This document summarizes key points from the February 2011 issue of the newsletter "Empower Bites". It discusses three main topics: 1) Achieving greatness in 2011 by focusing on fulfilling your passion and maximizing people's potential rather than income or status. 2) A book review of "The 8th Habit" by Stephen Covey about developing emotional intelligence to overcome obstacles and create trusting relationships. 3) The importance that managers place on "operational values" like integrity, quality of work, and learning ability when hiring and promoting, as shown through concrete examples from interviews and performance records.

1. e bites
[empower bites]
February 2011 | Issue 2
Brought to you by:
Become great this 2011. Not just
good, but great! But how do you
define and achieve greatness?
“Become Great” The famous Stephen Covey, in his book, The 8TH Habit,
In this issue wrote: The call and need of a new era is for greatness. It‟s
for fulfillment, passionate execution and significant
POWER BOOKS
The 8th Habit contribution.
2
By Stephen Covey
After I left the corporate world, I chose to pursue my
POWER NOTES
passion in “maximizing a person‟s potentials”, and became
The Importance of Values at determined not to measure success in terms of position,
3
the Workplace power or income.
POWER WORDS I just focused on empowering a person by discovering and
“Give the world your best developing his/her potentials. It is about inspiring one
5 anyway” – Mother Teresa person, one heart at a time. The business opportunities and
income flowed inward as I progressed with this „outward‟
UPCOMING EVENT
commitment. Great indeed!
Empower Your Network
- Elaine Cercado

2. THE 8TH HABIT: From
2
Effectiveness to Greatness
by Stephen Covey
POWER BOOKS “Since the shift happened transcend obstacles that
during the global may hinder my personal
recession, each citizen transformation work and
Thanks to Paulette Lirio for has to find a way to move the transformation work I
recommending this book. on in quest of new am involved with my
solutions and successes. family, business
Success, while relative, community, church
may be defined very community and greater
differently this time when society.
each individual need to Trust and the speed of
find new sources of creating and sustaining
energy in themselves to trusting relationships are
thrive and ride the wave very much in the heart of
of the still unstable global it and are called for in all
economy. Tapping deep my relationships. I think
into inner resources each this is a very basic core
person has, and helping need from the first stage
others do the same is of our human
something meaningful to development that if
me since transformation is broken becomes a
a necessity in all social lifetime issue hindering us
fronts. from our personal and
To be successful though in leadership effectiveness.”
this transformation work, I
have to work primarily in Paulette Lirio
developing my emotional de‟POWERinU Partner
intelligence so I can
e bites, February 2011, Issue 2

3. 3
THE As a manager, I have hired organizational restructuring
and promoted people who that impacted your job or
IMPORTANCE OF were not necessarily the top reporting relationship, or an
graduate or the best industry technology shift that
VALUES IN THE expert. But I've always made made you face new
WORKPLACE it a point to hire and promote competitors.
people who exuded a
When I started my regional
By Elaine Cercado positive and professional
job, I leveraged the
approach; demonstrated their
experience of working with a
integrity and credibility;
culturally diverse team and
delivered consistently high
used that as an example to
quality of work (especially
show my adaptability to my
under pressure); and
bosses. When our business
demonstrated enthusiasm,
model & sales approach
energy, confidence, humility,
changed from a
ability to learn quick, pro-
transactional to solution
activeness, emotional
selling, I changed habits,
intelligence; among others.
learned new skills and went
These are what I collectively
out of my comfort zone. It is
call operational values, others
important to give specific
may call these set of attitude
examples relevant to the
or soft skills. I put equal, if not,
position requirements, to
more weight to these relative
show how you handled a
to the hard skills or
specific situation /
competencies required of the
challenge, and to share the
job.
outcome of your approach.
These would give the hiring
How would managers know
manager a very good
your operational values?
picture of your operational
values.
The concrete examples you
POWER NOTES give. When accomplishing
The patterns you show in
your performance appraisal
your records. Your records
“…Hire and promote people (for possible promotion) or
such as your resume, or your
who exuded a positive and answering an interview
historical performance
professional approach; question (in a hiring exercise),
appraisals, speak for
demonstrated their integrity remember to give specific
themselves. Your managers
and credibility; delivered examples. If you would show
look at patterns in your
consistently high quality of your change management
resumes, at ratings in your
work (especially under skills, then cite a time when
appraisals, or at feedback
pressure); and demonstrated you adapted to a new
from people you work with if
enthusiasm, energy, company direction, e.g. when
your company practices
confidence, humility, ability to your company went through
360-degree feedback
learn quick, pro-activeness, a significant change like a
process. An experienced
emotional intelligence; merger or acquisition that
manager would be able to
among others.” impacted the corporate vision
read any inconsistencies or
or culture, or an
e bites, February 2011, Issue 2

4. 4
THE Continued from page 3 became an obstacle to
effective performance, as
IMPORTANCE OF gaps in your records, and the role required a lot of
validate accordingly. I team collaboration.
VALUES IN THE once hired a country sales
WORKPLACE manager because he exuded As a manager, my biggest
professionalism and learning is that for a critical
By Elaine Cercado confidence, gave specific position in the company, I
examples that demonstrated have to look at the hard skills
his systematic approach to as well as the operational
things, and showed in his values, which I can find from
record a pattern of working all three key factors – the
only with global brands and concrete details and quality
companies known for their of the interview, the patterns
world-class products and on the person‟s records, and
solutions. To me, his record the X factor. If the interview
showed his underlying values and records show the
for excellence and integrity. I person is 90% perfect, and
perceived him as someone yet I have that 10%
who had standards and reservation, then I would re-
would not compromise them, evaluate. The point is that
even at the expense of there has to be a big check
making unpopular choices. mark in each of these three
And I was right indeed. key factors.
The X factor. This is the
intangible, the gut feel, and
the chemistry. It‟s hard to
place a finger into this. As a
manager, I‟ve had my share
of disappointments and
learnings as I‟ve hired people
who gave excellent specific
examples and showed great
record patterns, and yet were
unsuccessful in their roles.
Whenever I looked back, the
one thing I would say to
myself was “I should have
stuck to my gut feel” (during
the hiring process). One
example was when I hired a
POWER NOTES marketing professional who
seemed introvert during the
interview process. As it turned
out, the person was indeed
extremely introverted that it
e bites, February 2011, Issue 2

5. 5
“People are often unreasonable, illogical and
self-centered; forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of
selfish, ulterior motives; be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false
friends and some true friends; succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat
you; be honest and frank anyway.
e bites [empower bites]
What you spend years building, someone could A newsletter published by
destroy overnight; build anyway. de’POWERinU Management Consultants LLP
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be Registration No. T08LL0335D
jealous; be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget 30 Keppel Bay Drive #07-42
tomorrow; do good anyway. Singapore, 098650
Give the world your best anyway. Tel +65 6271 0208
Website www.depowerinu.com
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you
and God; it was never between you and them
Email your feedback or suggestions to
anyway.” depowerinu@me.com
MOTHER TERESA
e bites, February 2011, Issue 2