You just have too much on your plate, and chances are, your employees do as well. You suspect that you could all be making better use of your time, completing more projects and achieving more goals. You want to be more productive and help your team be more productive, but you aren’t sure where to start.

If this sounds familiar, you are far from alone in your confusion. Even the most successful and highly accomplished people have difficulty pinpointing whythey are so productive. The intuitive answer – that they are born predisposed to having the intelligence, creativity and willpower to get the job done – is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach more of their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. Here are five scientifically-tested strategies that successful people use that are proven to help you reach your goals and make the most of your time.

1. Get specific: When setting a goal, try to be as specific as possible. “Meet with every member of my team once a week” is a better goal than “meet more often with my team,” because it gives you a clear idea of what success looks like. Knowing exactly what you want to achieve keeps you motivated until you get there. Also, tink about the specific actions that need to be taken to reach your goal. Just promising you’ll “communicate more” is too vague – be clear and precise. “At our meeting, I’ll ask about each project we are currently working on” leaves no room for doubt about what you need to do, or whether or you’ve actually done it.

2. Seize the moment to act on your goals: Given how busy most of us are, it’s not surprising that we often miss opportunities to act on a goal because we simply fail to notice those opportunities. Did you really have no time to work on that assignment today? Was there no chance at any point to return that phone call? Achieving your goal means grabbing hold of opportunities before they slip through your fingers.
To seize the moment, decide when and where you will take each action you want to take in advance. Again, be as specific as possible (e.g., “At 3pm today, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and work on that report.”) Studies show that this kind of planning will help your brain to detect and seize the opportunity when it arises, increasing your productivity by roughly 300%.

3. Know exactly how far you have left to go: Achieving any goal requires honest and regular monitoring of your progress. If no one else is looking over your shoulder, then you’ll need to monitor yourself, because if you don’t know how well you are doing, you can’t adjust your behavior or your strategies accordingly. Check your progress frequently – weekly, or even daily, depending on the goal.

4. Be a realistic optimist: Belief in your ability to succeed is enormously helpful for creating and sustaining your motivation. But whatever you do, don’t underestimate how difficult it will be to reach your goal or complete your project. Studies show that thinking things will come to you easily and effortlessly leaves you unprepared for the journey ahead, significantly increasing the odds of failure. Express confidence in your employees, while always being honest with them about the challenges they’ll face.

5. Focus on getting better rather than being good: Believing you have the ability to reach your goals is important, but so is believing you can get the ability. Many of us believe that our intelligence, personality and physical aptitudes are fixed – that no matter what we do, we won’t improve. As a result, we focus on goals that are all about proving ourselves, rather than developing and acquiring new skills.
Fortunately, decades of research suggest that the belief in fixed ability is completely wrong – abilities of all kinds are profoundly malleable. Embracing the fact that you can change will allow you to make better choices, and reach your full potential. People whose goals are about getting better, rather than being good, take difficulty in stride and appreciate the journey as much as the destination. Along those lines, telling your employees that you expect them to make a few mistakes as they learn is, ironically, the surest way to elicit their very best performance.

Source: HRM Today

Comfori Celebrates A Milestone: We Are 10 Years Old!

On the 2^nd of March 2012, Comfori launched their 10 years anniversary campaign with Comfori Appreciation Night, held at Istana Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. Founded in 2002, Comfori provides a platform for industrial consultants and speakers to deliver and share their knowledge and experience to industry practitioners. On this meaningful night, we were graced with the presence of Mr. Amirnuddin Mazlan, CEO of Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad and his wife, Tunku Mariati Tunku Mukhtar, as well as more than 130 employees, trainers and clients.

A decade is a long time, and for Comfori, a decade meant the full life cycle of the company from its inception to its establishment as a leading training provider in Malaysia with its wide range of courses. On this exceptional night, as we celebrate Comfori’s 10 years anniversary, we were enlightened by a multimedia presentation, detailing the journey that Comfori had undertaken, leading to the accomplishments and achievements as seen within the company today. Comfori started off with humble beginnings like any other, providing training workshops only in technical areas, but rapidly expanded to various fields, expertise and industries. Presently, Comfori has branched out to cover not only professional training workshops but had established itself as a leading organiser of conferences, exhibitions and team building programmes, not only within Malaysia, but internationally as well. Within this time frame, Comfori has also been awarded with the PSMB Best Training Provider Award in 2011 and the Brand Laureate’s SMEs Best Brands in the Asia Pacific Award in Corporate Branding Services under the Corporate Training Category.

