, figure out a promising career path, and establish an action plan with training and development. Also, workers can identify a desired future position and ask for coaching and advice by the person who has this job. Separating performance reviews from compensation reviews. Performance feedback should be continuous throughout the year while compensation reviews should be annual. Giving people time to pursue own projects of interest (e.g., “20 percent time” made famous by Google but also practiced by many other organizations). Courses, workshops, retreats, book clubs, and lunch-and-learn discussions. Consider topics or books to discuss such as trust, heart qualities, followership, emotional intelligence, courage, diversity, and more. Development dashboards, in which executives systematically keep track of data about learning and development (including upskilling)—and related metrics like engagement, promotions, retention, etc. “Job crafting”: a work design process including self-initiated, proactive strategies to change the characteristics of a job to align the job with personal needs, goals, and skills. Designing work for “flow”: a “state of complete absorption in an activity or situation” via a clear set of goals, clear and immediate feedback on performance, and a good balance between perceived challenges and skills.

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In our experience, most development programs focus on what we call “head” elements (like task knowledge, skills, and technical competence)—which are clearly important—but mostly neglect “heart” elements (like integrity, emotional intelligence, courage, and resilience). Though it’s not widely known, effective training programs can help people develop their emotional intelligence, ethics, resilience, courage, and sensitivity and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. This isn’t just squishy nice stuff. It makes a real business difference. For example, a common derailer for many workers, including leaders, is an inability to manage their emotions, especially when they’re under pressure. The problem: this leads to poor decisions, with negative business consequences. So if workers can be taught to recognize when they’re entering an emotional minefield and given tools about how to address it well, organizations can avoid nasty explosions. The same is true for unethical decisions, which are also usually made under pressure. Organizations that can build individual character and organizational processes for vetting not only financial dimensions but also ethical aspects, can avoid such poor decisions and their reputational fallout. Good development efforts also encourage personal renewal mechanisms such as exercise, reflection, sabbaticals, and even meditation or prayer. Finding “sanctuary” (e.g., through a walk, hike, or run) allows people to reconnect with their hearts, which leads to better decision-making.

Deliberately Developmental Organizations In their book, An Everyone Culture, Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey identify organizations that take people development practices up a notch, becoming what they call a “deliberately developmental organization”:

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Their big bet on a deliberately developmental culture is rooted in the unshakable belief that business can be an ideal context for people’s growth, evolution, and flourishing—and that such personal development may be the secret weapon for business success in the future.

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At Next Jump, one such company they highlight, their people formula is simple but powerful: Better Me + Better You = Better Us Such deliberately developmental organizations (DDOs) do the following: • Help you identify personal and professional challenges (e.g., blind spots, recurring problems), that are not only valuable to the organization but also meaningful to you, and that you can work on • Identify others who care that you address these challenges • Provide you with support to overcome your limitations • Give you regular opportunities to work on these issues (ideally daily but at least weekly) • Recognize and celebrate you for overcoming your challenges • Give you opportunities to keep growing • Make people development everyone’s responsibility What are the practices in DDOs that make them so effective in development people? Kegan and Lahey identify several: •

Helping people examine and articulate their internal experience with challenges (such as mindsets or limiting beliefs) that allow them to explore new ways of operating. A key action is helping people discover their biggest blind spot—and then overcome it.* • Connecting the work of the organization to the work of developing ourselves; in other words, giving “people opportunities to work on improving themselves as part of meeting their job requirements,” not as some antiseptic thing handled only in training programs. • Focusing not just on desired outcomes but also on the processes that generate the outcomes, so people can improve the thinking and activities that lead to the results. • Continuously empowering people by transferring authority downward (what we call “unleashing” people in Triple Crown Leadership), so they have more and more developmental opportunities. • Building “cultures of dialogue” in which these human aspects (like challenge, fear, vulnerability, growth, self-examination) are embedded in each worker’s experience, including meetings, reviews, and more. We’d add that such dialogue must include productive conflict.

