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YOUR ULTIMATE CAREER& TALENT RESOURCE

YOUTH WISDOMA young man learns and redefines “success”

Pg 11

BANKER TO CHEFStrategy shift – at a personal level

Pg 10

HAMMERS & NAILSStrategic leaders and their expanded toolboxes

Pg 05SORRYseems to be the hardest word – but one we must all use more!

Pg 03

think bigthink strategicallywhy hr needs to stay ahead of the curve Pages 6-7

saturday 4 aPril 2015

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 20152

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QUotES

04

oprah WiNFrEy - prooF that Big DrEaMErS CaN MakE itBy TARA THIAGARAJANeditor@leaderonomics.com

OPRAH Winfrey is without a doubt, one of the most influential people of our time. Of course, she would not be who she is today if not for her past struggles.

People are bound to face failure at least once in their lives. Winfrey is an ambitious, driven individual who continues to not only maintain the name she has made for herself, but also uses her power to give back to society.

She faced many obstacles on her road to achieving her dreams, but was able to overcome them and succeed.

OvercOming ObstaclesOne of her biggest achievements to

this day definitely has to be her world-renowned daytime talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, which aired for nearly 25 years.

Although, at the time of its conception, a talk show hosted by an African American woman was almost unheard of. Winfrey’s hard-hitting, attention-grabbing topics brought in millions of viewers every week.

Her determination to succeed despite being a minority on television shows us that she did not let that apparent obstacle stop her from being the best TV journalist she could be.

She continued to follow her passion despite being fired from her previous job as a newscaster for appearing too “differ-ent” from her white counterparts on the network.

DO nOt stagnateYes, Winfrey did rise to fame because

of her talk show, but that is not all she is known for.

To this day, she continues to work not only as a journalist, producer, and chief executive officer of her own TV network, but also as a philanthropist.

She continues to help young, unfortu-nate children the world over. One highly notable example of this was when she founded and opened the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa.

She aims to help impoverished, bright young girls by giving them educational opportunities that would otherwise be out of their reach due to their socioeco-nomic status.

Her continuous involvement in her work after the end of the talk show that defined her career shows that Winfrey has the determination to always dream of bigger and better things.

Now that she has done her part rais-ing awareness of social, political, eco-nomic, and medical issues through her show, she works to help resolve those issues.

cOnclusiOnWinfrey never fails to inspire millions

of individuals in the world with all the work she has done. It goes to show that as long as you are capable of overcoming your obstacles and continuously working for a cause you believe in, you too can turn your big dreams into reality.

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” – Tony Robbins

“If things seem under control, you are just not going fast enough.” – Mario Andretti

“The universe has no restrictions. You place restrictions on the universe with your expectations.” – Deepak Chopra

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to help them build theirs.” – Dhirubhai Ambani

thE laCklUStrE haMMErLAST week, we shared some insights from a recent strategy& study, which looked at how CEOs have evolved over the past century. One of the key points was that the long term strategic plan might be a thing of the past – and that leaders have to be more agile and adaptable in a business environment quite different from 1914.

That said, the ability to develop and execute a strategy – though condensed in time – are skills we still need to develop. Studies have indicated that “54% of CEOs have entered a new sector, or consid-ered it, in the past three years” (PwC). In this issue, we look at

1. How CEOs can take their companies towards rapid growth and diversification?

2. How strategic human resources (HR) partners can work along-side their CEOs to prepare the existing workforce and to attract new talent to fuel the growth?

To start, we look at a strategy some might shy away from. The art of saying “sorry”. Roshan Thiran talks about the power of an apol-ogy, the lasting consequences of not offering one, and its impact on business relationships.

So often heard of unmalleable individuals, John Baybay under-lines the importance of letting go of that “Golden Hammer” and for managers to move from being masters of the functional domain to that of a strategic one.

Sandy Clarke is back, and this time with lessons learnt from CEOs who have grown their businesses while working alongside their HR teams to make it happen. He also shares 10 key points that HR managers of SMEs (small and medium enterprises) should know as their businesses grow.

Putting the evolving role of HR under a microscope, Daniel Russell identifies the gaps that need to be addressed when trans-forming HR to be strategic partners and change agents. In the upskilling of HR professionals, he also stresses the critical starting points.

Then there’s Zoe Rai, former central banker who decided to change his strategy at a very personal level, to embrace quite a different career – it certainly took courage to go from currency to culinary!

Marcus Lim, quite generously, shares the misadventures of his youth and how his single-minded unyielding strategy to success led him to top spot, albeit a lonely one. On a positive note, at age 17, he learnt an important lesson many working adults still struggle with.

From the winning team of RSA x Genovasi Malaysia Awards in the “Encouraging Social Enterprise” category, Mandy Choong talks about design thinking, as well as her aspirations to contribute to building a better world.

In Movie Wisdom, Caroline shares the inspiring story of a young woman who struggled with personal loss, sunk to the depths of despair, and then decided one day that she really needed to make a change – and that she did.

Have a fabulous week!

KAREN NEOHEditorleaderonomics.com

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 2015 3

SORRY?

CEOS and EvERYOnE nEEd tO lEaRn tO apOlOgiSEBy ROSHAN THIRANroshan.thiran@leaderonomics.com

A few years ago, I witnessed a scary sight. I was walking by the side of a road when a car suddenly cut out from nowhere into the main road,

almost killing a motorcyclist. The motor-cyclist was amazingly alert and miracu-lously swerved away. The car stopped and the motorcyclist immediately went over to the driver and started screaming.

The driver was a young woman who was obviously shaken by the whole inci-dent. The motorcyclist was furious and yelled in extreme anger at her and she tried to explain that she really did not see him. Finally, she burst out in tears and exclaimed, “What do you want from me?”

For the first time in about five minutes, there was silence. The motorcyclist was lost for words. I started thinking about a similar situation that occurred to me when a reckless driver almost hit me.

I never got to meet him and I only remember yelling inside the car in rage. I wondered if this same question was posed to me, how would I respond?

Obviously the “sin” had already been committed. The reckless driver could not go back in time and rewind the “deed.” Neither could this woman driver in the situation in front of me change history.

So, what did the motorcyclist want from all his yelling and ranting? After the strange momentary silence, the motorcy-clist said, “I want you to apologise.”

The woman apologised to him. He nodded, got on his bike and rode off. His anger had resided. As this scene ended, I realised, that was also exactly what I would have wanted from the reckless driver—an apology.

The Magical apologyA few years ago, I met up with

Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s foremost executive coach, whom I interviewed for our The Leaderonomics Show. One of the sidebar discussions we had was on the

power of an apology. He writes that “I regard apologising

as the most magical, healing, restora-tive gesture human beings can make.” Marshall goes on to suggest that “a person’s refusal to express regret and to apologise” as one of the top 20 transac-tional flaws in business.

There is a lot of anger in the world of business today from frustrated employ-ees, enraged customers, upset citizens and business leaders with pent-up anger from non-performing organisations.

