Recce at Hort Park

Recce for LO duties at Hort Park for CGS 2010.

You only have one FIRST TIME

Recently, I had a new big boss and in our weekly meetings with him, a few of us were caught by surprise at his interest in details. Monthly reports that typically will pass without further questions got queried line by line.

At first, the joke was he had too much time. But after a few months studying him, and noticing his quick grasp of our work, I now know that his method was deliberate.

What I learnt from him was that you only have ONE chance for a first time.

When you step into a new job, there is only one FIRST time you see a paticular report or supervise a particular operation. Especially if you are in a relatively senior position, this is the chance for you to ask the fundamental, basic questions without the risk being seen as stupid or incompetent.

So grasp the first time. Go detail. Line by line, word by word, figure by figure to totally understand the concept.

Hari Raya Open House 2009

I was very privileged to have been invited to Dr Yaacob's house for a Hari Raya Open House which I attended with S.

Thinking Through (2)

This is a continuation of Part 1 here.
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So you have finished a piece of work and the next step is to seek the approval of your boss. And you can be sure he will be asking you questions about your work. So the next phase of thinking through is to ask the questions he may likely ask and satisfy yourselves you have got all ground covered.

But, do I know what questions will he ask? Try some of these.
Caveat: list below is not exhaustive.

1) Ask the basic/ fundamental questions. Bosses normally will not go into the detail at the outset because he knows he may be confused or led off-track. So he wants to make sure the fundamentals are correct.
- What is the aim/ objective/ purpose? (whilst the meaning of these words are essentially the same, you may find yourself giving different answers)
- What is the driver, ie why are we doing this?
- What is the basis/ argument and is this argument a persuasive one?
- What is the message? [spend a little more time on this]

So assuming your boss is satisfied with the fundamentals, he may now go into the details, ie the SUBSTANCE.

2) Going into the details
- Did you use figures, graphs, charts? If yes, are the figures/ trend accurate and what is the message conveyed?
- If the figures depict performance, are the figures impressive.
- Did you cite an example? If yes, is it an important example and is the example replicable?

3) The Unknowns
- What were your assumptions? It is all right to assume certain things, but you must know what these are and be able to argue why they remain as assumptions.
- Know what you do not know...YET. Cos you better find out before he does!

3 quick steps to better public speaking

1. Exude confidence
- Simply by showing that you are confident, the audience will be more interested in what you have to say because you appear to know what you are doing. When you sense this interest in them, you then in turn become more confident. A virtuous cycle!
(It helps of course if you have prepared a good speech.)

2. Eliminate fillers
- Kill all the 'Ahs', 'Oks', 'Erm', every single one of them. You will sound so much better.
- If you need time to think, just stop. Your pauses makes you seem sincere and serious in your task.

3. Don't read from a prepared script word-for-word
- Unless you are in parliament! but even then......
- Don't regurgitate whatever is on the slide. What's the point then of you presenting?
- Understand the concepts, use key points to remind yourself and elaborate the rest based on your understanding.

And an additional tip

4. Do not attempt to crack a joke unless you are Barack Obama or Jay Leno
- A bad joke or unappreciated joke is almost as bad as a boring speech.
- No toilet jokes, please.

How to say it?

For the first seven years of my work, I spent a great deal of time responding to complaints, both in written and verbal form. I have learnt to write simply but clearly and more importantly in a tone and choice of words that do not further antangonise a customer who is already displeased. I would like to share some of what I learn here in choice of words/ phrases to use. They are equally relevant in normal life.

'Want' and 'Need'
- Everyone has wants, so what's so great about your want. A need is different.
- There is so much difference in tone when you say 'I want you to do this' versus 'I need you to do this'

'Can' and 'May'
- Use 'may' when referring to your actions and use 'can' for others' actions
- E.g. May I use your toilet, 'you can use my toilet' instead of 'You may use my toilet', 'May I invite/request/have your permission'

'Could'
- 'Could' is a more polite form of 'can'
- 'Could I' instead of 'Can I'

'Please'
- Using 'Please' does not necessarily mean you are polite or courteous, e.g. 'Please do it'. Try telling your boss this!
- Say 'Could you please'

'I' and 'We'
- Distinguish clearly who are the subjects and owners of the action. If you are sticking your own neck out, say 'I' instead of 'We' so that you don't implicate others, especially your boss, unnecessarily.
- However, in sharing credit or positive news, always use 'We'.

Pronouns
- And whilst we are at pronouns such as 'We', be clear who the pronouns 'They', 'You', 'He' are referring to by stating their rightful owners right at the beginning.

'Think' and 'Feel'
- There is a distinct difference. If you 'feel' something, then the something must be an emotion, e.g. happy, sad, funny
- If the something is just an issue, then use 'Think'

Asking for something
- Try using 'could you pl let me have the report"

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Caveat: I do not profess to be an English expert. Feel free to let me know your comments so we can all improve.