Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia and is a previous Soviet Union state. It is literally the world’s 9th largest land mass (for a country) in the world. Just to give you an idea how big it is, the distance from one end of Kazakhstan to the other is the same as from London to Istanbul. This country has one of the most beautiful mountain ranges in the world and from Almaty, I can see the mountains surrounding the city.

Location of Kazakhstan

The people are mainly Kazakhstanis and they speak their own Kazak language and Russian as well.  My assignment was to conduct a public talk for a few companies and also a management retreat to Nurai Company, one of the largest travel agencies there.

It is simply amazing to witness how the people are resourceful in getting things done with whatever equipment they have. There was a time when the car I travelled in could not be used further and someone offered to take us to the destination for a price. Taxis are rare there, but you can just hop into anyone’s car provided if you are willing to pay for it.

The people there are pretty hungry to learn and very energetic in the way they speak. I was also amazed by the manager’s ability to sit down for many hours and share about their experiences of leadership. One of the trainings that I covered was on creating dynamic teams and a good work environment. It was really an eye opener for most of them because it was most of the managers realised that they did not have to be the best in everything but to create strong teams to help them through.

A display of strength is also important in that culture as well, it is interesting  to note that whoever is the most domineering and aggressive tends to get their way first. I believe it might be because of the previous Soviet Union culture they were exposed to.

Here are some photos to share with you.

Translator, Roslan and me

Seminar on Service Excellence

Teambuilding Program for Management Staff

Management Retreat in the Mountains

Food

Kazakh food is generally very meaty and they love to eat meat! Vegetables are secondary and it was my first time eating horse meat and drinking Camal and horse milk. Both milk (shubat and kumys respectively) are really horrible to drink (although the men there totally disagree with me)! They taste very acidic and sour. I was commenting that it actually tasted like urine, but one of the managers asked me whether I tasted urine before? I told her that after this experience, I might just want to taste it just to compare the difference! (In case you were wondering, I didn’t drink urine after that).

Beshparmak (on the right)- Meat Meat and More Meat

Beshparmak (called “five fingers”, in the manner it is eaten) is a traditional Kazakh dish and it made of chunks of meat! I heard that they had sheep’s head cooked in some of the Beshparmak and is usually served to guests. I was pretty thankful that all I saw was just meat and no head!

Traditional way of eating, which is on the floor

Horse meat being served

Conclusion

Kazakhstan is a place filled with many beautiful snow capped mountains and has an old rustic feeling of the 1980s. If you are game enough to try different types of meat, Kazakhstan is the place you will want to be!

Popularity: 31% [?]

I am currently sitting down in a Starbucks cafe in Subvarnabhu Airport, Thailand waiting for my flight to Almaty, Kazakhstan. So, I thought to be more productive, I hope to write to you on this topic of Excellence.

I recently gave a few talks to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore, Sime Darby and Domino’s Pizza and can’t help but ask what is Excellence and why does it matter to us? I mean, honestly… why should we display excellence in what we do?

Before I begin, may I ask you what is the difference between Excellence and Perfectionism? (Do answer the question before you read on).

Excellence, to me, is the desire to constantly want to be better in what we do. We look through our processes and system of doing things and want to make them better. This means that processes need to be as carefully thought out as possible and then implemented.

Perfectionism is the whole idea of doing things right. It has to work very well and absolutely have no flaws in the process. It has to be simply… perfect! Anything less is really fowled upon.

I don’t know about you but I find the idea of being perfectionist pretty scary and somehow not very useful. People who are perfectionist in nature tend to criticise everything and also refuse to do anything because they know that things might not work or turn out well. People of excellence, on the other hand, will give considerable thought in the whole process and do what they think its best at that moment. It might not be perfect, but they know that if things are not implemented or done in the first place, it cannot be improved.

However, excellence in what we do is not achieved simply by desire, but also by putting a lot of effort in making sure that we constantly improve our abilities. Ask any athlete who prepares for the Olympics, they have to constantly train and discipline themselves. As a Public Speaker and Trainer, I have committed myself to constantly read and summarise what I have learnt every single month. There were times when I spent many nights just reading and rereading even on topics that I am extremely familiar about. I can recall the countless times where I literally was ‘working on myself’ when other people were watching TV or going out. There is a price to pay for excellence and somehow, it does not come cheap.