Loads of anger everywhere, yet no one is apologising. No one is trying to douse the flame of anger.

Instead, everyone is triggering new flames by being defensive, argumentative and self-absorbed. And this is happening in many businesses today.

The power of an apologyAbout a decade ago, a large local bank

made a mistake on my transaction. I tried to rectify the mistake by phone, but to no avail. I went over to the bank to resolve it, but instead of having a conversation, an argument ensued.

I was livid as I thought it would be simple to clear up the issue. Instead, the people at the bank became defensive and insisted that I had to go through a bureaucratic nightmare for what was sim-ply a mistake made by the bank. And as this ensued, the hostility and anger grew.

After quietly pondering the whole epi-sode, I resolved never to do any banking with it. Till today, I refuse to even enter-tain any personal banking request with this group. If only they had been sympa-thetic to my plight and apologised, things would be very different.

The same scenario plays out daily in many businesses. Many times, custom-ers are lost in the process. Leaders play a huge role in setting the tone of being sympathetic and apologising.

Instead, we worry about liability. We finger-point, become defensive and avoid acknowledging our mistakes and thus never apologise. This resistance to apolo-

gising, leads to deeper resentment and ultimately causes much friction and pain.

There are huge financial benefits to saying sorry. In 2001, University of Michigan Health System encouraged health workers to report medical mistakes.

As part of the programme rollout, doctors had to tell patients and their families about errors made, beginning with a sincere apology followed by explaining in detail how the error occurred and what steps were being taken to remedy the issues.

Instead of getting more lawsuits and legal claims, there was a reduction in the number of compensation claims and lawsuits and a significant reduction in overall legal costs.

Apologies work. Authentic, heartfelt empathy diffuses anger and builds rela-tionships and drives business profitability. Alternatively, being defensive or refusing to admit mistakes creates anger and resentment.

Another study by the Nottingham School of Economics’ Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics clearly proves that an apology proved much more powerful than monetary compensation.

The study found that “people are

more than twice as likely to forgive a company that says sorry than one that instead offers them cash.”

The study co-author Johannes Abeler added that the results proved apologies were both powerful and cheap. He said, “You might think that if the apology is costless then customers would ignore it as nothing but cheap talk – which is what it is.

“But this research shows apologies really do influence customers’ behaviour – surprisingly, much more so than a cash sweetener. It might be that saying sorry triggers in the customer an instinct to forgive – an instinct that’s hard to overcome rationally.”

Research that shows that apologies can result in better outcomes for wrong-doers in a number of legal settings. A further study shows that judges in courtrooms are influenced by offend-ers who say sorry. A landmark study by the University of Illinois law professors Jennifer Robbennolt and Robert Lawless, showed that in bankcruptcy cases, saying sorry often resulted in judges being more lenient.

So what does this mean for you as a leader in your organisation?

look ouT for parT 2: The apologeTic ceo

n Roshan Thiran is CEO of Leaderonomics, a social enterprise passionate about transforming the nation through leadership development. He sincerely wishes to thank everyone who has been reading his column and giving him feedback and ideas. To engage with him, connect with him via LinkedIn or at www.facebook.com/roshanthiran.leaderonomics

pEOplE aRE mORE than twiCE aS likElY tO fORgivE a COmpanY that SaYS SORRY than OnE that inStEad OffERS thEm CaSh.

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 20154

SOCIAL RANGERSBy MANDY CHOONG MUN YEEeditor@leaderonomics.com

SERVICE design thinking has become an innovative approach used by companies and organi-sations in business strategy planning and to create innova-

tive solutions.Although the practice of service design

is still making its debut, the service indus-try is not. The service industry covers almost every aspect of our daily lives, in either tangible or intangible ways, from buying products in shopping malls to tak-ing public transport or studying with an education provider.

DISCOVERING SERVICE DESIGN

So, what does a service designer do? Normally, when a problem or issue arises, for example when patients at the general hospital complain about the long wait for check-ups, the service designer is one of the first to be called up to try and address the problem.

The service designer would collaborate with people from other disciplines and carry out research before identifying the factors that are causing the delay, and then going on to design a solution.

What they do is to basically connect the end-users (people who are going for the check-ups) and the service provider (the hospital) in more effective ways to make sure everything runs smoothly, and therefore users are provided with a pleas-ant experience which in turn would help build trust.

In a recent competition organised by Genovasi and the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, my group and I acknowl-edged the potential of design thinking in shaping society and creating a better future.

Among all the creative entries, our idea was awarded the best prize for the category of encouraging social entre-preneurship. Our team (there are five of us) were second-year students from KBU International College, pursuing our degree for graphic design.

It was the very first time we had been introduced to the concept of design thinking. During a workshop at the Genovasi’s headquarters in Petaling Jaya, we were taught how to formulate effective solutions to common problems.

We were taught that a solution sometimes does not need to be fancy or complicated, it should be user-centric and practical. We applied what we learnt from the workshop, into the Weekend Heroes project.

UNDERSTANDING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP

According to our chosen brief, we recognised that the challenge of this project was to cultivate a network of social entrepreneurs and to also create a system to support and encourage their growth.

Before stepping into data research, it was very important for us to get an understanding of social entrepreneurship and what social entrepreneurs do.

To summarise, social entrepreneurs are people who use innovative business tech-niques to solve societal problems, and who do not normally focus on profit.

For example, the Embrace project, founded by Jane Chen has solved the troubling issue of newborns dying of hypothermia in develop-ing countries by creating a low-cost baby incubator called the Embrace Warmer.

Another example is the KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Programme), founded by Richard Barth that runs on a simple idea: Keep kids longer in school so they can learn more. KIPP provides education services to kids from underserved communities with one goal – to bring everyone to and through tertiary education level.

OUR STRATEGIC THINKING PROCESS

We contacted a few local social entre-preneurs to collect information. We were so privileged to have the chance to speak with the chief executive officer of Leaderonomics, Tandemic and represent-atives from SOLS 24/7.

Sharing their insights, we witnessed their driving force to contribute to society. These social entrepreneurs are fighting for a change so the world can be a better place.

However, working in non-profit centred companies also brought them difficulties,

such as funding issues, manpower dif-ficulties, etc.

But to see their commitment to serve the community, we were inspired even more to work harder to create a system that would support them.

After knowing the entrepreneur’s side of stories, we wanted to listen to the voice of the community. We conducted random interviews and discovered that a huge number of people do not know what social entrepreneurship is.

Moreover, we discovered that Malaysians are constantly busy with their jobs and have no time or inclination for social work.

Some even have prejudices on volun-teerism.

To promote social entrepreneurship, we needed to encourage people to do social acts by:

l allaying their worries on volunteer work.

l rewarding them for contributing.

To this end, we created a system called the Weekend Heroes.

THE WEEKEND HEROES CONCEPT

Weekend Heroes is a non-profit organi-sation which serves to connect the public with social enterprises.

The name itself suggests a concept of doing good during the weekend, which helps to allay people’s worries about their commitment to social activities.

