egyii blog

Press Release! Hot off the wires..

Singapore, May 25th, 2009

Egyii, the Singapore based learning and development consultancy, has announced its launch into the Consumer and Retail Banking space, leading with a new perspective on “customer experience.”

Egyii will continue to focus on its current agenda of Priority and Private Banking but will expand into Consumer and Retail Banking with more thought leadership, web based material and customized, in-house curriculums.

Trip Allen, Egyii’s Director of Sales and Marketing, says “The Consumer and Retail space is a logical choice for us. In fact, the banks have requested that we move into this space. And with customer experience initiatives in banking being a top priority, it makes sense that we link all the different banking programmes together.“

James Irvine, Egyii Director of Programme Development, says “Financial organizations are struggling and it is the customer who is suffering, causing a break of loyalty and trust and a loss of business.”

“Bankers can continue to focus on re-engineering products, systems and policies. Alternatively, they can break the mold and focus on the customer and the customer experience.”

For the “Improving the Customer Experience in Banking” white paper: White Paper

For our updated overview, please see:

Egyii Overview May 2009 

Thank you.

Trip & James, Team Egyii, Singapore

Last week I allowed the business environment to ‘get to me’. In the face of a challenging sales scenario I looked to the future and saw black clouds. This perception affected my drive and I started to become despondent. The change in my mood in turn affected my behaviour and even my speech became slower and less decisive. This, of course, affected the response I got from people I do business with.

Have you noticed any change in your thinking, mood and behaviour? Perhaps you just experience an underlying tone of anxiety as you go about your business. The problem is, this change directly affects the way others feel around you and about you, creating a knock-on effect on all kinds of results. If you’re client-facing, their experience of you might affect their attitude towards your organisation.

What’s happening here?

This is why it is critical for every executive to understand what’s happening to them and get control of it. John Assaraf, in his book Having It All, says “We don’t see everything there is to see; we only see what we are conditioned to see.” What this means is that we interpret information coming to us through a very personal filter. And this filter is made up of what we believe about the world around us and the kinds of things we tell ourselves all day long.

Our perceptions of the world are unique to us, and we can either allow these perceptions to de-motivate us and affect our performance, or we can look at our beliefs and internal messages and understand how they control us.

How important is this?

John Assaraf goes on to say “We talk, act, and pretend out of the prejudices of our beliefs. As a result, our beliefs and habits affect our self-esteem, our relationships, our prosperity, our job performance, our mental and physical health, and even the way other people treat us, because people treat us exactly the way we see and treat ourselves.”

What can we do?

It is essential to our performance that we find the time to sit down on our own and think about what we truly believe about ourselves and others and link these beliefs to our present thinking, mood and behaviour. It is an awakening when we realise that a belief we developed many years ago is controlling our performance today, even if that belief is no longer relevant.

It is also important to realise that these beliefs are just thoughts that we have created in our own minds. They are an illusion. And as such, we are free to eliminate them and replace them with new beliefs that serve us today. This point is crucial – we all have the ability to control what goes on in our mind, and being able to do this on a constant basis is the secret of mental and emotional strength and ultimately, success in what we set out to accomplish.

Back to my story – I realised that my despondency was the result of a belief that I did not have control over my destiny. Changing this belief into a more empowering one meant that I was able to turn my mood around and become less stressed and more productive.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

HR-in-Action Nite- 2 April 2009
for the HR Community @ SHRI Singapore Human Resources Institute

The secret to getting good results at work is by getting control of our thinking, rather than just diving into new behaviours.

Most learning programmes try to help us change our behaviours by giving us new knowledge and skills. However, much of the time nothing actually happens because we have not addressed the things that drive those behaviours i.e. our thinking patterns. It’s like a plane trying to change course while all the time having the auto pilot set on another direction.

Yes, it’s important to learn new behaviours. But since so many of them are habitual, we need to change the beliefs, values and emotions that control those behaviours if we are to experience change that lasts more than a few days. And the funny thing is, when we do control our thinking patterns, the behaviours tend to take care of themselves.

Based on Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), this talk will introduce you to some of the key drivers of our behaviour as well as methods for getting control of these. You will find that you can apply this knowledge in any situation both at work and at home, and you will gain a new sense of control over the results you get.

Please feel free to click on the downloadable Slideshare version of the presentation here.

For more information, please email us at stuff@egyii.com.

Bon vivant!

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

Our thinking patterns determine how we feel at any moment. How we feel at any moment determines what we do. And what we do determines the results we get in our lives.

Everyone at this time is trying to tell us to change our behaviour.

Be more caring about your clients, engage them with empathy and reassurance.

Take more care over your tasks.

Pay attention and be patient.

