Visualized.Feel.Abundance

Hey Folks,

Welcome to the first installment of “Are You An Asset Or Liability To Your Company?” series. It is my sincere hope that this series will provide you with an overview of:

1) How your top bosses (defined as anyone that is in control of your performance appraisal and promotion. It includes also by default, the top boss as in your CEO or MD or President, etc) think;
2) What is required in an employee to be considered an asset to the company;
3) How to secure the promotion or pay increment that you always wanted so badly; and
4) How not to be a liability.

Throughout my series, I will be quoting heavily from Henry Ford - One of the most successful industrialist that revolutionized the transportation and American industry in the early 20th century. Some of his quotes describes the fundamentals of a business and they apply to the businesses in his era and are still relevant even today.

Juggling The 3 Variables Of A Business
First of all, in order to be an asset to your boss, you will have to solve his problems. All business in this world have a common problem, it is defined by Henry Ford elegantly in an equation as quoted below:

“There is one rule for industrialists and that is:
make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible,
paying the highest wages possible.”
- Henry Ford

The quote says it all. Compare it to what your company is doing in general, are they trying to produce the best good at the lowest cost possible? Yes. Are they paying you the highest wages possible? You may not think so! Why? The reason is in the next quote:

Competition is the keen cutting edge of business,
always shaving away at costs.
- Henry Ford

Competitive Wages
It’s been about a century from Henry’s time, and in that time competition within the industry and outside the industry has forced companies to cut cost dramatically. When all other costs cannot be further reduced, companies will start cutting back labor cost! First by improving efficiency via process improvements and work skill improvement. Next by replacing labors with automation. And lastly by cutting down on redundant labor cost (aka retrenchment). We will elaborate more on the how external factors are shaping how companies operate today and how it affects you as an employee in our next post “Understanding The Effects Of Globalization And Outsourcing”.

In today’s society, most company will pay only minimum wages possible to keep you in your job and not a single cent more. There is even a acronym for J.O.B which stands for Just Over Broke, which is closer to the truth then most employees or bosses want to admit. That is the truth and the earlier you realize that, the better you can appreciate how to be an asset to your company. We will elaborate more on this in our later post “Understanding The New Economy”.

Attracting More Pay
So in a society of ever raising standard of living, is there any hope of securing a higher pay? Fortunately there is (if not I won’t be writing right!) and we will talk about them in “Misconception of Key Performance Indicators, Promotions and Pay Increments”.

And finally, I will share with you the golden rules to make yourself a start employee in “How To Be An Asset And Not A Liability”! Stay Tune!

Cheers
James

PS1: I will keep this series short and to the point (based on popular request). Thanks for the feedback!

PS2: My experience attending Anthony Robbins seminar yesterday was AWESOME. I can’t wait to share them with you and as usual I will flavor it with my perspective and how you can apply them practically. But it will have to wait till I have completed the current series. Probably by next week

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Hey Folks,

After a short detour to talk about blogging, we are back again on “Using Law of Attraction At Work“.

What Is Next
There are literally thousands of good articles out there talking about how you can improve your work efficiency, work smarter, etc. So I won’t rewrite similar articles that I think you can find (I’ll trackback to them and share them with you on our positive article post - Every Tuesdays). What I will be covering instead is to let you understand what makes you an asset or a liability to your company!

I have been debating with myself for a couple of weeks now on whether I should cover this topic. I have been hesitating as it is a heavy (read “serious and dry”) topic and I am not sure if you would fall asleep reading them . But I have made up my mind to write them as I believe it is of benefit to all of you who are employees.

Topics To Be Covered
To make them readable and not too boring, I’ll break them down into shorter post and maybe add a cartoon to spice things up. The likely topics covered will be:

1) Understanding The Boss Mentality
2) Understanding The Effects Of Globalization And Outsourcing
3) Understanding The New Economy
4) Misconception of Key Performance Indicators, Promotions and Pay Increments
5) How To Be An Asset And Not A Liability

At the moment, I project that I can finish covering the topics in about 5 post but that may be shorten or lengthen as necessary. And key to that decision lies in your feedbacks. If the series is welcomed (measured by comments), I will post more and talk more about it.

How Is It Related
So what has this topic got to do with the Law of Attraction?

If you have been following my blog for some time, you will know that I advocate that the Law of Attraction starts with “understanding” (understanding your thoughts, goals, situation, feelings, etc).

To use the Law of Attraction effectively at work means that you need to understand your working environment, your boss’s and company’s mentality. If you don’t have a clear understanding of them then your goals would become aimless goals because they may not help you achieve what you want.