Working adults are apprehensive of over-commitment. They do not want social work to interfere with their daily routines. Therefore, the idea is to contrib-ute only on weekends.

However, nothing starts without clear understanding. Participants are first encouraged to learn by watching videos and reading articles written by profes-sionals on social entrepreneurship.

Next, they are referred to social entre-preneurship activities that are being organised by individuals or groups in their vicinity, and may register to partici-pate.

For every participation and engage-ment, participants would gain points which are tallied by the Weekend Heroes Ranking System.

This point system builds up their personal portfolio which can later be downloaded in document form and used as supplementary information for job interviews or to secure loans.

Through implementation of this sys-tem, we hope to change public percep-tion towards social work, and therefore widen the chances of social enterprises in connecting with underserved communi-ties.

“IT WORKED!”During the Genovasi competition,

our idea was recognised by judges from strong backgrounds, and we were very honoured.

When I was preparing for the pres-entation of the Weekend Heroes idea, I was not very confident as it seemed too simple: encouraging people by rewarding them, and helping entrepreneurs by con-necting them with people.

However after winning the category, my group and I realised that a solution does not need to be fancy or complicated to solve issues.

The evolving economy nowadays has made it possible for service design think-ers to transform the world!

n Mandy Choong Mun Yee is a graphic design

student from KBU International College.

She is the team leader for a group of students

which recently won the RSA x Genovasi

Malaysia Awards in the ‘Encouraging

Social Enterprise’ category. She learns and practices design

thinking and believes it can aid in shaping

a better society. To connect with Mandy,

email editor@leaderonomics.com

Interviewing social entrepreneurs and collecting information at Leaderonomics.

The interviews opened our eyes as well as minds.

DESIGN thINkING IS NO EASy tASk, yEt thIS muLtI-DISCIpLINARy, INNOvAtIvE wAy Of SOLvING pRObLEmS CAN DEvELOp AND tRANSfORm thE futuRE

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 2015 5

THE GOLDEN HAMMERBy JOHN WALTER BAYBAYeditor@leaderonomics.com

INSIDE an old dilapidated drawer on the top floor of an old brownstone in Clinton Hills, Brooklyn New York, you will find an old butter knife, the proverbial “Golden Hammer”, so

bent and chipped out of shape that it is easy to surmise that it had a long and useful life.

This was in college when I cross-enrolled at Pratt (which was heaven once you get in, but a nightmare when you got out of its gates). The same goes with Fordham in the Bronx. This was after all New York City in the 90s.

The worn butter knife has been used to open cans, fix bicycles, threaten part-ners and open doors that had keys locked in. It was simply indispensable.

I remember having to go into a room-mate’s room with the butter knife in hand ready to change the channel of an old black and white TV that had one of the dials fallen off, leaving a slot into which the butter knife fits and ready to twist with the slotted peg.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL?Unfortunately, we sometimes become

too attached to the “Golden Hammer” that seems to be the tool for everything.

So goes the adage: “If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. It is often said that it was quoted anywhere from Mark Twain, Baruch, Kaplan to Maslow. The behaviour is all too common with the story attached.

“That if you had given a boy a ham-mer, then you will find that everything he encounters needs pounding”. Kaplan describes the behaviour under the “Law of the Instrument” and to which every-body calls “The Golden Hammer”.

There are a lot of Golden Hammers in the office where masses of mid-manag-ers tend to hold on for dear life. The point is that people and especially managers tend to get attached to tools that have always worked for them.

It could only be described as an over-attachment to something that they always use. The common impression among most maturing managers is that they seem to have a “template approach” to everything!

The same goes for consultants that tend to marry a distinct set of analyti-cal frameworks. It becomes too inbred, thereby limiting their usefulness. They seem to think their tools offer the solu-tion to everything.

TIME TO EXPLORE YOUR TOOLBOX

Much to the peril of the organisation, being stuck on a particular mindset could lead to strategic blind spots that spell their demise.

* Refer to Figure 1

Similarly, managers could also suf-fer from “doing their jobs really well.” It is here we need to point out that: “Knowing your job is completely different from knowing the business”.

Managers need to move from the functional domain, to the strategic domain. It pays to see the bigger picture, lest you retire to be the master of your cubicle (see Figure 1).

The line that defines the difference between what makes a great man-ager and an awesome leader is that one knows what needs to get done as opposed to being stuck on “how we usu-ally do it”.

The old line that says, “don’t fix it when it ain’t broke”, usually does not apply in business. Competition is always looking for better ways to do things even if they are not broken. The “new way” could be their next breakthrough.

A FINE LINEThe same goes with your career. You do

not want to give an impression that you are that old dog that cannot be taught new tricks.

When you’re not scoring points dur-ing an interview because you’re seen as knowing too much to the point of being rigid and unyielding, then you can’t get that new job.

Once your bosses see you as being too comfortable or too good at what you do, then chances are you might get passed over as well. If this sounds like your situa-tion, then I strongly suggest that you find a mentor right now.

A mentor could give you the right perspective from the vantage point of someone who’s in place where you want to be. That perspective can make you see the bigger picture which isn’t often vis-ible from where you stand.

Use this vantage point to map-out and strategise your career. A mentor teaches you more about the business rather than just letting you know how to do a job.

It often takes more than what you have to execute a successful strategy. Sometimes it takes more than the tools that you have to make things work.

TOOLBOX+This is where strategic partner-

ships come to play. These partner-ships could be found from within and outside an industry, and they can also be found at functional levels across divisions and depart-ments within your organisation as cross functional teams (CFT).

A strategic leader recognises a need for a larger perspective to get all the angles of a situation. It often necessitates going beyond the realms of an organisation’s internal resources when greater collaboration is needed to deliver strategic results.

An ancient proverb goes: “For by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counsel-lors there is victory.”

It goes further in saying: “Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed.”

TAKE A STEP BACKSurely, a “big picture” perspective

can be used to gain an advantage over competition. The annals of warfare and business prove it over and over again. Perspective spells the difference between winning and losing. This applies to your career, your business or even the entire industry and beyond.

Just as much as I still reach for a butter knife when I can’t find the screwdriver, we must learn how to leave the depend-ence on the “Golden Hammer” behind.

Do not succumb to the “Law of The Instrument”. Find the right tools for the right situations even when they are beyond your usual reach.

Find a mentor. Gain a perspective from others. See the bigger picture and create a strategy for yourself and your business. It’s a long way from here to Brooklyn but I wouldn’t have gone this far without asking for directions and picking up some tools for the journey.

n John Walter Baybay is a regional management consultant who has worked for more than 17 years in corporate strategic planning and economic planning. He is a competitive athlete who balances his time between business coaching, family and working with communities. To read more of his articles, visit www.leaderonomics.com

MANAGERs NEED TO MOvE fROM THE fuNcTiONAL DOMAiN, TO THE sTRATEGic DOMAiN. iT pAys TO sEE THE biGGER picTuRE, LEsT yOu RETiRE TO bE THE MAsTER Of yOuR cubicLE.

