Motivated by a T shirt?

My source of motivation came from a T shirt.
Why a mere T shirt can motivate me?

This is my current favorite T shirt.
My old habit die hard is if I like to wear something, I will always wear it until wear off.
This shirt was given to me as souvenir from Kumamoto, Japan by my friend Timmy Ang.

What I like the most is the material keep me cool all the time.
I don't like thick shirt because it make me sweating.
Hot weather can drive people crazy just like this story
Other than that, the black color hides my extended and renovated "front porch".

I think, I look tougher LOL.
The dragon picture also very cool and mysterious.
I like it very much and I think my motivation level is higher each time I wear this T shirt.

Thank you my Fellow Bloggers!!

Thank you so much!! My arms became insufficient in length to show how much I am thankful to all.

Today this blog age is 2 months and 3 weeks.(approximately 80 days old)

It has to date 70 posts, 0.875 post per day to be exact.
My Nuffnang debit balance is RM 9.00. (Ok what?)
Not so bad for a beginner cum busy family man. (I had to push my own button, if not the elevator won't go up)
It also been followed willingly (or forcefully, I follow you, please follow me back kind of strategy) by 50 powerful heads. (90% are bloggers who owned an outrageously mind-blowing blogs of thoughts and stories)

If only I knew how wonderful blogging could be, I would have done it long ago.
In my 80 days of blogging, I have shared and gain so many things with the blogging community.
At my age (do I have to say this?) and experience, I still see so many new idea to learn from my fellow bloggers.
As I blogwalking, I saw my knowledge level becoming outdated.
So, I quickly grab new knowledge shared by bloggers and readers.
In my line of duty, I need fresh idea to cope with the ever changing needs. (WTH! actually I am doing public training; I need fresh idea to avoid my audience hibernating while lecturing)

I have seen health blogs, photo blogs, food blogs, travel blogs, shopping blogs, personal blogs, Islamic blogs, art blogs, creative writing blogs, politic blogs and many more blogs (the list goes on).
Bloggers blog for many reasons.
Some for money, building friend network, sharing idea, releasing anger and stress, for fun etc. etc.
What we have in common is, we speak our minds and share it with the blogging community.
That's what I love about blogging community, we are colorful and yet we blend together in harmony.
We complement each other skills and knowledge and some even made us laugh and feel better.

Honestly, blogging and blogging community has directly enrich my knowledge and pushing up my happy meter. (I actually became happier but I think my wife felt otherwise because she said I have taken Miss Lappie as my dark lover ('kekasih gelap') since blogging...aiyahh! annekuanna, sii liau maa)
I also made new friends and connection. (I added some to my friend list at Facebook)
Those who wants to know my other side of story, kindly add me at Facebook ya.
I have a squadron of immediate family members and relatives there!! (I got to behave myself there)

So my point is, Blogging and blogging community has been my new source of knowledge.
And for that, I salute all bloggers with all the respects and admiration.
You are my source of inspiration, friends and some say a shoulder to release stress..(is it? hahaha!)
Thank you for your visits, advert clicking and comments.
Keep blogging and thank you so much my fellow bloggers.
You guys rock!!!

Top 3 Perangai Buruk yang Menjengkelkan Aku

Aku bukan nak berleter kerana aku pun tak suka kena leter.
Tapi aku kena share jugak perangai buruk orang kita yang menjengkelkan aku.
Inilah top 3 perangai buruk yang menjengkelkan aku yang selalu aku jumpa selama aku hidup 40 tahun.

1. PHD (Perangai hasad dengki)
Yang buruk:
Bila nampak kawan pakai kereta besar (lebih kaya dari kita), mulalah buat cerita kata dia tu jual dadah, bapak ayam, geng mamak, pecah amanah, rasuah dan sebagainya.
Sepatutnya:
Berbangga dengan kejayaan kawan.
Kalau tak puji pun, janganlah buat gosip liar, berdosa tu.

2. Tak tepat masa.
Yang buruk:
Bila buat temujanji tak pernah tepat.
Selalu lewat sampai dan tidak menghormati masa orang lain.
Macamlah orang tak ada kerja lain, selain dari menunggu dia sorang.
Sepatutnya:
Kalau selalu lambat setengah jam, bertolaklah awal setengah jam dari kebiasaan.
Kalau susah bangun pagi, buat temujanji sebelah petang.

