Peak Performing - OUM Senior Managers Development Program

Posted by Richard Ng on 13 July 2011

Vice President of OUM, En. Repin Ibrahim, delivering his welcoming speech

25 OUM senior managers were selected to attend a 5-series 2-day training program at Seri Pacific Hotel KL on 4th and 5th July 2011.

The training was conducted by Potential Plus Consultancy Sdn. Bhd., one of the consultancy companies which has helped OUM mould its managers since 2001. Mr. Moses Teh (Managing Director) and ET Khor (Principal Consultant) with their vast experience, were on hand to share their expertise.

One of the ice-breaking sessions

Another ice-breaking session. From left: Datin Hanin, Dr Richard Ng and Dr Tina Lim

Ice breaking session. From left: AP Dr. Santhi, Puan Normala and Mr. Mahfar

Datin Hanin was sharing about one of the participant's secret talent during the ice-breaking session

The training started sharp 9am with a welcome speech from En. Repin, OUM Vice President (Business and HR Development). En. Repin reminded selected participants about OUM's past Performance and how we have to come to it and what comes ahead. Thus the training is very important for participants to help OUM positioned itself to face uncertainty in the future.

AP Dr. Santhi, representing her group 5 to present their findings. Looking on is Mr. Moses Teh (right) and ET (left)

Part of the trainees

The first module conducted was on "Managing and Driving Change: Manager/Leader of the new milliennium & Understanding Different Personalities and How it affects Relationships and Performance (EQ).

Other modules are:

Module 2 - PEAKS - Self Discovery, Personal Leadership and the Secret of Motivation
Module 3 - Star Search - Selecting the Best from the Rest
Module 4 - Coaching for Excellence
Module 5 - Personal Effectiveness and Dynamic Communication

Chief Librarian of OUM, Ruzita presenting on behalf of Group 1

The training is a process of "Learn, Unlearn and Relearn" to many of us. Some may have attended such Leadership courses and some may be new to such courses. But most important this course helps to train participants to be leaders and not just managers in changing time especially during turbulent economy.

Members of Group 1

Members of Group 3. From left: Mr. Zakir, Puan Hazna, Dr. Tina Lim and Mr. Aduka

In a nutshell, the five modules that these participants will go through, is all about linking Strategy and Organizational excellence to its people. The training started with a very interesting ice-breaking session. Imagine, those people in the training are familiar faces and yet many of us do not know each other? It was fun and we all learn about each others secret and hidden talent.

Hazna, Deputy GM of Meteor, representing her Group 3

Mr. Moses started the session with an inspiring story about an elderly lady Rose who has enrolled into a university program. Sounds familiar at OUM? A few interesting quotes have come out from this story:

a. Never too old or too late to begin anew
b. We do not stop playing because we are old. We grow old because we stop playing.
c. Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional

The key point is that we can be better. We need to know the difference between "Success" and Significance." We need to know the difference between a manager and a leader especially managing in the new millennium. Moses also put forth what makes a superior leader. Who are the superstars and who are the so called eagles in the organization. He added that one must aim to achieve "significance" rather than just "success".

Members of Group 2. From left: Datin Teh Raqamah (Senior Manager CR), Johari (Senior Manager CIDT), Dr Richard Ng (Director of Perak LC), Hj Ahmad Izanee (Director of Pahang LC cum Class Monitor), Mahfar (Senior Manager, Program Accreditation) and Puan Faizah Mohamed (Senior Manager, Group HR)

Members of Group 4. From left: Datin Hanin, Puan Noorma, AP Che'An, Puan Zurina and AP Dr. Santhi

An interesting lesson learned during the 2 days is about the Ice-berg model of success where the exposed part (15 percent) of the ice-berg represents Knowledge and Skills of a person and the sub-merged (hidden - 85 percent) part represents a person's Attitude, Traits, and Motives or (ATM in short).

Surprisingly (of course not surprising) is that human behavior that have influence on one's positive or negative performance is mostly the submerged part - the ATM.
The ATM, we were told is actually influenced by our brain.

Dr Richard Ng presenting Group 2's findings

Most of the leader's performance according to Moses are influenced by their superior actions -> Monkey see Monkey do. Thus to be high achiever and to produce superstar staff, we need to understand ourselves first and then understand others. It is always easy to manage ourselves then to manage others.

Group discussion. From left: Datin Teh, AP Che'An, AP Dr. Janet Woo and Mr. Zakir

ET Khor then took us through a Personality test. It was fun and we now understand ourselves better. The exercise was interesting and reflected rightly the personality among us as leaders. Basically, there are 4 types of personality; Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. We found after the test that many of us are either Choleric or Melancholy. Some are Phlegmatic or Sanguine. The video shown by ET was also interesting as it showed the differences between the different personality. I guess we are all visual learners and we learn better through pictures and video clips and this is one of the excellent video clips.

Moses also shared with us on "How to be a good leader" by Jack Welch. According to Jack Welch the former CEO of GE, there are 8 characteristics of a successful leader. Jack's point: "Think of yourself as a gardener with a watering can in one hand and fertilizer in the other."

Some of the participants who are listening attentively to one of the presentations

Another inspiring part of the training is the video on Steve Job. It's not just about how Steve founded Apple but more importantly how he was sacked from the company he founded and he managed to come back. It is about believing in yourself, love what you do, have the courage to follow intuition, do something you are great at and be innovative. Steve's success is driven by his believe that "One must treat everyday as if it is your last." Steve added: "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish".

Some of the quotable quotes after the 2-day training:

a. What's get measured, gets done
b. Customers are not always right. How to manage these customers?
c. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result
d. Monkey See Monkey Do

We also have brainstorming session on issues related to OUM and how we are going to handle it. Class monitor Hj. Ahmad Izanee has been tasked to prepare the summary of the suggestions put forward.

A point of note to participants:

Prepare a learning log for our next training session, which will be held in Sept. Participants are to write:

a) What they have learned over the 2 days
b) What and how am I going to apply what have been learned
c) What and how they have been applied.

Generally, this is a good session. We have fun and we look forward to our next training session.