Leader's Digest #48 (February 2021)

LEADERS FT SK

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FEBRUARY 2021

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ISSUE 48

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Publication Team EDITORIAL Editor-in-Chief Ismail Said Assistant Editor Diana Marie Capel Graphic Designer Awang Ismail bin Awang Hambali Abdul Rani Haji Adenan

* Read our online version to access the hyperlinks to other reference articles made by the author.

Contents

ISSUE 48 I FEBRUARY 2021

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A SIMPLE WAY TO CELEBRATE YOUR VICTORIES

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OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO HELPFUL HABITS

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HOW COMMUNICATION DRIVES DIGITAL EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

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SKYFALL? FIVE MARKETING TRENDS IN 2021

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SCARCITY VERSUS ABUNDANCE MINDSET AND THE CRAB MENTALITY

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BALANCING HARD SKILLS AND SOFT SKILLS: A NEW KIND OF LEADERSHIP

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HOW TO GIVE EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK

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Here’s how to reach us: Email: diana@leadinstitute.com.my Content Partners:

Leader’s Digest is a monthly publication by the Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service, dedicated to advancing civil service leadership and to inspire our Sarawak Civil Service (SCS) leaders with contemporary leadership principles. It features a range of content contributed by our strategic partners and panel of advisors from renowned global institutions as well as established corporations that we are affiliated with. Occasionally, we have guest contributions from our pool of subject matter experts as well as from our own employees.

The views expressed in the articles published are not necessarily those of Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service Sdn. Bhd. (292980-T). No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the publisher’s permission in writing.

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From the

Editorial Desk Romancing the Stone From any skill take away the technical aspects and you are left with the core. In other words, take away that what is measurable and quantifiable (the hard data) and you are left with the soft stuff.

And here comes the dilemma: is behaviour a hard or soft element within this equation? Are skills like negotiation, coaching, leading, counseling, soft or hard? By concept soft, yet scientifically, hard.

Accounting, medicine, playing badminton, engineering, carpentry, etc. are hard skills. One starts learning the technicalities, the necessary ‘testable’ aspects, of each skill always having an objective point of reference to know if one is reaching the skill standards one aimed for.

If a hard skill is what can be measured and be part of KPIs, then, if we are able to prove that a soft skill can also be measured, it should fall into the hard skill category. Today, soft skills can be admitted to the ‘hard skill club’ because in the last 10 years scientists have been able to measure behaviour.

At the end there are qualified accountants, doctors, engineers, badminton players, carpenters, etc. Each has proven that they passed the exam and can work with numbers, work with medical tools and medications, design structures, play with a racquet and a shuttle, use a saw and a hammer, etc.

So far, it seems that a hard skill is about applying logic, applying thinking vis-à-vis a situational requirement. So where does the soft skill come in, even have a comparative value or inter-relationship with the hard skill?

What drives us to want to learn, develop and bring a hard skill to a continuous higher level? Is it another hard skill?

No! (for now) A soft skill was anything that wasn’t measurable and was based and driven by emotions, more specifically, behaviour. Organizations invested more in hard skill development than soft skills (most still do). Why? Because a soft skill couldn’t be really measured and was considered more a subjective than objective ability. But if you look back into what drove you further in developing your hard skills, your hobbies, your past times, you can agree that it was the soft skill, that internal energy that sparked a beginning, fueled an enhancement and is not letting you stop where you are. With an ultimate stage called passion.

The hard skill depends on the power and continuity of our soft skills. It is that core mentioned in the first paragraph.

The soft skill, the behaviour, is the initiator, the propulsion of this skill ‘rocket’ to reach levels beyond the norm.

Functional MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), PET (positron emission tomography) and other sophisticated brain scanning equipment can now measure if and how brain areas can develop, sustain and enhance the behaviours by assessing and testing the brain areas that underlie such complex mental mechanisms.

If the behavioural aspect for creative-logical thinking for strategizing is to be assessed, by scanning and analysing the pre-frontal cortex (PFC: the area responsible for planning, judgment and socializing), the visual cortex (mental imageries management) and the hippocampus (long-term memory and learning potential), we can determine if the elements for a conducive behavioural foundation are positive or negative. Should the PFC be weak and not strongly connected with other brain areas, then the amygdala (the automatic emotional reaction mechanism for fight or run away) will lead to a more emotional, subjective platform for strategising. Rather than working for the objective, the person acts vis-à-vis what feels comfortable for them. The person is reactive rather than pre- or pro-active. And all this can be measured and re-measured.

Soft has become hard. Now, it is no longer about a soft vs. a hard skill but two hard skills, whereby the ‘new’ hard skill has taken centre stage.

Maybe we should focus on romancing the new hard skill in town!

