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YOUR ULTIMATE CAREER& TALENT RESOURCE

DREAM BIG!Big dreams, small steps – you CAN do it!

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DINING DONE RIGHTNuts! When the appetiser does the reverse

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WORKPLACE GLITCHAre you burning bridges at work?

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The insecure CEOEmbrace your insecurities because it will keep you humble and hungry

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STAKEHOLDER UNIVERSEBUILDING DIVERSE NETWORKS FOR FUTURE SUCCESSPAGES 6-7

SATURDAy 9 MAy 2015

By LIM LAY [email protected]

THE study of ecosystems, biodiversity and interrelationships between flora and fauna has always been very fascinating, personally for me.

A common example when it comes to ecosystem study is the pond, thanks to its rich variety of organisms living and inter-acting within it.

Besides aquatic plants like algae, you also find snails, beetles, water bugs, spi-ders, frogs, fish and heron in and around this body of still water.

>> It’s A Pond’s WorldThe pond is a little business world on

its own, involving different stakeholders, i.e. the organisms living in it. For the pond to thrive as a healthy ecosystem, the envi-ronment needs to be conducive enough to support its biodiversity.

Each organism exists for a purpose, though it may well be to provide food for other organisms. For plants like the water lily, they provide refuge for the little fish beneath its leaves and roots.

From a broad perspective, the stake-holders depend on each other for sustain-ability and survival. Some of them func-tion as producers (the plants), others as primary consumers (herbivores), second-ary consumers (carnivores), etc.

>> A BAlAnced ecosystemWhat happens in the natural also hap-

pens in a business environment. In today’s challenging corporate business variables, no company can survive in isolation.

The success or failure of an organisa-tion depends on the network of collabora-tions and mutual symbiotic relationships with other stakeholders, including those of your competitors.

In fierce unhealthy business competi-tions, if you get rid of the “plants”, the rest of the “consumers” will eventually be wiped out too. And the ecosystem of the business becomes as good as dead.

Once, my colleagues were discussing an advertorial where an organisation only wanted to showcase photos of their suc-cessful projects.

We opined that photos of their direct stakeholders ought to be featured too, because it is a simple principle of “no dedicated people, no successful projects”.

>> concludIng thoughtsAs pointed out in Mapping Our

Stakeholders’ Universe article by Joseph Tan, before you identify who your stake-holders are, you need to be clear of your organisation’s universe.

Only then, are you able to take inten-tional steps to learn to acknowledge the efforts of these stakeholders.

For big companies who have already made it thus far, don’t rest on your laurels for too long. Instead, continue to be inno-vative and constantly adaptable to various business environments.

Take heed the following wise words from Lost, a Coldplay song:

“You might be a big fish; in a little pond; doesn’t mean you’ve won; ‘cause along may come; a bigger one; and you’ll be lost.”

mystarjob.com, saturday 9 May 20152

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The opinions expressed in this career guide are those of the writers or the people they quoted and not necessarily those of Leaderonomics.

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What’S With thE poNd?

“If your ego starts out, ‘I am important, I am big, I am special’, you’re in for some disappointments when you look around at what we’ve discovered about the universe.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

“We need to do right by all our stakeholders, and that’s how you create value for shareholders. And one thing is for sure – no organisation can succeed in a world that is failing.” – Don Tapscott

“My goal in the new administration is to engage all of the stakeholders, everyone who can help us meet the challenges of the 21st century, and ensure that we work together.” – Valerie Jarrett

“Companies, to date, have often used the excuse that they are only beholden to their shareholders, but we need shareholders to think of themselves as stakeholders in the wellbeing of society as well.” – Simon Mainwaring

it all StartEd With thatFirSt boNd(thaNkS MoM) THE days and weeks march on as we enter month five! This week, we celebrate mothers everywhere and wish everyone all the best when preparing that Sunday breakfast for mom!

From young, we have looked to role models like our moms and dads in developing different skills – not least of all our ability to socialise and connect with others. From taking those tentative steps on the playground to say a shy “hello!” to the new kid, or gathering friends round to play five-stones, bottle-caps or congkak – we started to flex our leadership muscles by building those early relationships.

Twenty, 30 years on, we’re all sophisticated and too cool for games (I’m always up for a game of congkak though!), but are we really? Granted, our universe of friends and stakeholders may have grown exponentially, however we are still essentially seek-ing to understand and connect with others, often to seek mutual benefit.

At the workplace, Joseph Tan nudges us to consider network-ing with stakeholders that don’t usually top our lists of strategic partners, and convinces us that there is an upside to having an insecure CEO.

Richard Newton talks us through some key points for mapping our stakeholder universe. We share an example of the conse-quences of not doing it right, and how we could go about building on a strong network.

And what works in one setting, need not necessarily work in another. In her debut article, CK Wong shares how the humble peanut could make or break a business opportunity.

Never mind building new networks! Dr Travis Bradberry reminds us that we need to also maintain what we already have and avoid the nine worst mistakes we can ever make at the office – like backstabbing. The horror!

In this instalment of The Leaderonomics Show, we had a great chat with Luca Barberis, managing director of a leading fashion e-commerce site. Read what he had to say, and for the full inter-view, you can watch and listen to the man himself.

In Starting Young, Alvin Dan doesn’t just leave us with “Dream BIG!”, he shares concrete examples of how we can go from our big dreams to reality of today, vision for tomorrow and how we can take steps to get there.

Last but not least, we end with how we all began! A great big

Happy Mother’s Day to mothers, adoptive mothers, foster moth-ers, stepmoms, working moms, stay-at-home moms, tiger moms? (you know who you are!) – all women everywhere who have given their hearts to caring and raising young ones!

Onward, upward!

KAREN NEOHEditorleaderonomics.com

mystarjob.com, saturday 9 May 2015 3

THEINSECURE CEO

By JOSEPH [email protected]

Insecurity is a prerequisite for humility.

MUCH is expected of the CEO today. He or she is under tremendous pres-sure “to look the part” and to “have it all” –

from delivering expected results to being a charismatic and motivating leader.

However, in today’s networked envi-ronment, the CEO’s effectiveness goes beyond just individual influence, there is also the added dimension of his or her “networking” influence i.e. does the CEO have the clout for collaboration and buy-in beyond his or her formal jurisdiction in the organisation.

It is relatively easy to lead when you are working within the confinements of assigned authority but when it comes to collaborating with multiple stakehold-ers, partners, clients and associates in the industry, the CEO will then discover that not every of these relationships are obliged to treat him or her like the all-powerful and all-knowing leader.

Here is where the CEO could possibly feel insecure – “I need to collaborate. However, the collaboration which yields the greatest return are often with those who are not naturally inclined to comply with my demands”.

It is easy for the CEO to demand for collaboration within his or her organisa-tion because of his positional authority but when it comes to expanding the scope and reach of collaboration, it is the influencing authority which comes into play.

