If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is powerful. - Jess Bezos

 

The millennial generation, generally defined as being born between 1980 and 2000, are now entering the workforce in vast numbers, and has made up a powerful generation of workers who are ready to shape the world of work for years to come.  

Just as how clients have expectation for the products or services that we offer to them in a business environment, likewise, millennials today seek for organisation leaders who can recognise their needs and wants as an employee in order to fulfil their career expectations at the workplace. Be that as it may, it requires a new mindset for both employers trying to develop a workforce with the right skillsets, and for individuals seeking to advance their career progressions.

“When new skills become in demand as fast as others become extinct, employability is less about what you already know and more about your capacity to learn.” – Mara Swan, Executive Vice Present, Global Strategy and Talent of Manpower Group.

Speaking of which, millennials who possess the right skills are high in demand. As much as they dislike strict and rigid organisation structures and management styles, millennials today yearn for a working environment that allows them to thrive in their career advancement.  As compared to the soon-to-retire baby-boomer generation, the aspirations of the twenty-first century workers are rather atypical; be it their career expectations, or attitudes about work. 

At one point, it is not surprising that by 2020, millennials will make up 50 percent of the global workforce. This proves that it is indeed a crucial time for organisation CEOs to strategise in attracting and retaining the younger talent for their company.

The following is an extract from an article by Mara Swan, in which she shared from her experience as the workforce expertise in ManpowerGroup, in understanding how millennials are changing the world of work today.

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It’s time to take a fresh look at how we motivate, develop and retain employees. In this environment, learnability – the desire and capability to develop in-demand skills to be employable for the long-term – is the hot ticket to success for employers and individuals alike.

Up to 65% of the jobs Generation Z will perform don’t even exist yet and up to 45% of the activities people are paid to perform today could be automated using current technology. This won’t necessarily mean fewer jobs, but it will mean new jobs requiring different skills. Add to that the fact that 38% of employers tell us they’re already having difficulties finding people with the right skills to fill open jobs and it's clear that there’s a mismatch. Anticipating what the skills of the future might be is critical if we are to build a sustainable pipeline of talent.

According to a survey by ManpowerGroup, millennials say success depends more on having the right skills than the right connections.

As business needs change, employers are focused on skills too. JP Morgan Chase is offering development in business-critical skills such as software development and network engineering, while AT&T is providing nano degrees to make sure its workforce is prepared for the shift from a hardware-oriented focus to software-defined IP networks. Manpower Group is working with a number of companies to identify the skills that will be needed in advanced manufacturing and our own employability programmes include MyPath, a selection of tools providing our associates with assessment, guidance and education – including free college degrees – to help them develop the skills we know are in-demand.

The purpose? It's a way for working people to “future proof” themselves no matter who their employer may be and creates opportunities for people to boost their career success. It also enhances the competitiveness of organisations and all the time helps build more sustainable communities in which we all operate and our employees live and work.

Employers can harness the appetite of their employees to learn. Our research found that millennials value new skills so highly that many are willing to spend their own time and dig into their own pockets to pay for it. For employers, motivating and retaining employees with learnability means finding new ways to nurture a learning culture and to reward it day-to-day. This creates a virtuous cycle. It challenges employees to make themselves more valuable to the company and in turn keeps them engaged and stimulated in their job, boosting retention.

As with any culture change, it has to come from the top. Employers need to lead rather than delegate, and the first thing to do is appoint a Chief Learning Officer. It’s not just a nice-to-have; it’s business critical. That means the onus for shifting an organisation’s culture into one of continuous learning is on leadership, and it starts with four steps:

1. Look beyond the resume. Many organisations continue to pay too much attention to academic qualifications and hard skills. While these can be important, what entry-level employees learn during university often doesn’t equip them for today’s job market. Look for employees who are enthusiastic and demonstrate a willingness to learn new skills.

