Dr. Marshall Goldsmith He was recognized in 2011 as the #1 leadership thinker in the world at the bi-annual Thinkers50 ceremony sponsored by the Harvard Business Review. He is the million-selling author of books, including the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers, MOJO and What Got You Here Won't Get You There – a WSJ #1 business book. His books have been translated into 28 languages and become bestsellers in ten countries. He will present a Master Class on June 9th at Asia HRDCongress 2014 and deliver the opening keynote on June 10th. For further details visit www.hrdcongress.com I have been captivated for years by his Feedforward instead of Feedback principle. Providing feedback has long been considered to be an essential skill for leaders. As they strive to achieve the goals of the organization, employees need to know how they are doing. They need to know if their performance is in line with what their leaders expect. But there is a fundamental problem with all types of feedback: it focuses on the past, on what has already occurred—not on the infinite variety of opportunities that can happen in the future. It is in this context I found his Feedforward exceptionally useful. Feedforward helps people envision and focus on a positive future, not a failed past. Athletes are often trained using feedforward. Racecar drivers are taught to, “Look at the road ahead, not at the wall.” By giving people ideas on how they can be even more successful (as opposed to visualizing a failed past), we can increase their chances of achieving this success in the future. It can be more productive to help people learn to be “right,” than prove they were “wrong.” People do not take feedforward as personally as feedback. In theory, constructive feedback is supposed to “focus on the performance, not the person”. In practice, almost all feedback is taken personally (no matter how it is delivered). Feedforward is based on the assumption that the receiver of suggestions can make positive changes in the future. Feedforward can cover almost all of the same “material” as feedback. Feedforward tends to be much faster and more efficient than feedback. In summary, he says his intent is not to imply that leaders should never give feedback or that performance appraisals should be abandoned. The intent is to show how feedforward can often be preferable to feedback in day-to-day interactions. Quality communication—between and among people at all levels and every department and division—is the glue that holds organizations together. By using feedforward—and by encouraging others to use it—leaders can dramatically improve the quality of communication in their organizations, ensuring that the right message is conveyed, and that those who receive it are receptive to its content. The result is a much more dynamic, much more open organization—one whose employees focus on the promise of the future rather than dwelling on the mistakes of the past. To register for Asia HRDCongress please email neena@smrhrgroup.com or visit www.hrdcongress.com

Employee Productivity

Improving employee productivity with Social Tools Success Factors has released a white paper on improving employee productivity with social tools. As the paper outlines - these days you'll notice an emerging trend - tech-savvy 'millennials' are becoming an ever greater percentage of the workforce. And, as millennials fill more cubicles and offices, the corporate culture is changing rapidly. While these changes can create roadblocks for human resources professionals, they also present a unique opportunity to implement solutions that increase the productivity of everyone and the profitability of your company. The whitepaper outlines your roadmap to navigating - and benefiting from - the changing face of your global workforce. To download the paper visit http://www.workforce.com/roadmaps/515-learning-development/520-do/19922-improving-employee-productivity-with-social-tools For more information on how we can help you improve productivity with social tools email murali@smrhrgroup.com

Thought it was time for me to go and passion gets you not too far. This article is a real good one. http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20131024075342-42592294-can-founders-let-go-what-love-s-got-to-do-with-leadership?trk=tod-home-art-list-large_0

Budget Comments Kuala Lumpur, 25th October 2013 I like and love the strategic thrust on Inculcating Excellence in Human Capital in this year's Malaysian budget. Thank You Mr. Prime Minister. While there are some who would have preferred greater development expenditure and lower operating expenditure, some would even prefer a lower % deficit of the GDP, I think the budget has focussed on a key priority area: Human Capital, to improve the long term well being of the nation and our competitiveness. There are no short cuts to success. Education receives 21% of the budget. The commitment to implementing the Education blueprint and improving standards of English and upholding the importance of the National Language, emphasis on Entrepreneur development, supporting employers on the Minimum Wage Policy, the setting up for a private retirement scheme are positive initiatives. RM 400 million from the Human Resources Development Fund for employers for training, 330 million for Skills Training, Tax benefits for Flexible work arrangements, RM 100 million training allocation for the Indian community and 20 million for rural programmes are welcome at this point of time in the global economy.

Leadership & Innovation Leadership is all about inspiring and motivating employees. Motivated employees help organisations succeed as they are more productive than those who are non - motivated. The challenge with motivating employees is that it looks different for every person and every leader. There is a huge amount of information on leading stars. The same cannot be said of leading B players, the average performers who for some reason have not yet made an impact on the organisation. Yet, the B Players are the heart and soul of an organisation. They need continuous feedback from the manager to keep growing and keep contributing but herein lies the challenge. Managers find time to be a scare commodity. Two questions: how does the Manager find time and how do we give constructive feedback with the goal of inspiring the B player. Managers need to allocate a chunk of time on a weekly or fortnightly basis to pause, reflect and talk to colleagues. Professor Groysberg highlights the power of informal but purposeful conversations. The earlier a manager recognises that this is not an interruption to his or her own productivity, it is better for an organisation. And, how do we give constructive feedback. Relationships between people are gossamer threads connecting people and when feedback is perceived as critical and unhelpful, it burns of the gossamer threads. Constructive feedback is going beyond complimentary feedback and criticism. It is often considered an art because it involves insight into want to say and what not to say. Seeking the willingness of the B player to receive feedback and preserving the relationship after the feedback session is important yet the ‘conversation’ has to be forthright and crucial to be a game changer. It is indeed both an art and science. Ken Blanchard talked about one minute goals, praises and reprimands.

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Fathers Day

A nice quote sent by a friend: Everyone can be a Father but only a few have the attitude to be a Dad