Value Creation

I started my watercolour painting lessons in 2012 and through the years, have gifted the paintings to family and friends and kept a few for myself. I also plucked up the courage and auctioned off a few to raise funds for various charities with great outcomes.

I painted this in 2013 as a surprise birthday gift for my boyfriend. It’s the largest painting I have ever attempted and took the longest to complete. Was pretty amazed at my patience in doing a repetitive action, it took 4 hours to paint the blue scales on the dragon.

It was a birthday gift well received and loved. He wanted to get it nicely framed but I refused. I did not think it was worth it to spend the money so I went to buy a cheap frame from Ikea instead.

Through the years, he’s gently broached the topic and each time, I have said no. Then finally, a few weeks ago, I said yes. Based on recommendations, we brought it to Framing Angie. Angie gave a few suggestions for the types of frames and we chose one.

When the shop contacted me that the painting was ready for collection, I was curious as to how it would look with the new frame. When I saw it, I turned to my boyfriend and said “I can paint”.

Through the years, I have received numerous compliments on my paintings. Yet I have never acknowledged nor recognised my own worth as an artist. Hence my reluctance to spend money on a frame that complements it.

It also got me thinking about the topic of how do we ‘frame’ our own worth and value to the people we meet and work with for professional value creation.

It became a discussion focus during a coaching session for a client a few days later. This lovely client is an absolute joy to journey with. She’s diligent, hardworking, solutions focused and exudes joy in her being and doing. My question to her was how does she ‘frame’ what she does to her management that highlights the value that she creates.

By ‘frame’, I do not mean boasting nor being an ’empty vessel that makes the most noise’.

By ‘frame’, it means how do we share in a way that connects the dots to link the various actions, activities, strategies etc implemented to the performance and growth of the company or to value creation.

For example, a number of the key initiatives she has implemented has an impact on the continued growth of the company. It was part of the strategy that she proposed in her annual operations plan. In our discussion, she realised that she has not updated her management on the progress and how the various intiatives are coming along nicely.

An assumption employees often make is that “my employer/ manager/ business leader” will know and recognise the value I bring to the team. Often times, they do. At times, they could be so caught up with their own work agendas that they may not have connected the dots.

In his book Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm and Confidence, Dr Rick Hanson an acclaimed clinical psychologist shares that “the mind is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.”

Bearing this in mind, it certainly helps for us to value our worth and choose a frame that highlights the beauty of what we do.

We had so much fun at our previous radio interview that we were back at Mediacorp for a second radio interview yesterday with Keith De Souza on 38Live The Breakfast Club.

We chatted on one of our fave topics “Value Creation at the Workplace”.

How can we value create at the workplace? How can employers create an environment that allows their employees to thrive? These are some of the insights we shared during the show.

For the full interview, you can listen here: Value Creation at the Workplace.

I have often shared about my meaningful journey as a SPRING Singapore SkillsFuture SME Mentor. The initiative aims to enhance SMEs’ capabilities in learning & development and to build up their value proposition as employers of choice offering good career development and growth opportunities.

As such, was absolutely delighted when SPRING Singapore invited me to be part of the panel discussion held during the seminar held yesterday. As an architect for business culture, the topic of placing people at the core of a business naturally resonates with me.

The seminar was held at the Regent Hotel and I was heartened by the presence of 400 business leaders and representatives from SMEs, Institutes of Higher Learning and associations.

My fellow panelists were Ms Lim Hee Joo from Wah Son Engineering and Mr Sherwin Siregar and Alex Chua from atlas Sound & Vision and it was delightfully moderated by Ms Christophane Foo from SPRING Singapore. I shared on what may stop some SMEs from investing in people and how we could influence SME top management to change their mindset about people development.

Following the discussion, the business leaders and representatives had the opportunity to network with the more than 50 SME mentors who were present at the event. Presently, there are 116 mentors with vast HR and business experience in a wide range of industries for SMEs to connect with.

To-date, fifty SMEs have completed or are about to complete the nine-month mentoring programme. So glad to see two of our clients Kith Café and Aries Fresh featured in the Hall of Fame as the early adopters of the programme. Another 55 firms are set to participate in this initiative.

Read HRMAsia article on the seminar: SMEs prioritising employee development 

It’s Mother’s Day today. I bought some flowers, breakfast items and boarded the bus to visit my mum. I spied an empty seat beside an aunty who looks like she was engrossed with typing an SMS on her phone. She and her large plastic bag occupied two seats, with the bag spilled over onto the side of my seat.

