Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think Series: Recent Episodes

Chin Teik

Welcome to Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think SeriesThe series will contain episodes to allow you to #pause with me, allow me to share with you my #language and hope that you will be able to #rRe-Think your current paradigm, your language and Re-Think the possibilities! I wish you well in your learning. If you have comments or questions, please contact me. Most of all if you like my series, please press "subscribe."

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**Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Collaboration is State of Mind

Questions to begin this episode:**

Do you believe that everyone is built to collaborate?
Are you an independent achiever who likes the control that you have on your own results?
Are you an interdependent collaborator who wants to contribute to a group’s results?
How do you collaborate

To collaborate or not starts in your mind.

Many leaders and managers assume that everyone is built to collaborate. Many believe that setting aside a day to collaborate or asking people to collaborate or advocating teamwork will automatically produce collaborative results. With this episode, I hope that you re-think for multiplier impact.

6 Paradigms of Human Relationships - The Challenge to Collaboration

Based on who we are and where we come from, the 4Es (Education, Experience, Exposure, Environment) shape our six paradigms (mindset) of human relationships: win-win, win-lose, lose-win, lose-lose, win, win/win or no deal

Collaboration requires:

Mindset, 2. Character. 3 Relationships, 4. Framework, 5. Agreements

Summary: 1. Awaken the mind, 2. Provide reasons & results for shift from independent achiever mindset to interdependent collaborator mindset, 3. Provide the culture, resources and support in equipping for collaboration. Get the mindset right first before equipping for the capability to deliver extraordinary results.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
The Vicious Cycle of Yes, The Power of NoHave you noticed how people are way too busy, running from meetings to meetings, working late, not pausing to breath, plan and reflect. People are constantly distracted by new demands from the boss or from the internal stakeholders. The organization’s language is ‘there is no negotiation on deadlines’ and ‘we are not allowed to say ‘no’. Have you ever wondered how these habits have been embedded and the reasons behind this language & mindset?
I call it the vicious cycle of ‘Yes’ and the need for the Power of ‘No’.

Reflect:

Is there really no room for negotiation on deadlines?
Is everything urgent and ASAP?
When is there time for thinking and planning if everyone is running at 100 miles per hour non-stop?

I hope with this podcast, you will #pause to re-think on how to stop the vicious cycle of yes and allow the power of no because it is impossible for great organizations to be always in the urgent/important and not have time for the important/not urgent. The pausing of the vicious cycle of Yes and the permission for No (in the right way) will promote 'Less is More'.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: The Act of Subtracting

This is a key leadership capability to make organizations more human. For some reason, people in organizations, have learned to say yes and believe that they have no power to say no or to negotiate. I call it the Vicious Cycle of Yes.
The employees' plates are overflowing with too many ideas or tasks from the top down, impacting:

Cognitive focus and slow and deep thinking for complex problem solving
Mental, physical and emotional well-being
Poor execution impacting customers and business results

The vicious cycle of Yes, has led managers to forget and assume that the employees have limitless cognitive and physical capacities to do everything at the same time.

Listen to my podcast to learn the 7 steps in the Act of Subtracting, including the Power of No.

Thank you for listening. Be well.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: The Power of Leading Indicators
Today, most organizations are focusing on lag outcomes. It's like standing on the weighing scale and looking at the scale daily, hoping for the needle to move without any actions taken. If they want to be consistent in their performance, then I recommend to look at leading indicators. Regular exercise, diet, sleep are the leading indicators that will move the lag outcomes on weight management.

Lag measures tell you if you have achieved the goal and often it is too late; hard to make up for time lost with regards to sales and operations
Leading measures tell you if you are likely to achieve the goal and thus shapes how you can impact success
Shift from rear view perspective (how did I do?) to current and actionable view of 'how am I doing?' that truly fuels execution

While it will require more cognitive effort to develop leading indicators, it will be well worth it as they provide predictive success.

