Developing Social Awareness

Major new report on global trends in mental health, from Sapien Labs. Data from 2.5 million people across 85 countries. Some of the most important findings: 1) Young adults used to generally have good mental health, compared to older generations. But now, in ALL countries examined, they are doing badly compared to older generations in that country. 2) "Four key factors have emerged that together predict three quarters of this effect. These are diminished family bonds, diminished spirituality, smartphones at increasingly young age, and increasing consumption of ultra-processed food." 3) The decline of young people's mental health is "most pronounced in the wealthier and more developed countries." They note that it is in such countries that smartphones are given earliest, junk food is most heavily consumed, spirituality is most diminished, and family ties are looser and often weaker. 4) "A younger age of first smartphone ownership is associated with increased suicidal thoughts, aggression, and other problems in adulthood." 5) Here is their summary of findings on early smartphone ownership: "GenZ is the first generation to grow up with a smartphone. Among this group, the younger they acquired their first smartphone in childhood, the more likely they are to have struggles as adults. These struggles extend beyond sadness and anxiety to less discussed symptoms, such as a sense of being detached from reality, suicidal thoughts, and aggression towards others. The effects arise through disruption of sleep, increased risk of exposure to harmful online content, predators, and explicit material as well as increased probabilities of cyberbullying during crucial developmental years. Excessive time spent on smartphones also diminishes the development of social cognition that requires learned interpretation of facial expressions, body language, and group dynamics. The negative impacts are particularly sharp below age 13." The report is short, accessible, and important. Read it here: https://lnkd.in/gXev9WCK

Choose growth over glory…just stop seeking external validation In the pursuit of excellence, it's easy to get caught up in the need to prove ourselves. We often find ourselves trying to demonstrate our worth, validate our abilities, and impress others. But what if we shifted our focus from proving to improving? What if, instead of trying to show the world how good we are, we focused on becoming even better? When we're fixated on proving ourselves, we can become mired in anxiety, self-doubt, and fear of failure. This pressure can be suffocating, making it hard to take risks, experiment, and innovate. In contrast, focusing on improvement is liberating. It's about embracing the process of growth, learning from our mistakes, and striving for progress. When we're focused on improving, we're not bound by the need for perfection or the fear of criticism. We're free to experiment, to try new things, and to push ourselves beyond our limits. Improvement is a iterative process. It's about making small, incremental changes that add up over time. When we shift our focus from proving to improving, we move from an ego-driven mindset to a growth-oriented one. We're no longer driven by the need for external validation; instead, we're motivated by a desire to learn, to grow, and to become the best version of ourselves. Focusing on improvement also allows us to embrace imperfection. We can acknowledge that we're works in progress, that we're still learning, and that it's okay to make mistakes. This mindset frees us to take risks, to experiment, and to innovate without fear of judgment. And as we continue to improve, we find that we're not just getting better – we're becoming the best version of ourselves.

Transitioning service members: don't mistake online popularity for professional credibility. Indeed, several social media influencers within the veteran community share valuable insights - true mentors eager to guide rather than simply gather followers. But even if learning from their experiences and advice is beneficial, striving to emulate their influencer status is not the same as building a substantive career. I often notice an overemphasis among transitioning service members on crafting a shiny social media image at the expense of more impactful career-building activities such as: - Cultivating genuine professional relationships that can open real doors - Acquiring new skills that enhance your marketability and fit within your desired industry - Engaging directly with potential employers outside of social platforms My advice? Focus on developing a personal brand that reflects actual skills and achievements. Invest more in applying practical career advice and less in curating a follower count. The ultimate goal isn’t to become well-known on LinkedIn, or any other platform, but to forge a meaningful and fulfilling career path that leverages your unique military experience and skills. Build your career foundation first - the network will follow.

