In winning argument give the loser a ladder

In most cases you would have 'killed' your enemy when you win e.g. court case, quarrel, etc...

Well, you will think that one should never let an enemy any chance of getting back at you in the future. And that's true. But there are plenty of situation why you wouldn't want to destroy him or her either.

So how do you win gracefully?

One way is to give or lend them a "ladder" to climb down. In other words, provide a means for him or her to back down, out or off without them feeling threatened or too embarrassed. If they know they have lost, they will appreciate your kind gesture.

To help explain, let me share a story about a friend who was threatened with a lawsuit that accused her of infringing a reputed businessman copyright. After one look at the so-called threatening email i told her that the businessman has no case - there's no infringement to speak of. So together we drafted a reply email clarifying why we believe we didn't do anything wrong and proceed to praise his contributions to the industry and even said we admired his products - while we speak the truth, we also had to lower my ego & pride. Most importantly, we ended the reply saying that it probably is a misunderstanding. Within a day of our respond, he replied that it was indeed a misunderstanding and promptly closed the case. Now, did you see the invisible ladder we gave him? Well, if you didn't, 'misunderstanding' is the ladder.

Like any wise men, it's better to have one less enemy than to add one more!

 

Apart from repetition, preparation is also a mother of skill.

Apart from repetition, preparation is also a mother of skill. 

Always go back to the purpose, objective or goal

It's easy to get carried away with discussions and ideas generated.. And loose track of the main purpose of the project or task on hand. Whenever, the discussion seemed to drag or lost its focus, i would always raise the question on what is the purpose of doing this in the first place! And nine out of ten times it works! And people will re-align back.. The tenth that didnt work usually meant the people you are teaming with really are problematic!! Or.. perhaps the purpose really needs re-examination! ;P

Running a home-based business

If you have been retrenched or sick of your present job, you may be inclined to think of starting your own business. It can be a tough but rewarding journey. And many may not have the big budget or financing needed to rent an office or hire staff.. So, probably the next best thing is to do it on your own and at home.

I've listed 7 pointers below to help us in our thinking process.. like a checklist..

1. Niche market. There're many businesses out there selling millions of goods or services. So, you must find your own niche to differentiate yourself from the rest. Otherwise, you will end up in the commodity section where people fight on price alone.. Apply market segmentation wisdom here.

2. Branding. Even if you are a small player, branding is still important. Whether you are selling your service or simply yourself, you need to brand it. Branding is not just a nice looking logo. It is everything about your business, practices, product/service, image & you! Even how your website looked reflect the intrinsic value of your brand.

3. Be creative. Be innovative. To stand out from the crowd, you have to be creative and innovative in all aspect of your business. Being small means you can be flexible in your offering to prospects. Use that to your advantage.

4. Have a plan - financials, milestones & targets. And follow thru while fine-tuning along the way. Even a one-man outfit still need a good plan. Set revenue & profit targets. Set milestones. Set review date. Do perform scenario planning - best, normal & worst case scenarios. Finally, the most important for startups is the cash-flow management. In it, you must learn to manage your receivables well. You may have booked your sales but if no real money flow to your bank you will not be able to sustain for long. Beginning stage, look at your plan on a weekly basis..

5. Quality Service. Customer-oriented. All said, at the end of the day, the question is whether you deliver value to your customers. And service is one of the most important factor you must consider! In whatever you do, be customer-oriented.

6. Internet & technology as a tool. Make full use of Internet & technology to make your business more effective & efficient. Do note that these are just tools, however. Just because everyone is on facebook and twitter you must have a presence there too. It all depends on your target market. Do consider your ROI (return on investment) in these areas. For example, if your target audience dont use the internet or google most of the time, it may not be wise to invest much time, effort & money on Google ads. Having said that, you must review the status quo periodically as consumer behavior changes over time.

7. Do not mix work and play. Even though you are at home, do separate working and family times. At best, separate your work area as well. Discipline is called for at the highest level here. And try to keep in touch with the world out there! Sometimes you may be too closed up that you loose touch with the rest of the world. Call your ex-colleagues & friends out for coffee and catch up with them. Know what's going on other parts of the business world.

9 things start up must know but no one tells you so!

From my working experience with small & medium size companies, these are the 9 key things that most are unaware.. especially for new startups..

1. Sustained earnings within 3 months. It is tempting to spent plenty of time looking for money and developing products.. and unintentionally loose focus on earning money in the beginning months. People wanted to improve & perfect their products first before rolling out to the market. But that may be a mistake. Learn from Google in this business era. Roll out fast. Improve later. Fail early. Fail fast. Early revenue will boost confidence & morale in the company.