Most people view conflict as something to be avoided, because it can be awkward and uncomfortable. Healthy teams use conflict productively, for example, to work through a difficult problem or understand the root cause of a breakdown. • Systematically stretching “everyone, every day, across the organization.” Development occurs at all levels (individual, pairs, teams, divisions, whole organization) and all the time (daily, weekly, monthly, annually). In the end, the best organizations recognize that organizational excellence (however measured, whether profitability for a business or impact for a nonprofit) comes through great people, including not only recruitment but development. Note to leaders: develop your people intentionally and see how transformative it can be for them, you, and the whole organization.

Reflection Questions 1. What does your organization do to develop people intentionally? What else should it do? 2. How do you develop people you work with? What else could you do? 3. Are you doing enough to develop “heart” elements such as integrity, emotional intelligence, courage, and resilience? What more can you do? GREGG VANOUREK Gregg Vanourek is an executive, changemaker, and awardwinning author who trains, teaches, and speaks on leadership, entrepreneurship, and life and work design. He runs Gregg Vanourek LLC, a training venture focused on leading self, leading others, and leading change. Gregg is co-author of three books, including Triple Crown Leadership (a winner of the International Book Awards) and LIFE Entrepreneurs (a manifesto for integrating our life and work with purpose and passion).

BOB VANOUREK Bob Vanourek, now retired, is the former CEO of five firms, ranging from a startup to a $1 billion New York Stock Exchange company. He is co-author of Triple Crown Leadership: Building Excellent, Ethical, and Enduring Organizations (an International Book Awards winner, called “the best leadership book since Good to Great”) and author of Leadership Wisdom: Lessons from Poetry, Prose, and Curious Verse. After his 30-year business career, Bob taught leadership as an instructor at Colorado Mountain College and the University of Denver. He served on eleven for-profit and non-profit boards and chaired four of them. He is a Baker Scholar graduate (top 5%) of the Harvard Business School, magna cum laude graduate of Princeton University. Bob was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Trust Across America—Trust Around the World. Bob is a decorated Army officer and a lifelong student of leadership. He is married to his high school sweetheart, June.

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Source: Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash

Why Giving Back Makes You A Better Business Leader BY SUNIL KUMAR

Leading By Example Giving back to the community is one of the most important ways we can show our teams, and those in the community, what they mean to us. It’s about building relationships, having respect for the place we live, making improvements to other people’s lives and taking care of others. Getting involved in charitable activities brings leaders closer together with their teams. Connection with local communities run deep within our culture, and a good leader should be passionate about delivering meaningful responses to the needs of worthwhile causes. It’s important for others in the community to help influence the community to thrive and provide a support system to those who really need it.

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‘People’ are the reason to do everything. Giving back is not just about what the business can do for the community, but it’s also about how you can inspire to support, guide, train and benefit the people that work with you. Aligning with our core values If we create a giving presence, we immediately attract good will and good people. Being a good human being is just as important in business as it is in your personal life. It shows the world that you have good intentions and are doing the right thing as a team for your clients and community, and that you take care of people. It builds trust in the community, and within your company. Running events that teams feel strongly about promotes engagement and a sense of spirit. Living by core values should be reflected in your actions and should lead you to achieving your vision and mission effectively through daily or weekly focus. Bringing them to life gives them

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meaning and they truly become a part of your business philosophy, representing who you are, what you stand for and where you’re going. The community will recognise this, and your teams will see that you understand what is best for them, for the business and for the community.

Why do it? Find an organisation that will make an impact; strengthen relationships, build your abilities to support others, and assist you in promoting your charitable needs. In our business, we created a foundation that would benefit the community where we immediately live, as well as for teams and team members. Engaging in this way gives your teams and business a higher sense of purpose, other

