are you entrepreneur

Are you an entrepreneur ?. Probably that is the same question that you had been asking about yourself. If you do that, you are in the right frame of mind. It is always pay to do some research and check it out whether you have the necessary elements to make a successful entrepreneur.

The are some of the points which can be a pointer on your suitability. Like any other indicator, it does not give the absolute truth.

a. Do you have the required self discipline?
As an entrepreneur, you are your own boss. If you are working for another organisation or another boss, someone will be monitoring or demanding a specific performance. Being your own boss, there will no one pushing or checking on you. You are on your own, your plan for your activities and you have to perform them.
The domain of discipline is large. It starts from the basic, waking up on time, dressing for work  and putting the quality standard as you deem fit. It can be a bigger area such as making a strategic decision, on what type of business you should be involved.

b.  Are you self motivated?
There is no one pushing you to drive your self. If you are an entrepreneur you will be riding a roller coaster, it is definitely so, especially for the initial years of operation. There will be the ups and down. A friend of mine had to sacrifice and had to sell almost everything he has had before the tide turned and he made it through.

c. Check on your self esteem.
Being throw out of a job is getting more common now. Most of the time it is not your fault and does not reflect your job performance. It will be a chance to practice whatever skills you had acquired at your earlier work place and turn it into you benefits.

In many a case, you will not know for sure if you are an entrepreneur until it is put into the test. Many learn it the hard way and return the earlier routine of working for another persons or company.

The Choice is Yours

Whether we realize it or not, we are born to make the choice. What we choose, determine the future. Everyday, you have to make the natural choice, in the early morning, in your own bed, you decide whether to wake up late or early, what to take for your breakfast, what to wear and so forth..

Steven Covey realized the important of this and include this in his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.



1. Yes, people can change himself and re-emerge as a renewed and a better individual.

2. The 7 Habits starts with set of principles, the first is "Be Proactive". Simply said, that there is a "space of opportunity" that you can make the choice to respond to a given environment. The space can be at first "small", but given time, you can work to expand it.

3. The Gurus have been arguing whether we are the products of nurture or nature. Whether we are the prisoner of our past, moulded by the circumstances of our upbringings. Steven is firm to say that we are the creation of our own choices. We may be raised a certain way, but we can still make the choice. The space of decision is in our hand.

Does is mean that you are total in position to determine your future? Does it mean that the there is no such such thing as "FATE" or "destiny". In my opinion, what Steve is promoting is closer to the Muslims thought that the Christianity. Christians believe in the "Original Sin" that a newly born has to be baptized to clean him/her. Muslims do not believe that sins or virtue are inherited. People are given the ability to choose, and you will be rewarded or punished for your choices.

So the choice of your path is in your very hand...

Game Plan for Your New Job

Joining a new post at a new company is not something that you do everyday. If you do, then careful planning is required.These are some of the issues that you may like to consider:

A- Identifying the roles
a. Question yourself and do research on the business of the company. What is the roles of the organisation, especially the division or section that you are working.
b. Build up a description on your roles and clarify this with your boss. Take care on the way you do this, as you need to show that you are capable to handle the situation. It is better to present it as a total solution giving your own version of issues and problems and followed by your solutions of opportunities and corrections.

B. Identify the success factors
a. Know the power of the workers- I was retired and join a new smaller company as a training manager. Some of the trainers are elderly and had been the valuable staff since the company started operating. Their views and cooperation are very important. They have to be on your side for you to be successful.

b. Know your bosses - Everybody has his own strength and weakness, like and dislike. You need to know what your boss likes. He may not be saying it directly, but his comments and stories tell a lot. I present boss is proud of his achievement in the company, what he normally calls "his way of getting done". I need to be careful not attack "his way". Any changes proposed have to grounded on "his way" and suggestions will be an improvement to "his way"

c. Know the culture -No organisation operates at 100% efficiency. There is a thin line of the bosses' vision and the organisation's vision. This is especially so if the company belonged to an individual, as his word is the final rule.

C. Write your strategies and share discretely.
Please never tell everything and all your plan. You have to have a hidden spot for your to hide. Remember the games and plays that we did when we were young... there are something reserved for us alone.

