On Goal Setting

About 10 years ago, I was hired by a corporate organization to run a program for their management trainee. Basically, these are the fresh graduates who just landed to their first job for a technical company. Part of the content of my program is about goal-setting. After explain about some basic concept of goal-setting, I asked the participants to write down the goal for their career. To my surprise, most of them wrote down that one day they wanted to become a Superintendent. I was wondering, why that is their aim for their career - not becoming a CEO, or any C-suites, or at least some other different position like General Manager. 

Curious, I asked the participants why most of them wanting to become the Superintendent. The answer that they gave, the previous session the day before my session was delivered by their internal staff with the position of Superintendent. Everybody was looked up at him and unconciously decided that they wanted to be like him.

I started to notice that it is not unique to that session in that organization. But that is what natural human being response. Our goal is only as big as the reality that we could see. 

I once listened to the podcast The Game of Impossible, where Idris Jala said that when he was a child, he lived in a rural area in Bario, which he regarded as the most remote place in Malaysia. He recalled that when he was a child, he didn't see the world beyond the mountain. But between 1962-1966, there was confrontation; the British soldiers went to their hometowns. These soldiers behave wierdly, they were smoking cigarette, eat different foods, and watched movies. One day, one of the soldiers told him that there are world beyond the mountain, and if you want to get there you need to pass your exams. That was his motivation back then, so he set the goal to study hard to see the world beyond the mountain. Imagine if there were no confrontation and no British soldiers were there, Idris might not become a minister and lead the transformation of the country.

To expand your goal, you need to expand your reality

I am convince that we can see someone's future just by asking them what is their goal. 

Here is the thing that most people missed. When we set goal, but with small reality that we might have, we will set small goals. And the main reason is their reality is never been expanded. That explains why sometimes when you were born within a rich community, your goal might be different as compared to someone who lives in PPRT (PPRT is the Malaysian government housing and poverty eradication initiative under the Ministry of Rural and Regional Development (KKDW) designed to help the rural poor and hardcore poor). In fact, there is a term called Economic Connectedness which a concept emerged from the work of economist Raj Chetty which measures how much do people from low-income background have genuine friendships with people from higher-income background.

The core idea is simple. If poor and wealthy people live in a completely separate social worlds, opportunities does not flow. But if they become friends, information, aspiration, norms, mentorship, referrals, and opportunities can flow across economic classes. The researches found that the "cross-relationship" is one of the strongest predictors of upward social mobility ever identified. It is all about exposure.

And the truth is, we cannot get the government or people from authorities to set the environment, but we definitely can choose who we want to be friend of. Some said that we are the reflection of five of our closest friends. That is literally true, because our friends are the one that helps us to expand our reality.

To expand our goal, we just need to expand our reality.

How to set a better goal

First step before setting a goal is for us to understand there are different types of goals. This is something that I learn from Bob Proctor, there are three types of goals:

1. Type A Goal - You know how to do it
2. Type B Goal - You think you can do it
3. Type C Goal - What do you really want to do. (And you don't have any idea how to achieve it).

Type A is the common goal that most people set. They know how to go to Kuala Lumpur. They just set a goal, one day I want to go to Kuala Lumpur. Probably they have been there before. In terms of financial goal, we can set to earn a certain amount - amount that is familiar to us. We have reach the same sales target last year and we just repeat the same sales target this year. We know how to do it.

Type B goal is a bit ambitious. We have never been there, but we know we can figure things out. We haven't been to Maldives. But we know we can Google the information, asked some of our friends who have been there. Or perhaps we have our friends from Maldives that is going to entertain us when we reach there. The thing about Type B goal, it is all about setting the date or deadline. Most people don't set the deadline it becomes a wishlist. In terms of financial, we might not have RM1 million before. We set a target, we want to accumulate RM1 million by end of 2030. It is achievable goal if we put our plan on it.

Type B goals is the one that normally what SMART goal is all about. We set something that we can achieve, realistic and time-bounded.

But Type C goal is a goal that we really want, and most of the time we have no idea how to reach there. Most people are either afraid to set this goal, or they have no idea that they can set this goal. Example of travelling is to go to the Mars. This is what Elon Musk level of goals. He might has no idea how to reach to Mars. But he perhaps will figure it out along the way. In business, to reach RM1 billion sales by 2030. You have no idea and looking at current situation it is not realistic perhaps. But setting that kind of figure will look so much scary and we might think unrealistic. But it requires imagination. Imagination requires us to think, think beyond our beliefs. And to think beyond our beliefs we need hope for the future. 

