MANAGE YOUR BOSS WITH BAZI #2 – FLY HIGH WITH YOUR INDIRECT WEALTH BOSS

Next in our series is the Indirect Wealth boss. If you work in either the marketing or business development department, chances are, you have an Indirect Wealth boss.

They are the polar opposites of the Direct Wealth boss. While the Direct Wealth is staid, Indirect Wealth is all about the leverage. Direct Wealth gets bogged down by the details, Indirect Wealth is too much big-picture thinking. Direct Wealth hates it when plans get derailed, Indirect Wealth loves short cuts.

Recognizing Your Indirect Wealth Boss

Indirect Wealth personalities are very resourceful. They have the ability to take a single idea and start spinning it out into new possibilities, ventures, projects or profit streams. Their biggest weakness? They are great starters, but lousy finishers. They will start a project off with a bang, but you will find their enthusiasm start to fade as the day-to-day minutiae of the project starts to become routine.

You can easily recognize the Indirect Wealth boss by their optimism. There is a strong pioneering streak in them that sees problems as opportunities.  When galvanized by an idea, they have the tendency to bulldoze past any objections.

Indirect Wealth profiles also tend to be very forthright and practical. Straight-talking and being honest ensures they don’t waste time with miscommunication.

The Indirect Wealth boss will likely have a transformational approach to leadership. They lead with a vision and are able to inspire a sense of shared commitment in the team.

Your Indirect Wealth Boss Under Pressure

Your Indirect Wealth boss will have less of a problem with change. However, when cornered, the Indirect Wealth boss lash out by issuing threats or ultimatums. Indirect Wealth profiles do not like being weak or having their decisions questioned. When things don’t go their way and the pressure mounts, the Indirect Wealth profile becomes hostile and the language they choose to use would become rather strong and unpleasant.

How To Deal With Your Indirect Wealth Boss

You can be indispensable to your Indirect Wealth boss if you have the skill he needs to turn his grand ideas into reality.

Be detail oriented. Indirect Wealth profiles rarely have the patience to sort through reams of data. If you can create the systems required to realize his visions, you are already a step ahead of your competitors.

Become a subject-matter expert. Become a subject matter expert within your team. Someone he can go to for quick information and opinion.

This tactic supports your Indirect Wealth boss as he attempts to turn a crisis into an opportunity. Buy into his vision. If you are a part of this process, you are automatically indispensable.

Here’s an extra note about the similarities between the Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth boss structure. When you deal with them, you need to avoid taking things too personally. Both are blunt in speech – but it is never personal. Be as direct, objective and factual as they are. Never allow emotions to enter the conversation. Both wealth profiles will see this as a weakness.

Note: If you’ve missed my first post, plot your Boss’s Bazi Chart with this free resource (registration required) https://bazibz.masteryacademy.com/. Key in the name, gender and date of birth. You don’t need to key in the time of birth. That information is not relevant for this purpose. Scroll right down to the bottom to find the profile.

Disclaimer: The Bazi Technical terms (Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth) are copyright property of the Joey Yap Mastery Academy. The Hidden Sun has officially written in to the group requesting permission to use these terms, analogies and charts. If you wish to learn the art of Chinese Metaphysics for yourself, please visit www.joeyyaponline.com for more information.

MANAGE YOUR BOSS WITH BAZI #1 – HOW TO MANAGE A MANAGER

I’ve opted to start this series with the Direct Wealth profile because most of them inevitably end up in the corporate world. They like the stability and structure, the security of a consistent flow of income.

Recognizing Your Direct Wealth Boss

Direct Wealth bosses are, first and foremost, disciplined and hard working. They are the ultimate bean counters. They like things well thought-out and planned, and they abhor short cuts. If you work 10 hours a day, chances are, your Direct Wealth boss will work 12.

They are extremely conscientious and principled. Right is right; wrong is wrong. There is a rather rigid black-or-white view of the world. Because of that, they can be rather rigid in their approach.

As a leader, they tend to be authoritative. This boss will tell you what to do, and also how to do it. At the best of times, it is hard for them to welcome advice from their employees – because they think they know better! Imagine this person in the uncertainties of the Covid-19 era.

Your Direct Wealth Boss Under Pressure

Direct Wealth bosses are the ones who feel the most pressure during this period of uncertainty. They don’t like change. They don’t like it when plans have to be changed. They don’t like to feel out of control.