And here is the tricky part – the effec-tiveness of your influence comes from your ability to persuade those who are outside of your conventional chain of command.

Collaborating within the network of inCompatibilities

While it is true that great minds think alike, the truly collabora-tive mind intentionally seeks out those who think differently. In fact, the collaborative CEO seeks for those in his or her network who are able to stir up the think-ing in a direction which stretches the comfort zone of the organisation.

This sense of incompatibility does not apply to the vision of the organisation i.e. everyone in the organisation should align behind the overall vision. However, when it comes to strategies – there can be a variety of flavours and approaches.

An organisation should be wise to rec-ognise that while the vision is non-nego-tiable, the strategies and business model ought to be dynamically adjusted to accommodate the changing landscape.

Case study: Nokia’s vision was – “Connecting People”– this is a statement which is timeless. However, the strategy of sticking to the Symbian OS proved to be fatal for the company as it stuck to its decision to stay compatible within its familiar architecture rather than embrace the changing mobile OS landscape. Companies like Samsung for example had no issues with tak-ing on diverse platforms for growth. While it is comfortable for the CEO to work with familiar environments, it is the ability to not feel secure with familiar surroundings which drives the organisation to the next level of breakthrough success.

The forward-thinking CEO should con-sider the following sources of “incom-patibility” in his or network in order to stimulate breakthrough results:

l Vendors or even competitors with emerging technologies.

l Existing partnerships in different fields to create cross-fertilisation of ideas.

l Clients who could end up being potential stakeholders.

Collaborating within the network of “intimidation”

When it comes to collaboration, the easier tendency is to work with those of whom I can control and command. But what about other organisations and partners that are bigger and more “intimidating”?

Case study: When Wendy Kopp started Teach for America, she had to collaborate with all sorts of intimidating parties – the school principals, the corporate leaders, the college heads – in the quest of get-ting graduating seniors to commit their first two years to teach in poor community schools. Along the way, she was laughed at and made fun of but she persevered and remained humble. Eventually those who were her challenging intimidators are now her biggest supporters and col-laborators. What caused the shift?

Of course, we do not go out of our way to look for intimidating people. However, life is such that when you have a worth-while quest, you will definitely have your share of naysayers and those will impose their negativity on your ideas and plans.

Nevertheless, these intimidating par-ties may turn out to be your strongest supporters later on. The key is your ability to stay committed and resolute to your vision. In a way, your vision has to be bigger than your ego – this is the key to inner resolve that will help you weather through your dealings with intimidating collaborators.

From this perspective, the forward-thinking CEO should consider the follow-ing sources of “incompatibility” in his or her network in order to stimulate break-through results:

l Fund managers or investors who may be interested in the next “big thing” from your organisation.

l Competitors who could be gobbling up your market share – why not make a deal with them first?

l Subject matter experts who are antagonistic to your mission – talking to them might just reveal certain blind spots that could lead to your downfall if left unaddressed.

embraCing inseCurity

“Business success contains the seeds of its own destruction.”– Andrew S. Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive

Success is a funny thing – once you have it, then it becomes your greatest source of complacency, your source of security. That is the reason why, accord-ing to Andrew Grove, former CEO of Intel – a healthy dose of paranoid is needed to keep you and your organisation on its toes.

The best type of destruction to your business is the type which you impose upon yourself – rather than allowing competitors to obsolete your products and services, why not you act from a position of “insecurity” and destroy your own business in favour of a better one?

Not many CEOs have this drive of “insecurity” to make that happen because we are naturally creatures of comfort and predictability.

The insecure CEO is one who lives on the edge of paranoia – constantly looking for ways to collaborate and network with those who are seemingly incompatible and intimidating and yet, as iron sharp-ens iron – the result is unmistakably clear – working from a position of security and comfort does not push us over the edge of excellence, innovation and break-through performance.

It is not the “sameness” of your net-work of collaborators that will provide the competitive advantage, rather it is the diversity of your network which will

reap a harvest of signifi-cant results. Only the par-anoid survive – embrace

your insecurities because it will keep you humble

and hungry.n Joseph Tan is CEO of Leaderonomics Good Monday. His passion is to work with performance-focused leaders to capture the hearts and minds of their employees through a strengths-based and accountability-driven approach. If you would like to enhance the engagement level of your organisation, email [email protected] for more details.

THE INSECURE CEO IS ONE wHO lIvES ON THE EdgE Of paRaNOIa, CONSTaNTly lOOkINg fOR wayS TO COllabORaTE aNd NETwORk wITH THOSE wHO aRE SEEmINgly INCOmpaTIblE aNd INTImIdaTINg.

By DR TRAVIS [email protected]

WE have all heard of (or seen firsthand) people doing some pretty crazy things at work.

Truth is, you don’t have to throw a chair through a window or quit in the middle of a presentation to cause irreparable damage to your career.

No matter how talented you are or what you’ve accomplished, there are cer-tain behaviours that instantly change the way people see you and forever cast you in a negative light.

The following list contains nine of the most notorious behaviours that you should avoid at all costs.

1 BackstaBBingThe name says it all. Stabbing

your colleagues in the back, intentionally or otherwise, is a huge source of strife in the workplace. One of the most frequent forms of backstabbing is going over someone’s head to solve a problem.

People typically do this in an attempt to avoid conflict, but they end up creat-ing even more conflict as soon as the victim feels the blade. Anytime you make someone look bad in the eyes of their col-leagues, it feels like a stab in the back, regardless of your intentions.

2 gossipingPeople make

themselves look terrible when they get carried away with gossiping about other people. Wallowing in talk of other people’s misdeeds or misfortunes may end up hurting their feelings if the gossip finds its way to them, but gossiping will make you look negative and spiteful every time, guaran-teed.

3 taking credit for someone else’s work

We’ve all experienced that stomach-dropping feeling that happens when you discover that someone has stolen your idea. Taking credit for someone else’s work, no matter how small, creates the impression that you haven’t accom-plished anything significant on your own. Stealing credit also shows that you have zero regard for your team and your work-ing relationships.

4 Having an emotional Hijacking

My company provides 360-degree feedback and executive coaching, and we come across far too many instances of people throwing things, screaming, mak-ing people cry, and other telltale signs of an emotional hijacking.

An emotional hijacking demonstrates low emotional intelligence, and it’s an easy way to get fired. As soon as you show that level of instability, people will question whether or not you’re trustwor-thy and capable of keeping it together when it counts.

Exploding at anyone, regardless of how much they might “deserve it,” turns a huge amount of negative attention your way. You’ll be labeled as unstable, unap-proachable, and intimidating. Controlling your emotions keeps you in the driver’s seat. When you are able to control your emotions around someone who wrongs you, they end up looking bad instead of you.

