Stepping Stones to Success by Insight Publishing EBOOK EDITION Copyright © 2013 Insight Publishing Published in the United States by: Insight Publishing Company 707 West Main Street, Suite 5 Sevierville, TN 37862 800-987-7771 www.insightpublishing.com License Notes All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the publisher except for brief quotations embodied in critical essay, article or review. These articles and/or review must state the correct title and contributing authors of this book by name. Disclaimer: This book is a compilation of ideas from numerous experts who have each contributed a chapter. As such, the views expressed in each chapter are those who were interviewed and not necessarily of the interviewer or Insight Publishing - A Message from the Publisher There are many things I’ve come to understand throughout the many years I have been in this business. I’ve learned that it’s never too late to grow and learn, to change course, to expand perspectives, and to admit I don’t know everything. Because I know it’s important to learn from the experience of others, I reached out to many experts when putting this book project together and I gained some valuable information from them. The people I talked with have presented some insights that will expand your horizons and make you realize that you can be the key to your own success. This book, Stepping Stones to Success, is your golden opportunity to profit from the knowledge of others. It will give you the facts you need to make important decisions about your future. Interviewing these fascinating people was a unique learning experience for me. And I assure you that reading this book will be an exceptional learning experience for you. Interviews Conducted by: David E. Wright, President International Speakers Network - Chapter One – Understanding the Personality Type A Key to Business Success Angeline Vanessa Teo - DAVID WRIGHT (WRIGHT) Today I’m speaking with Angeline Vanessa Teo, Founder and Principal Consultant of d’Oz International, a professional learning and development solutions provider based in Singapore. She is the Managing Director and Master PEP Consultant of PEPWorldwide (Asia) Pte. Ltd., delivering the world-renowned Personal Efficiency Program (PEP). She has acquired a wealth of experience through coaching senior executives, working with diverse cultures, and managing collaborations with multinational organizations and government institutions in Asia Pacific, and Europe. She is also a Certified Coach with WorkLife Asia. Angeline’s success at helping individuals achieve their life goals and organizations to improve on efficiency levels at the same time, has made her a regular contributor and feature on various major print and broadcast media. Angeline, welcome to Stepping Stones to Success. You are often referred as a “Workplace Doctor,” what inspired you to become one? Would you share with us your beginnings? ANGELINE V. TEO (TEO) Hello, David. Thank you very much for inviting me. This is indeed a big hat to fill. I think I was referred to as a “Workplace Doctor” because I have “cured” thousands of individuals, helping them to get back on their feet again, and to regain control of their work and life. Often my clients would address me as such. Frankly, what I have been doing is to “prescribe” practical work solutions, just as a doctor would “prescribe” medications to his or her patients after diagnosis. Today’s executives are constantly racing with time to deal with multiple projects, having to meet with tight deadlines, to answer the insurmountable e-mails, and the many meetings they must attend. They become overwhelmed with the increasing workload. Most often, they are also stressed about health, financial, and personal issues, perhaps not knowing how to get out of the frustration of “urgency addiction” imposed on them by their bosses and their peers as well. Executives who are serious about wanting to improve their status quo conditions will take the necessary actions after each coaching session. They will conscientiously attempt the “behavioral change process” and apply the tools that we use to help them stay in control, shifting them from being an average performer to a high performer in two months! Seeing how each one of them can regain control of their work and their lives has given me an immense drive to continue pursuing what I am doing, as well as the great desire of wanting to reach out to more people who need help. I came from humble beginnings. It was an adventurous journey, especially in the first three years. I started taking my first step into the entrepreneurial journey with $100,000 from my savings and truthfully, I was oblivious to the massive challenges ahead! I did what most would do—“go into something you are familiar with.” I stepped into Tourism Consulting, where I thought I would have an edge, considering my qualifications, knowledge, and invaluable experience in this industry for almost twenty years. Also, I had a vast international network, which I had built over the years that gave me a good head start, especially with the encouragements I received from industry friends before I decided to leap off on my own. I was extremely confident! I have “been there, done that” and everything should work out very well, I thought. I was wrong on this step. It was cruel. The reality is once you leave your industry and have stripped off your fancy title, you become a “nobody.” Fortunately, I very quickly realized that seeking business help from industry friends would be difficult. Though many of them would stand by me, they do have constraints at extending a helping hand. The odds were against me when the world went into a massive recession from 2002, the terrorism scare with the 9/11 incident, Bali bombing attacks, and natural disasters such as tsunamis and earthquakes. These calamities indeed affected tourism globally. I was forced to take another look at my positioning strategies. The opportunity to venture into the education arena opened its door in late 2002. With the proposal in hand, my spouse and I managed to convince investors to support an education franchise to operate a school in China. We thought that this must be a God-send, since we were searching for a viable business model. We were wrong about this step, too. It almost crippled us. The reality was that the franchise operator was not experienced and we did not succeed at securing our education license, despite our strong connections in China. We were forced to abandon the project with a negative variance of more than $350,000 hanging over our heads. By now, we were still very interested in the education industry and we were searching for the right partner to make it happen. We then boldly embarked on another school project in Vietnam. We operated a computer school for a couple of years, only to sell it off, fortunately, without any losses. The tide took a positive turn to our advantage in 2004—we got smarter perhaps. We rode through the currents and we gained valuable experiences. Instead of focusing on what was lost and what was not achieved, we shifted our energy to positivity, keeping the end in mind. We repositioned our business strategies and started focusing our attention on corporations instead. Doing this opened up more doors with more options to greater opportunities. I challenged myself to pick up new knowledge, learn new skills, invest in personal development, and received coaching and mentoring by gurus. I was prepared to work hard, very hard! And I did. My vision is to be “The Best People Developer Internationally.” My mission is to help individuals and organizations to achieve personal and business excellence through our personal development, coaching, and consultancy programs. Today, I dedicate a lot of my time to coaching executives to achieve happiness, to stay in control of their work and time, to peak their performance, to enjoy living, and to savor the fruits of their labor. WRIGHT With your years of experience as a Master Coach for the Personal Efficiency Program (PEP), I’m sure you are familiar with the challenges many of our executives are facing. How is this program helping them achieve a work-life balance? TEO Tony D’Arcy had personally convinced me to take on the partnership with PEPWorldwide to bring the Personal Efficiency Program (PEP) to Asia in 2004. It has been one of the most fulfilling journeys in all the years after I set up PEPWorldwide Asia in Singapore. I have witnessed transformation, positive changes, and feedback from thousands of executives who have been through PEP. (Globally, more than one and a half million executives have been through PEP!) After attending PEP, Executives became happier, they had reduced stress levels, and found new and better ways of staying in control of their work. Mr. Jan Holm, Managing Director of Maersk Drilling Singapore, Mr. Peter Smidt-Neilsen, General Director of Maersk Vietnam Ltd, Ms. Christina Lim, Head of Corporate Communications, Asia Pacific, B. Braun, and Mr. Adrian Collier, Head of BT at Pfizer China, are some of the many beneficiaries of PEP. They have personally benefitted from PEP, which has helped them stay in control of their work, improved their time management skills, reduced their stress levels, and helped them achieve work-life harmony. They are visionary leaders who believed in building a high performance organization and creating a culture of respect and efficiency within the workplace. They went ahead to challenge the status quo by putting their teams through PEP. The organizations that have invested in their teams for PEP, registered positive returns on their investments with increased productivity levels, reduced absenteeism and, essentially, resulted in a happier workforce and workplace! WRIGHT How does this work? It just sounds too good to be true.