Lunch with wifey

Lunch with wifey

Well, today we had an unplanned lunch date at this korean restaurant.

This korean restaurant was my favourite, for it is reasonably priced, and yet delicious and authentic (it is owned by a korean family, and korean workers around the area frequent this place). 

However, the buffet it used to have have reverted back to set lunch sets. Although the prices for the buffet and the set lunch is the same, obviously the buffet will be more worth it. 

Anyway, we had the usual, and chatted through the meal. 

What is different this time around is that I had to take a bus to the restaurant (2 bus stops away) as i've recently moved office, and is located slightly further than where i used to be. 

Good lunch, satisfied!

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

The end of an era

The end of an era

A new beginning, a new start. 

Let's carry the torch and bring it to further heights. 

The toughest role for any leader is to plan for succession. 

For the greatest measure and legacy of a leader is not the achievements made by the leader, but in the system surviving and thriving long after the leader has gone. 

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

Business Lunch - Food Wastage?

Business Lunch

Had a sumptuous business lunch at King's Centre. 

Was eating at this china-themed old shanghai restaurant. 

The food was really good, had some really nice and famous items. 

There was some food wastage though, what to expect when this is a business lunch. Weird and true, in the Chinese tradition, it is customary to order slightly more than what the guests can eat in a business/ formal setting, so that it will appear as if the host is generous enough to order more than sufficient food for all. 

In the event that all the food is finished, it may signal that the host is stingy and ordered insufficient food. 

Thus, the tendency to over order, especially for business meals. 

What then do such hosts behave when they are at home or on personal meals? 

Well, they too behave like the general public, they order just enough and do their best not to waste food!

So, in today's World, I would wish for zero food wastage. 

#iWish

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www.iwish.com.sg

Motivating a worker

Motivating a worker

How do you, as a leader/ manager/ supervisor, engage and motivate a worker? 

The simple answer is you can't.

You can only motivate the worker externally, through giving rewards or punishments. But extrinsic motivation doesn't last, and is not sustainable over the long run. How much more rewards can you afford to offer before you feel the heat? How much more punishment can you mete out?

What needs to happen is the worker needs to be intrinsically motivated, that it, motivated internally. And this is often easier said than done. As a superior, all you can do is to provide a nurturing and supportive environment, and equip the worker with the necessary tools, and then get out of the way so he/ she can do the job. Hopefully, in the nurturing and supportive environment you have set up, the worker will find his/ her inherent strength from within, and be intrinsically motivated. 

Long story short, the best and sustainable form of motivation is intrinsic. 

How do you achieve that? Well, unfortunately there is no simple answers to that, a lot of academic articles, research and surveys have been done to see if we can uncover what exactly is the recipe to create/ foster intrinsic motivation. 

Well, my advice, through my personal experiences...

1. Hire the right person

2. Make sure you can detect the genuine passion from the person

3. Create a nurturing and supportive environment

4. Equip the worker with the necessary tools

5. Empower the worker to do the job

6. Get the hell out of his/ her way!

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

Gardens by the Bay

Gardens by the Bay

Went to Gardens by the Bay last friday for a company event. 

It was partly cornered off as it was a private event, but due to the open layout found in the Gardens by the Bay, there were multiple porous entrance points. 

Free food stalls were set up, and staff dined heartily. 

However, some passer-bys eventually made their way into the venue location and took the food meant for staff as well. 

They were subsequently caught (due to the nature that they looked like tourists, behaved like tourists, and came in buses meant for tourists, they even dressed like tourists with their bermudas, cameras, and all), and told off. But, the food has been taken and eaten, so nothing can be done to prevent it. 

This made me question one thing, that of moral authority. If there were placards indicating that this was a private event - there is no way you could have missed that! Would you still take advantage of the porous entrances and sneak in to get some free buffet food?

Would you? 

I know I wouldn't. 

But I can't say the same for others. 

But then again, everyone is fighting a battle you don't know about. 

So, do give them the benefit of the doubt. 

Maybe they are truly hungry?

Maybe they don't have enough to get some food? 

