Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep252: How To Get Ahead of 99% of People At Work (Without Office Drama) (Part 1/3)

Episode Date: September 24, 2025

✅ WWW.MEIPHING.COM ⮕ CORPORATE SURVIVOR™ ⮕ Get access to *ALL* my career insights, experiences & strategies. Level-up your career + Grow your salary by mastering the 9-5 working world ⮕ Get my advice, guidance & feedback in group & 1:1 mentoring + 24/7 access to all career course modules (career clarity, workplace skills, job promotions, career growth, job search AND SO MUCH MORE). 📌 ABOUT: Mei Phing Lim is the founder of Corporate Survivor™ with over a decade of experience in the consulting, Fintech and banking industries. Formerly the senior director of Standard Chartered’s global financial institutions team, she quit her high flying job in 2019 to become a caregiver to her mum (r.i.p). With 600 clients coached since 2020, Mei Phing is on mission to help 9-5 professionals level-up their careers by mastering how to navigate the working world, impress the boss and get paid in her career mentorship program, Corporate Survivor™. ✅ WEBSITE + ALL LINKS ⮕ http://www.meiphing.com ✅ CORPORATE SURVIVOR™ ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co

Hey, it's May Ping and welcome to the corporate survival podcast, the best place for all things, corporate world. You know, throughout my decade-long career in the corporate world, I have worked in companies of different sizes. I've worked across different industries from auditing, consulting, fintech, banking, financial services, and so forth. And I've always successfully become the top performer at every single job, right? Whether it's a small company, big company, different industries, and so forth, I've always been successful to be able to be able to be able to do that and consistently get job promotions as well as salary increments. In fact, new jobs also come quite easily to me as well.

So one of the things that people used to ask me, and it's not just nowadays, you know, as a career coach or mentor, but it's also a question that I used to get from my peers as well, is that what are the skills that you had that, you know, I have to learn if I want to have a smooth sailing career as you. Like if I want to become a top performer, I want to easily change jobs. I want to easily have, like, good relationships with my stakeholders that, you know, maybe you have successfully done that. Like, what are the skills that I need to have?

So this is a question that I get very often. And I would say that usually I would say something along the lines of, you know, it's a combination of skill sets for sure, like communication, understanding expectations, relationship building, productivity, critical thinking. It's usually a combination of those skills. And obviously, the bigger picture of like understanding how the corporate world works, like the structure, the culture, and so forth. So I'll say that all these components are definitely important,

and these are the things that I do teach in my career program, the corporate survivors three-step framework, which is get clear, get confident, get visible. So all these elements are taught in there. However, recently, I kind of got myself thinking about this question again, and I think that aside from those skill set, right, there's one more important element. And I'll say that this is like the overarching skill that I think I naturally had,

I didn't really think about it that deeply, but I think it's a skill that I naturally had, which is being able to identify the root cause problem, being able to see very clearly what the actual problem actually is, right? What the real challenge is, like, what, you know, what's the issue and the root cause of the issue, like instead of just dealing with the noise and the symptom and just rushing to try to fix something.

And I think this is a really, really underrated skill that a lot of people don't realize that, you know, before you build any skill set, before you take any action, before you put in any effort to try to resolve any problem at work, you first need to identify whether it's like the problem that you are trying to fix, right? Is that actually the problem or it's just a bunch of noise? Now, I don't want this to sound like super duper abstract. So in this episode, I actually want to share with you two case studies. And these are actually two case studies. least from my corporate survivor programs like mentorship calls. So every single month I have like mentorship Q&A calls with my members and students where we would actually deep dive into their career situation. And usually the career situation may sound very complicated, right? Their work situation, there's like a bunch of problems and you may try to fix it, which my students, they try to fix it. But usually in our Q&A calls, I will actually help them to break down and really understand what the root cause problem actually is.

So I think it would be more beneficial for me to actually show it to you so that you can see for yourself, right? What does identifying a root cause problem actually means and maybe challenge yourself to see whether you are able to identify the real problem or were you caught up and got distracted with the noise and therefore any effort that you put in is not really resulting to anything. And that's actually something that creates a lot of frustration in different people and I don't want that for you. Now, I'm going to break this into like a simple three-part series because usually for the monthly members' Q&A calls, it can be quite long. So I just want to make sure that this episode doesn't go on and on and on. So I'm going to break it into basically three parts. So one of the key frameworks that I teach is to get clear, get confident and get visible. So in this episode, we're just going to cover the job clarity, confidence and competence.

So these three elements is going to be really, really critical for you to identify the root cause problem of actually what the heck is going on at your workplace, different people, your bosses, and so forth. And for the next episode, the next part of this series, we are going to talk about job visibility, really getting opportunities for a level up and whether you should stay or go to go for a new job, right? So that's more of a, we'll say like a visibility, opportunities and level up. So that's going to be in part two. And in part three, we're going to dive. into some of the common questions I get asked from my students and members regarding job search. So it's going to be a simple three-part series. So as I said, the superpower, the real, real superpower is being able to identify the root cause problem of any workplace challenges, any career challenges.

