Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish
Some said this mantra originated from Steve Jobs, yes the Apple’s. In one of his keynote address to Stanford graduates graduation ceremony in 2005, he reminded the audience about the importance of being ‘hungry and foolish’ as his key success. That was basically it.
What’s more is, I fully subscribed to that mantra and agree unilaterally. Let’s not talk about entrepreneurship although it is a subject that I love to talk and write hence we are not talking about setting up your own business. It is good if you already have a sustaining one or planning to set one. I would like to address the young working class, just like you and me. People that rely on jobs; have bosses, supervisors, customers, colleagues and face daily job challenges.
You know it is very easy to get distracted at work. Sometimes the job that you are currently doing is something you hate the most. That’s why we invented hobbies. Or it may not be the job you thought you wouldn’t do 10 years ago before you join this working class. I have friends who come to me and said, “I don’t know why every time I get a job, it’s always with similar if not the same problems”. Do you feel the same? Let me tell you one thing, even if you are in heaven right now you are likely to complaint. So, it’s normal to be a little bit analytical and critical of own job and its challenges.
Reality of Jobs
Recent surveys in America and Europe about jobs are driving into the same conclusion. The young working class nowadays do not have enough competencies to perform or take over senior people jobs. That’s what the seniors are saying. You can read this post and find out more on this ‘perceptual difference’ between the young executives and seniors. Nonetheless, what I have always believe is that many of today’s jobs are ‘new job’. These jobs are not around 20-30 years ago during the time the seniors climbing their corporate ladder. Therefore the idea of new skills needed to perform today’s job seem foreign to many of them and us. But let’s not discuss too much now, check out some of these facts derived from that survey.
1. A growing number of people are remaining healthy and active well past the traditional retirement age ad want to carry on working, whether for the money or for the fun of it. That create problems for younger workers.
2. Workers will have to take responsibility for their own future. The pleasure of the having traditional working role were the certainty of a parent-child relationship. You could leave it in the hands of the corporation to make the big decisions about your working life. Now the world is moving towards adult-adult relationship which will require each one of us to take a more thoughtful, determined and energetic approach to exercising the choices available to us.
3. In some countries, unemployed youth will be given allowances as long as 40 weeks (incentives) for them to cover basic needs which otherwise if not provided can cause social problems such as criminals.
4. Getting the innovation engine going again is essential to reducing structural rate of unemployment.
5. The mismatch between the skills demanded by employers and those available in the market is a reflection both of bad choices by students, who have not thought hard enough about what will help them find a good job and of education systems that are too often indifferent of needs of the labour market and too slow to change even if they try.
Yes, I cover a little bit of here and there from more than 10 pages report. What did you get from here?
You Are On You Own
Basically to survive, young executive needs to take charge of his own life. This is not what they use of doing. Having pampered by their nurturing parents, many of them clueless when asked to become agile, resilient, creative, imaginative and working in a team. Although not all of them, but too many of them. It is common today to generalize the young ones to be ‘like that’.
Some of them are very lucky because they have parents who have access to more things thus their outlook are different. Of course not all of them successfully rearing their children, some actually spoiling them because of less time spent at home to look after their boys and girls. Therefore my advise to young executives that they need to start looking for knowledge that they passion about. Something they would want to do for free because it will then become their latent skills.
Say you are in large corporation, you should always raise your hand and push your superiors to give you more jobs and tasks you can develop stronger willpower, depth of skills and be a team player. Because many young executives resist extra jobs, just by doing a little bit more you can become ‘hero’ by your boss. Ask for training and continuous education. Another trick is to learn how to connect yourself with the seniors. These people have strong knowledge and wealth of experiences that take years to accumulate. Tap on this young man!
Get ready to dive into sea of opportunities
Seek The Experience
I told more people lately, they need to be explorative and be a seeker. You got to chase that experience and make the best out of it. Experience will not come to you, sorry. You need to immerse yourself into it then only you get to see that world. Although many NGOs and associations today are fighting for greater activities, incentives and policies by the government to change education system, introduce entrepreneurs program, provide micro-financing and pass small business laws, you can always do something about it by yourself while waiting.
It is common today to see young executive job hop from one place to the other. Although many of y bosses disagree with this, I think it is not the job hopping causes trouble it’s more the why job hop. If you do it because you want to gain new experience, learn new skills and beef up your network. You are just as hungry for greater things; and joy. Nonetheless, bosses are right too because too many young executives job hop because they don’t like the job, want more pay and benefits and worse unable to perform as expected. They have escapism mentality and run away from responsibilities.
One of the things I tested is to go to another job that will force me to learn critical skills in business. Skills such as project management, sales, strategy formulation and relationship building. What I did was I seek a project manager and consulting job. In 3 years I learn a lot about this trade and accumulated solid experiences in the areas I wanted. But mind you, it is also important for you to identify what are skills needed for you to be where you want to be.
These are the three skills needed for all young executives; selling skill, relationship building skill, and managing skill.
Worri-less
Don’t worry if your boss, parent or colleagues try to talk you out when you want to move to other job. You must stick to your higher plan and accept the fact these people or employers are your vehicle to get to where you want to be. Even if you make mistake, it has nothing to do with them because they told you so! 
What’s more important is to keep the relationship fresh. I don’t believe in winners take all mentality, and bipolar mindset. Maybe you have experienced working with some narcissistic bosses, be nice to them and just walk out with dignity if you plan to leave the company. Remember to always give your best wherever you are. Give more and share more, you don’t lose anything. You are actually building social capital and goodwill. You are going to need to use it someday.
