HR Transformation - David Ulrich

Was forced to read this book as I had to go on a study trip on HR transformation, which I had very little idea about. Turns out that there is a whole new world to HR which I never knew about.

In a nutshell, driven by David Ulrich (who wrote the book), HR has been transforming itself structurally and functionally so that it could deliver more strategic value to businesses, a opposed to the basic and transactional work that HR traditionally performed. With the transformation, HR will raise its position as an equal partner alongside line managers. At the same time, the transactional work is agglomerated, technology-enabled and streamlined to cut costs.

During the trip to UK to study other organisations, I discovered that many organisations were implementing similar transformations in their HR functions. It does seem like there's some advances going on in the field of HR, and hopefully this field will grow bigger in the coming years. Might be an opportunity to capitalise on in the future, and makes my work now a little more relevant!

Harvard Business Review - The Mind of the Leader

At this crazy stage in my life, I feel like I'm running with three spoons in my hands and all the paintings along life's path are fast becoming a big blur. Finally have a little hard earned time to make a post on a book I read today. And it is indeed hard-earned - I spent so much time working this weekend that I even sacrificed my tennis game!

Anyway! This book is a fast read (and thankfully so!). It is a compendium of essays showcasing different views of leadership by academics. It provides another perspective as compared to the books that leaders help to write from their own perspectives.

Some learning points:

• Leaders are prone to being influenced by their followers, in two key ways. One is through followers who with-hold information. Second is through followers who, through a majority, push for a decision that may not be the wisest in reality. A few ways to deal with this. Having a clear vision will help a leader stay guided to his objectives. Making sure that people disagree on a decision is key to actually hearing alternative points of view - an overwhelming consensus may not necessarily be a good thing. Find people that you can trust, and depend on them. Delegate, but verify.
  
• A Freudian take on leaders - they often have issues during their childhood that propels them to have insane drives or need for achievement. This could be a strong need to have control over their lives (leading to a quest for power + money), or parents who never gave enough validation. Interestingly, the piecce states that many male leaders have very nurturing moms and a plain dad (who didn't have much impact on their lives). This article even went as far as to say that leaders are often people who can evoke transferrence behaviours in their followers, which leads to unwavering loyalty. This usually involves making followers respect or perceive certain "parental" traits in them.
  
• Daniel Goleman makes a case for emotional intelligence. That basic intelligence and drive are threshold requirements, but EQ really makes leaders shine - which is quite intuitively in line with what I've always believed.
• That leaders are all a bit crazy! This one I'm still trying to figure out, but apparently, this is an essential ingredient for those bursts of creatively that sets them apart from the rest.
  

Amartya Sen - Identity and Violence

This was a short book, but I took close to a month to finish reading it. I blame it on the never-ending flow of work that I had to do!

This was a thought provoking piece of writing for me, even though the idea was simple. Essentially, the crux is that human beings possess many different identities (e.g. I am a brother, an agnostic, a civil servant, a Singaporean, a tennis player, an anime lover), and I can be all of these identities at the same time while being a totally coherent individual with a unique set of beliefs. When exercising my rational judgments or forming moral decisions, I will sometimes be constrained by the boundaries of these identities, but I can choose how much weight to give to the potentially conflicting values that come with affiliation to these identities.

The root of much violence in the current world is a result of people dichotomising the world by choosing to see people only in terms of one dimension of identity, in particular that which divides along racial or religious lines.

I have yet to read Huntington's book on clash of the civilisations, which Amrtya's book attempts to rebut, but I am quite convinced by Amartya's arguments here. In an increasingly globalised world, partitioning people categorically according to what we perceive as his or her dominant identity precludes us from understanding other people on a much more complete manner, and foists unwarranted prejudices that are associated with these identities upon these individuals. It may be more cumbersome, but a learning pt is that I'd strive to be more discerning in assessing people and not rely on lazy categorisations as a crutch to make decisions.

CEO Material - D.A. Benton

Sometimes I think I read books to get recharged. It is like fuel for my soul and inspiration for my mind. This must be the gazillionth book on leadership and how to be a CEO and yadda yadda that I've read. And the principles stated within are vaguely familiar to me, having read so many books of the same genre. However, I still ended up gobbling the book like it was the first time I'm seeing the content. I did feel very recharged after reading the book.

It's packed with useful advice - nuggets of wisdom to help me make those small decisions each day.

Especially given the circumstances that I'm in right now as a very green junior manager, many of the issues resonated strongly with me. Nothing like reading the theory and then putting it into practice the next moment, and then to come back again for inspiration. Here are some thoughts:

1. As a manager, one has to think fast, think well, think clearly and think decisively. So far I think I've been doing ok on this front. I don't change too many of my decisions, and I generally make the correct decisions quickly. (Generally correct, that is!) However, I think there were a few times when I did not communicate my ideas or decision as well as I should have. This is one area to further work on.
   