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than just being in it for ‘ourselves’. If we can give back, we should. It improves a sense of responsibility, makes us fulfilled as human beings and widens our prospective for life and business. Stepping outside our own ‘importance’ (although of course it’s important to practice self-care and love) and focusing on making sure others around you are ‘ok’, tells your clients, your family, and friends you want to better the lives of those who might not be in a position to do so themselves. I remember one of my high-performing team members sent me an email, objecting strongly to being asked to be involved in an event we were running, stating, “I do my own charity and help where I can, so I should be exempt…” In this situation, you have to decide what to do as a leader. As I believed participation in these activities is part of the culture of the business, and part of the package of being a team member, I had to stand my ground. I told her it is great to do things on the side, but it’s an important part of the business message to help and that I wanted her to be involved. She was a little upset, but I talked to her a couple of years later and she understood why I did that and appreciated and acknowledged that was the right thing as a leader. Mostly, people are inspired in our company to be involved, as the majority consider our philosophy to contribute back to the community a worthwhile way of life. They see the positive impact firsthand, as their kids go to the schools we contribute to, or they have friends and families who are in a small and helpful way impacted by our incentives. At the end of the day, we are making a very positive contribution to the community where our kids grow and become part of the community themselves.

Finding meaning Becoming involved in community support brings many new and amazing people to your doorstep. Those people will be carers. There is so much negativity going on around the world, if you can add hope and inspire others to do better by giving back it will be remembered for a lifetime and most importantly it will fill you with gratitude and inner peace. Working on something which benefits the wider community and helps people to see beyond themselves broadens your mind and what you think is possible for you and your business.

In times of fear and strain, leading others by providing your skills, connections, time, energy, and focus, you can not only lead by example, but you will create and motivate others to becoming leaders by helping them become involved in work with a purpose. I have spent many years inspiring people around me through: • social media, • on the ground conversations, • getting involved in some way in every charitable activity we have been involved in, and • promoting inspiring stories or books that capture my attention on how to do better, be better and provide better. As a result of the above, at least three very important big businesses have had meetings with myself and my teams to see how they can start their own organisational charities. Additionally, 30-40 different business have contributed to raise funds for our initiatives.

Inspire-be inspired Business leaders have a unique opportunity to truly make a difference in the world around them and to the lives of others. I’m able to impact and position our company in a separate light rather than just Real Estate. Giving helps you grow as a person, gives you knowledge and awareness and widens your perspective. To give back is truly the greatest gift of all to receive. Community assistance is vital, and it is our hope that other businesses join the effort to give back and make a difference where it is most needed.

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The greatest inspiration for in my life, is my mother, a woman of great knowledge and wisdom. She taught me to always stay humble and be grateful for everything in life, treat everyone with love and respect, listen more that you talk, always stand by the people who stand by you, and above all, give back.

SUNIL KUMAR Sunil Kumar, author of From the Ground Up, 7 principles for building a business fast, CEO and founder of Reliance Real Estate, is the recipient of numerous awards for his role in making Reliance the fastest growing real estate company in Australia and New Zealand. Philosopher; inspirer; best-life enthusiast, Sunil is humbly dedicated to making all lives around him, happy bigger and brighter.

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Authentic Thought Leadership – Rocket Fuel for Your Branding BY LAI CHEE SENG

Source: Vector image from freepik.com

Effective Thought Leadership Content Strategy Mention the term “Thought Leadership” and you are likely to typically get 2 kinds of responses. 1. “What a cliché” 2. “Huh?” Whether you think there is too much of it or you’re not really aware of what it is, you can see thought leadership almost everywhere these days. You can see it all over the various social media platforms, in blogs, reports, news articles and videos on Youtube and even TikTok. And whatever your feelings about it, thought leadership content is the way to go if you want to build brand recognition and be the name that people think of first when they think about your product or service. To a large extent, this is due to the world we live in today, where we face with a barrage of information every day from social media, emails, podcasts, meetings, etc. On top of that, the sheer number of choices we have to make in our daily lives from buying toothpaste to buying a house, leaves people with a lot of questions that need answering. People are not looking for information about how to fulfill their needs, because there is too much of that around already. They are looking for good insights about the best way to fulfill their needs.

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If you can provide your target audiences with those insights, guess whose name will come out tops when they are ready to consider making a purchase? They will turn to their most remembered and trusted source of information - the person or brand who had added so much value to them. That’s why thought leadership is rocket fuel for your branding and marketing. So how do you add this thought leadership rocket fuel to your branding and marketing efforts? Let’s start by looking at what thought leadership is.

