We hear such lines all the time in our working environment. Processes, processes, processes. They are there to assist us to be more productive. They are there…well….to calm down the bosses because if we follow processes, things won’t easily go out of control. Well, not THAT much anyway.

To be honest with you, processes are fine but sticking too much to the processes can be counter-productive. But most importantly, it dulls the creativity of your people because they are being given a pretty tight constraint to work within. After all, most processes exist in order to control the people so that they don’t stray too far away from what they are supposed to do.

The funny thing is, after introducing such limiting processes, the bosses will start questioning their employees why aren’t they using their creativity at work? Then they will try to come out with MORE processes to promote creativity among the employees.

I guess the bosses or whoever that wants to come out with processes, should remember that creativity is not something that can be calculated – unlike the results of following a process. And it is not something which should be restrained by the processes. If you want to promote creativity, then remove the processes. Those 2 can hardly work together – there are occasions where the 2 can work together, but companies have the thread carefully…because not everyone can do that successfully without screwing up or making the bosses angry.

So yes, processes do dull creativity. Tell me if you think otherwise. I cannot think of how someone can be creative when he/she has to follow step (1) to step (10) as per the process.

Last but not least, people should remember that nowadays, companies need to rely on creativity and innovation more than they need to rely on boring processes. Processes are there to help, but creativity and innovation are there to make them win in the competition. So which should you be focusing on? It’s your choice.

p/s….. having said that, I don’t deny that certain processes should always be to keep things under control. Imagine what is it like if your HR person or account person try to be too creative by ignoring the processes.

If you were me, what kind of answer do you think you will give?

Gossip mongers just want to network with other people? Hmmm

1. Will you confront the gossip monger and tell him you’re not happy?
2. Confront the gossip monger and tell him the gossip is not true at all?
3. Stay quiet?
4. Spread another gossip to counter that gossip?
5. Or start telling each and everyone you know in the office that the gossip is not true?

I know this is kind of touching human psychology but based on my personal experience, it’s not uncommon in our office life. Every now and then, there will be this group of people who have nothing to do but to spread rumors and gossip about other people. They can be quite notorious at times too, to the stage that whatever they said might actually affect your working experience. So it’s perfectly normal if you feel like confronting them and tell them off.

But is that how it should be done?

Based on my personal experience, it’s actually best to do item (3) which is to keep quiet. I understand that sometimes, the fire might get too hot and burn yourselves in the process but I also believe that if you retaliate to something which is not true, it will only make the fire stronger. So in my opinion, it’s better to make it as boring for them as possible, and they will slowly get tired of it and move on to the next target.

And I told this to the job interviewer and he was quite happy with my answer.

What about you? What would you do if you were in this kind of situation?

p/s….I’ve experienced it on 1 or 2 occasions. If it’s ruining my reputation and a colleague told me about it, I will just tell that colleague the real story. That’s all. As long as there are few good colleagues who know about the real story, I won’t really care what others think.

But is this the right way to lead your people?

In my humble opinion, NO.

I rather lead with respect, and not fear. If your people are constantly afraid of losing their jobs (or afraid of being scolded in front of everyone in the office), they will STILL be able to work hard but the atmosphere is different if compared with people who are working for you because they love to work for you.

Totally different working environments and the end results will be totally different too. Let’s try to summarize the 2 types of leadership.

Lead with respect

• People willingly work for you
• The environment will be friendlier
• The people will be motivated and work with good morale
• Turnover rate will be lower since a good and respected leader can really keep his people

Lead with fear

• People will only work with you because they have no other choice
• The environment is quite hostile and negative since everyone is afraid to lose their jobs (or get scolded publicly)
• People will be moody and pretty much demotivated, even though they will still do the work
• Turnover rate is very very high since everyone will try their best to get out from there

From what you can see, most of the things associated with the latter are bad things and yet, there are many leaders out there who prefer to use this way. Perhaps it’s due to the way they’ve been brought up in the corporate world, or perhaps it’s due to their ego. But either way, it’s bad for the employees and also the organization itself (having high turnover rate is not a very good thing to have in any organization).

For me, the keyword here is “respect”. Respect other people and others will respect you. If you cannot even understand that simple word, then I doubt you have the rights to lead.

p/s……. and in an extremely stressful environment, the last thing you want to do is to force people to do things they don’t want. Everyone has their limits and as a leader, you need to know that.

And this kind of culture is not new in most companies since there are a lot of people (mostly the guys) who will use their company resources to play games together.

