Inferiority Complex

If you always feeling you're inferior, be extra careful with this, you must arrest it immediately!

If you're not going to do something drastic to curb this, then your thoughts, words, and all actions or behaviors not only will be trained/conditioned towards inferiority, but also will live up to this kind of belief.

This belief will stunt your potential and destiny in life !!!

So... please leave home without this thought !!!

Endurance

My interpretation on what endurance is all about - have an infinite ability to endure the unbearable. In today's world, very few people endured in life challenges, but many people simply quick to give up on anything difficult or even over the simplest task. Many things cannot be achieved overnight, but have to go through the due process - some may takes years to materialize.

Like in one of Asian folklore when a young man asked his elder "How do I endure?"

Then, the elder answered him short and precise, "you endure by enduring."

I think the above statement from TFBH is very true. There is no other ways to endure - but only by enduring the process of endurance itself, then learn and adjust from there.

Leading Change: Make No Mistake !

When one in the leadership position, it can be very interesting. Sometimes it may put one become glamour. Why is it so? Glamourous may come from the ability of the leader to lead his team navigate through good and bad times.

Make no mistake! Why? It is apparent that on the other flip side of glamourous, to be in the position of leadership also has its minus points. What are they? Take note that the leader will be never escape from attempts to take him down especially during turbulence period. That is when the leader whom at the same time double hat as change agent(CA) must be very careful in leading change.

What can be used as a general guide to lead change that truly transforms?

1) The CA needs to ask his team to confront difficult and hard press issues; and at the same time they(the team members) have to let go rituals that long time ago has been dear to them.
2) There will be many attempts and plans to try to reduce CA's influence or even worst to eliminate him by hook or by crook.
3) Resistance group normally wish to derail CA's plan and prefer status quo to maintain. People will resist to accept changes and the new moves. Worst still they even come out loud denying that there is no problem.
4) Do not do it alone. The danger if you are doing it alone, there's no one to dilute your ideas or celebrate your success. Choose a partner who will protect you from baseless attacks. Your partner also act to point out possible flaws in your change mechanisms.

Persistence: Be Like a River

Let's imagine a mighty river such as the Rajang River in Sarawak. A powerful river gains its natural power, size, and landscape from its smaller tributary or contributory rivers. It begins in the higher parts of the catchment; then the rain water run off down the slopes upstream and proceed with its journey to the lower parts towards the open sea.

The water as we can see never get tired in penetrating its long journey to the sea. Water also always consistent in looking for its own level.

I bought a very good motivational poster on persistence of a running water with a picture of a tall waterfall and pasted it on the wall of our common area in the office to keep motivating sales team. Attach here are few photos of a river taken at a famous picnic spot at the foot of Gunung Nuang; Hulu Langat; Selangor.





The poster said something like this:

"In the confrontation between the stream and the rock, the stream always wins... not through strength, but through persistence."

Another poster on the same topic of persistence also said:

"You will need to make many turns and overcome many obstacles to create the path you desire."

Lesson learned: In the same way, in our confrontation between our journeys(in whatever we do) and the obstacles, we also can always win and successful at the end... but remember; it is not through our physical strength per se, but it has something to do with our level of persistence or never give up attitude.

Yearn For a Return To Normalcy?

The world's economy is not fully emerge from recession after global meltdown. Post-crisis was creating many wishes and fantasies that thing will be going back to where it used to be. However, to be realistic, let's call it out here - that there will be no going home again for the average of us.

The surest thing now is that the business environment and its whole landscape has been forever altered. Many global companies(MNCs) and financial institutions not only affected badly, but some even wiped out from the market such as Lehman Brothers. Googling for and browsing at Lehman's website today creates a kind of loss and historical feeling; and it is as good to say - study about dinosaur extinction !

In the aftermath of this unprecedented crisis, regulators(Central Banks) and governments around the globe will now map out better control mechanism. Expectation on "rational behavior" that suppose to safeguard us from faulty or bad decisions economically is now no longer reliable.

In assessing this post-crisis issue, the psychology is now also going to be totally different. The new economic order is very interesting and promising, however, it is too early to yearn for "return to normalcy" after many months living in uncertainties.

Isn't Planning Without Execution Pointless?