Communicate your thoughts to your colleagues and boss with honesty and openness.

While this is all very well, nothing will change unless we all pay attention to the thinking patterns that underly all these behaviours. If I have a belief that says “never trust anyone until they first prove that they are trustworthy”, then it doesn’t matter how much I try to be open with people, I will always default to my underlying belief in practice.

So, if we all truly care about changing the way we do business in this new world, then the only way to show it is to stop all the activity for a moment and listen to ourselves.

How do we see ourselves?

Does our sense of identity match our behaviour, or are we living a false life?

What’s really important to us?

Do our values align with our behaviour, or are we rejecting these with every action we take?

And are we acting upon beliefs that we developed many years ago and which have no relevance to us today?

Are we sabotaging our future with these limiting beliefs?

Once we take control of our minds, the rest will fall neatly into place and we can start picking up the pieces left by an era of blindness to ourselves.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

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First there was “Speed Dating.”

Then there was ‘Speed Networking”

And now there is “Spud Networking.”

How many times have you gone to a “networking” event where you have been assailed by salesmen from moving companies, hotels selling packages, priority and private bankers or spud companies?  All are looking for prospects…

The Scenario

There are 30 people in the room and these salesmen are canvassing everyone, tipping their card to any and all innocent passersby. And then he comes to you…he flashes his card, presents it in a stately fashion, and moves to the next person. Don’t you feel special? or do you feel like one of the many spuds (potatoes) growing in a great, big field?

Often that card lands in the bin when you get home. No meaning. No attachment. (No insults meant)

The Real Networker

Off to the side is a gentleman. He is poised and confident. He is also a “salesman” but of a different sort. He is spending time with only 1 or 2 people, listening, asking questions, showing interest and concern. Although his ‘prospects” may not be immediate prospects, he could potentially link down the road or through “word of mouth.”

His card ends up in the Rolodex.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

I am not sure how private and priority banks are addressing the investors’ search for alternatives, but when the press and the government are lashing out harshly against the institutions, and clients want to run from the banking institutions, what are they doing and where are they going?

Certainly this is not a secret but there are options and alternatives available – and clients are presenting very creative solutions.

We have spoken with many ’fat wallet” investors (ones with over $1 million to invest) and there are typically 2 responses we hear from them:

1) “I don’t want my brokers making any investment decisions. I want a purely transactional relationship. I am knowledgeable enough to make my own decision.”

2)  “Investing is all too complicated. I want someone who I can trust to make the right decisions.”

If clients don’t want “value added services” (item 1) and are shying away from people they don’t trust (item 2), where are they going? Here are some alternatives they are taking:

1) Online and discount brokerages. Low fees and some value add. If you feel you are as knowledgeable, the lure is to pay $12.99 per transaction. Online Brokerage’s Success

2) Pre-negotiated, set fees with banking institutions

3) Third party advisers (who are typically ex-bankers) such as AL Wealth in Singapore, who act as “middle men” between the investment institutions and the investors. These third party advisers charge an annual percentage and build their relationship by being neutral.

(One priority baking client has mentioned to me that he requested his relationship manager to put his commissions on the line. If he promises a ‘guaranteed” return, then his commissions will be paid and will be scalable. If the investment is in the red, then he loses his commissions and fees. For some strange reason, the relationship manager did not win this clients business.)

How to avoid this? Build the right skills and trust for your relationship managers with your Singapore and Asia Pacific banking clients, so that they don’t have to consider alternatives. For more information see Trust in Sales.

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

www.egyii.com

That is a mouthful. And it should be.

In one of Obama’s recent public announcement, he proclaimed the following:

“…in order to restore our financial system, we’ve got to restore trust.”

Obama and his team get it. Does everyone else? Probably. What is everyone else doing about it? Thinking about it? Yes. Taking action? Maybe.

There are a lot discussions on trust going around in multiple circles today and most of it is focusing on the financial institutions. Why is that? Are people fed up with the “old world” of the banking business?

Wouldn’t it make sense to make trust an integral part of the bank agenda? Certainly life and business would be easier for the relationship managers and the executives. And isn’t this what most clients want? A trusted relationship?

For more reads on trust in all the circles, read Trust, Trust, Trust by Charlie Green of Trusted Advisors. He and his team thoroughly cover trust from all perspectives.

Please also see James’ prior post Private Banks’ new journey back to credibility

Trip Allen, Team Egyii, Singapore

On 16 January the Singapore Business Times hit us with another ‘bad news’ article: ‘Employee engagement in Asia-Pac drops – survey’.