Type C goals require us to change the way we think, grow ourselves as a person, and do things that we have never been done before. It requires us to get out of our comfort zone. We have been in the comfort zone for so long, that we felt so comfortable being there. It is time to set a slightly different challenge to ourselve. But if you asked me, to achieve RM1 billion is still not something impossible. We still can asked a Billionaire how they did it. We can learn and we still can figure things out. But going to Mars, we have no reference point what-so-ever. Never did people went to Mars. So it requires us to think different, be creative and keep on pushing.

So, have you set your goals? Did you set Type A, or B? Or have you consider setting Type C goals? 

#johanirwan 

Malaysia Sejahtera - The solution for Sustainable Development of the 21st Century

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to attend the Perdana Discourse Series organized by Perdana Leadership Foundation featuring keynote speaker Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak with the title The Power of Youth: Building a Better Future in the Face of Economic, Social and Environmental in the Anthropocene Era. 

He started his speech by thanking the emcee and talked about how the introduction in his CV was too glorified. He doesn't want people to be impressed with his CV because, in the academic world, too many people focus too much on their credentials, but the moment they open their mouths to speak, nothing worth listening to. He wants people to judge him by the content of his speech, which I was really impressed by at the end of the speech.

Here are some of the insights that I gained:

Bagaimana Nak Tingkatkan Prestasi Pekerja?

Baru-baru ini saya buat sesi coaching dengan salah sebuah corporate client. Ada beberapa slot yang saya sempat bertemu bual dalam coaching conversation. Salah sebuah peserta pada waktu pagi ada mengatakan beliau hanya menyumbang separuh sahaja komitmen semasa bekerja. Dan apabila saya tanya apa menyebabkan separuh sahaja, dia kata sebab bos dia.

Sebelah petang pula, dalam sesi yang berbeza ada seorang yang berkongsi dengan saya yang beliau sangat bersemangat untuk bekerja. Malah beliau sanggup bekerja lebih lagi kerana bos beliau sangat supportive dan memahami.

Apa yang menarik dengan kedua contoh ini adalah faktor kenapa mereka perform adalah bos mereka.

Gallup ada menulis buku hasil kajian terbesar mereka lakukan di peringkat global berkenaan 'The Future of Work' - tajuknya "It's The Managers" - Gallup Finds that the quality of managers and team leaders is the single biggest factor in your organization's long term success. 

Sebelum ini saya banyak membaca hasil survey faktor tertinggi kenapa seseorang itu resign daripada syarikat adalah kerana boss mereka. Pendek kata, boss adalah punca dan sekiranya kita dalam jawatan yang ada anak buah, kejayaan dan prestasi kerja anak buah kita sangat bergantung kepada kita.

Dalam video ini saya mengupas lebih lanjut kenapa kita ada ramai bos yang apa saya gelar 'bad boss' dan satu perkara yang boleh kita lakukan untuk menjadikan manager lebih baik agar mereka dapat memimpin anak buah mereka untuk menjadi top performer dalam organisasi mereka.

#johanirwan

Ringkasan video:

0:05 - Introduction 0:28 - 2 pekerja organisasi sama pengalaman berbeza prestasi berbeza 2:20 - Faktor yang mempengaruhi prestasi pekerja 3:05 - 3 sebab kenapa seseorang itu dinaikkan pangkat 5:15 - Satu tindakan yang managers boleh lakukan menurut cadangan dari Gallup 6:30 - Apa yang membuatkan seseorang itu mendapat kepuasan dalam bekerja 8:00 - Kesimpulan

Zoom Fatigue: Adakah Remote Working Economy Berkesan?

 

1. Mula pandemik covid-19, Zoom tiba-tiba menjadi satu platform paling famous seantero dunia. Ramai yang kata dunia akan berubah ke arah virtual.

2. Salah seorang sahabat saya berkata, selepas tamatnya pandemik beliau akan meminta client untuk bermesyuarat dengan zoom sahaja. Jimat masa travel, toll, parking dan sebagainya.

3. Malah pada bulan April, CEO Morgan Stanley berkata di masa hadapan, bank tak perlukan 'real-estate' yang banyak untuk beroperasi. "We've proven we can operate with no footprint" katanya.

4. Ini sedikit sebanyak memberi isyarat kurang baik pada pasaran hartanah. Bayangkan kalau semua boleh bekerja secara remote, apa perlunya bangunan pencakar langit untuk menempatkan pekerja yang work-from-home?

5. Tapi itu bulan empat. Sekarang rata-rata dah sampai tahap tepu dengan melihat skrin. Dalam erti kata lain, ramai yang mengalami 'Zoom Fatigue'. Malah banyak CEO syarikat besar yang pada mulanya menyokong meeting secara virtual, rata-rata complain dengan virtual meeting.

6. Virtual meeting kebanyakkannya bersifat transactional, dan tidak meransang pemikiran kreatif. CEO JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon berkata "there's no vital 'creative combustion' happening in virtual settings." Beliau menambah, "bringing people back to the office is paramount to fostering creativity."