3. Tak hormat orang yang lebih tua.
Yang buruk:
Tidak menunjukkan tanda hormat kepada orang yang lebih tua, cakap kasar, cakap secara sama level.
Walaupun belajar tinggi, orang tetap akan cakap, dia tu kurang ajar sebab tak hormat kepada orang yang lebih tua.
Lagi satu orang akan cakap, mak bapak kita tak ajar, sedangkan mak bapak kita dah ajar tapi kita tak nak ikut.
Sepatutnya:
Budi bahasa dan adat ketimuran dah ada asas yang kukuh dalam menghormati orang yang lebih tua, so ikutlah.
Jangan sesekali leveling dengan orang yang lebih tua dari kita walaupun kita lebih kaya atau lebih educated kerana sebenarnya kita tetap kurang dari segi lamanya hidup di dunia.

Orang cakap, dalam hidup kita sentiasa belajar untuk memperbaiki diri.
Tapi jika kita asyik ulang kesilapan yang sama, itu tandanya kita degil, bukan tak belajar.
Belajarlah dari kesilapan orang lain kerana kosnya lebih murah dan tidak akan melukakan diri sendiri.
Aku pun masih belajar, walaupun umur dah hampir separuh abad.

Tips to Reduce 'Shivering' During Job Interview or Public Speaking

This is a response to Sya rina . Hopefully this can also benefit others. During job interview or any public speaking, normal human being will face certain level of shivering problem. So, it’s normal to shiver! Some people shiver on their feet, hand or voice. Some have a combination of two or all. Whichever it is, we don’t want it to affect our presentation.

Basically we shiver due to below reasons:
1. Stage fright
2. Fear of making mistake
3. Too shy
4. Language barrier

How to reduce shiver:
1. Stage fright – If you have a packed audience, focus your eye contact to the front row only. By doing this, you will see fewer people hence your shiver become less.

2. Fear of making mistake - Be prepared. Do your homework. Memorize important points.

3. Too shy - Imagination makes a different. You need to imagine that your interviewer or audience are those who you used to speak to.

4. Language barrier - Never start to use high level language. We must use normal, day to day conversation style language. This way, you won’t get stuck finding the right vocabulary.

Tips to reduce shiver:
1. Phase your speech. Do not speed until you are off-track.

2. Drink water. If no water, drink your own saliva. This will help to clear your throat. (When we shiver, our throat will become dry and our speech will be worst)

3. Hold on something, table, chair, rostrum, microphone stand. This will support your body and reduce shivering.

4. Say some prayers, trust me you need it.

5. For Muslims, my late father taught me this and it has proven effective in making me less shivering during public speaking. Read, "Surah Quraisy" as much as you can. If possible make it your “zikir”.

There you go, back to basic again, the concept of 'tawakkal'. "Berusaha & berdoa"

Job Interview Tips for Fresh Grads-Part 3

Tricky Questions

Some interviewers in bigger MNC like to ask tricky questions.

Tricky questions are those seen okay to answer without deep thinking. (ha ha ha. I hate this deep thinking things, but they are vitals for recruiting capable leaders)

 

Q: Are you trainable and willing to learn new things?. Your background is in Electrical, what if we give you Mechanical job?

(Real Meaning: Are you adaptable to changes or you are a stagnant kind of person?)

A: Yes, I am willing to learn whatever new skills required to perform better in organization.

(Wrong Answer: I prefer to work in Electrical field because I applied for that position.)

 

Q: How  do you feel about cultural diversity? (WTH!!)

(Real Meaning: How do feel about working in a multi-ethnics organization?)

A: I feel that diversity make us stronger and harmonized. A good balance of ethnics groups, is useful when its come to doing overtime during annual celebrations, Hari Raya, Chinese New Year, Deepavali etc.

(Wrong Answer: I don't prefer to work with "tuttttt" people. They are lazy bumps.

 

Q: Are you comfortable working with lady boss?

(Real meaning: Are you practicing gender discrimination?)

A: Ladies are more detail and thorough in their work. I can learn from them.

(Wrong Answer: I prefer men as my boss. Ladies are too fussy.)

 

Q: How would you react if you have been scolded for the mistake done by your subordinate?

(Real Meaning: Do you take full responsibility for mistake done by your subordinate?)

A: I will check actual place, actual parts and actual problem to analyse and determine root cause. Then, with the help from my team, I will come up with proper PDCA. (Deming Cycle, plan, do, check, act)

(Wrong answer: I will punish those responsible for the mistake.)

