Andrew Chan

Resilience is the ability of a material or a person to bounce back after being stressed.

We all know people who, when subjected to stress of some kind seem to bounce back, no matter what the stress involved, or how deep it may be. We also know those who fold at the simplest of stressful times; the first little setback, and they're left collapsed on the floor.

Developing resilience depends on several factors:

1. Not taking yourself so seriously
2. Gaining a wider view of your challenges and opportunities
3. Applying a positive view of the world to the inevitable stresses and downturns
4. Taking the physical steps (more sleep, exercise, relaxation) to address physical responses to stress
5. Counting your blessings as an aid to help understand that little downturns aren't as big as you think.

No matter how positive our outlook, all of us are going to come up against the occasional challenge. The key is to keep going, keep believing, and take each stress and challenge in stride, committing to stick to it until it sticks to you.

The person who can greet each day with hope and a positive belief, no matter how gloomy the previous day might have been, is a person who will win in life's challenges.

It's all about bouncing back and bouncing higher than before.

The more positive you are, the more positive your contributions will be, and the happier you will be at work. Like begets like, and positive people are likely to create a positive mood or attitude in everything they do, with everyone they work with, and at any workplace they inhabit.

In other words: be positive, or you might as well not expect to make much of a difference.

Positive people do more and influence the people around them in a positive manner. Negative people influence too, but since their "aura" is negative, the results they are likely to have will be negative. In real terms, if there's any movement, the negative people tend to take an organization backwards, not forwards.

Happy New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

With the blink of an eye, a month has already gone by in 2011, and suddenly the New Year doesn’t seem so new anymore. The usual hangover in January where we ease our way into the year ahead was replaced with a flurry of activity almost immediately after the festive season; I suspect businesses and candidates alike are wasting no time to take advantage of the recovered economy. And as we usher in the Lunar New Year of the Rabbit, it’ll be worth remembering that slow and steady wins the race!

The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do."

It doesn't seem to matter which type of success you're after; if you are interested in financial success, you save and invest where others don't. If it's physical health you're after, you exercise and watch what you eat, while the rest of us eat corn chips while watching TV. If you're after sales success, you sell when the other guys lay back and rest.

The things that failures don't like to do are the very things that you and I and other human beings, including successful men, naturally don't like to do. In other words, we've got to realize right from the start that success is something which is achieved by the minority of men, and is therefore unnatural and not to be achieved by following our natural likes and dislikes nor by being guided by our natural preferences and prejudices.

Success, after all, is purely a matter of doing something until it becomes habit. Often, it is something that you don't want to do.

When you think about it, almost every day, we do things that we probably don't want to do. We get up when the sun still hasn't risen. We pay the bills, when we really just want all the bills to magically disappear. All these things are a learned behavior, and most likely, we do them out of pure habit.

In the same ways that we have formed these habits, we can form positive, successful ones. We can be the masters of our own future, if we just decide to do those things that we need to do, whether or not we like doing them.

Sir James Barrie, the author of Peter Pan, (the story of a boy who refused to grow up, and who always did what he liked, not what he needed to do,) said it this way: "The secret of happiness is not in doing what we like to do, but in liking what we have to do."

Such is life. We need to start a habit of doing what we need to do, when we need to do it, despite whether it's easy or not.

Anyone can do what's easy. It takes a superior person to do what's worthwhile, whether it's easy or not. And people who take that path inevitably become superior, successful people, no matter where they start out.

While cautiously welcoming what many are now saying will be a year of recovery for the region’s hospitality and tourism sector, I caution employers to stay on their toes if they are to retain head count in 2010.

All signs are pointing to a much more positive 2010 and one which will be buoyed by some of the biggest events on the international calendar taking place in Asia. These include the Shanghai World EXPO in 2010 which runs from 01 May until 31 October as well as the Commonwealth Games which will be staged in New Delhi next October.

It should be remembered the huge demands the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the developments on Macau’s casino scene placed on regional staffing resources less than two years ago.

Add to the 2010 fixtures the developments taking place in Singapore – not only will the staging of this year’s Grand Prix mean an extra strain on local employment resources, the two integrated resorts at Marina Bay and on Sentosa are by far the biggest thing to happen in the history of Singapore’s hospitality and tourism.