What is Thought Leadership? It can be a bit tricky to define exactly what thought leadership is, because it’s not so easily identifiable like video content, or social media content, or news content. Thought leadership can take any form, because it’s more of a concept than a format. So what is thought leadership exactly? Basically, it is any content that is meant to inform and educate your target audiences, provide valuable insights, and build credibility of the person or brand.

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The aim is to raise your visibility and reputation through your content so that your target audiences like, trust and respect you as an expert. When you consistently publish good thought leadership content, you will be able to increase your brand awareness, boost audience engagement, generate more leads, and improve social proof about your product or service.

That being said, here are 3 tips for an effective thought leadership content strategy.

1. Understand your target audience Your thought leadership status is not really determined by you. As Jeff Bezos said, “your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.”

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By now, you might be thinking, “Hey, I’m already publishing that kind of content now!”

your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.

If you are, then the next question will be: Are you doing it effectively?

It is your audiences will consume your content and decide if you are a thought leader or not.

Adding Rocket Fuel To Your Branding

So the first step in your thought leadership strategy is to research your target audience. What are their aspirations? What are their concerns and worries? What questions are they asking? What motivates or inspires them?

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Thought leadership is a way to build a relationship with prospects based on knowledge—not on products and services. - Chris Koch, film and TV director To be truly effective, thought leadership has to come from an authentic desire to serve your audience’s need for insights and clarity about a subject - with no strings attached. It’s also about building relationships with audiences. That is what draws people to you naturally. Your personality and values that connect people to you – either as a person or a brand. There will always be the temptation to jump the gun and make your thought leadership content about you, what you do and what you sell to help your audiences. Resist the urge at all cost! Thought leadership should not be focused on getting leads or sales (even though that is an important goal). And while building credibility is a key objective of thought leadership, focusing on impressing audiences with who you are and what you can do is a bad idea. Because that signals to the audience that it’s ultimately about you. And not one person in the world reads any content to benefit you. It is always about their benefit!

Your thought leadership content can only connect and resonate with your audiences when you understand what they are thinking and feeling.

2. Share generously Your primary focus in creating thought leadership content must to educate, inform, and engage your audience. When you do that successfully, you will naturally be seen as trustworthy, professional and competent. A great example of a thought leader is Neil Patel. Neil is the digital marketer and co-founder of Crazy Egg, Neil Patel Digital (Agency), and the Ubersuggest marketing tool. He is also a prolific creator of thought leadership content, publishing insightful articles and videos on his blogs, YouTube channel, podcast, and guest publications such as Forbes and Entrepreneur. He hasn’t lost any business by giving away his insights for free. In fact, he has gained millions of followers on social media. What’s more, he has been named as a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 30 by President Obama and a top 100 entrepreneur under the age of 35 by the United Nations. That’s because millions of people recognise him as an expert in his field. Guess who those people would think of first if they need a product or service that Neil just happens to offer?

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3. Be authentic To me, this is probably the most important factor in successful thought leadership. Your content needs to genuinely add value to your audience to help them make better buying decisions, live more fulfilling lives, work more effectively, or become better in a way that matters to them. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable. Go ahead and talk about your failures, concerns, or struggles and share the insights you got from those experiences. Share what makes you happy or angry, and what makes you laugh or cry. These are all things that build up your audience’s picture of who you really are. Make an effort to engage with your audiences too. Instead of speaking at them, draw them into the conversation. Ask for comments and questions and respond with personality and insights. All this effort forms the basis for relationship. And great relationship forms the basis of positive influence. Finally, you may doubt whether you can produce thought leadership content effectively because you may not even consider yourself as capable of being a thought leader. I had this thought too, just a little over a year ago. Back then I was a complete unknown in my field. Fast forward to today, and I have received many invitations to share my thoughts with small companies, large corporations, chambers of commerce, and even overseas audiences.

Most of all, my journey to embrace thought leadership was very much influenced by Gary Vaynerchuk. In one of his mentoring sessions, he was answering a person who had doubts about what she had to offer. Gary emphasized that she didn’t have to create absolutely unique content or have absolutely original ideas. Simply because there are very few new things under the sun! Let me assure you that thought leaders come from all walks of life. The important thing is just to get started and consistently build up your credibility and persona.