 

There you go. Good luck, have a pleasant and confident interview sessions ahead. After all efforts on preparation part has completed, you guys must also say your prayer. Thats the true meaning of 'tawakkal'. "Berusaha & Berdoa"

Job Interview Tips for Fresh Grads-Part 2

Soft Skills - Leadership and Communication Skills Questions. (Very important for executives in technical to have a balance of soft skills and technical skills)

Q: Do you feel comfortable working in team?
A: Yes I do. I truly believed that with team, a project could be more organized, better coordination and bring faster result.

Q: Why is that so?
A: Team member compliment each other with individual skill. It's like jigsaw puzzle, every piece is equally important to complete the puzzle.

Q: Do you understand the importance of leadership?
A: It is very important because I need a leadership to get things done through other people, subordinate, peers and superiors.

Q: What do you understand about leadership itself?
A: Leadership is a process of influencing others to follow you and to do willingly things that you want them to do. It is the ability to get things done through other people.

Q: What would be your approach in leadership?
A: Leading by example. I have to show good example for my subordinate to follow my instruction. If I am a late comer, I won't be able to lead my subordinate in punctuality.

Q: Do you think communication is important?
A: Yes indeed. Bad communication could jeopardized quality, increase cost and affect delivery. It can also demoralize subordinates.

Q: What do you mean by that, can communication break-down demoralize subordinates?
A: Yes, when insufficient information supplied to them, and they perform the job wrongly because of that.

End of part 2 (more to share)

Words of Wisdom

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying”.
-Friederich Nietzsche
German Philosopher

  “The very essence of leadership is (that) you have to have a vision. It’s got to be a vision you articulate clearly and forcefully on every occasion. Yon can’t blow an uncertain trumpet”.
-Father Theodore Hesburgh
former President, Notre Dame
 
  “ An individual without information cannot take responsibility; an individual who is given information cannot help but take responsibility”.
-Jan Carlzon, President
Scandinavian Airlines

  “ At Matsushita, 1st we built our people, then we built our products”.
- Matsushita San
Founder of Matsushita Company
 
  “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs.”
- Henry Ford
 
  “ I’m always amazed to see just how many things there are that I don’t need.”
-Socrates
Greek Philosopher

  “ A well stated problem is half-solved”
-Charles F. Kettering
American Inventor
 
" No safety, no production"
-Soichiro Honda
Founder of Honda Motor Company
 
"You can only manage what you can control"
-Jim Mason
Ex US Army Captain

"Managers delegate and follow up. They get job done through people. Superman does everything on his own"
-Source-unknown.

"Assumption is the mother of all screw-up"
-Source-unknown

Human Behavior at Workplace

My last post was interview tips for fresh grads part 1.
Part 2 can wait for a little while.
I want to post something that spark a blink blink in my head as I read Me Myself and I (Hanim Husin)
Something got to do with human behavior at workplace.
This is raw idea based on my own experience managing human capital in manufacturing industry for many years.
How human behave at workplace depends heavily on
1) how they have been brought up by their parents
2) where they came from, geographically
3) how they behave at school
4) who they mix around with

President of Matsushita Company once said, "At Matsushita, first we build our people, then our products"
Why this Industrial Mahaguru said so?
Simply because school leavers has different set of behavior than what is expected by Matsushita Company.
Therefore, Matshushita Company really strive on changing the unwanted behavior that come together with the newly hired workers.
And because human are the most valued asset a company can have, Matsushita Company always focus on Human Capital Training and Development.
I strongly agreed with this approach.

My own approach in managing human behavior is basically based on Matsushita Company approach.
(Don't tell this to my Japs bosses, because they are fanatically groomed to follow only, our company philosophy in management practices. They even banned TPM, ha ha!)
Okay, one example is enforcing 5S practice at production floor.
This is tough task, I tell you my friend.
The major "atama ittai" is changing Malaysian workforce behavior towards cleanliness.
This is important reminder, please take note:
In enforcing 5S do not tell your subordinate, "Please make your workplace as it is your own house"
This is drop dead wrong!
Why ya?
Simply because assumption is the mother of all screw-ups!!
You don't know what his house cleanliness level is.
Imagine if he came from a home that is not so clean.
What will happen is, your cleanliness level and his won't be match.
There you go.
Your 5S will become "Semua Sama Sama Sapu Sampah!"