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MC3
*21st Century Desired Talent Requirement

Hiring Managers need to re-think hiring right criteria. Given the volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity (VUCA) of the 21st Century, I recommend MC3 as the 21st Century Desired Talent Requirements.
MC3*
M is mindset. The success mindset includes:

Growth, Open, Outward and Promotion

3C are:

Character are equivalent to roots of a tree (deep and is not quick to change with seasons) while personalities are equivalent to leaves of a tree (change with different seasons)
Capabilities are life skills not soft skills
Competencies are tied to the functional role or the education earned. They quickly become irrelevant

Re-Think: Instead of hire for competencies, hire for fit to culture and the potential to grow with the success mindsets and character.

Listen to my podcast to hear the unpacking of each of the 4 words in MC3.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Keeping Right Performance on Track - An OverviewBill Gates: "The most brilliant strategy won't lead to success, unless executed well."

We need to shift from the commitment to plan to commitment to execute. Execution requires a discipline of habits and system.

The framework for Keeping Right Performance on Track includes

1 Requirement: Disciplined Leadership
Element 1: Breakthrough Performance
Element 2: Culture of Execution

Morris Chang: "Execution without a strategy is aimless, strategy without execution is useless."

Questions for reflection:

How would you rate your organization's ability to execute to the right priorities - 95 to 100% - all the time?
How well does the organization leaders and managers keep the right performance on track?
Describe your culture of execution or your organization's habits of execution.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Disciplined Leadership
1 Requirement: Keeping Performance on Track

Jim Collins says that a culture of discipline is not a principle of business, but a principle of greatness.

Self-discipline is the base for disciplined leadership. A simple definition: 'Self-discipline is about leaning into resistance. Taking action in spite of the how you feel. Living a lifestyle by design, not by default.

John C Maxwell says that motivation gets you going, but discipline keeps you growing.

Disciplined leadership includes:

A consistency in words and deeds to the purpose and values of the organization
Providing clarity for focused execution
Following the 2-Rhythm
Following the 2-Rules of Feedback
Following the rule of subtracting
Helping each employee to find their intrinsic motivation (Will) and equipping them on the new How to new goals, projects and roles.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Breakthrough PerformanceElement 1: Keeping Performance on TrackBreakthrough Performance has 3 habits and requires self-discipline

Focus on the leading indicators to the lag outcomes
Self-monitoring performance feedback
Control of resources to get back on track
Leading indicators are the highest leverage actions or activities that can influence the chance of success in achieving your goals.
Visual self-monitoring performance feedback is public accountability, requiring humility and courage.
Control of resources require the individual to know what can he/she can control and what help is required by other stakeholders to get back on track.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
5C for Managing TransitionIn this podcast, I will unpack the 5C – Challenge, Connection, Control, Commitment, Capability – in moving through the Bridges’ 3 stages of emotional transition. This is to remove the resistance to change.

Stage 1: Endings (Letting Go)
Stage 2: Neutral Zone
Stage 3: New Beginnings

Transition is the inner psychological process that people go through as they internalize and come to terms with the new situation that the change brings about.

Change will only be successful if leaders and organizations address the transition that people experience during change. Supporting people through transition, rather than pushing forward is essential if the change is to work as planned. This is key to capitalizing on opportunities for innovation and creating organizational resilience. I believe the nimbleness of an organization is measured by how quickly an individual or group or organization can move from stage 1 to stage 3 of emotional transition time and time again.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Rethink
5R for Communicating Change
People don't fear change but the unknown that comes with change. Any organization change begins with changing every brain, because change is associated with threat to the brain. SCARF represents the 5 domains impacted by threat in the brain. SCARF is Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness.

5R includes

Reason
Result
Role
Roadmap
Resource

The 5R reduces the fear of the unknown, a sense of no-choice, unfairness, and emotions like fear, denial, anger, sadness (from loss).

