Gerald Heralds

Are you leading now?

Gerald — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:59:26 +0000

“Everyone now is also a leader”

That’s what caught my attention when I read Seth Godin’s latest books ‘Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us’. It’s a powerful statement, which I always believe and try to cultivate it in any team that I lead.

In my previous job, it’s one of the things that I look for when I’m interviewing any candidate. It’s not necessary that they must have that kind of leadership qualities to lead a multi-national company. But at the very least, they must recognize that when it’s time to step up, either to salvage a project that goes horribly wrong, or to lead a new initiative, they must voluntarily take up the responsibilities and make it happen.

Especially in an online agency where things move in a flash to keep up with the newest trend in the industry and also the never-ending demand of a client, every individual should know that they have an unwritten KPI (Key-performance indicator).

And yes, you are right. They must lead. It might be a little bit overwhelming. But again, neither do they need the mindset of a Harvard graduate, nor the foresight of a war hero to lead. All that is expected of them is to show a little bit of initiative and to be proactive in solving the problems that exists within the organization.

Too many times, problems can be solved, project can be salvaged but it didn’t happen and all because of people standing in one corner, thinking that’s not part of their job scope.

As a manager or a team lead, it’s therefore important to cultivate a leadership mindset in every members of your team. And it’s only when all your team members have the mindset, then the work will seem a whole lot easier.

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Using twitter to find a job

Gerald — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 18:57:47 +0000

Using twitter to find a job? Huh?

I have many questions when I read about an article from WSJ that someone found a job using twitter.

Unlike LinkedIN, twitter was never build for professional networking. And therefore, I don’t think you will have much success by twittering that you need a job.

Here are why twittering for jobs won’t work for most of the users.

1) Right now, twitter are being used by people in the online industry and those who are interested in social media. If your industry don’t revolved around internet (e.g engineering or banking), chances are that you won’t find anything in twitter.

2) If you are based outside of US, your chances are also greatly reduced. Most of the twitter users are from US or certain parts of Europe. Unless you are looking for jobs in US, then you might find something. But looking at the economy, things are not looking good.

3) Looking at the size of the networks a recruiter have in LinkedIN, I would imagine they will have tons and tons of followers in twitter as well. Your tweet on finding a job will be buried with thousand of tweets that they receive within minutes.

Note: Unless they follow you, if not, you are unable to DM them.

Nevertheless, it’s still worth a try. So here are how you can do it but don’t have high hope that you will find something, Try using LinkedIN, you will get better chances.

1) http://www.cio.com/article/482324/Twitter_Tips_How_to_Use_Twitter_to_Job_Hunt?page=1
2) http://www.litmanlive.co.uk/2009/01/how-to-use-twitter-to-find-your-next-job/
3) http://thetalentbuzz.com/2009/02/find-a-job-using-twitter-and-networking-twitter-job-search-strategies/

Update:
Looks like I’m wrong. After I posted my article, mashable have a great article on using twitter to find a job. They even listed a few twitter accounts for you to follow, which you can get update on any new jobs available.

What’s amazing is that there are now a twitter job search engine which you can type in the position that you are looking for, and it will show a list of tweets relevant to your search. I tried searching for a few jobs which are not related to internet and I can find a few. Not bad!!

So read the article by mashable and start your twitter job search campaign. Dont wait or the good jobs will be gone.

All the best in your job-hunting.

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What’s up with Twitter?

What’s up with Twitter?

Gerald — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 16:27:29 +0000

Guy Kawasaki can’t live without it. And he said it’s the most powerful branding mechanism since TV. It’s being compared with Youtube. And it’s even being considered a threat to google. (You can read about it here and here.)

With Twitter’s massive growth at 752% in 2008, there are no ways that you can ignore its existence.

So what exactly is Twitter? You don’t need to look far for an explanation. People are so excited about twitter that they have slide presentation, a video and even a blog ( in fact, there are 2 of them) dedicated just to talk about how to twitter. And of course, there are people who have a different opinion about it as well.