Principle (Vision)

Policy/Directive(What we need to do)

Goals

Process/Plan(How to do it)

Objectives, Initiatives

Leadershipstrategic Domain

Management Functional Domain

Procedure/Execution (Doing it)Activities

Figure 1

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 20156 mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 2015 7

Can you afford not to upskill your Hr team?

MANY, if not all, business leaders readily agree that it is their employees who give them a competitive edge in the marketplace through strong customer relationships, inno-vating new products and services, or ensuring quality and commitment in their daily work.

Few, however, are able to quantify the impact of “bet-ter” employees on business performance.

The recent advent of the “big data” movement has helped business leaders understand how to deploy human capital analytics to demonstrate the competitive edge gained by high-quality human capital practices.

However, human resources professionals often struggle with how to measure employee business impact – value to the organisation. They are often frustrated when asked to quantify what is seemingly unmeasurable.

It can be very threatening when asked to quantify an employee’s value to the organisation or the business impact of the work we do.

However, HR is a data-rich environment and there are many ways to measure employees. Demonstrating the business impact of human capital can actually be rela-tively straightforward.

The High-Impact HR Operating Model 2014 report by Deloitte Consulting shows that companies with high impact HR are far more successful than others. Specifically companies with high impact HR are:l 2.5 times more able to adapt to market changes

fasterl 2.4 times better at creating new products/

services quicklyl Two times more efficient at maximising

business processesl Two times better at minimising operating costsl 1.4 times more likely to beat the competitionl 1.3 times more responsive to customer needs

In fact, 43% of business performance can be attributed to a combination of business leader skills, people management skills, and HR perfor-mance.

High impact HR professionals play a significant role in developing leaders’ skills and people man-agement capability.

reskilling for HigH-impaCt Hr is

not about training and CertifiCation in

traditional Hr skills but ratHer about tying Hr to business impaCt

tHrougH business aCumen, analytiC insigHts, and

CHange leadersHip

By DANIEL RUSSELLeditor@leaderonomics.com

THE role of human resources (HR) has changed drastically in recent years from administrator and policy enforcer to strategic business partner.

Today, chief executive officers see HR strategy as a key piece to enabling business sus-tainability and growth.

Business leaders have higher expectations of HR professionals to be true experts on workforce trends, employee data, and translating business strategies into high impact people initiatives.

Even while transforming HR, many organisations fail to retrain the HR professionals to enable them to execute more strategic and sophisticated HR operating models.

upsk

illing

for

HigH im

paCt H

r

MisalignMent of business and

HR goalsWhile most HR organisations

feel confident in their traditional operational and transactional

roles (e.g. recruiting, performance management, and compensation

planning), they lack confidence in addressing the more complex areas of talent management, business change, analytics, and globalisation.

Today, HR is being measured by its ability to strategically manage talent in a way that aligns with specific business goals.

Unfortunately, a chasm between HR and “core business” still exists and performance indicators for HR are rarely aligned to overall organisational goals nor are “HR goals” included in line with manager KPIs (key performance indica-tors).

There are a number of unintended consequences resulting from under-skilled HR professionals:

l Internal customers fail to adopt appropriate HR processes (e.g. HR shared services).

l Loss of credibility as trusted adviser or strategic partner within the business.

l Conflicts within the HR organisation as to who should engage with a client group on specific topics.

l Low internal customer satisfaction with HR programmes stemming from an inability to understand and customise solutions for business needs.

Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends 2014: South-East Asia report found that “Reskilling the HR function” was the biggest HR readiness gap for South-East Asian respondents.

Only 30% of respondents felt their HR function has the skills needed to meet the needs of today’s business environ-ment and 48% listed it as a key chal-lenge.

The report explains that a large pro-portion of South-East Asian companies have been either family owned or gov-ernment linked.

As such, many of the strategic “people decisions” were made at the family, gov-ernment, or business level, thus leaving HR to only focus on tactical operations.

As businesses in South-East Asia today compete on a global scale, leaders expect local HR professionals to level up to their peers from other multinational companies.

Even while organisations work to restructure and transform their HR func-tion, most have not placed the time and investment into redefining the competency model for HR professionals and upskilling talent for these redefined roles.

The most common reason for this problem is, “we don’t have the time and resources to spend on HR’s needs.”

tHe Many Hats of HR pRofessionals

Acting as an internal managing con-sultant, HR professionals take on multi-ple roles including employee advocate, business ally, talent manager, change facilitator, and implementation leader.

Researchers Choi Sang Long and Wan Khairuzzaman Wan Ismail from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia surveyed (study published in 2010) HR professionals using HR guru Dave Ulrich’s “Four Roles” model of HR: 1) Strategic partner.2) Administrative expert.3) Employee champion, and 4) Change agent.

They found that HR profes-sionals are still especially weak in the roles of strategic partner and change agent.

Relatedly, Deloitte’s research found that HR’s ability to be a consultative trusted advisor to business was the most critical factor in HR effectiveness. These findings clearly point to a critical need for Malaysia’s HR to upskill in key areas.

Upskilling as “strategic partners” and “change agents” sounds good, but what does it really mean in terms of new skills and behaviours?

HR as stRategic paRtneRBeing a strategic partner (and the

corollary trusted adviser) requires HR to become much more skilled in business acumen and analytics.

Many HR professionals locally imple-ment programmes based on “best practices” from aspirational companies like Google, Apple, or Facebook without really thinking through the relevance and business case for the practice within their own company.

HR professionals today must, at the very least, be able to accurately measure and interpret basic HR data like turnover, absenteeism, time to hire, employee demographics, compensation, and other foundational data.

To become a true strategic partner, HR must be able to marry these basic HR data to business results.

For example, HR should be able to advise line management

on the cost of turnover

by calculating average daily productivity per employee times the average number of days it takes to fill a vacancy once an employee quits.

This simple analysis can be used to demonstrate the cost effectiveness of retaining employees over lost productiv-ity. Unfortunately, most HR practitioners today do not have a handle even on the most basic HR metrics.

HR as cHange agentThe ability to transform HR into a

change agent depends on the credibility HR creates first as a strategic partner.

The transformation goes beyond sim-ply understanding and managing change to boldly demanding that business takes notice of the hard data and pointing to opportunities to unlock business value through HR programmes.

HR leaders need to take risks by hold-ing themselves accountable for busi-ness results and also demanding that line management take accountability for their part in high impact HR pro-grammes.

For example, once a business case has been made and accepted for managers to mentor junior staff (e.g. to reduce turnover and accelerate leader readi-ness resulting in sustainable business growth), those managers should be held accountable for following through just like any other business critical KPI.

To build credibility and relevance, HR needs to get out of the HR department and learn more about the business.

Ulrich recommends that HR lead-ers get out and accompany sales and operations leaders in client meetings to learn more about the company’s value proposition, key differentiators, and chal-lenges.

He suggests simply telling clients that they are so important that HR wants to ensure that their policies and pro-grammes facilitate employees to deliver-ing better.