2. Stand and walk tall. I think I haven't been doing this as well as I should! I had been so tired on some of the days that I looked like a mess. I don't think that creates alot of confidence in the people I work with. Have to do better here.
   
3. Having fire in my belly. Energy and time management are but two sides of the same coin. I have no time and no energy just 2 months into my job! And my energy is rather unstable - probably due to all the stimulants that I use to stay "on top". So there are times when I space out quite a bit and times when I'm on cloud 9. Perhaps eating healthier and exercising more will be a solution to this.
   

What on earth happened? - Christopher Lloyd

Wanted to learn a little more about History, and hence picked up this book. I got the condensed version and it was a very fast read - finished it within a couple of days.

It was quite a humbling experience to be reading about the whole of earth's history and realising that humanity (and also my life) are but an extremely small blip in the whole scheme of things.

And looking at everything in a greatly condensed timeline also made me realise how transitory events, people and countries' destinies are. No one stays at the top forever, and when one's fortune changes, nothing seems to be able to stop it.

I think I live in a fortunate time - at a time when Singapore as a country is doing great, my family background is decent, and I've been given opportunities to do the things I want. At the very least, I'm not born into an era where people's lifespans are a mere 30 years - otherwise I'd be near the end of my life!

Chris Patten - What's next?

One of my forays into international relations, politics and (most) things concerning the globe. All in all, this was a great read. Patten writes very eloquently, and with style to add too. His thoughts are lucid and well presented, and he does not hesitate to take a stand and give his own view of issues.

But it is a thick book, and it sure took me a really long time to finish reading it.

Some of my key takeaways from the book:

1. At the personal level, it is often said that it is the way we choose to react to an issue that says more about our character and has more impact on the future than the issue itself. The same goes for larger and more complex entities such as the nation state. In this regard, the way that the US and the rest of the world chose to react to the Sep 11 attacks has brought the world inevitably down this path of an ever-growing fissure between the West and Islamic world.
   
2. Dealing with issues on your own terms and never compromising on your principles, even if the enemy is ruthless. Democracies should live by their principles when fighting terrorists - in this regard the previous administration has lost much of its credibility in the eyes of countries that look to it as model, and increased cynicism amongst those who believe democracy is but a hypocritical veil for what ultimately are unbridled pursuits of self-interests.
3. I never knew this connection existed - the drug consumers in NYC and the rest of US are indirectly financing the military in Afghanistan. (Drug trade is about 40-60% of its GDP.)
4. "Solutions to the problems of global warmings are primarily issues of politics, not economics or environmental policy, and politics should be the answer..."
5. Chinese leaders face an existential crisis with regards to their centrally managed industrial economy. If they give the industry too much rein, the party may lose control of the state. On the other hand, if they continue to hold on to these industries with an iron fist, they also risk foreign investment flagging and leading to a slowdown / loss in competitiveness in their economy. The failure on the part of the party to fulfill its end of the social contract will result in it losing control of the state.
   
6. The world is built along the boundaries of nation-states. However, the issues that face the world are increasingly global in nature. (Disease, drugs, terrorism, etc) How nations can work together to deal with these issues will be critical in how the world develops in the new millennium.

Great People Decisions - Fernandez Araoz

This was also a birthday present from a friend :) Couldn't have been more appropriate, given my current work related to personnel and the fact that I'm supervising with a small team of people.

Took me a few weeks to fill this in, cos I was interrupted by a number of other books in the process. This book is a gem. It resonates strongly with many of the things that I intuitively believe in but never had the opportunity to hear from a source that's more credible (than own self-affirmation!).

1. The higher you climb, the more impt hiring decisions become. First you hire great people, then you assign the right person to the right job.
2. The trend now is for HR to be increasingly decentralised. As such, there is greater responsibility for managers down the chain to take charge of hiring and managing talent.
3. When hiring, experience, IQ and EQ all matter. However, the combination of EQ and experience is the most powerful predictor of future performance. The lack of EQ alone is the factor which is strongly correlated with executive failure.
4. Essential competencies for managers / leaders include: (i) results orientation, (ii) team leadership - the ability to build high performance teams, (iii) strategic orientation, or big picture (iv) collaboration and influencing. Is starting to sound like the AIM model eh.
   
5. Potential comprises the following components: (i) ambition - the need for achievement, affiliation and power, (ii) ability to learn from experience and (iii) specific competencies relevant to the particular job.
6. Finally! Integrating the new hires and talent. One on one time cannot be substituted. As a manager, this is the one thing that cannot be delegated or solved with technology.