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A SIMPLE WAY TO CELEBRATE YOUR VICTORIES

BY JULIET FUNT

Even in the hardest times, we must celebrate. However subtle or small, celebration is a critical buoy that keeps us afloat. As this ordeal of a year ends and we ponder our successes, our losses, and our admirable human ability to just keep going – let’s take a moment to explore what happens when we do and do not make time to commemorate the good.

Imagine for a moment that it’s a late fall day and the weather is just begging you to take a hike. It’s brisk, and the leaves on the ground are calling out to be crunched beneath your feet.

You pack a turkey sandwich and a single apple that you know will taste remarkably better at the top of a mountain, lace up your shoes, and head out.

The trail is more challenging than you expected. After a determined climb and a few stumbles, you arrive at the beautiful view – but do not look. You spy the trailhead for another steeper, harder hike, and without so much as a moment-of-arrival thought or a nibble of your picnic, you head off to prove you can accomplish even more.

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We all do this. When we hit a goal, we tend to run hastily past the win, determinedly pursuing the next task or trial. But what, I ask, is the point of working hard if, when you get there, you skip the moment to shout, “Hooray for me!”

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What Stops Celebration In our culture of insatiability, the frenetic pace and endless pressure convince us to skip celebration for the following reasons: • It takes too much time and seems indulgent • Our depleted self-esteem whispers we don’t deserve it • Modeling of celebration is scarce • We wonder how we can allow ourselves to feel such positive emotions amidst the ambiguity and pain swirling around.

4. Do ring the bell My author friend Mike Robbins taught me this. When something friggin’ awesome happens in one of our businesses, we call each other and say, “I want to ring the bell.” Then we do the only thing that’s better than celebrating alone; we celebrate together, giving witness to each other’s victories. Try this, and you’ll get hooked.

Despite these thoughts, we need to recognize that the benefit of celebration is not minimal. The nutrients we get from celebration fuel us for the next task – especially when we are energy-depleted.

A Simple Way to Let Celebration In If you do nothing else to increase your celebration quotient, simply start by making it a practice to pause after any victory.

Stop all motion and tasks right after doing anything great – both the small accomplishments and big wins – and linger in the pride. Take a strategic pause. Open up your busy heart and let that tender feeling in.

Dos and Don’ts for Celebrating 1. Don’t aim too large Victory is a grand word, but it is a victory to almost break your diet with the kid’s leftover mac and cheese and then stop. It is a victory to get a laugh from the boss because you thought quickly. It is a victory to be kind when you are exhausted.

Celebrate incremental wins, and it will create a habit that primes you for larger celebrations.

2. Don’t up the ante When someone notices our success, it should be a cue to pause and take it in. But it’s often easier to be Teflon – to let the nice comment slide off and up the ante on ourselves.

If a colleague says your proposal was impressive, don’t say, “Thanks, but I wish I had another week on it.” Take the pause.

Take the compliment.

3. Do ‘reify’ with language Language makes experiences more real. In fact, there’s a fabulous unused word for this phenomenon, ‘reify’, which means to take an abstract thing and make it concrete. State your win out loud, say the words: “That went so great” or “I closed $20,000” or “I got the job.” These spoken truths are then heard by your own ears, strengthening the triumph.

Wrong bell.

Even during hard times like the crushing year of 2020, you can take a moment to recognize the ways you’ve demonstrated a bit of grace. Getting through impossible scenarios – babies on laps while working; loneliness beyond description; experiencing fear without falling apart – each of these “counts.” Good for you.

From Celebration to Gratitude As you allow more of these moments of pride into your life, a secondary idea will creep into your thoughts. When you pause, you will often find yourself thinking, “This was not all because of me.” You’ll notice how often you ride a stream of lucky circumstances that sets you down lovingly at the foot of victory. This awareness is gratitude arriving.

Sitting on the top of the mountain, your thoughts will often start with being proud of your own effort (“I did it!”), but then will shift to gratitude for the working legs that got you there or the gas station guy who told you about the hidden trail.

The celebratory pause and the grateful pause are cousins. One warms us inside from pride and the other from an objective look at our blessings. Both fortify and motivate. You deserve them and are stronger with them, so take a pause and let celebration in.

JULIET FUNT

Juliet Funt is the founder and CEO of WhiteSpace At Work, which helps some of the world’s biggest companies claw back thousands of hours in lost productivity, liberate their talent from low-value work, and find more time to think.

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How Communication Drives Digital Employee Engagement

BY VERA LAWRENCIA

Digital or not, leaving your employees in the dark is never a good idea.

It has long been established that keeping the workforce engaged is crucial. Companies with engaged employees are not only 21% more profitable, but 33% of employees also cite boredom as the reason for quitting.

Until recently, most managers focused on in-person employee engagement as the bulk of business processes and operations were physical. Some more established HR departments may have started exploring digital employee engagement, but only at a surface level.

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Companies with engaged employees are not only 21% more profitable, but 33% of employees also cite boredom as the reason for quitting.