5 announcing tHat You Hate Your joB

The last thing anyone wants to hear at work is someone complaining about how much they hate their job. Doing so labels you as a negative person and brings down the morale of the group. Bosses are quick to catch on to naysayers who drag down morale, and they know that there are always enthusiastic replacements waiting just around the corner.

6 BraggingWhen someone hits a home run

and starts gloating as they run the bases, it’s safe to assume that they haven’t hit very many home runs. On the other hand, if they hit a home run and simply run the bases, it conveys a business-as-usual mentality, which is far more intimi-dating to the other team.

Accomplishing great things without bragging about them demonstrates the same strong mentality—it shows people that succeeding isn’t unusual to you.

7 telling liesSo many lies begin with good

intentions—people want to protect themselves or someone else—but lies have a tendency to grow and spread until they’re discovered, and once everyone knows that you’ve lied, there’s no taking it back.

Getting caught up in a lie, no matter how small, is exhausting and hard on your self-esteem. You have to be authen-tic if you want to be happy with who you are.

8 eating smellY foodUnless you happen to work on a

ship, your colleagues are going to mind if you make the entire place smell like day-old fish. The general rule of thumb when it comes to food at work is, anything with an odour that might waft beyond the kitchen door should be left at home.

It might seem like a minor thing, but smelly food is inconsiderate and distract-ing—and so easily avoidable. When something that creates discomfort for other people is so easily avoided, it tends to build resentment quickly. Your pungent lunch tells everyone that you just don’t care about them, even when you do.

9 Burning BridgesSo much of work revolves around

the people you meet and the connections you make. Dropping an atomic bomb on any professional relationship is a major mistake.

One of TalentSmart’s clients is a large chain of coffee shops. They have a rela-tively high turnover, so when a barista quits, it isn’t usually taken personally. One barista, however, managed to burn every single bridge she had in a single day. The surprising thing is that she didn’t yell or do anything extreme; all she did was leave.

Without warning, she showed up to her Monday shift, told the store man-

ager she was quitting (she had found a better-paying job somewhere

else), and walked out. The result, of course, was that every shift that she was scheduled to work for the next two weeks had to be done with one less person, as she provided no time to find a replacement.

She most likely saw her actions as being offensive only to the manager (whom she didn’t like), but in reality, she created two miserable weeks

for everyone who worked at the shop. She ruined

her otherwise positive connections, with every single one of her col-

leagues.

Bringing it all togetHer

These behaviours sound extreme and highly incon-siderate, but they have a

tendency to sneak up on you. A gentle reminder is a great way to avoid them completely.


WORSTMISTAKES YOU CAN EVER MAKE AT WORK

n Dr Travis Bradberry is the award-winning

co-author of the No. 1 bestselling book, Emotional Intelligence 2.0,

and the cofounder of TalentSmart,

the world’s leading provider of emotional intelligence tests and

training, serving more than 75% of Fortune

500 companies. His bestselling books have

been translated into 25 languages and

are available in more than 150 countries.

Bradberry has written for, or been covered

by, Newsweek, BusinessWeek,

Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, Inc,

USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The

Washington Post, and The Harvard Business

Review.


A brighter future requires hr entrepreneurs swApping best prActice

for the bottom lineBy CHRIS [email protected]

“Business savvy” for some in human resources (HR) is likely to be a shock. Many HR practition-ers still adopt the paternalistic approach; that they know best

and that line management must be trained to conform to HR “best practices” or risk minimisation.

After all, we know better what HR needs, don’t we?

Even for those who accept the prin-ciple of “business savvy”, everyone assumes they are already getting it right. “Oh yes, of course I understand my organisation!”

That’s like saying you know Airbus makes planes, therefore you know what kind of HR support that Airbus needs. That’s absurd but it’s not far off the knowledge level that some in HR have of their organisations’ activities.

Further assessment of the benefit delivered by HR is often done by HR peo-ple, not those on the receiving end. Never forget the principle that beauty lies is in the eye of the beholder, not the giver!

Business savvy organisation

Business savvy is about delivering a level of capability that matches what the organisation wants. In other words, meeting client needs rather than just delivering products.

But doesn’t the business partner model do this already? In theory, maybe, but in reality, sadly not.

Even those using the business partner model must significantly adapt it to ensure “business savvy” elements are in place to deliver organisational perfor-mance improvement.

Key elements are:l a focus on business-driven

prioritisation.l alignment to key strategic objectives.l delivery with clarity and simplicity.

HR must take a proactive, not reactive, approach as a key part of the business, and not be viewed as a separate ‘partner’ or advisor.

In reality, chief executive officers don’t really care about HR’s best practices: they just want the best bottom line. HR must reflect this by thinking and delivering in an innovative business-driven perspec-tive, not a traditional risk-averse HR process or a legacy-driven one.

HR must think about long-term sustainability, not short-term fixes.

To be business savvy, we must therefore be HR entrepreneurs, not just business partners.

need for Hr entrepreneurs

The HR entrepreneur is an individual, at any level or location in HR, who has good professional HR knowledge.

The person also has critical “business savvy” capability via:1. Good core business knowledge, e.g.

project management and customer

service.2. Understanding of operational activity

– nearly as well as the line managers they support.

3. Understanding of the wider organi-sation and its strategic objectives, maybe even better than the line man-ager – so if the line manager diverges from these, the HR entrepreneur can

help bring them back on track.4. Understanding of the environment

and market within which the business operates.

5. Constantly looking outward and benchmarking the organisation, not just against last year’s performance but against peers and possibly best-in-class standards.

6. Demonstrates an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset to:l Be proactive in

identifying ways to drive better business performance (not just HR) by looking for opportunities to improve external delivery.

l Suggest initiatives that deliver maxi-mum ROI (return of investment) for minimum resource and manage risk effectively by simplifying process where possible.

l Focus on delivering what the organi-sation needs strategically to sustain-ably improve for the future.

A report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Business Savvy: Giving HR the Edge, was released in 2012 and it focuses on the need for HR leaders and practitioners to harness a deep understanding of and engagement with the wider business.

This change to “business savvy” mind-set and approach is important. Line man-agers do not have HR savvy, so they don’t know how you can help, so “business savvy” enables HR to suggest the most appropriate support rather than standard “best practice”.

Further, it matches the development of the entrepreneurial leader within world class organisations, where a new proac-tive, innovative and flexible approach to business leadership is being seen.

However, the HR entrepreneur can function, even without the line being entrepreneurial. HR entrepreneurs can also be a catalyst to help develop entre-preneurial line management.

Any HR person on any level can be an HR entrepreneur. The HR entrepreneur’s single objective is to support the maxi-misation of organisational performance; that must be the benchmark for all activ-ity.

So, entrepreneurial HR principles have to be applied everywhere, in both trans-actional and transformational HR activity.

