Above all else

The internet in Singapore has been abuzz with the story of Nisar Keshvani and his family, who were evacuated from Riyadh in the wake of the war with Iran. His heartwarming story evokes the feeling of having returned home the moment he boarded the RSAF aeroplane, and how the passengers even broke into an impromptu rendition of the Singapore national anthem.  What an amazing thing it is to return home! Our home on earth has a special place in each of our hearts. I definitely feel something special when I return from travel overseas, and I know my children feel the same way, especially those years when they're living overseas. Returning home is not necessarily just an emergency rescue (though sometimes it can be!).  The Bible famously records in Jeremiah 29:10-11, "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give...

Many years ago now, I had the great opportunity to go back to school. It was a little nervewracking, since it had been years since I had been in a formal academic setting. It was also unfamiliar. I was going to a U.S. business school, with clever and experienced business people all around me - CEOs, CFOs and other C-somethings from all over the world, who were often leaders of thousands of people. By comparison, I was just a technician. But the experience was great! I saw how many people were willing to speak their mind, whether they were ready or not, and not immediately worry about whether they were right. A lot of thinking was wacky - and that was the point - I started to understand why that country has so many moonshot successes, and why their innovation culture is so strong, even amidst the many bad ideas and failures. This concept of "success amidst failure" brings me to the present day. When I returned to Singapore, I joined the local alumni club of the bu...

Chinese New Year celebrations are a great time to pick up oral history, and this year was an especially investigative one! I'd always heard from my mother that my grandfather was an Anglophile, who had a keen mastery of the English language, and worked for the British colonial administration. But I'd also heard that he had come to Singapore from China. If so, then how did he speak and write English so well, and why did he like English culture so much, to the extent that he even gave English names to all my aunts and uncles, who are all named after various actors and actresses of the time, hence this collection of classic English names across the family - this was a real rarity in that time. It was time to find out. I spent most of my childhood living with my grandparents and aunts and uncles - first, in a leased space above a shophouse in Rangoon Road, and later, in a HDB flat (in what was then named Bedok *New* Town, wow how time has flown!). My parents, m...

  In the well-known book "Good to Great" by Jim Collins, the author makes reference to what he calls "Level 5 leadership", as an essential ingredient to long-term, next-level corporate success. Among other things, "Level 5" leaders are characterised by this: they internalise and take accountability when things go wrong, and they externalise and give credit to extrinsic factors and people when they encounter success. This seems contrary to a lot of advice that people get these days. Do good work, but make your work visible. Take credit, build your brand. The culture of the "hero CEO" is ever more in vogue, building on the legacy of Jack Welch in the 80s and 90s, Steve Jobs in the 2000s, and the likes of Elon Musk and Jensen Huang today. I don't disagree that creating visibility for one's work is helpful. But the underlying attitude and purpose matters. I once worked for someone who spent what seemed like endless amounts of t...

In a number of organisations, there's a practice of appointing a "staff assistant" to the CEO or other senior leader, where the intent is to provide exposure and development opportunities for the staff assistant, while hopefully being useful to the senior leader.  Examples in the Government include the role of Principal Private Secretary to the Prime Minister or senior cabinet leaders, or possibly the Justice's Law Clerks for the High Court judges. In the private sector, titles include staff assistant, and for more senior appointments, even Chief of Staff. Many years ago, I was working late in the office when I returned to my desk from a meeting. Some of the office lights had already been turned off, so it was a bit dim, and the office was quiet. When I got to my desk, I saw my boss' boss sitting in my chair! I half thought to myself - oh no. I'm gonna be fired. I wasn't fired. Phew. But she *was* asking me to leave. She asked me how I was, and then in cha...