Little did we know that a pandemic would hit and companies would have to digitise most, if not all, of their operations, including employee engagement.

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Although it was initially difficult to adapt, surviving companies clearly show us that it is not impossible.

Is digital employee engagement as good as physical engagement? Digitalisation is not a bad thing. Before the pandemic, the world was indeed already heading in this direction.

It’s only a bad thing when we don’t know how

That said, digital employee engagement is actually more important than offline engagement. ‘Why?’ you may be wondering. This is because people are more prone to feel isolated when there is a lack of face-to-face interactions, especially when their private lives face the same restrictions as to their work lives.

With face-to-face engagement, communication plays an important role in making the employees feel valued and involved in the company. The same applies to digital employee engagement. When you communicate, you can

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easily connect different people from different levels of the organisation to each other. All employees, whether from executives to upper management, create one big community and get to have that sense of belonging to the company.

Malaysian Telco Digi is one company that tried to implement digital employee engagement throughout the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Before the pandemic, Digi was already a proponent of open and transparent communication. Elisabeth Stene, Digi’s Human Resource Officer, said that they practice this by having weekly, monthly, and quarterly events and an annual survey to gauge the effectiveness of their engagement attempts to wrap the year up.

Is this result perfect? No. But is it good enough?

Considering how fast things have been changing in the past year, this result is definitely something commendable.

It is still too early to judge what kinds of methods are best when it comes to digital employee engagement. The real issue here is how each initiative can last in the long term, eventually digitalising the whole process of employee engagement as flawlessly as possible.

Companies out there will have to keep trying different methods and revamping their systems in order to know which works, and which doesn’t.

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Without communication, engagement simply does not exist.

Digi had also begun exploring digital employee engagement prior to the pandemic. They had been using Workplace by Facebook as an internal social networking tool, e-bulletin, and a separate workforce management app developed by Digi as digital engagement channels.

Then, when MCO began, Digi ensured that their employees had as much normalcy as possible and remained as connected as they were before. They did this by delivering the same engagement activities they had been having, only virtually.

Moreover, they increased the frequency of their communications by changing quarterly events to monthly, monthly events to bi-weekly, weekly events to daily, and so on.

How well did these initiatives work?

Elisabeth mentioned that they were able to evaluate themselves by collecting surveys and they showed 99% of the employees affirming that they felt well-connected virtually with their teams, while 90% said they had the necessary tools to work from home or offsite.

Many companies have begun using customised apps as an internal social network. In fact, some apps, like Happily, serve as a social network for front end users (employees) while continuously collecting real-time and accurate feedback on the back end for HR and employers.

In the meantime...

What we can infer here is that communication is the only constant when it comes to making employees or people in general engaged in any kind of setting. If employee engagement is at risk even at the office, the new norm of working-from-home means that leadership should be more alert than ever to keep their workers happy.

Without communication, engagement simply does not exist.

VERA LAWRENCIA

Vera Lawrencia is a Leaderonomics Superintern under Research & Business Intelligence. She is passionate about reading, writing, research, and learning just about anything that she can get her hands on. One day, Vera hopes to explore the world and experience the unique cultures out there.

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SCARCITY VERSUS ABUNDANCE MINDSET AND THE CRAB MENTALITY

BY JUMANNE RAJABU MTAMBALIKE

The Abundance Mindset

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The word ‘Joint-Venture’ is missing in your business dictionary, that is why most of the youths these days are struggling to build great businesses.

Those were the words of a man who over the years was able to build a successful construction company out of nothing who also appeared to be my mentor and father. It really made me reflect on what’s wrong with our generation.

Why don’t strategic partnerships work?

In the past five years of running Sahara Ventures, I have tried to build partnerships that encourage both our growth and that of our partners, as we are firm believers of an Abundance Mindset.

Often, it doesn’t turn out well. Our partners tend to grab it all and run away or try to replicate what we do and turn into our competitors. The following is what I have learned over time that might be useful to you too if you struggle to build growth partnerships that last.

Scarcity Mentality It is difficult to build anything with someone with a ‘Scarcity Mindset’. They are limited in vision and thinking.

They always think what is available is not enough for all 8

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of us. They always feel you need to compete to succeed.

They will cheat, lie, play games, and even pretend they want the partnership but in reality, they are afraid of the partnership.

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They will cheat, lie, play games, and even pretend they want the partnership but in reality, they are afraid of the partnership.

They always feel they will be outshined and remain irrelevant. They forget the highest point of dependence is not being ‘independent’ but rather being ‘interdependent’.

We succeed because we rely on each other. You don’t need someone to be screwed for you to win.

You can only grow if you are able to leverage resources and maximize your synergies. Nobody truly succeeds by working alone anymore. When you have a Scarcity Mindset you believe there will never be enough of something.