Adaptability is not just about adjusting plans, it’s about how you lead when plans change. It's the ability to respond thoughtfully and quickly when circumstances shift , without losing sight of people or purpose. 👩🏭 It's the plant manager who adjusts production schedules in response to supply chain issues without blaming the team, and involving them in finding solutions. 👨🏭 It's the site foreman who calmly adjusts plans when weather delays hit, reassigning tasks to keep the crew productive instead of standing still. 👩💼 It's the store manager who rotates staff across departments during a sudden staffing shortage, while keeping morale high and communicating clearly. I've worked with people in all of these positions, and more. And every single person who showed real adaptability had a few things in common: 📌 They stayed steady 📌 They stayed human 📌 They brought people with them 📌 They kept things moving. And underneath that... 📌 They were curious 📌 They were willing to unlearn 📌 They paused to reflect 📌 They shared their ideas 📌 They didn't try to have it all figured out Are we developing these competencies in ourselves and others? How can we improve our approach? Leave your comments below 🙏

SOCIAL INTELLIGENCE - THE SECRET TO HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS At a mid-sized tech company, a senior project manager, Leena, was leading a team of highly skilled professionals. Despite their technical expertise, the team was struggling with communication breakdowns, frequent misunderstandings, and low morale. While individually competent, they lacked cohesion and struggled to navigate workplace relationships effectively. Leena realized that technical skills alone weren’t enough—her team needed a deeper understanding of interpersonal working skills and social dynamics to enhance collaboration, resolve conflicts, and drive collective success. We worked with her to up the social intelligence quotient of the team as a solution after various discussions and analysis. What Exactly Is Social Intelligence? Social intelligence (SI) is the ability to understand, navigate, and manage social relationships effectively. It involves: 🌸Empathy: Understanding others' emotions and perspectives. 🍀Situational Awareness: Reading social cues and adapting behavior accordingly. ✨Active Listening: Engaging with others beyond just hearing their words. 💫Influence and Persuasion: Building trust and credibility. 🛠Conflict Resolution: Managing disagreements constructively. Social intelligence is a critical component of Emotional Intelligence (EI), complementing self-awareness and self-regulation with the ability to engage productively in interpersonal dynamics. Why Is Social Intelligence Important at Work? In Leena’s case, she observed that a lack of social intelligence led to: 🏸Miscommunication: Team members often misunderstood each other’s intentions. 🏸Low Engagement: Employees hesitated to speak up or share ideas. 🏸Ineffective Collaboration: Departments worked in silos instead of as a cohesive unit. Once Leena implemented targeted social intelligence strategies, the results were transformative—team members became more engaged, communication improved, and collaboration flourished. How to Cultivate Social Intelligence in the Workplace? 🌱Encourage Active Listening 🌱Foster Empathy 🌱Develop Conflict Resolution Skills 🌱Promote Situational Awareness 🌱Create a Feedback Culture ➡The Outcome: A More Cohesive and Productive Team Through a tailored social intelligence development program, Leena’s team transitioned from a group of high-performing individuals to a collaborative, resilient, and emotionally intelligent workforce. Productivity and morale improved, and the team developed a stronger sense of trust and belonging. Ready to Enhance Social Intelligence in Your Team? 📌 https://lnkd.in/dGGM5vCK #sonniasingh #sonniasinghleadershipcoach #SocialIntelligence #EmotionalIntelligence #Leadership #WorkplaceSuccess #TeamPerformance #HighPerformingTeams #EmployeeEngagement #ConflictResolution #PeopleSkills #LeadershipDevelopment