To drive home the conclusion, it is all about you if you want to be successful or at least survive in working class. Sometimes it pays to keep your jobs long, but in today’s economy the job may not want to keep you that long. Always be alert and able to pick up new skills. Invest in yourself including your intellect. One of my friends say that it is who know, not what you know. I disagree. Knowing what you know make you a leader and always one step ahead; but please don’t be ignorant. It pays to be a little selfish as Charles Handy used in his book, ‘The Hungry Spirit’; proper selfishness.
Stay hungry, stay foolish.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
CRM – Fashionable If You Know How
CRM is just a system. Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS) comes in many formats and services attached to it. In some companies CRMS is used to store customer contacts, purchase records, sales amount (current and lifetime) and administrative reports. Some CRMS come with additional marketing tools such as email marketing, analytics and trackings (and charts), buying patterns and newsletter facility. And some complicated ones come with end to end order fulfilment to customer support. All in one. Nonetheless the objective is the same; to know and assist customer relationship.
Although not many companies buy the idea of CRMS, if your company already in the business for more than 5 years, CRMS will pay-off quite handsomely. Choose basic CRMS and you will see how it is quite useful to centralize your contacts and customers data. Basic CRMS cost is within RM15k-RM25k. One of my clients recently bought a basic CRM around that price after close to 20 years in business. This is tedious because as I say CRMS is only a tool thus you need information for it to benefit and remember; garbage in garbage out. Putting balkanized data should be resisted although the tendency to have strong ‘back up’ is always there.
For nascent company or start-up, CRMS is waste of money because you don’t really have anything to digest from the system. Assuming you already been in the business for 8 years and thinking of owning a CRMS, here are some of the business benefits. Business benefits mean the outcome that you are likely to get for you to generate better revenues and give you economic benefits. And being fashionable is not one of it.
Some of the business benefits of using CRMS:
a. Customers profile:
Customers are important for any business. Say you have a number of sales people, how do you ensure they follow up on the right customers? How do you track their customers list? Well, I can go on and on. Salespeople have so many things to do especially reports and not many of them well organize. They may overlook some of the important clients in the expense of immediate business of current clients. Even you as business owner for that matter.
Therefore having CRMS you will be able to see and centralize all customers profile where you can roughly know who else do you need to see and introduce your company. In CRMS you will also be able to see what are the existing clients purchases.
b. Buying patterns.
We all know sales cycle and buying cycle, but we hardly track them. From CRMS you will be able to see some patterns from specific customer or industry. Buying pattern is helpful for you to stock up certain items at particular time or offer other than ‘the usual’ to the same customers. You can also take the opportunity to introduce new product or service and they can become your early adopters.
Besides, you will also be able to see sales volume of this customer. Additionally you can also analyse pricing point and discount with certain customer. Do you know different industry reacts differently to same product and price? The same logic applies to different companies. Knowing this information is good to increase profitability and adjust customer service.
c. Marketing campaign
In marketing management, the hardest to do is timing. Right timing harness the best result and wrong timing can costs unwanted wastage. Using CRMS will help you time your marketing campaigns better. For example when you see in your CRMS that customers are buying X product more during end of the year, you can increase consumption with bulk purchase, pair up with other slow moving products, increase price reasonably, increase appeal to new customers and so on.
You can also improve your tactical campaigns because you have the sales data and customers profile. Developing close to reality marketing plan has always been a challenge for many companies. But with CRMS your marketing campaign is more targeted.
d. Managing risk
Even though risk here not involving those investment risk, it helps to note that if you can minimize risk of stocking unwanted items and optimize your supply during peak period to reap the most benefit, CRMS certainly can solve some of this (sometimes perennial) problem. Moreover with CRMS you will be able to touch base to some ‘old clients’ that you may have overlooked for various reasons. You probably have heard that ‘old customers’ are still the best to touch base.
e. Performance review
Another subtle benefit of CRMS is the ability to constantly check your team performance. You want to know how many new customers vs current customers sales, which industry gives you their attention now and how big is your sales pipeline. Left unchecked, you will soon realize you and team are busy, but hapless results.
These are just some of the benefits of CRMS. You know what, the problem with CRMS you can only gain these benefits if you analyse, massage and synthesize the data. If you just do nothing and hoping it to tell you something insightful you are unlikely to get it. It is worth to repeat that, ‘garbage in garbage out’. Please do something about it, because it is only fashionable if you know how.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
Leader’s Job: Pushing Boundaries.
It is always easy to fall into the trap of status quo. Some leaders disagree, they say they always add value; incrementally. But would incremental value changes results? Hardly. Simply because you just do ‘work around’ on those boundaries. Just by putting slightly extra effort, adjusting here and there, tweaking this and that, viola! But to make real change and get your people change you need to push boundaries. I learn a little bit on pushing boundaries last weekend.
It was a simple event. I found one of my tyres almost flat. Duhh..So I quickly drive to the nearest workshop and asked the mechanic to change both rear tyres (yeah, both of them already so thin!). They moved the front tyres to rear and installed the new ones in front. Within 45 minutes I restored my confidence for long distance driving and speeding. The following was my conversation with the mechanic:
Me: Do you have anything else to do?
Mechanic: No, all ready and you can pay now.
Me: Are you sure?
Mechanic: Yes.
I paid, left the workshop and did one big round and came back.
Me: I think my steering leaning towards left. A little bit. It was ok before this.
Mechanic: Cannot be. Normally it’s ok.
