This episode of Raise You Game focuses on leadership challenges in the era of significant digital transformation marked by AI and hybrid work culture. The discussion with Leaderonomic's Roshan Thiran explores the need for leaders to develop paradoxical leadership skills to deal with contrasting needs of building trust and fostering productivity in hybrid workforces.

Among other things, the conversation also gets into the importance of finding a balance between data-driven functionalities offered by AI technology and human-centric roles required for building trust and empathy, and the need for AI adoption to optimize the effectiveness of business operations and deliver new business opportunities.

The conversation also outlines effective ways of managing hybrid workforces, the importance of building a purpose-driven work culture, and the necessity for HR to understand insights for just-in-time employee engagement.

00:06 Introduction and Welcome

00:12 The Future of Work: Hybrid and AI Trends

00:51 Key Leadership Lessons for 2024

01:37 The Role of AI in the Workplace

01:49 The Importance of Adaptability in Leadership

02:11 The Impact of Technological Innovations on Business

03:13 The Need for Standards in Emerging Technologies

03:26 The Challenges of Transition Periods in Business

03:39 The Importance of Resilience and Agility in Leadership

13:25 The Role of AI in Predicting Business Trends

14:07 The Impact of AI on HR and Employee Management

18:02 The Future of Jobs in the Age of AI

19:34 The Evolution of Jobs and the Impact of Technology

20:22 The Rise of Email and Increased Communication Frequency

21:00 The Role of AI in Interpreting and Summarizing Information

21:17 The Human Element in Sales and Trust Building

21:31 The Three Things Humans Excel At

22:48 The Role of AI in Business and the Importance of Early Adoption

26:23 The Shift to Hybrid Workforces and the Importance of Purpose

27:03 The Challenges and Solutions for Managing Hybrid Workforces

32:23 The Impact of Culture and Rituals in Hybrid Workforces

35:18 The Role of HR in Understanding and Engaging Employees

On this episode of Raise Your Game, we explore an initiative that's hoping to shape the future of Malaysia's capital markets - investED.

The Malaysian capital market is currently facing significant talent challenges. These challenges not only impact the growth and competitiveness of the market but also raise questions about how we're nurturing the next generation of financial experts.

To address these concerns, the Securities Commission Malaysia has introduced the investED - NextGen Capital Market Talent initiative - aiming to fortify the industry with skilled and diverse talents. Joining us for this conversation is Tengku Zarina, the CEO of the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC), the training and development arm of the Securities Commission.

We’ll delve into the depths of the investED programme, its objectives, its approach to talent development, and how it hopes to reshape the industry. From discussing the current talent challenges in the Malaysian capital market and the steps the Securities Commission is taking, to the role of a diverse talent pool in ensuring market resilience, we get into all of it.

Learn more at https://www.invested.my

We are less than a month away from entering the new year which means it’s that time of the year where we should start taking stock of our year - from reviewing our successes and our failures to examining what worked and what didn’t work. Then take all this, reflect, and start 2024 on a great foot.

With that in mind, on this episode of Raise Your Game, in what has become an annual tradition on the show, Leverage Lab’s Jeevan Sahadevan joins us to pose 23 questions to help you review your 2023.

On this episode of Raise Your Game, we're tackling a topic of critical importance in the business world: the underrepresentation of women in leadership roles.

Tack TMI helped their parent company Gi Group develop a programme to support their women in leadership initiative. In the case study that was published recently, it was noted that only one woman in four is a C-suite leader. With respect to this programme in particular, the Gi Group's workforce was predominantly female, yet less than 20% of its strategic committee was female.

We'll explore the variety of reasons behind this imbalance, identify the barriers that women often face on their journey up the career ladder, discuss strategies to overcome these challenges, and explore the tangible business outcomes of a more gender-diverse leadership team.

Joining us for this is Jim O'Brien, the CEO of Learning & Development firm Tack TMI.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Positive influence the essential soft skill of our time. On this edition of Raise Your Game, we explore the rationale behind this statement with Huijin Kong, co-author of Positive Influence: The First and Last Mile of Leadership.

You will also learn about the fundamentals of positive influence, with a key focus on the 7 principles of effective ‘positive influencing’ that Huijin and her co-author argue transcends all positive influence situations.

Photo Credit: LinkedIn | Huijin Kong

Budget 2024 saw a variety of initiatives and tax implications for SMEs. On this edition of Raise Your Game, you will learn about the key impacts of Budget 2024 to SMEs, with a focus on e-invoicing for SMEs, the rise in the SST rate, the introduction of the capital gains tax for unlisted shares, and much more with Zen Chow, Tax Practice Leader at YYC Group.

Register for YYC Tax Summit 2023 at https://www.taxpod.my/bfm.

Given the emphasis and attention being paid to ESG efforts and adoption, on this episode of Raise Your Game, we explore the basics of ESG and the long term benefit to SMEs.

With less than 3 months left before we enter 2024, we’ve now entered crunch time for sales teams to meet their targets and KPIs for the year. Today on Raise Your Game, we continue our focus on sales with the third and final episode of a 3-part series with Jeevan Sahadevan, the Founder of Leverage Labs.

Last week we got into how to build value around your products and services and generate desire in prospects to buy, today we explore the psychology that goes into closing a sale. You will learn the 4 key factors factors that influence closing sales, how to overcome objections, and how to best follow up with prospects till you seal the deal

With less than 3 months left before we enter 2024, we’ve now entered crunch time for sales teams to meet their targets and KPIs for the year. Today on Raise Your Game, we continue our focus on sales with the second episode of a 3-part series with Jeevan Sahadevan, the Founder of Leverage Labs.

Last week we got into two critical skills that could make or break your sales efforts as the world navigates through economic uncertainty: Building Rapport and Prospect Diagnostics. Today you will learn how to build value around your products and services and generate desire in prospects to buy, including a Sales Formula from Jeevan, that he says will help you close sales in a big way.

As we enter the last quarter of 2023, we are now entering crunch time for sales teams to meet their targets and KPIs for the year. With this in mind, we’re going to spend the next 3 weeks here on Raise Your Game focused on sales.

In the first episode of this 3-part series, we’re zeroing in on two critical skills that could make or break your sales efforts as the world navigates through economic uncertainty: Building Rapport and Prospect Diagnostics. These are pivotal points that shape how you interact with your prospects and, ultimately, close deals. In fact, without these skills, your sales team may struggle to function as the well-oiled machine that your business needs.

To help us dissect and navigate these skills in this episode is Jeevan Sahadevan, the Founder of Leverage Labs. We delve into the psychology of building rapport, how it can set the stage for a successful sales process, and then shift gears to discuss the art of asking powerful questions that reveal what truly motivates your prospects to buy.

In May, it was reported that Malaysia was two-seats from having women make up at least 30% of board members among the top 100 public-listed companies.

Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri told the Dewan Rakyat that women accounted for 29.7% of directors in these companies, which was a significant improvement from 2016, when only 14% of companies had a minimum of 30% of women on their boards.

Now while it seems like Malaysia is making progress on this front, there are still plenty of biases and challenges women business leaders deal with that differ from their male counterparts in the predominantly male workforce and leadership structure.

Today on Raise Your Game, we explore the unique challenges faced by women leaders and ways to possibly manage them, including women-centric communities, mentorship programs, and common mistakes that are easily avoidable when trying to bring more women back into the workforce and senior leadership.