Thoughts about leadership and career

Had some time during one of the long train rides to clarify some of my thoughts about leadership. This is a really draft version - but I had to get my thoughts down before they slip away!

Dimensions of leadership

1. Strategic thinking + vision to strategise at 30,000 feet
   
2. Operational intelligence to operate on the ground
   
3. Charisma and presence
   
4. Building relevant experience and knowledge base
5. Mental strength and will
6. Sturdy integrity and values - walk the talk!
7. Wide yet strong networks
8. Master in the art of communication
9. Time management - ability to prioritise ruthlessly
   
10. And of course, last but not least, maintaining oneself in the prime of health and fitness to have enough energy to do all of the above

What do I lack and how to improve

I think the three main areas that I need to work on are the ability to think strategically, my ability to communicate in large groups and to persuade, and to further increase my networks in the private sector.

In addition, I think I've been doing alot of reading to build up my knowledge base. However, for it to translate into real experience and the other skills, I would have to practice them. And I think there are opportunities everyday to be just a little bit better in every one of the 10 areas above. And to seize those opportunities would be training in itself :) The key is to spot the opportunities and then get to work!

Duelling with Dichotomies

Just touched down in Amsterdam a couple of hours ago. This place looks fantastic! The classical looking buildings, the weather (I'm puffing water vapour as I walk outside), the many canals. I'm lucky to be able to come here on a work trip ... will try to accomplish an outdoor run in a couple of minutes to take in the sights while keeping fit.

Had a meet-up with Alan and a bunch of friends yesterday. A friend who works for a HR consultancy firm told me this - increasingly, the definition of talent is those who can marry and excel in dichotomies. In particular, individuals who possess the ability to think strategically at 30,000 feet but yet is totally at ease in operational and implementation details are highly sought after. Somehow this sounds alot like how the Civil Service talent is defined as well ...

Guess now I know what I'm lacking right now and what I should be working on. The harder question is how!

On Leadership - Allan Leighton

This is an excellent book on leadership, especially for someone who is in the public sector and longs for an insight into how things are run in the private sector. (Is it just as uninspirational? haha)

This book covers a wide spectrum of issues, from entrepreneurship, day to day challenges, to dealing with the media and managing your people. It is also filled with authentic stories and quotes from business leaders. Somehow it always inspires me when I read what these people have to say.

Here are some of the key nuggets that I've taken away from the book.

1. Leaders have the ability to take apart a complex situation and simplify it into bite-size actionables that people can act on.
2. Be in touch with the ground all the time - the leader has to get to know his front-line staff, customers, how the company really works on the ground. Avoid the ivory tower!
3. Authenticity is what builds people's trust in you. Mean what you say and walk the talk.
   
4. Recruiting great people - those who can take the ball and run is important. That way, you can empower them without micro-managing them, and build trust in the long term. Look for people who can think, analyse, look ahead, ask difficult questions and have a sense of perspective + history.
5. Good leaders have to have passion and confidence, and must exude and infect people with these all the time. Leaders also often suffer from some sort of restless paranoia, which drives them on.
   
6. Be ruthless with your time and prioritise heavily everyday. This is certainly something that I can learn alot from!
7. Building relationships underpin everything.
8. Use all kinds of ways to inspire and communicate to your team in a way such that it will stick.
9. Copy from people and other companies shamelessly!
   

There are many more, but this is what I can reasonably write down without copying down the entire book! Just reading it makes me feel like learning how to lead a team right now. The excitement!

A Sense of Urgency - John Kotter

Lay Keng lent me this book, which she got after attending Kotter's seminar. (The book actually has Kotter's autograph within! So dun play play!)

As I was telling xm, this book came at a very serendipitous time. I was finding difficulty at work getting things to move, and now I realise that alot of it boiled down to my own lack of a strong sense of urgency. In many ways, I was practicing what Kotter described as a false sense of urgency - much activity but focused on the wrong things and running in circles.

Here's the main takeaways that I got from the book:

1. A true sense of urgency is needed to help corporations (and I'll, for the rest of this summary, extend this to the running of my own life) accomplish change.
   
2. To accomplish this, the leader will have to speak to the heart of the audience, based on solid logical arguments. The latter is often not sufficient.
3. There are four tactics that a leader can tap on:

• Bring the outside in - i.e. the organisation has to be very well clued into what is going on in the external environment. To do this, managers should connect with the frontline or even customers directly. One can also bring in external experts or second your people to learn from outside. Data, both good and bad, should be allowed to enter your organisation freely and quickly in a readable way.
• Behave with urgency everyday. The leader has to set the pace for the entire organisation and convey the sense of urgency in everything he does.
  
• Find opportunities in crisis. I can't say I understand this tactic fully, but one has to leverage on crisises to egender change. Kotter even suggests trying to create some crisises through stretch goals.
  