Mechanic straight away went jack-up the car and removed both tires and put them in a machine to ‘fix’. Emm..Nobody (yes, nobody) look at the steering wheel. They spent another 30 minutes fixing both tyres. Looking for areas to improve and they hit the rim, this and that. I pretended not to see anything and sit with a sour face.
They installed back the tyres and this time one of mechanics went inside the car to check the steering wheel alignment with the tyres. “Ok.” So I drove and make another big round and winding down my window and showed thumbs up and peace. J They stopped me and said, “We have not been doing this for long time because nobody ever complains after each job we did. I felt great to know I did a better job this time.”
Truthfully, there was nothing wrong with my steering wheel. It has always been like that since I first bought the car. What I did was pushing the mechanics boundaries that there is always room for improvement if only you pay greater attention to things. And it looks like they managed to ‘carve’ that extra time to do it. And they actually feel greater about their work because I can see it on their face and with what was conveyed to me. So what is the learning for leaders?
Leaders need to push boundaries. Do not receive first cut just like that. Give it back to them so they think harder and deeper. These are smart people so don’t insult their intelligence. Let me explain a little bit more with these few simple rules:
1. Challenge the first cut –> although we shouldn’t always think ‘people are bad so hold them tight’, there is always tendency to give minimum outputs. The reasoning is a logical one, when there is no pressure why looking for one e.g. putting extra hours. Therefore, as leaders we need to challenge the initial output to test whether it has been carefully thought through. When you challenge, be sure a modest one. Avoid self-referential past glories of yours get in the way!
2. Be objective –> don’t beat around the bush, just tell to their face. Leaders can say things like this, “I know not many of you don’t want to confront me, but for today I challenge you to question me on this particular project/job.” When you invite disagreement, be objective.
3. Let them speak –> once you have invited disagreement, let them do the talking. Some leaders rambled on and on. Listen more, talk less. When they speak leaders need to take note to clarify or conclude later on. Don’t pretend to listen with oohhs and ahhss. They are not dumb. Write down seriously on your ring-binded notepad (not on loose paper!).
4. Just listen –> to emphasize more on listening here, leaders not to be judgmental of what was said. Yes, some of them are over critical of you and inviting some chuckles from behind. But that doesn’t mean leaders cannot speak at all. Leaders are encouraged to ask question to seek greater understanding of the issue. Suppress your negative feeling and resist the temptation to be the KIA (know-it-all), c’mon you are leaders!
5. Its job time –> when things have been clarified, give them a break for them to get on with the job. Give time for them to tinker with the ideas or corrective measures. Stop harassing or giving the impression that “I am watching you” feeling. Let them be productive and spend the time they need to perform.
6. Decision can wait –> sometimes to push boundaries leaders can wait for the decision to come back. Especially when you are dealing with creative bunch or specialists, these are people with knowledge and many are experts in their own area. They know and they will come back to you with solutions. If you cant get a decision, don’t impose one.
Remember, the job is to push boundaries, not ‘work-around’ status quo.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
Effectiveness Is Key
It is either by chance, design but i reckon simply pure luck that my effectiveness theme come in a bundle. first it started with a conversation with a friend, then become a talk then a training program and as i developing that program, i was featured in alma-mater where i stressed the point about being an effective human being as key success factor. check out the article here.
One of my friends call up and objected, he said efficiencies is more important. simply because today’s people are far knowledgeable therefore there is no question on being effective (doing right things), it is more of doing things right (i.e. efficient). well, he got a point and i couldnt agree more. i put some thoughts into it, then i conclude and bring home the point that being effective is still far more important for many of us. let me tell you why, based on my personal experience.
although human being is a lot smarter today, we still find it difficult making the right decision. we are presented today with so many options, variations, packages, sizes etc that weren’t available at least a hundred years ago. do you remember how hard a car manufacturer like Henry Ford to cater those difficulties? he put down his foot and gave birth to ‘you can have any color you like as long it is black’ to his invented Model T. Of course, because the need of having the car is greater than painted color, the car sold in total 15 million units!
what to choose?
Now, coming back to effectiveness is about doing the right things. A lot of young executives today (smarter ones of course) are well educated. formal education really will enhance cognitive and reasoning capability. it will trigger some creativity skills (depending how active you are at school) but very unlikely teaching you how to become effective. with the advent of technology they are a lot smarter than their parents (but that doesnt make their parents fool!). But too many of them make the wrong choices in their early to mid career path and development. Because they dont know what to choose or simply where to choose from because of overloads of information, they wait for someone or somebody to tell them what to do next. this embedded programming somehow ubiquitious and in many organization a permanent problem the last few years. So when these young executives that dont know where to start, the question of being efficiencies is a misnomer and misleading. we don’t address the right context.
Hence we need to teach and train them how to be effective, i.e. how to become productive, how to save time, why they need to work harder, what time they should come to work, how to become resourceful, where to why they should practice self discipline and who they should chase so they can advance in organization and more importantly advancing themselves. Having experienced both effectiveness and efficiencies, i concur that efficiencies actually the result of constant effectiveness for a period of time. for example one of the highlighted in my recent post Joker’s Guide to Personal Effectiveness, Talk Less Listen More. it means the young executive should remind himself everyday that he should learn to talk less and listen more. after constant practice, he will do this automatically. and then he will move to another techniques and so on.
Some may ask for how long? well, it depends on you. the more you make the technique your second nature the shorter time you need. For example Eat, Read, Think are three activities that will definitely make the executives such valuable asset to the company, if not his family. For those who agree with these activities, can you tell me how many of you really doing these? For those whom already practicing, answer loudly how long do you need to take to get these activities ‘programmed’ in your system? As second nature? Years right? Ask people that you look up to, how they can become what they become. you will find some clues (they wont tell you the answers).
