5 Pengajaran Kepimpinan Dari Covid-19

Kepimpinan Donald Trump vs Jacinda Ardern

Krisis merupakan satu peluang untuk kita melihat keberkesanan dalam kepimpinan. Sangat mudah untuk kita memimpin sekiranya semua dalam keadaan terkawal, tiada masalah bajet, semua orang dalam keadaan happy. Tetapi ujian sebenar seorang pemimpin adalah ketikamana krisis melanda.

Mengambil contoh dua orang pemimpin dunia, kita dapat menilai kesan daripada kepimpinan mereka. Amerika sebuah negara kuasa besar dunia, yang mempunyai kuasa ekonomi, ketenteraan dan sebagainya, dipimpin oleh Donald Trump. Namun kita dapat melihat bagaimana kesan Amerika yang dipimpin beliau terutama sejak Covid-19 mula menular di seluruh dunia.

Berbeza dengan Perdana Menteri New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern. Tahun lepas dengan krisis pembunuhan golongan Muslim di masjid, dan tahun ini beliau sekali lagi mengemudi New Zealand dengan baik daripada wabak Covid-19. Beliau membuktikan bahawa kepimpinan beliau berkesan krisis demi krisis.

Kepimpinan Jacinda Ardern Dalam Mengangani Krisis

New Zealand sudah menang!

Itulah yang diperkatakan oleh Perdana Menteri New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. Nama pemimpin wanita ini menjadi sebutan selepas daripada peristiwa penembakan dalam masjid di Christchurch setahun lalu. Semenjak itu kepimpinan beliau menjadi perhatian dunia.

Sehingga hari ini New Zealand hanya ada 1,472 kes dan 19 kematian. Dan selepas hampir 5 minggu lockdown, New Zealand sudah mula menamatkan fasa 4 lockdown yang dikenakan. Ini satu pencapaian yang sangat baik berbanding kebanyakkan negara di dunia.

Berikut adalah 5 perkara tentang kepimpinan beliau mendepani cabaran Covid-19 di New Zealand:

1. Berani Buat Keputusan
New Zealand antara negara yang terawal mengenakan lockdown kepada rakyat beliau. Berdasarkan kajian Gallup dua traits yang 'non-negotiable as a leader' adalah:
i. Bring multipe teams together
ii. Make great decisions.
Seorang pemimpin perlu membuat keputusan yang terbaik berdasarkan situasi dan options yang ada. Untuk membuat keputusan yang baik beliau perlu mendengar dan mendapat pandangan (terutama dari DG Kesihatan Ashley Bloomfield), serta mengetahui prioriti.

Leadership Lessons dari DG Dr. Noor Hisham

Krisis sememangnya membuka peluang untuk melahirkan pemimpin. "Turbulent Times Build Better Leaders," kata Robin Sharma dalam buku beliau 'The Leader Who Had No Title.'

Salah seorang pemimpin yang menyerlah semasa krisis Covid-19 adalah Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah, satu figura yang tak perlu diperkenalkan lagi dalam kalangan rakyat Malaysia.

Di sini saya ingin mengupas tentang kepimpinan Dr. Noor Hisham dalam mendepani krisis Covid-19.

1. Beliau seorang yang kompeten dan komited.

Dalam Situational Leadership Model ada dinyatakan dua perkara penting dalam readiness level adalah Competent dan Committed. Competent merujuk kepada pengalaman, kemahiran dan pengetahuan. Seorang yang kompeten membolehkan mereka melakukan tanggungjawab yang baik, manakala komitmen adalah faktor motivasi. Mereka yang komited akan pergi 'extra-mile' seperti apa yang beliau lakukan, kerja keras tanpa mengira waktu kerana komitmen beliau yang tinggi.

2. Beliau sentiasa kelihatan tenang dan penggunaan ayat yang merendah diri.

Beliau sentiasa memberikan kredit kepada team. Dalam surat yang beliau balas kepada Lara Khadijah McAfee yang tular, beliau menyatakan beliau tidak melakukan tugas keseorangan, sebaliknya beliau ada pasukan yang hebat bersama beliau untuk membantu negara. Ini apa yang dikatakan Level 5 Leadership. Dalam buku Good To Great tulisan Jim Collins, kajian beliau mendapati syarikat yang berjaya melompat (make the leap) dari Good to Great adalah syarikat yang ada Level 5 Leadership. Apa beza Level 4 dan Level 5? Satu perkara iaitu 'humility' (perasaan rendah diri). Level 4 mungkin leader yang bagus dan boleh deliver, tapi level 5 bukan sekadar bagus tetapi juga merendah diri.

