My Leadership Journal

Dated: 3rd July, 2022

I believed that leaders are born until our first class of HKU MBA — Executive Leadership when our dear Prof. Dr. Chan broke that myth for me! I used to use the word Leadership so loosely, and now I profoundly understand what it stands for and means:

• Leaders are not born, leaders are self-made, and anyone can be a leader.
• A leader will influence his group, establish goals and help his team achieve them effectively.

• The 2 Corporate Sexy words are Innovation + Strategy.
• When you start something, have an end game in mind…even though it is 10 years, 5 mins, or anything. “Let the start be the end”.
• Build a mental model — How you feel about it and what to do about it.
• Do you consider yourself a leader? — ask your team members that.
• Examine your leadership style — friendly, dominating, guiding, motivating.

• Ask yourself if you are a good listener, do I know my people, did I manage time well, and how much do you trust?
• You must know how to build consensus within the team. You have to work hard to earn consensus.
• Stop telling people what to do. Guide them, help them, and set goals.
• You don’t need the leadership title, but you can lead in any role.
• Instead of influence, why not create impact.
• Emotional connections with team members are essential — share a vision
• ‘To Recap’ is an excellent ability a leader must have
• Empowerment is to let a team make mistakes and learn from them.
• Your success is based on how your team performs.

• Keep your ego aside; the best way to learn is to share your knowledge with your team members.
• People are driven by purpose rather than money. Leaders should incept that vision and value in their teams’ minds to stay driven and focused.
• You cant manage people; you can manage the process.
• What are your values — what matters to me on the dying bed. Your beliefs shape your values. (Belief →Attitude —> Values).
• The elasticity of our brain lets us grow and learn — a growth mindset
• 2 Types of Leadership: Task-oriented & Relationship oriented
• High Control + Low Control Territory —> Task-oriented
• Moderate control Territory —> Relationship oriented

• You can’t win all the time; if you can win 20% that’s good enough.
• A leader must be entrepreneurship-oriented, and it is being able to identify a business opportunity.
• When running a virtual team — define process, goals, and structure.
• Spend your time building a great team.
• A cohesive team can destroy teams because of groupthink (when team members agree and hardly disagree and are scared of disagreeing eg: board of directors); group harmony has destroyed companies and countries.
• A leader’s job is to drive change
• 7 habits Steven’s book & Heart of change by Kotter are great books.
• People stay in the job because of the boss.

• A lot of things in the world are half-hearted. We must be careful about compromised decisions.
• Communication is never complete without feedback, always ask for feedback.
• To be a good communicator, first, be a good listener.
• A leader needs to be a good storyteller.
• When a team member is not performing — ask what are they looking for.

Effective Executive — Peter Drucker

1. Manage your time
2. Focus on your contribution
3. Focus on key problems
4. First thing first — know the priority (must be an opportunity for you and the company). Can make a difference to the company. Setting priority needs courage.
5. Effective Decision.

How a leader talks to you?

• Coach

• Expert

• Power/ boss

• Visionary

• Transformer

What kind of leader do I want to be?

I want to be liked by everyone and make people feel I am the best leader they have worked with.

Am I empathetic?

I can be better at treating people, especially when I am angry or having a bad day at work.

How can I be better at my current role?

I have to keep my ego aside and help others find solutions instead of complaining.

As the leadership course started, how did I lead the team differently?

I have crafted a few processes in my team that could avoid some problems we used to encounter. I am taking time out on a weekly based to talk to my team and have an open conversation.

What makes me think I am on the right path?

Me doing my MBA, getting to work in teams, learning, and listening to all the sharing, are helping me become a better version of myself.