Get A Life

Extracted from “The Star – 15 October 2013”

Here are 10 tips to help you achieve a work-life balance.

1. Adjust your perspective of work

   Most of us think of work as, well, work. However, sometimes switching your point of view to a less bleak perspective is all it takes to get us motivated again. Visualise how your small contribution in the office can create harmony in the bigger picture. The work that you’re doing now is part of the long-term plan to achieve your goals in life.

2. Utilise your leave days

   Some workers prefer not to claim leave days because they have nothing planned. Accumulating leave may seem like a good idea at first, but most companies have a “use by” date so they either end up being wasted or have to be utilised at an inconvenient time. Take a day off to travel, bring your folks out for lunch or just to sleep in! Take a break.

3. Talk to people at work and outside of work

   Nurture relationships wherever you are. Build friendships so that there won’t be any dissension or jealousy in the workplace. In the meantime, make the effort to properly connect with loved ones when at home. Spend quality time and have quality conversations with your family members to ensure that they don’t feel disengaged from you. That will also help them to be more understanding when you go through stressful periods at work.

4. Have a bit of fun everyday

   Schedule happy activities such as a weekly futsal session or a coffee meet up with a friend during the weeknights. Such activities rejuvenate you after a long day. Definitely a cure for weekend withdrawal symptoms.

5. Understand the difference between “urgent” and “important”

   As much as we try to control them, certain circumstances will require us to disregard the whole concept of segregating work and home. In those cases, try to identify which errands require your attention now (these matters are “urgent”) versus which things carry weight but are not pressing (these are “important”). Matters which are both “urgent” and “important” will be the ones you need to attend to first.

6. Get enough sleep

   We can’t change the fact that work begins at usually 9am, so avoid being nocturnal. Ensure that you get your regular seven hours of sleep every night so that you don’t feel sluggish before 11am. This will also help you make full use of your time in the office, thus reducing the need to work past office hours.

7. Allocate time for exercise

   Don’t underestimate the power of exercise. It’s not just about getting in shape, but also maintaining health, improving mental acuity and self-esteem too. Don’t limit yourself to just going  to the gym. Working out can be fun – go for a swim or a dance class, or organise a badminton night once a week.

8. Pursue a hobby, preferably one that isn’t work-related

   Much of our time in the office requires using a specific kind of knowledge and staring at texts and screens all day. Being passionate and diligent about something not work-related can help you feel more purposeful outside of your work goals. Activate other parts of your brain or skills by indulging in hobbies that enhance your other talents such as cycling, photography or even woodwork.

9. Don’t bring work home

   Compartmentalise to achieve a healthy work-life balance. Create a space at work that is mentally conducive to increase productivity, but balance it out by ensuring that your space at home is emotionally and mentally comforting as well. Avoid having these two spaces overlap unless absolutely necessary so that you learn how to switch your brain and mood from work mode to home mode.

10. Manage time wisely

   In relation to the point above, one way to ensure that your work doesn’t cut into after office hours (or worse, weekends) is to make sure you get as much done as possible while in the office. Stay focused and productive so that no one can fault you for leaving work at 5:30pm.

  

 

 

Local Horror

Extracted from “The Star – 31st October 2013”

Being a melting pot of various cultures and religions, it’s only natural that Malaysian ghosts and spirits should reflect the diversity of its living, breathing counterpart. Below are some of the ghouls and beings that haunt local folklore.

Pontianak

Arguably the most popular female ghostly entity on the list, the pontianak is said to be the spirit of a woman who dies in childbirth. As a matter of fact, the word “pontianak” is a corruption of perempuan mati beranak (woman who died in childbirth). The creature’s influence also extends to Indonesia where it even inspired the name of the city of Pontianak. Legend has it that the first sultan who settled there was haunted by the pontianak.

Toyol

A toyol (or tuyul) is actually an infant spirit that’s invoked by a bomoh from a dead human foetus. Kept in a jar, the mischievous being answers to its master’s whims. These include petty crimes such as theft to more serious offences such as murder. However, the person who owns the toyol would have to feed it with blood every morning. Due to the fact that it’s dead, the toyol is rumoured to have a big head, small hands, clouded eyes and a greyish body.

