Tuesday, January 3, 2017

WHISTLE BLOWERS: HEROES OR VILLAINS?


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          Whistleblower, a hero to some and a villain to others.  A whistleblower stands on two diametrical ends of the spectrum and more often than not walks the lonely path of a no man’s land.
 
          Until the Enron saga unfolded, whistleblowing always had an uncomplimentary slant.  Whistleblowers themselves stigmatized as disloyal employees who create trouble for their employers.  Only now are perceptions beginning to change, as whistleblowing is now viewed as an accountability and risk management tool that can be used to safeguard the interest of the company and the public.
 
          A whistleblower’s act is seen like a betrayal of trust akin to biting the hand that feeds.  Experience has shown that whistleblower find themselves isolated from their colleagues and management, sacked, demoted, sued or otherwise victimized, usually for breach of confidence or for defamation.  The. The wondrous and courages acts of the whistleblower help unearth the Pandora’s box, cobwebs hidden in the cupboards, expose corruption, lay open debauchery and other transgressions which otherwise would remain hidden from the public eye.
 
          A whistleblower is defined as someone who discloses significant acts of corruption, waste, fraud, mismanagement or abuse of authority in contravention of the Country’s laws or regulations in either the public or private sector.  It up holds moral, ethical practices and professionalism.
 
          To blow a whistle, undoubtedly, requires extraordinary courage.  The whistleblowers dilemma is two-fold:
  • Risks job and career prospects
  • Engaging in what most people would deem slanderous and damaging activities.
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credit to shutterstock
 
The truth is, bribery, the bending of safety rules and other unlawful acts are hard to detect without the help of whistleblowers.  It is necessary to protect those providing confidential information.  Few will share such information when the risk of being exposed is high.  Often the whistleblowers are painted to be the bad guy.
 
The law and a change of mindset are required to encourage whistleblowing but it is a difficult task.  The whistleblower will naturally face a dilemma between acting in the public interest and a sense of loyalty to management and colleagues.  It is crucial that this sense of loyalty and respect for authority do not over shadow the more basic values of what is right and wrong.  We must reinforce acceptance that loyalty to employees stop when public harm becomes an issue.
 
Whistleblowers are responsible people who have the courage to do as their conscience dictates.  Despite facing huge risks of reprisal and sometimes endangering their lives and their families, they have the fortitude and strength to stand up against the transgressions and their perpetrators.
 
Whistling is easy but blowing the whistle in business is not that easy.  It requires extraordinary courage and the recriminations that follow such selfless acts can sometimes bring down lesser mortals.
 
Whistleblowers can play an important role in the monitoring.  The presence of whistleblowers bring about a credible threat of discovery and prosecution to those who are guilty of crime, civil offences, miscarriage of justice, danger to health and safety or the environment, and the cover up of any those.
 
A healthy culture of whistleblowing is an essential building block of civil society.  But whistleblowers often face an uphill, seemingly insurmountable task, in bringing their concerns to public light.  The downside is that there are risks too – losing your job, unresponsive agencies who may not protect you, the emotional and mental cost to you and your family, friends may ostracize you,, and of course, retaliation.
 
Whistleblowing carries serious repercussions and you must be mentally strong to withstand the on-slaught of recrimination.  Tips on deciding whether to whistleblower:
1. Remaining strong
    • Consider seeing a lawyer.
    • Learn about protection against retaliation
    • Weight the risks
       
2. Staying safe
    • Trusting selected others
    • Don’t take unnecessary risks
    • Be careful who to trust and keep the number small
    • Get all the evidence you can
    • Keep a log in a bound book, ensuring no pages can be added or removed.
    • Document everything applicable and regularly
    • Keep it in a safe place
    • Get copies it everything incriminating
    • Weight of evidence and totality of the record will matter a great deal.
       