Most HR practitioners today are too fearful to even suggest talking with external clients. Clearly, building cred-ibility and boldness is required to truly become a high impact HR professional.

In 2014, TalentCorp Malaysia launched its support of five HR certification pro-grammes, saying, “In order to attract, develop, retain the top talent required for Malaysia to reach her ambition of a developed economy by 2020, it is imperative that we raise the bar of the HR profession to improve the workplace practices and talent management initia-tives in their organisations.”

This programme is a huge step in the right direction. However, this is only a first step as these certifications cover only the foundational essentials of HR content knowledge.

The critical areas of business acumen, analytics, and consultative skills are outside the scope of these entry level HR certifications.

Business leaders are clearly demand-ing that HR professionals upskill and engage in high impact HR.

The chief human resources officer should play the role of championing the HR team’s transformation from service provider to business consultant.

Critical starting points include:l Investing in HR professional development. Benchmarks show that average HR teams spend around US$500 (RM1,800) on train-ing, development, research, and tools.

High-impact HR teams spend between two and five times as much! HR oriented, off-the-shelf training pro-grammes will not address the most criti-cal needs.

l Elevate and deepen the business partner role. High impact HR professionals include highly trained expert HR business part-ners, networks of deep HR specialists, all supported by HR service centres for transactional work.

l Focus on the highest impact critical skills. Business acumen, analytics, and consul-tative skills are the most important areas

to focus in the near term. Reskilling for high-impact HR is not

about training and certification in tra-ditional HR skills but rather about tying HR to business impact through business acumen, analytic insights, and change leadership.

l Conduct self-assessments. Clearly define roles and honestly bench-mark skills and effectiveness against like companies. Where is your team strong and where is it weak?

l Deploy against business goals. Consider HR to be an internal consulting organisation and deploy your best HR talent against the business’s most press-ing needs.

Cross pollinate HR with business professionals and pair them with strong content experts to cross train and upskill both.

l Improve measurement for HR. Measure HR based on talent met-

rics (quality of hire, retention) and related business results (lower expenses, improved revenue) so that HR is more responsible for outcomes.

Likewise, cascade talent goals (hold-ing performance conversations, men-toring, recruiting referrals) to business leaders so they share responsibility for people practices which drive business performance.

conclusionWhile businesses across

Asean are poised for growth, a key limiting factor is the scarcity of skilled talent. Organisations that can better manage tal-ent will see their effective-ness, market value, and reputation improve.

Unfortunately, most HR teams are not up to the job to drive performance in lead-ership development, workforce planning, analytics, and busi-ness insights. Upskilling HR is critical to business sustainabil-ity and future growth.

n Daniel Russell is director of human capital with Deloitte Consulting Malaysia. He has written white papers and book chapters on leading innovation, training and development, talent acquisition, HR technology, and employee engagement. To engage with him, email people@leaderonomics.com. For more HR matters, visit www.leaderonomics.com

85%

The Global Human Capital Trends

2014 report by Deloitte Consulting shows 42% of

global companies report that the impact of HR operations

on organisational success is “weak” and 85% of global companies believe they

must “transform HR to meet new business

priorities”.

42%

Despite the significant role HR plays in organisational success, less than one-third of leaders believe their HR teams are “Ready” to address their most pressing busi-ness challenges.

The rapid growth of businesses in South-East Asia put further pressure on HR to “catch-up” and deliver mean-

ingful value in business transformation and expansion. To truly meet these demands, HR professionals must understand the new practices, technolo-

gies, workforce changes, as well as diversity of cultures, languages, and regulations within the region.

High impact HR will go beyond these foundational knowledge areas to focus on

leading innovative HR programmes, manag-ing and integrating business and HR data,

as well as acting as skilled consultants equipped with business

critical capabilities beyond tradi-tional HR.

The High-Impact HR Operating

Model 2014 report

Companies with high impact HR

1.3x more responsive

to customer needs

1.4x more likely to beat the competition

2x better at minimising

operating costs

2x more efficient at maximising

business processes

2.4x better at creating new

products/services quickly

2.5x more able to adapt to market changes

faster

By SANDY CLARKEeditor@leaderonomics.com

BUSINESS is all about the bottom-line and if a company wants to maintain healthy profits, it needs to stay rele-vant and know how to adapt to chang-ing needs.

Most important of all, an ambitious business needs to become an ever-present name on the lips of consumers and potential investors. There is only one way to achieve this aim: through growth and expansion.

In my experience, as a journalist who has interviewed CEOs, business start-ups and stra-tegic advisers, business owners who fail in their overall objective to grow fall into one of two categories: they either swing from idea-to-idea (as entrepreneurs do) but never settle long enough to build a solid foundation, or they are so cautious and task-orientated that they fail to see the bigger picture of what their business can become.

Growing a business, even for the most seasoned CEO, can seem like a daunting task. Crossing borders and whole continents presents enough challenges for a traveller of leisure, let alone an organisation that is looking to break into unchartered territory and unfamiliar mar-kets.

Scotland’s first self-made billionaire, Sir Tom Hunter, believes the best way to achieve success in growing your business is simply to roll up your sleeves and do it.

Hunter has told countless business stu-dents that there is “too much reticence” towards growth for fear of making mis-takes.

As he puts it: “Whatever you want to achieve for your business, just get on and do it because by the time you’ve ticked off all your checklist, someone else on the other side of the world will have had their idea, put it in place, become a billionaire, and you’ll still be working on your business plan. Learn by doing. People think ‘If I don’t do anything, I won’t make a mistake’ – what a stupid attitude.”

BENEFITS OF ORGANISATIONAL GROWTH

There are a number of benefits to developing your business and putting the steps in place to ensure growth and be able to take it into new territory.

One such benefit is prolonging the sales life of your products or services when you find new markets to sell them in.

Another is, if your business is “plagued by destabilising fluctuations in your markets due to seasonal changes or demand cycles, you can even out your sales by tapping markets with dif-

ferent or even countercyclical fluctuations”.But the question is how does a business

expand across borders? It’s all very well talking about the wonders of taking your business into new territory, but as any good CEO will be thinking, “Tell me how it’s done.”

..AND HOW?Forbes.com – a leading

business news and financial website –advises that the first step to take is to con-sider whether a prospective market is big enough to warrant expansion.

They advocate thorough research to ensure any potential revenue more than covers the additional expenses that may be incurred through expan-sion. “Make sure you’ll be able to find people with the required qualifications in the market you are entering, or find a way to send talented individuals there.”

PEOPLE CONSIDERATIONSCEOs are also made aware that,

even though they might stumble upon a fruitful market, they’ll need a work-force in place to maintain company stand-ards and deliver on quality of service as well as business objectives.

If your business intends to source additional staff from the country into which it’s expand-ing, keep in mind that thanks to increasing competition (particularly in developing markets), employees need not remain “grateful that they have a job”.

Compared with 10 years ago, employees have more of a choice in choosing where to go, espe-cially if they’re considered to be top talent.

As an aside, Generation-Y employees are more likely than their predecessors to up and leave a company if it doesn’t fit with their needs.