• Deal with the Nonos. These are essentially the naysayers and are stumbling blocks to change. We often find them within ourselves as well. Kotter suggests to deal with them by distracting them. Incorporating them into one's team or completely ignoring them both do not work. In the worst case scenario, they have to be let go.

For the tactic to behave with true urgency, Kotter raises the following points, which are all excellent:

• Purge and delegate aggressively - clear up one's schedules (less meetings) and do not allow subordinates to delegate up to you
  
• Move with speed - respond immediately to top-tier issues - each step has to be clear and fast
  
• Speak with passion - talk with feeling and infectiousness
• Match words with deeds - walk the talk!
  
• Let everyone see - as far as possible, show to everyone in the organisation how you are doing it

Overall, this is an excellent book. Short and sweet and to the point.

Things to do better this week!

I think it is a good idea to spend Sunday doing a mini-review of my previous week, and then setting things that I'd do better in the coming week. (Gee, this is sounding like some PIR of some sorts ... )

Looking back ....
I managed to accomplish a mini-milestone in my life today - running 10km. This is probably quite an easy and nondescript feat for many people, but honestly, this was the first time in my life that I ran such a long distance. (And I generally dislike running! Even 2.4km was a real pain for me.) xm likes to call such goals "character-building" :) Accomplishing it definitely made me feel more confident about goal-setting, since I now have one less item on my list of things that I fear doing. Maybe the 21km next? Hahaha.

I think I'm also getting better at keeping my eyes on the bigger picture, larger objectives, both at work and in life. I've often been guilty of the habit of engaging myself in alot of activities but achieving little outcomes. (Sometimes, alot of activity can be quite calming to the mind, as it beguiles me into thinking that I'm doing useful things with my time. The two are really not the same!) I've still got some way to go, but I think I'm making progress :)

I've also been keeping up my promise (to myself) to pick up the violin again. Man, how much have my skills slipped over the years! But it is sure fun as heck to be playing the instrument again, and forcing myself to play difficult songs. My goal is to be able to play Praeludium and Allegro well.

In the coming week ...
I will improve my tennis!!! This is something that I've been trying to do well for the last year, and admittedly, progress has been really slow.

Integrate a running regimen into my weekly schedule. Have been doing this on and off for the last few months, with some success. Will be making it more regular.

Sharpen my ability to plan and execute projects. There are a number of projects at work coming up. Would really like to leave some value and legacy in my division before I leave - which is just a few months away!

Chasing Lions

Read this off an article this morning.
This is a quote from the Bible for background -

“Benaiah chased a lion down into a pit. Then, despite the snow and slippery ground, he caught the lion and killed it.” - II Samuel 23:20

Taking Mark Batteron's quote, which is REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY inspiring. Especially when one is sitting underneath the cold from the lifeless air-con and feeling trapped by all the white-washed office walls around me.

“Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Expand your horizons. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze a new trail. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away. Chase the lion!”

Wow.....

The Logic of Life - Tim Harford

I must admit that I have not yet read Freakanomics and many of the other economics-related books. I picked this one up because I happen to be in the mood for this kind of books now and it appeared in the bestseller table that is placed near the entrance.

I found the book to be a really interesting read, and it opened my eyes to many new perspectives of looking at things. I think it also enhanced my ability to think logically, as the book introduced me to very logical and rationale ways of explaining counter-intuitive or complex issues.

Some of the things that I learnt!
- Your boss is paid so much not because he really deserves it, but because it motivates the people below him to work harder
- How mental models can develop simply based on events created by chance but we continue to use as if they are underpinned by facts
- People conglomerate in cities because of the access to other people, and consequently ideas
- While the world is truly getting flatter, geographical proximity does still play an important and necessary role in creating innovation and economic activity
- Many small companies competing against one another is the most fertile ground for innovation and economic progress, rather than a few huge companies or a monopoly

Wow

This is like the coolest thing ever!!!

The "Yes" attitude

People often speak of the "lenses" with which we view our life, the world we live in. Using different lenses often bring out new perspectives, insights, and learnings.

One very useful lens that I've adopted is to see my work as a form of service. To excel in my job, I would strive to provide the best service available, by value-adding and delivering with the best attitude. Taking this perspective, my customers would then be the people I come into contact with everyday, and in particular, my bosses.

Just read this post by Seth Godin today. I think the post came at about the right time. I think I've begun to cultivate quite a bit of negativity in my attempt to reduce the amount of work that gets laid on my desk. I've started saying "no" to many things.

While that may be a good thing for me in the short term, I think that in the long term, I will only succeed in driving my customers nuts. I should change my perspective to: "yes, let's see how we can work something out". In particular, I should do this more for my more valued customers - people who are indeed honest and keen on helping me or making things better.

Thought for the day!