My one hour blocks of life

If you open up your calendar and take a look at it, is your day divided in hours?  Each hour is filled with some activity?  I have wondered about this paradigm.  Why do my days have to be divided up by hours?  Do these activities and meetings really need an hour or multiples of hour to be executed?  I learned this lesson when I returned from the United States to take up an assignment in Singapore.

The team in Singapore had heard of me but I have not met them personally.  So I thought it would be great to get to know them better on my first visit.  Before I left for Singapore, I emailed my assistant to set up time with each of my direct reports.

The first manager came in at the appointed time and we chatted.  I asked her about her work and her interests.  We chatted on other topics and I felt the conversation went well.  It was about the end of the meeting when she asked me if I didn’t want to see her credentials, diplomas and certificates.  I was puzzled by that request and I asked her why.  She thought it was a job interview.  I asked her why she thought so.  She said that all the meetings with the managers were scheduled for an hour each.  It was so structured that she assumed that it was an interview to determine if she kept her job.  I nearly burst out laughing but kept my composure.  I told her that it was not a job interview but my way of getting to know them better.

I thought that it was just her perception about the “job interview.”  When the next manager came to meet with me, he too brought his certificates and diplomas.  I knew I had created a situation that I hadn’t intended.  This formal one-hour schedule seemed to have given them that perception.

I had been very used to setting my meeting and activity schedules in multiples of one hour.  Breakfast meeting from 7 to 8 in the morning; meeting with a client at 9; meeting with a manager at 10; and so forth.  Your calendar may look similar.  It seemed that this is the norm.

Later in my tenure in Singapore, I was struggling to manage my time better and trying to get more things done each day.  There were a lot of situations, issues and problems that needed to be addressed and dealt with.  Even with all the empowerment and participative processes, I am being stressed for time and energy.  I began to challenge my own paradigm on setting my schedules in one-hour time blocks.  I thought to myself that if I had a 10-hour workday, mathematically, I could only have 10 meetings or activities.  If I included lunch and transit time, it will be less than 10. If each meeting or activity addresses an issue or problem, I can only deal with 10 or less.  I had more problems than that.  This system cannot continue to work for me.

Do I always need an hour for each discussion or activities?  Some issues needed more time but some needed less.  For those that needed more time, I have short changed the people helping me solve that issue.  For those that didn’t need the hour, I had created some inefficiency to fill up the hour and thus wasted mine and my people’s time. 

I began experimenting with different time groupings.  I tried out 30 minute slots.  Mathematically, still assuming a 10-hour workday, I now can have as many as 20 meetings or activities.  Some meetings will still require two blocks of 30 minutes.  Working on this paradigm forces me to become more efficient with each meeting or discussion.  If I attended an 8 hour training session, I can still deal with 4 issues before the end of the day.

Personally I like the 15 minute block.  My team quickly got use to this 15 minute slots.  If they needed more time, they can schedule, for example, three 15 minute blocks.  I get productive and my people get productive too.  We are more succinct and precise with our time and focus.

I recently created a poll to find out how people organized their day.  I was pleasantly surprise to find that there were people who had organized their days in 15 minute blocks.  The number of people who responded to the poll was small and statistically not significant.  However, it is interesting that one-quarter of the people organized their day in 15 minute chunks.  Another 25% of the people organized their day by 30 minutes and the rest by the hour.  Another interesting revelation is that those who set their times by 15 and 30 minute slots are from the managerial ranks.  I leave you to ponder on this data.

I use an electronic calendar to manage my schedules.  At best they come in 30 minute slots.  Organizing the day by 15 minutes is challenging.  Still it will be worth a try.  We need to change our paradigm on managing our daily schedule.  Moving it to 15 minute block forces one to be more efficient with one’s time.  There is more to gain by trying.  The worse is that you return to four 15-minute chunks in your time management.  Let me know what you think about this paradigm. More importantly, enjoy your productive day.