How often have you spent hours, days, weeks, or months formulating a life master plan, but only to follow it for a little while or never follow it at all? This is happening many times among us. Isn't it pointless to formulate a life plan that we might not intend to follow? It is good to make a pledge that your life plan should be a promise to yourself- a promise for your life path to your future. Also it is good thing that you formulating the life you want to live - your own storyline and travelogue for your legacy.

You need to remind yourself all the time by coming back to the master plan so that you not deviate from your original goals. You need to see your promise or pledge at the first place to assist you clearly, else you would not make the sustained effort to achieve your goals.

There are many factors could preventing you from executing and achieving your goals outlined in the master plan such as fear of failure or fear of success. Always remember the famous saying - 'plan your work and work your plan' and 'if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail' may be just sounds cliches but they have proven to be withstood the test of time.

Mind elasticity

What is mind elasticity?
Our past experience, present state of mind, and feelings will decide the meaning of what we see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. Thus, our perception on so many things is very subjective. At the same time, this is the reason for us to be selective in our attention to things happening around us. The same reason also made every individual very unique. Therefore, no two people will tell the same story or event with the same perception. It must be slightly different. It will never be exactly the same 100%. That is what we call 'mind elasticity.' This natural formation of our thinking ability will determine different individual will have different potential. Uniquely, everyone has this hidden potential.

Wrong focus
We always forget about this very unique potential. Many time, we always tend to waste precious energy worrying about what we cannot achieve rather than focusing on what untapped potential we have and what we can be today or in the future.

Good quote from Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894)
"There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the more it is pressed, the more it rises to resist the pressure. The more we are obliged to do the more we are able to accomplish."

Note: 'To do' as in the above quote meant our determination, and 'accomplish' meant to undertake whatever our mind can dream of able to achieve.

Leardership - Anyone Interested?

What is Leadership?

I trust we are reading many texts on leadership. There are many ways to finish the sentences, "Leadership is...."

Leadership defined
Leadership is a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal (Northouse, 1997).

Leaders and followers are closely linked
The people who engage in leadership will be referred to as leaders and those individuals toward whom leadership is directed will be referred to as followers. Both leaders and followers are involved together in the leadership process. Both of them are cannot be separated from each other. If they are separated and if there is no link, leadership process may not take place. In short, leaders need followers and followers need leaders (Burns, 1978; Jago, 1982; Heller & Van Til, 1983; Hollander, 1992).

The Leader must be the torch bearer
Although leaders and followers are closely linked, it is the leader who often initiates the relationship, creates the communication linkages, and carries the burden for maintaining the relationship relentlessly. The leader cannot blame the followers for any weak links in the process. He should be looking at himself and must be quick to analyze his weaknesses and remedy it.

TEAM Paradigm

The "Team Paradigm" Definition
TEAMS can only function and work effectively if they are allowed to work together over time in an environment that demands and promotes teamwork.

There is no specific definition of what 'team' really meant. The best definition that we could think of is - Together Everyone Achieves More because teamwork will be generating Synergy, Security, and Serenity. When these triple 'SSS' exists in a team, then the team will really has 'teamworks' spirit.

Teamwork and Good Leader
Teamwork today centers around within and around a group of individuals instead of of a strong leader. Leaders come and go, but strong team even stick together during hard times although a good leader may leave them. The trend today is moving towards self-directed teams where self-leadership prevails over strong leadership. This needs heavy responsibilities from each team members.

Shared Vision and Values
Having said that, however, a group of strong personalities does not mean a strong team. They should be embraced the same shared VISION and VALUES to make them stay together through thick and thin. That should be the team bondage and starting block for the common traits of sustainable T.E.A.M.W.O.R.K.S. .

In short, real teamwork can only be achieved through an environment of constantly working together as a team. Learning together is an effective and proactive.

Acronym of Teamworks
Trust each other with respect.
Enthusiasm in team shared vision and values.
Agreed on the best and most viable solutions to any challenges facing the team.
Members must be honest in supporting team leader and vice versa.
Work delegation among members to lessen the team burden should be encouraged.
Ownership to the common goal setting and any possible drawbacks.
Regular communication to keep everyone update on team progress.
Keep emotions out from the team struggle.
Synergy will come automatically to the team if all the above being observed.

Make Sure You're Not Among The 10%

As many companies are bracing for hard times, many direct employees around the world being laid off to make them remain afloat. If you are salaried worker, make sure you're among the 90% who are employed. Make sure you're not among the 10% of who are unemployed. Now, how would you want to make sure that you would not fall into the 10% category? Here are few tips to make sure yourself still relevant and marketable:

1) Training
Now is the good time to go for extra training that in one way can add up to your soft skills. Do touch base with your HRM of your company for suitable training.

