I am delighted to announce that I will be speaking at the Applying Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning for Enterprises forum to be held at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia on February 5-6, 2018.

On the topic of Establishing the AI Team: Who You Need and What Infrastructure is Critical, I will share my findings on what types of roles and skills are suitable depending on your type of organization.  We will examine teams at AI research companies, AI product companies & your Digital Enterprise.  And, we will highlight the importance of collaboration and leadership development for Data Science and Software Engineering teams.

Lastly, I will share some guidelines for selecting your AI infrastructure, particularly in light of recent industry shifts.  More details can be found under our consulting service Establish Your AI Team.  I look forward to meeting you there and to also moderating a Day 2 discussion panel, entitled What works, what doesn’t When AI & Machine Learning Go Wrong, What You Need to Prepare For!

Share your thoughts… What makes your AI or Data Science team perform well?

After winning in Bondi Junction, Area 11 and Lachlan Division, global speaker Salim Ladak has won 3rd Place in International Speech at District 70 Toastmasters Australia.

With his intercultural speech entitled Connect, Salim shares humorous and dramatic stories about his experiences living in 6 countries.  His opening story about a French immersion in Québec builds up to stories from his birthplace of Tanzania and growing up in his permanent home of Canada.  They culminate in his school memories of being handed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Salim calls on audiences everywhere to share the message to Connect across different cultures and colours of skin.  Offstage, he shares his thoughts:

Pluralism is more than diversity – it’s about creating an inclusive society that transcends any barriers and recognizes that our differences are strengths.

In his closing, Salim highlights how civil society and education support multiculturalism in Australia, where he provides consulting services for Digital Transformation.  He would like to thank the following Toastmasters for their encouragement and support:

AUSTRALIA

Pamela Barton, DTM, Area Director 2016-2017

Mitsie Kent, ACB, ALB, Area Director 2016-2017

Sheila Panchani, ACB, ALB, Area Director 2016-2017

HONG KONG

He also wishes to thank his wife, Nadia, for her insightful feedback and audience.  Like a man on a mission, he competes so that he can more widely share his message to Connect!

Photos below: (1) District 70 3rd Place; (2) Award; (3) Lachlan Division Champion; and (4) Area 11 Champion

On April 23rd, 2016, ACB Toastmaster Salim Ladak won 2nd Place in International Speech at Hong Kong’s Division O Contest, after winning at Area O1 and Centraler Toastmasters.

With his Pluralism speech entitled Connect, Salim shares humorous and dramatic stories about his experiences living in 5 countries.  His opening story about a French immersion in Québec builds up to stories from his birthplace of Tanzania and growing up in his permanent home of Canada.  They culminate in his school memories of being handed the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Salim calls on audiences everywhere to share the message to Connect across different cultures and colours of skin.  Offstage, he shares his thoughts:

Pluralism is more than diversity – it’s about creating an inclusive society that transcends any barriers and recognizes that our differences are strengths.

Salim’s speech ends by talking about cultural integration in Hong Kong, where he develops leaders with EQ.  He would like to thank the following Toastmasters for their encouragement and support:

He also wishes to thank his wife, Nadia, for her insightful feedback and audience.  Like a man on a mission, he competes so that he can more widely share his message to Connect!

Photos below: (1) Division O Awards; (2) Area O1 2nd Place; and (3) Centraler 3rd Place

A decade from now, the face of banking may no longer be recognizable.  According to the McKinsey Global Institute, a Hi-Tech disruption is already underway in retail banking.  Banks have accepted the real possibility that 60% of profit and 40% of revenue could disappear by 2025.

Transforming the financial services industry are Hi-Tech startups in areas such as online loans, mobile payments and robo advisory.  And as ex-CEOs from banks and VCs invest in FinTech, much more is at stake for the banks in losing their “customer relationships”, the vital source of their cross-selling activities and banking margins.

What does this mean for leaders in banking and other financial services?  Technology disrupts industries exactly when incumbent leaders get too comfortable, according to Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma and Professor at Harvard Business School.  In 2014, even in a low interest rate environment, banks made record profits of $1 trillion – sound too comfortable?