Orang bunian

Invisible to most humans except those with a sixth sense, orang bunian is often depicted as an Asian elf. It’s said that their appearance is nearly identical to humans. The bunian are said to inhabit areas far from humans such as deep forests or high mountains. They are often blamed when wanderers get lost in the wilderness or children go missing.

Pocong (Hantu bungkus)

Pocong is said to be a dead person’s soul trapped in its kain kafan (the shroud used in Malay burials). The dead body is tied in three places – over the head, around the neck and under the feet. According to traditional beliefs, a person’s soul will remain for 40 days on earth after his death. However, if the ties aren’t released, the body is rumoured to jump out from the grave and become a pocong. Due to the fact that its feet are tied together, the pocong can’t walk and hops instead.

Hantu raya

A supreme demonic being that acts as a double for a person who practices black magic, hantu raya (translated to mean great ghost) is supposed to imbue in its owner great powers. It is said that the hantu raya is the master of all ghosts and leads its own underworld legion. The demon is able to materialise into another human being or animal. It feasts on ancak, an offering for spirits that contain yellow glutinous rice, eggs, roasted chicken, rice flakes and a doll.

Orang minyak

Translated as “oily man”, the legend of the orang minyak is one that strike fear among parents with young daughters. Some believe it’s a supernatural creature while others say that the orang minyak is a human warlock that coats himself with grease and terrorises young women. At the height of the orang minyak legend in the 1960s, the mass panic led to many women, especially students living in dormitories, to borrow sweaty clothes to give the impression that they were with a man.

Jiangshi (Kiong Xi)

Depicted as a corpse dressed in official garments from the Qing Dynasty, the jiangshi is regarded as the Chinese vampire. It moves around (quite comically) by hopping with its arms outstretched and kills living creatures to absorb their “qi” (life force). The Chinese character for “jiang” in “jiangshi” means stiff and it’s rumoured that the jiangshi is so stiff that it is unable to move its head and limbs. One method to counter a jiangshi’s attack that is popularised by Hong Kong movies is to stick a fu (yellow talisman) on the creature’s head.

Ba Jiao Gui

Literally translated as banana ghost, ba jiao gui is a female ghost that lives in a banana tree and appears by the plant wailing at night. It’s been known in folk tales that greedy people will ask for “lucky numbers” from the ghost in hopes of striking a lottery. This is done by tying a red string around the tree trunk and sticking needles in it while the other end of the string is tied to their beds. When the ghost appears at night, she will beg the person to release her. In return, she will bestow a set of winning numbers. A horrible fate awaits those who fail to release the ghost after winning.

Nu gui

Nu gui (literally “female ghost”) is a vengeful female spirit. The lore revolves around women who committed suicide while wearing a red dress. Usually, the woman is a victim of injustice while she was still alive and she will return to haunt those who wronged her.

Mohini

One of the most famous ghosts in the Indian community, the mohini is believed to be women who committed suicide due to failure in love. After returning as a vengeful spirit, they are said to entice males and lead them away to their world, never to be seen again. According to some myths, the mohini appears as a beautiful woman with bells worn around their ankles.

Simple Steps To Sales Success

Extracted from “The Star – 15th October 2013”

We all know that sales and the people behind it are the driving force in every industry, but that is no surprise.

The real surprise is how few business owners actually understand the elements needed in their planning and strategy to really push the sales process forward and reap the financial rewards they seek.

Well, if you are one of those business owners stuck in this rut, don’t worry! The truth is, rectifying the situation is relatively simple.

As such, here are four great tips you can use to get out of this little kerfuffle and on the fast track to great sales figures.

BE CLEAR ABOUT YOUR OBJECTIVES

In sales, nothing is more important than knowing exactly what you want your company to achieve.

In this aspect, being clear about the objectives means having a very specific, quantifiable goal for you and your team to accomplish.

For example, if you were in the coffee business, your objectives may include:

• Converting 25% of all new customers
• Earning RM2mil more in net profit, and
• Selling 15 tonnes more coffee powder by the end of the third quarter

Of course, coming up with set objectives is useless unless your staff know how to achieve your desires.