This is what I am trying to tell, Matsushita was right all the way.
We should set, visualize, communicate, train and follow-up what level of cleanliness that we want.
Never assume that they are readily understand your needs because human behavior depends heavily on how they have been brought up, where there came from, how do they behave at school and who they mix around with.
Their perceptions and yours are not the same.

Now you tell me how will this kind of people behave at workplace:
1) The school vandals
2) The toilet bloggers
3) The "kaki ponteng kelas"
4) The "lepak" king
5) The gangster or "kaki buli"
6) The list goes on until cow come home...

So, what are we going to do?
Don't tell me we are going to pick only the good one during interview for hiring.
People can pretend "skema" and "poyo" during interview..(I did that also, ahaks!!)
We follow what Matsushita did, we brainwash during early stage of hiring for a period of time then only release for operations.
In my workplace currently, we train newly hired executive for 6 months before releasing to his department.
This is somewhat, somehow duplicate Matsushita way, or our own company way, or whateverlah.
As long as its working.

Job Interview Tips for Fresh Grads-Part 1

Suitable Most for Applicants Applying Jobs in Manufacturing Sector

 

 

At work, they call me 'pakcik'. Some do that for the age gap. (I am 29 minus sleeping time, public holidays and Sundays) Some do that because of my clearly visible grey hair. Some do that because of my seniority in the field. (they said my knowledge is stored in my big tummy...adehhh!)

 

Those young executives, seek my opinion, mostly in work related problems. From how to make self explanatory reports to how to convince big investment approval. Some even ask for personal questions. (That involved 18sx quetions as well) Being such a 'kaypoh' and openly available for discussion, I will try my level best to provide answers. But like it or not, my way is not the mainstream way. Just follow my head.

 

Since my fellow bloggers, rossoneri and hanim ask about job interview tips, I will now share some of non-text book theories here.

 

Preparation:

1. Forget about making fashion statement, just stick to the formal look. 1st impression counts.

 

2. Men, please shave especially when you're going to Japanese company. It reflects your discipline and 5S (housekeeping and cleanliness).

 

3. Do not speak in other than English unless, the interviewer insists you to speak in Malay, Chinese, Japanese. Do not go against normality. You cannot follow your head here. Not just yet.

 

4. Even if you're not so fluent, speak in English. It shows that you have determination.

 

5. Be on time. It shows that you respect other people time and priorities. 

 

6. Wish your interviewer, shake hand, smile, being polite at this time is crucial. You don't want to spoil their mood do you?

 

7. Be ready mentally, keeping in mind that there will be a panel of senior officers wanting to know about your readiness for hiring. 

 

8. Check company website for details. You need to do this to show your great interest in the company.

 

9. Have a copy of resume in your hand for reference. You don't give conflicting data, dates etc. during job interview. Its show that you are a careful person... and also your integrity is at risk.

 

10. Say some prayers, trust me, you will need it.

 

11. When interviewer start asking question, look straight into his eyes and answer. It shows that you're confident.

 

Normal questions and expected answers would be:

Q: Tell us about yourself. 

A: Do not tell grandmother history. Make it brief. I am 25 years old. From Sg Petani, Kedah. I just graduated in Engr - Manufacturing, UTM, Skudai. Right now, I am still unemployed and I am looking forward to a challenging career with your organization.

Q: Tell us what do you know about this company.

A: Answer what you know from the website and add something like this, your organization has been in the industry for 20 years (example), with your wide range of quality products and services, strong R & D, I believed your organization will be my right choice to start a career.

Q: What make you think that you are fit for the job?

A: I have leadership quality. I have lead final project team and achieved the team goal in blah blah blah...,

Use I have done..., I have achieved.... to visualize achievements. Only promote your capability by what you have done and achieved NOT I can do this...., I can do that, blah blah blah..., 

Q: Some retro interviewer will ask this nonsense question, What are your strengths and weaknesses?

A: My strengths are:

I always complete my task early, I truly believe in team work, I am loyal, I blah blah blah...,

My weakness:

I have one weakness, I can't tolerate indiscipline. I can be very harsh when dealing with this situation. It shows in my face and it cannot turn normal for a long period of time. (there you go...) The point is make your weakness become strength, be creative. You don't tell this retro interviewer that you don't have any weakness at all. You don't want to insult their ego.

End of part 1. (Much more to share)