Work Life Balance

Many tried and have yet to achieve their intended outcome.  I recently watched the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada.”  The Art Director, Nigel, told Andy Sachs that when her whole life is up in smokes it means it’s time for a promotion.  Many executives struggle with that balance.  I know how torn they are.  All of them want to have a meaningful family life but are constantly drawn away by the demands of their work.  They want to be successful at work and successful at home.  Can the balance be ever achieved?

In a TED presentation, Nigel Marsh talked about work-life balance.  He mentioned a number of interesting thoughts.  One is that certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day-to-day basis with a young family.  What troubled me most is when he said that one will achieve balance when you don’t have work or don’t have a life.  I am troubled because of its truth. 

Given these scenarios, do we have a chance at achieving work life balance?  There is a ray of hope.  Nigel Marsh also said that “If you don’t design your life, someone else may design it for you and you may not like their idea of balance.”

When I started my career the work was demanding.  I was fortunate that it didn’t take me away from my family for long periods of time.  In fact, I could only remember one occasion that I had to travel for a 3-week period.  I could spend my evenings with my family and didn’t have any conference calls.  While I worked in shifts, it still meant that I am home for the major portion of the day.  Work was stressful but when I left the office, I didn’t have to bring any home.  Well I did occasionally.  This is when the top brasses of the company are visiting and we had presentations to make.  Laptops were not in fashion and too expensive.  So any computer work is left on the table top in the office.  Come to think about it, the laptop may be a reason why we had to extend our work hours to the home.

When I got promoted, the company gave me a laptop and a mobile phone.  They call them tools of the trade.  These are the handcuffs that constantly connect you to the office.  There is no escape.  You are within reach with 11 key punches or less.  As the company grew and become global, my time and my family time reduced proportionately.  There were teleconferences that took me right to the wee hours of the morning.  We complained about these teleconferences but there is not much we can do about it.  Some conferences are useful while most were not worthy of our time.  With the ease of getting information, we are pulled into a situation where managers are pressured to providing “live” information.  This is a vicious cycle.  The easier it is to get information, the more information is required to be fed into the system.  This required many people to contribute into the information system on a continuous basis.

This is a small slice of the causes of imbalance.  The work has been redesigned to be in the office, have conference calls outside the normal office hours and for what small amount of time is left is to plan for the next day at work.  This leaves us very little or even no time for self and family.  The gravitational pull towards to requirement of the company is too large for us to resist.  As Star Trek’s Borg says to their captors, “Resistance is futile.”  We are caught up in the array of getting and sharing information that it has become our prime directives.  What can we do about it?

I didn’t have the answer to this imbalance.  However, I was more fortunate than many in that my promotions were not rapid.  When I reached a senior level within my organization, my children were late teens and requiring lesser of my time.   When I traveled, my wife accompanied me on most of the trips.  This is a worthwhile personal investment.  Regretfully, I neglected myself and the community.   In my earlier blogs I wrote about them.  One being “I goofed, you shouldn’t.”  At that time, my work and family were the most important.  I didn’t think much of dedicating time to myself and contributing to the community.  Now it is “payback” time.

I struggled with what you can gain from reading this post.  Everyone has different goals, different priorities, different situations, different challenges and therefore different ways to deal with their work-life balance.  I am responsible for my balance and its consequences.  In the end, I just left it to you, the reader.  You will have to create your own balance.  You may gain some insights from the experiences of others but it is all up to you.

For me, I position myself as the pivot of the balance.  I determine how large each piece on my balance is.  They varied from period to period.  In my early career, I had only two pieces – work and family.  In the later career years, work became larger than family and I faced the consequences as they surfaced.   So my balance varied from phase to phase in my life.  It was not easy but I had to take time to review them.  My reviews cycles were once in 6 to 8 years.  Now, work is the smallest piece, then community.  Family is now my largest piece.   I am looking forward to my next review at the end of the year.

Good luck in your work-life balance.

You Stopped Doing WHAT?

Sounds familiar!  During difficult times, the leaders of companies are working frantically to come up with turnaround strategies.  It is during such times, that one receives directives upon directives to execute.  Some of these directives may not even make sense, but as a senior manager you had your orders to execute.