Retire Gracefully

When it is time to move out and exit from a company, please do it gracefully. There may be many reasons for a person to resign, but breaking the news is never easy. The first step is realize and accept the fact that the event is inevitable, and secondly, it should be realizes that it is rarely a stress free situation.

The followings are the tips to leave your organisation professionally:

1. Resign for the right reasons. It is important to consider all the options. The worst is to decide based on emotion or just because you have a bad days or weeks. Think through the reasons and if necessary, write yourself an explanation letter, why you have to resign. It is not easy to pull your resignation back.

2. It is a small world. Do realize that, there is always a chance that you will meet the same people at the other jobs location. It is possible that your present colleagues can be your future bosses, and even the people below you can be your superior.

Always threat your subordinate with respect as they can be your future bosses. If you want to share your frustration, venting your anger, think again as it can have a damaging consequences.

3. Timing is critical. The timing is important for both the organisation and the staff. The company needs to ensure that its operations are nor affected by your leaving. As such, they will require time to plan for the response. It is a mistake to select a time just to create inconveniences for the organisation.

4. The resignation letter. It is the formal document to record your intention. It is normally handed after the resignation meeting with the bosses. The letter should be formal and short, straight to the point. It should cover issues such as the last day at work, any outstanding monetary issues and matters relating to annual leave.

It may not seem important, but to retire gracefully does make sense, never burn the bridge after you have crossed it, you my need it later.

why staff resign

.. extracted from thestar on 5 April 2012)...

If you are running an organisation, staff retention is a critical issue. If there is a trend of resignation, for example, the average length of services for a given position is low, then, it is a good idea to recheck the management style.

While there are many factors that affect why staff resign, the research by the writer came to conclusion that people actually quit their bosses not the job. The exist interview, formal or informal, may not reveal the whole truth. Most people will conceal the truth, as it can be hurtful or damaging.

The followings are some of the quoted factors why people left...

a. Managing style and skills.

While the term managing be can a generic and encompassing word, we can start to view it using the Henry Fayol's words of Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing and Controlling. It is difficult to work with bosses who give unclear instruction or working with multiple organisation structures, both formal and informal. You may come across bosses who will blame the staff for any mistakes while they want to take credits for all the successes.

b. Micro- manage

The bosses may be doing this because they do not trust the staff or probably they do not know a better way to manage. The intervention can be frustrating and after a number of occurrences, the staff may withdraw and leave it to the bosses. You may see some bosses may transgress a couple of levels to "manage the roots of the problems".

c.Hidden agenda

Works or jobs can be viewed in a number of perspectives. When the level of trust is low, the staff may start to question the intents of a certain plans or project. They doubt the sincerity especially when there appear to be disparity of words, actions and attentions. The best way to overcome this problem is to be transparent in the way they relate to the staff.

d. Not delivering promise

It can be at different levels. On personal level, it can a simple promise to pay the salary on time. In fact, this is the basic of the contract of employment. If it is broken, it speaks volume of the integrity of organisation. On the tasks or assignment level, it can the assignment of resources to fulfill the critical mission for the organisation.

While the above are some of the reasons why staff resign, there may be other push and pull factors. The younger generation may like to venture for experiences and opportunities and the elders will be looking for serenity and meanings.

Quality of Good Leaders

In a recent survey, among the top three reasons why people choose to stay in an organization is the quality of the leaders. When asked further, what are the characteristics of a good leader that you prefer to work for?. These are their answers.

a. Open mind and good listeners.

Being a good listeners alone is not enough, what is needed is the willingness to consider the feedback. This will encourage people to speak without fear. It helps the leaders to identify the blind spots which, if ignored, can be detrimental to the organisation.

b. Being Objective and Impartial.

This is one action that can spoil the other good things a leader had done. Being objective are required in the decisions of the leaders. There should be a hidden agenda or what appear to be favoring a certain people.

c. The leaders have to have the competency and the desire to achieve.

The basic element of willing and able to do always discussed in management. To gain respect, a leader had to show that he has the knowledge and skill in the area he is entrusted, and on top of that he need to display his readiness to work to achieve the desired goals.