Under pressure, they will resort to plans heaped upon plans stacked upon calendars. The guy who came up with the idea of having his employees log every single minute of their WFH day, was probably a Direct Wealth boss. There is a real danger that this type of boss will slow things down by spending too much time nitpicking on the teeny tiny details that no longer matter.

How To Deal With Your Direct Wealth Boss

So what have we learned about the Direct Wealth boss? They dislike feeling out of control, and their elaborate planning is a way to wrest back control. To be indispensable to the Direct Wealth boss, you need to be a part of that control process.

Invest time in planning. This means the time you spend creating spreadsheets, project schedules, content calendars, forecasts and projections are not wasted time. Not only do you need to create them, but you should ask for an one-on-one online meeting to walk your boss through every tiny detail. This tells him that you are on top of your game, and you are embracing your share of the responsibility.

Check in daily. Check in with your Direct Wealth boss once a day, or at least once every two days. Keep him updated on your progress, and solicit some advice on selected issues. This lets him know that things are moving on your end.

This strategy works by helping your Direct Wealth boss regain the control he needs. This way, we position you as someone indispensable who is a part of the process of him regaining control of his business.

Note: If you’ve missed my first post, plot your Boss’s Bazi Chart with this free resource (registration required) https://bazibz.masteryacademy.com/. Key in the name, gender and date of birth. You don’t need to key in the time of birth. That information is not relevant for this purpose. Scroll right down to the bottom to find the profile.

Disclaimer: The Bazi Technical terms (Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth) are copyright property of the Joey Yap Mastery Academy. The Hidden Sun has officially written in to the group requesting permission to use these terms, analogies and charts. If you wish to learn the art of Chinese Metaphysics for yourself, please visit www.joeyyaponline.com for more information.

THE FIRST STEP TO MANAGING CHANGE – KEEP YOUR JOB

Ever since the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc around the globe, there has been a veritable cacophony of voices on my social media newsfeed calling for change. To be precise, telling people about the need to change.

As data from the economic consequences of the various lockdown measures are published and amplified by every single media outlet, these experts are seizing on that data to advocate for change. How to change. How to navigate change. Transform, we must! We are now in the era of forced entrepreneurship, one extolled. Here’s a list of industries that will suffer the most. Bail out! Here’s another list of upcoming industries. Pick one!

Honestly, it got to a point where all that ceaseless exhortations to change was becoming a little tiresome. Maybe even a little anxiety-inducing.

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely advocate for change. In fact, as mentioned in my profile, I want to use my skills to help other professionals create a second career.

So here’s my first step to managing change. If you are lucky enough to still be employed, first, keep your job.

Why? Because it is easier to create a second career or to direct a change while you are still employed. This gives you room for the inevitable mistakes. Even if you are forced to take a pay cut, at least you have a form of safety net beneath you. Once you have your job secured, then you should look into creating a pivot. Hopefully, that pivot will be something that brings you fulfilment as well as monetary rewards.

Therefore, the key here is to be indispensable.

A large part of being indispensable is upward management. In other words, boss management.

We’ve all read horror stories of employees being told to record every single minute of their day while working from home. It doesn’t matter if your boss is easy or difficult. Every boss, like every human, is unique. But there are certain broad character traits (10 categories of them, to be precise) that your boss will inevitably fit into.

So now for the trick. We will manage your boss by using his or her Bazi Chart. Of course, you still need to have the pre-requisite experience, technical knowledge and core competencies. The key here is to position yourself in such a way that makes you simply, indispensable.

All you need is his or her date of birth. Don’t know your boss’s birthday? Ask HR, they’re bound to know. Or just straight up ask them! We’re talking about the person you report directly to here. So if you report to the CEO, then by all means, plot his or her chart. Otherwise, plot the one who handles your job assessment. Because you want to be indispensable to him or her.

(For the rest of this series, I will use the generic ‘he’ to refer to the boss. No offense to the feminists out there, but typing ‘him or her’ in every other sentence is beginning to become rather unwieldy.)

Key in his name, gender and date of birth here (https://bazibz.masteryacademy.com/). It’s free, but registration is required. You don’t need to key in the time of birth. That information is not relevant for this purpose.

Scroll right down to the bottom. We are looking for this piece of information.

Ready? Let’s move to our first post in this series – Manage Your Boss With Bazi #1 – How To Deal With Your Direct Wealth Boss.

Photo Credit: Photo by Simon Abrams on Unsplash

A PICTURE OF YOU

I’ve… got a picture of you in my mind!