3. Kuasa Komunikasi yang bagus.

3 Lessons from Gary Vee

Recently I attended the National Achievers Congress 2019: Unlock Your Potential organized by Success Resources. Some of their keynote speakers are Gary Vee and Grant Cordone. Both of them are great in their own way.

If you don't know who Gary Vee or Gary Vaynerchuk, is someone who have the authority in the social media platform. He shared a lot of wisdom in many platform to spread out some message and building personal branding. The speech was awesome and indeed many lessons that I picked up. And today I am going to share with you 3 things that I learn from him during the session:

1. The reason why people cannot be a good leader is because they have selfish expectation to their employee

Most of the time people will assume when they are a leader, they have the rights to ask their people to do something for them. That is not true. It might sound counter-intuitive, but when we are a leader our role is to serve our people.

We heard a lot of cases that people resigned because of their MANAGER. That is because when people are being promoted as a manager, they tend to think that they deserve the position and ask people to do things as per their expectation. The employee is being paid and they are obligated to do as being told. Well that might be true towards a certain extend, but in today's world not anymore.

Jeff Bezos meramalkan satu hari Amazon mungkin akan tutup kedai.

"I predict one day Amazon will fail. Amazon will go bankrupt." 

- Jeff Bezos

1. Jeff Bezos merupakan orang terkaya di dunia. Kekayaan beliau sudah mengatasi Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

2. Syarikat yang beliau asaskan - Amazon sekarang bernilai lebih $ 1Trillion dengan kedudukan ke-8 dalam Fortune 500 Companies. Amazon antara syarikat yang telah disrupt banyak perniagaan daripada kedai buku sekarang terdapat pelbagai produk dari B2C ke B2B.

3. Dan beliau meramalkan satu hari Amazon akan gagal. Bagaimana sebuah syarikat yang seolah mendominasi perniagaan internet akan gagal?

4. Sebenarnya apa yang beliau katakan merupakan satu mindset yang luar biasa. Tiada syarikat yang kebal dan tak boleh bungkus satu hari nanti. Kita dah banyak dengar banyak syarikat gergasi yang sekarang tidak lagi wujud.

5. Kata beliau, tugasnya adalah untuk melambatkan proses kegagalan tersebut. Bagaimana? Dengan meletakkan fokus kepada pelanggan.

6. Hari dimana kita terlupa untuk fokus kepada pelanggan dan kita merasakan kita paling layak dan kita paling berkuasa, itulah hari dimana kita akan bermula untuk gagal.

7. Sekiranya Amazon yang besar tu pun kata mereka terdedah kepada kegagalan, kita yang kecil ni macamana pulak?

8. Adakah kita nak cakap kepada kerajaan untuk lindungi bisnes kita? Sibuk buat demo ke sana-sini, mengatakan orang lain dah ‘curi’ pekerjaan kita?

9. Apa-apa sahaja boleh berlaku dalam dunia VUCA. Kita tiada kekebalan.

10. Seperti juga mengingati mati adalah peringatan terbaik untuk kita. Mengingati yang perniagaan kita satu hari mungkin tiada lagi juga merupakan peringatan yang terbaik untuk perniagaan kita.

#johanirwan

Bagaimana nak motivasikan pekerja yang malas?

1. Dalam sesi leadership insight minggu lepas, saya kongsikan duit bukanlah faktor motivasi. Tetapi duit merupakan faktor hygiene.

2. Untuk memotivasikan seseorang ada banyak cara dan kebanyakkannya tidak memerlukan kos yang tinggi.

3. Salah satu kaedah yang efektif yang digunakan oleh CEO Duolingo, sebuah syarikat yang bernilai $700 juta, beliau cuma berkata kepara pekerjanya "Apa yang awak lakukan ini sangat penting."

