Memories...
Friday, March 07, 2008
ON LESSONS WE CAN LEARN FROM A CEO & FASS ALUMNUS
As mentioned previously, I had the honour & privilege to attend a roundtable discussion with Mr Lim Cheng Teck, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, on Wed.
The theme was on: "What Makes a Good Leader in Today's Globalised Economy?"
I thought I ll just share some (or rather most) of what he said here, so that we can all benefit from his advice on the road to being a CEO haha. Esp since he was a former Arts student doing a shared major in Econs & Sociology.
The Backdrop:
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Mr Lim Cheng Teck was appointed Chief Executive of Standard Chartered Bank, Singapore in March 2006. His key focus is the growth and governance of the Bank’s operations in Singapore. He provides leadership to business and functional heads, working with them to develop strategy, drive performance, build stronger regulatory and government relations and address governance issues.
In 1988, he joined Standard Chartered, Singapore as Account Manager in the Commercial Banking Unit. Rotating through various front-line functions in Wholesale Banking, Cheng Teck rose to become Head of the Large Asian Corporates unit. In April 2000, he was appointed Programme Director responsible for implementing a new global client management process across the Bank’s network of 56 countries.
In February 2001, Cheng Teck relocated to China where he was appointed Head of Global Corporates and was subsequently promoted to Head of Client Relationships in November 2001. In this role, he drove the Wholesale Banking business to new levels, culminating in a three-fold increase in revenue from 2002 to 2005. In April 2005, he assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer, Standard Chartered Bank, China.
Cheng Teck also serves on the Councils of Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), Singapore National Employers Federation (SNEF), The Institute of Banking and Finance (IBF) and the Board of Governors of Singapore International Foundation (SIF).
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The Dialogue Session (Summarized):
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Mr Lim:
1 of the most important requirements for being a good leader is that one must be a talent magnet. In other words, u must be able to attract the best and the brightest people to work with u, for there can never be good leadership without good followers.
In any job one needs to have the basic fundamental and technical skills. Academic grades are simply a base and foundation from which u build on. I had the privilege of attending a focus group discussion, together with many CEOs & leaders from various industries, to share what we want to see in the upcoming 4th University in Singapore. What is the kind of graduate we hope to see in the new university?
The answer is that none of us talked about academic brillance. Rather, we want to see the new graduate possess qualities such as Hunger, Risk-taking, and Leadership.
And in fact, there is so much more to the world that u can learn from outside the classroom, especially on leadership. When I was in NUS myself, I wasnt particularly a hardworking student and like most of you, i would only rush when the deadlines are near. But I most certainly enjoyed my university days in FASS, and I often hang out with a group of friends, and we still do that today. Most of us did quite well in our careers as well.
The important thing is to recognize that a degree is only a basic starting point in your career. And that it only reflects your basic academic competence to an employer.
Moving on, I think that a leader needs to always move out of his or her comfort zone. When things are cruising for you, it is time for a change, a new challenge. A leader should always be adaptative, flexible, and ready to try new things. Most importantly, he must be prepared to learn continuously through his life, and get to know as many people as he can. Because one can learn from anyone, even uneducated employees and entrepreneurs! Do not dismiss people who are less educated than u are easily.
With the world today being globalized and businesses facing so much competition, one must be ready to take risks and face the unknown. After all, ask yourself what could u lose, everytime before u plunge into the unknown and challenge yourself?
In your career, everyone always wants to keep going upwards. But sometimes one needs to go sideways, and learn from being in other Divisions and other experiences before going upwards. The trajectory does not have to be so straightfoward. Mr Lim cited his China experience as an example.
As a leader in the international context and working overseas, u must appreciate the local cultures of others and understand what is important to them, and as well as looking at things from their perspective. Be prepared to learn from scratch again when u are in a foreign land.
A good leader always teaches the people under him or her. Do not hold back, and do not be afraid that 1 day, those under you would be more skilful than you are. People appreciate leaders who are genuine with them, and who are willing to groom them. They will respect u more and follow u more. Remember being a "Talentmagnet" which we talked about earlier.
