Toastmasters

I am fortunate to be a part of the Toastmasters International Club as part of training provided by K. K. Kingston Ltd. I was not a first choice but I really wanted to have training on public speaking that I made my way to become a member of this club.

The Toastmasters International is a company sponsored club which carries the goal of improving communication and leadership skills thru public speaking. Here in Papua New Guinea, it is currently the only group as the first one has just been dissolved. It is listed in District 69 together with Australia and New Zealand.

I have read Dale Carnegie's public speaking book and other communication books. I have also tried most of the things that are written in them and have made good progress in communicating with my subordinates and to my superiors as well. I know that I have a lot more to learn when it comes to communication and needs more confidence in speaking in front of other people.

When I learned that there was a club formed for such, I told myself that I have to become a part of it. I just saw that getting there will already be a challenge and I made my way by asking the president on how to become a member. Though I was not given attention, it did not stop me from trying more and my eagerness prevailed.

I seek for other way such as asking the members. Experiencing my enthusiasm, a close friend of mine, Leah, invited me to be her guest. I was her guest for 2 sessions and I can only observe. From their meeting agendas, I already saw how it can build confidence in people that I told them that I want to become a member. Fortunately, most of the people in that group are my friends so they voted me to become a member.

On August 28, 2010, I had my first day as a Toastmaster and I had fun while learning. I had my opportunities to speak and with the studies that I already made on communication, I performed a step ahead from the beginners. I knew that this club will be my way to more development. Their website is: www.toastmastersd69.org.

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American Idol 2010

This year is the first time that I have followed the very famous American Idol starting from its Final 24 contestant. Many says that there aren't much good talent this year but I find the whole show entertaining, especially with the comments coming from the judges. Ryan's hosting is also a hit that I find myself some times mimicking him. ()

As a person who has subordinates and give advice, what the judges instill to the contestants are sometimes relevant on cases I have with my personnel or friends that I had chances on using words that they use to the contestants. I sometimes sound like either Randy or Simon as I talk to them. Ellen is hilarious and though she cannot give technical advice, she looks at a different angle and gives jokes that are well timed.

Though the judges are more often in conflict, when it comes to voice and performance, I also try to follow their advice to the contestants and I believe that I myself improves in my singing - though I more often do it in the bathroom only, and that is my opinion only. The famous "you have to own it" and "you're all over the place", are things that comes into mind when I sing and make sure I don't violate them.

My bet Siobhan left early and she would have made it farther should she listen to the judges. Her shouting sounds great at first, fine with the second but Simon hated it on the next ones. They had good advices gives to her but were not followed.

I haven't been playing guitar for a long time until Tim played "I can't help falling in love with you". His plucking is superb and his voice is perfect for his voice. I got more leverage when the final four all played guitar.

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Rob Libbis

Rob Libbis is a consultant/auditor from NCS Australia who helps us with ISO documentation. I had a chance to talk to him as I had to drive them (him and my friend Leah) off during lunch time. He is experienced and matured. When given this job to accompany a person especially a person of other race, I have no hesitation as I know I can learn something, and sure enough, I heard many things that are worthwhile. ()

What he has that I am really keen on learning is how to gain interest of the audience when he speaks in front. He has to do it for training purposes. He had given me some points. Though I can speak with people, and I have done mini-seminars myself, I know it will be very different if your audiences are not your subordinates. He had simple tips that would really help should I encounter talking to a bigger crowd and outside my own organization. He also is interested in NLP (Neuro-Linguistic programming) which is a topic that I have been reading and practicing for some time now. He finds it very useful and so do I. We also shared life experiences and fortunately, I can relate to most of them. As usual, I ask foreign friend of their culture. I love reading cultures of other nation but I found it best to be heard directly from a real person.

Day after day, we would talk and the conversation gets better and a lot of non-sense but funny things surfaced afterwards. It was a bit formal on the first 2 days and after that, we spoke in a very casual way. Aside from the things that he encounters in his home land and as he worked to other parts of the world, there are a lot of things he said that he learned as we grow older. I told him that, that is the reason I read books - to gain knowledge and so I would not have to wait to grow old before I learn those lessons in life. We only have an hour a day at lunch time and our conversation is so nice that time flies so fast.

