when you are on top...

life is like a wheel. sometimes you are on top, sometimes you are at the bottom of the wheel. one thing to remember, when you are on top, don't step on any body's toe or shoe. so if you happen to fall one day, there might be someone who will pull you back to the top. it's free to be nice to people. you don't have to pay to smile. nobody will take your wealth if you greet them. look for friends, not enemies.

it's life. it has happened to a lot of people. hope the next person to fall is not you! if you do, hope there're a lot of friends out there to help you, not enemies waiting to step on you...

grow your own timber

of course this is not timber, but it's nice. it's wild species. whey do we need to grow our own timber? any company would like to see the top executive positions being filled from within.

GE has done it well. Citibank is another. Most multinationals are doing it. why? because internal talent understand the company better. they are there so some odd years, holding various positions, definitely they understand the organization culture better. promotion from internal may also boost staff morale. therefore they don't need a long time to study and adapt to the familiar environment.

is it the best? may be, may be not. one size doesn't fit all. it depends on the organizational objective and strategy. some companies prefer mixture or blend of top executives from internal and external. it's good to have some new ideas from outside. afterall, the main objective is to survive, make profit

don't keep your knowledge, share it...it'll grow

i had the opportunity to be in a small organization that repairs public coin & card phones (PCCB) about 10 years ago. i met one senior technician who had the opportunity to attend training in some other part of the world, directly from the manufacturer. when he came back, we were proud to have someone in the company who were expert and could maintain and repair complex technical problems. but he's the only person who had that knowledge because he refused to train others even though i asked him to do so, nicely. he claimed that it was so complex that other junior staff would not be able to cope with the complexity of the technical problems .

i was so mad and told him to mark my word that the complex task that he claimed and was doing would be taken over by low level employees from less developed countries. i left the organization after a few month.

i met the man a few years later. i believe he couldn't escape me therefore i had the opportunity to ask him what had happened at the old place? he told me that the place was sold to a private company. i did my own research and found out what i mentioned to him a few years back had already happened.

a simple explanation would be that technology changes with a blink of an eye. some task that you might be proud of doing today might not be there anymore in a matter of a couple of years. so don't keep your knowledge to yourself because it will not do any good to you. otherwise, if you share, you will unexpectedly learn something new yourself. so please do share..

what it needs to be a good supervisor

being a supervisor to manage a small gorup with little authority given to you by your employer. it feels great to be a boss. but how is it to be a good boss?

i believe that a supervisor need to understand all the 'rules' first, especially the law that goven a relationship between employer and employees. understanding the employment laws of a country would definitely give you a confidence in managing your subordinates. it's also to your advantage if you can explain related employment laws to your staff so that everybody understand his or her rights as well as your rights as a supervisor. that makes you better than teh rest in the team, that's why you are their supervisor.

planning to succeed

human capital department is not doing justice to me. my colleagues all got promoted, but me. i am a senior but not being appreciated. my contribution has no value to them. human capital department failed in planning my career....

what went wrong here?

actually to explain further, it's not human capital department's role to plan one's career. there are career paths provided as a guide that an employee can follow. however, what is it going to be in the next 3 years, 5 year or 10 years is beyond human capital department's control. HRD can provide training and development. the staff must be able to tap his or her own potential, identify his or her interest, discuss with his or her supervisor as well as HRD on his or her next career move, and most importantly possess the right attitude to grow in the company. indirectly, you need to promote yourself, show your supervisor and HRD what you have and can do further, willing to take bigger challenge, willing to lead a team of staff working together and possess the right attitude to hold higher position.

so, you cannot blame others if you are not being spotted as a talent in a company by keeping quite, not to let others know about your potential, afraid of taking more challenge and keep blaming others when something when wrong.

so, plan your own career, work that out with your boss, talk to HRD. with the right attitude, you'll succeed.

promotion, everyone can do the job...?

everyone in an organization wants to be promoted, especially when we work in an organization. we hope that one day we'll get promoted to a higher position, taking over form our supervisor who is not doing justice to us. promotion to us might means getting a raise, more money to take home, better living, style, status in the society. but, promotion in real is additional responsibility, more accountability. it also means more headache, work longer hours, reports to submit and the worst is managing or supervising others.

by getting a promotion at the same place and location, having to manage and supervise subordinates who are our friends or colleagues before is tough. it's even tougher if we used to do things that we're not supposed to do while we were part of them before.

once promoted, we need the skill to manage, to supervise. it's like having a superpower but do not really know how to use it. without the skill we cannot get things done as expected. however, the good news is that management and supervisory skill can be learn. and the skill in managing human capital is thremendous.

i had a friend who refused promotion because of the additional roles that he needed to perform. he hated being supervisor. as a salesman, he could make more money selling than became a manager. and he did. he refused headache of managing subordinates.

i also met a friend who was the best salesman being promoted as sales manager. even he was the best salesman but the team he managed acored the worst among other sales teams. he wanted everything to be his way, so he had problems with his sales staff. initially he thought that he could be a great sales manager as well, but without a proper supervisory skill, it's impossible.

so, not everyone can be promoted. but we can learn the skill so that we can do the job well.