Author: Oliver Foo
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Perfection, thou art not a friend …
I came across a new’ish word over the weekend: Blursday. I had to look it up – a noun, it’s “a day not easily distinguished from other days, or the phenomenon of days running together”. It was birthed during the Covid lockdowns. Example: “Lockdowns had us living in Blursday; one day felt exactly like the…
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Life Lessons from Finland – a Singaporean’s views
Finland was recently ranked the happiest country in the world – for the 7th year running. Reading this took me back to an episode from half a life-time ago. In Aug 1994 – armed with youthful exuberance, curiosity and a full head of hair – I flew to Helsinki. I’d just joined Finnish company Nokia…
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Behavioural Iceberg Ahead
1. An ex-colleague from 20~yrs ago – let’s call him Sam – is the best salesperson I’ve met. Sam built great relationships with his clients, knew what solutions would support his clients’ goals, positioned our solutions at the right time/place etc. His clients loved him. He was my best sales director. Except that internally, he…
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What is Psychological Safety?
A client shared with me yesterday that his team hadn’t adapted well to changing market needs. It got me thinking. What insights on adaptability can we glean from a TED Talk, a medical statistic and a lame’ish joke? The TED Talk (link below): venture capitalist Natalie Fratto looks for founders/leaders with high Adaptability Quotient. Her…
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WWWD?
Sunday mornings usually find me on a Uber-Dad run, sending my daughter for her tuition. During the 2-hr wait, I’m either at a Starbucks on my laptop, catching up with friends or exercising in a park nearby. This slightly wet Sunday morning, I walked for about an hour in Singapore’s Botanic Gardens. It seemed apt…
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What Tay-Tay taught me about Leadership
Today is Employee Appreciation Day. Here’s my take on it, involving a song Taylor Swift wrote (for me I feel). It’s mid 2023. Taylor Swift’s six concerts in Singapore have just been announced. Of course my 14-year old daughter wanted to go. Only issue was that all her friends wanted to get the $300+ category…