Facing it!

"Face time", a concept devoid of any real logic, yet so often adhered to for the sake of ego, either your bosses or your own.

Coming into the office before you boss and leaving after them is nothing more than showmanship. Of course, having a successful career in many Asian cities could be difficult without it. But for the rest of us, let's get real!

Do your job. Do it well. And let your output speak for itself. If you're getting things done better than anybody else, can you honestly see your boss caring whether you leave at 5pm or at 7pm? Focus on the quality of your output, and not the amount of your input, and you are part way towards a better balance.

All work and no play...

The creative side of the brain is an interesting one. And not a side us finance sorts often get to exercise. But I try to - and my chosen medium is photographs.

In defiance of the stereotype, I decided to collaborate with a close friend of mine - also a keen photographer - and self publish a book. With the help of blurb.com, she and I have pulled together photographs that capture the (hopefully) unique aspects of Asia that we have had the privilege of glimpsing during out travels. Our mission: to showcase Asia's rapid modernisation in contrast with the elegance and dignity that it retains in its traditions.

Whilst an unashamed plug for our book, this post is also intended to encourage the fellow workaholics out there to step away from their blackberrys and to exercise the other side of their brains.

We hope you enjoy our book - you can see more of it here.

Ditching the human interface

Meetings: a great way to feel important, but a huge dent in your productivity and often the cause of long hours and frustration.

Some people believe in avoiding all meetings. However, for those of us who rely on clients to pay our salaries, this is not a smart idea. Some meetings are necessary, but most are a waste of time. For all the chest-beating, name-dropping and use of buzz words such as "let's touch base", "discuss offline", or "circle back", I can only recall a handful of meetings where progress was actually made.

So, here are my general rules to minimise being couped up in a small room with smelly co-workers:

1. Don't attend internal (i.e. non-client) meetings. Pretend to be working on something urgent instead, and you will continue to have an "internal profile" of being important. Internal meetings are just a forum for people to whinge and complain, or where you tell people how important you are. If absent for the right reason, your importance will propogate itself.


2. Stick to business - if you have scheduled a meeting to discuss work, then do just that. Other than two sentences or so, don't waste time on niceties or asking about the wife, kids, or Aunt Zelda. If you want to socialise, meet your client for a drink (and pick up the tab, don't be cheap). But use meetings to get through things! Clients who know you will appreciate your work ethic and will actually have more to say at social gatherings or networking sessions (a topic for another blog post!)


3. Agendas - stick to them. And circulate in advance. Any meeting where you do not know what will be discussed and what you need to contribute is going to be a black hole in your diary. Agenda items that are not tightly defined will see people deviate or get distracted. So skip meetings with ambiguous agendas.


4. Avoid cafes - meet in an office so you can follow rule #2. If you meet in a cafe, the tendency will be to keep it casual and talk nonsense.


5. Pretend you are double-booked. And remind the other person constantly. That way, they will feel you are super short of time and will stick to the key themes. Unimportance issues can be dealt with later.

What have you really got?

I used to think the senior guys I worked with had it good. Until, of course, I started moving up the food chain myself and quickly came to the realisation that they didn't.

Becoming more senior doesn't just mean a bigger pay cheque. It also means feeling compelled to lease the BMW you can't afford to buy, to send your kids to private school instead of public school, and to wear Boss or Zegna suits instead of whatever is in the local department store. And not because you want to, but because all the other senior guys are doing the same. Keeping up with the Joneses, so to speak, is a fool's pursuit, but one that most people follow.

My advice? Keep it simple. Don't upsize or get fancy because you feel you have to. If Gucci shoes really turn you on, then go for it. If they don't, then keep your cash. It will mean you can retire earlier, or stop pushing so hard at work, or even... God forbid... actually have more in your life than fleeting, meaningless materials things!

Badges of honour

Working long hours is not something to be proud of. There's a bunch of sadomasochistic idiots out there who wear working hard on their sleeves as a badge of honour. Here's the truth: if you're proud of being in the office until 2am so that your boss can take home a bigger bonus than you, then you're a schlep! There are smarter ways to work, ways to outsource and get help.

I'm in banking too, so I get it - there are times when you've just got to do what it takes. But that should be the exception, not the norm. Here's the first few steps that should see you leave the office at a reasonable time:

1. Make a "to-do" list first thing in the morning. Make sure the first 3 things absolutely have to get done, no matter what. Make everything else a "nice to have".


2. Find juniors, secretaries, etc., to get on with the tasks that rank below 3. People like being empowered and given responsibility and often rise to the challenge - you never know, they may surprise you with the quality of their work.


3. Make sure you stick to getting the first 3 tasks on your list done. Do whatever it takes - even if that means ignoring your phonecalls and email. And whatever you do, DO NOT play with that damn blackberry!


4. At 6pm, if the first three tasks are done, then go home. The others are probably well progressed given you have delegated, so forget them. Ask about their progress first thing the next morning. Remind yourself that life goes on without you - after all, you're not constantly on the phone to pilots to tell them how or where to land, you're not telling doctors where to cut people open, and you're not telling chefs just how much cinnamon to use. So let the world do its thing so you can do yours!


5. Go home and use your extra time to re-connect with your old hobbies, spouse, net surfing, whatever...

The importance of unimportant things

There's something about us office workers that makes us react strangely to things when we're at work. Ordinarily, we would claim that nothing would make us happier than somebody reducing our workload. Why, then, do we get defensive or upset when there's someone out there trying to do more (the consequence of which is us doing less)?!?! The answer, in a nutshell, is ego. Letting the ego get in the way oftentimes creates 16-hour workdays. Ignoring it has the potential to pay huge dividends.

Just the other day I had a colleague come to me and say, "Jack wants to pull a pitch together to deliver to Client X. Apparently he has a great relationship out there." So far in the conversation I'm failing to see the problem. The guy goes on, "He doesn't know a damn thing about the debt structuring needed. Surely he should get us involved!" And then came the all-emotive, "...after all, that's our space!"

So Jack knows the client; knows him well. And Jack wants to prepare a pitch book. There's alot of work involved in pitching debt restructuring plans - I should know - I've been working on these things for years! So as far as I'm concerned, Jack can do it! I for one have enough work to keep me busy (or at least looking it!). Now I know Jack couldn't tell debt from his wrinkly Aunt Maude if his life depended on it. So there are two likely outcomes here:

1. Jack pitches and it gets nowhere, or
2. Jack gets the gig.

If it's #1, I'm disinterested. If it's #2, Jack will likely get us involved. See, the thing is, Jack is a pretty senior guy, heading up his own specialist team. Last thing he wants is the client thinking he's a total schmuck, nor does he want the papers plastering his name in the headlines with a real-world example of how he single-handedly brought his client to the brink of bankruptcy. So Jack will be reasonable and we should get a decent crack at doing the work. So where's the problem?

The problem is my colleague. He wants to be a hero: wants to win the work and tell his friends. Which is fine, I guess, but has him spinning his wheels on trying to outdo Jack. I say, let Jack do his thing and my colleague should find another client to pitch to. There are plenty of companies out there with dud debt structures, so surely everyone can be happy.

I'm just happy to have my job and collect my pay cheque every month. Don't need glory, just the salary...

Freud's diagrams from 'The Ego and the Id' (1923)