Business and Money Tips

Stop focusing so much on financial and material gain. It is not the only measure of success. Uncross your legs and arms. Open body language makes people feel less tense. Include your employees' spouses or partners at work events, social gatherings and on trips. Work is easier for your employees when they have support at home. Get out from behind your desk and step into the trenches. Sit next to employees, listen to their feedback, and walk in their shoes. You'll see things on the ground that you'll never see from the sky. Make your values mean something. They shouldn't just be words on your website or posters on your walls. Embed your values into your systems and processes. Hire by them, dream by them, fall on your sword by them. When someone asks you for a piece of advice, give it to them with enthusiasm and tell them to come back if they need more in the future. Talk face-to-face. Discussing important matters over email, text and Slack can backfire. Shut u...

Who is a manager and who is a leader? Is there any difference?  What differentiates an effective leader from an ineffective leader?  How do leaders motivate their team members to take initiatives and make things happen?  How do we get the best out of the people that we lead and manage?   Finally, how do we create a well-functioning team?  These and other questions can be addressed in the form of the 4 leadership challenges as follows:  1. Unable to Make Things Happen Many managers are very good in getting things done and complying with stakeholders' requirements. However, they are mostly process-driven and not outcome-driven. Because they cannot deliver the outcome, they are not able to make things happen. Solution: To make things happen to reach an outcome, a leader must first get people to enroll in his vision. A vision is an outcome that is difficult to be seen today. If you can see the outcome now, it is not a vision but just a forecast. When ...

The 5 Leadership Lessons of Lee Kuan Yew include: Build Winning Teams .  Lee not only built one strong team, he built many strong teams. Most importantly, the teams went on to win many battles, be it the unions, business associations, tertiary institutions or Government-linked companies like Capitaland and DBS.  Lee's legacy is unprecedented Stubborn Yet Flexible .  Lee was stubborn to his goals yet was flexible if times have changed.  Like he pushed for the merger with Malaysia, yet changed his position two years later when things didn't work out Win People Over with Ideas, not Ideals .  Lee won the hearts of many with his far-sighted yet pragmatic ideas.  The US President Ronald Reagan and UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher were his admirers. Yet he welcomed debates but would not hesitate to point out you are wrong if he thinks so. In the end even his opponents like Opposition Leaders Chiam See Tong and Lau Thia Kiang spoke highly of him.  ...

As a full-time Coach and Trainer having over 81,131 executives in 14 countries since 1996, I believe that everyone is a leader and everyone can rise to the top leadership position of any organization.  There is no requirement of background, wealth, education or connections. However, many people still don't want to be a leader because they think that being a leader is difficult and requires too many sacrifices. The top 7 misunderstandings of being a leader include: A Leader Must Be Tough.   Softness doesn't mean not effective , and sometimes being tough will alienate followers instead. You Must Be The Best.   The best may not lead because they prefer to be led. That doesn't mean that the leader is mediocre and incompetent.  A Leader Must Behave Like a Leader at All Times. This is called fake leadership because ultimately a leader is just a normal human being like anyone . A leader is not God or a representative of God. In fact if you behave weak at times you wi...