Singapore SPURS – Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience

February 23, 2009

Singapore SPURS or Skills Programme for Upgrading and Resilience, is an enhanced funding support scheme developed by the Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) in consultation with the tripartite partners including the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC) and the Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF).

Here’s a great list of programs that complement the Singapore SPURS programme:

Foundational World Class Initiatives For Your Organization

World Class Initiatives To Gain A Competitive Edge

World Class Coaching & Mentoring Initiatives

World Class Competency Enhancement Initiatives

World Class Monthly Continuity Keynotes

Other World Class Initiatives

The 7 Powers Of Transformational Communicators by Manoj Sharma

February 17, 2009

It is often under-appreciated that the quality of our communication is at the heart of our depth of connectedness with other people, and also with ourselves. Furthermore, it is a great irony, that in our increasingly inter-connected world, more and more people on a global scale are experiencing greater levels of isolation.

Yes, it is true that the quality more so than the quantity, of our inter-personal (with others) and intra-personal (with yourself) communication impacts the quality of our life and our standard of living. With a little bit of time invested and thought put into it, the above truth becomes glaringly obvious and gives us an opportunity to integrate the 7 powers of transformational communicators into our lives. This is especially important for those who desire greater professional and personal success.

Firstly, Do Not Confuse Communication With Language

The first thing to do to get yourself started on improving your standard of communication is not to confuse communication with language. To be clear; language is the tool we use to communicate, while communication is the intention with which language is used.

The truth of the matter is that the more successful financially and/or non-financially you desire to be, the greater sophistication you will require, in both your inter-personal and especially your intra-personal communication.

Why is intra-personal communication a area you need to give greater focus to? This is because the first level of our communication is the communication that takes place in our head! It is from this intra-personal communication, that inter-personal communication takes its cue. This is something for leaders at every level, to take special note of.

To continue towards being a transformational communicator requires you to become well versed with all 7 of the following powers of transformational communicators.

To make this enriching for you, and for the purpose of knowing where you stand, it would be useful for you to truthfully rate yourself from a scale of 1 to 10 on the following powers, with 10 being the highest.

The Power To Influence A Course Of Action

To what degree do you demonstrate the power to produce a desired course of action through the actions and behaviour of others, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

The Power To Seduce Over

To what degree do you demonstrate the power to attract, entice and win over people, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

The Power Of Prompt Timing

To what degree do demonstrate the power to get things done and have them delivered in a timely fashion, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

The Power To Prevail In The Face Of Adversity

To what degree do you demonstrate the power to dominate circumstances and overcome situations, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

The Power To Persuade A Point Of View

To what degree do you demonstrate the power to induce others to believe a certain something, to convince by urging and suggesting, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

The Power To Inspire The Missing Into Life

To what degree do you demonstrate the power to breathe life into, to give rise to, to bring about and to cause things to happen that previously did not exist, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

The Power To Evoke A Compelling Future

To what degree do you demonstrate the power to elicit and draw forth through imagination a vivid compelling reality, using your communication skills?

___ out of 10

What is your total score out of 70? ___ out of 70.

How have you rated yourself?

I trust the above exercise, done with brutal honesty, has awaken some thoughts and ideas as to where you stand and where you could be with respect to your communication potential. It should also have stimulated in you the possibility of what you could achieve were you to improve it.

As a concluding thought, please note that what you are aware of, the knowledge you gain, and the competencies you develop when it comes to communication have an major impact on how proficient you are in these 7 powers of transformational communicators. As such do use this article as a starting point for you to raise your awareness, gain new knowledge and develop a higher level of competency towards being a transformational communicator.


Mr. Manoj Sharma is a world-class organizational strategist who works extensively with leaders of international tier-one organizations.

He conducts the popular Being A World Class Communicator – Communicating Powerfully Using Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Spiritual Quotient initiative.

Building A High Performance Organization

February 15, 2009

Building A High Performance Organization

“Building a high performance organization is not that much different from a high performance car. The principle is the same. You take the best material available and organize them into a systems that are designed to use energy, whatever the source, in the most efficient and elegant way available. They are not run-of-the-mill machines. They are unique and often one-of-a-kind designs created to do specific things very, very well. they’re also high maintenance in that they can’t be left to run down on their own. They need constant tuning. But they are worth the trouble because they accomplish their purpose better than anything else on the road, and make maximum use of any opportunity for performance. Not everyone needs a high performance car, and you could argue the same is true for high performance organizations, but do you want to be the business that settled for an economy model when your competitors opted for the high end?”

– Michael Gerber


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