So, what’s the plan for next year?

WE have arrived at the final few days of this year, and many of you would be taking stock of your results.

I am quite certain that there are those of you who would have had some remarkable personal breakthroughs, while others are dealing with a mixed bag of outcomes.

Such is the rigmarole of life that it usually has its share of ups and downs. To be frank, I have yet to meet anyone who’s had 12 months of unbridled success, and continuous joy.

Yet, that seems to be the Holy Grail for everyone.

In all facets of our life we all are in search of results and consequently, happiness.

So, I was gearing up to write about what you could do differently next year that possibly will bring you better success in achieving your targets.

Because this is my fifty-second and final column of the year, it behooved me to do more research than usual, in my attempt to be impactful.

Therefore, I began looking through my coaching notes and reading numerous articles as well as opinion pieces on what the experts recommend.

I was well on the way to crafting a nifty analysis that I thought would help.

And then, unexpectedly, a text message changed the course of this column.

My uncle Dr. M. Jaganathan, an erstwhile management lecturer at a local university, dropped me a very personal note, offering year-end greetings to my wife and I.

But being an academic and, perhaps, in wanting to see his nephew do better at work, my uncle also offered some suggestions on what I should think about for the coming year.

He suggested that I consider how relationships, intra-relationships and above all, care and compassion for our fellow human beings, impact our ability to be successful at anything we attempt.

And that in our increasingly technology-driven existence, it is these connections that truly make a difference at the end of the day.

This note made me veer away from what I had intended to write and think about what he’d suggested.

Throughout the year, in collating my thoughts each week to write this column, I’d made references to many people whom I consider as beacons of light.

As I reflected on how these folks inspired me, I noticed a common thread.

All of them are hugely successful at maintaining good relationships with others. And they all exude kindness that is coated with good humour.

It is this innate warm-hearted- ness that helps them maintain robust connections with people.

For example, in my column on Marc 3, I referred to Ashwin Rajagopalan, a public relations practitioner and lifestyle writer based in Chennai, India, when discussing the idea of how to sustain motivation at work. Aside from this skill, his default setting is genuine warmth and concern for others.

I wrote about my friend Freda Liu, the well-respected Malaysian broadcaster, as the epitome of someone who has cultivated the habit of life-long learning, in my column on April 1. She exemplifies the qualities of a warm and embracing person.

A few weeks later, when examining how you should cultivate an attitude of service at work, I introduced you to my Italian friend, Alex Castaldi, the general manager of the Banjaran Hotsprings Retreat in Tambun, as my example of a leader who was able to infuse thoughtfulness to all his staff that they then reciprocated to their customers.

Alex is also an exceptional relationship builder outside work.

My column on June 16 was on how you can continue in the face of adversity. And, I shared how much passion and dedication Datuk Dr Venugopal Balchand, a renowned cardiothoracic surgeon, exhibits even under the tremendous pressures associated with his vocation.

On a personal level, Dr Venu is one of the funniest and most congenial people you would ever meet.

I discussed how you can be professional at work in a column in August and mentioned a guy called Craig Chalmers who runs Segway Tours in Cairns, Australia, whom I had met while on holiday.

I used his example to illustrate what it meant to work with focus, and professionalism.

With hindsight, what is even more impressive was his ability to keep smiling even while dealing with calamitous tourists, like me.

As I looked back at the people I offered as examples in my columns this year, all of them stood out as exemplars of how you can maintain goodness, and good humour in everything that you do.

Remember that to be become valuable, you must add-value others. And, to do this, you must first learn to forge meaningful connections with them.

As you close the 2017 chapter and begin to write a new narrative in next year, I wish you peace, prosperity and continued success.

The writer is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller “So, You Want To Get Promoted?”

Remember that to be become valuable, you must add-value others. And to do this, you must first learn to forge meaningful connections with them.