So, why subject yourself to hard work and discipline? Here are some reasons that why you must display excellence:

1.    Displaying Excellence is lucrative in today’s society. How many people do you know can actually display intense knowledge and skill in what they do? These people are always rewarded with a much higher pay and return on their time.

2.    Displaying Excellence causes a person to be proud of what they do. It is in every human being’s desire to constantly want to be better in what they do. Your intrinsic self-worth is dramatically increased.

3.    Displaying Excellence commands the respect of people. If you see people doing things extremely well, won’t you envy or praise them? This causes a person to feel proud in what they do and will increase their desire to do things better.

Conclusion
I hope you will display excellence in what you do, whether in your personal or professional life. Anything that is worth doing, deserves to be done with excellence.

Popularity: 32% [?]

This is my 4th article to be featured in the Straits Times and is personally one of my favourite since a lot of people constantly ask me if motivational talks really work at all.

Read the truth behind such talks and what value it can bring.

You can read download the article here.

Popularity: 34% [?]

Consider you have a hammer and with that you need to break a rock. You start hammering and after 50 blows you finally manage to break it. Now what if there were five of you hammering at the same time? With five hammers going at once, you probably won’t need more than 5 blows to crack the rock into pieces and that is the power of teamwork!

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It’s called synergy and what it means in simpler words is that teamwork helps you achieve more with less.

More on Synergy:

Synergy is when different entities work together harmoniously to create the final result. In a business, synergy would be when two or more people form a team and produce a result that is better than if each individual was to work independently. If you are still working alone without a team, you will realise that the amount of impact you can make will be extremely limited.

Synergy is indeed miraculous and can be seen in every sphere of life. For example, when technical staff and organizational staff work together in a company, the result is something that can never be achieved on an individual basis. A football team working closely together must have their players in all positions to provide a strong offence and defense.

Teamwork and the thought process:

If you and I have a dollar each and we exchange, we still have a dollar each. But if you and I have an idea each and we exchange, we have two ideas each! This is how teamwork helps achieve more with less. Teamwork helps in synergizing each other’s thoughts and ideas to give enormous results. By exchanging thoughts with team members, each one of the members achieves mental and intellectual development.

Teamwork and inspiration:

If you are on a weight loss plan and you need to exercise, what will work better – individual efforts or teamwork? You may start off with a lot of zeal but soon lose steam due to lack of inspiration. While if you pair up with a weight loss buddy, most definitely the both of you will lose a lot more weight and maintain your weight over a longer period of time. That’s inspiration from teamwork!

Conclusion:

Teamwork is the ultimate advantage that helps you achieve more with lesser efforts. If you want a better work life, greater productivity, more profit, and better results at work, then form a team!

Want to know ways to increase your team work and by helping your managers work on their team management abilities? Contact Kenneth now.

Popularity: 27% [?]

Image from lifeinthenhs.wordpress.com

Trust is the currency in all relationships, whether in office or at home. If you do not have enough of this currency, you will realise that whatever you do, you will need more time, energy and money to perform a task. However, you will realise that the reverse is true as well.

Imagine how things can be done faster if people had their trust in you?

Imagine that business deals are done simply with a handshake rather than countless pages of contract?

Imagine how you can align people to a common objective because they trust that you will deliver?

Before we carry on further talking about Trust, let’s define what it is in the first place.

Trust is basically summed up in one work “Confidence “. We do place our trust (or confidence) in people and objects every single day of our lives. We trust what people say (or similarly, we distrust what some people might say), or we trust objects to fulfill their functions (eg, our car will work well and take us to the intended destination).

I will just focus on one of the most challenging areas and that is how do we get people to consistently trust you in what you ALL that you say.

First of all, Trust building is a function of 2 things, namely: Character and Competence.

Character:
If a person has a great character or good intent in all he does, you will tend to believe him. If he is congruent in his speech and actions, there is absolutely no reason to even doubt anything he does. Character is important because most people have values and if these values are in conflict with what they believe in, they will leave your organisation.

When I was younger, I kept asking people to trust what I have to say. To my dismay, there were quite a few times people didn’t believe in me. This was because my character has not matured to the point where I ‘walk my talk’ or am clear on my values. I realised that when you have strong values, people actually respect you in what you do and will be drawn to what you say or share.

