Business and Money Tips

Too much heaven or hell is no good, so is management.  All managers must avoid 2 deadly pitfalls or risk being redundant: 1. Control - Too little control or too much control is a problem.   Too little control would mean not having rules, but most often we see rules not followed and management never do much about it. For example, many companies have rules on working hours, but ask yourself how many management actually work to ensure that people come to work punctually? Many people have got used to being late, and the common excuse is they work late, so they can come late for work.  Many don't know that this is causing some issues in teamwork, e.g. if some people are not here by 8.30 am, how am I going to get certain things done without them? So as a manager, make sure that you set the rules of the game.  A good rules of the game is Values. Values like honesty and 'Go Extra Mile' must be laid down and followed by all staff.  2. Losing Their Voice: It'...

If you as an employee too want to earn higher salary without causing a rise in cost for your employer, you need to handle more responsibilities and take more risks.  This means that you have to be promoted to a level that has more managerial and leadership roles, i.e. manager.  In fact all employees that are not already managers now should aim to get promoted in 2014, and here are the 5 steps: Change Your Thinking from Employee into Management .  Typical employee thinking is 'What's In It For Me?' whereas management thinking is 'What's in it for the Stakeholders ?'  Also, management thinking is about win-win abundance, whereas employee thinking is about win-lose scarcity. Most importantly, management thinking is long term business sustainability , while employee thinking is about yearly increment.  Take on some roles outside your usual role .  Like volunteer to look after certain issues or best take over some of your boss's work. Learn skills on 4 cr...

For decades, businesses have been trying to discover the formula for the 'perfect' manager.  There are tons of books, blog posts and editorial articles out there, and even training courses on how to be a better manager .  While I cannot claim to have unlocked the secret theory of management, discussions with bosses and managers since 1987 revealed the following 5 traits of a 'perfect' manager: 1. Know How to Be Tough Many managers are know to be tough to themselves, tough to their customers and sub-contractors and even tough to their families but soft on their team members. The reason is the lack of people working due to the tight labour market and the ban on foreign workers in many industries.  As a result, managers are too pleasing and let the subordinates climb over their heads. On the other hand, there are some managers that are too tough that they become abusive, aggressive and hated by people.  Such managers end up with zero staff and have to work till m...

All managers must avoid 2 deadly pitfalls or risk being redundant: 1. Control - Too little control or too much control is a problem. Too little control would mean not having rules, but most often we see rules not followed and management never do much about it. For example, many companies have rules on working hours, but ask yourself how many management actually work to ensure that people come to work punctually? Many people have got used to being late, and the common excuse is they work late, so they can come late for work. Many don't know that this is causing some issues in teamwork, e.g. if some people are not here by 8.30 am, how am I going to get certain things done without them? So as a manager, make sure that you set the rules of the game. A good rules of the game is Values. Values like honesty and 'Go Extra Mile' must be laid down and followed by all staff. 2. Losing Their Voice: It's easy for people to lose their voice after working in the company...

Commonsense tells us that there is no fire without wind, and everything happens due to causes and conditions. Yet many still believe in lottery and think that they can break laws as long as they are not caught.  What we teach in our training are all commonsense, yet they are not common practice.  The following are 5 Most Ignored Commonsense: 1. Multiple causes vs Single Cause   It is A, B, C, D, E that leads to F, G, H, I J, and not A leads to B. You cannot just advertise and expect business, your people must also know how to close sales or there will be no business. Of course your product must be right to begin with. 2. Better than Late Than Never is Stupid!  But the moment you say 'Later', you are closer to never. It's better to 'Just Do It' as what Nike said than to wait for conditions to be perfect. 3.  Time Simply Has No Value It's not time that has value, but what you do to time that has value.  How often we hear 'time i...

Over the weekend, I learnt a very powerful lesson from Simon Sinek at TED: the WHY HOW WHAT model of high performance   Most people are very good in explaining WHAT, like a manager telling his team member what are the things to do to get a job done right.   Many managers are even better in detailing the HOW, like all the SOPs and procedures to do the WHAT.   Almost no mangers bother to explain the WHY : the purpose and reason behind the reason for doing the task.  We all know that without a strong WHY, there is little push for a person to do a job well.  That’s why many people produce mediocre work: they just go through the motion and getting all the steps done right but you as a manager know that something is missing .   It’s the little thing that’s missing that is causing performance to be average and not great. That little thing is the WHY.   You sell, Apple's Steve Jobs did not go out to tell people what are its...

Sounds strange, isn't it? The first step to lead better is to recognize that you're Not a leader.  In fact you are not defined by any title you may have, e.g. Manager, Director, Specialist.  As a Leader, You Are NOT a Leader.  You Lead .  Short and simple.  If you keep thinking that you're a leader, you will miss out the important things in leadership, which is to be  alert to what's happening . You need to  listen well, know how are people feeling, and really get to the bottom of issues .  But you can't do this unless you get rid of the thinking that you are the leader.  You must not have the mistaken belief that you are your job. Because such thinking only clouds your thinking and distracts you from leading.  When you lead, you  let go of any self-ego   that you may have and you can be authentic, knowing who you are and where you are.  It's only when you are where you are that you will become more curious about oth...