Try the 5R on yourself and others with the change coming at you soon.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
The 4P & 4T of LeadershipUse the 4P of Leadership to provide the Why you have decided to be in this role

Privilege
Personal
Personalized
Painful/Potential

Jim Collins says that leadership is not personality. He says that Level 5 leader focuses all the ambition, drive and energy outwards. John C Maxwell says that leadership is focused on others.

Use the 4T of Leadership to prepare the mindset to go on and stay on this journey

Transformative
Trials & Tribulations
Training & Development
Truism

If you have decided to be in this role to positively impact other people's lives, I wish you well, faith and hope to live the 4P and 4T of Leadership.
If you have accidentally come into this role, then pause to use the 4P & 4T to decide whether to go forward or to move on to another role.

There is no right or wrong answer. There is only you and your Why and Where.
Be well.

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Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think

How effective is your organization's current on-boarding and/or orientation in confirming the right hire, transitioning from previous culture to your organization's culture and strengthening the relationship between the hiring manager & the new hires?
How much is your cost in poor hiring and ineffective on-boarding?

Listen to my podcast to

learn a new language, new habits and new process to set up all the new hires for success
understand the different role accountability between HR and hiring managers during the First 90-Day of all new hires

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Constancy of Purpose

In these challenging times (VUCA), it is important for any organization (profit or non-profit) to have a Constancy of Purpose to match & align for focused execution to organization's vision & 3 strategic priorities.

Constancy of Purpose includes:

Anchor (Why) & Values (for decision-making)
Compass ( Where - direction) & Strategic Objectives (success measures to keep performance on track)
3 Strategic Priorities (What) & Culture of Execution (How)

Constancy of Purpose provides:

A match between individual's why-where-how-what to an organization's why-where-how-what for hiring
Alignment of individual's tasks to the purpose and vision of an organization to provide meaning to work
Prioritization (permission to say 'no') to BFN (busy for nothing) activities not aligned to the 3 strategic priorities for productivity

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
System of ExecutionSuccess doesn’t come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution!

Having a vision without goals is just dreaming
Having goals without execution is wishing
"Without execution, 'vision' is just another word for hallucination."

Key message: There is not enough focus on the execution of promises made to stakeholders!
There is almost an acceptance for delay and rework in most organizations.

My system of execution framework consists of 1 requirement and 2 elements.

1 requirement is disciplined leadership and the 2 elements are breakthrough performance and culture of execution.

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Stop Demotivating Your EmployeesThe right talent does not need you to motivate them, instead they require demotivation prevention.
Key message: These 2 capabilities (not soft skills) need to be equipped and measured: Hiring needs to go hand-in-hand with retention of the right talent. There is a cost (tangible and non-tangible) to poor hiring and poor retention of the right talent.

Two Questions for Reflection

What makes motivated employees become demotivated within the first week or 1st month or 3rd month of employment?
What did you personally do or not do that demotivates your employees?

Your employees don’t need motivation when

The job matches their 70:20:5
The culture is right
Your leadership behaviors and capabilities are aligned to the values, culture and leadership behavior expectations of a purpose-driven organization

Leaders are accountable for their employees who are acountable for the results!

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Culture to be taught, not assumed

Please join me on this episode to learn:

What is culture?
What’s the difference between values and culture?
How would a new hire 1 week into the company describe the culture of your company?
Who owns the culture of the organization?

Culture is simply how we get things done in the organization and how work gets done between people. Culture is the manifestation of a the organization’s core values.
Culture is not just how things are done in the organization; it should include the following:

to differentiate and be a competitive edge
to hire right and weed out wrong hires
to communicate to customers how your people delivers to promise consistently across the different divisions or the world

Ensure your core purpose, strategies to achieve vision and culture are connected.

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Re-Think
Assume makes an Ass-U-MeFour questions to begin this episode.

How aware are you of the assumptions behind your responses to certain situations or people?
Where do your assumptions come from? And why are assumptions important?
Can you change your assumptions?
Who and what can provide a re-think on your assumptions

People are prone to biased assumptions based on the 4E - environment, education, experience and exposure. Those assumptions will lead to automatic thinking and stimulus-response behaviors which may not always be optimal in terms of DEI. Assumptions are important in strategic planning and decision making as well as quality connections at home and at work.