For some, your company may be doing better.  The vision is clear and well communicated.  The video playing in your mind is similar to that of your leadership.  In this situation, enjoy your journey.

For others, the journey is challenging.  I remember a game I played at a carnival, when I was young.  You may have played it too.  It’s the Whack-A-Mole game.  A mole pops up, and you are to whack it down.  As you progress, they pop up at increased frequency.  Soon you will miss whacking some.  The initiatives and directives coming from the leaders of your company sometimes feel like the mole popping up.  You whack and you whack but they keep popping up.  It never ends!

So how do you end it?  You can get more people to help you whack the moles.  But that is against the rule.  The rule is “do more with less.”  In fact, they may tighten the rule by tying up one hand or blind-folding you.  You can of course walk away from the game and end the frustration.  You risk being labeled with all kinds of names for walking out.  That may not be an option either.  You have your pride.

As manager in your organization, you have your role cut out.  You cannot be piling initiatives upon initiatives; strategies upon strategies; and actions upon actions on yourself and your team.  Something has to give.  So, before you make a decision or take an action, ask yourself or your team this question.

What have you stopped doing in the last couple of months to create capacity so your team can focus on new strategies, actions, and behaviors?

When I was working on the strategic planning for my unit, I asked myself this question.  I asked my team this same question.  I can feel a sense of relief when the question was asked.  Of course, I asked many other questions but for this posting I wanted to focus on just this one.  I was surprised at the responses.  There were so many activities that we were doing that are questionable.  On further investigation, I found that the actions were taken appropriately to address certain problems.  Over time the problems have been resolved or the conditions had changed.  We continue the activities because no manager stopped them.  The action did not have an expiration date.  We all have selective memory, so a good documentation of why we took an action is important.  It helped me when we reviewed the action.

Reflect on these concepts! 

1.      To do more, we have to stop doing some.

2.      Every action or activity introduced must have an expiration date.

"You stopped doing what," may be a great strategy to improve your output and productivity.  It is time to ask this simple question. Be mindful that the answers may be difficult and complex.  In the end, they can only help strengthen your unit’s strategy and execution and move your organization forward in the right direction.

Not How Many But How

Subtitle: Getting viewpoints.

I remembered a colleague who had an interesting approach to getting various views on the issue at hand.  Let’s call him James.   When he had a topic or pressing issue that needed a variety of opinions, he would seek out three different sets of views.  These views are at times opposing.  He said that this helped him developed a better solution and in a shorter time.

Getting in line to share idea?

James would stage the conversations.  I am his exploration person.  He came to me for building ideas.  He said, jokingly, that I am so “full” of it.  He would present his idea; my brain glows with excitement and I start building and adding to the original.

James will also find a person who will oppose and debate the idea with him.   He will pick a side for the debate.  He enjoys the debate.  The intensity of the debate can be quite daunting at times.  However, he said that the debate generated addition ideas, concerns, obstacles and other useful information that he may not have thought of otherwise.  He will also find a third person.  This person would be indifferent to the idea.  James will try to win this person over.  It is not a sales skill practice but really trying to understand the person’s need and determine if the idea will help this person out.

Now what was it that you disagreed?

James really has a wonderful process for what he calls rapid prototyping.  With each conversation, he modifies his idea.  In the end, the idea becomes more complete and robust.  When he prepares for his presentation later, he can position his pitch so the solution addresses a need.

It takes skill and courage to engage people to these types of conversations.  Even the exploration conversation has to be skillfully handles or it becomes unruly.  For me, the difficult conversation is the one that entails a debate.  I have to learn to distill the facts from the emotions.  So to build an idea it is not a matter of getting lots of views from people but the types of views.  You get them from people who are FOR, AGAINST and NEUTRAL to the idea.  I wish you a pleasant conversation.

I Goofed You Shouldn’t

Sub-Title: Your Network is your Networth.