I have a twitter account since early last year. Same with lots of people, I’m clueless about it and I even doubts it’s usefulness at first. And I didn’t really use it until only recently. Because I’m not really a chatty person and I don’t really know how to communicate with strangers whom I never met before, my twitter update is still at less than 500 even though I have in there for a long time.

Well, here are my thoughts on using twitter so far:

1) Two way communication

Maybe my follower base is still not big enough or twitter is still very much a American things, the 2-way communication doesn’t really happen to me. Usually, out of the 10 times that I asked a question, only 2 times that I get a reply.

In a way, twitter is a kind of a very gigantic closed community. You have to make lots of noise by twittering constantly. But at the same time, your twitter need to be smart and contribute, in some way, to your followers before people would really response to your twitter.

2) Quality of the people whom you are following

If you don’t want nonsensical stuff in your tweets, choose wisely at the people you are following. But you do not want to choose only CEO of some companies to follow. Commoners do provide fresh ideas and views which may be interesting. Here’s my 30 sec take on choosing my followers or you can check this and this on following people.

They bother to take time to fill up their profile section
They have interesting site
Their tweets are not about selling products
They have avatar

There are also companies which have twitter accounts as well. Some companies are using it to get feedbacks, to address issue relating to their PR and sometime, to inform followers of their attractive promotion that they have.

3) Number of people following you

Did I tell you that it’s all a number game? I suspected that the reason why twitter is so successful is because of the word ‘follower’. Well, it looks cool to have tons of followers. And for some, it’s one of their objectives or even their main objective to gain as many followers as possible.

I can tell you that as more and more people are using twitter as a marketing tool, you will get more unsolicited tweets to gain more followers.

No doubts that twitter will continue to grow but for how long. Will it have the same fate as secondlife? No one know for now and it will be interesting to see how it span out and also what kind of next big thing will take over twitter? But for the time being, everyone love twitter.

P.S You can check out my delicious bookmarks (look under the tag ‘twitter’) for all the things that I gathered from twitter about twitter.

If not, here are some more tips on using it and also books and interview on it as well.

i) Tips on using twitter

ii) Books on twitters ( they already have books on it!!!)

iii) Interviews on twitter

iv) Case studies on how twitter is useful

Or in the twitter-sense, you can twitter me to know more.

Image courtesy of Mykl Roventine

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Using twitter to find a job

8 Ways to Use LinkedIN for Job-Hunting

Gerald — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 05:53:47 +0000

In every job-hunting books that I have read, it is always mentioned that networking have the highest chance of getting a job. And it makes perfect sense since recruiter will most likely want to hire someone with a good recommendation.

LinkedIN embrace networking

And in sure bad times, recruiters have limited budget to hire and they will be very careful to make sure that they hire the best. Furthermore, you will have fierce competition with only a few opening out there and high umemployment rate.

You will need to stand out among the crowd and I believe that with LinkedIN’s features, you may be able to do that.

1. Update our profile

Your profile must be 100% complete since it’s like a resume, which will influence the recruiter to give you the interview that you want.

2. Make full use of “What are you working on?”

Tell everyone in your network that you are looking for a job or anything that is related to the kind of work that you want to do. And with the effect of networking, your friends will keep a lookout for any opportunities that suit you.

3. Getting recruiter into your network

There are many recruiters in LinkedIN and most of them are opennetworker (LION). This means that they will accept invitation to join anyone’s network. Once they are in your network, email them to check if they have any opportunities, which you can explore.

4. Getting recommendation

Get your friends or ex-colleagues to write a recommendation for you. But be sure to let them know that you will understand if they decline to write any for you. One of the better ways to get recommendation is to write for others first. Your friends will most likely return your kind words with a recommendation. But be sincere.

5. Using referral

If you find a job that you are interested in LinkedIN and if the recruiter knew someone in your network, don’t be afraid to ask your friend for referral.

