Humility is Not Thinking Less of Yourself, but Thinking of Yourself Less. There’s a difference.

This is my share for #motivationmondays.

Let me give you some specific examples.

Why are there people who are very wealthy, and at the same time are considered to be very kind-hearted, generous, and loved?

Now aren’t there also wealthy people who are considered to be cruel, cold-hearted, and lonely?

Similarly, there are people who aren’t financially wealthy, yet are considered to be very kind-hearted, generous, and loved.

At the same time there are people who aren’t financially wealthy, and are considered to be cruel, cold-hearted, and lonely.

You see, financial capability has nothing to do with having the ability to be kind-hearted and generous.

The only common denominator is Humility. And it’s not about thinking less of yourself, but rather, thinking of yourself less, and more of how you can be of value to others.

If anything, financial capability will only amplify your ability to give value to others.

Would you agree? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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When you’re feeling a lot of stress and pressure caused by external factors, and you let it get to you, in the end, you lose.

But if you’re using that stress and pressure to constantly improve yourself and create a better version of you, in the end, you win.

Break free of your limiting beliefs, keep challenging yourself, be a producer, not a consumer, take massive action.

This is my share for today’s #motivationmondays.

The post If an Egg breaks from the Outside, Life Ends. If it breaks from the Inside, Life Begins. appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

For #motivationmondays, do you know how much better you’ll be in a year, if you improve yourself by just 1% each day?

It’s going to look like this:

• Day 0: 100% status quo
• Day 1: 101%
• Day 7: 107.2%
• Day 30: 135%
• Day 90: 244%
• Day 365: 3778% of whopping exponential improvement!

What does this mean?

Sometimes, you don’t have to immediately strive for that 3778% end goal.

Break it down into smaller milestones, and set your sights on daily improvement goals.

That way, all you have to focus on is that 1% improvement each and every day.

That’s a way simple goal to strive for compared to looking at an overwhelming 3778% improvement in a year, don’t you think?

Like for me, my 1% daily goal is to produce 1 piece of content for you each and every working day. And I hope it’s something you find value in. If you do, then subscribe for updates, and as a gift, you’ll get a free (for a limited time only) copy of my book – The Business Optimization Blueprint, so you can start working on improving your processes by 1% every day.

How about you, what’s the 1% improvement you’re looking to do everyday?

Reply with a comment. I would love to hear from you.

The post If You Improve Yourself by just 1% Every Day, How Much Better will You Be in a Year? appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

It’s #motivationmondays!

Remember when you were a child? The world seemed so huge! And every time you laid eyes on something new, curiosity got the best of you.

You want to touch everything, feel the texture, put things on your mouth, find out what it tastes like, and when you grew a little older you start trying to stand up and walk instead of just crawl.

Did you learn all that the first time around? Of course not. You had to experiment until you got it right, and you kept experimenting until you were able to run, until you could ride a bike, until you could drive a car.

You learned all these new skill through a lot of experiments, and you got good at it because you kept learning something new.

But why is it that now that you’re older, you are afraid of failure? Why are you afraid of rejection? Why are you afraid of losing?

Remember, Every Experiment is a Success IF You Learn from it!

So if you’ve been holding back from learning that new skill, what are you so afraid of?

It’s time to become a better version of you.

And if you’ve been wanting to get that Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, now is the time.

In a few days, we’ll be kicking off the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Flipped Classroom Training. You wouldn’t want to miss this.

Click here for details.

The post Every Experiment is a Success IF You Learn from it! appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

Time for some #motivationmondays.

Ever heard of the saying “Judgment comes from Experience?”

Well the thing is it’s a matter of how you gain that experience, that will allow you to make better judgments or decisions.

And you will only be able to talk from experience if you know what works and what doesn’t.

Have you ever sought advice from an expert? How did they respond?

It would usually go something like “Well based on my experience, this is what works, and this is what doesn’t.”

How do you think they know what doesn’t work?

It’s because they have made poor judgment calls and decisions in the past, and they failed, but never gave up.

Instead, they kept on trying, and made new judgment calls and decisions, until they found out what works, and succeeded.

And from then on, they know what to do, and they are able too make good judgment calls and decisions for that particular subject matter.

Let me give you a more specific example.

Someone once asked me what is the best way to improve Customer Experience or Customer Satisfaction in a Contact Center type of business.

Inexperienced people would give shallow answers or various opinions.

“You should give more empathy, or you should do more rapport,” is what you would typically hear.

But those with experience would be able to talk about what has worked and didn’t work for them in the past, such as:

Here’s an example of what I know doesn’t work – 5 Stupid Things People Do that Impact Customer Satisfaction.

