Turning Big Words Into Small Words

In the corporate world, it is quite common to see big jargon being used to describe big things.
Especially during the stage of conceptualization & strategic planning.
Here I am, using 2 big jargon right on!

Let's see what are some of the big words & there are tonnes of it out there;
Authentic, Branding, Performance, Efficiency, Growth, Attitude, Cosy-Environment, Cool, Impeccable Service, Quality, Management, Values...etc.

I can see few reasons here;

1. Because the Big guys up there only know the Big words to describe the Big things OR
2. Because the Big guys up there need to show the Big picture using Big words OR
3. Because the Big guys up there don't know how to break the Big words into small words!

The most extraordinary and skillful person are those that are able to Think Wide, Talk Big & Act Small.

Due to personalities or talents labelling, some people are good in the big picture but pretty lousy on the details while some vice-versa.

As much as personalities & talents are an inborn factor, I truly believe we can adapt & learn to be both at a certain level due to the reason that 30% of it are natured 70% of it are nurtured.

In order to truly get things implemented, we need to describe Big words followed by Small actionable words as well. We just need to break it down by asking What & How. First the Why, then the What followed by How.

Simple!

Okay, examples...

I want to be Authentic. 

What is authentic to you then? Perhaps being original & truthful. 

How to be authentic? Say what you mean and mean what you say and your thoughts, words & actions are aligned.

I want Branding. 

What part of branding that you want? Awareness, Impact, Promise?

Let's assume awareness. 

How to have brand awareness? Perhaps out of 100 people, we want at least 70 people knowing our brand.

What if it is brand impact.

How to have brand impact? Perhaps out of 100 buyers, we want at least 70 people using or portraying the way that we want them to.

What about brand promise? Perhaps out of 100 items sold, 99 of it are of good quality and without any defect.

I want a Cosy-Environment.

What is Cosy? Relaxing, Cool, Neat & Comfortable.

How to have a Cosy-Environment? Perhaps warm-white lighting, air-condition at 22 deg Celsius, jazz music & lavender aromatherapy.

The challenge in the corporate world is to find those that can think in Big words and act on Small words. Very often that we have people that is one-sided. Meaning they think & talk Big but delegate to the downliners to break it down to implement it. Depending on the experience & creativity level, sometimes the downliners may have a hard time figuring out. That is the beginning of Communication Breakdown.

On the other hand, we have people who keep thinking about the details of what to do & how to do without explaining why we need to do it. Those are the warriors that are being equipped with Kungfu to save the world without knowing why they need to save it in the first place. 

Hence, we have to be the Flip-Flopper manager or leader....being able to flip from the Big words to flop to the small words.

If someone can do it, you can too.

Copycat The Original

The other day I was having lunch with 2 friends and we were just chatting about all kinds of stuff. But eventually, we talked about career, business and life. I was having the thought that somehow our life is governed by our knowledge, confidence & comparison.

Sometimes we envy others and at times, we look up to them. We keep learning & keep absorbing.
We wonder how on earth some people know so much or achieve so much or earn so much!
We thought the success is somehow related to some kind of original ideas emerging from somewhere over the rainbow!

Maybe and maybe not...

Our brain is an organic learning machine that can intertwined facts, input, data & knowledge.
Plus our experience, life values & confidence level, we may copy an idea but personalized it along the way to fit in our scope of beliefs. Eventually, what seems to be "original" by others turns out to be "copycatted" and fine-tuned by our own self. We just change the originalities a bit or improve it or make it slightly different from what it is. Then it became ours.
Therefore, when someone is better than us or looks to be better than us, it is because they have more inputs, more thoughts, more modifications of the original ideas & personalized it into their own or having more confidence in the copycat process.

When someone did it, you can too.
When someone wants to do it, you can too.
When someone thinks you can't do it, you can too.
Most importantly, when you think you can do it, you can too!

Question is ....who do we need to copycat and how can we personalized it to become our own originalities.
Instead of becoming a second class of someone, be a first class of your own.
This is the challenge.

Humble or Self Denial?

When we started off in life, normally is from a lower ground and slowly climbing it up, step by step to the peak. Along the way, we meet lots of people, go through lots of episodes, face different decision making moments, have our victories & defeat and most probably, tasted all flavours of life. At different phases of life, we need to instil different value platforms for us to sustain and grow.

During the glowing days of our life, we strive to be CONFIDENT. We portray a high & positive self image to our surroundings, hoping to protect ourselves from being looked down and of course, to survive in the concrete jungle of urbanization. It might be a synthetic confidence where we put a mask on or better still, it is an organically grown confidence where it is coming from the inside-out.

At times, success may blindfold us from continuous learning and we thought confidence is eternal. Therefore it becomes a habit and do beware that over confidence might turns out to be disrespectful in a dog-eat-dog capitalistic society.

After a journey of glamorous heights, we realized that being HUMBLE is the highest form of self-confidence. That is the point where we know who we are, what we have achieved, what are we going to strive for and the valuable experiences that we have inconveniently got it. Sometimes, people mistakenly mixing Self-Denial & Humbleness.

To me, being HUMBLE means you are Successful but you don't show it.
On the other side, SELF-DENIAL means you are a Failure and yet you show it!

So, be very careful when we climb the heights as not to be over-confidence & disrespectful. Life has its balancing force. It has a way to tone us down so that we will learn about values & character.

Keep it going & Keep it up....

Light Up Another Candle

In the past weekend, I was in Melaka hanging out with an old friend of mine, enjoying the much sought after food in Jonker Street. Due to our limited space in our stomach, we can only put in Durian Cendol, PaiTee & Asam Laksa. Not to mention that I unresistably packed lots of Nyonya kuih back to KL!!

Well, the highlight was not just in the food but I & my friend had an enriching moment of sharing & exchanging some thoughts. I respect him for his guts to get out of the rut system to help a friend to manage a business. It takes a lot of energy, motivation & initiatives to keep going. I was sharing my thoughts on the aspect of marketing and business development. Just some nuggets here & there, hopefully to uplift and light up another person's candle during his "dark" hours. I just log in to Facebook today only to realise that it did help a bit.

Sometimes our presence can be a little blessing for someone who needs it & the greatest thing is that we unknowingly touch someone without purpose. On the other hand, it provides us with a channel to be useful, valuable & enriching. Or else, what are friends for after all? I think it will be great if we give some, take some & share some. That is what keep a friendship going.

Have you help someone lately?
Have you uplift someone lately?
Have you change someone lately?
Have you bless someone lately?

Perhaps you should try it.