I would reckon that most employees don’t know their bosses or their company unless of course you have operated a similar company yourself or have the benefit of learning directly from your boss. For me, I had the privilege of meeting with top bosses and understanding what is important to them in an employee and I share them with you here.

What Do You Think
Please let me know your preference of shorter or longer post:

Cheers
James

PS: I will be attending an Anthony Robbins Seminar tomorrow so the Positive Articles Volume 4 will be postponed to next Tuesday.

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It’s Free & Easy Sunday Happy weekend to you folks, Enjoy! James

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Hey Folks,

Lets talk about something most employees who care for their livelihood would never dream about saying to their bosses. The word we are talking about here is “NO” and by that I mean “No” to assignments/requests/demands given by their boss.

My Reasons For Saying “YES”
I used to be a “YES” employee, everything that was ever assigned to me, I’d take them. Even if I don’t know a thing about it or even when I was already drowning with my current assignments. So why do I always say “YES”? Here are some of my reasons (thoughts actually):

1) I fear of being branded (or marked) as
- Insubordinate or rebellious
- Unable to Multi-task
- Inefficient or Ineffective
2) I want to be on the good side of my boss
3) I felt that I have no choice but to accept because he is my boss
4) I want my promotion
5) Or simply, sometimes I just don’t know how to say “NO”
6) Or worst, I fear I be shown the door if I say “NO”

So did the “YES” man attitude work for me?

Saying “YES” Was Good
In the beginning, all was well. I could handle all the assignments and demands and completed them quite well. But I did end up attracting more assignments precisely because I did them well and never say “NO”. But that was what I wanted, to prove my value and get a promotion.

I did get my promotion and attracted even more responsibilities and more challenging assignments. Again a good thing because I still could handle them. But good things are good if it is not carried to the extreme. Occasional overtimes are OK, especially if it is part of the nature of your job (such as finance department being extra busy during periods where they close their account books). But the moment you start taking so much assignments that you consistently do overtime, you will start to attract the “not so good” things.

Saying “YES” Was Not So Good
Fatigue starts to set in and you start losing family/personal time. You will get irritated or lose focus easily because of fatigue. And finally, your mood gets affected, negative thoughts starts to creep in and you start attracting bad things. At this point, you better learn how to say “NO” to your boss. Well, actually, you should start saying “NO” selectively well before this.

If you carry on accepting assignments at this point, you will soon find yourself juggling between so many assignments that you start to be inefficient and more critically, you start making mistakes and blunders that you could not afford! That could become fatal! Fatal to your career, that is.

So How Did Saying “YES” Attract This Mess
So why did it happen the way it happened and how did saying “YES” turned from being good to being bad? It all started with my thought! Go back and take a good look at the reasons that influenced me to say “YES”. The only positive thoughts in there were “I want my promotion” and “I want to be on the good side of my boss”. But the rest of my thoughts prevented me from saying “NO” when it was necessary to say it.

Different Thoughts, Different Results
So what if my thoughts were:

1) I need to understand what I need to do to get a promotion
2) I will complete my assignments as efficiently as possible
3) I will not accept a task, with ample reasons, if I cannot handle it
4) I will learn from my boss, ask for guidance whenever possible
5) If I had to accept more assignments than I can handle, I must have the resources to complete them

If I had these thoughts in the first place, I would have said “NO” where necessary and will not be afraid to ask for resources or extension of datelines if the assignments cannot be declined! See the difference?

Why Saying “NO” Can Attract Good Results
By saying “NO” to your boss, you indicate to him that there is a problem. Explained to him what the problem is and negotiate something out of it. No bosses wants his project to end up in flames, right? Think positive. Giving you a new assignment may mean he isn’t quite sure of your current work load or he is still testing the limits of your capabilities. So tell him that you have reach it by saying “NO”! Because the other option is to go down in flames!

Summary
So do you still think saying “NO” to your bosses is necessary a bad thing? Not necessary, you just need to know when to say it and how to say it. Nows your turn to talk! Share your experience and views even if you don’t agree with what I said. It is always good to have both views so we can compare and learn from them
Love,
James

PS: In my article, I always refer to someone as “HE”. The boss(es) need not necessarily be a “HE”, It’s just easier and less cluttered then writing he/she all the time.

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Happy weekend to you folks, Enjoy! James

PS: I’m brought my Free & Easy Monday Post forward again to Sunday. Hmmm, looks like I may have to swap my free & easy post to Sunday as I’m frequently busy with my family on weekends. What do you think?

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