We must also be prepared to remove HR activity that does not add optimum value to the organisation, even if it is seen as a “best practice”.

Research shows that the complex-ity involved in delivering objectives and managing risk has significant cost and impact on engagement. Thus over-com-plexity in HR is a risk to organisational performance.

ConCluding tHougHts

As business savvy HR entrepreneurs, we must focus on outcomes – not roles, titles, or process for

process’ sake.Everyone in HR has

to think as an entrepreneur, accurately assessing the situation, innovating, being

flexible and taking managed risk to

drive better business bottom line.

There is no “best practice”, only the ‘best

current outcome’ and this will vary between

situations, organisations and times. This matches

service delivery to organisa-tional need.

If we can start to achieve this, “business savvy” will spread and

help HR achieve the credibility it deserves.

n Chris Roebuck (www.chrisroebuck.

co) is visiting professor of transformational

leadership at Cass Business School

in London. He is a sought-after adviser and the developer of

Mach 2 leadership – the combination of entrepreneurial,

engaging, ethical and effective leadership.

Follow him on Twitter @Chris__Roebuck.

Send us your feedback at [email protected]. For more leadership insights, visit www.leaderonomics.com

By KAREN [email protected]

AFTER conducting policy analysis for my first few years of work, I decided that it was important for me to also experience the execu-tion of projects due to changes in

policy at the macro level. After all, people in ivory towers or think

tanks sometimes get accused of not know-ing the reality on the ground, or the conse-quences of policy recommendations. So it was high time I felt the “pain of change”.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?One of the first projects I worked on in

healthcare appeared to have all the right ingredients for success. The solution was well thought out, the project had adequate resources, and senior leadership supported the project 100%.

As part of the project implementation team, I was excited to see the rollout, meet the individuals who would benefit from the changes and keen to see its impact over time.

And so, it was quite alarming to start getting pushback from the very people we thought would applaud the changes. The number of unforeseen hiccups was astound-ing, frustrating and at a certain point – almost laughable (almost!).

One such reaction we would have never predicted: As the solution provider, we correctly predicted that the improvement in processes would cut down waiting times. We assumed that the cost savings would be eagerly welcomed by every stakeholder. What we hadn’t understood was that the shorter turnaround time meant that some stakeholders would see a reduction in benefits they previously received.

BACK TO THE DRAWING BOARDI was young and inexperienced. Having

analysed the causes of the setbacks, we

realised that most of the problems boiled down to the (our) project implementation team taking over where the planning team had left off, and the assumptions we had made about what had taken place during the planning stage.

Knowing that senior management was onboard, we assumed that the readiness for change would trickle down to everyone involved.

In hindsight (and a touch of more wisdom now), I realise that that was a really naïve assumption!

The problem with our assumptions: 1. Identifying the multiple stakeholders

and their level of involvement was neces-sary, but not sufficient.

2. We didn’t have a good understandingof what motivated them before the change or how much influence each had that could make or break the project.

3. Equally important, we didn’t know theinterdependence of the key stakeholders.

The lesson was painful at the time, but it was also fascinating to see human rela-tionships and interactions stripped down to barebones – young Karen had her lesson in the good, the bad, and the ugly of what motivates people during times of uncer-tainty.

CHANGING THE CHANGESTo remedy the situation, we gathered

more information and found gaps in com-munication and empowerment.

Many of the people affected by the change were not consulted early on, nor were they given the opportunity to voice their concerns.

They also weren’t involved in jointly developing the solution – for which they eventually felt no affinity or sense of owner-ship.

As it was in a healthcare setting, we encouraged all stakeholders to focus on the shared goal of providing quality patient care. Everyone agreed that this was ultimately the most important thing.

At the same time, we worked on engag-

ing our stakeholders and providing more clarity on the changes needed at all levels to enable a smoother transition.

Over time, we started to see the positive results we had hoped for at the outset.

STAKEHOLDER ANALYSISFor me, the whole experience underlined

the importance of understanding our inter-nal and external stakeholders well, and surely starting at the planning stage rather than trying to mend broken bridges. After working on several more projects since then, I would recommend the following steps:

mystarjob.com, saturday 9 May 2015 7mystarjob.com, saturday 9 May 20156

MAPPING OUR STAKEHOLDER UNIVERSE

By RICHARD [email protected]

THE stakeholder universe is becom-ing ever more complex for organisa-tions. It has always been a challenge to determine which groups of stake-holders to focus on. Current trends are exacerbating this.

Traditionally there are three main types of stakeholders that organisa-tions have to consider.

Firstly, there are the owners and funders of the business, such as shareholders and banks, that need to look after an organisation’s perfor-mance and strategy.

Secondly, there is the internal audi-ence of staff and work colleagues. An organisation has to make sure that they are motivated and understand the organisation’s direction.

Thirdly, there are the external audiences of customers and suppli-ers, who have to be kept happy to ensure the consistency in buying and supplying.

All of these stakeholder groups exist, and their expectations in terms of the depth of relationship, types of communication and level of interac-tion have become more demanding. On top of this, there is growth in the types of individuals and groups who must be viewed as valid stakehold-ers.

There is the increasing regula-tory burden in many industries. Regulators and legislators have moved from being occasional stake-holders to representing multifaceted fulltime relationships.

Organisations are expected to make commitments on sustainabil-ity, reducing discrimination and look-ing into the needs of other forms of corporate social responsibility agen-das. Social expectations of business-es are evolving and becoming more onerous. Journalism has become more sophisticated and intrusive.

These trends result in broader stakeholder universes. The groups an organisation must monitor, listen to and satisfy with complex informa-tion and reporting needs, continue to expand.

These lead to the need for ever more sophisticated stakeholder analysis, based on a full mapping of the stakeholder universe. The risks from poor stakeholder manage-ment, whether reputational risk or other negative consequences, have grown and will continue to grow. Stakeholder management cannot be an ad-hoc exercise, but needs to be a robust and effective discipline.

Mapping the stakeholder universe starts with a detailed analysis of the organisation, the relationships it has and needs to have, and the groups with an interest in the success, fail-ure and impact of the organisation’s activities. This can lead to a hugely complex set of stakeholders, each with individual needs.

No organisation has the resources to satisfy every demand of every unique stakeholder. Therefore, hav-ing mapped the stakeholder uni-verse, the next step must be to pri-oritise. There are several dimensions to stakeholder prioritisation.

Firstly, there is the simple activity of deciding which stakeholders to work with. But stakeholder prioriti-sation must be more sophisticated than this.

Which stakeholders get individual attention? Which are handled as part of a group? Who gets the per-sonal attention of the CEO? Which stakeholders are delegated to profes-sionals with more time to deal with them – or in some cases, the special-ist skills and knowledge to handle the interactions?