Colored Brain, Organizational Culture, and Gamification - This is what I learn from Arthur Carmazzi

I recently interviewed Arthur Carmazzi to be the guest in my Perspektif Komunikasi Warna series. This is our 5th Episod and I invited the guru himself to talk about Colored Brain, how it started, the application and how an organization can create their working culture.

How it was started?

When Arthur venture into his business, the business does not took-off successfully and he ended up in debt. So he get a job in an organization in Singapore. After a few weeks working, he started to notice that people are blaming each other and very less cooperation among each team members. Worst than that, after several weeks he became one of them, blaming others and not giving cooperation.

Reflecting on it, that is not the way it supposed to be. He then did research on psychology and there are several findings. One of it leads to Colored Brain as a communication model. It provide instant results in the same orgsanization. Now the model has been use widely in various country.

He then created several other method on culture and how we can gamify our organization and create a high-performing culture.

Watch this video for our full interview and let me know what do you think.

Merdeka dan Ketuanan Melayu

31 Ogos 1957, laungan MERDEKA! oleh Tunku Abdul Rahman di Padang Kelab Selangor disambut oleh ribuan rakyat Malaysia yang berhimpun di sana. Ia merupakan titik tolak di mana Malaysia mencapai kemerdekaan.  Ya, kita bebas daripada dibelenggu penjajah. Itulah sejarah yang telah tertulis dan setiap tahun kita menyambut kemerdekaan sebagai peringatan kepada peristiwa tersebut.

Bagi kebanyakkan orang, merdeka bererti kita bebas. Kita bebas daripada cengkaman penjajah. Kita bebas mengurus tadbir negara kita sendiri. Kita bebas menentukan halatuju negara. Tetapi adakah kita akan selamanya bebas. Persoalan yang saya sering bertanya kepada diri saya sendiri, adakah kita tidak akan lagi dijajah?

Mari kita rujuk semula sejarah, kenapa negara kita dijajah? Sejak tahun 1511 sebenarnya kita dijajah kerana satu faktor utama. Melaka sebagai kerajaan sebelum itu merupakan satu kerajaan yang masyhur malah empayar Melaka berkembang pesat dimana pada zaman kegemilangannya sewaktu diperintah oleh Sultan Mansur Shah dari tahun 1459 sehingga tahun 1477. 

Hanya dalam tempoh singkat selama 34 tahun, empayar Melaka yang begitu masyhur telah dijajah oleh armada Portugis yang pada ketika itu dipimpin oleh Alfonso de Albuquerque. Maka bermulalah episod penjajahan di Tanah Melayu sehingga kita menikmati kemerdekaan pada tahun 1957. 

Kenapa kita dijajah? 

Nak Berjaya? Carilah Mentor! Tapi Kenapa, dan Bagaimana?

Nak berjaya? Carilah mentor!

Itu antara ungkapan yang mungkin seringkali kita dengar. Tidak dapat disanggah, kebanyakkan orang yang berjaya mempunyai mentor mereka tersendiri. Satu persoalan yang perlu kita tanya juga adalah apa ciri-ciri mentor yang baik dan apa yang menyebabkan hubungan mentor-mantee (atau sesetengah memanggil protege) berjaya?

Satu kajian yang dijalankan oleh Brian Uzzi, seorang Professor Management and Organization dari Kellog School of Management merungkai apa yang membuatkan seseorang itu berjaya dengan panduan daripada mentor.

Dapatan daripada mereka memang benar, hubungan mentor-mantee akan memberikan manfaat dalam kejayaan seseorang mantee. Salah satu tanggapan salah tentang hubungan mentor dan mantee adalah mentor memainkan peranan aktif dalam memberikan tunjuk ajar dan mentee pula seperti span yang menyerap. Ini tidak menjadikan hubungan mentor-mantee yang baik. Mentorship bukan hubungan satu hala, malah mantee mempunyai tanggungjawab yang besar untuk menentukan kejayaan mereka. Dalam ertikata lain, sehebat manapun mentor, sekiranya mentee tak bertanggungjawab mentee tidak akan kemana. Oleh itu, pada pendapat saya sekiranya seseorang mentee berjaya, mentor tak perlu ambil 100% kredit atas kejayaan mereka, sebab mentee juga adalah penentu utama kejayaan mereka.

Apa perlunya mentor sedangkan kita ada banyak maklumat daripada internet dan buku-buku yang banyak daripada orang-orang yang berjaya?

Satu istilah paling penting untuk kita memahami peranan mentor. Mentor bukan sahaja berkongsi ilmu biasa, tetapi mereka berkongsi satu perkara yang dipanggil Tacit Knowledge.