2) My plate is full
This time around is not the good time to complain about things - 'this is not my duty.' The rule for now is better to have your plate full rather than empty.

3) Value added to company
Show your true potential and how company could get added value from your ideas and inputs.

4) Productivity is the new game
During hard times, productivity is the rule of the game. That's why company always scrutinize the first 10% from the bottom. Increase your productivity.

5) Resource allocation
Company will move resources to more productive area, product, unit, and department. If you are 'burn out' now maybe it is the right time to change for internal transfer. Please talk to your supervisor about your individual development plan. Make it transparent to him or her. Above all, make sure you're sought after kind of staff.

6) Discipline
Self-discipline is very important. Come early to clear some works so that you always ahead of the rest. Long hour in office doesn't meant discipline if times spent unproductively.

Bracing For Hard Times

I've been not posting any article for a long time since Nov 08 to attend to more pressing matters.

The starting point of a credit crisis that caused current global recession is generally a kind of "Goldilocks Scenario." It is characterized by overwhelming liquidity (not only on the investor side, but also for companies), by low default (and high recovery) rates, and by subdued risk aversion among credit investors. Global recession sparked by a chain of reactions happened in this order:

It started with excessive liquidity, then linked to -> excessive lending -> excessive leverage -> excessive risk-taking. Then, this activities followed by tremendous spread tightening especially in credit derivatives universe, then trail by credit bubble - exogenous shocks and/or fundamental dislocations. Lastly, the burst of the bubble that caused the spiral global credit crunch which in general all the economist called it "global recession." And today the crisis is really really really global.

In summary; this is how normal folks like us to understand what actually happened in this sequence:1) First-order effects: direct credit-linked losses(investments). 2) 2nd round effects: Spillover effects onto other financial market segments. 3) 3rd round effects: Spillover effects onto the real economy. I'm sorry for unable to put this in simple term, but how to explain it to our normal folks in the villages or smaller towns. Just explain and focus on the 3rd round effects will do, e.g. :

1) Reduction of rubber prices from what used to be around RM4.00++/kg to around RM1.00++/kg.
2) Reduction of CPO prices from what used to be around RM4,500/ton in Jul 08 to hovering around RM1,200/ton in early Nov 08.
3) Add on - closing down of Western Digital in Kuching Sarawak(Malaysia) and many employees being laid off as the business cannot maintain cash flow stream to keep afloat due to contraction in production demands.

We have to somehow to face it right here and now especially for the first 6 months of 2009. That is the time where the real 3rd round effects will be 'acute' and nobody knows when it will last or hit the rock bottom. The best way is to downsize in everything that non-core in our daily expenses. In my case, I adapt to the crisis with no driving to my work place daily, just come inside Light Rail Transit(LRT) capsule and within 30 minutes will reach my office. The car just park at driveway and just need to start once a while or joining colleagues for short coffee talks after working hours.

By just doing that small adjustment, the saving on fuel, tolls, and parking fees can be quite substantial. Skip the unnecessary jammed and stress. I can relax and better prepared for the day far ahead of the curve - reading books, journals, periodicals, pullouts etc. We have to change, adapt, and look for many options for efficiency during this tumultuous times.

Change Phobia

Today, we live in a time of rapid and massive change. The speed of change is really trying our soul. Many of us are very frightened to embrace change and learn about new things because of many assumptions, prejudices, and prejudgments which already solidly formed as our “mental baggage.” This mental baggage will make us moving very slow in our life journey.

Why is it so difficult to change?

Believe it or not, we acquire knowledge from the time we were born, and some medical experts and psychologists suggested perhaps even before our birth when we still inside our mother’s womb. We also acquire the stocks of words that formed our thinking patterns, the convention or norm of our culture, the beliefs of our parents, and the philosophy that pleasure us or make us resist to things that rattle our thoughts.

During our childhood, we enter formal education in school. If our parents can afford it, we might be lucky to attend good school with the best brains – best teachers and smart students around us. There we learn many subjects the way our teachers and textbooks teach them. Further, we start to learn on how the world is functioning according to the society’s acceptance or rejection on what right and wrong. From there, we will express ourselves in an established manner to succeed in our studies and mix with our colleagues.