2. Select carefully. Offer the best learning opportunities to employees who you know will take advantage of it. Make it clear to employees that having the opportunity to cross-train and learn new skills is a prize to be earned by demonstrating curiosity and a genuine interest in acquiring new knowledge. You’ll get more bang for your buck by focusing on individuals with higher learnability.

3. Model learnability. If you want your employees to embrace learning as a habit, you need to set an example. Sure, we’re all busy, but it’s important to carve out time to expand your own mind. Ask yourself, when was the last time you read something from an unusual perspective, and not just another article one of your friends shared on Facebook? When have you taken the time to wrap your head around a new industry? To engage in conversation on a subject outside your comfort zone? Curiosity is a muscle prone to atrophy when exposed to the online world of instant information. To keep that skill sharp, we all need to take the time to find unfamiliar topics and dig beneath the surface.

4. Recognise learners. Put your money where your mouth is when promoting learning. We’ve all seen how well monetary incentives and competition work in motivating employees to change their physical fitness habits – think of team Fitbit challenges – so why can’t we do the same for mental fitness? We could reward employees who organise internal activities that promote learnability, such as bringing in external speakers, hosting roundtable discussions or simply writing a blog and sharing challenging pieces on social media. Consider rewarding learnability by only promoting employees to a higher level after they have gained lateral expertise in other departments. The best employees want to broaden their expertise, so provide them with opportunities to challenge themselves.

If you have managed to build a team of employees hungry to learn and grow – good! But the job doesn’t stop there. The kind of organisation that will survive into the future needs to successfully feed those learnability cravings and keep the virtuous cycle turning.

Inspiration:       This Skill Could Save Your Job – and Your Company

Image Source:

(1)   wellnessworkshub.com

(2)   kinesisinc.com

(3)   manpowergroup

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 

In today’s major organisations, women begin to be less visible as they climb up the corporate ladder. In Malaysia, a recent report by business consultancy, Grant Thornton, revealed that gender diversity still has the least number of women involved in senior management roles within the Asean region. With only 26% of women represented in top management roles, it is vitally important to boost and encourage a corporate culture that supports more talented women into key decision-making positions.

But, you may likely ask, “Why?”

If you ever heard about the girl effect – a movement in which you invest in the education of young and unique potential of girls in developing nations, you help local communities much more than by giving any other form of aid. As reported by the Clinton Global Initiative, closing the gender gap in education adds half a percent to a country’s per capita gross national product; that when women work, they invest 90% of their income back into their families, as compared with only 35% for men – which marks an incredibly powerful effort for the economy.  

Being the CEO of Tupperware Brand Corporation, Rick Goings knew for sure that companies miss out on tremendous business advantages if women are neglected as part of the management team. To him, the economic decision to disregard female empowerment is a ridiculous action. Having been around the industry for years, he realised that CEO plays a pivotal role in not only thriving the profitability of their company, it is also of their responsibility to ensure diversity and equality in the enterprise to help improve the company bottom line.

Many business models today face a plethora of challenges involving three (3) fault lines: technology, talent, and demographic change; companies have to be able to reinvent themselves from the older corporate culture in order to cope with the new challenges ahead. This, however, requires a workforce with a broad skillset; and this is when the executive management roles hire people who can be efficient cogs in the corporate machine. For this reason, Rick Goings learned a great lesson in receiving better returns and work outcomes by looking for a broader range of abilities and capabilities upon the recruitment process. 

Check out the article below which provides further insights on how “female” factor works best for a radical transformation of gender diversity at the workplace.

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The Female Factor

Too many companies today are still holding on to a corporate culture that sidelines these qualities, especially at the top. What they are missing is leadership diversity – or, pardon the buzzword, the “female factor”.

In my experience, women excel when it comes to getting the task done through collaboration, teamwork and critical thinking. They approach problem-solving and decision-making differently from their male counterparts and it is this kind of diversity in thinking that prevents a homogenous mindset, strengthens a business and propels it forward. Recruiting and promoting women is a very straightforward injection of skills that improves the company’s ethos and its business results.