It is important to provide a roadmap to guide them towards turning your objectives into reality.

This includes setting up the necessary funds to reach your goals, laying the marketing groundwork to attract qualified prospects and even streamlining your operations to be more aggressive in terms of profit-making.

SELL THE SIZZLE

In every sales situation, there is always something called a “Sizzle Point”.

This basically is a factor or element in your business offering that is an emotional peak point which “heats-up” the desires of your clients and makes them want to proceed with buying behaviour in anticipation of satisfying their needs.

Now, I find that for most people, their “Sizzle Point” is usually the prospect of achieving a positive end result.

Conversely, seldom are people deeply-enamoured by the process of getting there because the excessive amount of details will dampen their enthusiasm.

As such, it is important to ensure that your sales message focuses on helping prospective clients to achieve their results rather than boring them with too many details.

PROVIDE SOCIAL PROOF

One of the biggest problems in any sales situation is that most people are sceptical. In other words, they would prefer to let other people adopt products first before actually considering its viability in their own lives.

The crux of this issue belies their risk tolerance. The hard truth is that the risk tolerance of consumers, especially in our region, is relatively low.

To circumvent this issue, one of the best ways is to provide social proof. Now, social proof is basically examples of how other clients have benefited from your business offering.

Examples of social proof include testimonials, pictures, articles and industry accreditation.

With this social proof, you will provide undeniable evidence and support from the market, your industry and even the media with regards to the authenticity and effectiveness of your product.

This reduces the perceived risk of your clients and entices them to adopt your product or service. However, please note that these accreditations need to be highlighted in all your marketing collaterals; from flyers to your website and even advertisements to ensure maximum exposure.

HAVE A CLEAR CALL FOR ACTION

One interesting thing about conducting sales is that people generally need an instruction to take action.

This instruction, or call-for-action, can be seen as a final and gentle encouragement for them to open their wallets. However, in order for it to be effective, a call-for-action needs to be explicit and yet not overbearing or threatening.

For example, one of the best ways is to highlight the value of your business offering and remind your customers how much they stand to lose if they do not partake in it now.

Another technique can be in providing bonuses for the first 10 people who sign up. By providing a limit on the number of people in relation to additional benefits, you will spur the competitive instincts of your customers towards accepting your deal.

On a final note, please let me state that these techniques are really just the proverbial tip of a very substantial iceberg.

Over years of helping hundreds of corporations and business owners hone their sales techniques, I believe the most important factors towards generating great sales is to have a continued desire towards learning new methods.

Only then will you have the ability to supercharge your sales and pursue stronger, better and more substantial profit margins.

 

 

 

Create Magazines Using Flipboard

Extracted from “The Star – 8th October 2013”

Raise your hand if you’re on Twitter, have a Facebook account, +1 on Google+, upload photos to Instagram and pin on Pinterest.

Good. I see lots of hands.

Now how many of you are on Flipboard and are using the platform to create magazines?

I still see a decent number of hands. But as someone who uses Flipboard every day, I want to make sure you are getting the most out of it. So for the next several hundred words, I’m going to share my tips and tricks for creating awesome content on Flipboard.

