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Bridging THE GAP
KRIENGSAK NIRATPATTANASAI
'Khun Kriengsak, the cost of living is skyrocketing. How can I increase my income? Do you have any ideas about side work?" asks Daeng, an old friend since high school.
"Are you still working?" I ask.
"Yes, I'm still working at the same company," says Daeng, a manager in a local medium-sized firm.
I tell Daeng that I don't recommend focusing on increasing personal income, because there are some consequences:
1. This is the time that your company needs you most. Once you have a side income, you will allocate some time to it. In the end, it will affect your productivity at work.
2. You are a manager. If your people see that you can do side work, they would follow you. Your department's productivity would be jeopardised.
3. In the end, your company will be damaged.
"What should I do?" Daeng repeats.
"What do you think?" I ask back.
"I don't know. That's why I ask." Daeng becomes a little frustrated.
"Daeng, don't get me wrong. I want to help you. For me, helping people find the answer by themselves is long-term help. I am not good at giving band-aid answers. Let me ask you again, you don't know or you don't want to think?"
"All right! I should not focus on myself. I should focus on the company, right?"
"That's good. The question that you should ask is how could you help your company during this tough time?"
"I could help my company to minimise cost. There are several ways, for example:
"1. Start to review work processes. During a slow period like this, I can ask a team to review all processes and see how can we streamline and reduce unnecessary steps.
"2. Review the budget. We planned last year based on business growth. Since the growth is not as planned, we should be able to reduce some variable costs.
"3. Do more on-the-job training. I would like to teach a lot of things to my people. This is a good time. I can assign on-the-job training to some junior staff. This will help increase their productivity.
"4. Increase communication. Lack of communication creates lot of rework. I can review current communication practices and make some adjustments.
"5. Propose what I am thinking to my boss and other departments. This would be a good step for knowledge sharing."
"Daeng, that's terrific. You've come up with lot of simple and practical ideas. Congratulations!"
"Thank you Kriengsak. I appreciate that you didn't give me a band-aid answer."
"No problem. But don't stop there."
"Why?"
"Because this is your idea. It's good, but have you any experience that your staff will resist the idea?"
"Yes, of course."
"What do you think is the reason that your team would reject your initiative?"
"They probably didn't want to leave their comfort zone or they think I am imposing my ideas on them."
"What would you do to ensure that you get their co-operation?"
"I might tell them what I told you. Then, I will ask their opinion about how I should help our company to improve the situation. I am sure they would come up with similar ideas as me."
"I think so. This would be a good change in management execution. Your team will own these initiatives. They will try to make them work."
"Anything else that you want to recommend, Kriengsak?"
"You may want to increase your skills at the same time. If you want more income, you have to gain more skills. Then seek additional responsibilities. Your company will recognise you. Don't ask for a promotion. Prove to your company that you can do more and are ready for additional assignments."
"But I don't want to spend more money on training," Daeng says.
Here are some inexpensive ideas:
- Ask your suppliers if they have any in-house training or seminar you can attend.
- If not, learn from your suppliers as well. Ask them to teach you their expertise or knowledge. Or go visit them and learn from them. Every organisation has some best practice that you can learn from.
- Ask salespeople to share new technology or developments that can increase productivity or save on cost.
- Go out with your sales representative to learn more about market movement.
- Have lunch with your colleagues and ask them to teach you. For example, a marketing director who wanted to be a CEO but lacked a finance background lunched with a CFO several times to learn basic finance.
Kriengsak Niratpattanasai provides executive coaching in leadership and diversity management under the brand TheCoach. He can be reached at coachkriengsak@yahoo.com. Copies of previous columns are available at http://www.thaicoach.com.
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