Frankly, it’s a triple win – for the company, family and community, and society as a whole. At Tupperware Brands, we are heavily focused on women in business, on coaching them to succeed. To understand the impact, we looked closely at the outcomes. We are proud but not surprised that many of our senior line officers are women. Ditto for country managing directors – even in markets where machismo still reigns.

The same goes for our sales organization. In Mexico, for example, 99% of our female sales force improved their financial situation, and as a result 50% doubled the investment in their children’s education. Thanks to the right training, they also gained in confidence, and many now see themselves as leaders – ready to create opportunities and jobs.

On the other side of the globe, in Indonesia, the results are just as impressive. Our sales force did north of $200 million in sales last year offering women – who are typically shut out of the regional economy – a way to move beyond set social rules and rise above the poverty line. Thanks to the right training and opportunity, many of these women confidently build their own businesses and reap the rewards. They spend more on their children’s education, gain respect in their family, and nearly half of them now have the time and money to support others in the community.

Putting It to Action

So how can companies make it work? It starts with the right mindset, and at the top.

At Tupperware Brands, we have made sure that the same number of men and women sit on our board. We do not promote women because we feel obliged to, but because it is the right business decision. I recommend that you first think about the skillset and structure that your company needs, and then build the workforce that helps you achieve that.

Once you have filled the internal leadership pipeline with the right mixture of people and plenty of female factor, do three things: invest, train and mentor. Trust me: this pays off immensely, because the female factor is real. I have irrefutable proof it works.

Inspiration: A CEO's Best Investment? More Women Leaders

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 

You were born to win, but to be a winner, you must: plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win. - Zig Ziglar

People from all walks of life face multifaceted problems throughout their journey; so to do business organisations. As the saying goes, “A smooth sea doesn’t make a skilful sailor”. These problems or challenges commonly emerge from increasingly complex business models or strategies. Now, ask yourself. “If such circumstances arise within your organisation, will you sit around to wait for miracles to happen, or will you step up with ideas to help solve the problem?” Generally, many would opt for the second choice as the answer to the question.

Today, there are innumerable solutions to the problems that one would face in this competitive, yet compelling business environment. Often, many would hop on the conventional wisdom bandwagon as the solutions for problems that they encounter. However, as much as “traditional” problem solving is being recognised as an effective solution, “design thinking” has gradually been adopted as a problem solving strategy in organisations. 

So, the question here is: “What is design thinking?” and “How can it potentially help both individuals and organisations to address problems that they face in order to create a more desirable future?” 

“Design thinking” was a concept or problem-solving framework recommended by Tim Brown, the CEO and president of Innovation and Design Consultancy (IDEO) - A process or method that encourages us to step outside our comfort zones by implementing strategically creative and innovative ideas to solve problems in all aspects of our lives.

Abridged from an article by Sandy Clark, a writer and columnist from The Star Online shares two (2) realisations on why we should embrace design thinking into our daily approach to the problems:

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Firstly, problems aren’t always solved the first time. This sounds obvious, right? So why do we repeatedly act otherwise, carrying the attitude that if there’s a problem, it should be fixed immediately? This shows our tendency to incline towards the quick fix when there often isn’t one.

Secondly, design doesn’t describe an ending, it defines a process. At its heart, design thinking is about the process of problem-solving, which informs the core principles of the practice. In recognising the need for process, we step away from the quick-fix mentality that significantly limits progress.

Design thinking has some fundamental principles which allow for a deliberate, thorough and considered approach to solving problems. Think about car design. It contains an intricate process, which can include the going over and the refining of ideas, or scrapping them altogether and thinking of a new way to approach the plan. The key principles of design thinking are:

Outline the Problem

When organisations find themselves in a seemingly endless knot of difficulty, it’s because they fail to outline or even acknowledge problems. There’s no need for an MBA in order for us to realise that, if we don’t take the time to define what’s wrong, or if we’re not honest in our assessment, it then becomes impossible to move forward.