As I sat onto my seat, an uncle who was seated in the seat opposite to us took his umbrella to nudge the aunty’s bag and said, “you’re occupying two seats”. The aunty did not bother to reply the uncle and remained engrossed with her phone.

I could see the uncle getting increasingly upset, bless him. So I smiled at him and silently mouthed “thank you, it is alright”. The man seated beside the uncle saw my exchange with the uncle, and he smiled too. Then so did a few other passengers who had witnessed the exchange. The mood lightened.

My take on the situation was that the aunty was probably too engrossed with her phone that she was not even aware of the situation, that the bus had gotten crowded. And that probably explains why she didn’t even hear the uncle’s comment nor felt the nudge of umbrella. I could squeeze onto the seat so did not have an issue with it or I would have gently asked her to move her bag.

I was appreciative of the uncle’s sweet gesture and understood his perspective too. Yet I did not wish for him to have a lousy start to the day by getting overly angry. Glad my smile and thank you acknowledgement calmed him down.

After about 15 minutes, the aunty looked up from her phone and saw the flowers I had bought from my mum. She gave me a big smile and asked me if I would like another flower for my mum. Turns out she’s a volunteer and had prepared lots of flowers to give away (hence, the large bag). I thanked her and said my bouquet was enough. She smiled, wished me a great day and alighted from the bus.

When it came to my turn to alight from the bus, I thanked the uncle once more and wished him a good day. He smiled brightly.

The situation could have turned ugly. With me being irritated, a quarrel escalating between the uncle and aunty, and awkwardness all around for the rest of the passengers.

Instead, it became a pleasant ride.

The experience reinforced my belief in (1) the power of unconditional positive regards, and (2) the power of bringing forth beauty in all situations.

These are two behavious which I do my utmost to practice in my my daily living. They enable me to mitigate stressful encounters and be in control of my reactions and responses. They are also aligned to my work purpose as Dream Catalyst, to journey with leaders and teams to build great work cultures.

These are also behaviours which I encourage my clients to embrace in their daily work life. Imagine how much more engaging, life-giving and inspiring the workplace could be if more of us could practice seeking to understand instead of jumping to conclusions. If we could be more mindful of the impact of our words and actions, and choose to be more life-giving in each situation.

When was the last time someone at your office said “thank you for…”? Or when did you last expressed your thanks to a colleague?

In our fast paced of never ending to-do lists and responsibilities of day to day business dealings, many of us have forgotten the decency and joys of being a human being to our fellow colleagues.  Yet the irony is that the workplace is where we spend a large percentage of our time in. Because we often forget the being part, that gives rise to a sense of disengagement or conflicts at work.

In a company I consult at, one of the issues they had was that of staff retention. The majority of the team was there for less than 2 years. An initial initiative was to engage the employees in “conversational sessions” by departments centred on value branding and bonding, and also to listen to their joys and woes of working in the company. The conversations opened up new spectrums of insights and effect relational changes almost immediately.

Colleagues got to share and listen to each other’s strengths and values. Affirmations create positivity while sharing about values allows for greater understanding of people’s motivation and actions.

A few weeks after one department’s session, the HR manager shared with me the remarkable difference in one of the manager’s demeanour and attitude. This manager had started to smile more and was more patient when dealing with others. And when I invited her to join us for a group coaching session on management skillsets, she was open to learning (a surprise to her colleagues). During the session, the manager shared that she realised that when she was caught up in the busyness of work, she often has a serious look. Which may have made her seem unapproachable. When her colleagues quip that she was smiling more, she replied almost innocently, “I smiled because you were all smiling at me every day. I just had to.” And she gave us a beautiful smile.

This was a manager who was driven by her value to ensure the company was profitable. Because if the company couldn’t survive then her colleagues will not have a job. Prior to the conversational sessions, she never had the opportunity to articulate and share about her values. As such, her colleagues often misunderstand her actions and queries on finance matters. In turn, she heard the sharing from her colleagues on how positivity and smiles are important for them.

That one conversation opened up opportunities for change and growth. It was an opportunity for colleagues to just be.

I was not surprised by the result. I had seen this happening again and again. In numerous journeys, with different clients.

No matter how toxic a business culture may have become, there is possibility for change. When the core returns to a state of positivity, shifts start to happen. And the core is always made up of people. And so we begin with that, to build and affirm. Followed by changes in processes and systems to sustain the change.

The being part of us always give strength to our doing part.