Employer Columnist
2010 For Seismic Shift of Consciousness
“Poof!” Goes a Year
Yup that’s right. What happened in the months between January and December is anyone’s guess. Time flew so fast that if we blinked more than once we would be missing whole months. So what happened to you in 2009? What happened for you? Was the year favourable? Was the year good? Was the year an unforgettable year or was it a year to forget? Here’s the paradox, if 2009 was a year to forget, 2010 will be more of the same unless there is a seismic shift of consciousness within your organization and within you. If 2009 was unforgettable, then apparently there was a culture within your organization and an attitude in you that allowed that to happen. In which case 2010 also turn out to be unforgettable.
In the HR360 conference held in Berjaya Times Square back in August, I spoke about two topics; the first is on developing Malaysian leadership and the second on joy and happiness at the workplace. They are both topics that I hold dear to my heart. In fact, the reason for starting up Education Republic is so we can involve our community in growing the next generation of leaders and in equipping society with the skills for lasting success. No education of this sort has been taught in any of our schooling systems be it government or private.
That means, our current generation of working class people are not empowered with the skills they need to lead lives of integrity, creativity and playfulness. This current generation also left our formal education system with little leadership and emotional intelligence and financial acumen and lacking with the hunger for knowledge (because learning was the most boring thing a kid can do). So what happens to this current generation?
We are losing our edge as a manufacturing hub because all our neighbors can do it cheaper. We are losing our edge as a technology centre because 60% of our foreign graduates stay as foreigners after they graduate. So we are getting to a point where we are neither intellectually brilliant as a whole nor are we cheap. We are getting to a no man’s land where we are jack of all trades but master of none.
For the current working generation, Human Resource personnel play a key role in nation building. I say that because corporations large enough to have a human resource department constitute a large segment of our business landscape. You, as HR personnel have inadvertently inherited the responsibility for determining where our country will head to. You can choose to turn a blind eye, thinking that this is not my problem and let others solve this crisis, or you can play a key role. If you intend to be the latter, read on because there are a 3 ways you can make a large impact in 2010 and head for 2011 with satisfaction and brimming with accomplishment.
The 3 ways are: -
1. Being
2. Becoming
3. Belonging
Let’s start with number 1, BEING. Have you noticed rampant corruption? Perhaps a culture of “tidak apa-ness”? Or maybe a lack of leadership ability? That’s because we grew up mostly within a society that didn’t set itself up with high standards. We grew up thinking that throwing rubbish out of car windows is acceptable. We grew up thinking that learning is a b-o-o-o-o-o-ring affair because the teaching system didn’t hold itself up to high standards. We grew up thinking that because everybody gives under the table, then it’s ok that I do it too, how else can I survive? We become the people we most associate with and unfortunately, positive influences are few and far in between, so we become and expect lower standards out of ourselves.
If you want to affect people in their essence, in their being, then setting higher human standards is the answer. Set higher standards for behavior, set higher standards for integrity, creativity and playfulness. Soon enough, the new higher standards will become the new company normal, setting you up for greater achievements in 2011.
Number 2, BECOMING. In my last article, I wrote about the science of peak performance. The link of which is at the bottom of the page. One of our human needs is our need for growth. Growth makes us fulfilled in a way that money never can. Assist your colleagues to restore faith in themselves, that they can achieve bigger and better things and assist them to learn both career and life enriching skills. In Tad Waddington’s book, Return on Learning, Tad describes how employees in Accenture work for less money and stay longer because they are in an environment of personal growth. They love it in Accenture and they attract the world’s best talents. I have suggested to companies that want to engage us for training to first use their budget that they want to spend on training to either improve or to set up their library facilities. There is a well known research that followed the life of children till they were old. One batch were kids that lived in homes that was surrounded by books, the second batch of kids lived in homes that were devoid of books. They found that kids in book filled homes, grew up smarter, more successful and happier than homes devoid of books.
So start or improve upon your current library and initiate a learning or growth culture.
Number 3, BELONGING. You want your employees to stick around? Build them a learning and growth culture that they can relate to and belong to. Difficult? You bet. You are going against a tide of learning stagnation that has been a major part of your employees’ life and you know that people hate change. Why not place an emphasis and reward on learning? Not only training hours but place a premium on self learning, library borrowing and personal funded programs. Start a learning or book club. You’re bound to find some young man or woman who is hungry for success to shake the old moldy employees off their branches.
Assist people in their being, in their becoming and build a place for belonging and 2010 is your year of triumph. When you pull this off, you are literally changing countless lives and the lives of those whose paths cross theirs. You inherited the responsibility to develop our nation. HR is not about payroll or benefits, it is about human enrichment and I applaud you for being in this position.
Personally in 2009, we have begun to make changes in the way people educate and empower themselves and that makes me both anticipative and excited. 2010 will hold much more and I implore you as Human Resource Professionals to step up to the plate, to take this responsibility that has been given to you with enthusiasm and conviction and to make a difference to our community, to the way we learn, to the way we empower ourselves and to the way we live lives of integrity. Bless you and may 2010 be unforgettable and full of significance.
Edmond is a qualified civil engineer who has been working in the engineering field for 5 years. Switching career in motivational speaking and training, he was the performance consultant at the Malaysian chapter of Dale Carnegie Training. His love of motivating and inspiring people prompted him to starting up Education Republic with a few others.
He can be reached at edmond@edurepublic.com
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