10 Leadership Drivers for 2010

It is the new decade, and I am still excited about it. Yes I have been too busy and too lazy to update my blog. The only thing I can do for my blog now is either post something really short and sweet, or copy and paste someone else's ideas. Sharing is caring, no?

As the start of the new year, I have to handle, assist and drive at least five projects, and still counting. This is not easy, and requires a lot of works, hard works, research, and planning.

So here are the big business issues that will drive the way we work in 2010 and some ideas on how to tackle them.

The economy

The recession forced organisations to cut costs and review supply chain efficiency. This will have caused restructuring and realigning, along some job losses, but it will leave businesses leaner, with the potential for higher profit margins in future. Management must continue to look for efficient delivery systems and resist the temptation to “add fat” when the economic situation improves.

Demographics

In South East Asia, 65 percent or more of the workforce will be under-35-years-old in less than a decade. This change also applies to customers. In 2012 the under-35 customer group becomes over 50 percent larger than the 40-50 range and they will have money to spend. Companies should ensure customer-facing staff reflect this shift to younger buyers. Inside companies, management needs to keep the balance of staff according to age groups proportions leveraging their skills and intellectual capital more effectively. Research shows the over-50s have better skills than their younger peers but success will go to the business that meets the expectation of the larger population.

Globalisation

Despite the recessionary doom-mongers, globalisation is here to stay. If anything, people will be more mobile. But a centralised approach to core services delivers more economies of scale. Globalisation means that managers must operate on two levels — globally, in order to maximise efficiency, and locally to maximise customer service.

Social responsibility and the environment

The pressure from both internal and external stakeholders will force management to ensure that social responsibility and green issues are almost always a consideration. Organisations will be expected to demonstrate their credentials and be transparent. Not only will they be compared to peers, but social and environmental issues are likely to become a bigger influence in customers’ purchasing decisions.

Change as a way of working

The pace will increase yet further, and so will the volume of information individuals must manage. It will be essential for organisations to separate the critical from the irrelevant — and quickly. Managers should also align ongoing change to a clear vision of the future. Change without purpose causes confusion, worrying and mental exhaustion.

Customer focus

With increasing access to information, customers are able to compare more potential providers. So businesses must deliver the best products and services in the market if they are to attract and retain customers. Management has to ensure that service is at the top of every team’s objectives, whether or not they are customer-facing.

Simplicity of process and structure

Complex structures and systems can hamper a company’s ability to respond. People like having expert knowledge that demonstrates their value, but this often leads to more complication or management levels than necessary and impedes communication. Management must ensure that processes, structures and communication are kept simple and focused. Communication across boundaries is vital to effective delivery.

Performance and engagement

Much depends on the ability of the leaders to get discretionary effort. Management has to ensure that leaders at every level are developed to encourage this extra effort. This is often neglected in management development.

Alignment

If people’s efforts are spread across a large number of possible outcomes, its impact is diffused. In organisations where the effort is aligned to a small number of key deliverable the benefits are significant.

Leadership

It is only through leaders being able to inspire, develop and align team efforts that organisations succeed. This applies to those responsible for the performance of people. Leadership is often thought of as a “nice to have” linked to HR. It is not. Management must focus in on making sure good leadership is a “need to have” that underpins every activity.

Focus on the following:

• Get your organisation lean
• Think global and deliver local
• Social responsibility and green issues are need to haves not nice to haves now.
• Change must have a clear purpose
• Keep structure, processes, communication and delivery simple
• All actions must benefit the customer
• Engage your people to maximise their performance and align it onto key deliverables
• Use the experience of your older workers to meet the needs of the younger generation
• You must have good leaders at all levels — everything else depends on that

Good luck on your journey.

Taken from BNET United Kingdom

Dem yuh!

Where it matters..

I have few counselors a.k.a mentors a.k.a lifesavers or whatever-you-wanna-call-it. We all need that. As genius or independent as we think we are, we still need support in many terms; life, monetary, emotion, business, you name it.

For example, my counselors are my own father, my uncle Kem and my cousins, Khaide and Khaidi. Simple. They are my core mentors. Core means, whenever I'm like on the edge of my life, I'll go and meet them and seek advice.

I've written couple of entries about my uncle Kem and his advises and thoughts, especially in economic and business. Today I wanna write what my cousin Khaidi says about how to handle your job well in terms of operations, delivering promises and managing expectations.

Here's what he has to say.

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I don't want to get involved in operations but fundamentally we need to know what our job scope really entails before we unconsciously make our life more difficult.