Someone with an Abundance Mindset knows and believes there is plenty out there for everybody. A person with an Abundance Mindset will create an opportunity for you sometimes even without expecting something in return, just because you fit in. And that is the mentality of growth and success. A mentality that most of us are struggling to have, especially youth-led organisations.

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The Crab Mentality “Kataa Kua Kaa” was a campaign from one of the local radio stations in Tanzania urging young people to support each other and stop sabotaging one another. The close translation of the statement is to try to avoid becoming a crab or refraining from joining the ‘crab mentality’.

The crab mentality is eating youths in our communities alive. We can’t pull each other up and we spend most of our time trying to bring each other down. I have been talking to a lot of young people about why, once they succeed, they don’t want to work with fellow youths.

They all have a common answer said in different words, “How do I bring them close while they want to bring me down. Words like ‘haters’ get thrown around and brought up.

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Crab mentality, also known as crab theory or crabs in a bucket mentality, is a way of thinking best described by the phrase “if I can’t have it, neither can you”. - Wikipedia

The crab mentality has a 360 effect, once you pull someone down the vicious circle continues simply nobody goes up and we all remain where we are or go down even further. Let’s learn to embrace the Abundance Mentality.

Your partner is not a competitor and the moment you start to see them that way there is only one outcome: the partnership breaks and you start to compete.

Just to be clear, there is nothing absolutely wrong with going solo. Chances are you will grow but you won’t grow exponentially because nobody grows without strategic partnerships. To win wars you need allies.

ABUNDANCE VS SCARCITY MINDSETS

“There will never be enough”

Collaborates to stay on top

Competes to stay on top

Embrace change

Fears change

Shares knowledge freely

Won’t share knowledge

Generous with others

Won’t offer help

Believes the pie is getting bigger

Believes the pie is shrinking

Thinks big and embraces risk

Thinks small and avoids risk

MEGAHALLIER.COM

'There will always be more”

JUMANNE RAJABU MTAMBALIKE

Jumanne Mtambalike is an innovator and technology enthusiast, He is an Ideation (concepts development), Programme Development and Project Management Expert. Jumanne is also a technology blogger and community reformer. He likes to work with youths initiatives in areas of innovation, technology entrepreneurship and youths capacity building programmes.

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How to Give

Effective Feedback

BY GREGG VANOUREK

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Effective feedback is a communication superpower.

Use it wisely.

Giving effective feedback is a powerful skill. When done well, it can be a big performance booster. When done poorly, a disaster bringing fear, discomfort, and resentment.

At its best, feedback is a great gift that can build trust and respect. At its worst, a spiral to anguish and despair. So tread carefully.

According to decades of research from Dr. John Hattie, feedback is among the most powerful influences on levels of achievement.*

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2. Mindset Check your mindset to ensure that you come to the feedback session with a mindset of service, kindness, and openness, and that you’re presuming the best about the person (e.g., that they’re doing the best they can, or there may be obstacles that you don’t know about). Begin with a mindset of wanting the person to thrive and excel while feeling trusted and supported.

3. Positive experience Make it a positive experience for the recipient. The purpose of feedback is to help the person improve. Note that effective feedback should contain positive and negative information about how their actions are affecting their progress toward goals.

We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve. – Bill Gates

Unfortunately, few people have learned how to give effective feedback or take the time to do it well, in part because of the fear associated with hurting feelings or damaging a relationship.

Through effective feedback, you can provide information about how someone is doing on the way to reaching a goal. But it can also derail their learning, motivation, and performance if not handled well.

Note that feedback is not advice: “You need more examples in your report” is an example of advice, not feedback. Here are examples of feedback: • (Golf coach to a golfer): “Each time you swung and missed, you raised your head as you swung so you didn’t really have your eye on the ball. On the one you hit hard, you kept your head down and saw the ball.”

• (Reader to a writer): “The first few paragraphs kept my full attention. The scene painted was vivid and interesting. But then the dialogue became hard to follow. As a reader, I was confused about who was talking, and the sequence was puzzling, so I became less engaged.”

Here are some best practices for giving effective feedback: 1. Private setting The place where you give feedback should be private and neutral. Make the recipient as comfortable as possible, and avoid whenever possible public scrutiny that will take focus off the issue at hand. In-person feedback is much better than written, because so many important nuances get lost in emails and text.

If dentists can make people smile, you really have no excuse.

Simple praise is not enough. Strive for a high ratio of positive to negative observations to ensure the response is not dejection and thus counterproductive. Be kind and considerate.

Developing your emotional intelligence is essential.

4. Goal-referenced Indicate whether the person is on track toward goals or in need of a change. If the latter, brainstorm with them ways to get back on track.

5. Specific and Actionable Help the recipient answer the question, “What specifically should I do more or less of next time?” (Thus, “You did that incorrectly” or “Good job” do not cut it.) The Center for Creative Leadership points to the ‘SBI method’: • Situation: Describe the situation.