Stakeholder management must be dynamic – monitoring, adapting to feedback and changes in the busi-ness environment.

n Richard Newton is an internationally renowned author and consultant. He has written 12 books, which have been translated into 17 languages – including the award winning The Management Book. His latest book Managing Your Team Through Change was published in December 2014. Richard works worldwide through his consultancy Enixus Limited, helping corporations to deliver organisational change and performance improvement. His details can be found on linkedin at uk.linkedin.com/in/richardjenewton/en, and he can be followed on twitter at @RJNtalk.

WHAT’S AT STAKE HERE?THE IMPORTANcE Of STAKEHOLDER ANALySIS

THIS being the day before Mother’s Day, we would be remiss if we didn’t talk about the roles of our mums (and dads!) in helping us with the building blocks of our ability to socialise and connect with our stakeholders today.

In her book Intentional Parenting, Dr Yvonne Sum talks about role-modelling and how children learn consciously and unconsciously from parents.

1 The imprint period (up to the age of seven) – children are like

sponges, accepting everything they observe, especially from their parents.

2 The modeling period (8–13 years) – we copy people!

Trying on different styles.

3 The socialisation period (13–21 years) – largely

influenced by peers.

“Role-modelling as a parent is important to help your children develop in the formative pre-teen years. This foundation, the result of the role-modelling, will support the latter years of peer influence,” writes Dr Sum.

“In identifying who I am as a role model, one of the first things I did was to clarify what I want to be remem-bered for in living my life,” she contin-ues. And in order to do that, Dr Sum had to ask herself what her purpose and vision are, and what values she stands for.

I firmly believe that in our profes-sional lives, and in our efforts to map our stakeholder universe, we too need

to be grounded on our purpose and vision (both as individuals and as

an organisation), as well as the values we live by.

n Karen is thankful that age has brought more clarity to human relationships, interactions and intentions. She still holds fiercely to the notion that deep down everyone is inherently good! And organisations, no matter how small, can achieve great things when marching to the same beat.

fROM MUM TO THE UNIVERSETHE ROLE Of MUMS IN EARLy DEVELOPMENT Of SOcIAL SKILLS

IDENTIfIcATION Of STAKEHOLDERSl Who is involved in the process?l Who is interested in this project or who is affected by it?

MAP ALL STAKEHOLDERSAND THEIR RELATIONSHIPTO THE PROcESSl Intensity of the relationships: establish whether he/she will block the decision to change.l Mindset and knowledge level: identify stakeholders who oppose the change due to misunderstandings or lack of communication.

INTERPRETATION AND ANALySIS. cOMPARISON Of THE ExPEcTATIONS AND INTERESTS Of STAKEHOLDERS.l Determine the expectations of the project and changes it will bring.l Study the objectives and interests of each stakeholder to better understand their position and possible ways to address his/her concerns.l Influence, resources/power and attitude to the project: Determine a stakeholder’s power to support or oppose a decision by his/her amount and ability to mobilise resources.

fINDINGS fROM THE ANALySIS l Summarise the findings from the analysis.l Estimate risks and threats. l Identify opportunities, for example, forming alliances with natural leaders – individ-uals whose opinions are most valued even though they are not in leadership positions.

IMPLEMENTATIONDevelopment of an implementation strategy. Based on Steps 1–4: l Determine what the stakeholders current-ly do, based on what they currently believe.l Develop the proposition that would move them to the desired belief and desired do.

For this, I find the framework provided in the book Marketing Management: The Big Picture (Christie L Nordhielm and Marta Dapena-Baron) works well.

STAKEHOLDER-HOPPINGAfter years of working in academia

and in a hospital setting, I took on a regional role in health economics and market access of medical devices with Johnson & Johnson.

While I had studied national health systems before where I looked at healthcare delivery and financing from a macro perspective – I now saw it from a very different point of view.

As part of the organisation devel-oping treatment innovations, we had to understand how different stakeholders valued the innovation and then apply concepts of evidence-based medicine to communicate with them all. Mapping the stakeholder universe became an imperative.

From patient to physician, payer to hospital, government to patient advocacy groups, the priorities and concerns of each stakeholder varies.

The starting point is, more often than not, having clinical evidence demonstrating that the innovation would improve patient outcomes. Beyond that, taking Steps 1–4 above helped determine what was impor-tant to the stakeholders.

An example – would less pain and an improved quality of life be ranked the same for patients as they would for physicians, hospital administra-tors, health insurance companies, governments – all stakeholders who play a role in determining if the treat-ment innovation should be made available to the patient?

STEP 1 STEP 3 STEP 5STEP 2 STEP 4Repeat back to step 1

Interestingly, introducing the same treat-ment innovation to a different country may have started off with the same types of stakeholders, but due to different stakehold-er interactions and interdependence, as well as different levels of influence and values, the communication strategy necessarily had to be adjusted.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTSArmed with the experience of work-

ing with stakeholders across Asia Pacific, I always ask myself now, are we framing a problem correctly? Have we considered all the relevant stakeholders and how wise it is to make assumptions about their priorities and possible reactions?

And finally, while I have focused mainly on external stakeholders, the web of interac-tions was considerably more complex when

we added the layer of internal stakeholders – with each com-municating (at times indepen-dently) with a different external stakeholder.

One of my top five strengths (through StrengthsFinder) being Connectedness, the endless possibilities of stakeholder interaction still makes me smile.

Have you thought of the stakeholders in your every day activities and communications? Maybe even in the community work you are involved in?

HyPOTHETIcAL ExAMPLE Of A NEW TREATMENT OPTION

Priority

#1

#2

Low risk, less pain

Able to return to normal quickly

PATIENT

Patient safety

Easy to administer

PHYsICIAN

Patient safety

Efficient use of resources

HOsPITAL


Satisfied patient

PAYER

Patient safety


GOVERNMENT

THE LESSON WAS PAINfUL AT THE TIME, bUT IT WAS ALSO fAScINATING TO SEE HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS AND INTERAcTIONS STRIPPED DOWN TO bAREbONES.


Don’t lose by a ‘Peanut’In ChIna, fIrst ImPressIons Count – esPeCIally at the DInIng table

n CK Wong is principal trainer

at Mandarin Specialist Malaysia

(previously known as

Malaysia Learners Consultancy, or

MLC). She believes that Mandarin is a

vital language that can take you places.

To engage with her, email editor@

leaderonomics.com. For more image-related

insights, visit www.leaderonomics.com

DInIng Is a great way for them to observe anD get to know others better.

By C.K. [email protected]

WE all know that people in China love to do business over food. There will be all sorts of reasons for them to

hold a proper dining session: to welcome a foreign business partner, to drink to the company’s increase in market share, or to celebrate someone’s marriage or a colleague’s newborn (without the baby present), etc.

Count it as an honour if you are invited for a dinner event in China. It means that you matter and that they have a certain level of interest in building a deeper rela-tionship with you.