As a leader, u take risks on people, and in appointing them to various positions, including leadership roles. A subordinate does not have to be 100% ready to take over a new leadership position. Sometimes, as a leader, if u feel that that person is already 80% qualified, give him a chance to start and prove himself. So that his growth can also be maximized. Importantly, after u have made that decision, it is also your role to support him or her if he falls.
A good leader must be willing to take tough and unpopular decisions. For instance, I once had to retrench some of my employees because if I had kept them, it would have negatively influenced the perceptions of my other employees who were working much harder and producing more results. And it is important as a leader that u will want to attract and keep the best. However, u can still be compassionate in making tough decisions, and try to let your employees understand as much as possible your rationale.
If they do not understand and continue to be unhappy despite your explanations, remember that life moves on. And do not dwell too long over your decision which has already been made.
As a leader, ask yourself, what do you want to be remembered in life for? I did not start off in my career thinking that i ll be the CEO of Standard Chartered. Rather, I was simply aiming to be the Head of Corporate Banking, which I managed to achieve thankfully. I guess the key philosophy for me is that I always tell myself that i want to make a difference to the organization which i serve, a positive difference of course. And this philosophy has stayed with me even till today.
Integrity is very important as a leader. You need to be culturally sensitive in today's global context, and u need to be able to let your employees noe that they can trust u.
There are actually 2 dimensions to being a leader. The internal and external aspect. In the external sense, u need to portray visibility and accountability to the many stakeholders and higher authorities, management etc. This is hugely important and should not be underestimated, because u represent your organization.
Many overseas graduates nowadays, esp those from India and China, are extremely hungry and hardworking. In the hunger aspect especially, many Singaporean graduates lose out to them. When there is an opportunity to work overseas for a long period for instance, many of these overseas graduates raise their hand without hesitation, because they hunger for that extra experience which can help develop them. While many Singaporeans tend to be more enclosed in their comfort zone and take a long long time before deciding to plunge into the unknown.
Remember that to succeed in life, u must seize opportunities and be brave enough to step into the unknown.
A leader also needs to inspire and motivate the people. In this aspect, charisma obviously gives one an advantage, but it does not have to be all-encompassing. Let us think about Winston Churchill, who was a hugely charismatic leader during World War 2, but was still voted out of office by the British public after the war. Why so? The reason being that the people recognized that his qualities, esp the charismatic aspect, may be crucial during a particular period but may not be the most needed in the post-war development era.
One also needs to recognize that not everyone can be a good leader, or even wish to be a leader in the 1st place. The important thing is to recognize the strengths of these employees and develop them based on their strengths rather than their weaknesses. Do not simply put everyone in the same mould as you are, thinking that success in life is defined and measured by an individual's leadership achievements. If u think that u are being kind by putting someone who is uncomfortable in a leadership position, u may actually contribute to making that person more miserable in the future, and affect his or her passion for the job or company.
Finally, as a leader, you need to believe in your own decisions, and acknowledge that you will never get it right 100% all the time in your life. You will make mistakes, as do all humans, but the important thing is to learn from them and move on in your life and career.
As for whether a 3rd year student should go on and do an Honours degree, I think you need to first ask yourself: What do you want this Honours degree for? Is it necessary for you? For myself personally, I did not pursue an Honours course, because I knew that I wanted to go into banking, and I forsee that I would want to do a MBA in the future. And for MBA qualifications, working experience is crucial.
So, decide for yourself, but again, remember what I said earlier in that there is only so much u can learn in the classroom. A leader needs to have a lot of soft skills and soft skills are not easy to learn, yet they are more important in life. Learning soft skills will take a lot of time, being exposed to different environments, different cultures, and different experiences. It is not so easy and straightfoward.
I think the most important skill that a FASS degree confers to you is critical thinking. And this will make u stand out from other degrees who are specialized in certain areas. Critical thinking encourages and promotes creativity, flexibility, and to a certain extent communicative skills, which are very attractive to business organizations.
I may have done Economics previously, but what I actually enjoyed studying most was Philosophy.
And yes, I do sleep quite a lot, even though I m a CEO. =)
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Haha, yup, I guessed that was the main gist of the discussion. I included in the extract many answers which he gave to some our questions.
Overall, I m really glad to have attended the session, and I was pretty inspired by what Mr Lim said. =)
Back to work.