Because if you can identify the right problem, then you can take the right actions to go and fix the problem. Otherwise, you can put in a lot of time effort and energy is probably not going to result in anything. right so just some food for thought for you and like I said this is going to be a three-part series and if you want to watch the full members mentoring Q&A session you don't want to wait for the series you just want to watch the whole thing you can go to my website at www.maping.com you can then watch the free Q&A video is actually a full session that I host for members of my career program The Corporate Survivor so you can watch the full thing where we cover for every single thing from, you know, career clarity, confidence, competence,

visibility, opportunities, and up to the job search elements as well. So like I said, if you don't want to wait for the three-part series to drop, you can just watch the full thing at www.maping.com. Other than that, if you're ready, then let's dive in to the first part where we're going to talk about clarity, confidence, and competent. So there are actually going to be two case studies. So the first case study is a, I guess, one of my members. So she is in a pretty senior position and she has started a new job and finding extremely difficult to handle her big boss.

So her boss is head of department, someone who is extremely senior and she is also a pretty senior in a pretty senior position as well. So the first case study is about her challenge in a new job, trying to adapt, trying to deliver and meet expectations and really feeling a little bit beaten down. And we're also going to deep dive as to the issues that she has managed to identify the actions that she has taken, whether those make sense or not, or maybe she should be focusing on other things. I'm going to share my perspective and feedback as always. Then for the second case study, it's going to be about managing people, particularly managing upstairs, which is your manager and your boss, and managing downstairs, who are your more junior team members and, of course, peers as well. so for the second case study it is again a member of my mentoring group so she is a junior manager like a new manager who was assigned a fresh grad to work with and there were some struggles in terms of getting the junior team member the junior staff to complete work meet expectations and so

forth so this student and you know my member has taken some actions but it seems to be not working and there is some kind of blow up that is likely going to happen right So the issue and story that she has presented is pretty dire because she definitely needs a solution. Otherwise, the team dynamics, team building, everything is going to be broken. So without further ado, let's dive into the two case studies. The thing about the Q&A calls is that I don't want you all to see as a shortcut to solve your career situation, meaning that if I just come here and ask Mipin a question, I can just ignore the main program. Then I'm just going to take on one or two things that Mepin said today.

and, you know, fingers crossed, everything's going to work out. Now, you still need the foundation and you still need the core knowledge in the corporate survivor itself because everything is actually connected. So the mentoring calls, right, the Q&A calls, is a supplement for you to better tailor it to your situation. So it's like how it can better apply and tailor your problem, right? And then the solutions that are already in the program to apply to your situation. It is not a shortcut whereby you're like, okay, maybe he just said, I need to do this one thing.

then I try to go and do it then next month oh I have a problem again then this and that right so take this as a holistic program whereby okay you go through the course the knowledge

you understand the strategy you understand the principles you understand the framework why the certain methods are designed a certain way then we apply it to your career situation the way that I like to think about it

is that I rather learn like five methods that I know really really works that I can apply to 500 situations than trying to grow social media and look for like 500 strategies to try to apply to my one situation. That doesn't work. Okay.

So let's dive in. Now, as usual, we're going to start with the three-step framework first. They get clear, get confident and get visible. Then later we're going to talk about the job search portion. So as usual, participate in the chat box. But one of the things that I did notice in this month's submissions is that the questions are actually really, really long. So I want to remind you all.

what we want to practice here is to identify what is the real root cause problem. Because as you see, as I go through the questions, you notice that for the student who is in a dilemma feeling like trapped and they just want to talk about it, sometimes we can easily get distracted by the noise. Oh, there's this thing happening. That thing happening. I'm thinking about this. My colleague is saying that. My boss is also saying this. I'm also noticing this and that. Just just a lot that's going on. So what we really want to practice here is to identify the root cause problem. Because if you can identify the right problem, then you can actually fix it. Otherwise, you notice that even if you put in effort to try to fix a situation,

despite your hard work and effort and like mental sanity is not getting better. So that could be a sign that you are not identifying the right root cause problem. Okay, so just a final reminder, if you have changed your name in today's session, right, in the Zoom chat, can you please DM team may ping to confirm the full name that you use to join the corporate service program? So this session is only for active mentoring membership members. Okay. Cool. So let's start with step one, which is get clear.

So first question. So just high level, right? This student is a vice president and her boss is big boss. You're talking about like director level. So this question around working with a senior level, new boss. So context. I've just started my new job in January. Same function, same industry, but from B to C to B to B.

I'm still learning the culture, the stakeholders, the process, and the platforms. My boss is very capable and an intelligent woman. But she's extremely impatient, very fast, detail-oriented, and can grasp the situation without full information. Thus, also jumping to conclusions a lot. I'm having difficulties adapting to my new boss's style, communicating with her and meeting her expectations. She expects me to operate at the same speed and competency as others, who have been in the role much longer than I have. In the past three weeks, I've been involved in some deep work already and made some mistakes.

I find that she's also been very unforgiving and started to micromanage me a lot because of these mistakes. So what I've tried? Try across guidelines on managing difficult personality types. I'm also aware of the skills gap I have for this role and taking measures to improve them. Okay, next part of the story. So she said, I need an approach of communicating with her. The main problem is that she talks too fast and bards me with questions before I can even reply. before I can even reply to the first question.

