Building a sales team

"Please find attached five resumes for your review" the email from Chui came with five attachments

Thee is a striking similarity between building a sales team and building a sports team. Consideration must be given to the interaction of the team.

The best goal scorer who ever lived will fail if he does not have the midfield or wingers to supply him with passes and crosses. Many great goalkeepers did not become great if they do not have the defensive line in front of him.

So as we look at building a sales team, we must look not simply at what each person can or can't do, but how each person fits into the team - and fits into the game plan that the team is supposed to implement.

If work is fun, it's not work anymore

One of the takeaway of the Impact Leadership training the past three days was the secret of good work is good play.

We ae now permanently wired to our work, wherever we are. Even on vacation we're tethered to hand phones, tablets and laptops. At the rate corporate Singapore is working, our inner reservoir of spirit doesn't refill and soon we are running on empty. When times get tough, the body may be willing but the spirit is out to lunch. 

I try to instill fun in everything we do in the office. The fact is having fun with your friends creates infinitely more social glue than awards and incentives will ever provide. We aren't afraid to loosen up, make the best of what had to be done, and share fun with everyone.

Impact of trust

"When trust is broken" screamed the title of the article in the New York Times International Weekly yesterday. "You may have heard that love makes the world go round. But more likely, it's trust." The article started.

Trust can accelerate and mistrust can destroy any business, organisation or relationship. No matter what our role is, trust affects our influence and success. Those who are trusted are effective. Without trust, leaders lose teams.

Trust implies being reliable, dependable and capable. I have confident the chair I am sitting on can and will hold me. I don't have to waste time checking its capacity. I don't worry that it will drop me.

In a climate of trust, people are more captive, motivated, productive and willing to sacrifice for the team.

Tears for fears

"I'm going to spend 6 days in Kona with my two sons after this Bangkok trip. They don't come back to Boston very much these days," Norma reflected during the dinner.

Kids tend to be unrealistically blase - they think that nothing bad can happen to them. Adults tend to be unrealistically fearful. The truth lies somewhere between. 

I always try to emphasise positive messages to ACE that I love him and want him to care for himself effectively. I try to let go of him - but slowly.

Low carb diet

"I lost 8 kg this year alone due to stress at work," Brendan declared, jest fully comparing his workplace to a slimming centre.

Like many health-conscious Singaporean, I get an annual physical examination when my doctor gives me valuable advice about moderating my diet and exercising more, after which I go have some bak kit the with lots of you tiao to celebrate the fact that I am not dead yet.

Because of changing technology, most of us have jobs that don't require us to even break a sweat, much less actually perform difficult manual tasks. In not-so-ancient times, plowing fields burns more calories than anything you do in the office, even if you count the aerobic activity of adding paper to the photocopier.

Most people I know have failed at their dieting efforts. Thankfully, there's now the low-carb diet craze.

The day will come

"I miss my son," a new NS mum lamented 

The day will come when our children will finally, actually, officially, permanently and irrevocably leave home. We will be left with a host of memories, photos and lego sculptures we have been saving for years. It never gets easier. It gets difFerent, but not easier.

I don't know what the future holds for my son. I have hopes and dreams for him, but God has not given me a glimpse into the future. God never promised us smooth sailing through the sea of life. He only promised to be with us in the boat.

Love wins out - always

ACE had a medical setback yesterday.

In practical terms, love instills the will to persist when the going gets so tough that any "reasonable" person would quit. I see this demonstrated many many times when a child is seriously ill or terribly injured in an accident and mum and dad lovingly invests countless hours over a period of months - even years - in an effort to comfort and hopefully restore him to mental and physical health.

Love wins out - always.