BFM :: Raise Your Game

This episode of Raise You Game focuses on leadership challenges in the era of significant digital transformation marked by AI and hybrid work culture. The discussion with Leaderonomic's Roshan Thiran explores the need for leaders to develop paradoxical leadership skills to deal with contrasting needs of building trust and fostering productivity in hybrid workforces. Among other things, the conversation also gets into the importance of finding a balance between data-driven functionalities offered by AI technology and human-centric roles required for building trust and empathy, and the need for AI adoption to optimize the effectiveness of business operations and deliver new business opportunities.The conversation also outlines effective ways of managing hybrid workforces, the importance of building a purpose-driven work culture, and the necessity for HR to understand insights for just-in-time employee engagement.00:06 Introduction and Welcome00:12 The Future of Work: Hybrid and AI Trends00:51 Key Leadership Lessons for 202401:37 The Role of AI in the Workplace01:49 The Importance of Adaptability in Leadership02:11 The Impact of Technological Innovations on Business03:13 The Need for Standards in Emerging Technologies03:26 The Challenges of Transition Periods in Business03:39 The Importance of Resilience and Agility in Leadership13:25 The Role of AI in Predicting Business Trends14:07 The Impact of AI on HR and Employee Management18:02 The Future of Jobs in the Age of AI19:34 The Evolution of Jobs and the Impact of Technology20:22 The Rise of Email and Increased Communication Frequency21:00 The Role of AI in Interpreting and Summarizing Information21:17 The Human Element in Sales and Trust Building21:31 The Three Things Humans Excel At22:48 The Role of AI in Business and the Importance of Early Adoption26:23 The Shift to Hybrid Workforces and the Importance of Purpose27:03 The Challenges and Solutions for Managing Hybrid Workforces32:23 The Impact of Culture and Rituals in Hybrid Workforces35:18 The Role of HR in Understanding and Engaging Employees

On this episode of Raise Your Game, we explore an initiative that's hoping to shape the future of Malaysia's capital markets - investED.The Malaysian capital market is currently facing significant talent challenges. These challenges not only impact the growth and competitiveness of the market but also raise questions about how we're nurturing the next generation of financial experts.To address these concerns, the Securities Commission Malaysia has introduced the investED - NextGen Capital Market Talent initiative - aiming to fortify the industry with skilled and diverse talents. Joining us for this conversation is Tengku Zarina, the CEO of the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC), the training and development arm of the Securities Commission. We'll delve into the depths of the investED programme, its objectives, its approach to talent development, and how it hopes to reshape the industry. From discussing the current talent challenges in the Malaysian capital market and the steps the Securities Commission is taking, to the role of a diverse talent pool in ensuring market resilience, we get into all of it.Learn more at https://www.invested.my

We are less than a month away from entering the new year which means it's that time of the year where we should start taking stock of our year - from reviewing our successes and our failures to examining what worked and what didn't work. Then take all this, reflect, and start 2024 on a great foot.With that in mind, on this episode of Raise Your Game, in what has become an annual tradition on the show, Leverage Lab's Jeevan Sahadevan joins us to pose 23 questions to help you review your 2023.

On this episode of Raise Your Game, we're tackling a topic of critical importance in the business world: the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles.Tack TMI helped their parent company Gi Group develop a programme to support their women in leadership initiative. In the case study that was published recently, it was noted that only one woman in four is a C-suite leader. With respect to this programme in particular, the Gi Group's workforce was predominantly female, yet less than 20% of its strategic committee was female.We'll explore the variety of reasons behind this imbalance, identify the barriers that women often face on their journey up the career ladder, discuss strategies to overcome these challenges, and explore the tangible business outcomes of a more gender-diverse leadership team.Joining us for this is Jim O'Brien, the CEO of Learning & Development firm Tack TMI.Image Credit: Shutterstock