Did I ever imagine I would be considered a thought leader? No. But what I did do was get started. I started with exactly the three principles above, which I still practice today.

LAI CHEE SENG Lai Chee Seng is a writer, content writing trainer and thought leadership coach. In over 20 years of experience as a writer, he has written for a diverse range of industries and clients. He believes the key to impacting any audience,is not writing skill but influence and connection.

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EMOTIONAL

INTELLIGENCE DURING CRISIS

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Source: Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

BY ROSHAN THIRAN

Emotional Intelligence: The Key to Weathering Storms In times of crisis, we all look to leadership to help us navigate the uncertain road that lies ahead. We need direction and solid guidance, someone in the driver's seat who's able to take charge and weather the storm. A good leader is like an anchor: they might not be able to stop the crisis, but they can keep us grounded until the worst of it passes. Leaders also need support in times of crisis. Facing unexpected challenges, we have the same reactions as anyone else and hope that we're able to do our best for those around us. It's at this point that we call on our emotional intelligence and social awareness, not only to see others through the storm but also to ground ourselves in the midst of turbulence. Emotional intelligence has been defined as "the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others." Too often, it's misunderstood to mean "being positive and nice at all times", which can lead to a toxic positivity that restricts crucial decision making and limits the critical thinking needed to tackle difficult circumstances. According to Daniel Goleman - author of Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ - having a positive or optimistic outlook is important...but it's just one of 12 components that make up what it means to be emotionally intelligent. In order to manage ourselves as leaders, we need to cultivate the qualities that allow us to effectively manage our emotions, and in turn, help others to manage theirs.

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EMPATHY

Image by Colin Behrens from Pixabay

Psychologists have long been aware that, before we can regulate others, we have to first learn to regulate ourselves. In this article, I want to share FIVE of the components of emotional intelligence and how they can help us to manage ourselves in a way that empowers us as leaders to anchor everyone else in challenging times.

EMOTIONAL SELF-AWARENESS

What emotions do we experience as leaders? What situations tend to trigger unpleasant emotions? How do we respond to and handle them? Are we able to collect ourselves and connect to others in a calm, collected manner or do we react in an unhelpful way that might unsettle those around us? Having an understanding of our emotions and their triggers can help us to deal with them in a way that’s responsive rather than reactive. Even great leaders get angry, frustrated, and annoyed, but they know how to compose themselves and channel that energy productively and with purpose.

ADAPTABILITY

Especially in times of crisis, leaders need to be able to make on-the-spot decisions when they’re called for. Crises are unpredictable and often unprecedented, and so leaders are required to draw on their experience and wisdom to adapt quickly to change. When times are good, we usually have reference points and protocols that can help us make decisions. Emotionally intelligent leaders are agile and feel comfortable deciding on a course of action, knowing that they can change direction if needed along the way. On the other hand, leaders lacking in emotional intelligence get caught up in analysis paralysis and soon find out that being stuck in a crisis leads to problems that snowball and quickly gather pace.

This is a vital leadership quality at any time, but particularly so in a crisis. When people around us are concerned and feeling unsure about what’s coming next, this is where we need to be their anchor. It’s not helpful to tell people, “Everything will be fine - no need to worry!” In a crisis, there are plenty of reasons to be worried. It’s much better to connect with people’s concerns and let them know that you’re there for them: “This is a challenging time and I understand your doubts and concerns. Is there anything I can do for you?” Whether this is said to an individual or a team, it shows people that you respect what they’re going through and are there to help in whatever way they need.