With this in mind, it is vital to offer healthy incentives to prospective employees. Exchange

the question “why do you want to work for us?” for a list of reasons why people should come and work for you.

Do you provide health insurance? A decent superannuation package? Are bonuses available? Allowances? Are you a company that truly values its employees? Do you pay a competitive salary?

If we can take a moment to cut through the

saccharine rhetoric that usually comes

from selling your busi-ness, most employees are

driven by two desires: to feel com-fortable financially, and to know that they

are valued and are making a real contribution to the team.

If your employer branding can tick these two boxes, you’ll have a better chance of attracting top talent.

CROSS THE T’S AND DOT THE I’S Another important step to consider when

taking your business across borders is the regula-tions that are carried by the relevant country. It will be necessary to meet with either a lawyer or a representative from the Department of Trade to find out the requirements, visa issues, capital necessary and tax laws before doing so.

According to Forbes, while sorting out the legal necessaries can be time consuming, you should “never rule out the global marketplace as you may find that entering emerging markets will offer you a landscape with fewer competi-tors and a faster growing market sector”.

kNOW THE CuLTuREIf you are planning at some point to grow

your business beyond its current boundaries, the value of embracing culture and customs wher-ever you choose to settle can’t be emphasised enough.

A business based in Malaysia looking to set up in Europe will be warmly received if it’s per-ceived to be “local”, which is to say that efforts to align your business with the culture, customs and social norms will greatly improve customer relations.

In any business move, be sure to create great impressions with whoever you encounter. Your business reputation will flourish much more if other people are saying good things about it, than if you simply pay for advertising yourself. Therefore, creating a “local” feel for your busi-ness, wherever it is, will improve your image and reputation. Furthermore, it will go a long way in ensuring a healthy bottom-line.

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 20158

BUSINESS ACROSS BORDERSAggRESSIvE gROwth StRAtEgIES AND pEOplE CONSIDERAtIONS

mOSt EmplOyEES ARE DRIvEN By twO DESIRES: tO fEEl COmfORtABlE fINANCIAlly, AND tO kNOw thAt thEy ARE vAlUED AND ARE mAkINg A REAl CONtRIBUtION tO thE tEAm. If yOUR EmplOyER BRANDINg CAN tICk thESE twO BOxES, yOU’ll hAvE A BEttER ChANCE Of AttRACtINg tOp tAlENt.

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 2015 9

1 How strong is your recruitment, retention and

employee development plan?When branching out into new

territory, you may need to recruit top talent, and certainly retain the best you have at present.

What incentives are there for existing and new employees to be a part of that growth? And what development methods are in place to ensure new staff becomes productive quickly?

2 How clearly are you able to stand out from the crowd?

Your competitors will have effective means of communicat-ing with target markets. It is vital that your business understands what the competition is saying and how they’re saying it.

This isn’t an exercise in mimicry – the point is to stand out from rival firms – but understanding how other companies communicate should leave you in a position where you can communicate better in way that tells people: “You can’t afford to go elsewhere.”

3 Are your own people buying into the message?

It’s all well and good to have an external message that’s positive – increased awareness of who you

are and what you do increases consumer engagement.

But in the heady glow of growth, don’t forget the people on the inside. It is imperative that they share the company’s vision, understand why the business is growing, and the value they provide in helping to make it happen.

4 How ready are you for changes that may come as a

result of business growth?Are there roles within your

business currently that might have to be altered, combined or discontinued altogether?

It can be wonderful to think of all the benefits that can sprout from expansion, but be aware of any changes that need to happen and how they will impact your business.

5 The Devil’s in the detailIf your business is cross-

ing borders, make sure there are processes in place to understand legal requirements and regula-tions.

This doesn’t just mean making sure you tick all the right boxes, but also be aware of any benefits or resources your business may be entitled to for setting up shop and contributing to the economy.

6 Understand diversityWhile your business will

have employees from different backgrounds and cultures, branch-ing out means that the diversity of your business will expand.

With that in mind, it’s essential to understand differences within the workforce and to ensure everyone in the team feels respected.

7 How will your business develop a ‘local’ feel?

Wherever they are, customers like to feel that the people they engage with are just like them, or at the very least genuinely inter-ested in who they are.

What plan will you put in place to make sure employees – and managers – are aware of local habits and customs and are able to embrace them when dealing with customers?

8 What policies are in place with regard to

compensation?Business growth can be daunt-

ing for retained staff, and manag-ers will want to know how new employees can help the company continue the trend of success.

Companies are now waking up to the idea that employees aren’t simply paid for their time – it’s

important to offer rewards for skill development and organisa-tional performance, emphasising teamwork, collaboration, and responsibility for performance.

9 Are you in a position to afford employees additional

benefits?Your business is doing well to

consider growing its operations, and so it may be worth consider-ing if there are any extra benefits that could be handed out to members of your team.

Is there scope for things like flexible working time, paternity leave, extended holidays, and on-site childcare?

10 The business is growing – are the people growing

with it?Taking your business to the

next level is great, but also con-sider how the company’s growth could shape staff development. If there’s expansion into a foreign country, for example, could HR provide language classes?

Are there networking events or seminars that could add to the human capital of employees? If you allow your employees to be a part of the growth, they flourish and, in turn, so does your busi-ness.

thINgS thAt hR mANAgERS NEED tO kNOw AS thEIR BUSINESS gROwS

n Sandy is the editor of a regional magazine based in Scotland, UK. He has a keen interest in what makes great leaders tick and in helping others to unlock their leadership potential. To connect with him, email us at editor@leaderonomics.com

THERE are a number of challenges that come with growth and expansion of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). While these can seem like headaches, the fact that your business is ready to grow reflects its success thus far and is the next step to realising the full potential of what your business is all about.

Keep your eyes on the vision set out at the beginning, but don’t forget the practicalities that will need to be considered by your human resources (HR) team.

Here, we’ve provided 10 things to ponder when your company starts to grow.

tOp 10

CEOS ARE AlSO mADE AwARE thAt, EvEN thOUgh thEy mIght StUmBlE UpON A fRUItfUl mARkEt, thEy’ll NEED A wORk-fORCE IN plACE tO mAINtAIN COmpANy StANDARDS AND DElIvER ON qUAlIty Of SERvICE AS wEll AS BUSINESS OBjECtIvES.

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 201510

LIVING BEYOND OUR

COMFORT ZONE FROM BANKER TO

CHEF, ONE MAN’s DARING pLUNGE

By ZOE RAIeditor@leaderonomics.com

FOR most of my life, I built buffers and carved out life from a daily routine and certainty from a perma-nent job. This was my comfort

zone.To discover new worlds, you have to

first leave the safety of familiar shores and doing so is seldom an easy deci-sion.

Sometimes, it requires not letting that loud voice of discouragement stop you. That voice is none other than one’s own self-doubt. Just as moving along monkey bars, you can only move forward by first letting go of one bar as you grasp another.

