I always find it so amusing when people wring their hands in anguish at the prospect of an impending change at the workplace. Change is seen as something distasteful, something to be feared, for it upsets the sacred calm waters of the status quo. For when those calm waters get stirred, who knows what may […]
I once knew someone higher up the ladder who made it a habit of saying “I leave it to you” when assigning tasks to others. That might sound like fun, except it isn’t, especially when you haven’t a clue what resources have been given and what sort of free play you have. It doesn’t help […]
A very good way of being adaptable, managing change and dealing with the vicissitudes of life is to become an expert in at least one field of endeavour. Are you an expert? Here are a few signs you might actually be one: 1. Content. You are constantly delivering fresh, relevant content that is […]
Those who have been to planning sessions of varying types and levels know that I am talking about Vision, Roles, Rules & Relationships, of course. Of the four, Vision talks about a picture big enough that it probably won’t be fulfilled in our lifetime, but might be possible for the next generation. Or it could […]
I wish more people would become more comfortable with the term “strategy.” It would certainly make the job of leaders a little easier. Strategy is not a big word, neither is it a big concept. It is not found in the mysterious depths of a crystal ball and you don’t need tarot cards for it. […]
Yes it always will. One way or another. For where there is a WILL to love, there will always be a WAY. A parallel truth is what I have written about, which is that there ought not to be a dichotomy between character and competence. Competence is a subset of character. If you have good […]
The Theory of Constraints is something that caught my eye recently. I was indulging myself in a STRATFOR video in which George Friedman was postulating that due to the unchangeables of geography, historical baggage, human behaviour and time in history, peoples and nations may aspire to things lofty and noble, and not arrive at where […]
That’s because the basics ought to be an integral part of our workplace, indeed of our entire life. What ARE basics? Are they not the very building blocks of our existence? Since when have we ever needed to “Go back to basics”? They just went missing from your daily routine, that’s all! If you have […]
As Week Six of 2014 opens, take a little time to reflect upon the mindsets that characterize you. What is your default mindset? Are you happy with it? Are there things which you’d like changed? Do you need to grow in certain aspects? Here are a few Magnificent Mindsets which I trust will be something you […]
There seems to be a trend towards people gaining from “the wisdom of crowds” at the moment. While I certainly appreciate the advice and inputs of people who really care about me and about what I do and stand for, I am not too concerned about what the majority of people think or say. Many […]
Do you believe in surrounding yourself with people who are smarter or better than you at least in some way? Good for you! That shows that you are secure, mature and probably smart in your own ways as well! Intuitively, we all know that surrounding ourselves with people better than ourselves in some aspect or other […]
The Simple Truths clip on “212. The extra degree” came to my mind, but in a different way. I had actually written to them some time ago to say that I didn’t quite agree with the whole concept, since the clip neglected to take the latent heat of vapourization into consideration, but I was okay […]
I really miss when spades were called spades. Circumvention is, unfortunately, a skill which I think all of us wish secretly we could disinvent. If you’re a leader worth your salt, you’d know what I mean. If we paid each of our people what they are truly worth, the income of the rainmaker would not […]
You might be familiar with the saying “We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are.” As leaders, we need to remember this for ourselves as well as for those around us, and lead accordingly. That saying is true, of course. Our mental and emotional states tend to dictate how we […]
The online etymology dictionary says that “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek enthousiasmos, or “divine inspiration”. Just as “encourage” has the meaning of “to put courage into”, so “enthusiasm” has the connotation of “to put God into”. Enthusiasm in certainly infectious, as anyone who has been around another person caught up in something he or she happens to be enthusiastic […]
Have you heard that successful people take action? Yes, they certainly do! As I was pondering on this yesterday, the letters “SPCA” flashed across my mind. “Successful People CHOOSE Action”! Am I just playing with publicity? Absolutely not! So, what’s the difference? None. It’s not about whether there is a difference, it’s about going a […]
Being a thermal leader isn’t all about hot air. It’s actually a great thing if you’re leading a team of eagles. Or perhaps any type of bird that knows how to use thermals in order to stay aloft for very long periods of time without getting burnout. Thermals are what many land-based birds, particularly raptors, […]