Dining etiquetteWhy is the dining session so important

there?A Chinese chief executive officer from

China once told me this, “I never really had a full meal with business associ-ates after I got involved in negotiations, because meal time with them means ‘business’.”

Don’t get me wrong. Of course a din-ing session is a great way to socialise and build business networks.

However, in my experience as an interpreter in China, bosses there have a “purpose” for dining with you. Business people of China observe a lot while hav-ing dinner. They will closely observe their business partner, potential client, supplier or just about anyone who might play a part in the future of their company.

People in China have a unique habit. Regardless of who you say you are or how fantastic your previous track record, they will always pause to see how you respond or carry yourself under different circum-stances.

They are very cautious with whom they do business, and sometimes can be seen as very conservative and reserved towards outsiders.

Dinner is a great way for them to observe and get to know others better. Dinner is often seen as an informal occa-sion where guests can mingle, chat and share thoughts (most likely on some collaborative projects or the possibility of one in the future) in a relaxed setting without work stress.

At dinner, they can see one’s “true colour” - dining together helps people to shed their serious work personas, and reveal their real characters.

Dining is so important in the Chinese culture. With this in mind, let’s pick up some cues on Chinese dining manners.

1 MinD your seat!We know that dinner tables are

usually round in China as the ancient teaching emphasised on yuán, which translates to harmony or perfec-tion . Even though the table is round, you will still need to find out the right seating direction and position.

The Chinese host usually sits facing an easterly direction, because the dining table is like a strong ancient house that is built facing south, and is referred to as (zuòdõng).

The dining table is set at the centre of the living hall and guests are invited to take their seats on the West and the host on the East.

Locals in China are used to such compass points in their daily lives. In China, I tried several times to ask for directions, but instead of being told to

“go straight and turn left after 100m”, they would say “walk up North then turn West after 100m”.

Practically, it’s impossible for us to carry a compass wherever we go. Thus, to avoid any unwarranted problems, just let your dinner hosts take their seats first. Thankfully, there will usually be someone to show you your rightful place.

In retrospect, it’s not easy for them to ascertain correct directions either. So, the

host should be sitting in a spot where he or she can best monitor the comings and goings of guests.

In a private VIP dining room, the host will seat facing the entrance. The most important guest will be placed on his or her right and an assistant or spouse will be seated on his or her left side.

Keep in mind that taking the wrong seat can offend the host. They will con-sider you ignorant of local customs and

etiquette, and lacking in manners.

2 What’s With the peanuts?

In many Chinese wedding dinners in Malaysia, peanuts are served as an appe-tiser prior to the main course. In China, how you eat your peanuts is the real test!

Do you eat it before everyone else or do you let others have it first? Which peanut will you go for? The bigger one or the smaller one? Do you choose before you eat or do you just pick randomly without a second thought? If the guest goes for the bigger peanuts, the Chinese host will keep that in mind and continue to observe for greed or selfishness. They can then be extra careful if there is any future collaboration projects, because to them, you might turn out to be a disloyal business partner who keeps all benefits to yourself.

If you always select the small peanuts, they will think of you as overly cautious and not as bold in making certain deci-sions. To them, this type of person may be good as a worker but not really cut out to be a business partner. However, if you go for random peanuts: they will find you easy-going – both good as a friend and as a potential business partner.

ConCluDing thoughtsNonetheless, whether a business col-

laboration falls through or is secured, the outcome is also affected by other con-ventional factors such as your capability, adaptability to local culture and so on.

However, this first dining impression does serve as an important reference for doing business in China. So, don’t take any chances of losing by a peanut!


The Key To GreaTnessDon’T ThinK your Dreams are over

By DINESH DORAI [email protected]

A quick look at the words on the cover page of Jonathan Yabut’s book caused my enthusiasm to surge. The words were – Winner, Grit and Great.

“To every dreamer out there, know that you can never be too small to dream big,” was the line that struck me as I flipped through the book entitled From Grit to Great, forcing me to grab a seat and settle down to read the book.

We all want to be great, but are we prepared to practise grit? Probably not. The book simply demonstrates how the latter leads to the former.

Throughout the book, Yabut explains in simple language the journey of his life which has led to his success today.

NEVER TOO SMALL TO DREAM BIG

Yabut speaks of his journey from humble beginnings. Despite facing financial constraints, his parents hoped to put him in a private school. Yabut realised his parents’ dream at a young age by securing financial assistance due to his excellent grades.

However, pressure continued to mount as he needed to maintain his good results and be ranked among the top students annually to retain the 100% scholarship.

It was then that Yabut was diagnosed with a cyst on his chest, which fright-ened him to such an extent that he started preparing for his worst.

Thankfully the cyst was benign. But since then, carpe diem has become his philosophy of life. He decided to stay true to himself, conquering every dream in mind.

THE JOURNEY TO BECOMING ASIA’S APPRENTICE

Preparation is the key to everything and Yabut stresses that anything that succeeds without it, is simply called luck.

“Rome wasn’t built overnight and so are the rest of the challenges you will face in life,” was one of the lines in the book that jolted me to start preparing myself to face more challenges on the road to success.

Yabut explains the endless prepara-tion that was involved in winning The Apprentice Asia. It all started from the time of application and the flow of truth as he explained it – preparation breeds familiarity, familiarity breeds confidence, and confidence breeds suc-cess.

Then comes the commonly heard phrase – work smart, not just hard.

Corporate folks and students would not deny that they are guilty of the “work-ing hard” when the expected output totally differs.

Yabut also brings up a few simple life experiences as lessons that may speed up our tasks as compared to “old school” techniques, thus allowing us to spend more time with family, friends and ourselves.

I remember following The Apprentice Asia on AXN very closely, yet I failed to see the bigger picture represented there.

The reality show was a marathon, not a sprint. As mentioned in the book – never miss the forest for the trees – so take a step back when needed and reas-sess the strategy.

GRIT TO GREATWould you believe it that the winner

of The Apprentice Asia was on the verge of quitting the show? What would have happened if he had quit?

He would have had no chance of win-ning. Instead of throwing in the towel, Yabut persisted and he practised grit. He pushed himself out of his comfort zone and fought through the battle and he won.

We all know that the great leaders of this world did not attain overnight suc-cess, but succeeded after many years of hard work, while overcoming challenges and obstacles along their way.

It was indeed an honour that Yabut dedicated a section of his book to share my story. Having survived a horrific road accident and now learning to walk again, the experience itself calls for sheer grit.

The practice of grit has made me defy the odds that was presented before me, when even the doctors deemed that I would never walk again. Being on crutch-es and still unrelentingly persevering, I still believe I will walk unaided one day.

HACKING THE CORPORATE WORLD, APPRENTICE STYLE

Yabut reveals some important hidden truths to those who think they are ready to conquer the corporate world after watching the reality show.

