Vol 8, Issue No. 2
February 2009

Articles

Intek Lifeskills Coaching
Corporate Culture
Success and Failure
Human Resources

Cross Cultural Awareness
Bits and Pieces

Resources

Book of the Month
Motivational Quotes
Intek's Q&A Forum
Free Resource


 
Intek Lifeskills
Coaching

1:1 Coaching

Book of the Month




Monthly Quote
“An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.”
Budha



Motivational Quotes




Corporate Humor



 

Stress Management

 

1.  Try the following yoga technique whenever you feel the need to relax. Inhale deeply through your nose to the count of eight. Then with lips puckered, exhale very slowly through your mouth to the count of 15 or for as long as you can. Concentrate on the long sighing sound and feel the tension dissolve. Repeat 10 times.

2.  When the stress of having to get a job done gets in the way of getting the job done, diversion (a voluntary change in activity and/or environment) may be just what you need.

February Birthdays

Wishing all our Participants a very
Happy Birthday
"Do we know your Birthday?"


 

Spiritual Corner

 

Health Tips

 

 

Gift this Ezine
to a friend

 

 

Article Archives

Get your questions solved from Intek's Q & A Forum

Dear Friends
 

I was sitting with a few of my Malaysian friends, celebrating the Chinese new year, having the traditional ‘Yusheng’ tossing the ingredients of the raw fish salad in the air muttering ‘Jíxiáng Huà’, (auspicious wishes) out loud to mark the start of a prosperous new year and it's customary that the higher you toss, the greater the fortunes, so we were trying to outshine each other.

The topic of the dinner was what to expect in the year of the Ox? And all my Chinese friends had their predictions based on the age old wisdom based on the animal representing the year. Xha quipped that (the year of) the Ox will clean up the messes which the (year of the) Rat made. Chee Wee thought that it will be a successful year for all hard-working people, while the lazy people will be pushed far behind. We all laughed and tried to make our own forecasts until the kids came to our table expecting their ‘Hung Bao’ (red envelope with money) !! Not for a moment, did I feel that I did not belong there.

The fun of being a global player is that one gets to celebrate all kinds of cultural and religious holidays. When we lived in Singapore, the fesival of the ‘Hungry Ghosts’ was followed by the Thaipusam festival. We would go to Little India to see the Tamil Thaipusam parade which is preceded by the hypnotic chanting , while the devotees pierce their skins, with small spears without experiencing any pain. Such mind over matter feats were incredible to watch. A month later Hari Raya or Eid was celebrated with same fervour by the Malay community. By late fall, all the Malls of Singapore had Christmas lights and gigantic Christmas trees. The pure ease of representation of each religion was a remarkable experience in this day and age where wars are being raged on religion, and the oneness of the humanity is disregarded. Why can’t we be happy in the happiness of others?

Dubai, being a cultural hotpot for so many nationalities, the younger generations are getting exposure to different festivals. The children that grow up in a multi-cultural environment are more accepting of the rites of others, than the rigid upbringing in an air-tight ethnocentric surroundings.

In immediate environment, I see my daughters keeping Lent with their Christian friends, who in turn, join in to keep the Ramadan fasts. At Christmas the kids get a chance to dress up in red and green and for me to make turkey with cranberry sauce; get my friends and family together to exchange gifts. Diwali,, Navratri, Christmas, Halloween, Eid, Easter, Chinese New Year; all celebrations blend into one principle of live and let live.

I have great expectations from the new generations, that their harmonious blending will bring an end to all the feuds, which are being manipulated by the politicians for their selfish gains of assuming power. I optimistically foresee a surge of altruism, in the years to come, provided we bring up our children to be the catalysts of change. Perhaps I am an idealist; but, I am not alone, there are several of us out there and I feel that the positivity of only one individual can trigger a happy domino effect which will over-power the negativity of millions, so tune those happy antennas and start sending out those positive vibes.
 

Always look forward to your suggestions / feedback which helps the Intek team to continually improve this Ezine.

 

Zaufyshan Haseeb and The Intek Family

Forget all the talk about corporate culture. It's time to analyze your company's personality. This diagnostic will help.
 

