Leadership is all about dealing with people

 I have been involve in so many platform, and one thing that I learn is; everywhere we go it is all about dealing with human. And the best way to learn about leadership is by being involve in different platform.

Most platform that I involved in is not a paid platform. Platform like Toastmasters, BNI, or association like MAPS are platform where it is run by volunteers. And running by volunteers means that they are not being paid, and they are doing it voluntarily. Who would do things not being paid? They are not doing it just voluntarily, bu passionately.

One thing that I observed is, even though people are not being paid, people have different motive of joining, serving and contributing. And I realized that most people wants to contribute, of course based on their personal motive (which most of the time is not monetarily). And because the motives are different, politics will always be part of the game. Understanding how the game is played, to me is all about leadership. Because if you can survive in that kind of environment, means that you can learn much about leadership.

Several thing that I learn:

1. Most problems happens because people have different way of viewing the world, which means people have different motive of achieving what they intend to achieve.

2. The best way to solve any conflict that happens is through conversation.

3. Best conversation only can happen if you are willing to listen. Listening without judgement, because you want to learn their point-of-view.

4. Once you understand their point-of-view, you understand their motive of doing things.

5. The best leader is where someone can align these different point-of-view and make people move towards one unified direction.

6. You cannot avoid conflict, becuase it is part of human nature. It has been there since the first creation of human being. But you can be good at managing the conflict.

7. The best way to understand people is by understanding why they do what they do. Understand the motive behind it.

8. If you can leverage the motive behind them, you can get people who are motivated. And align them with your goal, then your team will be unstoppable.

#johanirwan 8 June 2026

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. 

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.

Bagaimana Nak Motivasikan Diri? - Interrogative Self Talk

"I can do it!"

"I'm the best! We are the best!"
"Yes we can!"

Ini antara kaedah yang biasa kita dengar bagaimana untuk memotivasikan diri.
Kaedah ini dipanggil affirmation atau kalau kita bercakap dalam hati ia digelar declarative self-talk.

Tetapi menurut kajian, ini bukanlah kaedah yang terbaik dalam memotivasikan diri. Ada kaedah yang lebih baik. Ini yang diterangkan oleh Daniel Pink dalam bukunya To Sell Is Human.

Buku ini berkisarkan tentang Sales atau Jualan dan buku ini banyak memberikan cadangan kaedah yang mempunyai asas saintifik, bukan seperti kebanyakkan buku Sales yang hanya berdasarkan pengalaman orang yang buat sales. Ialah, kalau orang tu secara semulajadi memang dah ada bakat buat sales, mereka akan mencadangkan kaedah yang berkesan buat mereka tapi mungkin tak berkesan buat orang lain. Contohnya orang yang extrovert akan mencadangkan pergi jumpa orang, bila orang introvert dengar - hahhh... nak kena jumpa orang? Kalau macam ni letih la nak buat sales.

Perlukah Kita Membantu?

1. Membantu orang memang amalan mulia. Tapi kajian menunjukkan membantu orang bukan hanya memberi manfaat kepada orang yang dibantu tetapi juga yang membantu.

2. Satu kajian berjudul "Helper's High" menunjukkan sekiranya kita membantu, kita sebenarnya yang rasa happy. Ini disebabkan oleh hormon dalam badan seperti oxytocin dan vesopressin.

3. Apatah lagi apabila orang yang dibantu menghargai dan mengucapkan kesyukuran, kegembiraan akan datang berganda.

4. Kajian ini juga mendapati bukan sahaja kita membantu secara volunteer, memberikan sumbangan wang ringgit, malah sekiranya kita terfikir sahaja untuk membantu pun kita sudah mendapat kesan yang sama. Dalam Islam, kalau kita niat baik walaupun tak buat kita masih dapat pahala.

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.

A Lesson From A Young Basketball Player Who Had A Dream

Once upon a time, there was a young basketball player who had a dream of becoming one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

He worked day and night every day for years and years and years and years. As time went on 20 years had passed he felt that he had accomplished all that he set out to accomplish but would he come to realize is that the goal that he set out initially to becoming the greatest of all time was a very fickle one.

When he realized that the most important thing in life is how your career moves and touches those around you and how it carries forward to the next generation. And he realizes that's what makes true greatness.

The story would be about the transformation of a kid looking inwardly to then growing up and understanding the importance and the power is looking outward.



...I am very thankful for the 20 years that I had. And I am ready to go...

~ Kobe Bryant

Pengalaman Bukan Penentu

1. Masa saya bermula menjadi trainer, saya sebenarnya agak struggle. Ramai yang menawarkan saya untuk bekerja dibawah syarikat mereka. Saya memang menghargai mereka, tetapi saya membuat keputusan untuk membangunkan syarikat saya.

2. Salah seorang yang mengajak saya bekerja untuk syarikat beliau adalah bekas HR Director sebuah organisasi korporat yang terkemuka. Beliau baru sahaja menubuhkan syarikat latihan beliau dan kepakaran saya mungkin diperlukan dalam syarikat tersebut.