And from my experience, here are some of the things I know that work:

• The 4 Proven Building Blocks for Best-in-Class Customer Satisfaction
• How to improve CSAT with The Recap and Closing Question technique
• How to deal with Irate Customer Escalations

And if you want to learn more about how you can hire the right people for the job, here’s what you can do – The Best Way to Hire for Good Conversation Skills.

And lastly, if you want to learn how you can become good at solving CSAT problems yourself, check out – How to Become Good at Solving CSAT Problems for Contact Centers.

And that’s how an expert can help you.

How did I learn all that? Well it all started from when I learned Lean Six Sigma, and started implementing my learnings.

If you want to learn Lean Six Sigma, I will be hosting a flipped classroom session for a very limited number of students.

If you’re interested or want to learn more, reply with a comment or contact me here.

The post Good Judgment comes from Experience, and Experience comes from Poor Judgment appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

Today’s #motivationmondays is all about taking action.

You know how some people keep bringing new ideas to the table about how we should be doing things?

And then if you ask them to help implement it, they’ll go run the other direction?

“Knowing and not doing is the same as not knowing.” – Robin Sharma

It doesn’t matter how smart you are, how much you read, or how much you know.

If you don’t put it into practice, it will all remain to be just knowledge.

Because no matter how slow you progress, you’ll still be way ahead of everyone who isn’t trying.

Ever heard about the Ebbinghaus Curve or the Forgetfulness Curve?

It’s when by the end of the day, you only remember less than 40% of what you just learned, unless you apply it immediately.

So whenever you learn something new, if you want to retain the know-how, then try it out immediately, and turn that knowledge into experience.

Remember, you are paid for your experience, more than for your knowledge.

You trainings and credentials are nothing of you have not put them into practice.

The post Knowing and Not Doing is the same as Not Knowing appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

For today’s #motivationmondays we’ll be going a little deep.

Do you know people who would scoff at Napoleon Hill’s words of wisdom?

“The man who does more than he is paid for will soon be paid for more than he does.” – Napoleon Hill

I know of some people who would.

But let’s walk through the 2 types of people that fit under these circumstances, and how they typically behave:

• Type A: Those who just do as they are told and according to their pay grade
• Type B: those who exert effort that is above and beyond their pay grade

Read on to find out what the possibilities are by walking through both scenarios.

Before I proceed, I should tell you that these are all based on my own personal experience working with people who fall under these 2 categories and follow these scenarios.

I’m not saying it’s going to be the same for everyone. So here goes.

Type A: Those who just do as they are told and according to their pay grade

People who are like this, in my experience, base everything on what’s in the job description, and decline all additional tasks that go beyond the expectations that were set with them when they were hired.

They do have a good chance at achieving targets that have been set, because they aim to meet the goals, but not necessarily exceed them, because thay would mean additional time and effort on their part, which they don’t want to do.

Clients and customers typically receive what they expect, and nothing more, just like everyone else.

Do they get to always go home on time? Almost always. And because of that, they are usually good at team camaraderie, as they get to go out and have fun with their peers after work.

But when it comes to leadership, there is much to be desired due to lack of sense of initiative, as they usually decline taking the reigns on big initiatives, innovations, and anything that goes above and beyond what they think they should only be doing.

If you’re this type of person, it’s ok. We can all respect that.

But please, don’t despise people who exert extra effort, just because you don’t want to. I’m sure you can respect that too.

If you’re a leader, and you have people like this in your team, it’s a good thing too, as these types of people are either motivated by pay, which means the more you pay them, the greater the responsibility theycan take on, or can be a great reminder to the rest of the team that it is possible to achieve your targets while still managing to go home on time.

Type B: Those who exert effort that is above and beyond their pay grade

More often than not, people like this will own the business even when the owner is away.

They usually meet or exceed targets, but have a tendency of taking on too much that other tasks tend to suffer.

Clients and customers usually have good experiences with them, as it gives them a sense of fulfillment help clients and customers, even if they have to go out of their way for it.

Unfortunately, they have a tendency to become workaholics. And because of that, chances are high that there will be people taking advantage of them to get stuff done.

But when it comes to leadership, they like to take part or even lead initiatives that are for a bigger cause, even if it is outside of their pay grade.

If you’re this type of person, we can all respect that.

But don’t despise others who don’t have same same level of commitment as you do. You can’t enforce your principles and beliefs upon others. Instead, learn the skill of influence and how to motivate others.

If you’re a leader, you would probably want to delegate the higher value tasks to these types of people. Allow them to take the reigns, and with your guidance and mentorship, they can potentially become your next generation leaders.

Ending Note

What do you think about these 2 types of people? Do you agree or disagree? And which one are you?

