Recruiting for High Performance Team

The reality of life is that business management is nothing but basic common sense. The every aspects of business from recruitment to product development to sustainability are common sense to the dismay of many qualified MBA professional.

A successful business usually started with a concept, a percieved need for the product or service in the market place kick-start by a bold and enthusiastic individual with a vision to scale the every aspects of the business and, more importantly, add values to the process of the customers.

The team is then formed with individual of matching skill sets who believe in the vision to polish the product or service to add value to individuals or other businesses.

The intent of forming a team is simply to do more. Logically, the coordinated effort of two individuals can produce more than one. The assumption is that both believe on the same vision and the effort are coordinated. The key to team is to ensure that one plus one be equal to more than two. The output is is the process of leadership motivation multiply by the way things are done. Thus, the output of two individual should produce more than the sum of two individuals.

Efficiency is a result of a good plan of approach and continuous practice and rehearsal till flawless. The plan of approach becomes a system where individual within the team knows what to do and complement each other's short coming. Their behaviour becomes habit and habit becomes culture. The high standards maintain by the leader and existing team member becomes the culture of excellence.

Any new addition must increase the value to the customers, either directly or indirectly, by increasing the efficiency of the team. That is, two plus one should equate to more than more than the existing average output.

This can only happen if the new addition fit into the existing culture of the existing team, subscribe to the same vision and is a strong individual who can redefine and take the existing definition of excellence to the next level. The individual can and preferably is also a strong leader.

It is well proven in elite military units that strong leaders can perform in a team. Any doubt should be eliminated because everyone in the team should be a leader in their respective role.

Thus, in recruiting new addition into a high performance team, the criterion should be clear. Recruiter should have clear understanding of the vison of team leader, value expected from the new addition, value system of the existing team, character expectations of new addition, vision and ideologies of new addition and leadership initiatives & innovation. Improvement to the team will always be there as long as the leader and the team are clear of what is the next level and what is needed to achieve the next level.

End of a Chapter

May 15, 2000 - 25 April 2012.

It was more difficult than I originally expected to face this day. It was truthful that I will exit with a heavy heart.

The journey ended and the past 11 years 11 months & 11 days was a rewarding & fulfilling experience for me. It is a milestone in my professional career. It was never just a job even from the start. It was always much more than that. Thus, sentiment ran deep as I walk out of the main door for the last time as an employee.

I was attracted by the mission of this institution and personally experience the power of the mission. During my association, I met many talented individuals from around the world driven to serve the mission. As the founder mentioned in his article released on May 1, 1913 that we were very proud of our work because, above any particular interests, we are doing something for humanity and our greatest asset is not our people or our plant or any tangible thing that can be expressed in figure, it is our goodwill. I was extremely proud and honor to do play a small role in advancing the mission.

The most rewarding aspects of the work was the opportunities to create jobs growing from a 6-man office to nearly 70 including teams in Malaysia & Thailand, notwithstanding, the good men and women who have contributed so significantly & did me so proud. Most have grown and left to take on bigger roles in other organisation. Others will definitely be taking on key position in the organisation in times to come.

I would also like to mentioned that other than the experiences, knowledge, skills, techniques, methodologies, track records, friendships & comradries gained over the years of service, nothing else belong to me after the last day. Thus, I was willing to share, especially for the continuous growth of the local organization and also because as I share I gain a more indepth understanding of the subject.

I was extremely grateful to the well-wishes during the last 2 weeks of my service. I was humbled by the fanfare and did not feel that I deserved them. Nevertheless, I was very appreciative by the attention, gifts and all that were done.

Thus, I was left with two unanswered questions before the final closure of this chapter.



1. If all is well, why leave?
2. Where will be the next sestination?

To the first question, there were several aspects.

I started with a mentality that we should not ask what the organization can do for us but what we can do for the organization as the organization was there before us. Thus, I was grateful with the opportunities I received.

It is conventional wisdom that if it is not broken, don't fix it. One should only leave the organization if you are unhappy. I enjoyed every moment of my 11 years 11 months 11 days. However, I also believe the notion of seeking your next peak at your peak. I am leaving behind a proven successful team with the highest growth percentage within the company globally.

In addition, being at the same place for too long, I was beginning to take things for granted. As such, a change of environment would bring me back to earth. I was also feeling stagnated with my progress with the organization and felt the need to grow my career, not in small incremental steps but through achieving quantum leap which was unlikely to happen with my current opportunities & environment.

I am not contended to be mediocre. I would like to be at a place where I can be much better appreciated and where I can contribute more significantly to the vision. A place where our vision are aligned. A place where I can grow due to my ability and not because I was there for long or stifled because of (lack of) relationships.

Then, I also realised that I do not have too many 10 years left in my career and, thus, the urgent need to do something different.

The company was putting in a new process and this made the timing better as my successor can focus on the new process. The incumbent will also have time to plan & build for the future with a strong team managing the day-to-day business.

As mentioned to many people, I will be taking a break before deciding what would be the next project. It has been a privilege to be able create job and I will do my best to continue. I have always enjoyed the public service work that we have done with schools & social welfare groups and I hope to continue to integrate this aspect in my future work. I have always like to go into education, conference & e-training kind of knowledge solution providers but all were preliminaries. Whatever the next project will be, it will be to manage and conquer the sigma of realities of lifes

For every hello, there will be a goodbye. Its time to say this goodbye well so that we are ready for the next hello. I am closing this chapter with this post. I hope I have added values (however small it may be) to any aspects of your career or life during when we cross path and I look foward to the day our path cross again. Thank you for making this journey memorable. Till then, adios.