Something keeps happening in senior leadership teams across Singapore, Malaysia, and Brunei. A capable, well-intentioned leader, often from Europe or North America, finds that their team won't push back and won't surface problems early. The leader reads this as disengagement or a capability gap. They redesign the structure, run a culture survey, bring in a consultant. The symptoms ease. The dynamic doesn't change. The problem isn't the team. It's also not a culture problem in the way that phrase is usually used. It's a misread. A leader interpreting a system they don't fully have the coordinates for, and fixing the wrong thing as a result. I've been working across this for most of my career. Last week, I took two assessments — partly out of curiosity, and to pressure-test my own assumptions — introduced to me by Belinda Widgery, an Associated Practitioner with The Culture Factor Group, who also debriefed me on the results. Clarifying. And a little uncomfortable. The Cultural Adaptability Profile looks at individual capability. My scores came back strong across all five dimensions. Cultural Interest at 100, benchmarked against seasoned expatriates. The Culture Compass looks at something else: the gap between your operating defaults and the cultural logic of the environment you're working in. My Power Distance score: 19. Singapore’s: 74. Malaysia’s: 100. The reports describe 10 points as the threshold for noticeable daily impact. High adaptability doesn't close a 55-80 point gap. It means you don't get destabilised by it. The misreads still happen, and they accumulate. People don't contradict you publicly. Disagreement shows up later, informally. Deference looks like agreement until something goes wrong. Without the right coordinates, you may continue to diagnose it as a people problem and address the wrong issues. The same pattern appeared across all three countries I mapped against. On emotional expressiveness, something I've used to build trust, the feedback was consistent. In high power-distance and uncertainty-avoidance environments, what I experience as openness can register as a loss of control. The behaviours I use to build trust can quietly undermine my authority at the same time. Whose assumptions are in the room, how far they sit from the system they're working in, and whether the people trying to fix the problem are reading it accurately — that sits underneath everything else. The leader whose team won't push back doesn't need another restructure. Silence in a meeting isn't agreement. It's deference. Disagreement moves later, through someone trusted enough to carry it upward. If the organisation isn't set up to surface dissent safely, that loop never closes. The assessments from The Culture Factor didn't tell me what I expected. That was exactly the point. GROW HR Consulting works with organisations across APAC and EMEA on HR leadership, people diagnostics, and executive coaching. www.growhr.asia | alf.carlesater@growhr.asia

𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 𝘁𝗵𝗲 #𝟯 LinkedIn 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗲. Here's how to think about it in context of today's hybrid, remote, and distributed team environments. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙚? They’re what I call 𝗢𝗺𝗻𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀 - those who can seamlessly shift between different work environments while keeping their teams connected, engaged, and productive. 💡 Omnimodal Leadership is the ability to lead effectively across all these work environments: ✅ 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗖𝗼-𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱: Everyone is in the same physical space (rare but still happens). ✅ 𝗛𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 (𝗜𝗻-𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗮𝗷𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆): You’re in an office with the majority of your teammates, but others are in different offices and remote locations. ✅ 𝗛𝘆𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱 𝗼𝗿 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗲𝗱 (𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗠𝗶𝗻𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆): You’re in an office or working remotely, while the majority of your teammates are colocated together elsewhere. ✅ 𝗙𝘂𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗲: No shared physical space - everything happens across distance. 📌 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿? As you and your teams shift modes throughout the week (or even within a single the day!), leaders must adapt by: 𝟭. Strengthening your 𝗮𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗰 communication skills - not everything needs a meeting. 𝟮. Facilitating meetings that 𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗮𝗴𝗲 both in-person and remote team members.   𝟯. Building your 𝗶𝗻𝗳𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 across locations to mitigate Distance Bias.   𝟰. 𝗠𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 people that aren't in your same location.    ⚡ 𝘼𝙙𝙖𝙥𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙖𝙘𝙧𝙤𝙨𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝙬𝙞𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙖𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙩. In which work mode do you feel strongest? In which mode do you need more practice? #SkillsOnTheRise 

"Adaptability is about the powerful difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win." 🌟 Transitioning to a New Department or role ? You’re Not Alone! 🌟 Whether you've switched departments or taken a leap into a new career, adjusting to new roles can be daunting.😐 Recently, during a workshop, an employee who spent over 10 years in HR shared his experience after moving into production. He described the challenges of being a "newcomer" in a team where even his juniors were more knowledgeable. Expectations were high, and the pressure to learn fast and perform well began to feel overwhelming. If you’re in this situation,  I have you covered . Here are some ways I suggested to him to navigate this situation- ✨ Embrace Learning: Acknowledge that being new means you’ll have a learning curve. Seek knowledge from peers, juniors, or mentors and remember—each question you ask takes you a step closer to mastery. ✨ Lean on Past Experience: While the field may be different, the skills you've gained—like communication, problem-solving, and resilience—can give you an edge. Look for ways to integrate these into your new role. ✨ Set Small, Achievable Goals: Focus on small wins to build confidence. Each achievement, no matter how minor, will make the bigger transition feel more manageable. ✨ Seek Feedback Regularly:Proactively check in with your manager or team for guidance on progress and improvement.Openly discuss challenges to build support and show your commitment to growth. Managers can make a huge difference too: ✨ Provide Patience & Understanding: Recognize that a seasoned employee in a new role is not inexperienced overall—they’re adapting. Offering time, encouragement, and support can make a world of difference. ✨ Assign a Mentor or Buddy: Pairing a new joiner with a more experienced team member accelerates learning, creating a safe space for questions and confidence-building. ✨ Celebrate Progress: Acknowledge even small accomplishments along the way. It’s a morale boost and shows that the employee’s efforts are valued. Change is never easy, but with the right support and mindset, you’ll find yourself thriving in your new role before long. Let’s create workplaces where every transition feels welcomed and supported. To sum it up, don't adapt yourself to the new role just to cope, but embrace it to win💫✨ #CareerTransition #NewDepartment #EmployeeWellbeing #ManagerialSupport #CareerDevelopment

