Word Definitions: Self-Awareness

I was looking up the dictionaries online trying to find a definition of what is "self-awareness" or being "self-aware". I guess the closest I got to an objective definition was this from Merriam-Webster online dictionary:

• Main Entry: self–aware·ness
• Function: noun
• Date: 1880
• : an awareness of one's own personality or individuality

hmm... a definition that is defined by even more abstract concepts of personality and individuality.

Anyway this was what prompted me to wonder about this word. How often are we aware of how we behave in others' company? Are we too loud, too soft, too assertive, too timid, showing too much ego for our own good? Are we being intrusive or are we giving others the kind of quiet and private space they need to function?

Maybe some food for thought before the next time we carry out a conversation with another person / a group of people in the workspace.

It's easy to say... but act on it too!

Maybe I'm just being difficult... but I get really peeved when I get requests from people who have no clue what they are asking. And this, I refer to people who think they know what they want (and therefore they request for it) but they have no idea how to get it done or what is required to get it done... and worse, doesn't take responsibility for their own role in getting it done.

A simple example is a question like "I need to market product X and reach out to potential customers through a website. Please help to do up a website for product X."

Seem like a pretty straightforward request, right? Wrong. Because when one probes further with basic questions like:
- What is product X?
- How is product X different from other competitors' products?
- How does product X fit in with the rest of the company's product?
- How should it be positioned to the customer?
- What are the benefits of using product X?
- What are the specifications for product X?
- How soon will product X be ready?

... the person who made the request had no clue. And I get especially peeved when that person happens to be directly involved in the development, marketing and positioning of product X. If that person, whose role is to drive product X, is not doing his / her job to act on his / her responsibilities and find out or even have some clue about these questions, how can he/she expect others to be able to support his work?

In other words, it is always very easy to say things and express what you want in words.... but you need to act on it and make sure you do your part too. If you did not, don't blame others...

Adventures of the missing notepad

Often in our lives, we face situations that require quite a bit of courage to confront and face up to. It doesn't even have to involve encounters with people in power, in terror or even encounters of the third kind. It can be a really mundane situation where one fails to find their courage. And my little notepad went on an adventure today that serves to show just that.

Came into my office in the morning and everything looked fine on my desk. Having booted up my computer, i went to get my daily dose of Kopi-O. By the time I came back 30 minutes later with the intention to prepare for an external meeting, I noticed my notepad went missing. And it's not a small, post-it pad sized thing. It's hardcover A5 sized notepad with quite a lot of pages on it... and obviously my scribblings of notes from other meetings and projects.

I clearly remembered I didn't attend any meetings the day before and it was still sitting at its usual position when I left the office the previous day. Where did it go? If someone had borrowed it, at least leave a note or something? My entire morning was burnt up in angry fumes... because I was frustrated that my notes could be gone. And I still needed some of that for reference for the projects I was doing.

Sent out a mass mail to the entire office asking that if someone had borrowed it or taken it by mistake to please return it to me. No news for the entire day and I was resigned to start a new one.

Two hours before knock-off time, it came back... by proxy, with an innocent looking post-it sticker on it saying someone left it in the boardroom. Someone?? hello? Is that person trying to make it seem that I misplaced it?? I wasn't even near the boardroom for 2 WHOLE DAYS as I was busy working on something at my desk. And the boardroom is situated way AWAY from my desk... at the OTHER wing of the building?

Come on... it doesn't hurt to just own up to it... whether that person had intentionally borrowed it for want of writing materials or taken it by mistake. But committed the act and then leave it in a meeting room pretending you don't know how it got there... that's just plain, absurd cowardice.

Ello one and all....

Yes, I'm still alive and I still remember I have a blog... As for whether I'm kicking or not... feeling a little low on energy after a long day (or rather a couple of weeks) of draining my brain juice to write some content for my work.

Recently I find I have a rather acid tongue... when it comes to vendors that perpetually stalk with daily phone calls to chase for the deal. While the offering may look attractive at first, daily calls pestering for decision to engage them can have quite a detrimental effect on that attractiveness. In fact, in the case I'm encountering, the negative impact the calls had on the deal has grown inversely proportionate to how attractive the offering seemed.

While sales gurus will encourage sales personnels to remain optimistic and follow-up with their customers / contacts regularly to catch an opportunity, I think they forgot to teach them when to lay off. Imagine I had to say things like "Don't turn stalker on us" or even "Your daily calls are certainly not helping the cause... we're getting peeved."

Hmmm.... bitchy? Maybe... but sometimes neccessary....

Clueless where to start

I hate it when I have to pick up a project right from the middle.... and worse if it entails something that is already in use and requires massive re-write.

Supposed to revamp the website but there's so much to do!! Every part of the website and its component is in use and being constantly updated at the moment, but the revamp entails a whole re-structure of the site as well as adding in new applications, systems and when "lived", training of people to handle the content updating and management too.

Grr.... this is one colossus of a project and I just dread lengthy projects....

Mission Impossible??

Some course that I've attended recently got me thinking about how people work or even communicate with each other. Of the many comments, reasons or excuses I've heard before, one that comes up strongly is a classic case in its own league.

Worker A and Worker B are doing the same marketing functions, but in separate cities for the same company. The company expects them to be able help each other market the products in the other person's company. Worker A complains that he doesn't know what is required or how the process works, while Worker B complains that there is no communication from Worker A, even though both workers are connected via internet, emails and internal communication channels. And at the end of the day, it becomes Worker C's responsibility to make the two of them talk.

It just makes me wonder... what is stopping Worker A from communicating with Worker B and vice versa? Is it really so hard these days to talk openly with a fellow worker? What about the media options that are available to facilitate communications? Is it really that hard to use them? And what's stopping them from sharing info, knowledge or even become friends using these options?

Or is it a case that they fear that "Big Brother" (in this case, the management of the company) is watching? If it is, wouldn't that make Worker C's job near mission impossible?

Passion for something....

Attended a course recently and one of the key points a presenter talked about is having passion. If one doesn't have the passion about his / her job, there's no way one can do a proper, authentic blog about his/ her job and expect others to believe it....

I agree.... and at the same time, I ask myself. What is my passion? I found that things that I'm passionate about... well... either the resources are beyond me or my passion has changed over the years. I used to be passionate about music but I've let that taken a backseat... now that life's realities had forced me to take a good hard look at what keeps my ricebowl intact. I'm passionate about history, exploration and helping others, but the resources to do it at will is just beyond me.

So what is passion to the typical Singaporean trying to strike a living in the ever increasingly realistic and pressurising society....? Or has passion been substituted by something more familiar with us... i.e. Skepticism.....??

New office... new furniture.. same ol' me... haha

Been rather busy lately so that explains the drought of postings... anyway been busy preparing for the photoshoot (finally over on Friday) and also packing and moving stuff from the old office to the new.

The new office is bigger, brighter and what i like most is the new furniture. Finally i get a proper table-top that is functional... not those swanky designer stuff that has hardly any space left once you've placed a computer on it... hehehe