Leadership is not about position

1. In the past, the famous success formula, "Go to school, get a good grades, secure a job with a reputable organisation, then you will be successful." Once you have a college degree, you might end up with an executive position. When the time comes, you will secured an important position. And you can use that position of power in the way that you want. The position is very much stable, and you don't have to worry for a long period of time.

2. But now things have changed, the position is no longer a means for you to do whatever you want within your authority. Your position is very much fragile. Even if you know how to play your card right, if something happens externally which is beyond your control, you might be losing your position.

3. In today's world, a position is no longer about seniority. In the past, just because you have enough experience, you can do whatever you want and the rest have to listen and follow. Today, if someone can do it cheaper than you, or if technology can replicate the same results that you produce, you are out of the game.

4. If you think experience alone can get you further in your life, let's think back again. Experience alone does not count in the 21st century. Routine work can always be outsourced or automate.

FOKUS PADA KEKUATAN KITA

1. Setiap manusia mempunyai bakat dan kekuatan tersendiri. Kita juga tidak dijadikan sama rata. Kita dicipta dalam keadaan yang pelbagai.

2. Kadangkala kita sering melihat apa yang tidak kena dengan kita dan kita cuba perbetulkan kelemahan kita. Ada kala kita terlupa untuk fokus terhadap apa yang kita bagus kerana mungkin ia terlalu mudah bagi kita.

3. Setiap orang yang hebat di dunia bukanlah hebat dalam semua perkara. Dato' Siti Nurhaliza hanya hebat dalam menyanyi, Dato' Lee Chong Wei hanya hebat dalam bermain badminton, Tan Sri Wahid Omar hanya hebat dalam menguruskan urusan korporat.

4. Tetapi sistem pendidikan kita tidak bersifat sedemikian. Kita disuruh untuk cemerlang dalam semua matapelajaran terutama akademik. Kita disuruh untuk mendapat straight A dalam peperiksaan. Kita disuruh untuk mencapai kecemerlangan akademik dan ko-kurikulum. Hebat serba-serbi.

5. Saya punyai kawan yang sangat minat sukan. Beliau wakil sekolah dalam banyak acara sukan sampai ke peringkat negeri. Tetapi beliau dimarahi oleh guru kerana keputusan peperiksaan yang kurang cemerlang. Akibatnya, beliau tidak lagi dibenarkan untuk terlalu fokus dalam bidang sukan.

6. Sistem pendidikan menyuruh kita menjadi bulat. Hebat dalam semua perkara. Tetapi dalam realiti, jack-of-all-traits tidak pernah menjadi seorang yang sangat hebat dalam dunia.

7. Dunia realiti sangat berbeza. Apa yang kita perlu jadi adalah seperti bintang. Hebat cuma dalam beberapa perkara. Dan kita fokuskan terhadap apa yang kita hebat, dan kita bangunkan diri dalam beberapa perkara tersebut. We just need to sharpen our edge. Dalam masa yang sama kita juga perlu kenal pasti kelemahan kita, supaya kita boleh atur strategi menanganinya.

8. Dalam kita memimpin juga kita perlu kenal pasti kehebatan orang yang kita pimpin, kerana mereka mempunyai bakat dan kekuatan yang berbeza dengan kita. Mereka tidak boleh ikut cara kita untuk mereka berjaya. Formula kejayaan kita tidak boleh digunakan untuk orang lain berjaya.

9. Semua orang suka melakukan perkara dalam bidang yang mereka hebat. Dalam masa yang sama kita juga perlu 'live life awake.' Dengar pada persekitaran dan dapatkan feedback. Hanya disebabkan kita suka menyanyi, tidak menjadikan kita seorang penyanyi yang bagus. Anda boleh rujuk 'Malaysian Idol' untuk melihat situasi ini.

10. Self-Awareness atau kesedaran diri sangat penting untuk kita menjadi seorang yang hebat dan berjaya. Mulakan dengan mengenali diri. Proses ini bukan mudah, dan jika anda kurang pasti tanyalah kepada mereka yang lebih pakar kerana ramai yang dapat membantu.

#johanirwan

Fear of failure and how to overcome this obstacle of success

One of the main reason why people don't live up to their potential is Atychiphobia or the fear of failure. According to Brian Tracy, fear of failure is the biggest single obstacle to success and happiness in adult life. It is not the failure itself. Everyone have gone through failure in one way or another. But the fear of failure is the one that holding most people back.

Fear of failure may act like a brake pedal that stops most of us from achieving our potential. Because of this fear of failure, people stop to take action and they procrastinate what they wanted to do. And as a result, they don't achieve what they intended to achieve.

What causes the fear of failure?

There are many causes, but the main cause is how we were brought

up. When we were kids, we don't have this kind of fear, until we experience something bad, or perhaps someone told us not to do certain things because of their experience of failure. And one of them is our education system where failure is bad, and if we failed it is a bad thing. We believe that fail is bad, and we don't want to fail in any area of our life.

How do we know if we are fear of failure?

Engagement at Work

Engagement -- is the buzz word that we keep on hearing. According to Gallup study in 2013, only 13% of the workforce are highly engaged. That means most people are not engaged at work and this could lead to performance loss by the organization.

But how do we keep people engaged? 
Most of the time, companies who are looking solely at the bottom line will assume people also looks at bottom-line. They started to pay a higher salary to retain their top talent. However, statistics show higher salary does not contribute to higher engagement. Even though they get a higher pay, they quit the job sometimes for the lower pay but more engaging job. How do we create an engaged workforce so that our people can live up to their potential?