When I was the head of training, I had developed a good external professional network.  Each week I would get a call from them asking me if I could speak or present at their workshop or conference.  With each request I became increasingly arrogant with the value to my network.  If I agreed to the speaking requests, I could have one each week.  So I began to be very selective.  Not only was I sought after, but also I could call on my network to seek an opinion or to get help.  I had a very good network – or so I thought.

My career responsibility increased when I became a senior HR executive. With each passing moment I got more immersed in my work dealing with the internal issues of the organization and region I was responsible for.  Alas! I started neglecting my network.  I didn’t contact them as much and likewise they didn’t contact me too. Being a strategic HR partner took a heavy toll of my time.  In any case, I told myself that I have a good network.  Even when there is much lesser contact, I pride myself that I could refresh it when needed.

Over time I lost contact with many of my external network.  I made a major mistake of neglecting my network and I didn’t figure this step in planning for my next lap.  I realized my folly too late as I have already left the corporate world and into my next journey.  Letters and emails sent to the addresses I had were returned.  It was a very frightening time for me.

I spend the greater part of the first year of my active retirement re-establishing my contacts.  I am fortunate that I had a few people I could still call on.  They helped me re-connect with those that I was looking for.  I learned about on-line professional networks like LinkedIn and Plaxo.  I joined these and started rebuilding and re-establishing my network.  I wasn’t an easy task.  I had planned to be coaching and facilitating workshops during this time instead of rebuilding my network.  

After a year of rebuilding the network, my coaching and facilitating activities increased.  Now I can say that my network is my NETWORTH.  They have kept me active with challenging assignments.  I am so thankful for them.  Today, I have added another goal to my other three.  (See previous article, “Planning My Next Lap”).  My goal is to have a minimum of one contact – be it an email, a phone call or a text message – to every member of my network each year.  I am glad to say that I have achieved it and will continue to work on improving it every year.  Right now, I am averaging 1.5 contacts per person per year.

I goofed and you shouldn’t!  Never neglect your network.  You could just send them your personalize New Year greeting not just those forwarded ones.  Personalized messages, no matter how simple, are more sincere.  It shows that you have taken the time to craft a message to connect with them.  When time comes to seek help from your network, they will be there for you.  I know that my network came through for me.  I am blessed and grateful to have such wonderful people in my network!

Who Should I Be?

The articles I have posted appeared to be a random selection of my life stories.  I hope that each story has helped you with some ideas or another option on how you can deal with your situation.  I know our situations are never identical but as long as the stories help being a catalyst to an action, I am delighted.

You may have noticed that each article has labels.  There is a structure to these labels.  The website arranges the labels in alphabetical order, but upon rearranging them, the labels look like this

• Knowing Yourself
• Aspiration
• Career Planning
• Managing Yourself
• Career Conversations
• Managing Others

When I started working, I had not figured these out.  I now have the hindsight and hopefully others can benefit from it.  Throughout my journey and until now, I have had the blessing and fortune of meeting people whom I could reach out to for help.  To these people I am thankful.  Many of them are written or will be written in my stories.  With this knowledge I have helped my coachees and those who seek my help with this process.

There are two areas that I have not touched on yet.  These are:

• Career Execution
• Constant Review

You may have your own algorithm for a successful career planning and execution.  If you do, congratulation! You are ahead of many that I have spoken to. 

For me, my career journey starts with knowing myself well.  Who am I really?  What am I capable of?  What are my strengths, my weaknesses?  How do I find out?  Knowing myself better will help me articulate my aspiration.  Sometimes a person should have more than one aspiration.  In fact I think everyone should have a plan B.  This will help make the career planning more robust.  Just like a game of chess, you may plan many moves and execute some of them.  The aim is the same – being successful.

Now that you know more about yourself, where you want to go and have made your plans to get there; the next action is to take the first step to begin the journey.  You need to manage yourself so that each step taken is aligned to your competencies and aspirations. Some steps may include gaining additional skills and knowledge. From time to time, during your journey, someone may present you with an opportunity.  How do you evaluate these opportunities?  Will the opportunity move you closer to your aspirations?  Will it help you gain additional competencies?  Opportunities may not always be presented to you.  Sometimes you need to seek them out.  How do you seek them? A good network and great career conversations will help you find out.