Positive influence the essential soft skill of our time. On this edition of Raise Your Game, we explore the rationale behind this statement with Huijin Kong, co-author of Positive Influence: The First and Last Mile of Leadership.You will also learn about the fundamentals of positive influence, with a key focus on the 7 principles of effective ‘positive influencing' that Huijin and her co-author argue transcends all positive influence situations.Photo Credit: LinkedIn | Huijin Kong

Budget 2024 saw a variety of initiatives and tax implications for SMEs. On this edition of Raise Your Game, you will learn about the key impacts of Budget 2024 to SMEs, with a focus on e-invoicing for SMEs, the rise in the SST rate, the introduction of the capital gains tax for unlisted shares, and much more with Zen Chow, Tax Practice Leader at YYC Group.Register for YYC Tax Summit 2023 at https://www.taxpod.my/bfm.

Given the emphasis and attention being paid to ESG efforts and adoption, on this episode of Raise Your Game, we explore the basics of ESG and the long term benefit to SMEs.

With less than 3 months left before we enter 2024, we've now entered crunch time for sales teams to meet their targets and KPIs for the year. Today on Raise Your Game, we continue our focus on sales with the third and final episode of a 3-part series with Jeevan Sahadevan, the Founder of Leverage Labs.Last week we got into how to build value around your products and services and generate desire in prospects to buy, today we explore the psychology that goes into closing a sale. You will learn the 4 key factors factors that influence closing sales, how to overcome objections, and how to best follow up with prospects till you seal the deal

With less than 3 months left before we enter 2024, we've now entered crunch time for sales teams to meet their targets and KPIs for the year. Today on Raise Your Game, we continue our focus on sales with the second episode of a 3-part series with Jeevan Sahadevan, the Founder of Leverage Labs.Last week we got into two critical skills that could make or break your sales efforts as the world navigates through economic uncertainty: Building Rapport and Prospect Diagnostics. Today you will learn how to build value around your products and services and generate desire in prospects to buy, including a Sales Formula from Jeevan, that he says will help you close sales in a big way.

As we enter the last quarter of 2023, we are now entering crunch time for sales teams to meet their targets and KPIs for the year. With this in mind, we're going to spend the next 3 weeks here on Raise Your Game focused on sales. In the first episode of this 3-part series, we're zeroing in on two critical skills that could make or break your sales efforts as the world navigates through economic uncertainty: Building Rapport and Prospect Diagnostics. These are pivotal points that shape how you interact with your prospects and, ultimately, close deals. In fact, without these skills, your sales team may struggle to function as the well-oiled machine that your business needs.To help us dissect and navigate these skills in this episode is Jeevan Sahadevan, the Founder of Leverage Labs. We delve into the psychology of building rapport, how it can set the stage for a successful sales process, and then shift gears to discuss the art of asking powerful questions that reveal what truly motivates your prospects to buy.

In May, it was reported that Malaysia was two-seats from having women make up at least 30% of board members among the top 100 public-listed companies.Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri told the Dewan Rakyat that women accounted for 29.7% of directors in these companies, which was a significant improvement from 2016, when only 14% of companies had a minimum of 30% of women on their boards.Now while it seems like Malaysia is making progress on this front, there are still plenty of biases and challenges women business leaders deal with that differ from their male counterparts in the predominantly male workforce and leadership structure.Today on Raise Your Game, we explore the unique challenges faced by women leaders and ways to possibly manage them, including women-centric communities, mentorship programs, and common mistakes that are easily avoidable when trying to bring more women back into the workforce and senior leadership.

A Deloitte report says that Gen Z will soon surpass Millennials as the most populous generation on earth, with more than one-third of the world's population counting themselves as Gen Zers. So as Gen Zers enter the workforce, their impact could be pronounced, given their differences from Millennials, this generation seems to have a different perspective on careers and how to define success in life and in the workforce.To shed some light on this, we speak with Aaron Dason, Lead at M.A.D. Movement. We're going to try and get a better understanding of the younger generation and perhaps what employers and business leaders need to know when it comes to incentivizing and motivating them.