6. Answer questions

LinkedIN has an answer section which user will ask questions regarding the industry they are in or the work that they are doing. Answer as many as you can. And if the user finds your answer good, they will rank it as a best answer.

Your answer will establish you as an expert in your field and this will help you in letting the recruiter know how good you are. But for this to work, you have to put some effort in answering the question.

7. Company research

You can research about the company that you wish to go in. Under ‘Company’ section, it will show you who are working for that company.

Look for the hiring manager, and if you have a business account with LinkedIN (monthly subscription required), you can email them through ‘InMail’ to express your interest.

8. LinkedIN Groups

Join those LinkedIN Groups, which are specified to your industry. Widen your network and your chance of finding someone with a job for you are higher. But do participate actively in the groups, group members will then know you better and when they have any opportunities, they will think of you first.

Summary

With job seekers far more than job offers, your chance of getting a job will be a lot higher if you come up with creative ideas to showcase your capabilities and talent. So don’t just stop at LinkedIN. Try out social site like Facebook and Myspace as well. Or even set up a blog to show the world how good you are. You might be surprised at the opportunities that you get.

My LinkedIN profile is at the sidebar. Feel free to send me an invite for networking.

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Facebook Application With a Twist

Gerald — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 02:35:11 +0000

Creativity has slowly crept into facebook. For company who want to create a presence in facebook, they will either advertise in there. Or they get someone to create an application. And then, they wait. And wait. And wait. And wait.

But recently, we saw 2 companies, Kraft and Burger King using different ways to engage the facebook’s user. And that’s very refreshing.

Kraft Gives Facebook Users Reason to Share

“Giving people the reward of social status to share the Kraft application was key to the program.”

Adam Broitman, director of strategy at Crayon (the new media consultancy that advised Kraft)

And that’s how Kraft increased the number of their application’s user (Kraft Recipe Assistant, which gives daily cooking tips) to 25,000 in just less than 2 weeks.

But whether they can sustain their success, it will depend on the content of their application. Only with useful content, then the 25k new users will multiply ten fold.

BK Offers Facebook ‘Sacrifice’

For BK, it’s friend-dumping time. They will reward user with a free whopper if they dump 10 friends. And apparently, quite a few users are willing to do that since they have far too many “friends” which they regret adding to their list in the first place.

From my point of view, it’s all about building a fun brand for BK. And if they keep on coming up with sure crazy and yet fun application/ideas, user will just add their application with out much consideration since they have associated BK with fun.

Application in facebook is far too many in facebook and to get the attention of the user, your application have to be unique and useful. Just think from the point of a user and you are on the right track.

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Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play

Gerald — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:44:00 +0000

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So What’s Your Leadership Style?

Gerald — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 03:29:01 +0000

The first time that I was asked on what’s my leadership style, my mind was blank. I have no idea on what’s my style is.

When I was tasked to lead any team, there wasn’t any specific style that I have in mind, which I will use. In fact, there was no style at all. I just lead based on what I think is right (see extract). But there are a lot of times when I was wrong and I have to learn it the hard way.

As long as the following are achieved….
- The job get done and on time
- The team is happy working on the job and also together
- Care not only the job but also the one doing it (even their career life)

Come to think about it now. My style of leadership is very much like “Servant Leadership” which was coined by Robert K. Greenleaf .

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

Robert K. Greenleaf
The Servant as Leader, 1970

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

For me, it’s always about the one doing the job. If they do not perform up to standard, the work that they produced will be junk. And only with the proper environment and sufficient resources, then they can do their job well.

It’s just like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It’s only when their most basic and fundamental needs are fulfilled, then your team member will put in the extra effort to make sure the job are done well.

So what’s your style? Come twitter and let us know.

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Is it Always a Process Issue?

Gerald — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 06:54:30 +0000

“Let’s look at the process again. I bet that there must be something wrong with the process.” said the CEO.