• Behavior: Describe the actual, observed behavior being discussed. Stick to the facts and avoid opinions and judgments.

• Impact: Describe the results of the behavior.

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6. User-Friendly Feedback is only effective feedback when it’s accepted by the recipient. View it from his/her perspective and present it clearly. Note the most important elements (not a long list of items without priorities).

7. Timely and Ongoing The sooner the better, so the actions are fresh. Too many managers save feedback for performance reviews, which is way too late. Feedback should be frequent and ongoing.

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A global study of over 1,000 organisations in more than 150 countries found that more than one-third of all employees had to wait more than three months to get feedback from their manager; nearly twothirds wish they received more feedback from their colleagues. – James Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge

8. Curious and Open Invite their perspective and input. Search for mutual agreement and be open to their ideas. Ask them what ideas they have for moving forward. Ensure that they maintain a sense of accomplishment, competence, and agency.

9. Humble Research has shown that people aren’t good raters of other people’s performance (or their own). We vastly overestimate our ability to do this well. (It’s called the ‘idiosyncratic rater effect’). We assume we are clear and correct in our observations and judgments, but this is often much less true than we think.

Why feedback gets derailed To be effective at giving feedback, we must step back and understand why it is so difficult and dangerous. Think back to when you received feedback from a teacher in front of class, or from an intense and critical boss. Feedback gets derailed when: • It focuses on the person and not the actions • It comes across as one-sided, with the giver of feedback assuming they are right, they have all the relevant information, or they alone have the key to the only way forward • It feels like an attack, not a gesture of solidarity and mutual commitment to improvement

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When giving feedback, we’re not just in the land of communication and leadership but also of psychology and neuroscience. Our brains are brilliant at discounting or rejecting feedback. Our egos get engaged. We get defensive.

We deflect attention away from our flaws and mistakes. We focus on what we want to hear and block out what we don’t.

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When we give feedback, we notice that the receiver isn’t good at receiving it. When we receive feedback, we notice that the giver isn’t good at giving it. Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen in Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well

We discredit or attack the one giving feedback, judging them extra harshly to protect our precious and wounded ego.

Much of this is unconscious (an automatic triggering of our ‘fight or flight’ response in sympathetic nervous system), so even harder for us to avoid (without strong self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and mindfulness practices).

The activation of this part of our brain reduces our ability to take in new information and impairs our learning, thereby defeating the very purpose of feedback. Professor Richard Boyatzis summarises research noting that critical feedback engages strong negative emotion, which “inhibits access to existing neural circuits and invokes cognitive, emotional, and perceptual impairment.”

The key is avoiding these negative triggers and taking care to engage more productive parts of the brain: the parasympathetic nervous system, associated with “a sense of well-being, better immune system functioning, and cognitive, emotional, and perceptual openness.”

The way to do this is to notice what people did well, encourage them to reflect on and continue it, and add nuances or ideas to the understanding of the drivers of positive performance. Note what worked and ask the person what they were thinking or doing at the time. As Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall say in The Feedback Fallacy in Harvard Business Review, “replay each small moment of excellence to your team.”

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As a leader, part of your job is to consistently let people know what they are doing well to reinforce those positive behaviors and to build emotional capital. Positive feedback makes work more enjoyable and more productive. – Susan Scott, Fierce Conversations

what the other person is saying (not using the time while they’re speaking to think through your counterpoints) and being open to their point of view (not getting defensive).

When listening well, we ask questions, share our feelings, and summarise points while checking for accuracy and understanding. The conversation builds naturally as we go to new places together.

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The other problem is that some people walk around giving unsolicited advice. The assumption is that they’re right, others are wrong, others need correcting, and the act of doling out advice is like a gift from above. More often, though, it trounces on people’s feelings and makes things worse. People don’t want to be fixed. They want to feel supported and valued as they go through their own journey, including wins, losses, and learnings. We all want to be the heroes of our own story.

On the Leadership Practices Inventory… the statement on which leaders consistently report engaging in least frequently is ‘asks for feedback on how my actions affect other people’s performance.’

Openness to feedback, especially negative feedback, is characteristic of the best learners. – James Kouzes and Barry Posner in The Leadership Challenge

Receiving feedback Feedback is a two-way street. It must also be received well.

That requires an ability to listen well: focusing intently on

Giving and receiving feedback well is a communication superpower. Use it wisely.

GREGG VANOUREK

Gregg Vanourek is an executive, changemaker, and award-winning author who trains, teaches, and speaks on leadership, entrepreneurship, and life and work design. He runs Gregg Vanourek LLC, a training venture focused on leading self, leading others, and leading change. Gregg is co-author of three books, including Triple Crown Leadership (a winner of the International Book Awards) and LIFE Entrepreneurs (a manifesto for integrating our life and work with purpose and passion).

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OVERCOMING RESISTANCE TO HELPFUL HABITS

BY JULIET FUNT

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Brrr!