It was a relieving week and I look forward to his next stint in PNG this June. If not at lunch time, I know I can ask him questions at work hours but with queries that are work related that can make life easier as I drain in me some of his experiences in documentation and auditing.

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Contract Ending

I have worked for almost 3 years in K.K.Kingston Ltd, Papua New Guinea and through those years, many good things took place. These are years where I put into practice all the things that I have learned from previous jobs, trainings and of course from books that I have read.()

With those years, I have improved in communicating. I have been braver facing big complaints and giving people answers that can solve their problem. It is already automatic that when I hear a problem, answer(s) come in an instant and the level of answer I give them is much better than how I give advice before working in PNG.

I have moved out of my comfort zones in many areas of work and life. There are things that I never knew I can do until I tried them and made possible. I was very cautious before that all moves have to be calculated and before I knew it, opportunity is lost. Now, I walk into the paths where people say it is too risky and learn what is in there.

I have stretched my patience and now can easily accept things the way they are. I have practiced more of putting myself on other’s shoes instead of judging them for what they are doing or saying.

I can make decisions a lot faster now. Knowing systems, patterns and its people here in PNG make planning easier.

After those years, I believe I am mentally and emotionally stronger now. I have met people that are experienced and wise. The feeling is very different when we just listen to what others have done right; and when we do it, thus also reaping the benefits in it. I also have been thru bigger problems where I gained experiences.

Still I know that there are a lot of things I still don’t know yet and have more years of learnings to come. I consider what happened to those years to be big leap for me in terms of leadership and maturity.

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Efren "Bata" Reyes

This morning, I watched a replay of a game which starred Philippines' best billiard player ever Efren "Bata " Reyes with Rubilen "Bingkay" Amit. It is a Mixed double match which happened last December 3rd at Nuvo City, Libis, Quezon City in Philippines. Bingkay is a fan of him and plays well also. Young and aggressive, their opponents also looked very confident and they don't have reason not to be as they dominated the early stages of the fight. Bata and Bingkay won over the Korean who looked very much in control in a race-to-nine finals match.

In that match, those that catched my attention are the following:

1. One very obvious thing about Efren is that he is not getting any younger. He already misses shot he would easily sink before, but he can easily recognize the situation and what to do in each situation he is into. I remembered an interview with Efren where he said that he may miss long shots but billiard [strategies] are still with him.

2. Thanks to the high quality sound of the mic during recording, I can hear Efren give options to her but find it hard or maybe it was something she haven't tried even in practice. Maybe he used some strategies that are beyond her capability. I know she has learned a lot from Efren thoughout the tournament.

3. She makes mistakes but still Efren can just easily laugh at it. He probably knows that they can still manage to get back after some mistakes and it takes away nervousness knowing that she won't be blamed.

4. There was also a time when he just told her that she can just place the cue ball where ever she want it. This is a very motivating thing to hear - showing that he is confident to whatever move she will make and that in case anything wrong happens, he can find a way to get it right.

Having a leader with a lot of experience spells the difference. I had experienced superiors and mentors, I gain a lot from them and it made my life easier. Herein are some of the reasons I want to talk to people with experiences expecially those which I would not want to harness. I listen a lot and implement the things that I know can help me also.

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The Least?

Still from our last (third) Badminton Tournament this year, based on skill level, as a group, all other teams considered us the least. We are a group with 3 pairs. Men’s double, mixed double and women’s double. We are mostly expats so we have to make the tournament a bit short to prevent conflict with holidays.<>

Our team captain is good and has a lot of experience in this game; I just helped him in coaching and motivating our other team mates. And the other four are mostly new players but the main thing is that they listen. What I did was to focus on their strengths. We gave chance for the beginners to be a part of the fun and because they listen, they managed to win games even if their opponent is better.

The team captain, Mang Jun usually tells them what to do with their racket and I focus on their mind setting. My team mates would usually say at first that they will lose because their opponents are better than them, and that is my cue for motivating them.