4. Kadangkala pekerja kita tidak tahu betapa pentingnya sumbangan mereka kepada syarikat atau proses yang dijalankan. Dengan memberikan sedikit peringatan sebenarnya akan serba sedikit mengubah attitude mereka terhadap kerja.

5. Adakah ini kerja leader dalam organisasi? Ya! Tugas seperti ini jangan didelegate kepada orang lain untuk dilakukan. Kerana impaknya berbeza.

Pos Malaysia: Leadership Lessons in Crisis Management

Viral post - it can make someone famous instantly and it also can kill a brand instantly.

There has been a viral post recently about some of the Pos Malaysia general worker throwing some Poslaju parcel while shipping it to the consumer. It creates a mixed reaction towards the general public and majority gave some bad comment about it.

Recently, Pos Malaysia created a video to counter the viral post that has shifted the perception towards their brand. However, the way the CEO handles the situation provides us (or at least me) some lessons in leadership.

Here are some of the lessons that come to my mind after viewing the video:

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.

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. 

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.

#SayaPejuang ...adakah anda seorang pejuang???

Sahabat saya Ahyat sedang berkongsi tentang erti pejuang

Satu perkara yang dikongsikan dengan saya pada pagi ini adalah tentang perjuangan. Ramai yang menyebut tentang perjuangan, tetapi adakah mereka sedar apakah itu perjuangan?

Siapa itu pejuang?
Mengapa kita perlu jadi seorang pejuang?

Jawapan ringkas: Seorang pejuang tidak takut akan bahaya.

Seorang pejuang tidak akan menyerah kalah apabila keadaan menjadi sukar.
Bagaimana kita boleh ambil konsep ini dalam perniagaan? Ramai yang berpendapat 2016 adalah tahun yang sukar. Dengan kejatuhan nilai ringgit, kejatuhan harga minyak, peningkatan kos sara hidup, dan pelbagai lagi. Ramai yang tidak jelas akan matlamat sudah tentu akan beralih arah dalam menjalankan apa juga perniagaan.

Tetapi seorang pejuang akan teruskan perjuangan mereka kerana ada sesuatu yang memberikan tenaga umpama dynamo di dalam badan. Mereka tidak akan keluar daripada masalah tersebut untuk mencari peluang yang lain, sebaliknya mereka akan terus memperjuangkan apa yang mereka perjuangkan selama ini, kerana mereka ada tujuan (Purpose). Tujuan inilah yang memberikan satu tenaga dari dalam - The BIG WHY.

Duit sebagai faktor motivasi?
Mungkin ramai menganggap duit adalah satu faktor motivasi. Saya bersetuju, tetapi saya tidak bersetuju sekiranya duit dianggap motivasi paling utama. Ungkapan 'cash is king' hanya benar dalam situasi-situasi tertentu.

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.

Problem Solving vs Problem Finding

I read an article of what employers want from the graduates. And one of the answer is problem solving skills. Is problem solving still the critical skills that industry really want?

There is an interesting research that explains this. In his book - To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink explain on a study by the Conference Board -  a well regarded Business Group in the US. They provide a survey to Employers and Education Superintendent, and asked them to rate the cognitive capacities that are most important on today's workforce.

Interestingly, both group are not on the same page. Education superintendent ranked 'Problem Solving' as no.1 but the employer executives ranked that as no. 8. They ranked the most important skills are 'Problem Identification.'

Wisdom from the President - Prof. Tan Sri Dr. Ghauth Jasmon

Prof. Ghauth was the founding president of Multimedia University, the first private university in Malaysia, where I earn my engineering degree. With his leadership the university grew dramatically and ranked at top 200 universities in Asia in less than 10 years of it's establishment. 

Me with Prof. Ghauth and Prof. Rasat

Today I have a chance to meet him at our MMU Alumni Homecoming celebration. My intention is to meet some old folks during the university time, but very less from my batch were turned up for the event. However, from the short speech of Prof. Ghauth sharing his thought and wisdom makes me feel that the event was very fruitful to me at least.

Prof. Ghauth was the vice-chancellor of the University Malaya after building MMU from scratch for 11 years. He said that he was blessed because he was able to be at the top position of both public and private universities in Malaysia. He shared some of his view including the different challenge that he has to face running both universities.