So this gets me frustrated and I'm not talking to her, I'm not talking at the same speed with her, right? I need to win back her trust after the initial mistakes I meet. So how do I remind her that I'm a new joiner and I still need time to get up to speed without sounding like I'm making excuses for poor or slow performance? So a final reminder is that this student is a vice president. So if your company doesn't have a vice president level,

you can imagine it like a senior manager level. So senior manager, yeah, so senior manager. yeah, so senior manager, vice president, and maybe to a certain extent, associate director might be along the similar band. So that's kind of like the career level that you can kind of visualize for this student. Now, as I said, for today's session,

I really, really want to focus on identifying the root cause issue. So even if you look at this student scenario, there's just a lot going on, right? New job and the boss is like great, but a little bit, you know, crazy. And then micromanaging, there's just a lot of like keywords that you see. So the question I want to ask you, I want you to put in the chat box, what is the number one problem that's causing all this stuff? So if you really drill it down, what is the root cause problem that all these drama is happening right now, all these work challenges is happening right now.

So give it a try. Now, you may be able to identify a lot of issues, and you notice that today I may not want to focus so much on asking you what do you think you're going to do because you can only do the right thing if you can identify the real problem. So let's start. I want to hear from everyone in the chat box one minute, really think about. So I'm going to go to the previous slide. I want to hear from you in the chat box. What do you think is the root cause problem? Like what is the real problem that's causing all these problems, right? You know, all these symptoms for lack of better word right now. So I want to hear for everyone in chat box. Okay. So as usual, feel free to share with everyone in the chat box. If you feel really a little bit shy, you still want to share. You still want to share. then you can put it, you can send me a private message on Zoom. Okay, but highly recommend that you share so that we can learn from one another, okay? Okay, 30 seconds left. Okay, let me see.

Let me see about the comments. so since she's a month old in the company i believe it may be lack of clarity on her boss's expectations need to ask her boss about her view instead of guessing pre-aligned deliverables and support resources okay anyone else okay so i'm also seeing a couple of like new questions very very long questions in the chat box so the way to submit your question is when the Q&A form is sent out on the first of every month so make sure that you leverage the first of every month to submit the question all right okay everyone anyone else wants to share what do you think is the root cause problem that is causing you know all these symptoms and drama that this student is experiencing

okay 15 seconds left okay so i'm going to move it to the second slide so you can see kind of like the other part of the story if you find it useful okay not sure but perhaps it's an impression of her boss and not aligning expectation okay now just make a final note on the one or two students who is submitting their questions in the chat box so the chat box is actually not the place to do that so the Q&A form that I send out on the first of every month is the place for you to submit the question and the steps is also included in the mentoring course portal as well as the emails that I sent out in terms of how to submit a question so make sure that you kind of like look through that so I'm

may answer your question if let's say there's some time for Q&A later, but as you can see here, usually the questions are really, really long. And for me to give you like the best quality answer that actually challenges your thinking and gives you new perspective, I think submitting the question is going to be the best format. Okay. Cool. All right. So let me look at the last comment. Then we will go through. Okay. Lack of proper sitting down to have a timeline and what to achieve in those timeline. Everything seems to be very urgent. All right. Cool. Now, I think, based on the answers that I'm seeing, many of you are still talking around the lines of like, oh, we just need to align expectation, align expectation. But maybe I'll give you a slightly

different perspective here. So let's go back to the initial part of the story so that you can kind of like see what's going on. Now, if you ask me, what is the root cause issue? I think the root cause issue is that this client, right, this student didn't really realize that she's actually coming into the company at a very senior position. So as I said just now, if you're a vice president, senior manager or associate director, these are actually really, really senior roles that may take quite some time for the company to hire because it's very difficult to find someone of your exact qualifications, right? And obviously, it's a senior position. You have more responsibilities and better pay, which then means that actually, even before you step into the door,

right, the expectations for you to be able to be independent, to be able to lead and to basically solve your own problems and like deliver almost immediately, that is generally the expectation already. So you'll notice that this is really at the top level when you, when you join a new company, that is the expectation. But of course, if you're a manager and someone more junior than that, it's probably, you probably get a little bit more time. So back to that logic of like, okay, it's very likely that this company, this team has actually waited a very, very long time for you to join the team.

So guess what happens, you know, between this, you know, during this period. Luckily, your boss, your new boss is the person who is actually handling all the work. So what your boss may want to do now is like, okay, let me just offload everything to Mipin. Finally, I may I should hire a vice president. Finally, I may I should hire a director, right?

Let me just offload everything to Mepin. Right, Mepin will be able to sort it out because she is coming in at a senior level and then, you know, she is actually someone who is experienced. So she should be able to do it. Now, understanding your boss's mindset is very, very important. Otherwise, you may feel that like, okay, I'm still new at this job, right? I need at least 30 to 60 days to pick up speed.

