(Low-Tech) Writing Implements for the New Year

All right, I still have not got my whizz-bang PDA-phone yet, though friends have given useful recommendations (Sony Ericssons and Treos seem to be tops). I have, however, gone shopping and returned with these writing treasures:

A Circa Junior Notebook, from Levenger

I stumbled across mentions of the Rollabind system here, and then found Levenger’s Circa products. I was looking for a system where I could mix and match the pages and undertake some customisation, if I felt so inclined. The Rollabind/Circa system seems ideal for this, as the discs that make up the spine easily allow pages to be lifted out and inserted. It’s similar to ring-binder systems but takes up less space and allows you to fold your notebook 360 degrees. If you have the punch, you can throw in virtually any size paper into your system, including business cards, notecards, etc.

Filed under: Work & Productivity, Writing

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Filed under: Personal Note

Women and Leadership

I’ve been inspired by a couple of articles I’ve read recently on Women and Leadership.

One is a cover feature by Newsweek magazine highlighting fifteen women and their take on leadership.  

The Malaysian cover has Marina Mahathir (“social activist”) as its model, but I was disappointed that her tale was less on female leadership and her own Malaysian experience and was more on her personal journey as an activist.  Her influence in the social sphere is strong, though, and she is highly regarded for the work that she has done for AIDS sufferers in the country. Her emphasis on human rights, equal rights for women and a “liberated” Islam, has a wide following via her weekly column and her blog. 

There were other inspiring role models and I wish to highlight a quote from Cynthia Carroll, incoming CEO of mining firm Anglo American who said:

 Throughout my career, I’ve worked in a male-dominated environment. First it was the oil industry, then the aluminum industry…But in all of my experience in male-dominated environments, I’ve learned that after a couple of months all that really goes away and it’s all about performance, and building a team that wants to be world-class.

I especially like her confidence:

There were times when people said, “You’re too young” or “You don’t have any background,” and blah, blah, blah. But I never found anything to be an obstacle. I never thought that there was anything that I couldn’t do.

Fantastic, and that kind of attitude got her the CEO job at Anglo American despite being non South African, female and with no mining background.

The other women featured include:

• Marissa Mayer, VP of Search at Google (“I think the concept that women are more emotional at work is an outdated cliché.“)
• Ruth Simmons, President of Brown University (“So often in the workplace, women assume that they have to be just like everybody else and downplay whatever is unique about them. I think it’s just the opposite. Whatever I’ve accomplished in my life, I’ve done it precisely because I have been different.“)
• Louise Arbour, U.N. high commissioner for human rights (“I think one way of validating women is to talk to them. To convey by action, not by discourse, the sense that they must participate, that what they have to say matters.“)

and Gwen Sykes, CFO of NASA, who very matter-of-factly says, “Women of my generation understand that we can’t have it all. We can have some things that are important to us. But we can’t have it all. You’re only one person. So you have to make choices and be comfortable with those choices.”

I agree with her, too. Right now, though, the focus has to be on providing women with these choices in the first place instead of them feeling their choices are made for them, whether by regulations that restrict women’s participation, glass ceilings, distorted religious interpretations or unfair societal pressure.

The women in the Newsweek feature, and indeed others around the world who are making their mark, illustrate that women and leadership are not mutually exclusive, and that the world stands to benefit from the infusion of female decision-making in echelons higher than the household.

Filed under: Collectibles, Newsprint, Women, Work & Productivity

It’s Not Just Women Who Juggle

The Wall Street Journal – which has a marvellous careers section – has started a new blog for career people struggling to find a harmonious work-life balance. Titled, aptly, “Juggle”, the blog is maintained by The Journal’s Sara Schaefer Muñoz, their reporter  covering homes and the remodeling industry. What is refreshing is that the Journal doesn’t just focus on women who have to balance careers and family, but also highlights men – including top guns like Pfizer chief executive Jeffery Kindler – who battle for balance daily.