Categories of people in organization

In school, we were trained to get all the knowledge. Exams were designed to test on our competencies in a subject (well, some exams to test our ability to memorize the content). But we were never thought to be engaged in work. 

Salam Aidilfitri

Saya ingin mengambil kesempatan di sini untuk mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri kepada semua pengunjung ke blog saya di www.johanirwan.com. Semoga Syawal kali ini membawa sinar kemaafan dan lebih mengeratkan silaturrahim diantara kita. Minal aidil wal faizin. Selamat hari raya, maaf zahir dan batin.

Wisdoms from the HR Guru - 3 things that I learn from Dave Ulrich

Dave Ulrich is world's no. 1 guru in Human Resource. He always talks about HR Transformation and how HR can play even a more important role in order to help organization to thrive. I have the opportunity to spend a day listening to Dave Ulrich a year ago, but today I want to share some of his wisdom from this short video clip that just been uploaded by The Leaderonomics Show.

1. HR is not about HR. HR is about helping the business win

The problem with most HR is we look at HR as another process in the organization. HR hires candidate, arrange interviews, trains them, pay their salary and take care of their welfare. But HR should play a better role than that. We should look at HR as a major component to help the business succeed. I believe this is a very good mindset, because if we think this way, it will totally change the way we do things. If we hire, we want to hire someone to meet the overall goals of the organization, not just putting another headcount in the department.

In order to do that, HR directors need to involve in the business side of the organization. To really understand where the business is heading and to provide resources to support that bigger purpose of the organization, to provide the right training to increase the competency of the people to achieve the objectives, as well as to put on compensation plans that align with overall organizational direction.

Example given, like in Google, the direction in order for Google to be successful is they have to innovate by creating something new. The HR director, Laszlo Bock tells their people that they are allowed to use 20% of their time to try new creative things, something that they have never done before. This is to create an environment to support the bigger purpose of the organization which is to innovate. On the other hand, Amazon has a different strategy, they want their people to be more discipline.

7 Rahsia komunikasi oleh Dr. Zakir Naik

Kebelakangan ini Dr. Zakir Naik telah menjadi sebutan oleh kebanyakkan rakyat Malaysia. Semua ini gara-gara pembatalan program beliau di UTeM setelah diumumkan oleh ketua polis negara atas sebab-sebab tertentu, dan ia menjadi viral di laman media sosial.

Memang Dr. Zakir Naik merupakan salah seorang communicator yang hebat. Beliau dapat berbicara dengan persuasif sehingga ramai orang pasti akan terpegun dengan cara beliau berdebat dan berkata-kata. Mungkin ramai yang gemar mendengar beliau berhujah secara langsung dihadapan ribuan penonton. Kali ini saya ingin mengupas video dibawah dan berkongsi beberapa isi penting dan teknik yang digunakan beliau dalam berhujah, semoga ianya akan menjadi pengajaran buat kita, Inshaallah.

1. Listen attentively - mendengar dengan penuh perhatian dan minat
Apabila seseorang bertanyakan soalan, kebanyakkan orang mendengar untuk menjawab soalan tersebut. Apa yang Dr. Zakir lakukan adalah dengar dengan penuh perhatian dan minat di mana anda boleh lihat daripada 'eye contact' beliau kepada si penanya soalan. Kemahiran mendengar bukan sahaja memahami apa soalan yang ditanya, tetapi juga memahami perspektif si pendengar.

2. Acknowledge the question is good - mengiktiraf soalan yang dikemukakan itu adalah bagus.
Soalan yang baik adalah sangat subjektif. Walau apa juga soalan yang diajukan, tiada istilah soalan bodoh. Ini kerana perspektif seseorang itu sangat berbeza dengan perspektif kita. Dalam erti kata lain, kita mempunyai realiti kehidupan yang berbeza. Mengiktiraf soalan itu soalan yang baik menunjukkan kita faham kenapa beliau bertanyakan soalan tersebut dan penting untuk ianya dijawab.

3. Repeat the question - Ulang semula soalan yang ditanya
Mengulang kembali soalan mempunyai satu kuasa yang sangat persuasif. Banyak kajian telah dijalankan tentang perkara ini. Dalam NLP ia dipanggil matching and mirroring. Social scientist pula memberi gelaran mimicking. Dalam satu kajian yang dijalankan terhadap restoran, mereka membuat kesimpulan bahawa mereka yang ulang kembali menggunakan perkataan (keyword) yang sama dengan pelanggan yang membuat order, mereka mendapati kadar tips yang diberikan meningkat sebanyak 70%. Ianya seolah-olah memberitahu subsconcious mind - "you understand me!"

How to be successful learning from nature

Most people wanted to become successful. And most of us have a different definition of being successful. But how do we really become successful?

If we learn from the nature we might be able to find the answer. Think about it, nothing in nature lives for itself.

• Rivers don't drink their own water. 
• Trees don't eat their own fruit. 
• The sun doesn't shine for itself. 
• A flower fragrance is not for itself. 

The rule of nature is how much value we can provide to others. The more value we can provide to others, the more contribution that we do, that is the true measure of success in life.

What is your definition of success?
What value do you provide to others?

How to make important decisions in life?

Life is about a series of decisions. Think about it, everything we do everyday involve decision making. Even what makes you read this blog is also a decision that you made probably a few seconds ago.

Research shows that when it comes to regret, 3/4 people regret things that they have never done before. Which means only 1/4 people is actually regret of things that they did, either failure or perhaps some silly things that they have done in their life.

One of the ways that I normally use in my training sessions is what I called visualization technique. Our mind is so powerful as compared to other creatures. We can bring our mind to the future or the past. We can just imagine things.