As we get older, we move to higher level of education, more and more knowledge acquired by us, then more and more “mental baggage” being loaded into our already-weighty “mental trolley.” We should be lucky if we receipt positive and good values. In some occasions, if we are not paid extra attention to so many inputs, we might receive negative or bad values along the way that can put us into a situation called “educated incapacity.”

Those values that we learned will become our thinking, our beliefs, and our problem-solving tools, and that will determine our level of acceptance to any unprecedented or possible change that come our path.

Self honesty at work

Do you feel it is a sign of weakness if you ask someone to help you in completing a task at work? Do you feel guilty when you solicit different insights, ideas and directions? There are people who really hypocrite; pretending to know everything, but in actual fact don’t really know. Reason for such behavior because they scare of feel reduced in points if they let others to know that they cannot do it alone. Thus, those who pretending is guaranteed to go through suffering along the way.

With today working environment so complex, we need to be really honest with ourselves to when do we need support from our co-workers, peers, subordinates, and all bosses. When there are pressing need to meet the datelines, we need support in completing the tasks. Support can take multiple categories: physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual.

Have you remember a moment of truth in your life when someone was brutally honest with you or about things that need your attention to improve? This is the most painful kind of support and normally we didn’t like it, but the bluntness of the feedback of this kind somehow changed our life at work. That’s support too although we feel didn’t like it. So please don’t keep pretending but suffering at work. Ask for support when necessary. It wouldn’t make you any weaker, instead it will make you stronger as an individual.

Logical reasoning (logismos)

How to manage provocation?
Have you ever experienced before that you feel provoked by a person you really don’t like? Realize it or not, your thoughts after being provoked can determined your whole day either it starts with good note or otherwise. It even can determine the whole week’s mood. For me, I always want to start my day especially Mondays with good note. I don’t know about you. Take note that, at times, your mind produces negative forms of thinking which need to be arrested immediately before it can destroy your reasoning system.

You cannot allow these thoughts to roam free after being provoked because they can take control of you. The thoughts should be analyzed properly, locked up in your “tiny reasoning compartment of the brain” and you must back to control your posture and system. The menace must be constrained. Do not allow our mind wander down destructive paths and forces. I remember what Jedi Yoda in the Star Wars space opera said “may the force be with you” and I trust it must be good forces going towards victory paths.

Contrary to popular belief, actually, your mind after provoked doesn't control you, you should control it. Therefore you need to be in total control of your thoughts. Failure to do this takes you to second level of territory where these thoughts become high level thoughts which are fragile. And that's very dangerous to you if you give in. They now preoccupy you and dominate your thinking patterns.

Provocation leads to arguments?
If you still give in and do not take authority over such destructive forces, it becomes an argument, which comes from Greek word "logismos" meaning logical thinking or philosophical reasoning. In other words, it starts making sense and form a meaning to you. So you have the power to choose either you react or not to the provocation. Actually this sounds simple right? If you have this "logismos" power, then you not easily provoked. When reason and destructive thinking patterns make more sense to you, then the anger started and formed in your heart. Now your thoughts in trouble, and so are you if you are not pay extra attention.

It is about the individual...

When you first get to know a person, you will easily recognize the content of his or her heart and mind by just listening to few words he or she speak. The whole intent and body of his or her life can be found in their speeches. The inner defeat easily can be detected from the negativity signs glowing from the speech.

In my course of working many years, I met many personalities and there was this one particular individual who always lashes on circumstances, friends, systems, processes, bosses, management, government, nation, and the list will goes on and on. Day in and day out this individual will live by the culture of self-pity, victimization, blaming, and scapegoating. I hardly witness any acts of take the ownership and accountability for all the tensions and circumstances caused by the negativity.

I found that many times, all the unnecessary tensions very unlikely to do with the circumstances or other people, but always can be traced down to the person negative attitudes. It is about the individual.

There is a very famous saying; "if you cannot change the world, change yourself."

Perseverance

There is very thin line to differentiate between success and failure - perseverance.

Be patient, and persevere. Success comes to those who persevere and make the hopeless call, tolerate late delivery of promises, who never know when to quit.

Some people are very persevere in their process to accomplish their goal. Take medical study for example. Averagely, one needs 4-5 years to complete the whole course to become a doctor. However, there are people may not stand the pressure and at the end unable to complete the course in time or give up half way. For those persevere and able to tolerate the late result for the challenging 4-5 years, the success is beyond reach and possible.

