“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishments toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie, business magnate. In today’s world, effective team building is top on the list for C-suite executives when they are looking for up-and-coming leaders. The people at the top management are recognizing that the best business results come from

“Whether women are better than men, I cannot say – but I can say they are certainly no worse.” – Golda Meir The first observance of Women’s Day was in 1909 in New York, but it was not until 1975 that the United Nations celebrated International Women's Day on 8 March and it became widely celebrated after 1977. Since then, there has been a lot more awareness and focus on ensuring gender equality and non-discrimination against women. However, to think that women had been weak an

Sheryl Sandberg. Oprah Winfrey. Jacinda Ardern. What do these women have in common? They are female leaders. A new breed of leaders is emerging and that breed is female. Women are rising in the ranks of dozens of industries not traditionally welcoming or supporting women. These industries include telecommunications, banking, information technology and construction. These powerful women are noted for their abilities to blend feminine qualities of leadership with classic male t

"You only have 5 seconds to make a first impression, so you have to make it count"While it is essential to do a good job at work, how you dress at work is equally important as everyone gets judged based on first impressions. What we wear shouldn’t affect how we feel or perform at work. But the reality is that our appearance and image not only affects how others perceive us, but how we view ourselves. Whether you like it or not, the way you dress plays a role in your success

In honour of International Women's Day, we interviewed 4 amazing women who inspire us with their success stories. In this post, we speak to Sher-Li Torrey, Founder of Mums@ Work to find out how she balances a business catered for mothers and her family! Sher-Li Torrey Founder of Mums@Work, Author, Speaker, Trainer, Gender-Equality Advocator 1. With children, there must not be a ‘usual day’. But how does your schedule typically look like on the weekdays and weekends? Sherli-

Did you know that a study found that 50% of companies with revenue greater than $500 million don’t have a proper CEO succession plan in place? This statistic is shocking, considering that succession plans are integral to maintaining and growing a healthy organisation. Succession planning is a strategic approach to ensure that talent and relevant skills will be available when needed and essential knowledge and expertise will be retained when employees in critical positions le

Assertiveness is confidence translated into action. Developing an assertive image is not easy. It is not about bullying or brow-beating, but simply allowing your conviction in carrying out a conversation. Constant practice is necessary. Those who are assertive are comfortable with themselves and others are likely to be comfortable with them too. A healthy self-respect grows between assertive managers and their staff. How do you develop an assertive image? Here are 5 super

Effective collaboration in the workplace means getting things done faster and better. Leaders all around the world realise that the silo mentality and knowledge-hoarding behaviours are barriers to reaching shared goals and higher productivity in their organisations. Research shows that 86% of employees and executives cite lack of collaboration for workplace failures. In the workplace, employees look for cues from higher-ups and mimic their behaviours, both consciously and un

The average person spends 28% of the workweek reading and responding to email– The McKinsey Global Institute found that an average employee spends 13 hours a week reading and responding to email. That’s by far the most time-consuming work activity at 28% of our work time. We spend so much time on emails, yet emails are one of the largest causes of communication breakdowns. Sending emails is a fast and easy way to get our message out there, but emails do not take into accoun

New managers think that it is up to them to dominate conversations with employees. Hence, most of them fail to listen, especially to the concerns and ideas of employees, leading to poor communication. As Epictetus (Greek philosopher) famously said, “Nature has given men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak”. Managers who invest the time and efforts necessary for improving their personal listening skills not only experience an improv

"Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply." --Stephen R. Covey, author, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. We spend a lot of time in school learning how to communicate. We take classes in written and spoken communication such as business writing , presentations and debate. We learnt how to express ourselves. But there were hardly any classes that taught us listening skills. Listening is every bit as important as spe

Here are 7 practical body language tips you need to know before your next presentation . To project confidence Practice good posture. Roll your shoulders up and backwards, pulling your elbows back so that you will push your chest forward. This position allows you to breathe better and project a confident image of you as a presenter. To connect with your audience Smile. A genuine smile breaks the ice with the audience and shows that you are confident and comfortable in front o

"Every act of communication is, in some way, an act of translation” Renowned translator, Gregory Rabassa Most people find the prospect of giving a presentation daunting. There is an equal number of people who dread sitting through presentations because of past experiences with dull and boring presentations that left them none the wiser. But presentations are a huge part of working professionals’ lives-- Whether it is pitching for a potential client, delivering the bad news o

Have you ever said or heard someone say, “That’s not what I meant” or “That’s not what I intended to say”? Wouldn’t it be nice if every time the person with whom we are speaking to heard us exactly the way in which we intended? We are constantly communicating. We may never speak a word, but we may have said a mouthful. Communication is not how and what we say, it is how we are heard. It is not about us, but how the other person perceives our messages and us. Communication is

It is true that the higher you climb up the corporate ladder, the lonelier it will be and most new managers can attest to this. They often grumble about not being able to confide in their team members or having no idea about how they are doing as a manager. When you are new on the job, you may not notice anything wrong until someone points it out or when your boss starts to doubt your judgement. To avoid all these uncertainly, you will certainly need to open up feedback cha

Conflict is a natural consequence of human interaction and is inevitable in the workplace. When employees clash, they can become concerned with defending their viewpoints that they cease to communicate. Mutual distrust starts to build up and threatens workplace relationships. This does not mean that conflicts are a bad thing, as disagreements can be productive and motivate people to do better. Your role as the manager is not to prevent conflicts, but to prevent conflicts from

Imagine going for a hike in the forest without a map or GPS. Sure, it’s fun for a while- you feel adventurous and daring- but sooner or later, you will get lost and start to panic. Now imagine pursuing your career without clearly defined goals. What should your goals be and how do you go about achieving these goals? In defining what needs to be done, setting SMART goals can be a useful way to ensure that we do not get carried away. SMART is an acronym that is simple and usefu

In most companies, employees get one on one time with their managers only once a year during their performance appraisals . One-on-one meetings are about getting to know the people you work with better. They are about discussing higher-level things such as feedback, professional development and career goals. Ultimately, such meetings exist to help you figure out how you can make good employees happy and keep them around. Here are 5 basic rules for planning and delivering eff

You know that little pop-up that sits mostly on the right side of the webpage and offers to help while you are browsing a website? Those are chatbots. While some of them are real people, most of them are actually automated and designed to help answer commonly asked questions. Chatbots have come a long way from responding to specific questions with specific answers. They are able to deliver a higher quality of conversation that closely resembles natural human conversation. W

The performance review meeting is a formal conversation based upon the informal conversations that have happened prior. The goal is to make the meeting productive and produce outcomes that benefit both the employee and the company. Here is a guide to conducting performance appraisals in 10 easy steps: Click here for our interactive module: https://www.noodlefactory.com.sg/portal/course/dea5159f-4bf8-11e7-8a48-06fb09d22481 Set the climate for a productive interchange. Welcome