#chinese metaphysics Archives - Page 4 of 4

MANAGE YOUR BOSS WITH BAZI #5 – DIRECT OFFICER: THE SOP FOR THE DIRECT OFFICER BOSS

It had been really difficult to find a public figure with a Direct Officer profile. The most high profile entrepreneurs, business and thought leaders of the day tend to belong to the more extroverted categories. This is so typical of a Direct Officer profile. They take the art of being unassuming to the next level.

This, however, does not mean that Direct Officer profiles cannot be successful. On the contrary, many of the top CEO and COOs of public-listed companies are Direct Officer profiles. The difference here is, their success is only known to those who need to know.

Short of using an actual consult chart (which I would never do), I have had no choice but to illustrate the characteristics of the Direct Officer profile with a historical figure – Bao Zheng.

For the benefit of those who may not be conversant with Chinese legends, Bao Zheng was a renowned judge from the Song Dynasty (circa year 1000 AD). He is a smart, intelligent guy who consistently demonstrated extreme honesty and uprightness. What is Bao Zheng most famous for? He upholds the law without fear or favour.

Recognizing Your Direct Officer Boss

If I were to sum up the Direct Officer profile with just one word, it would be, of course, ‘law-abiding’. Your Direct Officer boss will be someone who is very conservative. A conformist to the core, he would be rather inflexible, especially where Standard Operating Procedures are concerned.

He (or she) would be a born diplomat. In meetings, he would often be the first to find the middle ground and smooth things over. Precise and proficient, he would be open to improving on systems, but would put up some resistance when it is time to reinvent the wheel.

His is a democratic style of leadership. He prefers to act as a guide, accepting input and ideas from his team members. In fact, he often goes out of his way to help his team members feel included and valued.

As a side note, Direct Officer profiles make the best coaches, primarily due to their innate desire to support others and their keen listening skills.

Your Direct Officer Boss Under Pressure

A Direct Officer boss is the one most likely to cling to an SOP, if nothing else but for the sake of consistency. This is the polar opposite of the Indirect Wealth boss who will lean towards starting again from scratch. At unhealthy levels, a Direct Officer boss could very well ignore the elephant in the room. This denial stems from an inner push against facing unpleasant realities.

How To Deal With Your Direct Officer Boss

The trick to being indispensable to your Direct Officer boss is to enhance the enshrined SOP.

Take an active role by helping your team set priorities. There will always come a time when the team will need to differentiate between what is urgent and what is important, and act accordingly. This small step of tweaking the SOP (without tearing it apart), must be aimed at the objective of having things back in working order as soon as possible without taking the sense of control away from your boss.

Where possible, allow a time frame for the decision-making process. The Direct Officer profile is detail-oriented, systematic and by-the-book. They prefer making decisions only after having worn down at least several fine-tooth combs. Of course, there will always be times when decisions have to be made instantaneously, but whenever possible, build in a time frame for the decision-making process. The Direct Officer boss firmly believes that in order for something to be done well, it must be completed early.

Unlike the previous types of bosses in this series (Direct Wealth, Indirect Wealth, Eating God and Hurting Officer), the Direct Officer boss will value a few key personality traits. These are:

Self-discipline. The Direct Officer boss puts a high premium on this trait. The ability to demonstrate self-discipline in your daily performance will put you in high standings with your Direct Officer boss.

Take your aggression elsewhere. The Direct Officer boss is above all else, a harmonious team leader. He will look out for every person, he wants to settle all conflicts, and is always striving for peaceful objectives. This type of leadership style will crack if there are too many aggressive personalities competing within the team. There will be too much time spent in mediation instead of moving things forward.

You could, on the other hand, offer to fight his battles for him. Conflicts and arguments are an inevitable part of working life. This offer should be framed as a willingness to stand up and take one for the team – to say certain things during meetings that needs to be said, or to take a stance with certain other aggressive individuals. In other words, you are using your Hurting Officer to you’re your Direct Officer. A word of caution, this tactic must be used carefully and very, very strategically.

Note: If you’ve missed my first post for this series, 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.

In all this, I must stress that you cannot ‘fix’ another person’s chart. Only the owner can do so, if he or she wishes to. The strategies offered here are designed to put you in a position that either complements the strengths or fills in the blind spots of that particular profile.

