Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Leadership traits

I took this quiz from MindTools website and there is this quiz of "How Good Are Your Leadership Skills?", and I suggest you to try it, to get to know the leader-self in you and to brush up the skill ensuring that you can be a great leader in no time! So, this is my result. *insert the most happy, excited expression here*

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Excellent! You're well on your way to becoming a good leader. However, you can never be too good at leadership or too experienced - so look at the areas where you didn't score maximum points, and figure out what you can do to improve your performance.

There are many leadership skills and competencies that, when combined and applied, go toward making you and effective leader. You have the ability to develop each of these skills within yourself. Read on for specific ideas on how you can improve your leadership skills!

Personal Characteristics
Successful leaders tend to have certain traits. Two keys areas of personal growth and development are fundamental to leadership success: self-confidence, and a positive attitude.
Self-confident people are usually inspiring, and people like to be around individuals who believe in themselves and in what they're doing. Likewise, if you're a positive and optimistic person who tries to make the best of any situation, you'll find it much easier to motivate people to do their best.

Self-Confidence
(Questions 2, 8)
Your score is 9 out of 10   
Self-confidence is built by mastering significant skills and situations, and by knowing that you can add real value by the work you do. One of the best ways to improve your confidence is to become aware of all of the things you've already achieved.
Positive Attitude and Outlook
(Questions 10, 17)
Your score is 10 out of 10   
A positive mindset is also associated with strong leadership. However, being positive is much more than presenting a happy face to the world: you need to develop a strong sense of balance, and recognize that setbacks and problems happen – it's how you deal with those problems that makes the difference.
Positive people approach situations realistically, prepared to make the changes necessary to overcome a problem. Negative people, on the other hand, often give in to the stress and pressure of the situation. This can lead to fear, worry, distress, anger and failure.
Emotional Intelligence
(Questions 5, 15)
Your score is 7 out of 10   
The concept of emotional intelligence used to be referred to as "soft skills," "character", or even "communication skills". The more recent idea of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) offers a more precise understanding of a specific kind of human talent. EQ is the ability to recognize feelings – your own and those of others – and manage those emotions to create strong relationships.
Learning to develop empathy is essential for emotional intelligence, as is communicating effectively, and practicing Emphatic Listening. These all help you really understand the other person's perspective.

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a leadership style where leaders create an inspiring vision of the future, motivate their followers to achieve it, manage implementation successfully, and develop the members of their teams to be even more effective in the future. We explore these dimensions below.
Providing a Compelling Vision of the Future
(Questions 6, 14)
Your score is 7 out of 10   
This is your ability to create a robust and compelling vision of the future, and to present this vision in a way that inspires the people you lead.
The first part of being able to do this is to have a thorough knowledge of the area you're operating in. 

Motivating People to Deliver the Vision
(Questions 9, 12)
Your score is 8 out of 10   
This is closely related to creating and selling a vision. You must be able to convince others to accept the objectives you've set. Emphasize teamwork, and recognize that when people work together, they can achieve great things. 
Being a Good Role Model
(Questions 4, 11)
Your score is 6 out of 10   
Good leaders lead by example. They do what they say, and say what they do. These types of leaders are trustworthy, and show integrity. They get involved in daily work where needed, and they stay in touch with what's happening throughout the organization. Great leaders don't just sit in their offices and give orders; they demonstrate the actions and values that they expect from the team.
As with building vision, above, a key part of being a good role model is leading from the front by developing expert power. A leader can't rely on position alone: by keeping current, and staying relevant within the organization, you'll inspire people because you're worthy of your power and authority, not just because you're the boss.
Managing Performance Effectively
(Questions 3, 13)
Your score is 8 out of 10   
Effective leaders manage performance by setting their expectations clearly and concisely. When everyone knows what's expected, it's much easier to get high performance. There's little uncertainty, therefore you can deal with performance issues quickly.
Providing Support and Stimulation
(Questions 1, 7, 16, 18)
Your score is 16 out of 20   
to be highly motivated at work, people need more than a list of tasks to be completed each day. They need challenges and interesting work. They need to develop their skills, and to feel supported in their efforts to do a good job.
Think about your approach to task allocation, and look for opportunities to match people with jobs and responsibilities that will help them grow and develop. Remember that emotional support is also important.


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*flips hair*


Malina Azman, x

Leads nowhere?

So I took this quiz in order for me to know more about myself, about how good am I of becoming a good leader in every task and assignment I have lead before or was it just leads nowhere? You have to know about yourself first for you to have room for improvements and betterment. You cannot take another step ahead if you don’t know where are you going, right? Same goes to when it comes to analyse your attitude towards anything and your character towards everything, specifically, for this blog post, you can start by analysing your performance in specific areas of leadership.