2. Receivable management. Cash flow is the name of the game in recession. But actually it is a day to day operation imperative. Issuing invoice is not the end. You must monitor the process & progress. You may even need to call the client's accounts dept. Make friends with them. Understand their process. Who's signature required. Timing of their invoice processing. Active receivable mgmt is needed. Dont just sit there and expect people will write you a cheque.

3. Be close to the customer. Never, never leave your clients to your sales folks! You must go out and meet them. Get to know them. Get close to them. Know their needs and wants. No matter how busy with other operations activities you must never make this mistake.

4. Public relation. People thinks PR is expensive. But Internet is reducing the cost and you can do it for free by doing it yourself! Do your own press release. Write your own blog. Submit your release to news agency. Do it consistently overtime it will bear fruits.

5. Brand is not just a logo! It is everything! From people, process, product, company.. all represent the brand. Learn key elements of branding and protect it no matter what.

6. IT as an enabler. IT is not the business unless you are one tech firm. But leverage on IT to improve your efficiency & effectiveness.. especially customer experience.

7. Know your IP. Intellectual property is very important today since everything we do is in the form of intangibles. Tangibles such as hardware, equipment & building values are not as high as the intangible assets in today's context. Therefore, learn about the most common forms of IP and how you can protect & exploit them eg. copyright, patent, trademark, design,..

8. Competitors' response to your moves. If you play chess, you will know you need to think a few steps ahead and predict the opponent's moves and respond accordingly. But surprisingly, few does this mental exercise in real business world. Many have this great idea and implement it without considering how competitors will react and how you would need to respond.

9. Exit strategy. Most people hate to think about business failure. But over 90% of businesses failed in the first few years due to various reasons. Also, exit strategy doesnt cover only failures. It also include selling the firm at a good profit or go IPO at a right time, or exit the market you serve.

If you have more ideas to add or comments, please let me know. I love to learn from you too.

Comments/Input from others:

- Good Partner. Having a good partner is a must. It's really tough to do everything on your own. That's not running a business. That's self-employed! yes, many people have told me that good partner is hard to find.. thus, many gave up.. They dont trust any partner anymore! But how can anything progress without trust in business? We just have to be vigilant, have check & balance and lookout for good people.

- Auto-pilot. Build systems. I was reminded and remembered that i always challenge myself to auto-pilot my team or dept within the shortest amount of time, say 9 months. To achieve that, you need to develop systems, processes & procedure, simple guidelines or principles. Most people prefer to made the decision themselves. Maybe they like to feel like boss. Maybe they just like to make all the decisions! But that's not the way forward. I prefer to empower my staff and set boundaries and markers. They still come to me for urgent & important matters. But most will be handled by them.

Cheers!

When internal collaboration is bad

The problem wasn't collaboration is good or bad.

Research found that novice teams actually benefited from exchanging ideas with peers.

Rather, the challenge is determining when it makes sense and when it doesnt.

More often, managers ask how can we get people to collaborate more. That's the wrong question!

A better question would be, "Will collaboration on this project create or destroy value?"

In fact, to collaborate well is to know when not to do it.

Decision Making Process

After years of observing management and being a manager myself, i've learned that many of the complaints towards poor management ties to poor decision making.. slow decision making, or a lack of it..

The solution is simple. Define a decision making process that the management endorse, and then adhere to it. It's important to define and agree on such a process before any other decisions are to be made..  otherwise, it will be politically motivated and steered in the wrong direction. The challenge now becomes defining a good decision making process rather than the decision itself.

PR during Crisis Management

In an emergency event, you should do the following:

1. Be upfront & honest
2. Be quick to respond
3. Be empathetic
4. Detail the steps to aviod repeat mistakes
5. Detail the actions to resolve current situation
6. Give specific steps for customers to take if necessary
7. Deliver any message by the CEO or President

If you see a company didnt do a good job in handling the situation, it usually boils down to 3 things:

1. They dont have a plan to handle crisis
2. They have a plan but didnt rehearse
3. They become defensive rather than showing empathy

Remember, that consumers do accept mistakes and tragedies if they are handled well.

note: extracted points from Brand Asset Management by Scott M. Davis page 167-168.

Stay positive @work

3 Ps & getting a life. Ref: Straits Times pg R32.

How do you counteract negativity in your workplan.

1st P - is it personal?
When your boss is in a bad mood & scolded you the whole morning.. When one of your seemingly neutral comments became the focal point of an argument, it may have nothing to do with you. They're just in bad mood and u happen to be there. When your boss comment abt the poor results, he may be talking abt the process or external factors beyond your control, and not abt your poor management skills.
In fact, in most cases, people are more worried about themselves and more interested about themselves than you. It's sad but true.