This 10 years birthday marks only the beginning of a new series of challenges that will continuously carve and solidify the presence of Comfori in the training industry to reach greater heights. In the years ahead together with Comfori’s expansion of services, Comfori promises to deliver programmes of the highest quality with a unique subject matter coupled with excellent customer service to our clientele. Congratulations Comfori, for achieving and reaching this momentous milestone! We look forward to another 10 years serving you and your organisation locally and internationally.

Kenyataan Akhbar: Persidangan Tahunan Kecemerlangan Pengurusan Modal Insan Ke-3

Modal insan merupakan pelaburan terpenting bagi pembangunan sesebuah negara dan menjadi teras kepada inovasi dan ekonomi berpendapatan tinggi yang produktif. Bagi mengungguli modal insan, mencerna kreativiti dan mencetus inovasi, Perdana Menteri Malaysia telah mengumumkan 2012 sebagai tahun Gerakan Inovasi Nasional. Inovasi merupakan satu kelebihan daya saing yang kukuh dan mampan. Ianya sering dilihat sebagai tanggungjawab unit perniagaan (business unit) sesebuah badan organisasi korporat. Inovasi bermula daripada pemikiran kreatif modal insan yang bekerja dalam persekitaran yang menggalakkan inovasi. Menarik, mengekal dan melatih modal insan berinovatif adalah amat penting bagi membolehkan sesebuah organisasi itu menyerlah dalam dunia persaingan dalam jangka masa panjang. Bahagian pengurusan modal insan adalah unit yang akan memberikan impak yang paling besar dalam menerajui arus pembangunan ini.

Dengan tujuan mengupas isu-isu dan cabaran-cabaran semasa dalam aspek pengurusan pembangunan modal insan, Persidangan Tahunan Kecemerlangan Pengurusan Modal Insan Ke-3 dianjurkan oleh Comfori Sdn. Bhd. di Hotel Istana, Kuala Lumpur pada 14 & 15 Mac 2012. Persidangan ini yang dihadiri oleh lebih kurang 85 delegasi terdiri daripada pemimpin-pemimpin dari bidang pembangunan sumber manusia di Malaysia, telah dirasmikan oleh YBhg. Dato Haji Mohd Sharif Hussin, Timbalan Ketua Setiausaha, Kementerian Sumber Manusia Malaysia dan diiringi oleh Encik C.M. Vignaesvaran a/l Jeyandran, Pengurus Besar, Pembangunan Sumber Manusia Berhad.

Persidangan dua hari ini telah mendedahkan delegasi kepada isu-isu seperti strategi penyelesaian kreatif dalam pengurusan modal insan, penerapan inovasi dalam pengurusan ke arah transformasi dan pembentukan acuan pengurusan korporat organisasi yang lestari. Di samping itu, persidangan ini turut memfokuskan aspek sistem, metodologi dan model pengurusan yang berkesan, pembentukan dan pembangunan modal insan dan bakat berkepakaran dan lain-lain isu yang berkaitan.

Persidangan ini dibarisi oleh panel speaker jemputan yang sangat dinamik dari pelbagai industri, iaitu:

1. Dato’ Dr Ismail Alias, Timbalan Ketua Pengarah, Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA)

2. Dr. Michael Heah, Ketua Pegawai Eksekutif, Corporate Coach

3. Tuan Haji Ab Razak bin Omar, Pengarah, Business Excellence, Perbadanan Produktiviti Malaysia (MPC)

4. Nor’Aini Jalaludin, Head, Leadership and Capability Development, Petronas

5. Nor Ayuhan Abd Majid, Talent Development, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB)

6. Dr. Balan Dass, Timbalan Presiden, Malaysian Institute of Human Resource Management (MIHRM)

7. Mohd Hanif Hamdi, Ketua Eksekutif, HR System & Consultancy (HRSC)

Di samping itu, kehadiran Bizzy Body, Worthy Book, dan Earth Again sebagai penaja dapat memeriahkan lagi majlis persidangan ini. Selain itu, persidangan ini turut mendapat sokongan daripada HR Matters sebagai rakan media rasmi untuk persidangan ini.