This month on the show, we're going to be exploring 4 key factors of personal branding - Appearance, Behaviour, Communication, and Digital. We're tackling these individually across 4 weeks here on Raise your Game. In this episode we address digital presence, LinkedIn, and how it plays into your professional brand

This month on the show, we're going to be exploring 4 key factors of personal branding - Appearance, Behaviour, Communication, and Digital. We're tackling these individually across 4 weeks here on Raise your Game. Last week we got into behaviour, in this episode we address communication and how it plays into your personal brand.

This month on the show, we're going to be exploring 4 key factors of personal branding - Appearance, Behaviour, Communication, and Digital. We're tackling these individually across 4 weeks here on Raise your Game. Last week we got into Appearance, in this episode we address behaviour and how it plays into your personal brand.Having confidence, charisma and poise might be easy for some, but not for many. Things from how you present yourself, how you carry a conversation, to even simple things like reading the room right can be crucial in ensuring you come out visible and memorable.In this episode, we tackle everything concerning outward behaviour and business etiquette, from how you should conduct yourself in meetings to exuding confidence in social situations to the art of small talk in creating memorability and rapport. Helping us with this is Ranukka Singham, founder of Image Revamp - a personal branding and image consultancy.Photo Credits: Shutterstock

This month on the show, we're going to be exploring 4 key factors of personal branding - Appearance, Behaviour, Communication, and Digital. We will tackle each factor individually across 4 weeks starting with A - AppearanceLove it or hate it, our Appearance plays a role when it comes to our personal brands and how people perceive us. And while this can be incredibly subjective, it's an especially important part of working as we often act as in person representatives of the organisations that we work for or run.With that in mind, on this episode of Raise Your Game, Ranukka Singham, founder of Image Revamp - a personal branding and image consultancy - joins us to discuss the dos and don'ts when it comes to the Appearance and Personal Branding. We get into the basics of how to dress to impress, the keys of personal grooming, the fundamentals of dress codes and the importance of having the right fit.

Authentic leadership is a leadership style that emphasises transparency, genuineness and honesty, where leaders build genuine relationships with their employees by inspiring trust and fostering a positive work environment. We speak to Rashmi Menon, Country Managing Director of Leaderonomics Services Malaysia, on the importance of authentic leadership in today's fast changing world, key characteristics and qualities of authentic leaders, and strategies for building trust with team members and colleagues.

Would you like to be more inspiring as a leader? Do you want to build a happier and higher-performing team? Would you like to lead with greater empathy and inclusion? This session discusses why emotional intelligence can be powerful for leaders and how to leverage it to become an EPIC Leader—one who is empathetic, purposeful, inspiring, and connected.

“The business is bad, but I think you're a good entrepreneur. I can give you the money, but what you'll never get back is the time you spent building a business that was wrong for you”, that was what an investor told Adlin Yusman when he was looking to raise $2 million for one of his previous startups.In this episode of Raise Your Game, Adlin Yusman, experienced tech founder and the Managing Director of the Malaysian office of high-impact entrepreneurship network Endeavor, speaks to us about lessons learnt from his past mistakes and failures, managing relationships with investors, board members, and co-founders, and when to stop or leave your business versus when to keep going.We also get into why entrepreneurship is a war, not a battle.

As we enter the second half of 2023 and move past a sluggish first half, the number one thing on the minds of every business owner and manager is high performance. Jeevan Sahadevan, the founder of Leverage Lab, takes us down that road by giving us the keys to developing a championship team in our businesses. Work on each key and get your team out performing your competitors faster than you ever thought possible!

A 2022 survey by Kisi, a tech company, revealed that Kuala Lumpur ranked 3rd in the list of most overworked cities in the world. We are even ahead of Singapore who ranks 4th for comparison. Technology is a key contributor to this problem, as Goldman Sachs' David Solomon once said, “technology means that we're all available 24/7. And, because everyone demands instant gratification and instant connectivity, there are no boundaries, no breaks”. One way to help manage this is work-life integration, but how does that differ from work-life balance?We explore this with Connie Lee, People & Culture Lead of Leaderonomics. We also get into why employers should consider work-life integration within their organisations (even if they are traditionalist) and how it generates value for the organisation.Photo Credits: Leaderonomics

According to a Fast Company article, assessing talent has not changed in the last 20 years. Talent assessment requires an evolution, not a revolution—boards cannot be expected to hire a CEO without interviews. However, there must be a paradigm shift, based on new factors, for how decisions are made. Hetal Doshi, CEO & Organisational Psychologist at O Psych explores the importance of talent assessment and what tools can best benefit your recruitment processes.

