Business and Money Tips

Dear Boss, This is the first time we are writing you a letter, not e-mail.  At the workplace, we only can talk about work issues and leave our feelings aside, so we guess this letter is the only place where we can put all our feelings without inhibition.  You always say that we are not driven enough, and we always want more pay but work less.  This is of course true, but aren't the shareholders also always asking for more profits with lesser manpower?  As employees, we don't consider ourselves as very hard working or outstanding, otherwise we would have been promoted to director and be on top of you.  Anyway, we like you to know that we don't wish to have lesser work, we just wish that you could be a better boss. In our opinion, you could be a better boss if you could just do the following 7 things: Instead of just telling us to to things, let us know the reason behind it .  In this way we will be able to do the work with more meaning, and with more meaning the qua

Are you a good boss?  Given a chance, would your employees want to work for you?  Most importantly, are you able to make people better than themselves, or make people better for just yourself?   Make no mistake: the best bosses could also be bad bosses at times.  The key to being a good boss is  how to Be the best, and learn from the Worst .  Taken from our all-time best-seller new course  How to Be a Great Boss  and books from Robert I Sutton, there are 5 things that you have to do: Don't Crush the Bird .  Managing people is like holding a bird in your hand.  If you hold it too tightly, you'll kill it. But if you let loose, you'll lose it.  Indeed managers that are too aggressive will damage relationships and managers that are too passive and not assertive enough will get people climb over their heads.  Like salt in a dish, too much will overwhelm the dish; too little is similarly distracting; but just the right amount of salt will leave an unforgettable experienc

Are you a good boss?  Given a chance, would your employees want to work for you?  Most importantly, are you able to make people better than themselves, or make people better for just yourself?   Make no mistake: the best bosses could also be bad bosses at times.  The key to being a good boss is  how to Be the best, and learn from the Worst .  Taken from our all-time best-seller new course  How to Be a Great Boss  and books from Robert I Sutton, there are 5 things that you have to do: Don't Crush the Bird .  Managing people is like holding a bird in your hand.  If you hold it too tightly, you'll kill it. But if you let loose, you'll lose it.  Indeed managers that are too aggressive will damage relationships and managers that are too passive and not assertive enough will get people climb over their heads.  Like salt in a dish, too much will overwhelm the dish; too little is similarly distracting; but just the right amount of salt will leave an unforgettable experienc

Every child learns from school that 1 + 1 = 2.  This may be simple, but it could also be the biggest lie that adults teach to children. The truth is that 1 + 1 is never equal to 2.  It could be more than 2 or less than 2, but seldom 2. Two obvious reasons: Synergy, or leverage , where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts . If I have one idea and you also share your one idea with me, our ideas are more than two.  This is because we have both stimulated each other and we will have more ideas than we could think of.  That's why like-minded people like to be together, and birds of the same feather would flock together. Dis-synergy, or negative leverage , where the whole is less than the sum of it parts.  This is because the coming of two things will bring issues like compatibility and thus bring down the total value.  If you and me come together we may have less ideas because we need to trash out our issues like personality. In your workplace, how can you ensure tha

Are you pushing your team hard for results? Is motivation and morale becoming an issue? Make no mistake: higher performance comes not from pushing but PULLING. The truth is that most managers are not trained in the softer side of things: how to get to the heart and soul of each staff so as to get the most out of them. This course is for people who want to take action to get real results. It is NOT for people looking for excuses. There are 11 powerful lessons spread over 7 videos, 3 games and 1 challenging test. Note: We also run this course in-house, subjet to a minimum of 7 persons. Call Andy at 8201-4347 to enquire Power-packed Contents Include: HOW TO BE AN INSPIRING & MOTIVATING MANAGER Date : 25 Feb 2015 Wednesday 9 am to 5 pm Venue : The Plaza 02-346, 7500A Beach Rd (inside Parkroyal Hotel building) Fees : $398 each; $299 each for 2 & above; $199 each for 5 pax & above Test on Are you Inspiring People or Just Perplexing them? What is tr

If you don't fire your people up, you might as well fire them. More at here Your people are your greatest asset, but how many leaders actually make their people feel powerful?  Instead I see many leaders make their people feel powerless by taking away freedom from them and insulting them in public.  From now on make your people feel powerful and you'll have a powerful team . There are 5 powerless ways to make people feel powerful: Delegate important tasks to them.  Let them take the risk and fail if necessary.   Let go of your authority, control and compliance.  Let them do things their way, and they will realize that following your system and path is better Communicate with them frequently, let them be the first to know important things, and encourage them to share their views on important issues.  Ask them, "Can I have your opinion on this?" You don't have to promote people to leadership position to make them powerful, all you need is to offer choice

If you don’t like the title of this article, read on.  By ‘boss’ here, I am referring to a person that an employee (or self-employed) reports to.  That reporting boss can be a customer, the shareholders, superior and in some cases, the government. Today I shall focus on your superior, that is, someone that you report to in your work.  Most of the time this person is a manager or supervisor. Whenever an employee has a performance issue, most managers will assume it is the lack of training.  As a trainer with 16 years of experience training 81,131 people in 13 countries since 1996, I know that many a times it is not the lack of training.  It may not even be the lack of skills or attitude.                     The biggest obstacle to performing well is not about knowing what to do.  The biggest obstacle is n ot doing what we know we should be doing, due to Interferences by Bosses. The following are the 5 most common interferences by bosses that are causing the performa

Everyone says the best leadership is leadership by example. So I see some bosses go all the way down to the ground, and many even below the ground.  They work, suffer and toil as hard as the workers.  Some think that leadership by example means the boss accepts the same pay as the staff.  Others say that the leader has to arrive at the office earlier than everyone and leaves later than everyone. There are some who assert that a leader is leading by example when he is there to solve all the team's problems and assumes all blames. If the above principles of leadership by example is true, who wants to be a leader?  The leader is the worst of all, he suffers the most and enjoys the least.  No wonder many people in Singapore are afraid of stepping up as they fear leadership by example.  Truth be told, leadership by example is none of the above.  If you follow great leaders like Genghis Khan, Steve Job and Sun Tzu, you'll realize that leadership by example is about one and only

Many training courses tout themselves as having the latest ideas, strategies and thinking that will put you ahead of your peers.  Some of them are conducted by gurus who claimed to be able to 'give us 8 hours and we'll change you'.  Sounds pretty impressive!  We know that having more knowledge will not make you more successful.  Because if this is so, why are the professors not among the top earners in our society?  In fact talking to people from all walks of life reveal that we're living in an over-information age: people are now being immobilized with too much information.   It is apparent that what move people is not more information but inspiration.  Inspiration is getting people to do what they want to do because they want to do it .  When you are inspired to do things, you do it even when there is no reward and no punishment for not doing it.  That is true inspiration. Do not confuse inspiration with creativity and innovation, for inspiration is just havi