COACHING AND MENTORING

In a crisis, it’s often a case of all-hands-on-deck to get through whatever problems and challenges arise. No matter how talented your people are, there will be some things that they’ll need help with and, as leaders, it’s our job to make sure we guide them through whatever they find unfamiliar. Crises can be traumatic experiences, and so it’s important for leaders to take more time to ensure everyone knows what they’re being asked to do - and know how to do it. Not only will it lead to necessary tasks being done well, but it will also further demonstrate and give reassurance to people that their leader or boss has their back.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

As much as we’d like to think our teams and organisations are well-oiled and cohesive entities, they are made up of individual people and people will have strong disagreements from time-to-time, and more so during a crisis when emotions are running high. While it can be tempting to see conflicts as less important than more pressing matters, leaders should step in as soon as possible, when needed, to manage and resolve conflict - especially when it’s requested. If conflicts are left to fester, they can create all kinds of significant-yetavoidable problems down the line. It’s far better to take an hour to manage a conflict than to let it grow and spend a lot more time later on trying to make sense of an issue that’s got out of hand. Conflict management can be a difficult experience, but if it’s done in the early stages it saves any escalation and a resolution is easier to reach. You’ll also show yourself as a leader who’s in control, investing in your people, and willing to do what’s necessary to get things back on track.

ROSHAN THIRAN Roshan is the Founder and CEO of the Leaderonomics Group. He believes that everyone can be a leader and “make a dent in the universe”, in their own special ways.

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To Thrive, Integrate Branding, Leadership and Communication BY LAI CHEE SENG

Source: Photo by lalo Hernandez on Unsplash

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Branding, Leadership and Communication - Are They Exclusive? One of the most conventional communication ideas that is quickly becoming outdated is that “branding = marketing communications”. Brand loyalty and affinity is something that can be really fleeting our hyper-messaged world today, when we receive thousands of messages an hour from texts, social media feeds, emails, and more. A brand message seen at any one moment can be very easily forgotten in the next (Twitter’s post lifespan is about 15 minutes, TikTok posts start decaying if they don’t get noticed immediately! However, brand relationships do last and it’s a result of intentionally building up a store of goodwill in the market. You do that by being consistent with the experience you deliver to your customers by everything you say and do across all touch points. A PwC survey found that 79% of customers rate customer experience as the most important component of the purchasing decision - after product quality and price. So branding today is much less a result of “what I tell you about me” and more of what consumers tell each other about you.

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Basically, your brand is your reputation built up over time as a critical mass of your target audience experience your purpose, promise, and values consistently over time. And that’s what PwC recommended companies to do in order to create amazing customer experiences – establish their brand and culture on purpose, promise, and values. Communications alone isn’t going to cut it.

How Branding Saved A Business Last year, I wrote a piece about How Return on Relationship (ROR) Saved A Company During Covid-19. I described the fascinating phenomenon of how customers of a small local burger chain called myBurgerLab rallied to save the company. On 29 April 2020, Renyi Chin, the co-founder of myBurgerLab, posted an appeal on his personal Facebook account. He asked his network to buy a discount voucher so that they could have some much-needed cashflow. This would help the tiny Malaysian chain tide over the month of May as business had been badly affected by the lockdown. The idea was elegantly simple and honest: “buying a voucher will save you and us.” Renyi’s post was widely shared and also reposted in influential FB groups.

Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room - Jeff Bezos

Elegant, simple and honest social media post

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The result was astounding: all 1,000 vouchers were sold out and they met their RM50,000 target in only 12 hours.

Again, Renyi is a great example of the kind of leadership that builds a genuinely engaging and compelling brand culture.

How did myBurgerLab do it, based on just one personal Facebook posting?

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It was the power of their brand. Specifically, they were enjoying the Return on Relationship they had with their fans and customers. As Ted Rubin (the guy who coined the term) explains it, in this social media age, marketing metrics need to expand beyond ROI to include ROR. Simply put, ROR is “the value accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship. ROR is the value (both perceived and real) that will accrue over time through connection, loyalty, recommendations and sharing.” But you can’t fake a relationship (not for the long term anyway). Just like any strong relationship, brand affinity needs to be based on authenticity in order to generate ROR. It’s how people in the company genuinely think and behave when it comes to anything that has to do with the company and brand. In short, it’s culture that determines whether a company is consistently behaving “on brand” or not.

Brand Culture Starts With Leadership While culture is what maintains the consistency of customer experience, leadership is what drives culture. There’s no two ways about. Brand culture goes beyond a company’s image, generous employee benefits, great office interior design, or letting people dress casually. Brand culture goes way beyond the posters on the wall, to the set of genuine values and “ways of being” being expressed from the inside out. The brand culture has to be backed up by solid values that are manifested across every aspect of a company’s operations. Leaders set the tone in a company and brand. The energy, intentions, behaviour, attitudes, and in fact everything the leader says and does forms the culture. You cannot build a brand culture that is incongruent with the company culture, because the cognitive dissonance will weaken whatever brand communication efforts you put out.