The only time i put away my books and thinking are during my Hari Raya break recently and that last for few hours. i sneaked out from my grandmother house and walked to my car, open the boot and take out the rubber mat. because underneath the rubber mat was my reading materials. it was hidden from someone that asked me to give her a break! lols! when it already second nature, people around you will also feel that you have changed. of course change is uncomfortable. dont worry, it will normalize in no time.
Therefore, i still believe and sticking to my earlier stand that effectiveness is key in any endevaour that we do if we want to become successful. of course along the way we will automatically become more efficient, and only if you are passionate about it. well, i would love to dwell more on passion when it comes to efficiencies because there is another discipline that is so connected with these two verbs; Innovation. For now, lets call it a day!.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
Joker’s Guide To Personal Effectiveness
I just uploaded my key success factors that i called as Joker’s Guide. You can download from Slideshare.com. This guide is a touched-up slides from my talk to my university alumni. I gave this talk to a group of new part time learners. i have been all in close to 8 years as part time learners. I completed my 1st degree and MBA part time. now am scaling up, calculating to do my PhD – part time too. God has been merciful to me. I am blessed with beautiful family (daugthers and beautiful wife) and with technology i can touch more people around the world.
The point is not for you to do things that i do, like hunting for PhD. I am doing it because that’s my purpose in life. i know why i do it and never once i feel tired in this pursuit. I work not because of money and never for things that i dont believe in. the primary objective for me to share out these open secrets is to let more people know what they can do with their life. i want to create more touchpoints so people when stumbled upon it, they will be able to learn. Look, not everybody is accessible to books, internet, good people, good food and good economies, thus i hope what i gathered since i am blessed with many ‘goods’ will be able to make more people able to ‘creating their own accesses and paths’ in this blessed world.
Hope you enjoy reading but most importantly share it out. the longer it travels, the better for everyone of us. my purpose in life is to democratize knowledge so it is accessible to more people. i do it through education and knowledge sharing platform.
brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
3D – Managing The Millennials – Discover the Core Competencies Managing Today’s Workforce (Part 2)
continue on Part 2.
16. Three behavioural competencies needed to effectively managing the Millennials employees:
- Adapting – willing to accept a Millennial employee doesn’t have same experiences, values or frame of reference that you had when you were the same age. You got to suspend own biases and adjust your management style.
- Communicating – ability to make a connection at a relational level. Able to stay engaged even when both parties are frustrated because sometimes tension can escalate to emotional conflict.
- Envisioning – ability to create both meaning and accountability for the Millennials employee. Able to connect their personal goals and aspirations with the organization objectives.
17. Negative stereotype can adversely impact the willingness of a managerial leader to mentor or help young person – particularly when the older employees sees the younger as an economic threat. Managerial leaders may also put off by attitudes and behaviours that are not consistent with their own. And the worse is the managerial leaders decided not to engage at all or do it condescendingly. Studies show that people who receive constant negative feedback often show lower levels of effort as a result.
18. The Millennials work to live – not live to work. That does not mean they are lazy. It does not mean that they do not want to work. They want to work that is meaningful. If there is a disconnect between the experienced and the young, odds are that tacit knowledge will not be retained in the organization.
19. Millennials value being rewarded. Not just the usual ones like increase in pay, bonuses and promotions. They also want time-off and the opportunity in community projects during company time. The stress that you have has to do with perceived unrealistic expectations on the part of the Millennials. Here the three keys to incenting Millennials:
- Create incentives that twentysomething value
- Clearly and thoroughly state desired outcomes and expectations
- Provide timely and fair assessment of their performance
20. Millennials value self expression. They have both a desire and a need to make their mark on the world. They enthusiastically embrace change and thrive on brainstorming, creating and problem solving. Creativity doesn’t generally fit a mechanistic or efficiency model. Many managers struggle with cultivating the imagination of Millennials because they manage job description rather than people. In fact, talking about working together you are better off being an autocratic than faking collaboration.
21. Millennials has a lot of need for an audience. Simply because they are used to it already from their childhood days. You got to be emphatic, get closer, be curious and grow them. And you don’t have to; Try to like them, not be like them and rethink what you have been taught.
22. Some of the things managers have been taught by their superiors on managing younger ones:
- Don’t get close to them, because you may have to fire them someday.
- Don’t think it is wise to fraternize and become drinking buddies with them.
- Familiarity breeds contempt, and sooner and later they will use something against me.
- You have to keep clear lines between staff and management or else they will get confused.
- HR won’t let me hang out with them, they it is too risky.
23. Achievement is the intrinsic value that drives the Millennials need to be affirmed. Feedback that is not being interpreted as being affirming is met with anything from incredulity to counterattack – not only by them by sometimes their parents as well. This explains the new mix of defensive young employees and interventionist helicopter parents confronting managers today. This is attributed largely to change in parenting style. Defensiveness can also manifest such as taking offense, unwillingness to accept responsibility for one’s actions, guardedness, resentment, and anger. In the workplace these are often seen in response to criticism and evaluation.
24. Previous generations may have used “why” to signal defiance, but more often than not, Millennials really do want to know why. They have been encouraged to ask why at home, at school, and now they are asking why at work. The reality is that resistance is closer to commitment than compliance. Resistance can be anywhere between compliance and commitment. It is common for lifelong friendships to start with a conflict. Managers who accept compliance as a sign of commitment will find it difficult to develop others or to lead organizational challenge.