• First things first: What is Flipboard? The company bills itself as “your social magazine. Use it to collect content from other social media and websites and curate it into a magazine format you “flip” through. It’s available for iPad, iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire and Nook. You can also use a web browser to collect and edit content. Once you have an account and you’re up and running, you can go to the editor page (editor.flipboard.com) to control preferences and make changes on the Web.
• Magazines can be public or private. All of mine are public, but you could use a private magazine to build up content before you re ready to share it with the world. Or you could use a private one to create a gift guide of sorts, not all that different form a private board on Pinterest. And you can go back and forth between public and private when necessary.
• Why Flipboard? Why not just collect my tweets or save to bookmarks in my browser? With Flipboard, you can create a magazine call Social Media and flip content into it that you can share with others. I do that with all of these So Social columns, and you can find it here. And you can still share that magazine with all your favourite social networks.
• The “subscribe” button is powerful. You use this button to add a magazine to your Flipboard. That means you get the update as soon as it happens. And you can and are encouraged to flip content from that magazine into magazines of your own. Think of that as the equiipvalent of a retweet. Flipboard will keep track of how many readers you have, how many page flips and how many articles.
• Gathering magazine content is pretty easy. Click on the + button from within Flipboard when you see something you’d like to add to your magazine. Or, add the Flip It bookmarket to your browser to grab content directly from the Web. You can also add your own content too directly from your most used social networks.
• You control the cover of your magazine. From within Flipboard, just click promote to cover. My pro tip: Change the cover as often as possible. You wouldn’t buy a magazine with the same cover from your corner newsstand, right? You’d just assume it was old. The more colourful and eye-grabbing, the better.
• What’s your name? Think about what you want to call your magazine. Remember that sometimes simple is best and encourages others to find it.
• Categories count. Make sure you add yours to the correct category  so people can find it when they search. And Flipboard spotlights their favourites from readers, so you never know when someone will find yours.
• Need a few ideas? I recommend starting at the community section: flipboard.com/community. Here, you’ll find some suggestions, community guidelines and magazine basics and tutorials. I can tell you from copious amounts of trial and error that four topics that work very well are photos, recipes, technology and news stories.     

Rejuvenating Sleep

Extracted from “The Sun – 30th Sept, 2013”

People who live long enjoy between six and eight hours of sleep daily, with those sleeping for seven hours having the lowest mortality rate.

Sleep has many physiological functions that are routinely performed at the cost of a third of our lifespan. These include:

Restorative – Our body carries out its anabolic (growing, repairing and renewal) processes during various stages of sleep;

Regulation of immune function – This is rejuvenated after a good night sleep;

Detoxification – Toxins are neutralised and removed by the liver via the bile acid; and

Consolidation of memory – Knowledge or experience acquired is filed for future use.

But globally, with the advent of the internet and television, the number of hours slept per night is declining. Up to 40% of our population may suffer from sleep disorders such as difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep through the night.

Insomnia is becoming more common in adults and its frequency increases with advancing age.

Chronic insomnia is where the inability to initiate/maintain sleep persists for more than three nights per week extending for three months or longer.

CAUSES FOR INSOMNIA

Buysse (2013) found causes of insomnia to involve one’s genetic, environmental, behavioural, and physiological factors  leading to hyperarousal (higher body metabolic rate and elevated stress hormone levels).

Stressful life situations are too numerous to be listed and they all affect our sleep quality and duration. Working shifts, going to bed hungry, having alcoholic and/or caffeinated beverages such as coffee, tea, and soft drinks can adversely affect sleep quality.

Jet lag, unfamiliar surroundings, noise pollution, anxiety over upcoming events or examinations, irregular sleep-wake hours, and extreme weather conditions can shorten sleep duration.

Medical conditions contributing to insomnia include fever, sleep apnea (snoring or blocked breathing), chronic pain, asthma, coughing, anaemia, urinary incontinence/frequency, sinusitis, depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress, restless leg syndrome, internet-addiction, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease.

Blood levels of insulin and/or stress hormone may be elevated by self-imposed sleep restriction.

PROBLEMS WITH INSOMIA

In the workplace, there may be a tendency for making mistakes, memory impairment, low motivation, initiative reduction, poor attention, inability to focus, daytime fatigue/sleepiness, headache, poor social skills, irritability, mood disturbance, daytime napping, and even gastro-intestinal problems.

The risk of obesity is some 700% higher in adults with chronic insomnia. According to the World Health Organisation, Malaysia is the most obese country in the Far East and Southeast Asia.

Diabetes or insulin resistance is worsened with sleep deprivation, which impairs sugar tolerance.

Gottlieb et al (2005) found that sleep duration shorter than six hours or longer than nine hours per night was linked to higher risk of diabetes.

Lancet (1999) reported that having four hours of sleep per night for just six nights could result in impaired carbohydrate/sugar metabolism and endocrine dysfunction leading to various hormonal imbalances.