To become aware of problems, observation of what’s happening is key, as is asking questions – constantly. Why are we doing this? Is there a more efficient way to refine the approach? How can we make sure the end result delivers?

Cultivate a Number of Ideas

One of the most crippling phrases in business is, “We’ve always done it this way.” Throw it out – it keeps you in your comfort zone, which limits your thinking and restricts innovation. Have a number of possible solutions in mind, and don’t be afraid to get creative in your ideas. Some of the best ideas have no doubt started with, “This is stupid, I know, but what if. . .” and ended up with someone declaring, “That’s genius!”

Develop the Best Ideas

Decide on the best of the bunch and set about refining these ideas. Like all promising plans, ideas need to be nurtured in order to grow. How would such an idea be put in place? What steps would be taken to see it through?

Are there any foreseeable stumbling blocks? How can they be overcome? What will the end result look like if we implement this? Why this idea over the others? By taking the time to invest in an idea, it sets up a solid foundation on which to carry out the final step. 

Execute

Design thinking, in a nutshell, is the process through which a business eventually arrives at a better outcome or overall state than before. It’s a process which starts with consideration and ends with determination.

With your best idea now firmly in place, it’s important to commit the time and resources required for implementation if goals and objectives are to be achieved. By committing all efforts to focusing on the execution, success in any endeavour becomes much more likely.

Inspiration: Design Thinking as a Problem-Solving Tool

Image Source:

(1) salesexpert.fundoodata.com

(2) archeo3d.uniroma1.it

(3) dreamstime.com

(4) leaderonomics.com

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will. 

We are all guilty!

We are guilty of not seeing the bigger picture. We are guilty of sweeping something under the carpet because it is easier than tackling head on. Whether it be clouding (external forces) or our own distractions (internal forces), this ‘missing the point’ can result in decision-makers making ill-informed choices.

We need to address the very real blindspots in our decision-making processes. From that point, we see in a clearer fashion, the reality of circumstances, and can make informed, intelligent decisions to move forward to the next level.

At the recent launch of “Reinvention: Acceletating Results in the Age of Disruption” by Shane Cragun and Kate Sweetman, Kate spent time highlighting the Six Deadly Blindfolds that impact upon entrepreneurs, managers and decision-makers. These resonated strongly with the entire audience, as we all recognized that at some stage along our managerial career path, we have been guilty of at least one, if not several, of these. I for one, recognise times where I have experienced, and acted based upon, each of the blindfolds. Does this make me a bad manager? No. It now makes me more conscious of factors clouding my judgement.

Whilst we cannot change the past, we can become increasingly more proactive in our critical analysis of the events surrounding us, and as such, will be better placed to strengthen our choices for our respective organisations and stakeholders into the future.

The Six Deadly Blindfolds analogy is apt for business decision-makers to contemplate. Recognise when these blindfolds have held influence over your decisions, and more importantly, use this framework to think through future decisions. If you answer ‘yes’ to the following question, then you know what you need to do – “am I missing something in the bigger picture as I analyse the scenario that I face”?

Arrogance

Often as simple as pride, or refusing to accept that something is happening. We feel that we can rise above it, or that our position is already sufficiently strong enough. Regardless of how strong your current situation is, there is always room for improvement. Complacency will be the death of success.

Professing that your way of doing something is the only correct avenue is also a form of arrogance. This is obviously the major inhibitor to change; change needing strong, positive leadership from throughout the hierarchy for it to succeed.

Simply ask yourself: “Am I always right”, or “Is there a better way”, and you will know whether or not you are limiting yourself due to this blindfold.