He brings up the importance of leader-ship that develops and builds a credible, strong team. In reality, this is one of the most vital keys in the corporate world for anyone who aspires to make it big out there.

Yabut also stresses the practices and habits that need to be embedded in us. These include tips for stress-free busi-

ness travel, handling work emails (first world problem as most of us are often overwhelmed by them), and meeting deadlines.

Yabut relates them to the experiences he has had in life. They really leave an impression as we read them because they are very much relatable to what we face daily in the corporate world.

WRAPPING UPSipping my last bit of coffee and flip-

ping the final page of the book, I asked myself a question, “Can I be like Yabut?”

I had a simple answer at the back of my head, “Grit to Great.”

Wrapping up, this book is an easy read for just about anyone, ranging from teen-agers to corporate leaders out there.

It’s a book where business meets wit to inspire readers to make it big and be successful. Here are two key takeaways for me:

l success requires hard work.l whilst there is no short cut to

success, there is always a space for innovation to run faster.

n Dinesh Dorai Raj is inspired by the definition of “grit”. He has been holding on to it and practising it daily in various aspects of his life. He truly believes that everything is possible in this world through limitless grit. He hopes to prove and influence people around the world that grit would lead to great. To connect with him, you can email him at [email protected]

WhaT is GriT?IN May 2013, teacher-turned-psychologist Angela Lee Duckworth presented a Ted Talk on The key to success: Grit.

In her own words, grit is:l passion and perseverance for very long-term goalsl having staminal sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the

week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality

l living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

To check out your Grit Scale, complete the test here: http://tinyurl.com/cnxlhsw


RISE OF THE DIGITAL ERA

By CINDY [email protected]

THE invasion of e-commerce sites such as Zalora, Lazada, Home24 and Foodpanda began in Malaysia late 2011, fronted by the Samwer brothers who are

the founders of Rocket Internet.The Leaderonomics Show meets up

with Italian-born Luca Barberis, the managing director who spearheads the top fashion e-commerce site in Malaysia, Zalora.

Previously the director of marketing, Barberis was appointed managing direc-tor of Zalora Malaysia in December 2014, with a remarkable track record which spans a number of countries.

He has had an impressive stint with Google as an industry analyst and sub-sequently, Google’s account manager where he managed a US$6mil/quarter portfolio of businesses (from start-ups to large enterprises) which involved advis-ing customers on digital advertising and their online business strategy.

Since taking the helm of the largest and fastest growing fashion-focused e-commerce site in South-East Asia, Barberis has been working in a super-fast paced environment.

Barberis offers: “There are long hours, but it offers work-life balance and a fun environment.”

With almost 300 people in the Malaysian team now, including the ware-house, marketing and production teams, Barberis explains that in the past one year, the team grew by more than 100 persons. In terms of revenue, it recorded a very healthy growth exceeding 100%.

Internal and external Challenges

Sharing on the external challenges faced, Barberis says: “The main challenge is in building corporate partnerships with the big players in Malaysia. We are strong when we work with partners like Samsung or Digi, although negotiations for the best deal usually takes a signifi-cant bit of time.”

Nonetheless, Barberis opines that it is the best channel to reach out to

Malaysians and works even better than paid advertising with Google or on bill-boards.

“Corporate partnerships such as pro-motions, exclusive fashion shows and leveraging on the different brands have really proven to be the best strategy we adopted in 2014,” he continues.

Internally, the challenge is to keep the growth balanced with the organisation.

“Growing too fast may result in the warehouse not delivering as fast as it should, thus stressing the customer ser-vice. The key is to keep the growth fast, but not too extreme so the organisation can keep up to this speed,” he insists.

BeIng part of somethIng sIgnIfICant

Barberis studied economics, account-ing, finance and law but pursued a career in the digital arena instead. An ambition to make a difference and do something significant motivated his career diversion.

“When I graduated, I pondered that in the next five to 10 years I wanted to do something memorable which will end up in the books of economics history, regard-less of how much money I can make,” he recalls.

There were two big trends happening then which were inter-related, i.e. the internet and globalisation.

“I chose not only to work in the internet but in emerging economies, in particular South-East Asia – one of the fastest growing economies in the world,” he muses, thinking that going where the speed is would expedite his career growth.

leavIng a google dreamBarberis was 21 when he chose to

leave Italy due to the high unemploy-ment rate for youngsters and the local business environment which was not robust.

After he landed a dream job in sales at Google which exposed him to various consumer behaviour and businesses as an insider behind the walls of Google, Barberis went from zero to an expert in the digital economy within six months.

Why quIt then?“Google is a big, extremely profitable

corporation with a fantastic corporate

culture, where employees have a lot of perks and have an easy life,” he admits.

However, after some years, he felt the desire for change and doing something more.

“Generally, if you aspire to create an impact, see ideas get executed, fast growth, while having fun at work, work-ing in a rocketing trend company like Zalora is definitely a better opportunity!” he raves.

Ideal leadershIpBarberis insists that managers who

understand the business, have fantastic ideas, great vision and are extremely good with numbers may not be the best when it comes to execution.

On the other hand, some are fantas-tic at execution, very efficient, fast and well-organised, but may lack the big picture, vision and creativity to inspire the team to grow fast.

He opines that work leadership in a fast-growth environment entails the ability to strike the right balance between having vision and execution.

He also stresses that the idea of leadership and expectations of a leader differs based on location.

In Zalora, Barberis adopts the North European management and leadership style, mainly due to its German influ-ence.

“The key difference in leadership style in Europe is countries in the South like Italy or Spain are similar to Asia, whereby authority and titles are very important. Whereas in North Europe, people are more easygoing and happier to share,” he claims.

“Generally, Asians are shy to share their thoughts and not so comfortable with disagreeing with the boss.

“But overall, it’s improving thanks to globalisation. The younger generation tends to be a little bit cheekier, more arrogant and less shy. In business, a bit of arrogance and the “I-don’t-trust-you-just-because-you-are-the-boss” attitude is a good thing for better performance in certain roles,” he remarks.

At the end of the day, open discus-sion is required to agree on what to do and how to do it, whereas authority comes in simply to close things in a quick way.

Here are Barberis’s tips for a sharp mind and to keep the creative juices flowing:

1 E-mail management: No replying emails until 2pm to 3pm, in order to

focus on what needs to be done.

2 No Facebook-ing: In terms of man-aging the general flow of busy-ness,

Barberis chooses to avoid the main trig-ger of Facebook, i.e. boredom by ceas-ing to login to Facebook on the day he started Zalora.

For 2015, Luca aims to keep up Zalora’s astonishing growth shown in 2014, which he attributes to the extremely well executed marketing activities.

Below are snippets of Barberis’s response in The Thinkonomics segment:

Is the world better with or without reality shows?