When we talk about diversity, equity and inclusion in a company, it's about wanting to feel like you belong. It's about the feeling of being respected regardless of your race, age and gender. But what can companies do to become more diverse and inclusive while embracing equity?Beth Ridley, CEO of Ridley Consulting Group discusses.Photo Credits: Ridley Consulting Group

We cannot deny that employee-employer dynamics are changing. And it is suggested that leveraging an ownership culture will allow employees to be more engaged and less likely to quit. And this is suggested by Pete Stavros, the founder and chairperson of Ownership Works, a nonprofit in America. So what does ownership mean? And why is it important for your organisation to understand and eventually build this ownership culture? We speak to Nigesh Armon, COO & CTO of Leaderonomics Digital to know more. Photo Credits: Shuttershock | Drazen Zigic

No one really knows what's going to happen next week, tomorrow or the next hour or even the next minute. But how do we navigate through uncertainties and still thrive in this day in age where everything in business is moving so rapidly with so many unknowns at work? We speak to Nathan Furr, Professor of Strategy at INSEAD, who is also the co-author of The Upside of Uncertainty: A Guide to Finding Possibility in the Unknown. He wrote this book together with his wife Susannah Harmon Furr with tools to help you see opportunities in uncertainties. Photo Credits: Freepik | tirachard

Communication is a two way street, and while we talk a lot about your output, let's take a look at input. Are you really listening to what people have to say, and how can you improve? Oscar Trimboli, author, host of the Apple award-winning podcast Deep Listening and a sought-after keynote speaker, explains the levels of listening. Photo Credits: CEOWorld Magazine

According to a study done by NTUC Learning Hub, although most employees are open to company-offered and external L&D training, more than half said that they have not been attending or enrolling training because they don't have time and have a heavy workload. Employee sentiment towards L&D is also in a downward trajectory. How should employers make employees interested in L&D again? One of the ways is to make employees' learning experience fun, engaging and rewarding. This is by using game-like elements in the training, also known as Gamification. Arun Nagarajah, the founder of eVULX, a digital simulation developer that focuses on creating digital games for corporate learning and development tells us the significance and impact of gamifying the whole training experience.Photo Credits: Freepik | frimufilms

Before success, there needs to be action, and before action, there needs to be thought. So how do you set your mindset up in the way that works best for you? Dr. Thana Sathasivam, author of the book, ‘Unleash Your Inner Sage', explains. Photo Credits: Freepik | jcomp

Dr. Carla Fowler is an elite executive coach with an MD PhD who combines the latest research from performance science with timeless best practices to help top performers level up and achieve their goals. She explains the misconceptions when it comes to high performers as well as the science behind how to better your performance. Photo Credits: Freepik | jcomp

As we enter into the second quarter of the year, there's so much to do for business owners and their teams to win at work! At the heart of a company's performance is its team and at the heart of its team's performance is regular and timely communication via team meetings. Goals, objectives, plans and execution are all discussed and worked on at team meetings. Hence executing effective meetings is a skill critical for entrepreneurs and managers to master. To help us do just that, we have Business Coaching expert Jeevan Sahadevan the founder of Leverage Lab to take us through powerful keys on How to Execute Effective Team Meetings!Photo Credits: Freepik | tirachardz

Skillset requirements are different now compared to 5 years ago. There's something called “shifting skills” now to future proof businesses and individuals. What does shifting skills entail, how does it relate to upskilling, and how can it help us to prepare for the future? We discuss this with Hui Ming Ang, the co-founder and Growth & Strategic Initiatives Leader at Leaderonomics. Photo Credits: Freepik | standret

The idea of starting a business can be daunting, and you may not know where to start. Sarah Stow, host of the Launch Your Biz NOW podcast, explains the first steps of kickstarting your entrepreneurial journey, and why it's important to shape your business around you instead of the other way around.