I have lead so many groups and teams, as early as a baby could talk (Okay, exaggeration to its limit), during my school year; both primary and secondary school, foundation year as well as my bachelor degree for the whole four exhausting years. I find it very annoying if I become a follower because at one point I “think” that I know more than the leader does and I have what it takes to be a great leader (I was eight years old and the leadership skills are in my blood) so I “think” that it’s time for me to step up on becoming a leader.

I still remember my first assignment, back in primary school when I was eight (I think?). There was this group project, consists of five of us and this dude with his ‘songkok’ on, he was very cocky, he thinks that his voice matters and we all gave ideas but he didn’t even considering it. When it is our time to present the cute little project, with colourful chalks in our hands (yup, we used blackboards during that time. Ahh!) So it is time for us to draw the mind map and I still remember it was the shape of a fish bone. The topic was at the head of the fish and all contents were at the end of the bones on the body and the tail would be the conclusion. All four of us were superbly excited to draw the fish, or at least to write something on the blackboard that makes us all happy but this ‘songkok’ little man literally slapped our hands off the board and he said “Let me do it alone. You guys stand at the back.” Pfftt, fine. I still remember his name though! Hahah!

And there goes my childhood not-so-good memories and I positively think that that was the end of the chapter “Malina was a follower once”. But, never again! Not long after that, I have never experienced being a follower or having any unreliable/incompetent leaders anymore because I keep telling myself that I can be a good one and I know I'm a good one, so go ahead, take charge. Take the responsibility, take the risk. It's a good one, gonna be amazing if you put it in the CV in the future. LOL! So yeah. I take the challenge and it challenged me back but I ain't a chicken. I can do it! Hihi

I really hate it when a leader does not take count of his/her team members’ opinions or ideas on something and they don’t even know how to delegate tasks and teamwork doesn’t exist. And also the attitude of the leader really matters. I don’t want someone who is 24/7 being all negative and grumpy and literally is unable to lead, especially a leader who knows nothing at all. For instance, when the topics are open for discussion among the team players and ask for an approval from the leader, and the leader answers, “I don’t know. I’m not really good at this.” How can you lead if you don’t read?

Well, are they born leaders?

I have read several articles and I have asked some of my closest friends and even my family, and they all think they know the correct answer; there are born leaders in this world. Most of articles I have read disagree with this statement because great leaders can be made, every day and in fact, most of successful entrepreneurs or famous artists and leaders are/were not meant to be a leader but look how they are now.
But not many people can be a “made” leader, no matter how hard they try, simply are not ever going to be great leaders. They just don’t have the innate wiring. But as for me, I have exposed to a life where being a leader is not a tough job to do, but it is a character and an attitude that I have learned and owned by heart. Both of my parents are undeniably great leaders and I learned by examples that both of them have showed to my sister and I and all four of us are living under the same roof. Imagine this, four “leaders” are in the same house and when one topic comes up and imagine the noisiness of opinions and ideas and non-stop questions and answers and so on. LOL!

Thanks to both Mommy and Daddy for allowing us to learn on how to be an open-minded person, a leader with positive attitudes and characters that everybody finds it hard to be but we are lucky enough to just brush up the skills a little bit more rather than build it all from scratch.

X.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

#QOTD

"If most of us are ashamed of shabby clothes and shoddy furniture, let us be more ashamed of shabby ideas and shoddy philosophies."

- Einstein

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Online shopping?

Has anyone of you ever tried online-shopping? Anyone? Anybody? Nope, yes? Okay, I cannot see nor hear you.

I had this craaazzzzyyyy idea, to "try" to shop through what I see on my computer screen instead of touching it like what I always do in the mall. I Google-d some of online-shops' sites and I was like, "Ohkay, this one is nice" or most of the time I'm like "OHMYLAWD, I WANT THIS!" but these long 10 fingers won't move and click the button PURCHASE or PUT IN MY CART because I cannot trust it if I didn't try it first!

Most of the time, whenever I am at the mall, busy browsing through racks by racks, hangers by hangers and if I really like it (like REALLYYYY LIKE IT!), I will filter out some of clothes I'm holding at the moment and think whether do I need it or do I WANT IT. Most of the time I will only pick out clothes or stuff that I ONLY NEED (Yeah, right *roll eyes*), then I will go to the fitting room to try whether it suits me/my style or not and whether it is comfy enough and the colour and the size and mostly, whether I like it to be wrapped around me or not.

You know that sometimes we trust the vibe and our mood at the moment. If we are feeling giddy and happy at that time, usually we are going to pick some bright-coloured shirts, some patterns like Aztec or tartan. And of course we are going to choose some plain, boring shirts with dull colour on it when we are feeling like, crap?

Okay, enough. You get what I mean.

So how can a person has the gut to click on the "PURCHASE" button if they don't try it or feeling the vibe or see and know the first impression when you're wearing it for the first time? Or is it just me and everyone doesn't really care? LOL!

