CEO's storytelling telling more!

Happy Thursday afternoon ka!

I disappeared to help conduct a 3-day Forum for a group of university leaders in the Greater Mekong Subregion and our study visit on the second day turned to be the highlight.

With help from my Karusart Pi (college senior), I was able to get an exclusive session with Khun Veradech, who owns coffee-related companies and one is Caffee D'Oro ka.

At first he was a bit unsure what we were after so after having talked with him and sent a set of our proposed questions centered on leadership, thinking and action; the session turned out to be so very special that exceeded my expectations ka.

Lessons learned:

1. Instead of his earlier plan to give a presentation on his company profile, he began with, 'When I was young,....' Right away, the storytelling drew our attention to his simple yet interesting way for us to follow. He was very genuine to talk about it too so it was even more meaningful.

2. His agreement to entertain questions while he was talking added the effectiveness of the session as we could get to know why he was so bold to start his coffee business....he said, 'just do it!' following his gut feelings. But when he got older to open his first Caffee D'Oro coffee shop when the country was going through the tomyam koong crisis, his answer was, 'I was more careful (he had a family and other new factors to consider, not like a bold young man anymore) and looked at the data to be sure it would work.

3. He stressed the importance of vision, listening to customers, R&D, and employee engagement (his staff said he treats them like family members and every month, he'll have outsider catering for some delicious food to treat the staff.

4. When asked what his happiness is. He paused and said, 'seeing his employees' families doing well (so his staff will be happy and perform well) and from his CSR in Omgoi for fair trade with his coffee growing partners.'

5. Every morning he gets up feeling energized and positive and expecting to face challenges and problems he has to handle.

6. He wishes to see university graduates equipped with appropriate attitude and responsibility.

7. For startups, they need to know the nature of business, be able to forecast, and have some fund.

He shared many other aspects as well and I was very pleased to see that many participants pointed out that it was their favorite session.

I myself found that leaders may need more time to do self-reflection for themselves and others around them to learn how to think and act, and at the same time, put it into storytelling which has made the learning so very effective and fun ka.

I left the place, feeling real inspired!

 

life with wise apps

Hello all!

 

Over a week ago, I gave a talk at an international conference down south. I mentioned about the sharing economy and affective computing that would influence our ways of life and education. I now have 2 questions ka:

 

1. Using many wise applications around to help us know our ways and catch an uber without saying a word, what's left for teachers of English to teach ka?

2. While there are many more tools and robots to make life much easier, it seems to be possible for us to be led by robots who are built to become affective (detect our moods and react to help decrease the problems/stress).  Are we going to lose our commonsense? What should be the role of our current and future ajarns/instructors?

Any thoughts to share ka?

Happy rainy Monday ka.

Porntip

Delegate and Lead

Hello Happy Monday ka!

I have two articles to share with you, which could really be applicable to your team or even interns to increase learning and productivity, and for leaders to think and act more efficiently ka.

This article is entitled, 'Why Are People Terrible at Delegating?' by Tracy Spears from LinkedIn June 9, 2016.

I like it because it gives us some reflections many of us, me included, think and become hesitant to train or delegate work to inexperienced staff or to those who we don't have that much confidence in, or out of 'grengjai' ka.

Have these questions popped up some time when  you are thinking of delegating your work?

"I can do it better myself anyway”, “Sometimes it’s an imposition to ask others to help”, “I can do it easier and faster”, “It will take too long to explain”, “She’s going through a tough time and I don’t want to add to her problems”, or “I’m just not good at it”.

The author points out that we need to relook at the benefits of delegating our work, some of which are like we've got some help and even we spend some time explaining the tasks, in the longer run, the return will be much more than the time spent earlier ka.

We may have made life far too complicated  na ka!

Another article is about leadership on, 'The Six Mistakes That Exceptional Leaders Avoid' from ExceptionalLeadersLab.com ka.

1. Trying to lead everyone the same way A good rule of thumb is to lead everyone equally but not the same. Understanding diversity and make it understood to all could be one of the ways to help lead mai ka?

 2. Believing that they are a “finished product” -- The best leaders are learning leaders. They are observers and students of leadership. We have to make sure we gradually change our traditions of thinking and expecting our leaders to know everything and that the leaders feel they have to live up to the expectations as well lae ka.

3. Confusing manipulation with leadership -- Manipulation could serve only as a short-term strategy and leaders must be more strategic in their decisions-- could mean looking more to the long-term goals and for me personally, I think leaders should manipulate only when the team occasionally needs to be driven forward lae ka.

4. Not understanding how successful decisions are made -- Top leaders know when a situation calls for a consensus or when a decision from the leader is needed. Listen and accept feedback to decide more sensibly....many more articles and books have been mentioning about 'listening' and now some have been offering workshops on 'listening' na nia!

5. Forgetting that leadership is not a talent -- I like how the author puts it ka, "Effective leadership is a skill and a craft. It can be learned only through a unique combination of study and experience." We learn along the way and know how best to apply the learning na ka.

6. Not understanding that leadership is really just a powerful form of influence -- exceptional leaders influence decisions, enthusiasm, actions, possibilities, confidence, beliefs, direction, and culture. I'm not sure if our leaders think of 'influence' or 'power'. Mainly, we often see the abuse of power mai ka? Um! too pessimistic plao ka....part of it could also be due to our culture of giving far too importance of taking care of our more senior in ranks mai ka?

After all, quite a few things we learn have to refer back to our cultural traditions and seriously, it depends largely on our own leaders to exercise their leadership differently to start 'New Normal' leadership in the Thai society.....be humble, listen more, delegate with coaching, insist others not to take care of them far too much, and be a role model themselves what a New Normal leader must be ka!

Enjoy the first day of your work ka.

3Ts by Laura Stack

Dear all, as I'm heading down south today, let me share what I learned from summary.com, which digests books on leadership and human resources ka.

 

This time, it offers several and one is on, "Doing the Right Things Right" by Laura Stack, which is based on Peter Drucker's earlier thinking and is for her to focus on effectiveness and efficiency.

She stresses 3Ts are referred to as THINK, TEAM, and TACTICS for leaders to play their roles properly ka. 

1. Strategic Thinking: Asking one simple question, "What's the desired outcome?"

Make best decisions fast to boost innovation and flexibility and help our team's adaptation. Use communication while aligning it with mission and vision.

Several aspects I like are for leaders to allow polite disagreement earlier on in the strategic planning process and consider opposing argument as they may have good points to integrate for decision-making....and yet, in our culture, we sure have to have more and friendlier environments for people to feel safe to speak up, feel confident they too can contribute ka.

2. Team Focus: Focusing on employee productivity

Nurture an open-team-culture environment and result-oriented team, boost motivation for creativity, and ensure growth through continuous improvement.

3. Tactical Work: Being the productive performer with task completion focus

Focus on high-impact activities, wise use of technology to prevent 'infobesity' (love this new term ka!) and pioneer on new technology.

After all, leaders must be agile and strike life balance as well!

The more I read it, the more I thought of EdPEx framework and questions we need to answer ka. Sanuk mak loei!

Happy resting and learning na ka.