With profits rising, products and processes became entrenched, other than for fine-tuning.  There was no compulsion to change anything.  The real challenge for banking leaders: can they let go of what worked yesterday and innovate for the future?  Even with banker hopes for higher rates, those that don’t adapt to FinTech will be left behind.

Like New York and London, Hong Kong has been a major financial centre.  Although it is located in the heart of a rapidly-growing region, it has already fallen behind Singapore and Sydney in creating a FinTech ecosystem.  Change begins with leadership adaptability.

If your organization wants to adapt to change, Contact EQ How.

I remember a wise friend once sharing that Self-Confidence comes from doing things that you are good at.  Still true today, positive psychology research suggests appreciating your strengths, and that can come from others but most importantly, from yourself.

I watched my young niece Amaani growing up.  I remember in her formative years how she was shy about speaking in front of a group or requesting something of others.  Over the years, my sister took her to dance classes, which she found she was naturally good at.  The result was monumental not only for her ability to stand in front of an audience but for her Self-Confidence throughout school.  Recently, she participated in the Model United Nations from Toronto and delivered her school graduation speech!

It didn’t have to work out this way.  What if Amaani’s talents were not recognized or appreciated by her family support or school environment?  Or worse, what if she said to herself that this was the only thing that she would ever be good at, that maybe it wouldn’t last or that it was only because of her trainer?

Instead, she began to recognize her own strengths and capabilities.  As Daniel Goleman says, “we have to believe in our skills in order to use them at our best.”  In his model, Self-Confidence looks only at strengths, while in the EQ-i 2.0, Self-Regard underlines accepting both your strengths and challenges.  Both models agree on the importance of accurately knowing your abilities.

As for my wise friend’s advice, I consequently embarked on a life of public speaking.  During my recent two years in Asia Pacific, I observed that some Toastmasters clubs in Hong Kong emphasize speaker weaknesses.  And they state them as such, as opposed to opportunities.  Challenging myself with advanced manuals Humorously Speaking and The Entertaining Speaker, I found that recognizing my own abilities became my most critical success factor.  I would take a balanced approach to feedback while actively working on opportunities.

As my Self-Confidence grew and I learned the art of storytelling, I was eventually recognized by my club with the Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) Award.  I will always remember that evening for the kind words and warm feedback of my Toastmaster peers!  And most importantly, it felt like an amazing speaking milestone!

Photo: Salim Ladak receives Toastmasters ACB Award with President Eunice Su in Hong Kong on July 2nd, 2015

So what’s the secret to long-term relationships?  It is said that some of us are givers and some are takers.  But this suggests that you can’t do both.

The EQ-i 2.0 describes Interpersonal Relationships as “the ability to develop and maintain mutually satisfying relationships.”  If you take much more in your relationships over time, many of them are unsustainable – think of your own experiences or former friends whom you now consider as selfish.  It’s only by giving that you can balance the relationship.  Even if you had power or wealth to draw others to assist you, their motivations would be superficial.  In extreme cases of manipulation, relationships eventually come to a tragic halt.

What about those who generously give much more in their relationships?  They demonstrate a wonderful ethic; yet, there is a delicate balance.  Research suggests that they might be perceived as needy or agreeable by others.  Reflect again on your own experiences or friends whose efforts you take for granted.  Yes, even those that give freely can better support the relationship by learning where to draw the line, assert themselves or take.  Respect is earned when you give and take, even if the taking amounts to standing up for your needs.  As for selfless giving, that is the subject of another article.

Sometimes, there is a feeling of a community giving, in their hopes that one day, you might be successful and even give back.  Consider universities and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), from where I draw my example of Toastmasters International.  Since joining them, seasoned Toastmasters shared with me both their time and knowledge through mentoring.  In turn, I now attempt to give back by mentoring members as a seasoned Toastmaster myself.

I want to end by taking the opportunity to thank those Toastmasters who have made a difference in my public speaking development and club experience: Sean Lin for hours of Table Topics coaching in 2014, Bilal Arshad for hours of International Speech coaching in 2015 and Mark Young for just the right comment at just the right time.  My hat is off to all of you, and wherever I reside, I look forward to serving our communities in both formal and informal leadership roles.