This is indispensible especially when you need to organise groups quickly or even make difficult decisions. Although what you do might be painful for certain individuals, they will still trust you because you act in good character and intent.

I am absolutely convinced that most politics stem out of distrust and ill-intent. The only way to combat such issues is to demonstrate good character and intent.

Tips on developing good character and intent:

• Be clear on your values and stand up for them.
• Honour everything you say (this includes your commitments to family and kids).
• Be careful of making rash commitments that you cannot keep.
• Trust others so that they can trust you. Trust is a reciprocal relationship.

Competence:
While character is important in developing trust, I strongly believe that competence is the other element. I mean, are you able to trust a person who does not have the capability to do what he said he will do? Will you trust an inexperienced surgeon to perform a major surgery on you? Trust seems to be developed when you consistently deliver what you promised. You simply cannot trust someone who regularly shows poor performance at work. Therefore, in my opinion, competence inspires trust.

One of the fastest ways I learnt about building credibility and trustworthiness is when I have a track record. Being able to show for results do matter to a lot of people. When I first started out in business and talked about my inspirational teambuilding programs, it took a lot of convincing for decision makers to use my programs.

In recent years after running so many mindset change teambuilding programs and giving keynote speeches for government and corporate clients, it was so much easier to get the buy-in from them! I realised that I was actually spending a bit of time sharing about my experiences with the different types of clients and what kind of results that I had achieved with them. Most of them wanted to hear them and know whether I could deliver it for them as well.

That is why competence is important in establishing your trust currency. You have to show that you are capable to perform a task well and it will automatically inspire confidence within people. That is why to convince people quickly is to show them results and that you are competent in doing what you said you can do.

Tips on developing competence:

• Constantly read and attend seminars to be an expert in your field.
• Achieve mastery in what you do for a living.
• What kind of results am I currently displaying in my work? Is it helping me display credibility in my work?
• Take responsibility for your results and make a decision to constantly improve it.

Conclusion
Character and competence sums up what you need to get people to constantly trust what you have to say. Since trust is developed over time, therefore character and competence also takes time to build. Where do you think you are in your character and competence level?I hope to hear from you.

Related Articles:

What’s Your Trust Meter Like?

How To Develop TRUST Within Teams

Teambuilding Lessons From Growing Orchids

Popularity: 28% [?]

Just yesterday, I listened to Tony Blair share his personal thoughts about succeeding in life. He shares with a lot of humility and immediately connected to the hearts of the participants. Here are ten things he wanted us to know:

1. Have the humility to learn- as Prime minister, he did not carry a mobile phone. The next day after his ten’s years of being prime minister, he finally carried his first mobile phone. Learning to send a text message was challenging enough and he had to humble himself to learn from younger people on how to use technology. Have humility in what we do is important.

2. Start with an analysis of your current situation- everything in life is inter-connected, we need to understand that there is a bigger world outside the country we live in. The speed of change is very real and what are we doing right now in our current situation?

3. In a fast changing world, we can’t stand still. People have to adapt and constantly learn new things in the knowledge based economy.

4. New thinking and new ideas don’t come to closed minds- How open are our minds? Do we see opportunities instead of trouble?

5. Success = Reaching our potential through education. It is only through education that we truly fulfill our potential. Many people in the world have potential but are not able to fully realise it because they have not seen what they are capable of reaching. Education can help a person see this.

6. Change is the hardest thing- Every time you want to change something, everyone around you will tell you that it is a disaster. He shares about how he wanted to implement healthcare reforms and there was so much resistance he had to go through. This was not something that was popular with the people, but he felt that it was necessary for his country’s sustainability. It is very helpful to get stakeholders to support you and help you through.

7. Success is about creating great partnerships between individuals- Collaboration and partnerships are important in daily living. Purpose of collaboration: To fight for a better idea! The reason why Tony fights for freedom and against terrorism is because he believes in a greater idea that people should not be oppressed and should lively freely.

8. Partnerships and prejudice cannot co-exist.

9. Success is not about doing something, but believing in something. Values do matter alot. Successful people are single minded in their purpose, but not self-centred.

10. Have a sense of optimism in what you do- You will not succeed if you are afraid of failure. Always believe that what you do can lead to greater good.