But your boss may not have the expectation already because of your career level. Not because it's you. I mean, I think if another person comes in, the other person might face the same issue as well. So this is actually like, I'll say the corporate sort of expectation. Now, let's look at it line by line. and I'll just break it down because for many of you, obviously, if you're here, it tells me that you still want to grow your career. So this could be something that may happen to you in the future.

So let's go through line by line. Now, okay, so she just started a new job, this fine. So she said, I'm still learning the culture, stakeholders, the process and platforms. Now, the first thing is that, right, when you say, I'm still learning the culture, you need to be very specific as to, like, what do you mean by culture? Because culture is a very big word, right? So culture could be the way the team is structured. Like, you know, who does the team work with?

and like what exactly is your job. Like, I think instead of like saying understanding culture, which feels a bit woo-woo, it's actually make it clearer to say, okay, I need to really understand the job scope, right? So sort of like redefining some of these words will allow you to focus a little bit better.

Now, then she says, my boss is very capable, but she's very, she's extremely impatient, fast, detail-oriented, blah, blah, blah. Now, this, to me actually this part is very important. She said, you know, can grab the situation without full information. No, no.

Your boss has the full information. Because your boss has been there, before you. You are the one actually that doesn't have information because you're still learning, right? What's going on? So it's not right to conclude to say, actually my boss doesn't have full information, but she can conclude to jump to conclusion. In fact, I would say that for now

you really want to focus on why is she coming to this conclusion? So it's actually better to try to get understanding by, just say, oh, you mentioned that it likely leads to this. So I've just started looking at this project. I may have missed what a few things. So just wanted to confirm with you. So when you say he has led to this, like, is there any documents or any other stakeholder that I can speak to to get more information on this? Because I really want to dive into it. So I can kind of get the full picture as well. So it's not concluding to say

that like, well, she jumps into conclusions a lot. Because then your impression of your boss is very negative. You're like, okay, this person is a bad listener. So I'm just going to ignore her because you know, she's not listening to me. But you need to take it as in like, you don't really know what your actual job scope is yet. And you also don't know what has happened in the company before you in January. So you need to take it as an information gathering process. Now, the other part I mentioned, right, she said, you know, expecting this student to operate at a very high speed and competency as others. This, I would say, is quite normal because of the career level. So she said, I've been involved in some deep work and already made some mistakes. Now, for sure, there'll be

some mistakes. So if you're a high performer, sometimes the mistakes, right, is very difficult to accept that, to accept that, well, someone is saying that, oh, maybe he didn't do a good job. You know, you won't feel good. But you need to record. But you need to record. But you need to that it's a new job. So it's normal to make mistakes. That is normal. Now, the other part she mentioned is that, you know, the boss has been very unforgiving and started to micromanagement. That is because, right, your work is high priority. Okay. If I don't have an important piece of work, I will not hire a vice president. I will hire a junior executive, right? So basically, you're handling work that, like, cannot go wrong, right? That's actually handled by the high level.

So when your boss sees that like, oh, actually MAPing is somehow a little bit slow, then I may sort of like start to monitor a little bit more because I cannot have the project be a mess. That's actually the logic behind that. So I'll give you some suggestions later, but I just want to change a little bit of perspective around micromanaging me. Actually, actually your boss is not micromanaging you. Your boss is actually micromanaging the task that you're supposed to be doing, but you don't know what to do yet. Okay, so it's not personal. It's actually to track your job. to track the piece of work that you're supposed to be delivering.

But because you don't know how to do it yet or you're not sure actually what's involved, so you may be taking a little bit more time and your boss obviously knows how to do it or knows the information, so your boss is very fast. That is actually the difference. Okay, so it's not really because your boss is trying to micromanage you is because you really don't know, right, this person.

Okay, now the other mistake, this to them is that she's actually trying to tackle this by looking at it as a personality, which I explain a little bit more, then she said, you know, I'm also aware of the skills gap I have for this rule. Now, the thing here is that, like, this student didn't really explain what her skills gap are, so I can't really comment on that.

But I'll say that, like, she is looking at her boss and diagnosing that, oh, it must be a personality issue. So it's a personality issue, and therefore it's a communications issue. That's why you notice that the way that she asked the question is more like, okay, like, how do I communicate with her? She talks very fast, she bombards me and everything.

Now, the final point is that she said, I need to win back her trust after the initial, I'll say this. Actually, it's not about winning back her trust. Actually, there were no, there's no trust established in the first place. Okay. So you need to take it as in like, it's, it's at the, um, it's still at the high level stage yet. So you're still in the process of like adapting and building trust. So don't say things like that because it will make you feel emotionally beaten down. Okay. And that's not the case. Like every beginning, right, every new job, there are always going to be challenges. Right. Now, here are,

some suggestions that I have. Now, again, right, when I want you to look into module one and two, now, if you've ever gone through the program, right, module one is about job scope, which is clarity, right? You start, how's the company structured? How's your team structure? You know, which team you're working with, what are they doing, stuff like that? So actually, there's a lot of information gathering, which you may be in a process of doing. Then module two is about people. Now, based on what I see at a high level for this question is that this student is actually very focused on module two. It's like, I need to learn how to deal with my boss