Maybe they couldn't read the signs, which are in English. 

Maybe, just maybe...

Or perhaps, why can't we just share the happiness and joy with one another?

Since there's plenty of food to go around... (last I checked, food ran out pretty fast, some staff couldn't get the food in time, so there wasn't enough food to go around, maybe we should have catered more...)

So, live and let live. 

Share the food. 

Share the happiness. 

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!
www.iwish.com.sg

Employee empowerment and delegation

Employee empowerment and delegation

Does the above two concepts go hand in hand? 

Are they sequential or simultaneous?

After you delegate, then you empower?

Or do you empower first before you delegate?

Tough questions...

Well, as leaders and managers, we often find ourselves in such a situation. 

More often than not, we should aim to empower our staff at all levels, so that when we do delegate tasks to them, they are already empowered to deal with the task at hand. 

Bear in mind that you can only delegate the task, but you cannot delegate accountability. If your staff screws up, you must bear the responsibility. This means you must equip the staff with the necessary knowledge and skill-sets, and the organizational tools, before you delegate the task. At the same time, make sure the staff is empowered to act on it, rather than curtailed in his/ her own approach to resolving the task at hand.

What is the worst kind of delegation? One where staff is dis-empowered - where the manager micro manages the process. True, you need to tend to the staff after you have delegated the task in the beginning, but bear in mind the fine line not to be crossed. You can be nurturing, but make sure you are not micro managing. 

Micro management - yucks!

Happy delegating!

Happy empowering!

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

Organisational Learning

Organisational Learning

The topic on organisational learning has been around for quite some time. Human Resource and Training practitioners have been pushing for organisational learning instead of individual learning when they send people for courses. However, this focuses on the aspect of how the employees can learn and contribute to the organisation, and yet the learning can be built into the organisation itself. This is so that even if the employees leave, the learning and knowledge can still be retained within the organisation. 

This concept ignores the fact on the pre-learning an employee brings when he/ she first joins the organisation. What about this aspect of learning and knowledge gained by the employees in their previous roles in other organisation? Can we make use of such pre-learning and knowledge and see if some are still relevant to our organisation. How then can we make use of such relevant knowledge and adapt it accordingly to the context of our organisation? 

This is food for thought. 

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

Good health

Wish for good health. 

Health is the most important thing. 

If you have good health, you get to enjoy life and have more vitality.

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

--

Peer pressure

Peer pressure

today, I want to discuss on peer pressures. 

the pressure to conform, and to stay within the social and peer norm. 

how great this peer pressure must have been!

the pressure to compare, among your peers.

it could range in many forms:

1. salary

2. position/ level

3. job opportunities

4. family obligations

5. personal goals 

6. etc

which brings me to my next thought. 

what happens then when you don't have a common topic to discuss and contribute, and to "compare" and "benchmark" with? such as a stay at home mum against her peers of working women?

will this outlier eventually get displaced from her group of friends, and not get invited to future gatherings? 

or will the group of friends conform and adapt to suit the stay at home mum friend? so they can discuss some other common topics instead of always going back to discussing on work issues? 

no wonder stay at home mums tend to find their own cliques of other stay at home mums, from meeting them at school events or school related gatherings. 

well, that is some food for thought. 

this might mean what cliques you form and change along the course of your life journey. 

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

employee on-boarding kit

Thought of having an employee on-boarding kit, where it will contain all the necessary essentials - such as:

1. a mug - for taking of water from the pantry

2. some cup noodles - for satisfying those hunger pangs during those late nights?!?

3. some snacks - for satisfying those hunger pangs in the day

4. a direction guide for places to eat, and to hang out with colleagues, that is around the office locations

5. maybe a USB fan? - as the employee may come back to work on a weekend where there's no air con (just saying)

What other items are essential?

#iWish

iWish - Wishing Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg

A new beginning

A new beginning 

Have started on a new role since wednesday. 

So far it has been great. 

Benefits are good. 

So, any wishes for iWish? 

#iWish

iWish - Gifting Made Easy!

www.iwish.com.sg