Mike Paton has spent the last 15 years helping thousands of leaders around the globe run better businesses and live better lives. An Entrepreneurial Operating System or EOS Implementer and speaker, Paton spent five years as EOS Worldwide's Visionary, is the host of the top-rated podcast The EOS Leader, and co-authored two books in the Traction Library – Get A Grip and Process!He'll be in Malaysia speaking at the EO Taipan Masterclass themed “Challenge The Storm” brought to you by EO Malaysia from March 15 to 17.Photo Credits: LinkedIn | Mike Paton

With all the social media activities and tools available today, Executives and entrepreneurs are finding themselves even more distracted than ever before and having their focus hijacked constantly. Managing themselves and their time to do deep work and to get the most important things done in a week has become a mountain of difficulty today. Jeevan Sahadevan, founder of Leverage Lab is here to help with an insanely simple and potent time management formula that guarantees not only an increase in your focus, efficiency and effectiveness, but will help you achieve your toughest goals this year.Photo Credits: Shuttershock | Elnur

A recent Forbes article states that ‘the tenure of top leadership positions is getting shorter and shorter.' The repercussions of this instability not only affect the people in a firm, but also clients directly. Hence, why succession planning is critical to ensuring longevity of a company. We speak to Jeffrey Tan from Leaderonomics to find out how.Photo Credit: Shuttershock | metamorworks

What is brand positioning and how can you up your marketing game when you master it? Ulli Appelbaum is the founder of his boutique brand strategy shop First The Trousers Then The Shoes, Inc. in Minneapolis working with clients of big names. He released a book called “The Brand Positioning Workbook: A simple how-to guide to more compelling brand positionings, faster.” Ulli shares how powerful having the right brand positioning can have on your marketing strategies and your business identity.Photo Credit: Shuttershock | Dusit

Helen Appleby is a British New York-based Women's Leadership Expert and host of “The Unwritten Rules of Women's Leadership” podcast; she discusses the tools women can use to write their own rules, navigate their versions of success and achieve their potential.Photo Credit : Shutterstock | Monkey Business Images

It's a whole new year. But you may still be at your old job and you're not completely immersed in whatever you're doing. You're starting to draw boundaries for your time and energy. The magic and excitement are gone. Well, you're not alone, this sweeping trend really took off last year and was quickly christened Quiet Quitting. Sashe Kanapathi, CTO of LeaderonomPhoto Credit : Shutterstock Sorapop Udomsri

It's safe to say that physical fitness and mental health go hand in hand, and in turn, that affects our overall performance in the workplace and in life. What can we learn from the world of sports coaching that we can also apply to the world of work? Riad Hechame, founder of Peak Human Performance, the strength and performance clinic, explains.Photo Credit : Shutterstock | UfaBizPhoto

Many businesses have faced the pandemic head on and come out the other side. Now, the question is: what does it take for a brand to not just hang on by a thread, but to actively grow and thrive? Russell Pearson, an award winning business owner, founder of the Forge Business Program, and host of the Marketing Report Podcast - also known as the Brand Design Guy and the Business Blacksmith - has the answers.Photo Credit : Shutterstock | G-Stock Studio

It's tough being a leader, and sometimes it's difficult from the employee point of view to remember that your managers and CEOs are people, too. Roshan Thiran, founder & CEO of Leaderonomics, helps break down that CEO conundrum. Image Credit : Shutterstock | Chaay_Tee

It's that time of the year where we take stock of our year and our successes and failures as well as what worked and what didn't work and invest all these reflective lessons into the year ahead, 2023. No one better than Jeevan Sahadevan, the founder of Leverage Lab to do this with us like he does every year! Take some time out and do these questions alone or with your partners or team and get an incredible review of your year done and finish strong!Image Credit: Shutterstock | oatawa