2nd P - is it permanent?
"This too shall pass" expression is so true! And "there's light at the end of the tunnel". It almost always happen. ;-)
Just look back at your life and you know that somehow you will just get out of a tight situation.
Like life itself, nothing stays permanent. So dont worry so much. All shall pass.

3rd P - is it the big picture?
"What's the worst scenarios?" ask yourself. In most or all cases, you wont die because of it. At most, you loose your job. That's all. And most of the time, it's not that bad afterall..

Get a life.
Work is not the only thing/task in life. Balance your life with work, friends, hobbies and family. Dont keep thinking about work all the time. I'm a victim of this too.. i always think abt my work.. so i'm still learning as well.. Have to keep reminding myself once in a while.. That's whu i'm writing it on my blog here.. ;-)

Manage Less, Inspire More

Give employees a chance to do their best

and they will look forward to working for you.

1. Adopt people focus culture.
Treat employees as most valuable assets.
Value their contributions.
Give them more responsibilities, autonomy & freedom.

2. Be a leader. Not a manager.
Micro managing doesnt make you a great leader.
Trust your people to do a good/excellent job.
Show them the way but let them walk themselves.

3. Encourage risk-taking and innovation.
Overly focus on rules, policies will kill creativity & innovation.
Allow staff to take certain level of risk to try out new things.
Allow them to take time off & provide support for such projects as well.

4. Stretch & challenge.
Most people want challenges & give it to them.
Set new standards & get them to take up the challenge.
Inject some fun and create an interesting workplace for everyone.

managed chaos

For the past many years, i've always been thinking about how companies can manage better especially in the area of ad hoc/last minute tasks - which is the common complaint of the employees on their bosses..

Thru observations, personal managing experience and dealing with bosses, i noticed a great differing views & feelings between bosses and employees on this matter. But that's not shocking.. we all know naturally it differs. But differ by how much and why? and how can we close this gap?

Well, i found that bosses generally believe that most of the time last minute tasks cannot be helped. It's the nature of the work/business. So employees must adapt to it. Period.

In contrast, employees felt that most of the time ad hoc tasks can be better managed and avoided with proper planning. They believe that bosses just didnt make the effort to help reduce such incidents.

To close this gap, bosses need to change their belief. They should first begin by thinking that most tasks need not always be last minute or ad hoc. Business dont require that!

Clearing and clarifying the mental roadblock is essential; if not, the ultimate survival for a happy work environment! This must be followed by putting in effort to plan and create a system or mechanism of tracking upcoming tasks and providing early warning and improving communications flow with employees.

Employees must understand ad hoc or last minute tasks are unavoidable and to take it in their stride as part of the job.. it may sometimes affect your personal plans but it shouldnt affect your working relationship with your boss..

At the end of the day, if both sides never meet, it then signal the end of a good working relationship.. that's when both parties shall depart.. ;-)

Work by default is chaos in most minds of bosses. Can we actually manage chaos? Sounds like oxymoron rite? yes, and i strongly believe we can manage chaos by first acknowledging that work can be chaotic at times or most of the time. Arm with this understanding, we then develop a way of taking in these chaotic situation and transform it into something manageable - likely approach is to chop it into bits size - a divide and conquer strategy. We will also need a mechanism to track and monitor trends and upcoming events and to raise alarm when it hits a certain threshold.. rather than wait till it's too late totally unaware and unprepared.

In conclusion, believe in chaos and believe you can manage it. ;-)

tasks & time management

during breakfast we like to discuss wide-ranging topics from hobbies to work to family life.. today's topic happen to be on management since most of them were not around (on course, that is). To be precise, it's about tasks assignment and time management. One said that his boss dish out tasks that takes up 5% of time per task and therefore figure out that an employee can handle 20 small tasks at one go! I feel sorry for him to have such a boss.

dividing tasks in that way has been proven a failure. many employees have tried this approach and it's a complete failure! it's a lame excuse for bosses to load or overload his/her staff.

on the other hand, how about getting employee to focus 100% on just one task at a time? this is the other end of the spectrum which is as impractical as the former. in fact, no employer will be able to give such a luxury. the work nature will not allow too.

i think a balanced approach will be ideal. i practise focusing on doing one or two major tasks while keeping tabs on a few other minor tasks and then juggle between these tasks. usually in between short gaps or breaks of major tasks i fill in one or two minor tasks.

yes, it takes practice and discipline and not forgetting wisdom to know when to do what.. but definitely not 5% for each tasks or 100% on one big task!