Whether you’re at the helm of a large enterprise or running a relatively small business, you’re probably enjoying being in the thick of things, making decisions, calling the shots, encouraging your people to greater heights and exploring ways you can add value to all your stakeholders. Well, you might not be the boss, so to […]
We are all humans, and we all think that we deserve this, that and the other. We guard what we think are our rights jealously. We laud those who affirm our rights, and look with a jaundiced eye at those who emphasize the fact that we really should be happily busy with our responsibilities. Convenience […]
Lego? Why not? Your equipment happens to be blocks of different sizes, shapes and colours. Using just a few different types of building blocks, you could construct almost anything you fancy. This is mind-boggling when you remember that Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) controls everything about how we are made, and is made up of chains of […]
You might just get it, of course. What is your strategy over the next few years? Decades? Centuries? Am I crazy, you ask. No, I don’t think so. Strategy is always forward-looking, and is not so much an expression of long-term goals as a manifestation of WHO you are, WHO your organization IS. In other […]
Douglas O’Loughlin shared this on Facebook, and I thought I’d pen some of my thoughts about this, since effective, practical leadership development is central to the topic. The McKinsey article may be found here: http://bit.ly/JqlnGE The article lists four principles for a better public sector: Better evidence for decision making. Greater engagement and empowerment of citizens. […]
For many people, it is either fail to plan or plan to fail. Don’t believe the tripe that most people can plan well, they just have trouble executing it. Nothing can be further from the truth! Now, I have said very often that most companies can plan well, but just can’t seem to be able […]
Unity isn’t about same-as-you same-as-you. Unity can be likened to all the different instruments in an orchestra playing the same piece, just that each instrument plays its own special part in it.
Knowledge. Understanding. Wisdom. Sagacity. Sophistication. Do those words describe you? Are there people upon whom you would pin those terms without hesitation? Practical leadership effectiveness is really all about, as the title says, “Understanding Wise Applications Of Knowledge.” It is what enables your strategy to be operationalized. It is what keeps your enterprise running profitably. […]
I came across this video recently while searching for something else, and I thought it made pretty good sense. Two main takeaways for me were that Good Strategists have it in them to choose Bad Strategies, because they think those strategies are Good Strategies. I go a step further and say that it is because […]
We have all, I suppose, heard of “constructive conflict”. Do you think it exists? When was the last time you had some “constructive conflict”? Did you feel as though you were in conflict with others? It has been said that when you have more than one person in an organization, disagreements are inevitable. Therefore, the […]
Great leaders are those who lead by example, who influence others for the better, who inspire others towards excellence and who hold a place dear in our hearts. By the same token, great leaders ought to be great natural networkers, for is not networking about relationships and influence? Is it not about the fact that […]
I’ve just completed a day and a half facilitating a teambuilding session under the auspices of my allies Fish Camp Learning Sdn Bhd. Participants were put through their paces with both challenging outdoor and indoor activities, including sea rafting, and had the opportunity to know each other much better. They were very cohesive and definitely […]
I’m sure you’ve heard many gurus telling you not to work IN the business and to start to work ON the business. Bless them, they’re telling you to do the right thing. Trouble is, they’re not telling it to you in the proper way. We need to do BOTH. When an artist is working on a canvas, he steps back […]
Yes, you read it right. Quotes like “The Greatest Good of the Greatest Number” sound very good and noble. Think about it for a while and you realize that it is not the greatest number but the smallest number! After all, pyramids end at a point at the top, don’t they? And those at the bottom […]
There is a notion that seems to be rather ubiquitous. That notion is that personal values must be in alignment with organizational values or clashes between values may occur, resulting in impaired work performance. Excuse me. Saying something like that reminds me of what I read somewhere, Harvey MacKay, I think, which asks “Have you […]
Download the pdf. Hi, this is Elijah Lim, and to borrow from what Tweety the yellow bird said, “I tot I taw a puddy tat!” Now, we’re quite familiar with that expression and what does that mean? Well, I’d like to discuss today something about what we see, how we interpret stuff, and what we […]
Download the pdf. Hi, this is Elijah Lim. Today I would like to ask the question “Is Business War?” And most of us have of heard of expressions like this: “Business is war”, “Business in the trenches”, “We have to outperform the competition”, “We have to kill the competition”, “We have to absorb them”, […]