I want to be a strong person. A girl who is not afraid of almost anything in this world, but, I am a chicken when it comes to online-shopping. HAHAHA! Malina, you coward! Boohoo!

Tell me, ladies, how did you do it?! What if you don't like what you get? What you see is what you don't get. You saw that intangible item at first on your tiny screen and now when it became tangible, you loathed it so much that you feel like you wanna tear it up?

That guilt feeling after buying it and you know you cannot get the refund or return in and exchange it to a new one really sucks and that awesome feeling you get when you pressed the purchase button is now gone.

How about that? HUH? HUH?

But to see on the opposite side of it, there are three points that I could think of right now. One, you seriously don't have to get ready to put on a nice dress and makeup and to think what shoes or bag you want to wear when you are going out shopping at the mall. Girls would understand this; staring at your big-ass wardrobe that is full with pretty dresses but keep mentioning, "Damn, I got nothing to wear. I need some new clothes. *sighs*". TRUE RIGHT?! Pfftt. Girls.

Two, you don't have to pay for the gas or toll or public transport (if you ride any) to go to the mall. So you save up about RM 10 - RM 50 (depends on the distance between your house and the mall and also what car you are driving). Oh, on a related note, I drive a car with 2.5l engine. Soooo, you know what that means. Sheeeesh.

And number three would be, you are rich (blinded by the fact that you are actually using your money but you just don't see it) and you keep on pressing that button to purchase everything that you see on the screen and at the end of the day, when you want to pay for your groceries, that can give you a heart attack! I have never experienced that before (thank Lord!), but just to remind you, don't shop til you drop.

LOL! Maybe its just me. But I think I'm gonna go and give it a try. I heard that Zalora offers soooo many pretty items with lower price too! Not to forget, FashionValet. And this amazing site by Blake Lively, Preserve. I loveeeee Blake's idea of preserving vintage items, crafts and artisans. She tries to preserve American tradition and I instantly fell in love when I see the page! Ahh. Awesome job, Blake and I am going to try to click the 'preserve it' button soon. There are so many lovely, pretty goods that I have been eyeing on since the first day she launched the new site. Go and check it out, guys! Do wish me luck, I hope I can do better... in shopping via online? :B


Malina Azman, x

Thursday, August 7, 2014

I'm just a believer that things will get better

Just do it.

"Set a goal for yourself of initiating a meeting with one new person a week. It doesn't matter where or with whom. Introduce yourself to someone on the bus. Slide up next to someone at the bar and say hello. Suggest a coffee with someone you're connected to online but whom you've never actually met. Hang out at the company water cooler and force yourself to talk to a fellow employee you've never spoken with. Say hello to anyone that holds the lift for you and anyone who is in the lift with you. You'll find that it gets easier and easier with practice. Best of all, you'll get comfortable with the idea of rejection. With that perspective, even failure becomes a step forward. Embrace it as learning. As the playwright Samuel Beckett wrote, "Fail, fail again. Fail better."

Fear debilitates. Once you realize there's no benefit to holding back, every situation and every person - no matter how seemingly beyond your reach - becomes an opportunity to succeed."


These words. I walk the talk.

I literally say hello to everyone I see or meet everyday. For me, this life is meant for learning, exploring and knowing new things, new knowledge and even meeting new people. Your whole life is like when you are entering a library or a bookstore. There are so many books in this world that you need to read. You have to read. If you feel like you don't have that much time to know and read every book in the library, then try to optimize the time. Read as many books as you can or in this case, go out and meet as many new people as you can! You got to know that there are so many characters and how introvert or extrovert people can be out there. If it's a good one, take it and apply it into your daily life. If it's bad, learn from it and don't do the mistakes.

There so many things that you can learn from others.

Good and bad; there are both awesome. It creates new life perspectives for you. Either good or bad, there are both have an impact on you. On how you are going to see your life in the future as well as on how you are going to lead and take actions and literally, on everything you want to do in this life.

And my favorite quote of all time, "Be a fearless bastard and an emotionless bitch" if you want to survive happily in this world. Do things positively and just do your best and be yourself. No one can take your experience and wisdom from you. No one. So go and create one. Create an adventure in your life. Create and experience it so that you won't regret anything. Trust me. It is a really good feeling. Knowledge comes from learning. Wisdom comes from living. Remember, it's not always about to fix something broken, it's always about starting all over and creating something better.

I'm just a believer that things will get better. It will.


x, Malina A

Lejenderi Kajensh (Legendary Cousins)



Kami mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri, maaf zahir dan batin! Dari kami, cucu-cucu Zaman! LOL!

x

Eid Mubarak!


Ampunkan salah dan silap, terlajak kata or terdiam diri. Gurau kasar or tak tegur langsung. Terlebih mesra or terbuang sahabat. No bad intentions at all and hoping that it'd be nice to just forgive and forget. Let's have a fresh start! Eid Mubarak and have a wonderful one x

Sincerely,
Malina A.