Apparently, these adverse effects of sleep restriction are similar to accelerated ageing and they raise severity of existing age-related chronic health disorders.

SLEEP PROMOTING FOOD

Besides avoiding hunger before bedtime, sleep-promoting food include those rich in the nutrient L-trytophan which is converted initially to the brain neurotransmitter serotonin and then to the sleep hormone melatonin in the presence of vitamin B6 and in the absence of light.

Soy isolate, wheat germ, wheat bran, peanut, almond, pumpkin seed, sunflower seed, pecan nut, cashew nut, seaweeds, Swiss cheese, and Brewer’s yeast are rich source of L-trytophan.

Besides lowering our low density (“bad”) cholesterol and and raising our good HDL cholesterol, niacin helps induce deep sleep by raising levels of our growth hormone secretion.

Potassium intake can shorten time taken to fall asleep. Food rich in this mineral include tapioca leaf, turnip (sengkuang), tomato, and banana.

Magnesium relaxes muscle tissues and calms muscular spasms helpful to those suffering from asthma.

Food sources of magnesium include cocoa, beans, seeds, nuts, lentils, dark green vegetables, millet, wild rice, quinoa, figs, banana, avocado, and prune.

Omega-3 fats from flax seeds, blue green sea algae and cold water fish or taking quality fish oil supplement can also induce deeper night sleep.

Nutritional therapists may also use L-theanine (protein from tea leaf), to reduce the stimulating effects of caffeine from coffee and strong tea and to create a sense of relaxation besides nutraceuticals such as valerian, lemon balm, passion flower, kava kava, and magnolia officialis.

COMPLEMENTARY MEDICAL THERAPIES

Cognitive-behavioural therapy, relaxation therapies, regular exercises, morning sun exposure, music therapy, audio-colour therapy, light therapy, hypnotherapy, meditation, acupuncture, and psychotherapy are some of the natural therapies recommended to treat chronic insomnia.

GOOD NIGHT !!

FOOTBALL AT THE OFFICE

Extracted from “The Star – 20th Sept 2013”

A friend lamented that an employee he has treated very well recently jumped ship to a competitor and in the process, badmouthed the company and even tried to poach another employee.

   Knowing he is a fan of Arsenal FC, I comforted him that he was not alone in feeling betrayed, as in the world of English football, there are many such cases of players leaving for other clubs.

   Take Robin Van Persie last season, Arsenal stood by him for more than four seasons when he was injured but the moment he had one successful injury-free season, he left for Manchester United.

   Indeed, the experiences of the English Premier League can have many lessons for managers and bosses. Here are some of the lessons from the pitch:

1. Better as manager

There is no relationship whatever between functional expertise and managerial ability.

Jose Mourinho tried playing football as a young man, but soon realised his shortcomings. From Chelsea to Real Madrid, he has achieved outstanding success as a manager.

2. Know your talent

At the World Cup, you may see appalling performances from players who consistently excel for their clubs when fulfilling very different duties.

Talent is meaningless unless it is deployed in its most fitting context. So, knowing the strengths of your employees and matching them to the right roles will extract optimal performances from them.

Thierry Henry was an ordinary player until Arsene Wenger converted him from a winger to a striker. With Henry on the team, Arsenal was difficult to beat.

 

3. Press the right buttons

Managers must act quickly to gauge the people they are working with.

If you survey those who played under Brian Clough, they would offer conflicting narratives. Some say Clough was avuncular and caring, others that he was an intimidating tyrant.

Neither was true – he had just simply worked out how to press the buttons of different characters.

Indeed, the modern boss must be versatile with a flexible toolkit to bring the best out of each talent. The hammer cannot be your only tool.

4. Promote self-belief

If we look at our own careers as employees, most of us will say our most productive and enjoyable period was when we worked for a manager who had confidence in us.

Wenger summarised the galvanising effect this relationship has: “All great successes, all great lives, have involved the coincidence of aptitude, talent, but also the luck of meeting people who have believed in you. At some point in your life, you need someone who will tap you on your shoulder and say, “I believe in you”

As a manager, if you want to see your company succeed, you have to learn to take a leaf from football’s playbook.