In Singapore, a few companies have made the news because they posted job ads worded in such a manner as to imply a preference for foreign workers over Singaporeans. This violated some legislation which stipulated that companies ought to have a certain percentage of Singaporeans already in their headcount before they could proceed to hire […]
Many of us are very action-oriented. We want to get things done right now. We want to be seen to be doing something. Doing something is better than doing nothing. And many of us like to quote General George Patton, “A good plan, vigorously executed right now, is far better than a perfect plan next […]
This is not a word-for-word transcript, but is the same in essence. Business Insider ran an article called “This Chart Shows The Relationship Between Hours Worked And Productivity” on 06 Oct 2013. It purports to show that productivity goes up when people spend less time at work. It’s probably so. I’m just not sure if […]
Download the pdf. This is not a word-for-word transcript, but the essence is the same. I came across a LinkedIn article called “Key Reasons Delegating Is SO Difficult and What To Do About It” on 07 Oct 2013. I’d written something about “Deliberate delegation” before, and this post caught my eye. It seems that the […]
When times are tough, meaning when sales aren’t as good as they could have been, or, more accurately, when profits aren’t what you’d expect, then you might have the tendency to “cut costs.” After all, that’s what everyone else does, isn’t it? Stop it! Are you “everyone else”? No, you are you. Now, you know […]
Do you have issues with strategy implementation? In simple terms, how often do your plans actually translate into fruitful and profitable action? Have you found the execution of your plans to be smooth, or have they been nightmarish quagmires of frantic attempts to get the plan moving? Have your business units been able to cooperate […]
I came across an article on Harvard Business Review today called “Less-Confident People Are More Successful.” I wonder if there was any misunderstanding about what “confident” really means. Looking up the etymology dictionary, we see that “confident” is from: If the writer, Dr Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, intended for “confident” to lean more toward the side of smugness and […]
This is a short clip about character and competence. If I had to choose between either, I would always go for character. The transcript is below the embedded video, and you can also download the transcript in pdf. Transcript for Character and Competence. Hi, I’m Elijah Lim. Today, I’d like to talk to you a […]
Sometimes I hear the phrase “You can bring a horse to the water, but you can’t force a horse to drink.” I invariably reply “Yes, but you can give salt to the horse to make it thirsty.” Developing healthy appetites is something like that. Hunger is something natural, but appetite is learned. We all get […]
Quotes. Positive inspirational quotes. Negative demotivational quotes. Humorous quotes. Deep thinking quotes. Leadership quotes. Anonymous quotes. We all love quotes, don’t we? Quotes capture the essence of an idea, a concept, a state of being. They help to point out our foibles in ways that don’t make us feel so badly about ourselves. If you remember […]
Authority. You look up and squint so you see it more clearly. You stop in your tracks as it rumbles so nearly. The things that you wish for, you hold them so dearly. Yes, authority has a way of eliciting a range of different responses from different people at different times and seasons. Do you […]
Fairness. There are two underlying thoughts that accompany the concept. The first is “If I can’t have it, neither should anyone else.” The second is “Everyone has it, so should I.” You disagree? Think of popular culture. There is a line in a song which goes “If I can’t have you, I don’t want nobody, […]
One of the most coveted titles in the world of work might actually be “Chief”, if we go by the numbers. Chief Executive Officer. Chief Operating Officer. Chief Marketing Officer. Chief Information Officer. Chief Technology Officer. Chief This. Chief That. So many Chiefs. Too few Indians. Sounds like Humpty Dumpty, if you ask me. An […]
This is not only for all who are serving in large organizations, particularly government ones. Hands up if you have used that phrase, or a similar one! Right, that should include just about everyone! Hands up if you have ever been a Chief this or a Chief that! Ok, not too may hands going up. […]
Do you admire the person who seems to be able to make seemingly difficult decisions quickly and easily? Not only does he do that, but it always seems that he’s right? Do you know someone like that personally? Are you that person? Why do I get the impression that many people are content to become […]
Most people I meet seem to be always absorbed with their “Mission”. That mostly has to do with what they think their bosses want them to do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly basis. That’s important, of course, we need to complete assigned tasks and fulfill responsibilities. Meet or exceed team goals on […]
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