There will also be obstacles and derailments in your career paths.  How does you minimize these?  How do you get out of it?  Managing yourself and others well will help.  I think of others as those I come into contact with – my boss, my staff, my peers, my friends, my family members and my network.  The way you interact with them will determine your success in managing yourself and others.

Finally, one needs to get feedback constantly.  You need to know if where you are going have changed and if you have deviated from the planned path.  You must to know if you need additional tools, skills and knowledge to continue.  There are many things you need to know.  To find out, you will need to seek constant feedback and reviews to move forward.

As you read my stories, reflect on the labels (or steps) too.  I hope that both the stories and the steps can help you as you create your own exciting career journey.

A Great End To 2010

My year ended with the wedding reception of my youngest daughter in the beautiful island of Penang, Malaysia.  What a wonderful way to complete the year.  The build up to the wedding was exciting and filled with planning and execution.  I had to rely on all the experiences that I gained from work.  The evening had to be a memorable one for her.  I am happy that the reception went well and all the events went like clockwork.  Most importantly, the reception began on time and ended it on time.  I thank my guests for their timeliness and kind attendance.

I have heard horror stories of reception starting as late as an hour.  I didn’t want this to ruin the festive mood of my daughter's wedding.  From the tea ceremony to the bride’s and groom’s grand entrance, the activities occurred as I had planned them.  My guests were a beautiful mosaic of different nationalities, ethnicities and religions.  It is only appropriate to honor them with fun, good food and timeliness.  They started arriving at 6:30 pm.  Cocktails were served.  Family and friends gathered to chat and reminisce.  It was really a sight to enjoy.  There were laughter and surprises from those who haven’t seen each other for some time. 

 

The wedding guests were seated by 7:30 pm.  Dinner started at 7:50 pm after my wife’s and my welcome speech.  The atmosphere was party-like.  The tables were arranged to provide enough space for dancing.  The bride and groom choreographed their couple dance to cover the dance floor and all my guests had a clear view of the dance.  The Food and Beverage manager at the hotel was impressed that the activities were no more than 5 minutes off the schedule.

 

For those who were expecting a posting around Friday of last week, I apologize and seek your forgiveness.  I hope you can appreciate the number of things my wife and I had to do.  Life is returning back to normal and so will be my posting.  Be on the lookout for my next posting “Who Should I Be?”

They Needed Your Permission

While coaching a senior executive from a large corporation, she talked about managing her time better.  She said that she should delegate more effectively.  Her role had been recently expanded.  With that came, not only additional accountability and responsibility but also additional staff.  She complained that she is swamped with an exponential increase in emails and actions required of her.  In addition, the number of decisions she had to make increased too. She was busy, busy and busy.  What bothered her was that some of the decisions were rather trivial and she felt that her staff could make them.

It reminded me of a similar situation I was in.  I had just been assigned to lead a larger operation in the Asia Pacific.  Most of the staff had heard of me before my arrival.  But, they really did not know me as a as a person.   I was excited and eager to impress my new team and my management.

A senior manager from my Asia Pacific operation came to me to discuss an issue and to get a decision.  I listened, asked a few questions and without hesitation told him of my decision.  I felt good about my decision and the senior manager executed it flawlessly.  The manager came back some time later with another issue and looked for another decision.  Again, I listened, ask some questions and made my decision.  This time, I felt a little uneasy with the whole episode.  I thought that it wasn’t a difficult decision and that the senior manager could have made it.

The manager came to me for another decision.  Again I listened and asked some questions.  This time, I asked him what decision would he have made if he were me.  He looked surprised and hesitated.  At the end he told me what he would do.  I listened attentively and said, “That is wonderful! I would have taken the same decision.” So off he went and executed the decision.

