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by Foo Mei Ling New Year Resolutions are standard practices for people everywhere for as long as I can remember. Creating resolutions was something that started thousands of years ago when people began to make promises of starting anew and getting things and lives in order. Funnily I never got into the habit of making New Year Resolutions. I just didn’t see the point!
And yet, millions of resolutions are made and possibly broken or forgotten as work and life catches up with us. The way I see it, the word “resolution” is derived from the word “resolve” which means to solve or provide a solution. I don’t know if I can solve the challenges of the year, so instead of resolutions, perhaps I will make a New Year’s Purpose! Here's mine:
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 As a young professional, the very thought of going for a performance review still makes me a tad nervous – not as bad as the first few sessions early in my career life but that fleeting moments of nervousness is still there.
Our Asian culture which dictates that we must always respect our elders, seniors, or bosses, and to humbly accept their feedback and criticism for they are wiser, rich in experience, and always right; I couldn’t help but feel a small sense of doom even before I step into the meeting. Over the years and having gone through a number of performance reviews, I realised that I do look forward to these sessions because at the end of it all, I have walked away with insightful gems.  We are currently living and working in a rapidly changing world where we need to possess the capacity for rapid and continuous learning to stay relevant.
It has been the pitfall of many notable industry players who, in their time, never imagined nor anticipated the rise of disruptive technologies thus leaving them unprepared and unable to keep up with their faster and more agile competition. Similarly, if we do not realise this for ourselves, we may find ourselves become irrelevant very quickly. As David Peterson, director of executive coaching and leadership at Google puts it, “Staying within your comfort zone is a good way to prepare for today, but it’s a terrible way to prepare for tomorrow.” In order to sustain success, you must develop learning agility.  The recent article in The Malaysian Insight essentially sums up the hurdles Malaysian companies face in their day-to-day recruitment drive. What this article suggests is that a section of Malaysian graduates are unemployable simply because of their less-than-stellar attitude. The writer further expounded that candidates with the right attitude are far more valuable than those with the right skill set for the job. And from our recruitment experience, this rings true. |