Friday Five 14-October-2022

Thanks for all the kind words. I'll write something about what's going on soon, I have to say, I'm impressed with the incidents. But anyway... Back to my regular schedule of Friday Fives....

thefridayfive 

1. How many languages do you speak?
Able to hold proper conversations in 3: English, Cantonese Chinese, and Portuguese. Then I can (or I hope I still can) communicate in Japanese... and slowly getting there in German.

2. What is your mother tongue?
Portuguese, but it doesn't mean I'm the most fluent in it.

3. What is a language that you would like to learn and why?
It's always German. But say, if one day I've miraculously mastered German, then I'd like to try a hand in Latin, or Russian even. Maybe Russian more than Latin. I'm probably a cryptology-hobbyist. I enjoy deciphering the characters/word/word formation.

4. Does it bother you when people speak a language you don't know in front of you? Why or why not?
I don't care about. I mean, obviously, if it's a group discussion and everyone's supposed to join in the conversation, then you can't possibly use a language that someone doesn't know. But for like if I'm out there and in an elevator with other people in it and they're speaking in, who knows what language, it's really none of my business.
The only funny thing is, in Macau usually people are either Portuguese speaking, or Chinese Speaking. English is a business language so everyone's expected to know it at some level or another. So mostly, it's the Portuguese that don't realise that I speak Portuguese (I don't look Portuguese enough, maybe it's the Austrian bits in me), or the Chinese that don't realise I speak Cantonese (I look "gwei mui" ghostly, i.e. "foreign") and then they converse in their language, not realising I understanding them. I sometimes do on Facebook "overheard" posts, it's usually funny, coz I don't have the full context of the conversation, but I heard what I heard, so it's funny.
Though if I know for a fact they are bad mouthing me or someone/something, I would quip back to them.

5. Speak to me.
... is this code for something?????? LOL sorry, I don't get it.


F.riday5.com

1. Among people you know, who seems to be a natural leader?
There was one that I thought was a good leader, but the more I'm working with them (close to 5 years now) the more I think I was naive and misinformed back then.

2. When have you had leadership thrust upon you?
The first time when I jumped ship with my then-boss, they promised they would be the manager and I'd be the assistant manager and they'd teach and lead me, but then soon, they got re-transferred and I was left to head the department. I knew I had 0 experience and couldn't do it, so I asked to be transferred/demoted very soon after that.
Most recently was when I started to work for my current Boss, for this side project of his, there's this department that basically is like the headquarters admin office or executive office, so now I'm the head of that office. I raised a bit of fuss then, saying, yes I'm an admin but I've never actually run and led a department, and I don't mind learning it, but they'll need someone to show me the ropes, so to say, and give me time to learn. Baptism by fire seems to be the way I get thrust into learning stuff.
I had a few discussions with my assistant in that project and one time apologizing for not being able to get her a raise after a stellar annual performance, she said it's fine. She'd rather work for a good supervisor than find a high-paying job but with a terrible supervisor. So I guess I'm doing ok?

3. Are you most effective as the person at the front of the line motivating others to come along, the behind-the-scenes make-sure-everything-gets-done second-in-command, the enthusiastic follower, or the devil’s advocate?
I'm the behind the scenes and enthusiastic follower, but I still have a backbone too. Do you know how many times I called my Boss' BS? LOL.

4. Where did you learn most of your leadership skills?
After my transfer/demotion, I had a devil of a boss. Devil not because he was evil or bad, but he was "businessly-devious" and knew how to play the political game very well. Like, department A wanted to give a promotion to some 5 staff. This boss held onto the proposal for well around 6 months or so, and when the higher ups came to him to ask him for help on something, he goes, "oh by the way, we have these 5 guys worthy of a promotion too." And that's how he got to help the higher ups, and also get that promotion that if he just simply brought it up it'd be automatically rejected.
I've also read a couple of books, and back when I was doing my MBA there were courses on leadership skills and all that. And with the recent online MBA thing I'm doing I just did another leadership course thing. A lot of that is really common sense, but having a framework and further explanation does help me to digest and consider maybe trying to change some of my ways too.

5. What is a most underrated leadership skill?
That ability to read people is very useful. That devil of a boss I mentioned? He was berating us (me and my supervisor) one time, I think he was throwing a hissy fit because both of us missed or forgot something (inconsequential, I've forgotten what it was about) and he said, "I know your (my supervisor) priority is your daughter and your (me) priority is your dogs, but when you're in this office, I am the only priority you will have!"
I thought it unfair at first, because my supervisor at that time was obviously always thinking about her daughter and getting all the "family holidays" (christmas, summer, etc...) meanwhile I never said anything about my dogs. Yeah maybe when one needed the vet I'd take the afternoon off to see the vet or something like that. But it wasn't like I had my desk full of my dogs photos. So I don't know how he knew about me and my dogs.
My mom found it hilarious. "Hey at least, you now know he knows the both of you very well!"
I can see the humour now, so many years later LOL.