He came back again for another decision.  I listened, asked some questions and asked him what he would have done.  He told me and I acknowledged it as a good decision.  This time I didn’t stop there.  We talked a bit more about decision making and what style he is used to.  It was then that I learned that he could have made all those decisions but feared making them as he was previously “burned” for empowering himself.  We ended the conversation with a limit of authority where he was empowered to make decisions.  He NEEDED MY PERMISSION to make those decisions and he got it.

After listening to the story, my coachee decided to try it out.  The next day I received an email that titled, “It Worked” from her.  She spoke to her staff about not requiring her approval for routine work and her staff said, “Oh! I didn’t know that I could do that.  I am just used to checking with the powers to be.”  In this circumstance, the staff is the power.  The staff was pleased and so was my coachee.  She received fewer emails, fewer routine things to review and can dedicate more time to envisioning and enjoying her other activities.

Disagree and Build

I have got over the discomfort of agreeing.  There are times I disagree.  I needed to find a way to disagree without creating bad feeling.  If the disagreements are handled poorly, I felt that I will be judged as not supportive.  I wanted them to know I disagree but will continue to find a way to meet the objective.

                                                                              

I observed the participants and their interactions in many meetings.  Everyone was focused on the topic.  There were times when an idea is attacked.  But the presenter of the idea did not feel attacked.  I looked upon this exchange with wonder.  My culture indicated to me that an attack is an attack.  If you attack my idea, you attack me.  Participants in these meetings can discredit an idea and debate to great length the merits of the disagreement.  At the end of the meeting after all the argument, the parties that were on opposite side of the issue were chatting and laughing together.  It amazes me that there were no ill feelings.

I learned much observing them.  At the end of their debate the original idea evolved into a stronger one.  The original idea was built into one that everyone accepted.  This was wonderful.  It looks like I am painting a rosy picture.  There were times when things don’t go well.  Usually it is when the proposer felt attacked and did not want to budge from the proposed idea. 

The key is Building an idea.  I started with agreeing.  Now I learned how to agree and build.  I learned to make statements like, “That is a wonderful idea and should work well in Asia.  It will work even better if that is translated into local languages.  Thus, providing a budget for translation will ensure a successful implementation.”  After a short discussion on translation, the conversation moved to which languages and amount to budget.  It is not a debate of the need for translation.

So how do we DISAGREE?  For me, Build is again the key ingredient.  My observations led to conclude that I cannot just disagree and stop at that.  People expect an alternative – a build.  If you can’t find a build, then you may have to drop the disagreement.  It could mean that your knowledge of the topic is not deep enough or your conviction is not strong enough.

In a meeting on a development of a learning program that will be rolled out globally, there was a discussion of what motivates a person to act.  The case example was that both the TV set and the fridge broke down at the same time.  To make matters worse, the Super Bowl is televised live the next evening.  You had enough money to replace one.  Which one would you?  I disagreed with the example to be used.  I said something like, “I think a case study to force a person to a difficult decision is important to the program but to the audience in most countries in Asia, Super Bowl has no significance and an overwhelming number will select replacing the fridge over the TV.  This defeats the intent of making a difficult decision and a deeper understanding of the person’s need.  I suggest that we redesign this portion to enable local customization.  For instance, we may use a situation of a fridge and buying tickets home for the Spring Festival family reunion. In another country, we may use the World Cup with the fridge.

This conversation turns out to be more pleasant than just saying it doesn’t work without offering an alternative.  So, to DISAGREE, I learned to AGREE; then AGREE and BUILD; and finally DISAGREE and BUILD.

To Disagree, First Learn to Agree

When I was growing up, there were two aspects about speaking that I thought were important.  One is that you spoke only when you had something important to contribute.  Secondly, it is impolite to express your disagreement directly.