While leadership quality to steer the organistion to achieve their objective is important, the ability to develop oneself is also strongly seeked upon by the staff. It is rare to find staff who do not like to see himself develop. As such, many of the workers now will be looking for the opportunities to retool and develop himself, especially if you are still young and can look up to bigger and meaningful future.

Lead by Example: The Effective Leadership

Leadership has been an area of interest for both the researchers, academician and the practitioners themselves. The inspired leaders to be will very much interest to learn the job's skills and learn from the experiences of others. The researchers had identified 5 key elements that can produce the highly competitive leaders. They are:

1. Lead by example.

The leader is the role model. The how to elements of effective leaders have to be positively demonstrated by the leaders in such away to encourage the staff to follow his foot-steps. That mean the leader would be able to show how to implement the following stated practices .

2. Inspired a shared vision.

This may have many subsets, firstly he should be able to build up a credible vision, then get it to be shared and trusted by other people to the extend that the vision is owned and driven by the people. There are various ways to get it shared, one of which is to get the staff involved in the formulation of the vision.

3. Challenge the existing processes.

It is too often that we are still stuck or inherit outdated processes or way of doing things. If it was good for the company last year, it does not mean it is acceptable now. Only by challenging it that the processes can be improved.

4. Enable other to Act.

A way to be thought through on how to get other to take the lead. The people below you may need time to learn and they may make mistake or move slower then if you were to do yourself. Every body need time and spaces to grow. You need to encourage and guide them.

5. Encourage them by heart.

People can sense if you are sincere or not and most would like to be successful. Give them chance and sincere guidance, then they will grow and bloom.

The effective leaders would lead by example and make their staff grow. When the people grow, the company will grow too.

skills of good manager

If you are new to the job as a manager, you may be wondering what are skills of good manager. Believe me, this question is being asked even be a seasoned manager.

Why is it so. There are many reasons. To start with, the type of skill set has changed. This is caused by the change of the environment and the changing challenges of business. Twenty years ago, there was no such thing as the internet, now the skillful usage of internet is becoming a necessity.

Enclosed below are the required quality of a good manager. Learn it and you will be respected by your staff and your bosses. Respect and trust are necessary to enable you to get your jobs done.

1. Expertise: It does not matter in what business you are in and in what department you are working, you need to have the basic knowledge of your business. If you work in an airline, you need to know airline business. If you company is offering public training and education, you need to know about training and education.

Having the business knowledge is important to know what is important to the business. It can also become a common trait that unite all the staff an an organisation.

2. People centered. Researches have shown that as you go higher in the corporate ladders, the focus is shifting from task centered to people centered. People centered does not mean that your neglect to focus on getting the result. However the method of getting the result has changed significantly. Instead of focusing on how to do the job personally, as a manager, the focus now is on how to get other people to do the job effectively. The basic definition of manager is getting the job done through another people.

3. Experienced. The experiences are not necessarily translated to mean the number of years in services. It is about the richness and the variety. Your ability to perform multi-task, drive result and manage the scarce resources are important. It is easy to manage in time of abundance, and more demanding at time of hardship.

4. Integrity. It is the ability to uphold principles and know what is right and wrong. The basic business ethic and religious value will shape ones behavior both when hard-pressed or in the absent of observers.

Without the solid foundation, it becomes too easy to sway into 'illegal' or morally questionable decisions of behaviors. The basis ethics study the issue of rights and wrongs and the relationship of means to the ends. It always fall short compared to the religious guidance.

5. Good Communicator. Many may fall into the trap of thinking that good communicator is the ability to deliver good speech or lively presentation. They are known as good orators or presenters. Communication of the process sending and receiving message and it has always have to be two ways.

We may meet leaders or managers who are good orators, and dislike to hear things of not to his liking. This sort of leaders or managers remind me of the old fable of the " The Emperor's New Invisible Clothes" Probably it best to leave him/her on frolic of his own.

There more to the required skills for a good manager. The above act as the foundation or as the basic building block. The other will be built upon a solid base.