3. Thinking a head
    • Prepare an ‘escape plan’ should you need to get out of the situation quickly and safely
    • Remove all but essential material from your office
    • Mentally practice escaping
 
4. Seizing the initiative
    • Choose the time and place to announce your position
    • If resigning, include a brief letter generally describing your reasons
    • Delivering it in person along with unbiased witness
 
5. Maintaining high ground
  • Don’t depreciate your position and cause by acting immaturely
  • Avoid screaming and petty behavior.
 
 
Whistleblowers are courages people who act to protect others.  Whistleblowing in essence, comes down to courage to have or have not.
 
Image result for clipart whistleblower 
From article by:
                                                                                                      Eddie Lee
                                                                                                      Accountant Today
                                                                                                      September 2005

INNOVATION QUATIENT




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Many people confused creativity with innovation.  Creativity is the ability to bring forth new ideas.  Innovation is the transformation of selected ideas into improved processes, marketable goods and services.  The conversion of ideas into profits is the essence of innovation.  Creativity or the power of idea creation is simply the starting point.  This brings us to the key point - it is innovation, not creativity that ultimately matters.

 

One of the major obstacle to innovation is the lack of creative leadership.  A truly creative leader sets an example for openness and imagination and assessment of ides from any quarters regardless of rank, file and age or source, whether internal or external.  A creative leader creates the conditions where human ingenuity can flourish.

 

Innovation mean relying on everyone’s creativity based on her belief that organizations are living systems rather than machines.  Margaret J. Whitley (consultant and professor of management) outlines 6 principles on the human dimension for innovations:

1. Meaningful engagement

  • Discover what’s important
  • Engage in meaningful issues
  • Notice what people talk about and where they spend their energy
  • No 2 people see the world exactly the same way

 
2. Encourage Diversity

  • Different people do things differently
  • Failure to encourage unique and diverse way of doing things will destroy capacity to innovate.

 

3. Involve anytime who is interested.

 

4. Unity in diversity

  • Common purpose is what binds people together.

 

5. People will always surprise us.

  • Listen to colleagues
  • The act of listening brings people closer together
  • Important not to attach any label to anyone.

 

6. Rely on human goodness

  • People want to help
  • People want to contribute
  • Everyone want to feel creative and hopeful again.
  • Turn to one another and engage in the intentional search for human goodness.

 

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Innovation comes as much from the heart as from the head.  Passion for creativity must come first before any innovation can happen.  Creative leader must involve all their people and tap into their creative energies that take into account the human dimension of encouraging diversity, sharing a sense of purpose and recognizing that each person is a talented unique individual.

 

 

Shared from article by:

Yew Kam Keong

Accountants Today

September 2005

Monday, January 2, 2017

BECOMING YOUR BEST: PRINCIPLES 5 - 8


SHARED FROM THE BOOK:

BECOMING YOUR BEST

(THE 12 PRINCIPLES OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL LEADERS)

STEVEN R. SHALLENBERGER

McGraw Hill Education

260 pages

 

 


 

 

PRINCIPLE 5: LIVE THE GOLDEN RULE

 

The spirit of the Golden Rule is to treat others as you would like to be treated.  The Golden Rule is related to the law of the harvest: you reap what you sow.

 

4 SIGNIFICANT WAYS TO APPLY THE GOLDEN RULE

1. Use the power of kindness

A mindset pf serving others

Going out of your way to help and empathize with those in need

Ability to inspire others to pass on acts of kindness

 

2. Be caring and give service to others

Astonish the customers with immediate and extraordinary service

 

3. Put others first – and take them all the way home

Small acts of kindness result in significant deposits that can pay huge dividends overtime

 

4. Four powerful tips to live the Golden Rule

Tip1: carry a shield of love

Always say ‘I love you and I forgive you’

Make an effort to love someone, even when the person has been mean or rude

Stay in control of your emotion

Tip 2: empathize with others

Be attune to the people around you

Tip 3: be compassionate with others

Offer compassion instead of judgment

Tip 4: celebrate differences and avoid prejudice

Look at people as with unique skills, talents and abilities you can learn from

 

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People will forget what you said,

People will forget what you did,

But people will never forget how you make them feel.