If you’ve ever watched a five-year-old child enter an extremely cold body of water – you’ll agree it’s a very predictable scenario. First, the toes touch the water and everything above the ankles tense. Then the calves and the knees begrudgingly submerge. When the water finally reaches the tummy, it’s clear the child’s entire torso is stretching upward, trying to declare independence from the rest of the body. Then, at last, there is surrender. The whole body is IN and that kid is having the best time.

For those of us who aren’t naturally disciplined or are wired to resist structure, some business-improvement techniques are, at first, just as unwelcome as that cold water.

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Upon receiving instructions that rein us in, we dip our first toe in and our entire being screams to go in the opposite direction.

This resistance hit me when I was first taught the classic timemanagement rule called OHIO: Only Handle It Once. This logical mantra says that everything you handle at work – every piece of paper, every email, every bill, and every task – is best dealt with only once, ideally the first time you encounter it.

My initial attempts at OHIO fell between hard and impossible.

My clients reportedly felt the same. We related better to other states such as DELAWARE (Deceptively Easy Little Acronyms Won’t Address Real Experience) or IOWA (Inbox Overload Wins Always). I almost rejected the OHIO principle entirely – until I learned how to enter the water slowly.

I found if I started with small, prescribed periods of time and turned OHIO on and off like a switch, it actually made me screamingly productive during the time I used it. The finite nature of the commitment short-circuited my opposition and sense of overwhelm. Then, slowly, I used it more and more.

Here’s how you can make friends with this technique: 1. Select the target of your OHIO time – your inbox or a physical stack of scribbled notes.

2. Put aside distractions, turn off notifications, and silence your phone so you can give the process your full attention.

3. Set a timer for 15, 20, or 30 minutes during which time you will religiously adhere to the concept of Only Handle It Once.

4. Begin at the top of your physical or digital stack and handle the first thing you see. Do whatever you need to do to process and dispose of the task before you, no matter how long it takes. Respond, calendar, delegate, forward, or delete. If the required action needs additional research or discussion, schedule the time and set up a reminder. Then move to the next item.

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Getting stalled emails and issues off your plate frees up your mental ‘white space’ for better thinking, creativity, problem-solving, and connectionmaking.

This gradual process allows you to cultivate the discipline and focus needed for OHIO time (or any other skills you want to practice) without the unrealistic goal of conducting your entire day in this manner from day one. As you come in and out of OHIO time in this contained way, you may soon even find yourself craving it.

Over time you will get stronger and stronger at the new practice, and eventually you’ll just run off the dock and dive right in.

JULIET FUNT

Whoops!

Gregg Vanourek is an executive, changemaker, and award-winning Juliet Funt is the founder and CEO of WhiteSpace At Work, which helps some of the world’s biggest companies claw back thousands of hours in lost productivity, liberate their talent from low-value work, and find more time to think.

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SKYFALL? FIVE MARKETING TRENDS IN 2021

BY EUNICE GOH

Marketing trends for your marketing plans.

No, I’m not referring to the James Bond movie. But similar to Skyfall, where Bond was put through both physical and emotional wringers, 2020 has been an emotional year due to the global physical lockdown caused by COVID-19. Global advertising spend is predicted to fall by 7.5% to US $587 billion in 2020 according to Zenith’s Advertising Expenditure Forecasts, and the global economy is expected to plunge into the worst recession since World War II. It’s not all doom and gloom. Zenith predicts that global ad spend will bounce back by 5.6% to $620 billion in 2021.

Here are five marketing trends to look ahead for in 2021, as COVID-19 has shifted the way we work, live and socialse, likely forever.

Digital Transformation The world is adjusting to a new lifestyle as COVID-19 fasttracked digital transformation. This has put the growth of e-commerce, video conferencing, virtual events, and Advanced TV on steroids.

The growth of e-commerce has come fast and furious during the pandemic. There’s no turning back now since customers have experienced a wide range of products, special festivals, live streams and value-added services from Shopee, Lazada, Taobao, etc.

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Also, e-commerce platforms are aggressively pursuing major brands to set up virtual shops and even acting as consultants for brands and agencies for their e-commerce strategies. Examples include Lazada’s Preferred Partner Program with GroupM and the Shopee Media Agencies Partner Program with media agencies from the other ‘big five’ holding groups.

Also, Facebook has just announced it will buy Kustomer to enhance its recent move to social e-commerce. Google and TikTok are partnering with Shopify to set up e-commerce hubs on YouTube and TikTok, respectively. The competition will intensify as Facebook, Google, and TikTok jump on the e-commerce bandwagon.

Zoom fatigue is very real, especially for video conferencing and virtual events which lasted for hours! We human beings are social creatures; we crave in-person connection. On the other hand, video conferencing and virtual events encourage inclusiveness as more people can participate. Expect future events to be hybrid—in-person and virtual. For instance, The Front Row, Singapore’s first virtual fashion week supported by Enterprise Singapore, and produced by AP Media will be going hybrid next year!