So… what is one point above that is meaningful to you? Do leave your comments. I love to read your personal thoughts.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Four days ago I posted on my blog that I will be selecting two subscribers and giving them a chance to see Tong Blair LIVE in Singapore. All they needed to do is to write a simple comment on what they have learnt from my blog.

Well… here are the winners:

Ip Lee Lee

Andy Lim

Please contact me at kenneth (at) deepimpactonline (dot) com to get your tickets!

Popularity: 13% [?]

If you are keen to personally hear Tony Blair, Robert G Allen, Loral Langemeier, Spike Humer and 9 other professional speakers inspire your heart and turn your business and life around, you need to attend this seminar from 27-29 Apr 2010.

A detailed brochure and line-up of speakers can be downloaded.

This is specially for my subscribers and I wish to reward those who actually faithfully follow my blog.

I have 2 tickets to this year’s National Achiever’s Congress 2010 and want to give it away! ONLY 2 Winners will be chosen from my list of subscribers.

To Enter this contest

1. Ensure that you are currently subscribed to my mailing list (if not, just subscribe for the FREE report on Building Teams on the top right of this page).

2. Leave your comments on this page on ONE thing that you have learnt from this blog.

3. Deadline is 22/4 (thurs).

4. One you have done so, email me at kenneth @ deepimpactonline (dot) com and tell me that you have done it.

Note: Only Winners will be notified. Results will be published in this blog on 23/4 (friday) to see if you have won a ticket!

Popularity: 39% [?]

Another one of my articles appeared in the Straits Times on 22 Mar 2010, Recruit Section.

Trust is one of the biggest issues that faces any team and everyone says that you need it but how many of them actually teach you how to establish trust step by step?

This article will teach you how you can consistently get people to trust your every word.

You can download this article.

Popularity: 48% [?]

Work is everywhere around you and sometimes it is hard to find time to do everything. Let me suggest ways on how you can significantly be more effective.

Here are 6 simple steps to dramatically boost your performance at work in any field and achieve the more success in what you do.

1. Focus is Key

Focusing on what’s important and urgent is the essence of work effectiveness. Never lose sight of your goal. Don’t allow yourself to get distracted by unimportant and urgent things happening around you at the workplace. Remember that there will always be things that are urgent but it important issues MUST NEVER be compromised for it. Set your goal for the day and achieve it no matter what. This helps you create trust in your own abilities to see things through. I personally feel that Focus is also about choosing what you wish to do and what you should be doing lesser.

2. Visualize

When you set your goal for the day, visualize yourself go about the work. Think about how focus you will be, how well you will do it and how much satisfaction you will from it. Great sportsmen often employ visualization techniques to help them overcome the emotional and physical challenges from their sports. It’s only a five-minute exercise but one that is most effective in helping you achieve your peak performance.

3. Make it a challenge to do every task better than before

This is definitely the most effective way to achieve peak performance at work. Rather than going through the motions, choose to perform every task better than the previous and in lesser time. Seek for 1% increments rather than vast improvements. Use your creativity to bring about improvement in whatever you do, no matter how mundane it is. There is nothing more fulfilling and profitable than sharpening your strengths.

4. Investigate your flaws

Look closely at your flaws and things that reduce your efficiency at work. Always ask is there something you should not be doing or do lesser? Find out the improvements that you need to make in your personality or work ethics. When you strive not to commit the same kind of mistakes again, your performance at work will skyrocket.

5. Master your mood, do not be a slave to it

Enthusiasm is the lifeblood of success. Infuse inspiration in yourself by grabbing hold your mood. Your thoughts are more powerful than your mood; use them to good effect and master your mood to make it dance to your will.

6. Look at Role Models

Find out who inspires you the most. Look at the exemplary performers who consistently give their best and reach top positions from the bottom rungs. Study their work ethics and follow in their footsteps. Success always leave trails and it is better to learn from successful people rather than the commit mistakes yourself.

Peak performance is a choice and it starts with an intrinsic willingness to do what is best for yourself. Make a firm commitment to yourself that in everything you do, you will always do it better.

Here are more articles on getting more results and being effective in your life:

Being Effective Without Putting In More Time

Effective Goal Setting For Personal Development

Being Pro-active in Life; Getting Ahead When Others Don’t

Are you Efficiently Effective?

Popularity: 45% [?]