Listen to this episode on how to #pause, #unpack and #re-think one's current assumptions.

Up-Close with Chin Teik: 95:5 Rule4 Questions to begin this episode

1. How many of you believe that you have control over your life? 100%?

2. Who has authority over your mind?

3. What has the Covid-19 taught you about yourself?

4. How have you and your colleagues dealt with or responded to Covid-19 over the 2 plus years?

Listen to this episode to learn what is the 95:5 Rule and how to operationalize the 95% of no-control and 5% of-control.

Let Go of 95% of no-control
ReFrame 5% of-control

Up-Close with Chin Teik: 2-Page - Critical Thinking DocumentedListen to this episode to learn:

What is Critical Thinking?
Why "Simple is Harder to do than Complicated"?
Design of 2-Page - Critical Thinking Documented
- 2 Principles; 4 Key Questions; 3 Words; 1 Rule
How to clarify expectations and obtain buy-in
How to reduce surprises and ever changing expectations which impact your project goals

Welcome to the 2-Page!

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Never Waste A CrisisThe pandemic has disrupted (unfreeze) our work-life which were fairly fixed prior to March 2020. Given that 95% of our lives we have no control and 5% we have control, how do we work on the 5% of control to learn from the Covid-19? What do we do with the 95% of no-control? Reflect on these 4 questions

How has Covid-19 disrupted your work-life?
What lessons have you learned about yourself during these 2 years of pandemic?
How has your organization responded to the disruption?
How have you and your family responded to the disruption?

Listen to this episode to:

learn the 4 steps to work on the 5% of control
ask the 4 questions to reflect & learn from each crisis

so as to thrive & Never Waste A Crisis!

Up-Close With Chin Teik: Why Would Anyone Follow You? 4 Questions:

Do people follow you because they have no choice?
Do people follow you because of who you are?
Why would you follow someone? What will be the reasons or criteria of followership?
Would you follow yourself? Provide reasons for either yes or no.

Key Teachable Point:
Leadership is about Relationship and Management is about Transaction
This episode will unpack the following:

Language: Leadership and Followership
What Do Great Leaders Do to Inspire Followership?
5 Levels of Leadership
5 Value Proposition of Leader-Manager

Up-Close with Chin Teik:Why You Should Become A Leader-Manager4 Questions:

What's the difference between a leader and a manager?
Are you a leader or a manager or both?
Why did you accept or choose to be a people manager?
How does your core purpose in life connect with being a people manager?

Key Teachable Point:Relationship (Leader) and Results (Manager)A Leader-Manager uses both supportive behaviors (relationship) and directive behaviors (results) to obtain emotional and rational commitment from his/her staff to achieve extraordinary results.This episode will unpack for you:

Observations of current state of leadership and management in most organizations
Assumptions which drive behaviors of most managers or leaders or leader-managers
What is a leader-manager?
3 components of leader-manager
5 value-proposition of leader-manager

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Who Am I, Truly?When We Know Who We Are, We Will Know What To Do. Questions for your reflection:

How well do you know your true self?
What does authentic mean to you?
How much of who you are comes from your past - good & bad?
What and who is your source of significance or identity?
Which is easier to achieve - self-change or self-transformation?

There are many ideas and thoughts on authenticity as well as how to discover who you are. I am sharing in this podcast the 5-Actions To Discovering Who You Are including:

Sharing my version of what Authentic means
3 Challenges of Being Authentic
Assumptions that we make on ourselves
Recommended 5 self-directed actions

It is not easy and it requires a need on your part. I hope that with this podcast, it will encourage you to take the first step of action.

Remember: Identity first before Destiny

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Do You Lead or Manage Your Life, That's The QuestionQuestions for Reflection:

1: If you believe that 90% or more of your life you have no control, how well do you manage your response to what you cannot control?

2: What percent of your life, you are leading vs managing?