25. Applicable advice when managing Millennials:
- Resist the temptation to argue, be fair
- Acknowledge their feelings, their point, their competence and your differences
- Shift the encounter away from positional bargaining to joint problem solving
- Help them to save face
- Ask them for constructive criticism
- Reaffirm the relationship
- Aim for mutual satisfaction, not victory
26. To be without emotionally hooked so you can effectively manage the Millennials, you need to become self-differentiating. This is important because poorly differentiated managerial leaders find it difficult to continue a relationship with people who disagree with them or who are not considered to be on their team. If you are a manager, you must know that your technical skills allow you to be promoted into management, but your ability to self regulate and relate to others will determine your level of success. Relationship is not merely a function of structure and power but dependent on a manager’s ability to relate to others. Self differentiating may be the hardest competency to do well because it demands the most of you. It will also be the most fulfilling because it will impact every area of your life. Many people confuse their role and their person. You are much greater than your role. It is part of who you are, but not equal to who you are. When your role is over you still exist.
27. To get the Millennials understand the big picture is to engage in a learning process that is involving, presents complexity, and allows the learner to challenge institutional assumptions. The best managers intuitively know this and create orientations, provide training, and teach through learning activities. Simplicity is key to Millennials, but not simplistic. As a manager you can also use broadening – teaching consequences and helping to connect the dots. You can also share the information you get such as what is going on in the company or at your own level of responsibility can help them to think beyond their own cubicle.
28. To the Millennials high achievement is important. They want to know exactly what they have to do to be successful. They fear taking a wrong step or making bad decision. In fact they would rather not make a decision at all than make the wrong one. Their ability to work in teams often masks their fear of making bad decisions on their own. Working on a team affords Millennials the psychological comfort of sharing the burden of making a mistake. Great managers anticipate when their Millennials need a new challenge and try to create opportunities for them before they become unfocused. Simply because Millennials they are easily bored with their job description. At the same time, you got to allow them to make mistakes and learn. A point of caution, while you feel they know what is expected and equipped to do it, most of the time they don’t know what to do and where to begin. A simple way to direct and ascertain readiness:
- I explain what I will do
- I do it and you watch me
- We do it together
- You do it and I watch you
- You do it on your own
- You explain what you did
29. Millennials need to find meaning in their work. It is a poor quality of discontent when employees feel they are not safe at work. We would say that the quality of discontent is high when employees complain of not seeing their imprint on product or service. We have to reinvent our management systems, so they inspire human beings to bring all their capabilities to work every day. The following are human capability that contributes to competitive success i.e. value creation by Gary Hamel:
- Obedience – Taking direction and following rules (nevertheless, when it comes to value creation or competitive success, rule following employees don’t contribute because it is a product of passion and creativity)
- Diligence – Being accountable and not taking shortcuts
- Intellect – Smart, eager to improve skills, and willing to borrow ideas from others
- Initiative – Do not wait to be told and seek out new ways to add value
- Creativity – Inquisitive, irrepressible, and not afraid to say stupid things
- Passion – Climb over obstacles and refuse to give up
30. As a manager, you need to engage the massive middle group. This group is the group of neither here nor there. They are lost but yet productive in some ways. They are the occupants of the middle part in typical bell curve. These are their general characteristics:
- Often feel unable to commit to tasks that hold little meaning for them.
- They have strong reservations about jobs they are asked to do; as a result, they approach them half-heartedly.
- Rather than acknowledging a problem and taking steps to correct it, they convince themselves that the problem does not exist.
- They are often plagued with feelings of anxiety, uncertainty, anger, frustration and alienation.
Hope you will benefit and gain as much as I do. Reading the full content of the book definitely give you extra understanding of Managing The Millennials. Cheerz!
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
3D – Managing The Millennials – Discover the Core Competencies Managing Today’s Workforce (Part 1)
Management is one of my favorite’s discipline. The reason is simple, management primary goal is to make things happen. In some way, management is both art and science. By saying art i mean that management needs resources and we all know resources are all the time, limited. Therefore with management knowledge, one needs to artfully manage these limited resources to achieve business goals. And by saying science i mean, there is a methodical approach to management. when applied, you will get the results or at least not to far away from the intended goals. There is a saying if you are a manager, “your technical skills bring you into the management, but only management skills can take you further.” Make sense right? Think hard.
Lately, managing workforce has become more challenging than it used to be. We have varieties of workforce that is mobilized towards the same goals of the organization. No wonder sometimes chaos is the word used to describe the state of organization today. In my research, i found out the new workforce is going to give and demand lot more from organizations, they are “The Millennials”. You can Google up to know what is The Millennials. I grab a book recently, “Managing The Millennials – Discover Core Competencies Managing Today’s Workforce”. Fairly simple book and page-turner. Based on research done in the US with substantial sampling size. Interestingly this book authored by both the Millennials and “older generations”. Thus the content is solid and updated. They are Chip Espinoza, Mick Ukleja and Craig Rusch.
In this slot 3D (Deadly, Doable, Duplicable), i intend to share with you the learnings so you can have a quick information on how to act on it. Well, you can also pick up the book for full understanding because what i have down here are just 30 nuggets of what i thought would be useful for managers and top management like you. Have fun reading!
Managing the Millennials
Discover the Core Competencies for Managing Today’s Workforce
Chip Espinoza, Mick Ukleja, Craig Rusch
1. The growing frustration among managers and business leaders with integrating younger workers into their organization is already a common issue in many organizations; emerging economies and developed nation alike.