Negative Feedback Not Acknowledged Here

Many individuals, and business units fail in acknowledging and addressing less than stellar feedback that is offered to them. People try to brush over feedback as an anomaly in the spectrum, rather than a genuine issue. For example, if only one out of twenty customers at a restaurant complain that the waiter was unhelpful; then it means the waiter was good at his job. NO! Flip this around; if one customer complains – listen, investigate, rectify. There may be a real issue at hand. All feedback must be given credence for analysis – through feedback we will understand stronger perspectives, and potentially be exposed to new ideas which will help us to improve.

Dismissing Competitors Successes

Never take it lightly that a small competitor is making headway. A 0.5% improvement for them might be the start of the tipping point for you. We must always celebrate success, even when it is not our own; but use others success as a learning curve to develop a deeper understanding of the strategy they used to achieve that outcome.

In our appreciation of the landscape in which we operate, a key element is in understanding why others are progressing the way in which they do. Never take competitors for granted, and never, ever, take your finger off the pulse.

We Know What’s Best for the Customer

Businesses don’t invest enough in understanding their customer, and craft products and services to suit the delivery model, rather than to suit the end user. This is us knowing what is best for our convenience; not creating the best experience for our customer base.

We need to spend more time understanding our customer; their needs, current position, aspirations. From there we can customize, as much as achievable, the required product or service to suit them.

Do we really want to go back to the Henry Ford days – “you can have any colour car you want, as long as it is black”? I think not!

Believing Problems Don’t Exist

Much like Arrogance, we often tend to ignore problems as inconsequential, or non-existent. This is a huge mistake. No business has it 100% smooth. No business spends its lifespan with smooth sailing. There will always be problems. But we have to acknowledge their existence in order to first rectify them, and subsequently, improve our deliverability from them.

Embrace your problems, and use them as (steep) learning curves. Accept that from each problem the organization will come out stronger, for having experienced, and overcome the issue at hand.

Avoiding the Unavoidable

That delicate conversation you have to have with a client or a team member. That delay which put everything off track, but you’re still trying to carry on as if it didn’t happen. Reality is; as with crisis management, it is easier to bite the bullet as early as possible and deal with things, than it is to try and cover something up.

We are all guilty!

So, how many of these are you guilty of within your own organisations? Which seemed familiar, or struck a nervous chord within your mind? The first step is in acknowledging the things that impact our thinking process/es, and our decision-making processes, and moving forward positively, knowing that we can overcome these obstacles at each step, if only we are honest to ourselves.

Image Source:

(1)   leaderonomics.com
(2)   smallbiztrends.com
(3)   entrepreneur.com
(4)   sfs.jordon.com
(5)   linkedin.com

Craig J Selby | Craig is a long-time proponent of structured and measured change. His early career saw him teaching marketing and management at a variety of Universities and PTE’s in his native New Zealand, where he quickly climbed the management ladder to head several private sector institutes. Needing to do that little bit extra, Craig formed his own consultancy firm and was engaged by many in the sector as a trouble-shooter - responsible for internal auditing, restructuring and redevelopment of many departments and institutes in order to remain competitive in a highly contested market. This involvement motivated him to branch out and work with other industries - focussing on change and development as a core theme in business survival. When Craig moved to Malaysia, he went back into the Education sector to share his ideas with local private sector educational facilities. In 2009 Craig co-founded Orchan Consulting Asia, an award-winning Public Relations agency. His areas of specialisation are Crisis Management Communications and Change Management.

They say success changes you, but it takes change to be successful - Unknown

As the old adage goes, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Networking is notably one of the preeminent ways to establish new connections, and build mutually beneficial relationships with an extended group of people in order to sustain business development. Successful business leaders leverage on relationships that they have formed as the backbone for their organisation’s business network – which in turn led the organisation to a prosperous business growth.    

Recently, business entrepreneurs have taken the lead to expand their networking circles to work with friends, clients, colleague, or people who are outside of their immediate geographic area. Often, it is also a time when these organisation leaders realise the importance of building strong relationships internationally via virtual networking as it helps to sustain organisation business development through the ideas shared within such business networking sessions. 