Culture eats strategy for lunch - Peter Drucker

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When he had hit the financial target, he quickly put up another post to thank supporters. Then, in a great display of great integrity and leadership, Renyi closed sales of the vouchers and asked people to channel their money to other local food operators. Of course, this not only strengthened support for the brand it won them new fans as well. You can’t fake this kind of leadership. It comes from genuine values. It is manifested in all areas of company operations, even those that are not customer-facing like hiring decisions, to vendor relations, to material selection, to payment terms. A compelling brand culture supports the intended organizational behaviour. It sets the direction and affects staff morale, which eventually affects company operations and how the brand culture is expressed and communicated in the market. MyBurgerLab is a great example of how this has real world results. Fans and customers rallied together to support the voucher campaign not just to get a good deal. Their main motivation was to save the company. How many brands can say that of their fans? Leaders who want to have sustainable success can’t afford to silo their business functions into “branding”, “leadership”, and “communication” anymore. In a noisy and VUCA world today, people are looking for clarity, trustworthiness and authenticity. This can only be achieved when companies take an integrated approach, and win over both their internal and external stakeholders. LAI CHEE SENG Lai Chee Seng is a writer, content writing trainer and thought leadership coach. In over 20 years of experience as a writer, he has written for a diverse range of industries and clients. He believes the key to impacting any audience,is not writing skill but influence and connection.

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GLOBAL BRANDING BY DIANA MARIE

BRANDING IS THE ART OF BECOMING KNOWABLE, LIKABLE AND TRUSTABLE JOHN JANTSCH

“Think of a brand as a reputation,” says Paul Williams, founder of the international marketing firm Idea Sandbox, which helps companies build their brands. “Building a reputation comes from interactions someone has with your company, products, and services.” “The secret is doing your homework,” Williams says. “Like any long-distance relationship, it’s got to be managed and needs more work than something you can see and physically touch.” Expanding products or services outside Sarawak is undoubtedly a major undertaking, filled with challenges and opportunities. As we strive in the implementation of core elements of our values and corporate culture from the start, we would be better prepared to turn this aspiration into a reality.

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Here’s what blogger Ryan Robinson wrote in Forbes magazine about what can be done to begin reaching a global audience.

A Differentiating Vision “You’ve got to have a mission.” The importance of creating a vision or mission that truly differentiates us from our counterparts.

Make Sure All Strategic Elements Are Fully Aligned “Work in unison.” The lesson learned is that management, departments and support teams must be fully aligned to improve the bottom line to reach a regional or international audience. A disconnect between these core teams will leave the public confused and uninterested.

Maintain A Consistent Identity “Stakeholders should know what to expect when they interact with your brand, no matter where they are located or who they are dealing with.” Core principles and identity should always remain the same. Quality products and services are central in building overall reputation, but so too are the tone and personalities used in campaigns or projects. It is important to be vigilant in areas which directly impact the stakeholder experience, like employee competency development and service delivery standards.

Build A Team of Believers “You’ve got to have people in the building who are coming in every day to give blood, sweat and tears.” The key to global success is finding people who believe in our vision. A motivated team that’s bought into the mission and is willing to put in the effort and hours needed to achieve success will prove crucial for the brand’s survival.

DIANA MARIE Diana Marie is a team member at the Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service attached with Corporate Affairs who found love in reading and writing whilst discovering inspiration in Leadership that Makes a Difference.

Image of Limestone Pinnacles Formation at Gunung Mulu National Park by dreamstime.com

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Leadership creates the culture, and culture creates the leadership

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- Ismail Said CEO Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service

Building Leaders of Excellence LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE OF SARAWAK CIVIL SERVICE KM20, JALAN KUCHING SERIAN,SEMENGGOK, 93250 KUCHING, SARAWAK. 082-625166

082-625766

info@leadinstitute.com.my

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