2. At the core of the Millennial phenomenon is that they do not have the same need or know-how to build relationships with their managers or authority figures. Previous generations had to take the initiative to relationally connect in order to gain information and access. Things are different now. The rules have changed. That leads us to believe that most Millennials just do not know how to relate to someone who is in authority that is not already perceived to be “for” them.
3. On the managers side, they do not recall the experience of their superiors reaching out to them. Because of that they certainly know how to reach upward and the authorities but do not feel the need to reach downward (the Millennials) or they just don’t know how. They are clueless on where to begin.
4. The older generation certainly can ignore the Millennials, but the question is for how long. There will come a time where the managers have to embrace the Millennials to make it work. There are approximately 83 million Millennials in the world and they are the largest cohort since Baby Boomers (80 million). It means the Millennials are shaping our world right now. Let say you run a corporation whether family business, entrepreneurial or government, who is going to take over for you when you ‘re gone? Do you think the next generation is ready to take over? Do you think your kids are ready to step into that role? Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. The Millennials are already here.
5. For the Millennials, technology isn’t a tool just to do more work or to achieve work life balance – it is an integral part of them and working with it is a second nature. The Millennials of this generation want and need constant feedback. Why? Because they were raised in democratic and praise-based families where the focus of parenting was nurturing. They have grown up working on teams in school and on academic projects. When they got into the workforce, they expect to work in teams. Diversity is important to them, and if there is none they feel there is something wrong. This group, more than ever, are interested in developing their spirituality. (Refer Dr Spock’s for nurturing parenting)
6. There are six major value-shaping influences every generation. There are family, education, morality, peers, spirituality and culture. While Baby Boomers live to work, the Millennials work to live. For Baby Boomers, authority and hierarchy are important but for Millennials not so much. They don’t care what your title is – they want to know whether you have the goods. When it comes to salary and wealth, Baby Boomers are convinced they need to work hard to earn it, but the Millennials expect it. Baby Boomers believe in position, performance and individual reward but Millennials, again, not so much.
7. The common feedbacks and quotes by people who manage the Millennials:
- They do not care about customers.
- Not taking responsibility for their actions.
- Projecting blame back to me.
- A flippant attitude.
- If you correct them, they quit.
- They think there is always an excuse that can make being late okay.
- They want trophy for just showing up.
- Lack of sensitivity for how difficult my job is.
- A lack of respect
- Yelling and screaming is the only thing they understand.
- They pick up computer and cash register skills quickly, but if it breaks they cannot count back change from a $10 bill.
- She asked for an extended lunch hour to go shopping with friends after her third day on the job.
- Quitting without the courtesy of a notice.
- They assume it is okay to call me by my first name like we are buddies. I am their boss.
- Anything extra nice I do, they act as if I owed it to them.
8. The common responds given by the Millennials:
- We are not defined by our job.
- We want to have a say about when we work.
- We do not expect you to be our best friend, but when you evaluate of critique us, we want you to do it in a friendly way (just like our parents did!)
- We want you to give us direction and then get out of your way.
9. The Millennials have high perception of themselves. They think they work faster and better than other workers. They have high expectations of their employers and they want direct and fair input from managers. They also want managers to be involved in their professional development, because it is all about them – not just about the company. They seek out creative challenges and view peers as vast resources from whom to gain knowledge. They are a hungry bunch! They want small goals with tight deadlines so they can see their own development as they slowly take ownership of a new role. The Millennials are high performance and high potential and high maintenance. For managers, the maintenance clouds potential, instead of opportunity they see a headache.
10. More than 70% of older employees are dismissive of younger workers abilities. And more than 50% of younger employees are dismissive of the abilities of their older workers. The war for talent has shifted. You still want to recruit but the challenge is how to keep the best people? Retaining the best people is key to competitive advantage. So, what are you going to do to attract, keep and unleash their creativity and energy? You can either villainaize them and say, “The just aren’t they way it used to be.” Or you can tolerate them and say, “We have no choice and we have to let them work here.” Or you can engage them, and benefit from the contribution they will and can make.
11. Many of the Millennials who are promoted into management get the invite because they appear different from their peers – more mature. They take interest in their superiors and the business, and are able to reach up and make connection. Therefore they draw the attention ad favor of the older generations. We found that approximately one in the five Millennials take the initiative to connect with their peers.
12. Two critically important characteristics required to make working with Millennials better:
- The ability to initiate a relationship
- The patience to set expectations according to where the young person is, not where you want him or her to be.
- The ability to suspend the bias of own experience.
- The ability to adapt in the new environment – people with most responsibility have to adapt first and by setting an example the managers will create an environment where the less mature will adapt.
13. There six mindset or perspective that has to change or shift to be effective managers:
- Adaptability – ability to change and renew themselves in managing
- Self-Efficacy – internal locus of control and optimistic of the future.
- Confidence – ability to take challenges from the new environment i.e. allow being questioned, debate and embrace new ideas.
- Power – use empathy instead of power and authority to build trust. “If they know you care about them, the Millennials will go to hell and back for you.”
- Energy – embrace fun, enthusiasm, optimism, creativity, friendly and buddy-like.
- Success – take up roles more like a mentor, coach, counsellor, advocate, sponsor and teacher.
14. New behaviours can be learned but are difficult to sustain without the support of right thinking. It is good to examine your own thinking with respect to managing across generations. Employees leave managers and bosses, not organizations. Why bother getting into argument with an authority figure who can only tell you how things used to be when he was young when one can only leave? It is no longer what you do to that sets you apart from others, but how you do what you do.