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.

High Income Nation - Are we training our people in the right direction?

Malaysia is moving towards high income nation. To realize the vision 2020, we set our target to achieve GNI per capita of US$15,000. One of the initiative is to train our people. Training has been seen as effective method to upgrade the skills and knowledge of the people. However, are we training our people with the right skills?


Upskilling and Reskilling
Malaysia is focusing so many initiatives to produce high income workers. Among top initiatives of the government including upskilling and reskilling. This is expected to produce a high income workforce through high skill workers.

The linkage between technical skills and soft-skills

According to Carnegie Institute of Technology, 85% of financial success is depends on one personality and the ability to communicate, negotiate and lead. Shockingly, only 15% of it due to technical knowledge. In other words, success in financial depends very much on soft-skills or what I called leadership skills.

This is not the only studies that has been done related to skills. In my previous post, I have mentioned that skills contribute on 14% - 22% (based on industries and descipline). Attitude plays a bigger role, which is the personality part.

Knowing this facts, are we in the right direction of building a high income nation with high income people?

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.

Inside the Mind of Cheryl Yeoh: 5 Powerful Lessons from the CEO of Magic

Successful people have a certain pattern that makes them successful. By learning some of the thought, we can take some valuable lessons. Most of the successful people might do it unconsciously but when they share their stories, we can can conclude into some certain principles.

Today, I attended Mindvalley's Project Renaissance featuring Cheryl Yeoh the CEO of Magic. Moderated by the founder of Mindvalley, Vishen Lakhiani (which was very awesome at hosting the session), Cheryl share some of her journey before becoming the CEO.

One of the accomplishment made by Cheryl was to build an app company called Reclip.It and managed to sold the business to the Wallmart. Some of the lesson shared during the session:

1. Entrepreneurship starts from young age
She learn to become an entrepreneur since the age of 8, where her mother made some unique batu seremban. She saw that opportunity and sold it to their friends at school. However, the teachers found out and doesn't like the idea. I remembered Roshan Thiran, the CEO of Leaderonomics shared about how in the US, kids were encouraged to become an entrepreneur. They sell lemonade since kids in front of their home. When nobody bought it, they learn an important lesson - location, location, location. Then they can improve from there. But us in Malaysia, most doesn't allow their kids to perform the act of entrepreneurship, including myself. I remembered when I started my business of trading sweets at the age of 10. When my grandfather found out, he asked me to stop doing it and focusing on studying. He said, if I don't have money, ask from him. But now, if I don't have money, who do I ask from? Perhaps BR1M can give some hope.

2. Selling is one of the crucial skills
Cheryl learn how to sell at a very young age. He went to one of the apartment at Glomac, Kelana Jaya and told the security that she was delivering something to someone staying there. She then knock from door-to-door selling his cabinet solutions. It turns out, to her, the ability to sell is one of the important skills to be successful. She added in one of the book she read that the author is not happy with Standford University because there is no selling course thought at the university level. How come the most important skills was not been taught in the university? She also jokingly mentioned that his father comes out with the 3 Cs of selling. 1. Convince. If you don't manage to convince step 2 is to Confuse. And you still didn't manage to sell then the third C is to Con.

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...

Innovation in Organizations

Typically in a start-up company, the level of innovation is very high. The founder have the vision of doing something different and they did things differently. However, when the company grew bigger, when the company became stable, most of the time they started to innovate less.

It is the entrepreneurship spirit in a start-up is what contributing to innovation. But how we can inculcate this in a corporate environment?

Intrapreneurship
The concept of intrapreneur is not a new term. Intrapreneurship can simply defined as behaving like an entrepreneur in a large organization. This include of assertive risk-taking, innovation and taking initiatives in doing new things differently.

The History
In 1976, in the article from The Economist, Norman Macrae predicted a few of business trends. One of them is “that dynamic corporations of the future be trying alternative ways of doing things in competition within themselves." He further suggest that "firms should not be paying people for attendance, but should be paying competing groups for modules of work done." In 1982, also in The Economist, Macrae suggested the "confederation of intrapreneurs."