Seriously, I wouldn't mind if we have an employee like this playing game in the office

The issue here is, this is illegal. One should never use company resources to play games since it is not part of your job description. Company resources should only be used for work-related purposes and by using the computers to play network game (and to install illegal software into the computers), it can be considered as serious misconduct depending on how strict your IT support and HR people are.

To make things worse, there are people who actually play such games DURING the office hour.

Maybe this kind of behavior is OKAY few years ago but certainly not OKAY now. Remember that we’re in a recession now where many people are still jobless and more companies are trying to terminate people.

My advice to everyone – don’t give your bosses reason to terminate you. Misconduct is a serious offence and they don’t really need to compensate you for terminating you.

If you want to play games with your colleagues, spend a few bucks, go to the cybercafes.

After all….it’ll be very sad and pathetic if one is being terminated by the company …for playing computer games.

P/S … i might not be able to reply comments as often as before since i’m in the middle of a WAR. =_= din sleep for few days already…project going live.

For me = TROUBLESOME. Because I have to go through the trouble of finding the contact number, call them up and make an appointment. I know some allow you to walk in but some of them don’t. My question is, if I have never been to your business or I am a first time customer, how would I know how to make an appointment or which number to call? It’s still okay if your business is very well-known or a lot of people know how to make an appointment, or if your business has very accessible contact information. But how many businesses actually have any of those? Not many.

Dentist business is one of the appointment-based businesses

It’s funny how these businesses are still having such appointment-based model and most of them are still unwilling to change. If your business is unwilling to change, then at least make sure your information is more accessible to your potential customers – those first time customers. Otherwise, they will just choose another business which is more convenient to them. And believe me, during such competitive period when there’s a business closing down every few hours or so, you ought to believe your competitors are trying their very best to make their businesses more convenient and trouble-free for the customers.

Unless, those businesses are too proud of themselves that they don’t need those potential customers.

So how can these businesses change? Here are few simple ways which I can think of but do bear in mind that I’m not an expert when it comes to marketing.

• Prepare more name cards or contact cards, and pass them around to spread the word about your appointment-based business.
• Allow walk-ins but gives priority to those who’ve arranged for an appointment.
• If possible, put up a big sign at your store if walk-in is not available for the day. I don’t think the customers want to take the trouble of finding car park, only to realize there’s no available time slot anymore.
• Have a blog or publish your contact information online. Make such information as accessible as possible.
• Give very good service to your existing customers and hopefully they will help spread the word AND the contact information for you (make sure you have enough contact cards to be distributed). Or better still, reward the customers for bringing new customers in!
• Have different time slots for walk-in and appointment-based. This is to ensure that those who are lazy to make an appointment can still choose your business.

I’m not sure whether this list can help or not. But I do feel that a business should try to make it as convenient as possible for the customers. I understand that certain type of businesses HAVE TO be appointment-based but I also believe that it is up to them to make the entire ordeal as trouble-free as possible. Remember the key phrase here is businesses should make life easier for customers, not harder.

And now, I need to go and hunt for a good dentist in my area who has very accessible contact information…I don’t think I want to go around my area trying to SPOT a phone number so that I can call and make an appointment.

Also, without an agenda, they will not know which issue is more important and urgent. They might end up spending a lot of time discussing an issue which is not important at all just because they cannot remember the other more important issues. If they do have an agenda, they will realize it and can choose to skip the not so important issues first.

Having an agenda is also important when you go for a meeting with the client. It helps to keep you focused and organized, and also gives a positive image to the client. Imagine if you do not have any agenda during the meeting. You asked the client 2 questions and after the meeting, you realized you have few other questions. You ended up calling the client to ask the remaining questions. Do you think this is a good move? I doubt so.

So, if you are the type who do not like to prepare meeting agendas, maybe it is time to change your behavior now. Be more efficient and most importantly, learn to respect time – other people’s time and also your own time.

Hope it helps.

If you’re running short of time such as chasing a deadline or you already have other more demanding and high priority things to do, then you should not fix things which are not broken. Because your new solution might not be 100% problem free. Adding extra problems to an existing long list of pending tasks is just going to make things worse.

However, if there is no long list of pending tasks and you have some free time, do feel free to make changes which will enhance the features or usability. It does add value to the customers.

This is a very simple concept yet many people tend to ignore it. People like to fix things even though they are not broken, and often time, it’ll only make things worse. That’s why the next time you feel like fixing that “missing word” which nobody has complain about, think twice. Will your “word” be useful or will it actually change the entire meaning of the story?

Yesterday, my friend who is working in her company’s Human Resource department complained to me about this – a lot of her company’s employees asked her what was THAT email about. THAT email was sent out by her, detailing the new HR policy introduced by the company. The problem with these employees was not that they couldn’t understand, the problem was that they didn’t even read the email!