Since starting this blog just a few days ago, I’ve received several emails from working fathers who point out they also participate in the “juggle,” feeling the pull between the office and home. One writes that dads face multiple pressures, from “climbing a corporate ladder . . . to being an NFL quarterback throwing pinpoint spirals to Junior, to being a plumber, automobile maintenance guru, carpenter, and Mr. fix-it around the house.” Another says he has “evolved past the father-knows-best model of years past into someone who remains very emotionally committed and involved with my children.”

I agree with Sara when she admits that “there is no way my own juggling act would work without everything my husband does — from taking our daughter to the doctor, to stocking the fridge with groceries, or waking at 2 a.m. to administer decongestant.” My husband and I split the task of sending our sons to Kumon twice a week, and even with this shared responsibility, there have been a couple of times when we had to ask the teacher for an alternative date (It’s my turn today and I write this now while waiting for my sons to finish their Kumon exercises).

A lot of focus has been on women, their careers and family, because it is traditionally women who have the responsibility to take care of the home and the children, while the men are allowed to concentrate only on “bringing in the bread”. With families relying on dual-incomes nowadays merely to survive, it is good to know that men are taking some of the load off the shoulders of their working wives, and more importantly, it is good to know that men, high-flying though they may be, are realising the important role that husbands and Dads play in making a happy family.

Filed under: Collectibles, Newsprint, Women, Work & Productivity

Professional Anger

When is anger on the job justified?

If something or someone more than just irritates you on a job related matter,
is it better to tell that person off immediately or swallow your emotions and
pretend all is okay?

What happens if you feel the person was taking advantage of what they perceive to be
your or your colleagues’ “niceness” and assume you will not point out the error of their ways?

I actually subscribe to more control being better than less, especially on the
professional front.

And this is even more so if you are female, because of the stereotypes
that exist (yes, they do exist).

Generally, I get very upset when people are rude, disrespectful and condescending
(unfortunately, the best of people exhibit these characteristics at the worst of times).

But I have learnt that it is better to stay calm on the surface and not react when that fire
inside is white-hot.

Put away the email you were furiously composing, silence the caustic retort that is on
your tongue, and save your door’s hinges.

Your anger might be justified but while you can hide emotions, you cannot retract
actions (well, you can but it’s not a pleasant thing to do).

I have found out that it really is more effective sometimes to react less, than more,
in these situations,  at least until your anger is under better control.

This WSJ Europe article confirms my view by saying that:

If you feel angry, delay your reaction by counting to 10 (or 50 if necessary), then reassess the situation…Distracting yourself with other thoughts can help you calm your ruffled feelings. When you’ve contained your anger, instead of succumbing to it, congratulate yourself. 

But of course, continually suppressing angry feelings is not a good thing either:

Although individuals who vent their anger attract more attention, those who repress angry feelings may actually suffer more…In actuality, they’re suppressing their anger because they fear its repercussions. “If I say how I really feel, she won’t be able to take it,” or “He’ll do something bad to me in return” or “She won’t accept me any longer” are frequent excuses. Their inability to express anger shows their passivity and limitations…“Anger that’s blotted out can be hazardous to one’s health,” she says.

Asians are pretty good at swallowing anger, even when they have pretty good cause to be upset, and especially when the slights occur on the job. We do actually prefer to keep up a peaceful pretence than to stir the waters and disrupt the tides.

And the fears above are quite accurate about our concerns of friendships or relationships
being jeopardised if we speak out.

Finding balance is never easy, especially when your professional reputation is on the line,
but I believe the guideline for anger expression is pretty straightforward: focus on the action, not the person, state your case rationally and with as many facts as possible, and indicate at the end of this conversation that you are still open to cordial relations with the person.

If this is impossible to do (as it can be with certain parties), then well, stay calm in the office
and take up kickboxing. 

Filed under: Work & Productivity

After the Drought

It’s pretty obvious, that I am facing a drought of sorts when it comes to blogpost ideas.