I really don’t think a lot of people still fully understand how this will change the employment landscape of Singapore forever. We’re talking about adding 20,000 new jobs in the Singapore market and that is going to cause some serious ripples on the regional scene.

If employers don’t prepare themselves they’ll really struggle to retain and attract staff and we’ll once again find ourselves in the same situation we experienced before the GFR began to bite – a return to the ‘war for talent’ where an over abundance of available jobs far outstrips the supply of appropriate candidates.

The time has once again come for Singapore’s employers to address the challenges, the cornerstone of its approach to be based on a series of progressive HR strategies designed not only to retain employees, but also attract candidates from both traditional and non-traditional sources.

Well thought out staff strategies will be key to attracting and retaining talent in the region’s ever intensifying and highly competitive market if organisations truly want to succeed in 2010.

There can be no doubt whatsoever that 2009 was the most challenging year we as an organisation have faced in our 15 year history but all signs are pointing to a much more positive 2010 and TMS like everyone else needs to be prepared for the upturn.

With the mass retrenchment exercises going on across all industries of late, I find myself answering a similar question amongst expats in Asia.  Do I stay or do I go?

I sat for my first exams this week for my MBA in what must be close to a 15 year hiatus since the last time I’ve had to put pen to paper and really write something meaningful.  Sure I write every now and then, jotting down almost illegible scribble during the working day that even my PA struggle to comprehend, but to really write something where another person has to not only be able to read it, but has to give me marks for my work is a totally different and scary story.

The current economic crisis has put most business leaders between a rock and a hard place.  This downturn is obvious (unless of course you avoid turning on the TV, picking up a newspaper, or you’ve simply shut yourself out from talking to everyman and his dog), and the pressure on staff and productivity has never been greater. 

On the one hand, managers want to share information with line staff on the company’s performance and the potential challenges ahead hoping this will whip staff into a sense of urgency and hyperactivity that produces the results of two; but the message may also be interpreted by some to be grim and you may find yourself with staff dragging themselves into work just hoping their keycard still works and they don’t find an envelop left on their desk.   

Then we find companies who keep the message positive and upbeat, giving every assurance possible that the light through the tunnel is near, hoping the confidence instilled will produce a happy workforce that perform better knowing they’re in safe environment; but then again, these same companies may find the sense of urgency gone as those same staff feel too secure and we’re back to square one of pressing the panic button.

So, it’s certainly a fine tightrope to walk for business leaders.  What’s the right strategy for you?

First of all, apologies for my long silence.  Balancing work, studies and a social life is proving a little more challenging then first thought.  So it’s ironic that I’m currently preparing a paper on Time Management for my MBA.  Hopefully I can apply theory into practice soon.

I was on the speaking circuit today and was privileged to have been invited by the SKAL Club of Bangkok to present on the ubiquitous topic of GenY.  Those that know my work will know that this is an area I have expertise in and frequently asked to demystify what seems like for some an unknown entity from outer space.

It’s been an interesting few months though as I haven’t presented on GenY since the economic downturn, and this really is Generation Y’s first global crisis and in some countries their first recession.  However, whilst times have certainly changed, research would indicate that the mindset and general attitude of GenY hasn’t drastically altered.  The essence of what makes GenY’s is still the same.

After hearing about strategies on managing and retaining GenY, I was asked by a Baby Boomer in my audience today, why should they change to conform to GenY employees.  Why would they want to change the way they run their business just to satisfy the whims of employees, shouldn’t it be the other way around?  It was a good question and one I often get, but are we really asking Baby Boomers to conform?  Or is it through knowledge and understanding of what makes individuals tick that we can compromise for the sake of a successful business?

Like millions, I watched as the United States heralded their 44th President with the typical fanfare we can only expect of such an occasion from the Americans.  There could be conjecture on whether the celebrations were to welcome Barrack Obama, or to finally farewell George W.  I’d like to think it’s a bit of both.

In reality, the event has very little to do with me or my business, but somehow I couldn’t help but find myself drawn to the words of President Obama during his inauguration speech.  His message of hope inspired and certainly captivated, and for a moment I thought the world was going to be “ok” again.   

Unfortunately I turned my attention back to business and realized that President Obama wasn’t carrying a Magic Wand with him.