3: Do you know what it takes to lead one’s life?

Let Me Unpack For You The Following:

Difference between lead-self and manage-self
Reasons for being a leader-manager of your own life
5 Leadership Practices of "Lead Yourself to Greatness"

Up-Close with Chin Teik: To Motivate or To Inspire, That's The Question
It is important for leader-managers to move from unconscious to conscious actions on motivating or inspiring for situational applications to achieve high employee engagement & multiplier impact. Motivation is easy but can be complicated. Inspiration is not easy but when accomplished, it is mastery in simplicity.

I will be sharing the following:

6 Questions for Your Reflection
3 Motivation Models
4 Requirements for High Employee Engagement

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Equipping to Serve From Your Given Platform

Find your moments of purposefulness! Even with this Covid-19 season find the space and the moments when you can touch someone’s life from where you are placed.
#Pause and make time to start this journey with a simple question: Who Am I without the title?
Engagement is when you feel that your strengths are being used for impact and appreciated while being developed! Discovering one’s strengths (passion & ability) is a very good use of one’s time. When you discover your strengths, it will enable you to find/match the right role and the right company where your strengths will be utilized!
Equip to serve from where you are placed! We each need to be equipped in the position we are in to deliver multiplier impact on the people we have been given to steward or on people who pass through our lives! Be multi-dimensional.

I hope each and everyone of you will find and live your moments of purposefulness.

Up-Close with Chin Teik: To Empower Or To Delegate, That's The Question
Questions: What does empowerment mean to you? When you say the word to your staff, do both of you know what it entails in terms of behavior and scope? Have you personally experienced true empowerment? When and from whom did you learn empowerment?

Language: "Empowerment" as a word is a feel-good for the manager and for the employee (who desires empowerment). For the employee who is new and lack of capability or competency, the word can be scary. When I hear managers use the word “empowerment”, I get really worried. Reason is that the word, “empowerment” is a blur word because it means different things to different people – paradigm-centric.

Paradigms: I grew up with the word "delegate". Which paradigm is yours when it comes to delegate or empower?

Abdicate or
Equip

4 Words, 3 Rules & 3 Supportive Steps: Listen to my podcast as I share my 4 words, 3 rules & 3 steps for effective delegation. Hope this will #pause will allow you to unpack the #language into specific repeatable behaviors/actions for predictable results.

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Discovering Your Strengths

What's your definition of the word "strength"?
Do you know your top 3 strengths?
Do you rely on other people to tell you your strengths?
Why is it important for you to know your own strengths?

Please listen to understand my working definition of strength: High Passion + High Ability

It is important to know your strength because it is required in your personal Constancy of Purpose (why-where-how-what). If you do not spend time to discover your strengths and rely on others whose definition, standard and blind spot may mistake your weakness into strength, then it will negatively impact your emotional/physical being.

Working in a role with high ability & low passion will result in stress.
Working in a role with low passion & low ability is not going to make you a joyful & effective person - disengaged and de-motivated!

I will also explain the 70:20:5 rule and how it plays to my working definition of passion + ability.

Up-Close with Chin Teik Episodes: Life Skills not Soft Skills
Due to the daily use of problem solving, decision making, running/attending meetings, dealing with conflicts etc., we assume that everyone is good at these skills. But at the same time, these daily-use skills are intuitive, unconscious and individualistic. Thus many label these skills - "soft". "Soft" makes it harder to transfer and replicate for repeatable and predictable results.

Have you ever wondered where the term "soft skills" come from? Listen to this podcast to find out.
I prefer, use and teach life skills because these skills are hard and not easy, requiring conscious diligent practice for mastery and multiplier impact

transfer for multiplier impact for effective collaboration and co-creation of solutions
repeatable process for predictable results
life application not tied to any specific field
fundamental to an organization's culture for execution

Life skills should be taught by all companies to differentiate it's culture - "how we do things here"

Up-Close with Chin Teik: #Knowing-#Being-#Doing1. How many of us know but don’t do?