I believed most of you have heard of the statement more than once. But it’s not always the process, which is the cause of all problems in the organization. It’s very easy to blame everything on the process if thorough investigation was not carried out.

Below are some of the questions that we can ask ourselves whether the problem lies in the process without carrying out a tedious and thorough investigation.

1) Is the problem a one-off case?
If it’s the first time that the problem occurred, it will be best to monitor the situation for a while first after the problem has been solved.

2) Is it a human error?
Everyone needs to be honest. If the problem is caused by some individual forgetting what he/she suppose to do and he/she dare not to own up, then time and effort will be wasted in looking at the wrong area for the causes.

3) Is it a case of conflict between team members?
Sometime, it may be the different working style of the team members that are causing the problem.

4) When was the last time that the process has been reviewed?
If there are new tasks added into the process and the process have not been changed since 10 years ago, then it’s a high chance that the process might be the cause.

Depending on how serious is the problem, sometimes it sufficient to ask those questions mentioned above. But if another occurrence of the same problem will cause the organization to suffer major loss. Then it will wise to initiate an all out investigation.

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Top 5 Fundamental Traits of Organizational Effectiveness

Gerald — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 10:31:46 +0000

Recently, I read an interesting article on strategy execution from the June issue of Harvard Business Review. It was titled “The Secrets to Successful Strategy Execution.” Most of the points made in the article are based on a survey done on 26,000 people in 31 companies.

Execution is the result of thousands of decisions made every day by employees acting according to the information they have and their own self-interest.

From the survey, they identified the top 17 fundamental traits of organizational effectiveness. But, I will list the top five only in this article.

1) Everyone has a good idea of the decision and actions for which he or she is responsible.
2) Important information about the competitive environment gets to headquarters quickly.
3) Once made, decisions are rarely second-guessed
4) Information flows freely across organizational boundaries.
5) Field and line employees usually have the information they need to understand the bottom-line impact of their day-to-day choices.

From the list, it clearly reflected the importance of the decision rights and information flow in an organization. And most organization neglected it and focus more on motivators and structure.

For everyone to understand their decision rights, I felt that it should start right from the beginning. The roles and responsibilities should be clearly defined and explained to the manager on his/her first day of work.

As for information flow, organization can make full use of online application to facilitate the transferring of information globally. Blog can also be used. But, organization must first understand the importance of information flow. And put in resource (both manpower and money) for the implementation and the maintenance.

So what other traits of organizational effectiveness can you think of?

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The Role of a Manager. Is it Just Operational?

Gerald — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:50:46 +0000

There is nothing wrong with a finance manager good at just managing finance. Nothing wrong with a Business manager good at just securing business for the company. Well, that’s what they are paid for anyway. But is it enough?

In today’s business world, it is not enough for anyone to be outstanding only at their own area of expertise. For any successful company, they must have managers who can play many roles. Especially if the manager has a team to manage. So how many roles should a manager play?

1) Be the mentor

A company need talents in every department. So it’s either the company hire the talent, which often going to be expensive. Or, the company can train and develop those who deem to have potential. And the company will need the manager to take on the role of a mentor who can guide the employee.

2) Be the voice of the company’s values

Company need manager to be a firm believer of the company’s values. The manager is the bridge of communication between the senior management and the ground people. Therefore, it’s essential to the company that managers are regularly spreading the importance of the values to the employee.

3) Be the cheerleader

Especially in a team-structured environment, when the going get tough, the manager has to play the role of a cheerleader to boost the morale of the team. And usually, team members will put in their best once they see how much the manager cared for them.

I bet there are more roles that a company would like the manager to play. Still, the manager himself has to look at the workload and what’s expected of him from senior management. So that, he will not spread himself too thin and in the end, neglect his core responsibilities.

So what other roles of a manager do you think he/she should also play? Drop your thoughts in the comment section or share with us through my twitter.

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