All of which requires a leap of faith. The magnitude of one’s leap varies depending on what is at stake. The greater the leap, the greater the faith needed. In my case, the leap was phe-nomenal.

For over a decade, I have worked hard at developing my career at Bank Negara.

I had an extremely rewarding career that brought me immeasurable expe-riences, wonderful colleagues who became great friends and the privilege of working with inspirational leaders.

Why then would I leave all this behind for the unknown?

Of course, I myself was constantly plagued with the tussle of whether I was making the right decision to change careers. I was going through a difficult period personally

and wondered if that was the real reason.

I was aware that making

decisions based on situational fac-tors could be regretted once the situation changes.

Talking to people also brought mixed results. For every person I spoke to, I would get a polar

response. Some were extremely encouraging, while others refused to condone my decision to change careers. Some wanted to see me devel-op in new areas that I was inclined towards, while others did not want me to lose what I had built.

Ultimately, the decision came down to who I was and what I felt was the best for me. As new age-y as it sounds, I needed to find the centre of my being. That centre came from my fondest memories of childhood – growing up in the kitchen, watching and helping my mother.

Or rather, I was the human kitchen aid! I spe-cialised in whisking and mixing with the ultimate reward of being able to eat the excess food left on the mixing spoon.

I felt most secure in the kitchen and cooking was my way of sharing my love and fondness with those around me.

Being a hopeless romantic, I believed that following your heart would be easy. However, it was not.

Upon completing my schooling at the Le Cordon Bleu, I managed to gain a six-month placement at Quay, in Sydney, one of the world’s top res-taurants for my industrial programme module. I am no stranger to hard work, but I worked harder than I ever did in my life during those few short months.

Kitchen life is physically, mentally and emotionally demanding and I

entered it at an age where most would opt for less physically demanding roles.

The average shift is about 15 to 16 hours, all of which is spent standing, and if you are able to take a 15 to 30 minute break, it is at about 5pm to have your dinner. If you still need to prepare for dinner service, that break is foregone. There was not a single part of my body that was not in pain from utter exhaustion.

Do not even mention the cuts, bruises and burns. And I was at least 20 years older than everyone in that kitchen. But years have commodity even when it’s a young man’s game. This is where I used my age to my advantage. Having more maturity allowed me to tap into my inner strength.

When it got too tough, I reminded myself to focus and would also recite William Henley’s poem Invictus, “It matters not how straight the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”

Regardless of the odds, I have never been happier. I do miss my previous life at the bank, but I am at peace now. Even though it can be complete chaos around me, and stress is everywhere,

I still feel a sense of peace. That to me is an indicator that I made the right decision.

Although I have traded the pen for the pan, I brought my experience and what I learned at the central bank to help me deal with new challenges, such as interpersonal skills and com-munication, time management, striv-ing for excellence and self-motivation, self-confidence, perseverance and mental fortitude.

I am constantly in awe and wonder from being able to learn

from every second spent in the kitchen, watching peo-ple cook, be it in the pro-fessional kitchen or at the

humble stove of someone’s home. Everyone and every

experience is my teacher.Living beyond one’s comfort

zone is never easy, but it’s a decision worth making as life ultimately is made up of different experiences and new meanings. The support from close friends and family has also been instrumental in helping me get to where I am now, and to keep going forward.

I am able to not only be myself, but also share my innermost feelings with everyone around me no matter where I am with our most basic of needs, food. The unknown now does not seem as

scary as when I first started on this journey. At the crossroads of my life, I did turn back to take that long abandoned route. Just as Robert Frost took the road not taken, I decided to walk back and start again and it has made all the difference for me.

n A former central banker, Zoe Rai served at Bank Negara Malaysia for 13 years before switching professions to become a chef. Trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Adelaide, Zoe is currently gaining experience at various restaurants throughout Australia. To connect with him, email editor@leaderonomics.com

By MARCUS LIMmarcus.lim@leaderonomics.com

ON the first day of second-ary school life, I observed the towering presence of a person who had been entrusted with the highest

authority any student could receive – the head prefect.

His voice boomed through the school microphone, requesting all students to gather for the morning assembly.

Almost immediately, the prefects sprung into action to round up the masses, who obediently formed into perfect rows.

As a young Form One student, this activity looked and sounded amazing and I swore to myself, I would be head prefect when the time came.

EYES ON THE GOALTo achieve my goal, I decided to be

the best candidate a teacher could find. In Form One, that meant helping teachers carry books, helping my class monitor control the class, making sure I looked tidy and neat at all times and coming to school early.

I hung around the prefects and spoke to them about their duties, showing an interest every chance I got. All these I did to prepare for the day when they would nominate prefects from the first formers. Surely, my name would be mentioned as a candidate.

True enough, my wish came true. I was nominated to be a prefect – one step closer to my dream of becoming head prefect.

Right after my instalment, I felt a surge of authority and power over my friends. I begun to use my newly appointed position to get people in line. At 13 years old, that included shouting, giving commands and threatening to report them should they not follow. It worked very well!

As a Form One prefect, it was rare for us to take on the older students in the upper form, but to be a potential head prefect, I needed to control everyone.

This, of course, got the teachers’ attention as pro-activeness, but little did I know, I was slowly losing friends as I appeared arrogant and power-hungry.

Throughout Form Two till Form Three, I would actively participate in spot checks, continuing my shouting and commanding of others. I viewed the phenomenon of losing friends as part of climbing the ladder.

I told myself, “The higher we go, the more we leave behind.”

I was adamant that the best way to go about my duties was the hard way; to give people ultimatums they should follow, creating harsher punishments for students who falter, taking part in the ceremony of cutting people’s hair.

LONE RANGER wiTH A PURPOSE

The teachers loved my determina-tion and commitment to the school.

They would entrust me with duties and projects that no other prefects wanted, but as these increased, my reputation as a fellow student dropped in the eyes of my friends.

“It’s lonely at the top”, some would say. As leaders hit the peak of their career, they say that it becomes lonely.

Everybody who comes up to you and does nice things for you is only trying to “curry favour” – either a pardon for their wrongdoing, or to get into your good books. And as you interact, you learn that all the things you say, may it be good or bad stuff, somehow travels faster.

I felt misunderstood but I told myself, these are signs that I am achieving my goal to become the head prefect.

In Form Four, there were very few people who would still speak to me. Whenever possible, people would avoid me because I had offended them. But I did not mind at all.

Until one incident happened; there was a random spot check in my class and a good friend of mine, who was also a prefect, handed me her mobile phone.

THE DEFiNiNG MOMENTAt that time, bringing devices to

school was prohibited and knowing that I was a favourite with the teach-ers, she felt that I would surely be excused from the search.

While checking the belongings of everybody else, my mind was racing. Should I turn her in or should I let her go? My prefect mind said nobody gets excused for such crimes, and that she should be turned in. As the future head prefect, I should not allow myself to be biased. At the same time, it would be an outright betrayal of her trust.

After the entire spot check period had passed, I decided to turn her in. I surrendered the phone to the teacher-in-charge and confessed everything. I got praised for being a good prefect and for not being biased to friends.

