Understanding Interpersonal Relations

Filed under Career Development, Team Building by on March 29, 2011 at 7:26 pm {no comments}

I was recently in a certification training program because you could say that I have been “itching” to learn new stuff (and I think I learn pretty well). What surprised me is the kind of insight that comes from structure. I have known for a long time that people have needs. To the extent that these needs are met, we can determine “satisfaction”. However, I had not gone a step further as William Schutz did in 1958, where he discovered that needs can be expressed (initiated by self), but can also be a hidden desire (expected of from others).

This is a preview of Understanding Interpersonal Relations. Read the full post (319 words, 1 image, estimated 1:17 mins reading time)

Executive Coaching: Teams And The “Common Information Effect”

Filed under Business, Team Building, Team Management by on December 16, 2010 at 12:58 pm {no comments}

So, you’re in a team meeting, and you have lots on your plate. What should you do? A lot of people set an agenda so that individuals can share information and present their point of view. Unfortunately, this is a highly problematic assumption.

Research has shown that there are a number of issues with pre-polling (which is what you’re doing by creating a meeting without a clear agenda of issues). Whomever speaks first has the ‘upper hand’ and the one who speaks somewhere in the middle of the meeting will be at a significant disadvantage where memory principles are concerned. The primacy and recency effect dictates that this information will be the most heavily discussed simply because we remember them better.

This is a preview of Executive Coaching: Teams And The “Common Information Effect”. Read the full post (518 words, estimated 2:04 mins reading time)

Executive Coaching Singapore: Perceptions, Filters And Effective Communication

Filed under Business, Human Resource Development, Team Building by on December 5, 2010 at 6:53 am {no comments}

It’s always good to be reminded of research that has passed us by in our hurried life. I came across this theory a long time ago, but it didn’t get reactivated until today during my Executive Masters program in organizational psychology (my second masters program). The phenomenon is called the Illusion of Transparency, and I experienced it in two ways.

This is a preview of Executive Coaching Singapore: Perceptions, Filters And Effective Communication. Read the full post (452 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Executive Coaching Singapore: Cultural Issues In Leadership

Filed under Business, Executive Coaching, Relationship, Team Building, Uncategorized by on December 5, 2010 at 5:45 am {no comments}

I’ve been asked in many of my coaching sessions about my experience with different cultures because my job requires me to travel fairly widely across most parts of South-East Asia, China and the US.

I’ve also been privileged to know some people who wield power in organizations as well as in some parts of their respective governments. It’s interesting to know that cultural differences are still one of the most difficult things to be aware of, especially leaders who are not exposed globally. Having had the opportunity to peer inside the minds of those who are leading organizations, cultural myopia is a common problem. This is due to the fact that the way we do things in one country is very often the way we expect to do things in another country. Typically, it’s the same thing that happens when you look out through your own eyes and model of the world, expecting others to think the same way.

This is a preview of Executive Coaching Singapore: Cultural Issues In Leadership. Read the full post (805 words, estimated 3:13 mins reading time)

Executive Coaching Singapore: Achieving More With Teams

Filed under Executive Coaching, Team Building by on December 3, 2010 at 9:57 am {one comment}

As a leader, there’s quite a fair bit that needs to be done to achieve greater productivity with teams. It continues to surprise me that there are many who believe that teams will automatically work magically. But that’s not true. Teams are vulnerable to many situations including group think (a phenomenon where the group thinks similarly down the wrong track) as well as social loafing (where individuals have a tendency to end up performing better alone than with a team)

Here’s a quick list:

This is a preview of Executive Coaching Singapore: Achieving More With Teams. Read the full post (615 words, estimated 2:28 mins reading time)

Human Resource Development Singapore: Employee Engagement Tools

Filed under Career Development, Employee Engagement, Human Resource Development, Organizational Leadership, Training Needs Analysis by on December 1, 2010 at 4:21 am {no comments}

According to a speech by Singapore’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong in February 2010, our productivity levels are “60% to 70% of what is possible”. In an earlier assessment by the Ministry Of Trade and Industry, productivity levels dropped at 1997/8.

Obviously, we began on a productivity rampage for quite some time. Here’s an extract from 4 Aug 2010 speech given by Mr Lee Yi Shyan:-

This is a preview of Human Resource Development Singapore: Employee Engagement Tools. Read the full post (2052 words, 1 image, estimated 8:12 mins reading time)

Personal Development: Why Is Learning So Important?

Filed under Career Development, Learning, Personal Development, Relationship by on October 3, 2010 at 12:26 am {2 comments}

As a follow up to the post I did this morning (we’re a little crazy, so our training session ended around 2.30am and coaches debrief finished around 4am – kudos to the dedication of the coaches), I find that some people think that learning = going to school.

Well, metaphorically, it really is going to school, but not the school you have associations with teachers and falling asleep at flipping open the book.

In my training and therapeutic practice, I have seen many people who are very educated but they stop learning. Can you think of such people? A professor who thinks he’s always right. A spouse who tells his/her other half that something is “impossible” without actually verifying it.

This is a preview of Personal Development: Why Is Learning So Important?. Read the full post (965 words, estimated 3:52 mins reading time)

Personal Development: Can you really achieve your goals?

Filed under Achievement Mindset, Career Development, Excuses, Personal Development, Self Help by on September 8, 2010 at 4:51 pm {no comments}

I had a conversation with my sister-in-law about the question of ‘overachievement’. To a great extent, there are people who view the successes we have at AKLTG as a major success. For the owners, we see it as work in progress.

So, I was posed the question: are over achievers dissatisfied with life, put themselves through misery and “trying” to prove themselves even more? My answer was pretty straightforward.

This is a preview of Personal Development: Can you really achieve your goals?. Read the full post (680 words, estimated 2:43 mins reading time)

Career Path: Hint – It’s Not What You Think

Filed under Career Development by on September 5, 2010 at 2:04 am {no comments}

Just had a thought.

A number of people have considered changing their jobs because they think they are going somewhere. In reality, that new environment might or might not allow them to grow at all.

The biggest issue in people who are planning their career path comes from the lack of understanding who they are. If they don’t have coaches or a clear direction as to where they want to be, they will stumble upon opportunities which may not necessarily lead to better places, only more appropriate places. If they get upset or stressed, it’s really a place to ‘train’ them with life.

This is a preview of Career Path: Hint – It’s Not What You Think. Read the full post (246 words, 1 image, estimated 59 secs reading time)

Career Development: Understanding Difficult People

Filed under Career Development, Leadership, Organizational Leadership, Team Building by on August 25, 2010 at 6:08 am {no comments}

You’re in the workplace and you encounter a really nasty person.

Wow! What did you do to deserve such a person, you think! Almost immediately, you might have vindictive thoughts or possibly think of a therapist (such as me haha) to refer him or her to for anger management therapy!

Actually, wouldn’t you be jumping the gun if you did that? You won’t know what’s happening in the mind of the other person, and maybe what’s worse is that you don’t really care. Perhaps, when you want to learn to deal with difficult people, you need to first understand them first. That would be, in my mind, the best first step.

This is a preview of Career Development: Understanding Difficult People. Read the full post (675 words, 2 images, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)
Page 1 of 212»

Register For My Podcast

Add to your iTunes! http://StuartTan.com/feed today!

Subscribe Now ($97 value)

BOOKMARK US!

Like the content? Just hunt for this widget at the bottom of every post and bookmark us once. Just 3 minutes for you, but it will last a lifetime for us!
Share |