Not that there haven’t been items worth blogging about – a recent article in WSJ on younger women discarding their corporate career ambitions for fear of neglecting their family, for example (their older career sisters view this with concern and urge the young women not to view career and family as an either-or option before they have even embarked on their careers; I agree); a letter in Utusan Malaysia (in Malay) by a Sisters in Islam EXCO member rightly pointing out the good SIS has done in pushing women’s rights, especially for Muslim women, and the questions posed to SIS in response (a few of which are valid); my maiden visits to some Islamic clothing websites, thanks to Najah, which have a tempting range of clothing and headscarves (yes, we have a wide range here but the styles are different and who has time to shop nowadays?), and some other tidbits that could have been fashioned into a blogpost (my continuing irritation with people who don’t respond to calls, e-mails, and SMS-es being one of them).

Despite the blog silence, Sharon would be pleased to know I have jotted down snatches of thoughts and emotions before they floated away though I am far from being a regular journal-writer.

I have also been ambitious (and weak) enough to buy more books at a recent bookstore jaunt, despite an ever-long reading list:

• Malaysian literary star Adibah Amin’s English writing debut “The End of the Rainbow“,
• Silverfish New Writing 6 which has a collection of Malaysian short stories (this is the first time I am reading any of Silverfish’s collections, and so far, having read up to Saras Manickam’s gently humorous tale, I am impressed),
• Augusten Burroughs’s Running with Scissors, because it seems like a story that can make me laugh and feel grateful for my very normal life, and
• an  RM6.90 Picador Shots title, Claire Messud’s The Professor’s History, because it seems like a harmless morsel of fiction to tempt my husband to fiction (plus I was attracted to the story’s packaging – it really is cute and pocketable).

I have not read a single one of the above though I’ve started on the Silverfish.

It’s due to the MBA (no weekends until January!), the work, the family, etc, and also due to Frank McCourt’s Teacher Man, which I am three-quarters of the way through (and it is a very enjoyable journey), and Jeremy Clarkson’s The World According to Clarkson which was lent by a friend and which makes a very amusing dip, if you are into wry British humour (he’s a bit too clever sometimes). Both these books sit either on the passenger seat of my car, for handy traffic-jam readings, or on my bedside table.

The desire for fiction ebbs and flows these days. I used to love fiction and read nothing but.

Now, I find myself in the middle of Teacher Man, or The Historian (I have stalled for a bit on this), and then I’m asking myself – isn’t this a waste of time, to read about characters whose lives are so removed from mine that there is probably very little use I can make of what I have read? The guilt then arrives, especially when the eyes catch sight of the MBA tomes that wait dolefully on the desk.

I still love stories but now have to justify to myself why I read them.

It is strange, how you change. But more on this in another post, perhaps.

On the work/productivity side, I have caved in and bought myself a Levenger Circa Junior Notebook, because my current notebook system is getting too disorganised with personal jottings getting lost in the midst of professional items and with space running out too quickly for the day to day to-do lists. The Circa system – based on Rollabind – seems a good high quality solution that will allow me to mix and match pages as I please. I’ll post my feedback once I have it in my hands to play with (I cannot wait).

To soothe the nerves, I am currently listening to Diana Krall’s latest CD, From This Moment On,  a very sedate collection (compared with The Girl in the Other Room) from the jazz blonde who croons in mellow tones to big-band sounds. I present an excerpt of an interview with this 42-year old, from an IHT interview that lured me to her new album:

For someone so accomplished, Krall accepts praise warily. Unlike Harry Connick Jr. – the only other jazz singer and pianist of her generation to attain comparable success – Krall is fiercely self-critical. But beyond her shyness is a performer with a formidable drive and independent spirit. This is a woman, after all, who instead of going to college, getting a degree and settling down to raise a family, lit out for Los Angeles by herself at 19 to follow her dream. Her urge to charge forward has propelled her to where she is today. “I’m not one to sit around,” she said. “I like high adrenaline. I’m the last one to fall down and the first one to say, ‘I may be tired, but I’ll keep going.’”

After all that’s happened this year, we may be tired, but let’s keep on going.

Filed under: At the Stores, Books, Music, Personal Note, Women, Work & Productivity