What percent of the decision is made based upon the product/solution?


The correct answer is: 30 percent!

Actually, it’s more like 29 percent, according to a study of buying habits conducted by a systems integration company that does CRM and Sales 2.0. (BLUEWOLF). According to that study, B2B decision-makers, on average make buying decision based upon the following criteria:

• 16 percent politics
• 23 percent chemistry*
• 32 percent trust/understanding*
• 29 percent solution

What’s exciting about this fact is that two of these elements — chemistry and trust/understanding — are very much within your control.

You can’t always influence the customer’s internal politics (shouldn't even if you can) and, much of the time, you’re selling solutions already fixed by your agency.

Even so, you can always use your sales skills to build better rapport and deeper levels of trust and understanding. And that’s over 50 percent of the decision-making criteria.

By the way, the above figure explain why sales efforts that focus on “features and functions” don’t work — those elements are responsible for less than a third of the decision-making process. So no way should they dominate your process.

This is not about mere lip service. This is not blowing smoke up the clients ass or buddy-buddy or being chummy with suppliers. This is not a Malaysian culture/problem. This is human nature. It applies everywhere. Emotional intelligence is our business.

So ask yourself, is your job (YOU) really more about coming out with solutions or:

1. Priming the relationship (client/agency) through chemistry
2. Build trust through managing expectations and delivering promises
3. Discussing situation, beliefs, approach and interpretation to arrive to an understanding

Of course you have to manage projects and solve problems but all that means nothing without first ensuring chemistry, trust and understanding. Nobody will be interested in your solution/best-idea if you're a hard-headed-jackass. On the other hand, if you're tight with the clients, you can get anything through. Even during the most doubtful times. Most of the time clients already know what they want to do but they just want agency to understand them first. This is when we shouldn't simply shove solutions down their throat or get involved in backroom politics. Just listen and understand, then organise and interpret their thoughts for them. Read up Aikido; redirect/use existing force/energy to achieve objective. Minimum input to achieve maximum output.

Really! they don't need smart ass solutions. They just need validation and someone to do the execution. If you can't deliver (most of the time things get complicated), communicate and manage the expectation. If you fail to communicate (miscommunication), you have failed at the core of your function (job).

80% of our issues comes from lack of communication; i.e. chemistry, trust and understanding. When you think they know, and you think they understand but the situation proves otherwise, you should learn how far you are from reality.

Who makes the decisions? Who are the stakeholders? Have you done 1, 2, and 3? Where's your leverage?

Are you spending too much time coming up with solutions? Stop thinking too long. Pick up the phone and call somebody now. Have you spent time with the clients, contractors and suppliers today? Do they really understand you? Do they trust you?


Go figure.

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Well, learn something or surrender yourselves to to self-chosen ignorance.

Dem yuh!

Where the money at?

Back in the days (not my days, more like the 30,000 B.C kinda days to be precise) people used what we called Barter System to get something. It's the fundamental of trading. Bartering without using the money. It was all good because you trade your valuables with someone else's valuables. And the best part, it has to be mutually agreed between the two parties. Maybe if I'm the only guy who has ass-wipe towels in the town, I can barter with a goat or something. It depends on the demands. Cool isn't it?

Nowadays we use MONEY. It's controlled by CURRENCY. Those small piece of paper has value to it. Are you kidding me?

Anyway, I have a story to share. Again.

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It is the month of August, on the shores of the Black Sea. It is raining, and the little town looks totally deserted. It is tough times, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

Suddenly, a rich tourist comes to town. He enters the only hotel, lays a 100 dollars note on the reception counter, and goes to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to choose one. The hotel proprietor takes the 100 dollars note and runs to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 dollars note, and runs to pay his debt to the pig grower. The pig grower takes the 100 dollars note, and runs to pay his debt to the supplier of his feed and fuel. The supplier of feed and fuel takes the 100 dollars note and runs to pay his debt to the town's prostitute that in these hard times, gave her "services" on credit. The hooker runs to the hotel, and pays off her debt with the 100 dollars note to the hotel proprietor to pay for the rooms that she rented when she brought her clients there.

The hotel proprietor then lays the 100 dollars note back on the counter so that the rich tourist will not suspect anything.

At that moment, the tourist comes down after inspecting the rooms, and takes his 100 dollars note, after saying that he did not like any of the rooms, and leaves town.

No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now without debt, and looks to the future with a lot of optimism.... .

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And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the United States of America is doing business today.

Dem yuh!