The team captain scouts the next opponents and gives instructions to our team mates. I do the analysis of the points we have earned and needed to get to the finals. As I see it, because of the efforts we have given while not playing, it makes it easier to handle things on the court. The champion team just had a lot more experience and talent than our team but we made it to the finals and nobody expected us to make it as the runner up.

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Opinions/Suggestions

I have a subordinate who is an idealist. We had lots of discussions/debates already and if it isn’t technical, we usually end up with me saying “I will just take it as an opinion of yours.” He doesn’t like the idea that he wants to continue arguing until I say those magic words. What it really means is that I have been there and most likely I know what the outcome will be.<> One of those days where we had a good chat, he opened it up and asked me why I don’t want to have debate and honestly tell him the reason. I gave him example of the things that transpired from what ever thought he had and was enlightened when he realized that what I said would happen is closer to the ideal idea he has.

This guy also asked me how people can follow him when he is sure of the idea he has and proven effective. He even gave an example as he gave an advice to a friend of ours where he had almost the same experience where he did the right thing. I took me a lunch time; I knew I have an answer from what he said. Finally, when lunch is over, we have to drive to work and asked him, “what if I tell you that the effective way of making people do what you want is study psychology and reading a lot of leadership books, would you read and study?.” His answer is that he may or may not. And that is exactly my point I said. We all have a choice and sometimes most people think differently from us and would have choice different from what we think is the best one. I continued that all we can do is make suggestions and let the individuals decide for themselves. For that specific issue, he pulled out other things that are more realistic than ideal until we got to the factory.

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Communication 101

While in Glaxo, I was the one in charge of water systems. I have read thick books regarding it and spent time monitoring the process. In time, I have learned the whole system and easily I can detect things before it becomes a problem. Unfortunately, my manager then did not know the knowledge that I already acquired. I struggled telling them what has to be done or what made an incident happen but with negative result even if I am very sure of them.

While on a visit, I told what happened to one of our suppliers of water filters. All things he said regarding water system, I can understand. He would also agree on details I narrated to him. He smilingly told that what I need is for my hair to be grey. He had the same experience and he told me and when he got older and had almost all hair turn grey, most people believed in him. I told myself then that I don’t want to get that old before that happens.

I went thru an online communication course in the intranet and read books for such, I realized then that it is not the content but the approach that I used that probably caused the problem. I may be right, but making other people think they are wrong doesn’t help. Sometimes I am unaware of using a loud voice even if I am not angry. I was very surprised to hear that from my co-worker when we were having a simple chat.

After those, I have managed to lower my voice most of the time, even if the situation a bit adverse already. I have been calm and before reacting to situations, I would tell myself to speak politely no matter what. I have been successful with it and is more often automatic and people listens well to those that I am saying – without the use of grey hair.

Trivia: Studies have been done that show us the percentage of understanding that is gained from the spoken word. It is considerably less than the meaning that people gain from listening to a person's tone of voice and looking at their non-verbal communication. The percentage of how people accept what we tell them is as follows: 7% Spoken words (Content of what we say), 38% Tone of voice and 55% Non Verbal (Body language.)

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The Rule II

After a year, I have a chance to drive to the other factory with James and asked him on the difference on the working environment that he has from his first year and when I boarded in K.K.Kingston. I am very pleased when he said that it has been a better place to work after I made some changes in the maintenance system. I also told them the next steps that we will be making and the opportunities in the factories we are working in and is very interested in the coming challenges.

On the same day, I have to go to a meeting with Chemical factory personnel where the topic is to have our maintenance fitter to work fully all on fitter’s job and to be relieved of production set-ups. We called in Tony, the fitter and the supervisors who will have to train people to take other jobs of Tony. They look nervous because of the additional jobs and I had an idea why. While giving people their respective new job, Tony is relaxed because he can do what he really has to and the supervisors aren’t. We at Maintenance also told them positive sides of the change but they are still speechless.

More talks, then I told them that I knew their previous manager and how he works. I told them that transition is not easy and that there can be failures at first but Tony as we promise will not leave them as long as they need him and until the operators are ready. I told them that there will be no blaming when mistakes are made and we will be there to help them when needed. They brightened up when I said about the no blaming rule that we made in the Plastics department that we implemented when I came. With that, they began to give suggestions and they reacted positively.