In the beginning of my USA assignment, I applied this philosophy to my meetings.  The sound levels at these meetings were much higher than those I had experienced.  The conversations flowed from one person to another without much pauses.  At times, a new conversation started before the previous one ended.  My ability to say anything was drastically limited.  I couldn’t find a break point to make a statement.  I comforted myself saying that it was all right. At the end, the problems were getting solved and the actions plans were becoming concrete.  So, although I didn’t say much, I was happy with the outcomes of the meetings and committed to the actions.  Saying anything, I justified, would just lengthen the meeting and added to the decibel.

My manager, after observing me for a few meetings, called me aside and asked me why I was so quiet in those meetings.  I told her that the meetings were going well and I didn’t need to say anything to disrupt the flow.  I agreed with their good suggestions and actions.  She listened and then asked me if I was really happy with the outcome.  I reaffirmed that I was and therefore didn’t need to say anything else at the meetings.

What she said next surprised me.  She asked me why I didn’t say that I agreed with the outcomes and supported the plans.  I argued that I took good notes and even showed her all the actions items for me.  In her collected tone, she said, “You really must say something in a meeting.  The participants need to know that you are there, not only in body but in mind and spirit.  If you agree with the outcome, tell them.  Tell them you will support the actions. I know you are committed to the actions and have always completed them.  But you must TELL them.”

It wasn’t an easy task.  I am not used to making such statements.  The words don’t fall neatly into place.  Taking her advice, I began to practice various phrases to state my agreement and support.  I wanted to ensure that what I say carried the message with SINCERITY.  I leaned to say words like, “That’s a wonderful idea!  I think the team in Asia can support that.”  I practiced many other statements, for variety, so that when the time came for me to use them, I have them handy.

Some may argue that making those statements make one shallow and superficial.  It may not enhance or even maintain the self-esteem of the person making them.  On the contrary!  I felt good making those statements.  More participants came up to me after the meeting thanking me for my ideas, contributions and support.  I felt great!  I meant those statements and my actions showed.  I am now a member of meeting – not only by association but also by contribution.  I am no longer perceived as a bystander.

My philosophy on speaking out has changed.  I am comfortable agreeing.  But, I must still be able to disagree when needed.  Is there a proper way?  Everyone has their own.  For me, I needed one more step – AGREEING AND BUILDING, before disagreeing.  That will be for my next posting.

Thank You for the Encouragement

I am overwhelmed by the responses to my first blog.  Your comments are encouraging and valuable.  Some have written directly on the blog while others have replied to my email.  I am deeply honored that you took the time to read the posting.  Most of you thought that the blog is fitting.  In his humorous way, Yongwoo faulted me for not advising him early in his career.

Thank you all.  Your comments bring out the fact that our situations are different and you have to manage your career conversations in a manner that is appropriate to the circumstance. For instance, TN stated that knowing your audience well is critical and that we have to assess the situation before entering into the discussion.  CL used a different strategy for her conversation.  She discussed her goals and objectives with her managers regularly.  In this manner, her managers got to know her better.

Many organizations encourage career conversations.  Unfortunately, there are some that don’t.  Even for organizations that encourage them, Mathia advised that they have to be done in an open and non-threatening manner.  The bosses and the associates need to play their parts.  It cannot be a one-sided affair.  According to SC, high potential talents must display some courage in taking on assignments given.  Taj did just that.  He had his talent spotted constantly and took on all the opportunities given.  Otherwise as VS suggested there will be missed opportunities and, as Jason said, one can end up as an “unpolished gemstone”.

Preparation is key to a successful conversation.  It may also make the conversation more comfortable.  Anjum knows its importance even when he dislikes having them.  Jason attested that communication and persuasive skills are needed.  In preparing for the conversation, Mariam mentioned the importance of a personal vision.  Tsui Chern’s “elevator speech” is a great way to get a clear and succinct message across.  In addition, Mathia asked us to take advantage of tools that can assist us in career discussions.  Anuraag reminded us to be sincere in expressing our feelings.   Finally, timing is important.  Bil noticed the need to find an opportune time to have these conversations. For those who organizations have scheduled time, you are fortunate.

I am grateful to all of you and I am encouraged to continue. So be on the lookout for the next posting -- “To disagree, first learn to agree.”