Competency or Racist?

1. One of the recent issues was many employers put the ability to converse in Mandarin as part of the condition in jobs application. And there was a study done to investigate the issue of the racial factor in getting a job in the private sector. In that survey, they created 7 faked resumes with almost the same qualifications, age, and experience. The only difference is the race and they photoshopped the same picture to look like different races. The outcome? Chinese have the highest number on call for interviews.

2. This study has created mixed reactions from the public. Many of them accused that employers are being racist (of course this might refer to the Chinese based organization). They look at the race factor as compared to the competency of the applicants.

3. Is it true? I might have a different opinion on this. And I am going to share my views from a Malay lense.

4. First of all, let's look at the Malay based companies? Aren't they also will prioritize hiring Malay first before any other races? In my observation, Malay based companies will hire Malay first. To me, this is a normal reaction. When we help people, we always wanted to help people who are closest to us first. We will help our family members first, our relatives, and our closest friends before we open it up to the public.

5. Secondly, it is all about perception. We have to accept the fact that people have perception. And we will always make our judgment based on our perception. We have perception towards the westerners, we have perception towards the Japanese, we have perception towards the Bangladeshis. And they too have a perception towards Malay.

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.

Leading Effectively in the 21st Century - What can we learn from Top Companies for Leaders?

Leading in the 21st century could not only rely on 20th century wisdom. The environment is changing. The new reality is that we are living in a VUCA environment - volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.

AON Hewitt did a study on Top Companies for Leaders® and find out that top companies have certain characteristics:

1. They have self-aware leaders  who understand their personal strength and weaknesses, and use this information to become more effective leaders of others.

2. Build resilience in their leaders through stretch experience, encouragement and support for taking risks.

3. Identify and build engaged leaders who connect strongly with their people, and the team to organization's purpose and mission.

Why Job Description is outdated why should we replace it with Job Mission

Many organization provide their employee with Job Description (JD). Every job description will tell people on what to do and sometimes, perhaps how to do it.  In my humble opinion, this work well in the past where compliance is very much needed.

But in this competitive environment, things have changed. People don't do routine job too much now, because the job nowadays is not to produce a certain set of rules. If the job requires a routine of a set of rules, a machine or a system could easily replace the job. The jobs nowadays require people to think, solve problems and move within the company's direction.

Today, job description is also been use for a person to define their territory and protect themselves from doing things out of their boundaries. If things were not clearly stated in one job description, they just can say that it is not part of their job, based on their JD. In case that a particular task was not define in anybody's job description, chances are that thing might be left over and no one to be blame.

Job Mission
What we need in describing a role of an employee is a Job Mission (JM). Job Mission is more about the goal of your role, which align to the greater goal of an organization. Job Mission provide empowerment of an employee where they will do whatever it takes to complete their mission. In this world, we are moving from compliance to engagement. We don't just want people to comply with our standards and rules, but we want to engage them so they will stay longer with us, provide the brain in providing solutions and add value to the whole organization.

Everyone Can Become A Leader

Everyone can become a leader. But that is not the question. The question is whether they want to or they don't. Leadership is a choice and I do believe that it is your responsibility to decide whether you want to be one, or you just want to follow someone, or some organization.

Tipping Point
Some people change after there was a situation that force them to change. I remembered Jim Rohn's story of how he changed after being broke and not able to buy a cookies from a girl scout. Worst, he was lying saying that he has one. That is his turning point of his life. Some people change because of frustration and some because of inspiration. Both are good change agents.

Vision and Mission
Most companies have this nice frame on the wall mentioning vision and mission. But some companies did it because all other companies have it, and it looks weird if they don't. Some did it because their consultant asked them to do so, without understanding the purpose of having it. To me, leaders must have a vision. Something that they wanted to change. From that vision, they create missions to support their intention. This will drive them internally to pursue their dreams. I believe people are not a lazy creature. They just don't have a clear vision of their life, or finding their purpose of their life.

The Man in the mirror

Change...? Yes, most people wanted to change the world.

Most people saw the world is some sort of screwed up, and there are always something to fix.

And most people blame others for having that flaw...

Most people blame the governments, the authorities, the investors, the law makers, the teachers, the community, the societies, the corporate leaders, the trouble makers, their spouse, their uncle, their parents..... but most people forgot to blame one person...

It is the man in the mirror... Go straight in front of the mirror, and you can clearly see that person.

My dear friends, we could not directly change other people, but we can change ourselves. Start with one person.... it is the man in the mirror...

Knowledge is power - Is it true or just a myth?

Knowledge is power

Albert Einstein is a powerful figure
because of his knowledge

When I was a kid, people said that knowledge is power. So we must have knowledge in order for us to be successful. Is it true or just a myth? Well, I think that it might be true for the past generation because those who have knowledge at that time are those who are successful. Think about it, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Al-Farabi. These are those who make it big and his name was made known to the rest of the world. They don’t create any product or services, but they founded some knowledge that most of us still learn in this new world.

Things already changed

However, somewhere in 2009, I heard in a seminar, the speaker said “‘Knowledge is power’ is the biggest lie that I ever heard. Knowledge is potential power, but knowledge with application is power.” Well at that time I think that it make sense. If you have the knowledge but you did nothing with it you are absolutely added no value to people. I have studied engineering for 5 years but I am no good engineer because I only practice it for only 3 years and that knowledge that I have now, doesn’t make me any powerful. However, I don’t believe that the mantra ‘knowledge is power’ is the biggest lie. I just think that it was outdated. It was true before our generation, but because of the environment have changed, knowledge is power is no more relevant. What are more powerful is to take action from our knowledge. Because there are information overload due to the internet, we don’t have to be knowledgeable, but we just need to know how to get that knowledge. And most importantly is what we do with that knowledge. The key word is to take action.

What are the impact?

Looking towards the trend now, I do think that everybody can obtain knowledge easily. Universities in the past concentrating on providing knowledge to people. In the past, the bigger the library the more reputable the university was. But nowadays, people are looking at what the university can produce. Some university changed their theme to ‘Where knowledge is applied.’ The more a university can produce marketable graduate, the more powerful the reputation of the university. Not only grade, but what the graduate can contribute by the action that one might take.