Plenty of business gurus -- especially New Age thinkers such as Arie de Geus, Peter Senge, and Margaret Wheatley -- have argued for years that companies aren't just boxes and bubbles on org charts. Instead, they've argued, companies are more like biological organisms -- living things that learn, evolve, and eventually die. Are you ready to take this biological worldview to the next level? According to marketing consultant Sandy Fekete, companies can best be understood when thought of as people -- as unique creatures with their own values, their own personalities, and sometimes, if her clients really get into the spirit, their own names.

"Most people assume that a company's personality matches its CEO's personality," says Fekete, 43, founder of Fekete + Company, a marketing-communications firm based in Columbus, Ohio. "But that's not true. An organization has its own ways of being." Fekete's job is to help her clients understand their company's personality...

click here to read more

It had been a difficult few months for the team. Not the usual we-busted-our-butts-and-finally-shipped difficult -- that had happened months before. No, this was a different type of difficult. Let's just call it a we-launched-and-our-company's-revenue-dropped-thirty-percent difficult. The team took a gamble with a radically new design, something that was supposed to dramatically improve the shopper's experience. It didn't. It made it worse. Now, they were paying the price.

Is Failure Always Bad?

It's easy to conclude that teams should avoid failure at all cost. After all, nobody wants to the be the ones who sit alone in the cafeteria, hearing the whispers of "those are the Ones who messed up." However, if you look at all the great innovation that's occurred over the centuries, one pattern quickly emerges: failure played an integral role. We need to fail to learn. When we succeed, we usually...

click here to read more

 

Finding a good business job can be a job in itself. To see what job seekers need to know about securing a position in today's business market, I spoke with Roberta Chinsky Matuson.

Roberta is the founder and principal of Human Resource Solutions. With more than 20 years of HR experience, Roberta is well-versed in the field and knows exactly what hiring managers are looking for in today's job market.

Here's what she had to say to about job hunting, networking, interviewing, and getting hired:

There are a lot of reports surfacing about a tougher job market. Do you think it has become more difficult for qualified job seekers to find an appropriate position?

It is difficult to predict the future. I prefer to deal in the here and now. We know job seekers are having a tough time as companies shed jobs daily. This makes for more interesting headlines. However, I have a number of clients who are actually adding...
 

1. The best preparation for tomorrow is to do today's work superbly well.
    

2. The first proof that our astronauts have reached Mars will come when we are notified that their luggage has been sent to Venus.
    

3. Effective salespeople make every effort to anticipate every possible objection a customer might have to their product or services, so they can be prepared with convincing answers. Every now and then, however, a customer comes up with an unexpected objection that requires the salesperson to do some quick thinking.
   
   Chad Hendricks, a department store salesman in Atlanta, was trying to close a sale on a deluxe lawn mower. He had pointed out all the features of the mower, and the customer seemed interested, so Chad said: "This mower is just what you need, Mr. Jones. I'll be happy to write it up for you. Do you want it delivered tomorrow, or will Friday be OK?" "Now wait a minute, young fella," the customer said....

What services does
Intek offer?


 

February Events

Teng Chieh
(Lantern Festival)

February 9

Valentine Day

February 14

Parinirvana
(Nirvana Day)

February 15

'Mardi Gras'

February 24

Training Calendar
2009

Training Workshops in UAE, Saudi Arabia and Singapore

LifeSkills
by Haseeb Hasan

A glimpse of Intek's
Previous Workshops

Managing Difficult People
Customised for Qatar Petroleum
Doha Intercontinental Hotel  
 

Intek's Upcoming workshops

The Training Edge

Sharpen your training skills as a “Master Trainer”

- Four more ways you will benefit
- Powerful training skills
- Assessment and performance measurement
- Management challenges for trainers
For more details...

Sales Force Management Workshop

This interactive, exercise based workshop aims at equipping Sales Managers with effective Goal Getting and motivational techniques.
For more details...

The Super Secretary workshop

Intended for secretaries, P.A’s and office assistants who, apart from taking a refreshing break would acquire time saving techniques and be extremely motivated to return to their work places. It would act as a refresher to all the organizing skills, which were left behind during the daily fire fighting activities.
For more details...