90s boybands aside, this is actually how a Bazi Consultant decodes your Destiny Chart. Here’s a sample of a Bazi Chart:

Looks intimidating, doesn’t it? That’s what we, your Bazi Consultants, are here for!

Here’s what we see:

So apart from having a lovely picture to hang on your wall, what goes does it do? Let me answer that in one word: Clarity!

Before I go any further, let me debunk some popular myths here – your Bazi Consultants are not fortune tellers. What we look for is the true capacity or potential of the Chart, and correspondingly, the owner of the Chart. We look into the character of the person and how this drives his or her emotions, decisions and actions, which further affects the outcomes in his or her life.

Decoding the chart provides personal clarity.

Armed with that information, the person, if he or she so chooses, can dictate the outcome by changing any one of the three. Will it be easy? That depends. Problems and opportunities are two sides of the same coin.

YOU DON’T NEED TO GO THROUGH THIS ALONE

I am writing this piece from the valley of a Black Swan event. Coined by finance professor, writer and former Wall Street trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007, a black swan is an unpredictable event that is beyond what is normally expected and has potentially severe and widespread consequences.

With every passing day of the Movement Control Order (MCO), an atmosphere of fear is slowly permeating. The economy is in the doldrums, like a stagnant lake emitting tendrils of low-lying fog that writhes about our legs, chilling, cloying, choking. Supply chains have been broken, retail shops shuttered, factory machineries lie silent, public events cancelled. Life, as we know it, is on pause.

Apart from daily necessities, consumers have stopped spending, frozen in stasis whilst events roil over us. Workers are anticipating unpaid leave as companies struggle to make payroll, salary cuts loom on the horizon, or worse, lay-offs.

Fear can be debilitating.

Enter, the professional coach. When I embarked on this journey late last year, my primary goal was to advocate and help other professionals like myself take advantage of the growing gig economy. That goal remains unchanged, but in the tatters that is 2020, we need to shift our focus to damage control for employees and business owners alike.

Now, more than ever, every single one of us will need a coach by our side. Someone impartial, objective and supportive to help manage the emotions, gain clarity and insight, co-create an action plan, and keep us on track on our journey of recovery.

Fear may be debilitating… but taking action can be galvanizing.

Even the smallest step can bring back a feeling of being in control, essential to our well-being when so much seems uncertain. Here are some small steps that you can take while you wait out the MCO:

  1. Research – use this time to learn more about existing and potential new markets that your services, products or skills can serve
  2. Advisors – build a board of advisors to steer and guide you through this challenging period.
  3. Core – focus on enhancing your core competency, look into ways as to how your offerings can be tweaked to serve a different market.
  4. Educate – emerging from the MCO with a new skill in your arsenal will lend you strength as you double down on your recovery plan.

And finally,nI urge you to reach out, to myself or peer coaches. I know you are strong. I know you are resourceful. But whoever said you need to bear this burden alone? Allow us to stretch and elevate your thinking, so you can find the opportunities hidden in the crisis. Let us hold up a mirror for you, so that you can examine the problem from the outside looking in, to find the best solutions for yourself, your business and the livelihoods that depend on you. Together, let’s hunt for the silver lining beneath those dark clouds and ride it to the rainbow on the horizon.

So reach for that phone. Let’s connect. You don’t need to go through this alone.

Photo by Trung Thanh on Unsplash

TRINITY: HEAVEN, MAN AND EARTH

“There are so many types of Chinese Metaphysics solutions out there – how would I know which one is right for me?” I hear that question a lot from friends.

Yes, there are thousands if not tens of thousands of Chinese Metaphysics systems or schools. These can be roughly grouped into three main categories to be deployed for a person’s specific needs. But a simple guideline to remember is – Bazi is the Diagnosis, Feng Shui is the Prescription, Qimen is the Medication.

Bazi (八字) – Heaven Luck. This is your unique energy map, plotted at the day and time of your birth. It’s called Heaven Luck because this chart was deemed as something that was ‘given’ to you at your birth. Think of this as the Google Map of your life. It’s great for life strategies

Qi Men Dun Jia (奇門遁甲) – Man Luck.  This is the system from which the famous Art of War was derived from. In the past, knowledge of this art was exclusive only to the Emperors and was forbidden to commoners. Fact! In the olden days, commoners found to be practicing Qi Men Dun Jia will literally lose their heads over it. On a bad day, even all their family members could be beheaded. Their neighbour who wished them good morning earlier in the day, would also be quaking in their boots, hiding under their beds.