15. The nine orientations of the Millennials as experienced by managers:
- Autonomous
- Entitled
- Imaginative
- Self-absorbed
- Defensive
- Abrasive
- Myopic
- Unfocused
- Indifferent
Part 2, in the next post.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
6. What has to be done to increase employability and career advancement in this industry?
In this industry, if you can’t work hard enough please don’t join. If you love your weekends forget about it. It’s really a 24/7 job you know. You are on call all the time, just like a doctor on duty. To make it successful you got to have positive attitude and must love to serve. It pays well too! Some people just have it, some don’t. A strong passion, have interest to know more about the market like customers trend, suppliers and know what’s happening around us.
Personal Motivation
7. Who is your role model? Why?
My father is my only role model. He is 83 years old and he still goes to work every day. He is very discipline, I got some of his qualities and I feel blessed. If I want to see him on weekend I usually go on Sunday. Let say I promise to come at 10am, and I am late by 10 minutes. You know what? He is gone to the shop by that time. That’s my father.
Let me tell a story about him. You know, sometimes we go to mamak shop to eat mee goreng. He normally orders a mee goreng with extra lime on side and a glass of warm water. You know what he will do? He takes the extra lime and squeezes it hard into the warm water – now he got a free lime juice. He always feels proud of that, why pay for something when you can use what you have to get it free.
8. What are the Key Success Factors (KSFs) to be successful in this industry?
I will comment on overall, not just in this particular industry. These simple rules of KSFs are applicable to all human beings, if they want to be successful in anything they do.
- Work hard
- Put a lot of discipline
- Money doesn’t grow on trees, spend wisely
- Be honest, punctual and keep your values intact
- Educate yourself
- Open your mind and heart
- Learn about your own strengths
- Wake up early and work diligently
- Understand risk and return
- Listen more, talk less
9. What is your next milestone?
I can’t say I am going to retire, because I haven’t been working yet.
Staff wise, their turnover quite high. It is hard to keep people these days, but I want to make sure when they leave they must become better. They must be able to add value to that new place. As we fondly called ourselves “Mydinised”, we have some qualities that others don’t have. Only then they can carry themselves to greater heights.
In our type of business, it is also important to have good staff relations. I sometimes go to their wedding, visit some of them at hospitals when they are sick and so on. Whatever within my reach I’ll do it.
Market Growth
10. This business is very competitive. Can you share the latest trend/update in the hypermarket scene the last 3 years?
The business is getting more competitive than ever. Now people come shopping daily especially at night. They come by the droves. We sometimes have to close late because they just like to see around.
But on the other hand, some customers prefer smaller shops. Not too much walking and so on. You probably notice our mini market, MyMydin. It’s not a new model, but definitely a rebranded model and more organized. In housing residences, medium sized community and near public amenities. We try to franchise them, so the franchisee can also benefit from the growth.
As for the country develop, convenience becomes very important. We can also see the government is taking multi measures to make sure the economy is healthy. Things such as monopoly, subsidy and controlled items can be bad for long term business outlook. A law is a law, but sometimes hard to implement.
Thank You.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
Background
1. What is your current role? Tell us a little bit about your background and Mydin’s
I am the Managing Director for Mydin Holdings Berhad. I have been with Mydin for about 55 years, that’s my age. Mydin started as a family business, still is but now run professionally. We are the 3rd generation from humble beginning in Kelantan. Many people are surprise the business started from Kota Bharu. Today the strategy is called “niche”, we’ve been practicing it long before marketers coined the word. The business started as an ordinary pasar malam stall then became store and stores. We have several stores in Terengganu and Kelantan, and at that time there was none in Kuala Lumpur. I was so called “activated” around 22 years ago when I got back from study from US. I first worked at a Merchant Bank then. I set up the today’s well known Masjid India Emporium. It’s just a small store. If you have been there you know what I mean. In fact that was the store that got us here today.
In US, I studied Chemistry. I furthered until International Business Masters level. I think education is very important and one should always continuously learn. I am so blessed to have my parents that care so much about education. So when I came back I quickly got a job. I didn’t bother going back to US for my graduation ceremony because I think it won’t make any difference since I already secured a job here; and the fact I have to spend additional flight tickets just don’t make sense. We need to practice good spending from young. I worked in corporate world around 8 years and decided to join my father’s business. In US I used to work as waiter and “sanitary engineer”. All fresh graduates or growing up adults must get their hands dirty because a lot of learning can be gained in the process. As for me, getting my hands dirty is my second nature!
But you see, there is always risk when you run or join entrepreneurs like my father. So I did part time first. Though part time in labour, I was full time in efforts and thoughts. Since my wife was working, I have some insurance to cover monthly overheads. As a manager in a bank, life was good. When I decided to join the business, my life changed.
2. Highlight your/Mydin’s three best achievements thus far?
You see, it is not easy being local. Somehow it applies everywhere around the world that being local means you are inferior. Therefore one of our biggest achievements is to be able to become the largest local hypermarket operator. Although we may not be the first, we are the largest. Our edge is our ability to change and keep up with the shifting customer needs. Those who don’t change perished. As Darwin once said, “It is not the smartest or the intelligent wins, but the one who is most responsive to change”. We have to keep changing to stay relevant with time. While doing that, we also need to make sure to hold our values. It takes a lot of discipline to do that.