5. Draw the line

A lesson to learn: You can be friendly, caring and kind but you are their boss, not their personal friend.

The company is a place for people to earn income and build their career. Very few will let friendship stop them from earning a better salary or taking advantage of better career prospects with another employer. That is their right.

So, treat employees not as friends, but as talents.

To retain people, organisations can use two different approaches concurrently; award incentives and award challenges.

Your top performers may still leave one day because other companies will also offer them great deals.

When that happens, acknowledge their contributions and let them move on – just as in football.

USING FEEDBACK AS A TOOL FOR EMPLOYER

Extracted from “The Star – 14th Sept 2013”

 

 

ESTABLISHES CRDEIBILITY

   According to Barry Posner and Jim Kouzes of The Leadership Challenge, studies have shown that “credibility is at the foundation of leadership”.

   It is necessary for leaders to walk the talk, but how would you know if your actions are correct if you have no idea what is exactly that you’re doing? A transparent environment reflects whether or not you as a team leader, have enabled an employee or a department to perform better. It also provides healthy pressure to ensure that you are effective and responsible.

   Apart from being self-aware, feedback also produces social awareness for employers. It allows for a sense of connectedness between management and subordinates while building loyalty towards the organisation. 

MANAGES EXPECTATIONS

   This is especially cogent for employees who are new to the organisation. Different companies have varying expectations of behavioural and performance outcomes and it may take some time for the newbie to align himself to the company’s vision and mission.

   Allowing for feedback provides the opportunity to catalyse this process. Employees need to understand the organisation’s core focus as well as their own department’s responsibilities in order to motivate themselves to operate at their full potential.

NECESSARY FOR APPRAISALS

   Annual reviews are perhaps the only formal way of providing feedback to employees. It is usually met with apprehension and fear, but as an employer or a team leader, you must be able to provide constructive criticism where necessary.

   Appraisals ought to be done with a more personable attitude to show that you as an employer, value the person behind the contributions and are not just obsessed with the bottom-line.

   These feedback sessions should help the employee to develop his/her own strengths. Feedback also helps to show that you are in sync with what is happening at the grassroots level, providing to the higher level management that you are a capable team leader.

RESOLVE CONFLICTS

   How many times have post-mortem sessions evolved into finger-pointing scenarios where “he/she didn’t tell me that!” becomes the recurring comeback line?

   Feedback is necessary during and after projects to ensure that any form of miscommunication or misunderstanding does not result in severe backlash. Unresolved conflict will damage the team’s productivity and these sort of arguments may develop into bitterness amongst colleagues.

   As an employer, feedback creates space for you to act upon any sort of discontent before it spreads to the rest of the team. Respecting each individual’s unique point of view also allows you to function better as a team.

GUIDELINES ON HOW TO GIVE GOOD FEEDBACK

   As an employer/manager/team leader, here are some guidelines on how to give effective feedback:

1. Specify The Actions You Want Them To Take

Help employees meet a desired outcome by giving suggestions on how to execute a particular task. Include things like deadlines, approaches, topics or elements that you would like them to implement. The guidance that you provide will be a stepping stone on which they can innovate and improve.

2. Be Specific About Goals

“Write a report” is unhelpful; “write a two-page report on last week’s event that will give a clearer picture to the new employees” is much better.

   Giving precise objectives, however, also means that employers need to have a clear idea of what they would like to see. 

3. Suggest Ways To Improve

   Whether the feedback is positive or negative, employees need to be challenged to improve. Commenting on something unsatisfactory without providing an alternative will give the impression that the employer is also unsure of how to initiate progress. 

4. Criticise The Action, Not The Person

   This can be tricky with ethical dilemmas among certain personality types, but highlight an employee’s actions rather than character flaws. “This project could have been better executed with more research,” raises positive responses compared with “you were too lazy to put more time into this”. 

5. Build Relationship

   Try not to focus on just work and reviews when talking to an employee. Building a relationship will cause the recipient of a feedback to be less defensive while giving the employer credibility.

   Trust needs to be maintained so that nobody feels threatened or sabotaged.