3. Pada ketika itu, beliau menjemput saya untuk bekerja dibawah beliau dan saya masih ingat kata-kata beliau, "Awak kena follow orang sementara mencari pengalaman. I have been there, done that! So you should follow people like me."

4. Saya berkata, saya boleh bantu beliau mana yang termampu tetapi saya tak mahu bekerja dibawah syarikat beliau.

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.

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.

Hotel dan Coach

1. Tahun 2012, semasa saya menjalani certification DC di Bali, salah seorang peserta berpengalaman 10 tahun dalam industri perhotelan. Saya masih ingat beliau berkata, bila sebut hotel sepatutnya ia adalah satu industri hospitaliti. Layanan baik yang membuatkan hotel mahal.

2. Ketika itu saya dapat satu distinction, sepatutnya ada perbezaan diantara hotel, motel atau rumah tumpangan. Hotel bukan sekadar bilik tidur, tetapi layanan bagaimana kita disambut.

3. Dan saya mula perasan pada ketika itu, lambakan 'budget hotel' di Malaysia yang sepatutnya tidak digelar hotel kerana tiada elemen hospitaliti. Yang jaga kaunter muka masam, tiada penyambut tetamu, beg kena angkat sendiri.

4. Tetapi apabila saya perhatikan lebih lanjut, apa yang saya perasan, hotel yang sebenar tidak menggunakan perkataan 'hotel' dalam jenama mereka. Mereka tak perlu declare mereka adalah hotel.

5. Contohnya, Hilton, Marriott, Le Meridien, Holiday Inn, Thistle, juga hotel baru seperti Aloft, Four Seasons. Mereka tak perlu letak Hilton Hotel, atau Le Meridien Hotel pada signage mereka.

Komunikasi Warna - Perjalanan Penuh Liku

Komunikasi Warna telah diterbitkan pada Januari 2019. Tetapi perjalanan buku ini sebenarnya bermula pada tahun 2013 lagi.

Selepas saya membuat keputusan untuk berhenti kerja, salah satu KPI yang saya tetapkan untuk diri saya adalah dengan menulis sebuah buku. Pagi petang siang malam saya bertungkus lumus menulis. Bahkan saya masih ingat, semasa menunggu kereta diservis, saya bersama laptop menulis buku pada ketika tersebut.

Selepas siap menulis, saya pun pergi mencuba nasib kepada penerbit buku. Ada beberapa yang saya cuba untuk berhubung. Kebanyakkan tidak memberikan maklum balas. Dan salah satu daripadanya apabila saya menelefon pejabat, mereka bertanyakan manuscript. Saya jawab saya boleh emailkan. Sebelum itu, beliau bertanya penulisan saya berkenaan apa? Jawab saya Colored Brain. Terus beliau merespond, tajuk kamu ni tak boleh dijual. Saya kata, tapi puan belum tengok manuscript saya lagi. Katanya, takpe lah. Sebab tajuk kamu tu memang tak boleh dijual.

Tahun 2014, atas undangan salah seorang sahabat, saya menghadiri Open House Raya beliau di Shah Alam. Dan salah seorang jemputan beliau adalah pengasas kepada syarikat penerbit tadi. Saya pun sangat ghairah kerana beliau duduk makan di sebelah saya yang kebetulan kosong pada ketika itu.

Lima Tahun Lepas

Hari ini lima tahun yang lepas saya membuat satu keputusan yang besar dalam hidup saya - untuk melepaskan jawatan saya. Walaupun hari ini merupakan hari terakhir saya berkhidmat, saya dah berikan notis 3 bulan lepas dan saya ada dua bulan cuti yang saya tidak gunakan. Begitulah saya dahulu, bukan setakat banyak cuti yang tidak diambil, malah sering balik lewat atas urusan kerja.

Saya masih teringat sebelum saya menyerahkan surat perletakan jawatan, saya agak ragu-ragu dengan tindakan saya. Mana taknya, nak melepaskan jawatan yang selesa dalam keadaan saya memang langsung tidak bersedia untuk berhenti kerja. Isteri saya tidak bekerja. Anak sudah dua, yang sulung akan masuk sekolah tadika. Simpanan pula sudah hampir habis kerana dua tahun sebelum, saya baru beli rumah. Tahun sebelum itu wang saki baki saya belanjakan untuk persijilan NLP dan Colored Brain. Kad kredit pula sudah mencecah lima angka. Dah la hutang keliling pinggang, tiada projek yang secure. Saya juga tidak mencari client kerana bimbang conflict of interest dengan jawatan yang saya pegang pada ketika itu.

Namun, saya tekadkan dan serahkan surat notis pada CEO pada ketika itu. Semasa exit interview, bos bertanya “what if you didn’t make it?” Jawab saya selamba, kalau saya gagal isteri dan anak saya hantar balik ke kampung. Rumah boleh saya jual, dan paling teruk saya akan tidur bawah jambatan. Dan of course selepas itu saya pasti bangkit semula. Entah kenapa saya berikan jawapan semacam itu, tetapi saya masih dapat rasakan conviction saya pada ketika itu.