Mad rush in Texas in the Eagle Ford Shale

http://www.kens5.com/news/South-Texas-oil-boom--128424968.html

great to see economic growth and job creation in this part of the world.

Reinforcement-based Leadership

I'm sure you've picked up lots of books on leadership and what makes it work. Although I graduated from a school whose motto is "Serve to Lead" with a reputation of churning out the country's future leaders, I feel the that sometimes it's hit or miss in terms of getting students aligned with the program at the Royal Military College. For one, not everyone had formal leadership roles and titles. Second, scores of "successful" old puteras, the term we use for alumni, were not rank holders during college days, so what made them great after graduation? Furthermore, you always have the 10% exception which represents those who dreaded every second being there but they later become successful in their careers (let's leave the definition of "successful" for later discussion).

I was enrolled in a leadership course back in January. Before leaving for the first class, my boss told me about the 4-point rule that has stuck in his head till this day. They were 4 things that kept people focused in their career. Remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint.

1) Opportunity - the timing and sometimes luck for opportunities to present themselves and for you to seize the moment

2) Motivation - promotions, monetary rewards, recognition, personal satisfaction - anything that keeps you liking what you do and wanting to do more

3) Enabler - training, mentoring, coaching

4) Competency - how smart you are and how well you get things done

The concept of reinforcement-based leadership is that humans are naturally selfish, self-centered and want to accomplish certain things for their own benefit alone (naturally if our goals are not aligned, conflict arises, not rocket science). So the more opportunities you give to your high potentials or the more recognition they get whether in terms of reward or promotions, the better they execute the business plan. At least that's the common thinking. The cumbersome piece about reinforcement is that it requires constant maintenance.

Politics is a great example of typical reinforcement-based leadership where politicians use motivation and opportunity strongly in their campaign. Monetary rewards are legal in the context of recognizing employees in your organization. Constituents do not count!

A very close friend of mine is visiting us this weekend. Looking forward to his company and 2 weeks away from my desk.

Understanding You

I was thinking about the order of which articles should be written, whether I should be churning out articles on certain topics then move on to other relevant topics. In the interest of maintaining my motivation to keep on doing this, I decided NOT to over analyze the methodology and go with the flow!

It's the second week of Ramadhan and I am away from home again for work. Missed my daughter's third birthday which was on August 8th, however, we did a pre-celebration the night before I left. Here's Iryna and her birthday "cake" (a medley of cupcakes really).

In 2 days, August 11th, it would have been my late father-in-law's birthday (my thoughts and prayers are with him). My father-in-law was quite an intricate man; at times, you would think that you have had him figured out, and then you quickly find out that you've had more to learn. Seemed hard-shelled and stubborn on the exterior but definitely soft and delicate on the inside. He was hugely passionate about politics and would go on for hours at the dinner table on policies he did not agree with or selection of leaders he thought reflected the poor taste of our party's leadership (I was visibly agreeable with him for the most part by nodding or adding reinforcing statements, being the good son-in-law, and was quiet on the parts I did not agree with him out of respect including the fact that I was living in his house for a few years!). It takes a certain personality to manage my father-in-law and gain his trust.

How do you know your own personality and work on the areas needing improvement? Sounds a bit straight forward but if you jot it down on paper, it's nothing but. A few months ago, I was asked to take a personality test to evaluate my personality. Organized by Insights, a company head-quartered in the UK, the personality test started with a series of multiple choice questions on your response or reaction to certain scenarios. Initially I thought it was quite elementary and thought that I got it figured out - typical "Red" personality (I will explain briefly what Red means)! A few weeks later, we were mailed a thick report based on the questions you answered.

The report had numerous topics, including my "profile", suggestions on how to deal with people like me, how other "profiles" should interact with me, the do's and dont's with me - the report was really a thorough analysis on how I view the world and how the "world" views me. There were four colors to group people's different characteristics: Red signifies the typical manager who wants everything done his way, listens little and is results oriented. Blue signifies a technical person who gets into details and is very organized, despises others lacking process, standards, strategy, or organization skills. Yellow signifies a happy go lucky person, trouble-free and highly sociable. Green is the type that likes to bond and build relationship, highly collaborative, wants to move as one team. I was flagged as 50% red 50%blue, a "reforming director" with a "green" subconscious. In short, reforming directors are typically self-motivated, organized, strategic but lacks empathy and does not spend time to "reward" and "recognize" people.

As I read the 30-page report, my initial thought was this is a template that they send out to typical red/blue individuals. Thinking of outsmarting the system, I asked several of my colleagues in the program and read the reports which had a red/blue designation. To my surprise, they're all written differently and highly customized to the individual. I quietly returned to my room and finished reading the report.

There were a few statements that stood out - I was impatient with people I perceive as having lower standards (sadly true!), I tend to avoid social bubbly people (so true which explains why I hate cocktails and black tie events), I typically fail to say enough "thank you" and appreciate people's work (there was a whole section of weaknesses!).