Disclaimer: The Bazi Technical terms (Direct Wealth, Indirect Wealth, Eating God, Hurting Officer, Direct Officer and 7Killings) are copyright property of the Joey Yap Mastery Academy. 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 #4 – HURTING OFFICER: WHEN YOU WORK WITH A SHARP SHOOTER, YOU NEED TO SUPPLY THE BULLETS

If you work in sales or marketing, or even in the creative industry, chances are pretty high that you will be working for a Hurting Officer boss. Does he consider himself a maverick? A contrarian in speech, dress and style? He commands attention everywhere he goes and takes more than his fair share of the limelight.

Recognizing Your Hurting Officer Boss

Your Hurting Officer boss will be someone who publicly displays a unique outlook and mind. He is very invested in his own personality and how it is presented to the world. He would be someone who is very flexible, has a non-conformist mindset, and a palpable need to impress others.

The Hurting Officer profile is very charismatic and has a competitive, goal-oriented approach. He wants to be the best, and he will stop at nothing to achieve those objectives. Witty and articulate, his biggest strength is his ability to make any idea seem sexy and appealing.

He would be a people-oriented leader who is extremely adept at creating a group identity or brand. He uses that identity to inspire and develop the people in his team or department, but the team must always revolve around him as the star of the show.

Your Hurting Officer Boss Under Pressure

A Hurting Officer boss is likely to become resistant to help when under extreme pressure. He could get so caught up with the need to maintain his status that he pushes everyone away.

How To Deal With Your Hurting Officer Boss

Being indispensable to your Hurting Officer boss is all about helping him maintain his status.

Help him prepare and research. The Hurting Officer boss hates looking like a failure. He doesn’t like to be caught unprepared. The key drivers to his behaviour is an innate fear of being devalued. You could play your part in this process by gathering the information for him.

Have a specific skill he needs. For the Hurting Officer to be most effective, this profile needs to surround itself with skilled professionals. For example, if your Hurting Officer boss is a Marketing Director, having a skill like video editing or copywriting would make you invaluable to him. Why? Because your skill will help make him look good. If you work for a Hurting Officer boss, it would really be a good idea to continue upskilling yourself. Not only will you become indispensable, but at the same time, open a window of opportunity to establish a second career for yourself.

Disclaimer: The Bazi Technical terms (Eating God and Hurting Officer) are copyright property of the Joey Yap Mastery Academy. 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 #3 – EATING GOD: EVERY STRATEGIST NEEDS A TACTICIAN

If your boss has a habit of referring to himself as an artist, chances are, you are working for an Eating God boss. He tends to be profoundly idealistic, sometimes even a tad bit impractical. Ask him about the ideal outcome, and he will paint you a picture with words.

Recognizing Your Eating God Boss

Your Eating God boss would be someone who is a bit of an intellectual. He considers learning to be an essential part of every human being and he loves to spend hours mulling over new concepts or far-flung possibilities.

The Eating God profile may be hard to pin down, because it can manifest in so many different ways. Essentially, this profile has to do with creativity – the art of creation. Many people instinctively jump on the obvious such as drawing, painting or writing. The Eating God cannot be strictly boxed in that way. This profile actually refers to an ability to visualize and create a product, a service, or a system.

In the world of the Eating God boss, there is no system perfect enough that cannot be rebuilt. He will be constantly thinking of reinventing the wheel, tweaking and changing.

He would be a service-oriented leader who puts a premium on collaboration, trust and empathy. His objective will be focused on supporting the individuals within the team.

Your Eating God Boss Under Pressure

When pressured, your Eating God boss is likely to display a tendency to analyse a problem to death. He will spend a lot of time thinking and discussing, but without an action plan at the end of the brainstorming.

How To Deal With Your Eating God Boss

To be indispensable to your Eating God boss, you need to play tactician to his strategist.

Keep learning. Eating God profiles get frustrated by people who refuse to grow. You need to display intellectual curiosity to match his.

Be his sounding board. Eating God profiles love to examine problems from multiple angles, especially when he has someone to bounce his ideas on. However, he must consider you to be his intellectual equal before you can take on this role.

Help him achieve perfection. The idealistic nature of the Eating God profiles very often leads to a broad streak of perfectionism. If you are the person who can bring a shine to his ideas, that is when you truly become indispensable to your Eating God boss.

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.

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