Audiences are increasingly turning their attention to Advanced TV, thanks to players like Netflix, Apple TV, Viu, iQIYI, Disney+, and HBO Max. This year’s trends have changed the TV

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landscape forever. We can look forward to more innovations and partnerships on the programmatic TV front in 2021 as more streaming services and tech partners come into play.

Personalisation The biggest challenge in 2021 will probably be using personalised data to target ads and measure attribution.

Apple is making IDFA redundant. Google, the last line of defense for cookies, seeks to eliminate them from Chrome by the end of 2021. According to Epsilon, 54% of marketers feel under-prepared for the change.

Now, advertisers and publishers will have to find new ways to reach customers. A few tech solutions have already been discussed: collecting first-party data, building customer data platforms (CDPs), building out a private ID graph, and getting a data clean room.

Brands not ready to build tech infrastructure will have to look at media solutions such as walled garden, Connected TV, contextual advertising and programmatic solutions with a people-based identity.

Regardless of the strategies, personalisation will be key to earning customers’ trust and loyalty.

Trust and Brand Purpose 71% of respondents indicated that trusting a brand is more important today than in the past, and 80 percent want brands to ‘solve society’s problems,’ according to The Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report 2020.

Brand purpose has long been a buzzword in the industry.

Today’s customers are becoming more vocal and demanding brands take real actions to earn their trust. “Businesses that don’t deliberately try to do something good by addressing a specific social or environmental concern in their community, no matter how big or small, are going to find themselves irrelevant in the coming years,” says Matthew McCarthy, CEO of Ben & Jerry’s.

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Businesses that don’t deliberately try to do something good by addressing a specific social or environmental concern in their community, no matter how big or small, are going to find themselves irrelevant in the coming years.

Marketers who did not have a brand purpose or were just winging it will have to think hard on what resonates with their brands and their customers. The social dilemma, climate change, mental health, diversity and inclusion are top-ofmind concerns for people globally.

Targeting the Next Generation Millennials and Gen Z account for over half of the world population, and they are fast becoming decision-makers. It is not a question of why target, but how to effectively target them.

Deloitte research reveals that “in the face of unprecedented health and economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, millennials and Gen Z express resolve and a vision to build a better future.” This again points to the importance for brands to have a purpose that contributes to the public good, and all actions and communications should echo that purpose.

So what is the next generation interested in, and where can we target them? BCG reported that since the pandemic, 62% spend more time on social media, 70% spend more time on video streaming, and 59% spend more time gaming. This explains the rise of TikTok, influencers, e-sports and mobile gaming. Since each person and platform is different, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. Brands need to personalise their strategies and work with various partners to customise their messaging.

Happiness “Advertising is based on one thing: happiness. And do you know what happiness is? Happiness is the smell of a new car.

It’s freedom from fear. It’s a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever you’re doing is OK. You are OK.” Don Draper, Mad Men.

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Just don’t expect the world to beat a path to your door without purposeful marketing.

The billboard may have changed into a digital board. But some things never change! Whether in the Mad Men era or the current digital age, we are all looking for happiness! So how can marketers provide happiness to customers?

Brands need to get back to the core, to build ‘a better mousetrap’, AKA products or services. Just don’t expect the world to beat a path to your door without purposeful marketing.

Let the sky and cookies fall. When they crumble, we will stand tall and face it all together.

EUNICE GOH

Eunice is a sales and marketing professional, passionate about helping brands create purpose-driven campaigns. Currently with AP media as marketing consultant, she had served as senior director at ONE E-sports and regional director at CNBC.

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cigarette smoking. Most of us know how to maintain physical health, and perhaps we spend more time taking care of our teeth than our minds but, how are we taking care of emotional injuries such as failure, rejection and fear in our personal or professional lives?

HOW DOES YOUR MIND REACT TO FAILURE, REJECTION AND FEAR?

BALANCING HARD SKILLS AND SOFT SKILLS:

A NEW KIND OF LEADERSHIP

BY DIANA MARIE

The most terrifying examination I remember taking was my driving test. Silly right? For reasons only known to the universe, I was having trouble pressing the accelerator simply because my feet were shaking uncontrollably; which I still wonder till today. I endured and passed the driving test, because I was determined not to be dependent on neither public transportation nor friends to get to my workplace.

As I grew older, I kind of concluded that learning new skills was not as hard as I imagined, I learnt multiple languages, mastered mental arithmetic, learnt a little bit of sewing, computer literacy and speed typing. I found out the tougher part was building a stable stack of soft skills. Hard skills are teachable and measurable abilities, such as writing, reading, math or ability to use computer programs. By contrast, soft skills are the traits that make one a good team member or leader, such as etiquette, empathy, altruism, interpersonal skills, self-awareness, self-regulation, accountability, hopefulness, responding to the feelings of others, resilience, inspiring and appreciating loyalty amongst others (John Wiley, 2009).