This kind of incident happened to me before too in my previous company. I sent out an email detailing the plan for the farewell party, only to have my colleagues came to me and asked me what was that email about. What most of them did was – read the title, and not the content.

Another incident was with the Streamyx technician. He came to my place and called his colleague “Bang, macam mana nak guna ini benda?” (in English, it means “Friend, how do I use this device?”). He didn’t even do his research before coming to my place! He expected his friend to be there to teach him. What happened if his friend did not answer his call? *sighs*

Somehow, most people prefer to ask others for answer which is available to them. Why? I have no idea. Maybe it’s due to laziness or maybe they’re too used to the spoon-feeding culture introduced to them during their school life?

I’m from the same education system, the same culture and I also prefer to be spoon-fed (who doesn’t? hohoho) but I know that behaving this way will not help me in my career and personal life. Why? Here are the reasons.

• Most bosses want you to be independent because there will come a time when nobody will be there to help you (either too busy or too far away or cannot be reached).
• If you’re in the client’s place, just like the Streamyx technician, you carry the company’s image. If you’re unable to use the device assigned to you, it really gives a very bad image to the client. Always prepare yourselves first.
• By disturbing others too much, you will end up being a nuisance and can be quite annoying.
• If you rely on others to spoon-feed you too much, you will continue to behave so because it comes too easily. It will not be very useful for your personal development.
• Your progress in career and personal life is not based on your own achievements, but by relying on others.

Hmm, enough reasons? I think so. That’s why I feel a change is needed. Always rely on myself first before I seek help from others.

So, what are you waiting for? Change your mindset now! Start by doing something simple – read your emails properly and thoroughly, and do your own research before ask other people for answers! Stop relying on others unless you are absolutely sure you can’t fix the problem.

Hope it helps.

But most of the time, these leaders failed to deliver. The great things which were expected from them, did not come. The companies continued to fall and perish into nothingness.

Sadly, what happened in the past is still happening in our world now. The case with the 3 CEOs who travel like celebrities in private jets shows how much the world dislikes such type of selfish leaders. To these leaders, their ego is much larger and much more important than the businesses they are trying to save.

Well, we do have such incidents happening in our home country too. Ever heard of bosses saying that the company needs to cut costs and sometimes to the extend of laying off people or cutting salary? The same bosses who said these things will turn around and instruct their secretaries to order a business-class flight ticket to business destinations. And some still hire company drivers to bring them around rather than driving by themselves. Even Warren Buffett who admits his driving sux, drives for himself!

My advice to such leaders – put down your ego for now because your business needs you, not your ego. Fix the problems, throw away your selfish attitude and your celebrity lifestyle, be humble and be helpful. Most importantly, lead by example. Don’t tell people to do A when you are not willing to do it yourselves.

But if you don’t want to change, then by all means, continue with that celebrity-styled habit of yours because you will not enjoy it much longer.

Unless, there are some companies who are stupid enough to hire you into their companies – you, who has ridiculously high maintenance cost and near zero achievements. Good luck.

Whenever the Aussie boss is here, he will walk around the office like he’s very busy but when the boss is not around, he’ll just spend his time sleeping. He is actually in the Finance department and reports to the Regional Financial Controller (FC) but funnily, he scolds the FC more than the FC talks to him! What’s even funnier is, the FC does not dare to raise his voice against this guy. The FC will always say “He’s an old man, just let him be.”

That’s what my friend noticed when she first joined the company. She has been with the company for few months now and has just resigned. The old man also has the tendency to approach newcomers and scold them, just to make them leave. In the end, the entire company hates this guy because he scolds people for no reason. He just likes to show people who is the boss (even though officially, he’s not).

To give you a better idea of this guy – he has a small book (the 555 book we use in schools) which he uses to record the name of the people who have offended him, time and date included.

I really wonder, why is such an idiot still existing in the company? Shouldn’t he be out of job by now? Shouldn’t he be punished severely by the bosses?

The thing is, he is still there because the FC and the managing director of the regional office do not dare to punish him. In the end, the old man crosses the line and becomes more powerful than the bosses.

Frankly speaking, we do see and hear such story quite often. Some of these idiots are actually relatives of the big bosses, or have some connection one way or another. But either way, this is NOT how a company should work. The bosses are there for a reason – to manage the business and to manage the employees. If you have an employee who acts like a boss, without anyone controlling him, one can only wonder what will happen to the company.

Never ever let an employee becomes bigger than the bosses and the company. In this case, the bosses need to play their role – either control him or kick him off. It’s far too risky to have someone like this messing things around in the company.

Unless, the bosses themselves don’t care.