Reply with a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

The post Do More than what you are Paid For until you are Paid For More than what you Do appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

For #motivationmondays, let’s go back to your childhood.

Have you ever been a child?

I’m sure you have. That’s a rhetorical question.

The reason why I’m saying this is because as a child, there was a time when you had to learn how to walk, talk, and even learn new skills such as how to ride a bike.

Now before you learned any of those skills, how many times did you fail and try again?

That’s right, a LOT of times.

You see, failure is part of success. You have to fail first so you can learn from it, and understand how to do it better next time.

It’s Better to Take Action and Fail than to Fail at Taking Action.

Why?

Reply with a comment to share your own thoughts. I’d love to hear from you.

If you want to find out what I think, then read on.

My own answer to this is because if you take action and fail, at least you learn something.

As the saying goes:

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

But note that it’s not just about trying and trying again.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result.

The key here is that you learn from it, and do something to improve, and take action once again to implement the improvement.

So if you’re looking to improve your skills in order to take your career to the next level, here’s how you can take action:

• Visit https://robbieagustin.com/courses to see some of my recommended learning tracks, enroll, and start learning
• If you haven’t yet, download a copy of my book for FREE (for a limited time only) – The Business Optimization Blueprint, and learn how you can improve your business process and take it to the next level.

The post It’s Better to Take Action and Fail than to Fail at Taking Action appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

It’s time for #motivationmondays!

Do you know someone who is super smart, but for some odd reason, people don’t like that person?

Yes, I believe we can all name at least one person who is like that.

Have you ever wondered why, despite being very intelligent, people seem to dislike that person?

This is the reason.

People may forget what you say or do, but they will never forget what you make them feel.

Let that be a simple reminder to always think about before you go respond to people.

If you want to find out about some techniques I can share that I personally use with great effect, then read on.

Here’s an example – instead of saying “I think you’re wrong. Here is the correct answer.”

You can use the Like-Concern-Suggest technique.

By doing so, you can instead say something such as “I like your idea, but my only concern is (xxx). My suggestion is that we do (yyy). Do you think that makes sense?”

It’s a technique that can be used to build on other people’s ideas, and is great to set as ground rules during brainstorming sessions.

The Makes Sense technique is another delivery method you can use, even separately from the Like-Concern-Suggest technique.

“Would you think it makes sense if we (abc)?” is framed in such a way that you are not forcing your solution to a person.

By saying Yes, it makes them feel like a sensible person, at the same time, they have ownership of the solution, since it is something that has been agreed upon.

Using these techniques, you can be delivering the exact same message across, all while making people feel good about themselves, and feel empowered to move forward with the solution.

And these techniques have worked for me regardless of what role or level of stakeholder I deal with, from top leadership to frontline staff.

Do you think this makes sense? If so, I hope you find this to be of value.

If you have more techniques or examples to share, please reply with a comment. I would love to hear from you.

The post People may Forget what you Say or Do, but they will Never Forget how you make them Feel appeared first on Robbie Agustin.

A wise person told me this.

Today’s #motivationmondays is all about Generosity. Not just any kind of generosity. Allow me to explain.

Okay I get it, there are people who are so concerned about giving without getting something back.

In fact, just this weekend, I heard someone say “The more you give, the less you have.”

I agree, that is quantifiably true.

Will there be people who will take advantage of you? Yes of course.

Will there be people who will not return the favor or pay you back? Definitely.

Will there be people who will not be grateful for your generosity? For sure.

So how can you avoid these kinds of people?

The answer is in “Strategic Giving.”

Dr. Robert Cialdini talks about the Principle of Reciprocity as one of the weapons of influence.

The principle goes that if you offer something first, people will feel indebted to you.

Now if you do this strategically, offering and giving to people who you think could potentially make a difference in your life, then this becomes more powerful.

Let me give you a specific example.

Several years ago, I found out that the security guard at my local church has a son who was taking up engineering in college in the province.

What I did was that I donated the few engineering books that I had back in college to him, so he could send it over to his son.

I gave it without expecting anything in return, and didn’t think too much of it.

But he became so thankful to me, that even if years had passed since I gave those books, he always had a parking space for me whenever I visited church, even if I was late.

It is also because of strategic giving that I was able to get a limousine when I needed one, I learned car control and drifting, and I learned Judo and other MMA takedown techniques.

At work, I do this as well. I provide a lot of upfront value, as I found it becomes easier to ask for help when you need it.

Some people call this “calling in a favor,” but of course, you shouldnt expect anything in return.

Can you give examples of when strategic giving has worked for you? Comment below.

The post Stop looking to GET. Instead, offer to GIVE. Later, when you need help, you will get it. appeared first on Robbie Agustin.