"There is nothing so elastic as the human mind. Like imprisoned steam, the more it is pressed the more it resist the pressure. The more we are obliged to do the more we are able to accomplish." Tryon Edwards (1809 - 1894)

Self-motivated - switch on and off

Self-motivated is unlike the light bulb which we can simply switch on and off any times. When we always staying motivated it can acts as an automatic interpreter for our positive mental attitude.

The power to choose will determines that failures only penetrate into our defense system when we enable it. If we disabled it, there is no way for failures could pull us down. Think about this power as a firewall in our brain. When failures being interpreted as "deferred successes", we will start again and back on track. Think about this power also as a circuit breaker to put negative elements into halt. To upgrade this ability, here are few things we can do on daily basis:

1) Mix around with positive people.
2) Read self-improvement books, articles, journals, and publications.
3) Stay away from losers. You still can be friend, but keep upgrading your defense systems.
4) Never will you come back to those losers if you realized they bringing much weapon of mass destruction into your positive energy.
5) Be determined - "For I'm a winner, that you think I'm a loser, for I'm positive, that you think I'm negative". Say it with determination - "goodbye losers."
6) Listen to motivational songs and tapes.

Every morning, see yourself in the mirror and say it out loud "today going to be a great day!" Please don't leave home without it.

Fail 9999 times

Many optimists believed that there is no such thing as failure in their dictionary. To them all failures just considered as only outcomes. They rise and bounce back from every defeat and become wiser, stronger and more experienced.

The famous story of Thomas Edison who 'tried' almost 10,000 times before he was able to come out with his patented new technology invention - the gramophone. However, there is no exact proof that he was really 'failed' almost 10,000 times. To many of us, that amount of trials doesn't make him famous, but his spirit to keep trying until successful is utmost important.

When asked about his new invention, he replied; 'I didn't fail 9999 times. I found and discovered 9999 ways it wouldn't work.'

Now, if anyone of us discovered few times that things wouldn't work, do we have the same level of persistency? Nowadays, we can see many people easily give up on their dreams. Realistically, we should not compare our level of success with others, but should compare them with our previous successes. For if we start comparing our successes with others, there are people who always less or more successful than us. Our own successes always a fair yardstick to measure ourselves as we progress. Above all, never never give up but start again more prepared and intelligently.

Role model

We need to look for role model for reflection, but the question is, who can be the one?

Role models of the world play a crucial part in our lives as we can be inspired by their life tenets, principles, sacrifices, success stories, leadership, and qualities.

We can emulate their success principles, but there is no guarantee that we are not going to experiencing tough challenges. We can choose any particular role model and try to study their life stories. One thing for sure, they must at least be able to tell us about their ups and downs to their way to success. This witness either can be obtained from documented sources like books, journals or directly from the person(if they still healthy and alive).

Despite of trying to emulate those already successful before us, the most important is to live our true self. Living our own destiny is our true legacy, but adding on the values that we learned from them considered as bonus.

Dig and explore even deeper within yourself, and you will find your most wonderful quality. That is the most wonderful part of you - human potential and spirit. That potential and spirit must be transformed into positive mental attitude and determination to win. Use them as tools to beat and overcome testing and tough challenges. That's to me is truly precious and inspirational.

The law of the opposite

Almost everything in this world exist in contra. This is what we called the law of the opposite.

If we were to list down any contra situation related to this law, we will be having a very long list. The most common one is about wealth - rich and poor. In almost any set of contra that we list down, majority of us would aspire to achieve good side of the law such as rich, handsome, pretty, fair, happy, positive, kind, and the list will goes on and on...

Indirectly, the law will make it more interesting to live this life. It boil down to how we are transforming what we perceived as setbacks into our strength and success story when we fall into any set of contra(e.g. failure vs success). This unique law making the world an interesting place as human being always having mutual reliance with each other to transform from one extreme(poor) to the other extreme(rich).

Note that some contra(e.g ugly face) less likely to be tranformed physically. Yet, it still possible to be transformed internally by being kind, smart, polite, and knowledgeable(just to name a few). One maybe less likely become a model with ugly face, but by possessing those mentioned qualities still can make the person successful in life.

In our prowess to achieve or strike a balance, please remember that we always having options. For example, if we have failed in something, there is always another option on the other extreme which is success.

The law of the opposite make life not as life with dead end but as life with choices and options...