Tanpa sokongan daripada semua pihak, Persidangan Tahunan Kecemerlangan Pengurusan Modal Insan yang dianjurkan untuk kali ketiga ini tidak akan berjalan dengan lancar. Pihak penganjur merakamkan setinggi penghargaan kepada semua pihak yang telah bekerjasama untuk menjayakan persidangan ini. Besarlah harapan pihak penganjur agar persidangan ini akan dapat diteruskan sekali lagi di tahun hadapan. Sekiranya terdapat apa-apa pertanyaan, sila hubungi Huey Ying di hueyying.leong@comfori.com.

Employee Communication: 5 Tips To Engage Employees

When we think of employee communication most organizations focus on information tools. These include intranet sites, staff magazines, CEO blog, Town Hall meetings and so on. Whilst all these employee communication methods are to be applauded, they inform employees about what is going on. To truly engage employees in the process of change, for instance, a merger or acquisition, a re-organization, financial results or corporate social responsibility, employee communication methods need to be designed to actively engage employees.

Employee engagement should always result in some positive change of behaviour which will then lead to the achievement of organizational goals. Just distributing information by any of the above methods will not achieve the change in employee behaviour and organizational outcomes you are looking for.

Here are 5 tips that will ensure that your employee communication methods do achieve those outcomes.

1. The first tip is to establish whether the tools and methods you are currently using to communicate with employees are engagement strategies or information tools. So gather all the tools used and identify all the methods used, their frequency, intended audience, whether they are one way or two way communication vehicles and review the key messages.

2. The second tip is important because your ultimate aim in employee communication has to be to create the "Aha Moment". The "Aha Moment" is based on information that challenges the employee's belief about an aspect of the business. The information that suddenly helps employees say, "Now it makes sense", "Now I understand", "Now I can do something about it". Once you know what the "Aha Moment" is this will form your key message and the basis of your design of your employee communication strategy.

3. This third tip explains the best type of research to find out what the "Aha Moment" is, and the best type for this purpose is focus group research. Focus group research allows you to ask employees about your business and their thoughts on competitors, to identify the largest gap between what customers think and what staff think customers think, and to identify what would create a paradigm shift in employee's thinking. It also helps you identify how you will measure the impact of the change in employees thinking and to determine how significant it is to achieving the business objectives.

Focus groups are a good format as they allow you to explore issues further and sometimes you will discover issues or ideas you hadn't considered prior to the session. Focus groups generally are held for one and a half hours duration and in groups of 8 – 10 participants. As the facilitator, your role is to lead the discussion but leave the actual dialogue to the participants, bringing them back to the main issue if they have gone off on a tangent or to ensure that all the topics that you wanted to cover within the allocated timeframe are covered. A well facilitated focus group will identify the key messages for your employee communication strategies as they relate to a particular business issue.

4. The fourth tip is that once you have your focus group outcomes, you can then begin designing employee communication strategies that engage employees. You should have a clear understanding about what employees know and what the facts are, and the gap between the business facts and staff perceptions. This forms your key message to create the "Aha Moment".

5. The fifth tip is that you take the key information from the focus groups, identify a business issue that you feel sure your employee communication strategies can impact on. By using that information and work together with that area of the business you then implement an employee communication strategy that can be measured by business outcomes.

Once you have gathered all this information you then need to design employee communication strategies that engage employees around the one central message. Many of these employee communication strategies will actively involve employees in some aspect of change by designing communication methods that will require employees to participate. These engagement strategies are then supplemented by employee communication information tools.

Source: Human Resources Directory

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Five Ways to Increase Your Productivity

Comfori’s Participation in Earth Week 2012

Comfori: Brand Laureate’s SMEs Best Brands in the Asia Pacific Award in Corporate Branding Services under the Corporate Training Category

Comfori Celebrates A Milestone: We Are 10 Years Old!

Kenyataan Akhbar: Persidangan Tahunan Kecemerlangan Pengurusan Modal Insan Ke-3