because it's a personality difference issue. Actually, it's not. I'll say that the issue here is about the job scope clarity. Now, again, right, at the senior level, you will have, like, more than, you know, three priorities. You may have like six or seven things that you really, really need to deliver at a high level. So when your boss bombards everything with you,

it can feel very overwhelming. So here's what I suggest. Now, there are a couple of lessons that are actually all connected to one another. So 4.1, 4.4.3, and 5.2, these are actually all about understanding what your goals are, like your key performance goals, the step by step, the people that you need to work with, as well as, you know, networking to make sure that you build relationship with the new people that you know, you just come to know in this company. Now, to solve your immediate problem, instead of like, you know, learning about the culture,

learning about this and high level, you need to focus on the current project that your boss is given to you. Now, your boss may have given you like 10 things on your desk, but you don't have to clear out the 10 things. You don't have to like start organizing and like learning about the 10 things at once. I'll suggest that you start with the current project that is clearly at the top of your boss's mind because your boss is like already dragging you into the meetings, really giving you the deep work, maybe asking you to review certain stuff already. So you need to focus on the current project that you know that your boss is anxious about. The boss keeps asking you about it and keep pulling you into different projects. So identify you maybe one

or two. So I'm not saying that the other priorities, you don't need to work around it, but this is what is getting your boss angsty right now. So you want to focus on the ones now. make sure that you get all the details, documents, and identify the stakeholders. Now, it depends on how senior your boss is. It may not be a case whereby you can really sit down with your boss two hours a day and then your boss will patiently come and tell you, okay, maybe it's what you do and stuff like, it may not be the case, but if you are at a senior level, right, or you're taking over someone's work, it means that someone has been working on this project, this high level priority before

you came in. So what you want is to get the details or you can ask your boss, say, okay, for this project, right, is there a list of people that I can speak to because I'm new, I also want to take this chance to introduce myself to them and let them know my role here, and I want to get all the details. So you can use your boss as like a person that can give you the key contact. Now, in my program itself, right, I talk about like the top five policies, the top five procedures, stuff like, yes. But right now, I want you to be specific around that specific project so that when your boss bombards you with questions, you at least can answer about the project.

At the minimum, you can say, okay, based on what I have seen, based on the project documents I've read for the past six months, it seems to me that this is happening. And based on the latest meeting, this, this thing is also mentioned. I just want to confirm with you. When you want me to do this, does it mean that? Now, if your boss is impatient, clearly your boss will interrupt you, but you need to stand strong too, because the more you keep quiet, then the more these things are going to become worse. Okay?

So, focus on that one project. information, gather everything, all the details, all the documents, identify all the stakeholders. I will even schedule catch-ups, catch-ups, right, with the stakeholders as well. Like, all these people who have been involved in this project, I will go and sit down with them, and I'll use 5.2, which is the networking session, the networking format, to chat with them, to let them know, hey, you know, I'm here, and then, so that they can tell me actually what has happened. So what you are missing here is the institutional knowledge.

So your boss is getting frustrated because she has a lot of institutional knowledge, but then you actually don't know anything. So there's the gap there. But I think instead of like you trying to like read up all these policies and like trying to figure out random things, I think for you, you need to focus. Now, there's another element that you can potentially consider as well, which is the 4.14, which is around the catch-up sessions, the boss. Remember, after you have gathered all the information, you've spoken to different people,

you would have like created a rough picture around like what is the deep work all about and whether this one or two projects that your boss is hounding you this past few weeks is all about none. Then whenever you speak to your boss, which probably allows you as a new joiner, even at the VP level, director level, you can probably have like two catch-ups, right? Two conversations with your boss every single week. Now, this is your chance to go and reconfirm these things that you have really gathered, whether you got it right or not. And if your boss start Bombadi, if you question, then you can always start with, you can say,

You can say, yes, based on what I understand, but based on my review of this document, actually list down the things that you have seen or based on this person I've spoken to. So let your boss know, say, hey boss, I've done something about it already. And this is what I understand from, you know, my conclusion of talking with them. So if your boss is asking something else, you can say, okay, you can say this is actually not something that was mentioned to me, but yes, because I say, yes, definitely I'll find out a little bit more. So now can you share with me, right? Based on your last conversation with Adam, what happened?

Now I'm going to ask my boss back. okay so don't get frustrated by the bombardment of question because the more frustrated you get then the more you won't do it and this is actually just going to go downhill because at least at a very high career i mean if you're someone who's very senior right like there's really a lot of work so most of the time the big bosses will expect you to get up to speed and sometimes the reputation kind of sticks like maybe after a few months you're like actually mayping really cannot then after that no matter what you do is going to be very difficult okay so you do you need to power through, show some proactiveness, show some leadership skills, and show that you

are actually very calm. It's like, okay, you know, boss is asking a lot of things. I get that she's, you know, anxious, right? She wants to get everything done fast. And then maybe they waited very long for me to join. I get it. Right. It's not something that I can change. Like I said, whether it's you are the one hired or they hired someone else, it's likely the same thing's going to happen. Okay? All right. So, I know it's a little bit heavy. So let me know if you guys are okay with it at least for now then we'll move on to the next question if you feel like okay I kind of like

get it I kind of see it then let me know put in a quick okay then we'll move on right heavy but okay for now I really need more analysis feeling okay all good okay

yeah up. Good, good, good, good, good. All right, awesome. Okay, so let's move on. So now we're going to go into phase two, which is get confident, corporate skill. But I will say that, like, usually for phase one, right, so the clarity, confidence and competence usually is very related. So I'm not, I want to make sure that you're not thinking, oh, this part is the competence part, right? Then I don't need clarity. No, no, no. Everything is connected in the corporate survivor. But I'll say that between step one and step two, right? The clarity, confidence, and competence is usually quite interrelated. Okay. So let's move on the next question.