How did this help me? "Yellows" tend to be people with extrovert characteristics; they want to have fun all the time, very present time-oriented and do not want to worry about the future, highly disorganized, bubbly, always optimistic, you get the picture. "Blues" are the natural opposites. The program teaches you how to strategically approach your opposites and work on the skills you need to build a cohesive team; including "yellow" team members! Over time, I learned the hard way that 1) I am not right all the time 2) spending a few minutes a week to appreciate someone else's hard work pays off dividend in the future 3) a leader is not a leader until he has followers!

Using the report as a guideline, my leader and I built a personal development plan which included not just the typical career-related aspirations and training requirements, but the things I'm working on to be a better leader. We also built a 90-day plan to "test" one or two principles and evaluate after 90 days.

I must say that I now carefully plan how I approach certain subjects in my communication, whether it's a quick email or a lengthy meeting with edgy and anxious staff. Your personality affects how quickly you build allies to support tough decisions or get ignored for coming up with ridiculous ideas. I still have a long way to go to master this.

A new face but the same philosophy

These past few years have seen the rise of numerous political blogs that I think another input from a nobody will not set any fundamental shift in the way the world currently works (used to blog on local politics). I reserved this blogspot address a few years ago thinking that someday I may jot down a few notes about my observation in the corporate world and this may lead to something else, who knows, in 10 years! At least it could be a guiding book of principles for my children to use when I'm no longer among the living for them to ponder who their daddy was.

For my first entry, I should make it short and concise. I dedicate this site to my lovely and loving wife Noreen who has sacrificed so much for me to pursue my dreams - whatever that may be. Let's leave this one for later discussion.

I still follow politics especially political news at home quite closely whether at surface or sharing notes and thoughts with friends who battle on the front day in day out. As I think about the two individuals who have shaped my thinking strongly, my father and Tun Dr Mahathir, I wanted to provide some perspectives on the things I'm working on as an aspiring leader. The perspectives I think transcend the boundaries of politics and business. Passing out from the most prestigious military college known to man, also known as the Royal Military College (RMC), in the heart of Kuala Lumpur, the concept of leadership has definitely been a subject of interest since I was a budding under officer at the age of 17.

As the leader of Foxtrot company, I had the pleasure of serving as the Senior Under Officer with a great line up of leaders managing a company of about 50 students, if memory serves me right. The 5 leaders including the Junior Under Officers (JUO) helped me built a cohesive group within a year. Our ultimate reward was the coveted Commandant's Trophy, an award given to the best performing company of the year. The members of the winning company get to wear a yellow lanyard, signifying their accomplishment of the past.

Albeit a short "training" by our senior mentors, the leadership training at RMC was more on-the-job exposure as there was no formalized methodology to teach one of the roles and responsibilities of an under officer. We were fortunate to have great leaders such as the then Administration Officer Captain Adi Ridzuan (now Lt. Col), former SUO Hazeem Ariff Haroon and other great role models to learn from.

In short, I wanted to summarize key points of how the team worked in such a short time.

1. Team work - I believe our leadership team worked well together, considering we were young and naive at that age. We had different personalities, ambitions and sometimes ego, we knew our specific roles and did not get in anyone's way. We were also fortunate to have a composition of brilliant students and talented athletes. We did not force the studious ones to win a basketball trophy nor did we try to impose the athletes to get A's for subjects they were weak in.

2. Respect - Mentoring the third formers was a challenge given that they had the same years of experience at college and were a bit reluctant to follow orders from people they considered as equals (the fifth formers, some with designated leadership roles). I think we dealt with them not as younglings but as equal partners. The other element of respect we enforced was to never embarrass a senior member of the company in the presence of other company members. I think that policy worked out well.

3. Trust - We won trophies for court games and best academic performance overall, which led to the victory of securing the Commandant's Trophy. To be honest, we never had in mind the Trophy as the end state (the last time Foxtrot Company won the Trophy was in 1976, 20 years before we secured it again). The trust factor was more "indirect" or "unplanned". We did not micromanage the sports teams or students to study hard but gave them the freedom to work on what they want and like to do.

4. Discipline - The old saying of walking the talk is true, regardless of age. Because of the strict military regime at the institution, we wanted our boys to obey the rules while internalizing the fundamentals of being a military student: elements such as co-operation, being punctual, obeying commands and other basics. You can only ask your team members to do something if you're exemplifying the right behaviours. I think we did well.

10 years in the multinational oil & gas environment, these concepts are nothing new. I've been blessed to work for a great leader now, who lives these values and continues to perfect his phenomenal leadership skills. These principles would seem almost elementary to most people, but it's the elementary concepts that people struggle with everyday in all types of organization, either political, business, etc. Often times, the lack of understanding and mastery of the fundamentals keeps us from meeting business targets or getting alignment from stakeholders.

Till the next write up!