What does leadership have to do with hard skills or soft skills?

When asked about research on the skills leaders and other employees are lacking, LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner was quoted as saying, “Interpersonal skills is where we’re seeing the biggest imbalance and communication is the number one skills gap.”

Psychologist and TEDx Speaker Dr Guy Winch PhD., tells the story of how matters of the mind have the capability to make us believe that those around us care much less about us than they actually do. He further describes that research showed; the depth of your connection with those in your community makes a great impact unto your emotional state. He adds, loneliness and depression increase the likelihood of an early death by 14% and, supresses the immune system equivalent to

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Paying Attention to Emotional Pain According to Dr Winch, failure suppresses people in the same way that loneliness does and every one of us have a different kind of reaction to failure. We all have a default set of feelings and beliefs which may be triggered whenever we encounter frustrations and setbacks. We need to be aware of how our minds react to failure because the mind is quite capable of convincing us that we are incompetent. Sometimes a single failure tells the mind that they would never succeed, and the mind believes it. The danger is that, a convinced mind is very difficult to change. This could be the reason behind team members functioning below their actual potential.

When life sucks and you feel like drowning, lift yourself to the surface and breath again. Try again and do it better.

Stop Emotional Bleeding Our minds and our feelings are not the trustworthy ‘friend’ we thought it is, says Dr Winch; especially when dealing with rejection. Leaders need to understand that rejection can be extremely painful. When facing rejection, we often start thinking of all our faults, our failures, our shortcomings while wishing we were this or that. Dr Guy Winch highlights that when your self-esteem is lowered you are more vulnerable to stress and anxiety.

Whenever facing failure and rejection you should treat yourself with the same compassion that you would expect from a truly good friend. By changing your responses to failure, you will thrive to be better and succeed.

Protect Your Self-Esteem Life can be tough, yet it is also the fact of life that you need to face it. Your boss may call you stupid and resent you just because of one mistake you made and you can’t help replaying that scene for days, even weeks. Dr Winch acknowledges that ruminating on insults and failure can be painful, as one tends to spend so much time on negative thoughts. How do you fight that urge to keep thinking of your mistakes, recover and do your very best again?

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You have to fight feelings of helplessness and gain control.

Study says that even a 2 minutes distraction breaks the urge to ruminate on failure or rejection. Focus on something else until the impulse of negative thoughts disappears.

Battle negative thoughts By battling negative thoughts, you will be able to build emotional strength and achieve all that you need to be a great team member or even be successful in the position of leadership. Dr Guy Winch emphasizes that the quality of our lives and the extent of our contribution to society would significantly improve once we begin to take a closer care at building our emotional resilience.

His advice is to see through your FEARS, choose to let your FEARS go and create your own reality.

What I learnt through various life experiences is that, every day of our life is precious, and we need to find deeper gratitude in the easy as well as the hard days, both at work and our personal lives. The leadership opportunity is everywhere, whether you are in the role of authority or not, you CAN be successful. Hold yourself accountable for every thought, every detail. See beyond your fear, recognize your assumptions, harness your internal strength, correct your misconceptions, accept your strength and weaknesses while understanding the difference and, always always open your heart to your bountiful blessings. Deep within every single person is the ability to learn and grow. All we need to do is build the muscle of resilience, draw on it each time we need it and become the very best version of ourselves.

Everyone must take the effort to be informed and change a few habits to help make the people working with us and the society that we serve feel empowered, happier and fulfilled.

Issac Lidsky, nick-named the ‘blind CEO’ and the Author of ‘Eyes Wide Open’, explains how FEAR often distort reality, sometimes replacing the unknown with the awful. Fear of public speaking, fear of social involvement, fear of examinations, fear of communications, fear of commitment; whatever your FEAR is. Whenever you face the deepest need to think critically, there is a possibility that FEAR retreats deep inside your mind, distorting your view, drowning your capacity for critical thoughts with a flood of disruptive emotions and, when you are compelled to take action, FEAR lowers you into inaction.

“Technology changes many things, yet one thing it hasn’t changed is how love and care feels. The only way the people in your community, society, organization, family and friends feel it is by respecting them, trusting them, sharing laughter with them and making time for them”.

Helen Fisher, Human Behaviour Researcher, Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, Rutgers University

DIANA MARIE

Diana Marie is a team member at the Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service attached with Corporate Affairs who found love in reading and writing whilst discovering inspiration in Leadership that Makes a Difference.

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“Leaders Develop Leaders” CEO Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service, Ismail Said

Leadership Institute of Sarawak Civil Service KM20, Jalan Kuching Serian, Semenggok, 93250 Kuching, Sarawak.

Telephone : +6082-625166 Fax : +6082-625966 E-mail : info@leadinstitute.com.my