2. How many of us do without knowing why?

3. How many of us do without believing?

4. How many of us believe in what we are doing, knowingly?

Knowing is not enough, Try/Experiment. Willing is not enough, Do. Doing is not enough, believe.

Wisdom is not just about knowing about something but living it out. I call it applied knowledge – the ability to use knowledge to discern and to question current state and to ask “why not?”. To unpack the three words, just think of these word associations. Knowing is head, Being is heart, Doing is hand.Hearing and actual doing is a human problem. Space in between hearing and doing is occupied by our current paradigms, our pride & our fear. Unless we are able to shift or remove those blocks, we cannot do 100% of what we hear consistently and repeatedly.

We are called to use our head, heart and hands when we engage with truth and people. Truth can be principles around faith and life and leadership with self, others and organizations.

Possibility is Limited by our Current ParadigmWe are all limited by our current paradigms. Our paradigms are shaped by our education, experience & exposure - 3E. Our #language reflects our paradigm - listen to the choice of words you use. Shifting paradigms are not easy. It will require:

Reason
Hope
3 Actions

#Pause & #re-think one's development plan to one's life/career goals. "T-individual" versus "I-individual".
Thank you for #pausing to listen to my #language and I hope that you will be able to #re-think of your current paradigm and what you can do to shift your paradigm - impossible becomes possible!

Change vs Transformation

People use these two words interchangeably. In this episode I will unpack the two words so that you can choose what is the right word for the right situation. Remember, language shapes our future behaviour and actions.

Change is fixing the past while Transformation is a whole new state. There are different approaches in implementing change vs transformation. Please contact me if you are interested to know the different approaches.

While technology or uncontrollable circumstances may initiate disruption, it is the transformational leadership and organizational culture that drives the right execution. The Covid-19 pandemic is reinforcing how much in life we have no control on. This black swan has shown that the current way of doing business no longer works and thus we have to choose the right strategy to respond – “fixing the past” or “a whole new state”? What has worked in the past will not work any more. Don't let a good crisis go to waste!

Time for strategic thinking not just strategic planning. Time to #Re-Think business models, organizational structures, business processes and people capabilities and most of all leadership-management capabilities for the 21st Century which will continue to be a decade of disruption!

Carpe Diem - Seize the Day!

Up-Close with Chin Teik: Simple is Harder to Do than Complicated

Humans complicate the complexity. We complicate the complexity of nature, organization, relationships and work. #Pause to choose the right #language for self and others. #Re-think how we approach complexity and not to complicate structure, relationship and work and even nature.
Simple is not easy, Simple is hard. Simple is mastery.

Easy is Complicated:

We speak without thinking which complicates relationships
We develop power point slides to make it easy for us but hard for the listeners
We list tasks not prioritized outcomes which makes it harder for the staff to execute
We say yes to all great ideas which makes it harder for the staff to focus against finite time
We don’t pause to write down our thoughts which makes it harder for staff to understand us

Re-think:

Mastery requires hard work
Mastery requires disciplined practice
Mastery requires awareness of self and others
Mastery is simplicity

Simplicity is mastery.

#Pause#Language#Re-ThinkThese 3 words represent the work that I do in terms of "Lead Self". We don't pause enough from our busy-ness to refresh, renew, reflect. Words represent our thoughts. Words can give life or scar. We need to listen to the language we use on ourselves and on others. Once we #pause and #listen to the language we use on self and others, it allows us to #re-think our paradigms, to re-write our self-narratives, to be more aware of others and to be in the moment for impact!

Change and Transition - An IntroductionThis podcast will introduce to you the difference between change and transition. Given the experience with Covid-19, it reinforces the principle of unforeseen, unpredictable and lack of control with life. However the key to effective change management is transition management.
Listen to learn:

the principles of change
principles of transformation
the 3 stages of transition

Understand from the #language the key ingredient to effective change management - transition management! Hope that with this #pause and the sharing of my #language, you will re-think of your future approach to change; to include transition management.