Okay, so this one is a pretty long one as well. So let's kind of like look at it together. So this is around dealing with a staff member's over well. So I have a new staff. Okay, just high level. Like this student is a new manager, like a junior manager. So I have a new staff who joined in November, who reports directly to the GM, which is general manager, and indirectly reports to me and the research lead.

So another manager. So basically high level is that like there's the boss, which is the GM, right, general manager. Then there's this student who is a project. project manager and then there's like a research solve manager. So there's this new stuff. She's like a very, very junior fresh grad that joins. So structurally is like, okay, boss, then student, right? And then her peer, which is also a manager, then a junior level.

So make sure you get like the structure right first. Okay. So when she first joined, I've laid out my expectations and time frame for repetitive tasks. I also organized weekly catch-ups with research leads, with the research lead to assign tasks to this new stuff and showing she has a balanced workload for both teams. With the research project on hold, majority of her workload was on my projects. So the GM assumed this staff may not have enough tasks assigned to her. So he decided to allocate some tasks where he needs support with.

So recently she has been struggling to deliver what I've assigned to her on schedule. So based on my observation, she seems overwhelmed, disorganized and been procrastinating, leading her to drop the ball. So the research later also confirmed the same observations during our catch-up and we decided to send a recap email of our one-on-one to this stuff, including the deadlines. So I've shared this information to the GM and he began interrogating me about meeting his expectations. right, the time frame, examples and so forth, which I did. Now, next part. So it's been two months, and based on my experience, I believe this stuff is ESTP, my work personality is ISTJ, what I'm planning to do for the next four weeks.

So the research lead and I, so basically both managers, will trial the recap email, including deadlines to address her poor listening skills and tendency to finish other people's sentences. I will organize a daily 30-minute check-un with her at 2 p.m. to address her disorganized and procrastination. I'll remind her about my expectations and time frame. so my question what guidance do you have for me to better manage this sort of work dynamic particularly the GM other recommendations to better manage and support this stuff now there's a lot

here and this is something that you may experience as well as a manager or you are some kind of senior who have like a junior an intern right a fresh grad who's just assigned to work with you right so this actually more common than you think and regardless of whatever career level there will be someone who's more junior than you whether it's in your team or another team that you may need to work with. Now, I'll go back to the first slide and I want to, oops, so I want to hear from you in the chat box, right? Again, we're practicing the root cause issue. So what do you think is the root cause problem here? Like, what, what is the thing that's actually not done? That's why this thing is happening now, right? This drama is happening now, right? This, like,

problem or rather it feels like a problem is happening. Okay, one minute. Just share it in the chat box. okay the staff is too new maybe still learning about her work okay so make sure that you feel free to share it in the general chat box with everyone for a better learning experience okay alignment with the GM on her workload and deliverables anyone else Okay, not sure if procrastination is a habit. All right, anyone else? Okay, so give you a try. You notice that when the problem pops up, right, it always feels very complicated.

But the skill here is actually learning how to eliminate the noise so you can identify what is actually the real problem. Because if not, right, you notice that you can put in a lot of effort to try to fix this situation. Maybe I've done this, I've done that. Why is it not working? Now, it's not working because you didn't identify, like, why is this thing happening? Like, the actual root cause, not the symptoms that you're seeing, which is there's this thing, that thing, no.

There's usually like one or two, very, very clear root cause that if not done well, the other problems will start to appear. So let me look at the other comments that just came in. Perhaps too late to let the GM know that's a problem. I'm not sure if there's a discussion with the GM about the scope of work, because she's new and she may think that she needs to work on the GM's task first, who's her boss, then everyone else comes after. Like an alignment between her GM and staff. Good. I'm so happy. The real problem is that, right?

This corporate survival member, right, this manager, make the very crucial mistake of assuming that this staff works for her. This new staff does not work for her. Because this, let's just call her the junior staff. The junior staff reports to the GM. The GM is her line manager. meaning the GM is the most important person in this lady you know in this like fresh grad's career okay so in fact I would say that like the fresh girl actually did the right thing because she did

the thing that the boss told her to do the actual boss remember the line manager the reporting manager she did the right thing in fact if if it's the other direction I would say that like I think probably she has done the right thing because you should want to handle the thing that comes from the most senior boss that's usually the case okay now The other problem, the other root cause, which I think is really related, that you all manage to identify as well, is that have you all noticed that the GM is not involved in the sort of like the work allocation for this stuff? Like the GM doesn't seem to me that has any idea, right, what this person is supposed to be doing.