Recently revived, this is an action-based system that is fantastic for the day-to-day battles on the business battleground.

Feng Shui (風水) – Earth Luck. This system seeks to harmonize the energies of the surrounding environment that will enhance the positive energies and reduce the negative.

To wrap-up, here’s a little known fact: many of the top business tycoons in Asia employs all three categories of Chinese Metaphysics to ensure their personal and business success.

Disclaimer: All the Charts and photo of the compass above were downloaded from resources available at the Joey Yap Mastery Academy.

Plot your free Bazi Chart (registration required) at: https://bazibz.masteryacademy.com/

A simpler hour-by-hour Qimen chart is available at: https://qmatools.masteryacademy.com/Account/Login.aspx

The Luopan compass is available for sale at: http://store.joeyyap.com/feng-shui-tools?product_id=228

WHAT’S ‘GOD’ GOT TO DO WITH IT?

There’s been a slew of popular misconceptions about the ancient science of Chinese Metaphysics. The most common? That it is a form of religion, worship or worse, superstition. That, could not be further from the truth. Let’s put this out there once and for all – there are no religious basis nor connotations in the practice of Chinese Metaphysics.

If it is not religion, then what is it?

Part-science and part-art, Chinese Metaphysics is nothing more than a study of energy.

To fully explain the basis of Chinese Metaphysics, we will need to take a trip back in time, thousands of years back to an era where scholars desperately needed a system to reliably forecast the weather. In an agricultural society, the farmers had to know when to sow, plant and reap.

Put yourself in the hand-woven straw shoes of a Chinese scholar from times gone by. It was an age with no satellite TV, no internet, no YouTube, and no Facebook. A popular pastime among the learned was to while away the long dark nights while declaiming poetry. Eventually, someone noticed that certain stars created a predictable pattern at different times of the year and could be  used to track the changing seasons.

Almost everyone would have some passing knowledge about the five elements in Chinese Metaphysics – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. What few know is that Wood refers to Venus, Fire is Jupiter, Earth is the ancients’ name for Mars, and Water is Saturn. Therefore, Chinese Metaphysics is a study of the planets, the energy they represent, and how those patterns affect the individual human being.

Then why the ‘Gods’ and ‘Deities’?

Poetic license, pure and simple. Poetic writing was a prized skill among Chinese scholars. Even the most routine reports were often written in poetry form. So the terms ‘Gods’ or ‘Deities’ were employed for their poetic possibilities instead of the more commonplace term, which would be ‘Stars’.

How then was the superstition label tagged onto Chinese Metaphysics?

Hardly surprising. As the knowledge evolved over a span of thousands of years, facts that had been over-generalized for the consumption of a then largely under-educated population, had morphed into superstitions.

The age of over-commercialization of this knowledge, especially over the past 50 years or so, added to the conundrum.

Photo Credit: Photo by David Menidrey on Unsplash

THE YIN AND YANG OF BUSINESS

Over the past three years, I have been deep-diving into the endlessly fascinating art of Chinese Metaphysics. After decades in motorsports communications, taking that first step was akin to a journey into the unknown.

But what a fascinating journey, it had been!

Today, I am able to meld the art of Bazi and Qimendunjia into actionable solutions for professionals keen to upskill and upgrade themselves.

More on that later. For now, let’s start with the basics – the concept of duality embodied in the Yin and Yang. Google the term and you will find a long Wikipedia page talking about light-and-dark, male-and-female, etc etc (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yin_and_yang)

A 2017 article by Alastair Dryburgh came closest to explaining the concept of Yin and Yang when applied to business. He said, “Progress has two sides. The light side is  creating. learning and succeeding. The dark side is destroying, forgetting and failing. The one cannot exist without the other, but too often we focus our attention on the light and try to ignore the dark.”

From <https://www.forbes.com/sites/alastairdryburgh/2017/02/18/the-yin-and-yang-of-growing-a-business/#6058a21386c4>

At its very core, the concept of Yin and Yang can be explained in three easy words – Cause and Effect.

To elaborate, what is the Cause that will bring to fruition, the Effect that you want? Conversely, how do you avoid the Cause that will bring the Effect that you do not want? To drive sales, what is the critical factor that needs to happen? To get that promotion, what sort of value must you deliver? What needs to happen, in order for you to start your own business?

Yes, it’s as simple as that.

In my next post, I aim to de-mythify the art of Chinese Metaphysics. No, it is not as woo-woo as you think.