As if the economic downturn were not enough. Now motivation seems to be suffering in part because, as Mak Yen Teen, Director of the Asia Pacific Research and Innovation Centre at Watson Wyatt, says, the perception of fairness of rewards at this time is down. It seems people are unhappy about accepting reduced bonuses and lower pay to help avoid layoffs. He goes on to mention that in order to manage employees’ perceptions, companies must communicate the exact reasons for the changes being made and make sure that these are seen to be fair.

No doubt the perception of rewards does have an impact on employee engagement, as do many of the actions of management. In fact, events that happen to us, whether in regard to management decisions or economic influences or some other issue, will always have some kind of effect on our feelings about our work.

But can you imagine going through your entire 40-year career allowing your mood and motivation to be controlled by events over which you have no control? When things are going well for you personally or for the economy, you are fully engaged and positive, and when things take a turn for the worse you are miserable and unenthusiastic. What a hell to work and live in! And what a burden for companies to bear!

Today we have the opportunity to create a new world of business, with new approaches and new practices. Let’s start by making sure we enable our employees to feel enthusiastic and committed, if not passionate, about their work whatever outside influences may impact them. This doesn’t mean that companies have to ‘do’ anything to their employees. It’s a mistake to think that every every employee problem can be solved by doing something to them.

Rather, let’s take a step back and show our employees how to think about their lives and work in a way that is empowering for them. Once they learn that their happiness is entirely determined by how they individually respond to events that happen to them, then they have great power to change, and get control of, how they feel and work.

Responding doesn’t just mean saying to yourself  ’Oh, the economic crisis is actually fine’. It means learning to accept what is happening and allowing yourself to go through whatever feelings, including negative feelings, that you may have. When you simply accept events and don’t resist your emotions, then your anger and frustration lessen and you begin to focus on taking whatever action you need to in order to live in the present moment, within the crisis.

So help your employees to see this crisis and any future event with a new pair of eyes – eyes that enable them to deal with it in a positive, practical way, all the time realising that how they see the event is merely a thought in their own heads. And over this they have ultimate control.

James Irvine, Team Egyii, Singapore

We lead a split life. On the one hand, we do what we have to do to earn a living; on the other, we do what we want to do to have fun. But high achievers don’t experience this dichotomy: they love what they do and they do what they love. In his classic study of Americans’ perception of their work Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do (New York: Pantheon Books 1974) Studs Terkel quotes Nora Watson as saying: “I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job… Most of us have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people.”

You can call it a grand quest or a mission – those who discover it find the same feelings as Stephen Spielberg: “I wake up so excited, I can’t eat breakfast. I’ve never run out of energy.”

But how do we discover this passion? All I can do is tell you how I, James Irvine, discovered it and hope that you will tap into what I say and somehow relate it to yourself. I was a banker for 10 years and was unhappy. I certainly had no passion for my work. I went through each day as if a machine was doing the work while my real self was somewhere else waiting to come out. After 10 years of enormous stress resulting not from the pressure of the job but the fact that I was doing something all day long that was against my nature, I quit.

I attended a career counselling program, and did the usual analyses with my logical mind about what interests I had had when I was a child, what I enjoyed doing in my spare time, and so on. These were helpful in a limited way, because they were all thinking processes, whereas what I really needed to do was find some quiet time to listen to my heart. What I realised was that nothing from my past was really a clue to my future.

So I spent some time working in a retail shop while I struggled with this issue. And as the days went by and I started listening to my feelings and the spontaneous thoughts that occasionally emerged, I began to feel a bit like teaching people. It wasn’t a sudden decision like ‘I want to be a teacher’. Rather, I just began to see myself talking to people and sharing some of my own feelings and thoughts, and as I saw this I felt good.

I didn’t make some grand decision to become a teacher. I decided to enrol in a certificate course in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I knew I liked languages and grammar, so I thought this was a way to try out my gut instincts without too much commitment. Remember, I had never so much as made a presentation or stood in front of an audience in my whole time in banking or at any other time in my life. I just had this feeling that was good when I pictured myself doing this.

After two weeks of theory and instruction, we had to deliver our first lesson in front of a live audience who came from the local town for free lessons from these student teachers of English. This first lesson would last for 15 minutes, and I had no idea how I would have enough to say and do to last for 15 minutes. I spent hours preparing, but on the day I stood up in front of about 20 adult students and within a couple of minutes felt very comfortable and energised. I actually discovered a new person inside of myself during those 15 minutes. I really enjoyed the experience in a way that I had not when I was analysing balance sheets and drawing up financial proposals. I had found my passion.

Because I enjoyed the experience of teaching so much, I became good at it, and now, as a corporate talent developer with Egyii in Singapore, I wake up every morning feeling the same as Stephen Spielberg. Well, maybe not quite so excited – I still have time for breakfast!