Because the key word is this, right? She said that the GM assumes this stuff does not have enough tasks assigned to her. why would the GM assume that? So actually that's your failure because you were, you know, between the two managers, right, were so busy if the small, small stuff, well, need to do this, need to do that. But forgot that like, hey, remember,

before execution, before productivity, what do you focus on? What did I say just now in the previous story? The clarity of your job scope, right? And the thing is that, right, the mistake is already here because this student believes that, oh, right, this staff is assigned to me and the other manager. we are both responsible to design her job scope and give her the work. No, no, no, no.

This new staff reports to the GM. The GM is the one that actually has to agree what is the job scope. Even if both of you, as managers outline it, right, maybe this stuff is really helping both of you, but the GM needs to agree that this is the work that's going to be assigned to this stuff. Okay. So it shouldn't even come to the point that this stuff is like this the GM right assumes that this your stuff has got nothing to do it like it shouldn't even come to this point okay so if you if you go through line by line right I help you to see this right the key word is ready here report directly the GM indirectly report to me so in a way if it's in dire report right it just means that like you just have an extra

helping hand that's what that actually means okay so that's why she said you know I've laid out my expectations and time frame to this stuff no no no before you laid out expectations to this stuff. You should go to the GM, you say, hey, this is what me and the other manager have planned for this stuff to be doing. So she's going to be doing this. Just want to give you an update and then make sure that you're, you know, we are aligned on like, this is what she's going to do. Okay. So that's not done. That's why it leads to the next problem, which is then the GM thinks that, okay, well, this girl has got nothing to do, right? So I'm just going to give her more work because what senior people don't like, right, right? It's like, if I have like 10 staff sitting

in my office, right, and I don't know what all of them are doing, I'll be thinking like, well, these people all have no work, right? Then if I have stuff to do, I'm just going to start allocating it to them, which is going to be a disruption for you. But you must know that you actually, by not aligning the GM, because you don't see where the GM is structurally, you have actually created this problem for yourself. Okay.

Now, there's this other element. I think I would consider this the more people element to it. So she said that, you know, okay, so this girl, right, this junior staff struggling to deliver the work I've assigned to her of share. Of course she's going to struggle because she's going to focus on what the big boss wants her to do, right? which is, you know, the GM, because first thing is like, obviously, it's her line manager, but GM, right, is that ready management level.

So as a very, very new sort of fresh grade, they're like, whoa, you know, the big boss asking me to do something, so I'm going to do that first. And therefore, you all work, right, the junior manager's work is not going to get done. I think that's actually quite natural. It's for you to take charge of the situation instead of, instead of, like, pressuring her more. And I think the other mistake here is that you want to be very careful. Otherwise, right, you can be seen as a very unempathetic manager. And the mistake is here.

So, so based on your observations, you already say that, like, okay, the staff seems overwhelmed, disorganized, and has been procrastinating. Now, I'll challenge you to think whether, is she really procrastinating because she knows what she's supposed to do, but she's just lazy. Now, when we say someone's procrastinating,

basically we're saying that they are lazy. Or this person is overwhelmed, disorganized, and now they feel mentally, like, you know, they're very blown up mentally, that they feel so overwhelmed that they cannot take action. Now, that's very different. Right?

You want to be really able to see this. Because when you say that, well, maybe it's procrastinating. I'm like, okay, that's a very different connotation to say that, okay, you know, this stuff is so overwhelmed by work because everyone is going to her, asking her to say, hey, maybe can you do this, can you do this, can you do this?

So eventually, you know, someone without any experience, even any corporate experience at all, they'd be like, oh my God, like, what the heck's going on? Like, I don't even know what to do now. So they may go into like a mode of like, like, you know, a bit of that shock, you get what I'm saying? Like, so you want to be empathetic here. So don't try to be careful when you diagnose people with a certain word.

Oh, this person lazy. This person, idiot. This person's stupid. Then, you know, you will not be very open to, assess the situation very objectively. Now, the next part, right? You see, right, remember what I said just now? Now, the junior staff, right, is really very overwhelmed

because instead of her, you know, the work that's being assigned to her, suddenly now the big boss is probably giving her more work, which is new work, and then she probably has not dealt with the big boss before, which is a GM, so she's very a bit stressed out. So what's the last thing that you should be doing? The last thing that you should be doing is actually what you have been doing, which is like, now I'm going to pressure her more. So imagine, right, imagine that time when you're so overwhelmed already,

and then your boss is now sitting right behind your shoulder. and you say, Mip Ping, how come, this is still not done? How do you feel? I'm like, maybe I'm like, Zona already. I'm like, I cannot handle the stress anymore. Okay? So you must remember, like, for someone who's so new to the working while, so usually less than three years, right?

Naturally, they don't really know how to organize their work. Right? No one has actually taught them how to even work in the corporate world. So this is something you, as a manager, someone who's just a little bit more senior, you need to have this awareness of like, it's just her corporate world experience. It's not really you,

but it's the corporate world experience at the start. She doesn't even have that. Okay. Now, next part. So the mistake is right. So the action is like, okay, I send my recap email to give even more deadlines. But that's because you assume that she's procrastinating. But I would say that it's not really the issue.