(Maya Angelou, Poet and writer)

 

 

 

 

 

PRINCIPLE 6: BUILD AND MAINTAIN TRUST

 

Trust takes a long time to build.  Trust between 2 people can make their relationship withstand challenges.

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3 SPECIFIC THINGS TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN TRUST

1. Evaluate trust in your relationship

Build high level of trust with consistent, deliberate, and thoughtful actions

 

2. Build and maintain trust through your actions

Do high quality work and finish it on schedule

Be consistent so that others will see you as reliable

Have a reputation of following through on what you say

Be open in communicating commitments

Be willing to have your performance measured

Communicate your intentions and motives so that your actions are transparent

Give trust: you get what you give

Tell the truth

Opportunities for growth and progress come to those who are trusted

 

Trust creates greater self-confidence.

A culture of listening, understanding of ideas and feedback from others are the characteristics of high-trust relationships.

3 powerful ways to build trust and enhance relationships

i. increase customer ‘touches’ – the more personal the better.

ii. reach out to your team – write notes to employees thanking them for their sacrifice and hard work; praise employees; express appreciation for their contribution.

iii. find something in common when talking with clients or customers – take time to connect on personal level; establish common ground or shared interest.

 

Build trust by:

Being kind

Exercising patience

Listening

Completing tasks

Consistently delivering results

Returning phone calls or emails on timely basis

Doing what you say you’ll do

Get to know other people well enough to understand what motivated and inspires them.

 

4. learn the stories of those around you

Build trust by getting to know the people who are involved in your business dealings.

Build a rapport on shared experiences and mutual understanding

4 game changer to build/bond trust

Take time to get to know people around you

Tale a few minutes to listen and learn about their backgrounds

Discover new commonalities

Share your stories too

 

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Trust is a commitment to:        be dependable

                                                Give and receive feedback

                                                Show respect

                                                Demonstrate humility

                                                Remove hostility

                                                Be thoughtful

                                                Make and keep psychological agreements

                                                Listen to understand

                                                Build character

                                                Demonstrate competence

                                                Say ‘I am sorry’

                                                Be counted on

 

 

 

 

 

PRINCIPLE 7: BE AN EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATOR

 

Being a great listener is a rare quality and one that takes considerable effort.  Clear communication that flows both ways are critical.  Better communication always begins with listening to others.  How you listen to others says a great deal about your character

 

 

The greatest mistake we humans make in our relationships:

We listen half, understand a quarter,

Think zero, and react double

 

 

4 STEPS TO BECOMING MORE EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATORS AND BETTER LISTENER

1. Be a highly effective communicator

Listen with empathy (understanding the emotions that are being expressed as well as the word that are being said).

The keys to becoming a highly effective communicator:

i. look the person in the eye

ii. don’t worry about what you are going to say next

iii. pay attention to body language

iv. repeat back and check for understanding

 

2. Avoid communication roadblocks

 

3. Master the art of feedback

There’s a wealth of information in feedback

 

4. Control your emotions

Monitor and control your feelings in your communication and your actions

Control; how you act and communicate

Replace wrath with patience

Focusing on listening and understanding

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PRINCIPLE 8: INNOVATE THROUGH IMAGINATION

 

The human imagination is capable of producing endless opportunities and possibilities.  Ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things when they unleash their imaginations.

 

 

4 SECRETS OF FIRING IMAGINATION

1. Be curios and ask the right questions

Curiosity is a pathway to imagination because it creates questions in the mind

Highly successful people fire-up their imaginations with an insatiable desire to understand how things work

 

2. Create a brainstorm of possibilities

Tapping the mental energies of a group in order to trigger imagination

3. Walk away and let your subconscious do the work

 

4. Keep a thought book

There is power in writing because it combines the mind and the body

The act of writing opens up entire new vitas, views, and majestic scenery

Writing connects you to your inner mind

Putting words on paper opens up the creative mind to fresh approaches and perspectives

 

 

Imagination is one of the greatest gifts.  Progress begins with and depends upon the use of imagination.

 

 

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….to be continued….