It has been months since then and Tony has been doing what he does best. I haven’t received any complaint and no major breakdown since the change was made.Case closed again.

Click here to see the post: The Rule.

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Book #3: How to Win Friends and Influence People

This has been my foundation in terms of dealing with people. Dale Carnegie has compiled a great collection of experiences and examples from him and thru research to make them easy for us to understand and follow. This is a great start for people who would like to lead or just simply make friends.

From my post: “problem”, the answer I told me friend came from this book. It is from the first chapter of the book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People”.

As he said in it, all the principles can be written down in a piece of paper but giving real examples is one thing that can motivate the readers to follow. The big difference between this and other books on dealing with people is that he imply for us to do them sincerely. I learned a lot out of reading this book and learned more when I applied what I read.

I have been successful in sincerely dealing with people and I would always give credit to this book and the author. With this I read 2 more books he wrote which are also big help for me.

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Deaf?

When I was a kid up to a time when I was already working, I know that I have problem with my sense of hearing. I have to repeat what my relatives tell me and due to that, they tagged me as deaf. Whenever I do not hear what they said, they would ask me, in a loud voice, if I did not hear any words they said, then, I would just smile at them.<>

It was until I read communication books and articles when I became aware that I have no problem with my hearing and that what I lack is focus and confidence. Reflecting on the events that happened, I realized that there were probably just too many things that go into my mind, too many what-ifs. I have not much confidence in myself then that probably caused it and I am also very cautious on everything that I will do.

Learning to focus and adding confidence in me came from communication stuffs especially on the ones regarding Listening. Listening is a very serious stuff and needs hard work in attaining to ba a good one. It is one of the things that a good leader should have and so I did my best to work on it. I can say that I am successful in this area as I have many people that are happy when talking to me because of this skill that I have.

When I passed the IELTS (International English Language Testing System) in Philippines, my wife was very surprised that I got 8 (9 being the highest) in Listening (Part I). I just told her that I already sorted out the problem and that I do not really have a hearing problem.

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Habit #1

I am very fortunate to have a seminar on Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”. In Glaxo, all employees especially the Med-reps have to undergo this seminar. It was very meaningful and I practiced them for some time. I forgot it easily as it is not a technical thing. I have to read the book when I remembered that can help me in my new endeavor. Nowadays, I would teach them to my men based on His words and with my experiences. <>

The first one of which is “be proactive”. We would hear managers tell their people to be proactive, but usually means to work, to work, and to do more work. As a leadership advocate, I would tell them to be proactive in Stephen Covey’s way.

When I am with personnel of mine, I would give them advice depending on their needs. I ask them what they would like to be. When I hear their answer, the initial thing I would be telling them is to be responsible for what they want to become. This is Covey’s words with moving out of the comfort zone. Those words are powerful especially when I give them my personal example on how I made it to where I am now. I may not have gone very far, but far enough to motivate them.

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Certified Calibrator

The first technical training I had was Instrument calibration in Franklin Baker Co. of the Philippines, the second company where I worked for. It is one of my responsibilities as a Process Maintenance Supervisor. I became exposed in instrumentation and machines where those instruments are used. I transferred to GlaxoSmithKline and when they knew that I am a certified calibrator, the ownership was handed down to me. Once again, I learned how pharmaceutical machines run, but it is not just about learning machines that time.

One of the things I also enjoy with calibration in the next company is meeting new faces. As the calibrator, we have to work with contractors in the factory (Maintenance and Quality Assurance) due to some instrument standards that are not worth buying.

I had been with other nationalities and many Filipinos that are experienced in the field of calibration. Calibration involves waiting so we have time to chat. Being with them, I learned a lot of new things not only in calibration, but also a bit about life.

When I am with other nationalities, one thing that I would usually ask is their culture and I would then tell them the difference or similarities on ours. With Filipinos, usually, it is about their experiences in the company they are in and the company and the “hot” companies to transfer to. They are very open in sharing things to me, probably his way of saying thank you for staying with them. I also have to meet other people during refresher of the course.

I consider this a great part of my job. This is also my practice in dealing with people and it made dealing with foreigners easier for me.

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