Want to discuss more on Interpersonal Relationships?  Select contact for a free initial coaching session.

Photo: Salim Ladak (centre) at HK MBA Toastmasters

Happy New Year 2015!  On behalf of EQ How, we wish our clients and friends a most successful and fulfilling year!  Wrapping up December 2014, we facilitated an Executive Offsite for a Fortune 500 Insurance Company at the Aberdeen Marina Club (photo below) in Hong Kong.

Entitled Leadership Success: EQ for Regional Leaders, we combined a Speaker Event with Team Coaching for senior executives of the Asia Pacific region.  With an emphasis on enhanced collaboration, other Emotional Intelligence competencies discussed were empathy, influence and inspirational leadership.  Excellent executive feedback was received along with a Testimonial from the Chief Operating Officer, Asia, and the participation of Human Resources.

For service inquiries, select Contact from our menu.  For hiring inquiries, we continue to hire seasoned Leadership Coaches from Accredited Coach Training Programs and holding EQ Certifications.  Kindly submit your CV to hr@EQHow.com

People can live through similar events, and yet, how they experience them can be completely different.  While the pessimist is left feeling dejected and even hopeless, the optimist is energized by life.  Speaking of life’s opportunities, my optimistic wife says: “The door is always open.”

Optimism is a vital competence for successful leadership.  Based on the research of Martin Seligman, what is briefly outlined here is his famous ABCDE method for optimism through life’s setbacks.

A: You face Adversity

B: Your Beliefs about this experience are either positive or negative thoughts

C: The Consequence is that you have either positive or negative feelings and actions

D: Learn to Dispute any negative thoughts

E:  Experience the Energy

As an example, you try to deliver a humorous speech, but you don’t get many laughs.  You say to yourself that you’re just not funny and you have made a fool of yourself.  This leads you to feel embarrassed, humiliated and dejected.

Instead, dispute your thoughts by saying that you did get some laughs, and almost everyone enjoyed the first punchline.  You also fulfilled your client’s request to put some serious content in the body of your speech.  You have made great improvement in the pauses before your punchlines, and you can continue to improve on your surprise factor!

How does your ENERGY level feel now?

As my wife says, “The door is always open.”  To my eternal optimist and dear wife Nadia, Happy Birthday!

As we support you to be the most effective Leader, EQ How has grown again.  Whatever your Leadership goals – whether you want to be in the top 10% or overcome a specific leadership challenge, whether you lead an organization or a team, or whether you’re people oriented or technically inclined – we have a Leadership Coach for you.

The most effective method of Leadership Development (refer to our blog Executive Coaching and EQ Assessments rank Top), our Leadership Coaching is 1-to-1 private, personalized and confidential.

What makes our team unique is that in addition to having Executive Coach training and corporate experience, all of our coaches are certified in EQ, which is statistically linked to Leadership Success.  This means that we can support you on any of 27 competencies such as Influence, Collaboration and Developing Others.

Contact us for a free initial session, and let us know if you prefer your Leadership Coaching in English, Mandarin or Cantonese.  Skype Video coaching is also available for overseas clients.

SOA Asia Pacific in Macau

On June 26th 2014, Salim Ladak spoke to over 100 executives and actuaries at Asia Pacific’s annual Insurance Industry event about the importance of EQ to Leadership Development.  Offering perspectives for high-IQ financial analysts on Getting Promoted to Success, Salim is quoted as saying:

The reward for high performance is getting promoted.  However, the focus on individual performance is then replaced by the responsibility of leading a team.  And that requires a whole different skill set!

Select the Testimonial from the Society of Actuaries (SOA) or view the above venue at the Conrad Macau, Sands Cotai Central.  Opening with a story showcasing the success factors for leadership, Salim engaged the audience with the spotlight on three EQ competencies:

• Influence and the Right Appeal;
• Collaboration and the Group IQ; and
• Inspirational Leadership.

For further information, visit our Speaking Events page.  Below, Salim Ladak receives his Competent Communicator (CC) Award at Dynamic Toastmasters in Hong Kong on July 31st 2014.

Salim receives Toastmasters CC Award