The issue is because now she has probably double the work. And she doesn't really know what to do. So I feel like you may think that you're supporting her, but actually you're not supporting her. Does that make sense? Then she said, okay, then the student said, I shared this information to the GM, and he began interrogating me about meetings. Yeah, that's because at the start there's no alignment. right so when you now that you go to the gm right it's going to sound all this nitty gritty and stuff like that

or it may sound that like you are complaining about that stuff like you just want to be careful all these are actually connected so the foundation is that like the gym is not involved so let's go to the next part of the question which is right i want to i want to send so her way of solving this is like okay i want to trial the recap email i want to give her more deadlines do you think she doesn't know the deadline but she is unable to meet the deadline right now because like mentally she may be so overwhelm and birth out. So you want to recognize this other reality, right? Because she said that, because this staff has poor listening skills. No, no, no, no. If the staff has poor listening skills, they will not be taken on any more

tasks already. Right. Okay. So daily check-in with her. I'm not sure. I actually think you should be spending your time with the GM instead of like this girl. So, yeah, so I'll remind you of her expectation of time. Yeah, she knows that. Okay. Now she has doubled the work and she doesn't know where, like, you know, how to handle it because it's just a lot of work. Okay. It's actually not really the issue. then this like I said right if you kind of like see the if you don't see the situation clearly what's going to happen is then you're going to start fixing the wrong things so that's why my question is that okay how do I manage this sort of work dynamic particularly the GM what work

dynamic is actually from the start you didn't even clarify the job scope of this new stuff that just came in it's not even work dynamic it's like the gym has no idea what this new stuff is doing there's no job scope you may have agreed at a high level but the GM has no idea okay so this whole problem started is because the gym has no idea what the heck's going on so you can how do I better manage and support this stuff? You do not need to manage. The word is not manage this stuff. Okay.

If you want to better manage and support this stuff, you need to go to the GMD. Your job is not just like telling your staff, hey, you need to do this. Hey, you need to do this. No, no, no. Your job, right, sometimes, like, as a manager, you need to go upwards.

Okay? So this is kind of like the next level up. So in order to protect your team, to manage your team. Sometimes, like, you need to have the next level conversation because that's not something a junior person can do. Okay? So if a junior staff, as a manager,

your job is to go and talk to the director. If you're a senior staff, manager. You have a junior staff. It's like, you know, it's your job. Or maybe you're a director, right? Your managers are all struggling. It's my job to go and talk to the CEO, talk to the C-suite and just say, hey, you know, boss, how do we realign this? Okay. Now, so this is what I suggest. So it's quite similar to the one that I talked about earlier. You'll notice that actually is very, very different scenario, but the foundation is actually quite similar, which is instead of like focusing on the job soap clarity, this student also made the same mistake

as the earlier student, which is quickly jumping into the personality. Oh, just because this stuff, is this problem, that problem, because she's an extrovert or introvert, that's why she's doing all this. No, no, no. It's always start with the job scope first. So it's like if there's no job scope, then it doesn't matter like what the personality is. And it's going to be very hard to go and monitor someone

if you don't really know what they're monitoring again. So particularly for this student, she may think that she's the manager, but she is not the line manager. And this is actually something that's made very clear in module 2. In module 2, the person number 3 is always a line. manager, particularly if it's a more senior person. So in fact, I would say that the junior staff did the right thing. If it was me, if I'm the junior staff, I will do what the GM told me to do as well. Okay. So what you want to do is that because you are technically, not technically,

you are officially not the line manager of this junior staff. So your job, right, so instead of like two people in the, instead of like, you and the research lead and then the junior staff, actually no. Actually the dynamic, right, is actually the GM, the two managers and then the junior the stuff. So since the stuff is so junior, then it's actually the manager's job, whether it's you or the research lead to me, both of you are managers, your job is to go and talk to the GM. That is a triangle. But you're not, you're not putting the right person at the points of the triangle. Does that make sense? Now, that's the last one. In the mentoring video for July 20, there was also a question that was submitted around, you know, being given extra work, right?

That's outside of the JD by management. So you want, if you want, you can refer to that video as well, but the high level is that I said that if you can get visibility or if you're getting asked to do something by someone who's like, what I call management level, like, you know, head of department, country head, you know, GM level. Most of the time, right, you have to go and do it. So you can go through that, the July 2024 video that may give you a little bit more perspective on this situation. Okay. So we've gone a bit long winded here. But like I said, you know, today's sessions, today's question are all very dilemma-based, but just want to pause. for just 10 seconds.

I'll just hear it in the chat box. Are you guys okay? Like, can you see the real root cause that's actually driving all these new problems? I mean, it's more surface level problems, but it's actually not the root cause, root cause. So if you can kind of like, you know, can absorb and get it for now, you can just put in a very quick okay or like, you know, one or two comments in the chat box. And you may want to refer back to it as well. So clear.

Okay. So as usual, right, I mean, if there's anything that you want to discuss a little bit more, you can always use your bonus one-on-one coaching call if you haven't used that already. but this one, the way I want to approach it is that every student can benefit. Okay, cool.