With. Giving people what they like, especially good and simple entertain-ment would overall make the world a better place. Instead of merely studying and working hard, people need pleasure. Apparently, reality shows are one of the best options.

If Steve Jobs and Bill Gates did not exist, would the world be a better place today?

I think someone else would have done exactly the same.

Individuals are important, but not as important as trends, such as software, cool design hardware or perfectly-designed products.

Although we had smartphones since the end of the 1990s, people started using smartphones only when Jobs came up with the iPhone, I think this trend would have happened anyway, albeit a few years later.

The people who surfed these trends are smarter people, but the control and power of a single person is, in my opin-ion, relatively limited.

What would your life be like without the internet?

I cannot even imagine. I’m in that generation who always had the internet since high school.

Probably I would be unemployed, a lawyer or a banker. Definitely a more bor-ing life.

n For more interest-ing interviews with

diverse leaders on The Leaderonomics Show, visit https://

www.youtube.com/user/leaderonom-icsmedia. For The

Leaderonomics Show articles, visit www.

leaderonomics.com

TheShow


DREAM BIG, BABYIf YouR DREAMs Don’t scARE You, thEY ARE not BIG EnouGh

By ALVIN [email protected]

AS humans, we have always understood what it means to be driven. A baby is driven to hold on to anything that is close to their hand. If you put

something close to their mouths, they will naturally open and attempt to eat it, whether it’s food, a random object or your finger, so be careful what you intro-duce to the baby.

This is a natural survival instinct for babies. And while we have obviously grown up to be careful to not open our mouths to whatever comes our way, that sense of drive has only evolved into something even greater.

Imagine if you’re in a state of a lucid dream, and you have the power to create any reality you want at a snap of your fingers. What would you create? A big corporation with you as the CEO? A suc-cessful band with you rocking as the hot lead? How about your own fashion label?

The prospecTs are enTicing, and why wouldn’T iT be so?

Now my challenge to you is, can you see yourself waking from this slumber, surrendering that dream under the laws of this reality, and still keeping that dream alive and heading towards it?

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”

All dreams are meant to be that, beau-tiful, because it’s the end of the arduous journey you took to get there.

And if I dare say it, it’s not the results of the dream that scare us, it’s the jour-ney we know that is before us that makes us shudder. Today, after reading this, I hope you will understand more than any-thing, that the process is as beautiful as the end itself.

a Fine beginningThe first step to any dream, is to be

able to project ourselves into that real-ity every step along the way. And while we have our big dreams and the idea of how it would eventually look like in the end, we also need to create smaller, sub-dreams that contribute to the final goal.

Breaking things down to small bite-sized pieces are crucial to keep ourselves motivated as we head towards our biggest challenge. Doing that allows us to cel-ebrate the milestones along the way, and is a great reminder of where we are going.

Keep sTeppingThe next step is to create constant

reminders along the way. Here’s a good tip on how to remember new items in your daily activity: pair them with things you already remember. If there’s some-thing you need to bring along with you the next day, you can put it together with your wallet or with your keys.

By doing that, even if you’ve forgotten about them in your sleep, when you’re about to go out and reach for the wallet and keys, you’ll see them and be remind-ed on your way out.

So, in terms of the dream, put relevant key reminders in places that you are bound to see, for example, on your work table where you are at most of your time, or in a notebook that you always carry.

What’s even better is if you can share it with a close friend, and it can be a topic of discussion when you meet.

Having someone ask questions about your dreams and how you ought to get there gives you more opportunities to think of different alternatives that you might have missed out.

all shall be revealedIn DIODE camps, we start with

teaching our campers about the AVP Leadership model. For this article’s focus, I’ll touch more on “V” which stand for vision, or in this case, our dream.

We give our camp participants a very simple AVP report that helps them discover their own dreams, and they write it down on paper for their reference.

They answer questions such as

“describe your vision in detail” and “describe how you would measure the success of your vision”. Just these two questions alone takes quite some time because youths usually have dreams about being the best in something, but they never get the opportunity to find out how they are going to measure the success of their own dream.

After they answer those two questions, the facilitators help them break it down into smaller goals to what they need to achieve in 24 hours, the first week, the first month, the second month and the third month. This helps them plan achiev-able, short term goals that contribute to their end goal.

Just doing these few things help camp-ers gain confidence in achieving their dreams. We encourage them to bring their raw and abstract dreams to us.

All we do is provide a structure for them. As they commit to putting it all down on paper with specific measurable instances, they begin to see that their dream is one step closer to the reality they are in.

in conclusionDreams are important and they are

usually the first step towards what would become a vision. No matter what your belief is, whether dreams are a collection of memories of what is seen, a creation or imagination of what someone has spoken to us, or some-thing divine that we may have never experienced before, in truth a dream remains only a reality in the recesses of our minds and imagination.

A vision requires actual work, tears, sweat and sometimes even blood. A vision subjects itself to the reality of this world, with physics, economics and law. It requires actual interaction and trust towards people who we believe can help us achieve that dream.

Sometimes things work out our way, and sometimes they won’t. I truly believe, while the brave usually take the first step towards their dreams, it is the faithful who translate that dream into a vision that impacts themselves and the people around them.

n Alvin Dan is one of the youth programme executives at Leaderonomics. His personal passion lies in community development. Using his skills in behavioural psychology, he plans to continue developing his expertise in counselling in order to assist others. To engage with Alvin, email [email protected]

I can very proudly say I have attended DIODE camps at least six times now. Three times as a camper, once as a co-facilitator and twice as a facilitator. Every single time I go, I am amazed at just how much I learn and how many new experiences I gain. DIODE camps are based on the fundamental belief that one person, no matter who they are or where they’re from, can make a big difference to a life, a community, a nation, a country and the world.

What I love about DIODE camps is how they impart important leadership values to campers. Campers are taught not only to use the knowledge gained at camp but also how to use the skills and qualities they possess to make a difference in their communities. At all the DIODE camps I’ve attended, I have never failed to be inspired by the campers and the facilitators who truly want to make a difference.

Vennisha Natarajan, 18

Here’s why you should join!

DIODE KIDS9–10 June 2015Venue: Dewan Besar,6, Bgn Bakti Siti Hasmah,Changkat Abg Haji Openg,Taman Tun Dr. Ismail,60000 KL.

Join us! Join us!

CAMP REGISTRATIONS END 18TH MAY 2015.Visit www.diodecamps.com or call +6 (03) 7957 5809 ext 2023 to secure your spaces in DIODE!

TWEENS LEADERSHIP CAMP3–6 June 2015

YOUTH LEADERSHIP CAMP1–6 June 2015Venue: Harmony Excellence Resort,Lorong Chemperoh 1, Kg. Janda Baik, 28750 Bentong, Pahang

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