As virtual networking has gradually come into play, people tend to search for your profile online, before they explore further on who you are. With that, LinkedIn has become a “dime-a-dozen” for business entrepreneurs as it is known to be an effective platform to connect with other professional individuals. Nevertheless, simply amassing LinkedIn connections isn’t the best approach in developing networks with virtual colleagues. There’s indeed more to it than meet the eye. Dorie Clark, a marketing strategist, professional speaker, and book author, revealed three (3) other ways – beyond LinkedIn – that allows you powerful opportunity to reach out to other professionals online. 

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Master Proactive Outreach

You could waste an enormous amount of time “networking” on social media, from blasting out tweets to posting on LinkedIn groups. Those activities may feel like work, but since your approach is diffuse, your results will likely be minimal (after all, your tweets are competing against 500 million others per day). With a targeted approach, however, you can see real results.

Don’t post aimlessly, justifying it as a “brand building” exercise. Instead, pick five (5) to ten (10) people you don’t know well or at all, but who seem like attainable contacts. These may be CMOs you’re trying to do business with, authors you admire, or contacts you met briefly at an industry event but would like to connect with more deeply. Follow them on social media, and take note of which channels they seem to use most regularly (there’s no point in tweeting at someone who only checks his account every two months).

As appropriate, look for opportunities to:

·         Engage with that person.

·         Re-tweet their posts with your own audience.

·         Answer a question they may ask, or sharing a thoughtful response to one of their updates. 

This isn’t a quick-hit process; you certainly don’t want to look like a stalker and share twenty-five (25) of their posts in a week. Think long-term, and strive to engage in some small way every few weeks over a six (6) to twelve (12) month timeline. The goal is simply to make your name familiar to them in a positive way, so that when the moment is right and you have the opportunity to meet them in person, they’ll be pleased to do so.

Attract Contacts To You 

Even better than targeting the people you want to meet is finding a way to draw them to you. That changes the power balance and positions you as a peer they’d like to connect with, rather than an aspirant trying to get in the door. As she describes in her e-book Stand Out Networking, you can do this by writing thoughtful articles (or creating content in other forms, such as podcasts or video) that share useful information and your point of view on a given topic, whether it’s business development strategies for law firms or mistakes to avoid when doing business in Argentina. If those topics are of interest to the person you’re hoping to connect with, they’re likely to discover them and become interested in your work.

To hasten the process, you could — where relevant — even mention or quote them in your article. This way — if they have a Google Alert set for their name — they’re even more likely to find you. (Two New York Times bestselling authors reached out to me personally, leading to a Skype chat and a breakfast meeting, after I cited them in pieces I wrote.)

Develop “Bookend” Strategy to Complement In-Person Networking

If you know you’ll have the opportunity to meet someone at a conference (the organisers often share the speaker or attendee list), you can message them in advance via LinkedIn, or Twitter if they seem to be active there, introducing yourself and suggesting a time to connect at the event. Few people are that organised and deliberate about their networking, so your message is likely to stand out.

And after you meet someone in person, you can use social media as a way to keep the connection alive, especially if you don’t live in the same area and wouldn’t have organic opportunities to stay in touch. Seeing your updates regularly in their news feed creates a sense of lasting connection and enables the relationship to progress, even if you’re not inter

acting directly.

Virtual networking will never replace connecting in person. But it enables you to build and maintain relationships with key contacts around the world — including even local colleagues whom you may not see every day, but who are essential to your professional success.

Inspiration: Networking with People You Can't Contact

Image Source:

(1) slideshare.net

(2) parkeastgroupinc.com

(3) pandawhale.com

(4) mobilevillage.com

Chia Yi Jing | Bubbling with enthusiasm, bright ideas, and confidence, Yi Jing set foot in the PR world with Orchan Consulting, where she was offered permanent employment after a successful internship. She is determined to make her mark in the industry, and her bosses know that she will.