I felt good at that time, but some-thing inside me knew that I had lost another friend. This time, someone I valued highly. She was called in and her phone was confiscated for the entire week. The teachers deducted her marks and warned that her badge would be stripped should she ever be caught again.

STEPPiNG BACK FOR REFLECTiON

This sorry incident began a cycle of reflection of how I had been behaving as a prefect and as a friend.

I finally became the head prefect of my school, but I lost all my friends and everyone’s respect. I still stood at the front of the assembly hall, and gath-ered students for announcements, but I had no friends to share this burden with.

It was only in Form Five that I real-ised that shouting and commanding people was not the only way to rise up as a leader. But unfortunately it was

too late.I realised that as humans, we have a

tendency to use what we are familiar with to deal with situations.

As for me, I spent four years shout-ing at people thinking that that would get the job done. Little did I know, all I had to do was take a step back, and try to understand and communicate bet-ter with my friends.

BUiLDiNG RELATiONSHiPSIf I had worked on building strong

friendships, I would not have needed to shout at all, since friends who trust each other will readily do what is asked of them.

As I began to understand this, things started turning around. I started build-ing friendships with the lower forms because I figured they had seen the least of my shouting and command-ing self.

Slowly I built up the circle to include students in Form Five – my own peers, the ones I hurt the most.

It was surprising to find out that when I reached out and asked for help, they supported me and helped me despite all the abuse I had hurled at them over the years. And I knew I suc-ceeded in balancing my ego when one of my friends said, “You’re a lot cooler now, you used to be such a pain!”

n Marcus Lim is a part of the youth division of Leaderonomics. He plays an active role in developing young lead-ers by coordinating and managing the Leaderonomics Club in high schools around the Klang Valley. If you are interested in developing yourself as a young leader, you can email him at editor@leaderonomics.com or visit our site at www.leaderonomics.org/youth/leaderonomics-club/

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 2015 11

If all you have Is a hammer, everythIng looks lIke a naIl

struggles of a youth leaDer

I spent four years shoutIng anD tellIng people off. lIttle DID I know, all I haD to Do was take a step back anD try to communIcate better wIth my frIenDs.

DIoDe camps!Do you have what it takes to go MAD (Make a Difference)? If you are between the ages 11–16 and want to explore the endless possibilities of impacting the communities around you, sign up for our exciting programmes this June!

DIODE Camps are specially designed camps for youth to soar as great leaders by providing them the right tools and skills through our fun-filled games and activities!

For those between ages 8–11, we have prepared a special two-day programme for you too! Sign up now at http://leaderonomics.org/youth/diode-leadership-camps/ to be part of the best leadership programme of the year!

[ ]

By CAROLINE REGINA PARAMESWARANeditor@leaderonomics.com

EVER wondered what drives people to react the way they do? Why do some people run away when dealt unexpected circumstances, while others

face the situation head on?Why do some people get buried in

their sense of loss while others rise above it?

These issues are addressed in the movie, Wild, which tells the heart-warming tale of Cheryl Strayed, a young woman whose life spins out of control after the demise of her beloved mother.

Her determination to pick up the broken pieces of her life and get back on track is based on true events from her memoir, Wild – A Journey from Lost to Found.

FINDING OUR TRUE SELVES

“Cheryl, if there’s one thing I can teach you, it’s how to find your best self and when you do, hold on to it for dear life.” – Bobbi (Cheryl’s mother)

This line speaks volumes about how we can easily lose sight of who we are due to the stresses of every-day life.

She becomes promiscuous and develops a heroin habit to drown out her immense sorrow.

To save herself, she decides to hike 1,100 miles. “I am going to walk myself back to the woman my mother thought I was,” she says.

Similarly, we may have indulged in unhealthy habits due to extenu-ating circumstances. It was not the hike but rather the time spent alone on personal reflections that gets Strayed back on track.

“Me time” is important as it gives us space to reflect on the things that we are doing. Just as we go through our wardrobe periodically to make space for new clothes, we need to periodically re-examine ourselves as well.

Reserving a specific time every week just for yourself can go a long way in promoting feelings of renewal and rejuvenation. Remove all distractions, turn off your gadg-ets, find a comfy spot where you can be alone and just reflect on your life’s journey.

BEING ACCOUNTABLEHow easy it is to blame others

when things go wrong. To point fingers and run away from respon-sibilities. However, Strayed teaches us about being brutally honest with ourselves. She acknowledges making some poor choices in life. Surprisingly, when she reflects on those choices that she had made, she does not seem to regret it. Instead, she views it in a different light.

“What if all those things I did were the things that got me here?,” she asks.

Rather than dwelling in regret or blaming others, she chooses to see her blunders as part of the plan to make her who she is today.

The same sentiment flows through Bobbi when she admits that she does not regret her abusive marriage as it resulted in Strayed and her brother, Lief, both of whom she loved deeply.

Strayed and Bobbi teach us that everything we have done in the past makes us who we are today.

Therefore, challenge how you view your past experiences. Adopt the mindset that all your experiences help shape you. Now, take some time to relook past experiences you may have labelled as “bad”. If you look hard enough, you would be able to see some good in it.

TAKING CHARGE“I’ve always been someone’s daugh-

ter or mother or wife. I have never gotten to be in the driver’s seat of my own life,” says Bobbi after being diag-nosed with lung cancer.

This profound statement indicates the single point of regret in Bobbi’s life. Only when she finds out that her days are numbered does she realise that she has never been true to her-self.

Oftentimes we do things to please others. We do what society dictates. But who are we living for? When will we stop living to please others and start living to please ourselves?

This does not mean shirking our responsibilities but rather recognising that we are our own individual apart from the other roles we hold in life.

Strayed decided that she was not going to share the same regrets as her mum. The moment she decided to hike, she just went with it despite hav-ing no hiking experience.

Sometimes, that is all we need to do. To just take that first step and run with it. Stop waiting for that “perfect moment” as it may never materialise.

Set aside time to do what fulfils you. This will go a long way in making your life more meaningful and satisfy-ing. The key is to know what you truly want in life and work towards attain-ing it.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTSWild shows us that sometimes

all we need is a change in mindset in order to live a more fulfilling life. Taking time off for personal reflections is pivotal in staying true to ourselves.

During these times of reflection, we must acknowledge our past and learn to savour the joy in our lives. Lastly, setting time aside to develop ourselves as individuals is essential in keeping us both sane and happy.

n Caroline Regina is an aspiring psychologist who enjoys movies based on true life stories. Such stories evoke her curiosity to find out more. Being an avid reader, she hopes to get her hands on Strayed’s memoir, Wild: The Journey from Lost to Found. Connect with Caroline at editor@leaderonomics.com

mystarjob.com, saturday 4 April 201512

If you have any suggestions or feedback on our content, get in touch with the Leaderonomics team at editor@leaderonomics.com For advertising and advertorials, contact Pravin Kumar at pravin.kumar@leaderonomics.com or +6011 2377 7850

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