Secondly, as a result of our ability to change and grow, we are able to give back to society. You know there is this story about a boy and a Ferrari. Most people see being rich is bad and what more driving a Ferrari means you are filthy rich but there was this boy looking at the Ferrari and when asked if he wanted to be rich so he could buy one for himself, he said No. I want to be rich so I can afford to buy it to give to others to make them happy. Morale of the story, it is perfectly OK to make money and be profitable in business. But you do it not by depriving people, cheat customers or drive wages to subsistence level. You run your business honorably. Business creates jobs and jobs move the economy. Here we have a sensible profit target; means we don’t stretched too thin or shoot our own foot. We go long term.
Thirdly and personally I think the greatest of all is being able to hold the family together. Now as third generation, some family businesses cannot pass by the third generation according to conventional wealth theory. We put in lots of discipline to achieve to this level. As you know we have several family members in the business. There are pros and cons having family members in the business but we make it every clear all of us bound by standard corporate rules. They have to clock in for work, fill up leave form when going on leave, certain amount of annual leaves and work within working hours. There are challenges, but after all we are humans. We have to have a lot of empathy, and discipline.
But there are some exceptions to the rule. We don’t allow our children work in the business until they work somewhere else for at least 5 years. They need to “earn” their stripes somewhere else before coming back to the Kingdom. It is also good where they can bring new ideas upon returning. Some may ask why 4 years, well when you don’t have a measurement, any measurement would do. At least 5 years. I have my son now running his own business, ice cream business. He’s doing well. We chat a lot and both of us enjoy it. You should check out his ice cream truck – he also does event management. My daughter composes song and music. We want them to be independent and learn to value money and hard work.
3. What is your leadership and management style?
I think it’s more important to listen than to talk. As a leader, we have to lend ears often. It is not going to work when you tell someone “do as I say not as I do”. You got to lead by example. You need discipline to pull this through. Not easy but it gives long term value. People will follow you, and it’s contagious. As a leader, we need to be honest, punctual and show highest integrity. When you do that, people will want to be part of someone who lives up to his talk.
When managing, I also learn it is important to keep the separation between management and staffs. It helps decision making. A leader cannot afford to become too emotional. When you work, as a leader you got to delegate, not abdicate. I know some leaders sabotage their own staffs just because they outshine him in front of the customers or other staffs. You got to learn to let go and push the boundaries further. Another thing, as a leader we need to learn to honour time. Don’t keep people waiting just because you are the leader. Show some respect to other people’s time.
In group, as a leader you need to put ego aside and deal with the issues at hand. You got to separate people and issues or ideas. Ego is dangerous, it hampers decision making. You feel good and powerful but nothing gets done.
4. It is not easy to run hypermarket business. What is the three biggest challenges managing hypermarket business like Mydin?
Like I said being local is tough. It’s kind of funny when I found out about it. People have reservations. Sometimes they wondered whether we can compete with the giants of hypermarkets. Local customers somehow trust foreign brands more than home grown like us. But that was it. Now we got strong footing in major cities and communities. Therefore you have to get people to believe in you. Of course good PR can only last for short while; we have to live up to our promises. For example if we say our prices are wholesale price, then we got to make sure we deliver that. So far Alhamdulillah, we managed and the result shows.
At Mydin, we believe in organic growth. Slow and steady. We got nothing to rush about, after all the business has been around as long as I could remember. So, organic growth is in our best interest. Growing up is not easy, a lot of challenges. We are around 54 years old this year.
Our strategy is to make sure our frontline is as strong as our back end and vice versa. Getting people to work with us is very competitive, and to retain them is even harder. Therefore HR side, it its very challenging. I think the reason is simple, a lot of people hesitate to work on weekends, and they lose niceties during the weekend. But they are those who love to work and we value them greatly. They are doing great service to the country.
Organizational Issues
5. What are the top three important jobs that are needed in hypermarket business?
Well, every job is equally important. It’s just some are more critical than others. Let’s take a look at a security guard when you come into the hypermarket. Let say he doesn’t smile when you check in. You will not feel comfortable and it may spoil your entire visit here. Even a security guard is an important job in our type of business. The secret is to have a winning team that work with each other. The goal is the same; to please the customers and make them comfortable.
The more critical job in our business is buyers. So far the key buyers are the family members. They are non other than my brothers. In my type of business, if we don’t buy right stuffs forget about selling.
continue to Part 2
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
New Interview with PTMBD_Dato’ Hj. Ameer Ali bin Mydin
Now, this is what i called real-stuff. I know this man not by chance, rather through some work i did with Mydin Holdings Berhad some years ago. Since then i have been keeping in touch and learning as much with Dato’ Ameer, occassionally when I am @ Subang Jaya I will text to say I am around so lets have nasi kandar or teh tarik. Most of the time, we’ll have teh tarik. One of the things that i learn is to take lunch early because the queue is close to none and the food is fresh! So less time waiting and can do some work during “real lunch-time”. 
"I can’t say I am going to retire, because I haven’t been working yet."
“It’s not easy to run a local hypermarket and especially if you are local.”, quipped Dato’ Ameer in my recent interview with him. I explained to him about my PTMBD (People That Make Big Difference) slot and he warmthly agreed to do it. It was done in March 2011 and took place at his office. We had solid 1 hour chat and I am thankful that Dato’ Ameer was highly committed during the interview. Let me tell you this, it is not easy for someone at his position to allocate 1 hour solid for this type of interview. I am sure he had done his own judgment spending the time with me. I am currently in my final editing mode and should be able to put it up in less than 2 weeks. Ok la, give me 1 week!!!
In PTMBD slot I plan to bring as many PTMBD that I know around my network. It is always easy to call or contact someone you personally know and interacted with. But let me tell you, some of them can be very different. Just make sure you visit this site often to find out.
Brickbats please send to donkhairul@gmail.com