"Most leaders think their teams need to get better at change. The truth? Their teams need to get better at disagreeing." Across SEA, stakeholders keep telling me: "We can handle change. We just can't handle how fast everything changes." But here's what I see when I dig deeper: Teams don't break because change happens. Teams break because they can't adapt together. And the World Economic Forum December 2025 report confirms this: Flexibility will be critical economic skills from 2026–2030. Not new frameworks. Not better tools. Human capabilities. COMB has been solving this exact problem for nine years, long before WEF made it official. Earlier this year, I worked with a cross-functional team in crisis where marketing said product was too slow. Product said operations was too rigid. Operations said everyone dumped last-minute requests. Leadership labeled it "lack of adaptability." But during our COMB session, the real issue surfaced: A manager said honestly: "We don't struggle with change... We struggle because we don't trust how people will respond when we speak honestly." That was it. Teams cannot adapt to external uncertainty when they feel unsafe with internal uncertainty. Because adaptability isn't just technical. It's emotional. When people don't feel safe, they: ❌ Won't challenge ideas ❌ Won't ask crucial questions ❌ Won't disagree constructively ❌ Won't reveal blindspots ❌ Won't collaborate at speed This is why psychological safety isn't "soft culture work." It's the backbone of competitive advantage. For nine years, COMB has been developing what we call "soft power skills", the human capabilities that drive organizational adaptability. Long before WEF identified flexibility as critical, we've been training teams across Indonesia and Singapore to master constructive conflict, emotional regulation, and trust-building under pressure. Most teams avoid conflict because they only know destructive conflict: defensive reactions, personal attacks, shutdowns. But we teach the real engine of adaptability: Constructive conflict. Where teams learn to say: "I see it differently, here's why" or "Help me understand your constraints." When teams master constructive conflict: 💥 Speed increases dramatically 💥 Decision-making sharpens 💥 Innovation accelerates 💥 Client communication improves 💥 Silos dissolve naturally Because trust isn't built when people agree. Trust is built when people can disagree safely. What the WEF identifies, COMB operationalizes. From 2026–2030, companies will rise or fall on one capability: how well their people adapt to uncertainty together. Lead Beyond Yourself. Rise Beyond Limits. If your teams hesitate, avoid difficult conversations, or slow down when the world speeds up — is it really a skills issue or a safety issue? Ready to build adaptability as your competitive edge? Let's talk. #softpowerskills #teamadaptability #psychologicalsafety #futureskills #organizationalchange #cassandracoach

I refreshed my LinkedIn for the fifth time today. Same follower count as yesterday. This sent me down a spiral: → Obsessively checking competitors → Questioning my content strategy → Wondering if I'm "doing it wrong" In moments like this I remind myself why I started documenting my journey online. It wasn't for validation. It wasn't for likes. It wasn't to "beat" anyone. It was to share my unique perspective as a human brand in an AI world. See, the moment you create content seeking external validation is the moment you lose yourself. The numbers game is the quickest way to burn out. So, here are some mindset shifts for you: → Focus on creating, not cribbing → Document, don't validate → Build a brand, not a vanity metric And trust me, your best content comes When you stop checking stats and start sharing stories. When you shift your focus from metrics to message, growth follows naturally. That's the paradox of content creation. Chase numbers, and they run away. Chase meaning, and the numbers chase you. P.S.: Have you ever caught yourself measuring your worth by the number of impressions?