Category: Sharing My Thoughts
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Mothers get it …
I once observed a senior leader berate a young assistant for not ensuring that his 6-star hotel room had a harbour view. This was at a big client event where the clients had been given the best harbour-facing rooms. What’s a low hanging fruit in leadership? It’s for leaders to put their team’s success ahead…
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A new Prime Minister and his Merlions
Much will be written about Singapore when our new Prime Minister takes over next week. I’ll offer a “path less travelled” take here: what characteristics in the Merlion – a mythical creature with the head of a lion and the body of a fish and Sg’s national mascot – best reflects the country that has…
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A trapped poet
Taylor Swift’s latest album has this line: “Tell me something awful, like you are 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐲.” The lady is a poet herself. Just 10 words to capture the struggle many face at work. Are we in the wrong job, team, company etc? Ms Swift is right: this…
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Football, Leadership and Ego …
A friend S now lives in Melbourne, Oz. His daughter moved out in the last couple years from the family home. She’s intelligent, articulate and fiercely independent. S himself is grateful that she takes after her mom. Father/daughter share a love for football. S is a die-hard Liverpool fan, while she played throughout uni. One…
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Ernest Hemingway, the Management Consultant
My favourite Ernest Hemingway quote is from the novel “The Sun Also Rises”, where a character is asked, “How did you get bankrupt?”. His classic reply was “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” The answer describes so many phenomena in life. A relationship breaks down gradually, then suddenly. Our health deteriorates slowly, then suddenly. We do…
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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…