Category: Singapore

ST April 4, 2008
Mark of a leader ‘not in his top grades’
That is the assessment of those who were top students. They value competence, leadership qualities, including EQ, more
By Jeremy Au Yong

ACADEMIC grades are a useful measure for identifying a potential political leader but it should not be the topmost criterion.

That assessment came, interestingly enough, from people who were top students, with four As in their A levels.

They were reacting to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s statement on his urgent search for a successor in an interview on Tuesday, when he also highlighted the brain drain among the 4As students. PM Lee had also indicated that based on past experience, it would take about three elections to groom a leader.

The Straits Times interviewed 10 people who had 4As, and the key traits they seek in the country’s leaders are competence, capability and leadership qualities, including emotional quotient or EQ.

Top grades are not critical, they added.

Even a PM without a university degree is not anathema to civil servant Jenny Tan.

BIGGER WORRY

Another civil servant, Mr C.L. Lian, 31, put it this way: ‘The person must have demonstrated intellect and problem-solving ability, but the emphasis doesn’t have to be on grades. I’m sure Bill Gates would be someone you want.’

Mr Gates, co-founder of software giant Microsoft, is one of the world’s most famous university dropouts.

Mr Lian added that though the current selection system was sound, the grooming period might have to be shortened.

‘Currently, there is this grooming period but we may not have 20 years to give,’ he said, referring to PM Lee who entered politics in 1984 and became PM in 2004.

Mr Lian said it was important for the political leaders to decide which parts of government need leaders with knowledge and experience in government, and which ministries can do with leaders without government experience.

He cited Senior Counsel K. Shanmugam – who is going straight from being an MP to Law Minister – as a case of a person who was not groomed to be a minister, but had the right skills and experience.

Some interviewed, like Nominated MP Siew Kum Hong, felt there may be a need to change the way leaders are chosen.

Said Mr Siew, who had 4As in his A levels: ‘Now, we seem to be going about choosing one like we go about giving scholarships. There’s this list of objective criteria.’

The answer to who should be the next PM will depend on how the question is framed, he added. ‘If we are looking for technocrats and managers, then you’ll be competing with the world. If you frame it differently, if you’re looking for leaders of the future, you probably could come up with a different characteristic.’

MP Baey Yam Keng, another top scorer, said academic excellence was a ‘necessary although not sufficient’ criterion. Even then, he said exceptions could be made. ‘Grades are important at the entry point but over the years, they become less and less important.’

In his interview with The Straits Times and Lianhe Zaobao, PM Lee had highlighted data that show one in four – 150 out of 600 – top A-level students yearly works overseas after their studies. ‘This flow is going to continue. So it’s a big challenge to find successors, particularly for politics,’ he said.

The extent of this brain drain does not surprise those interviewed, who added that it is not at the heart of the problem.

Said corporate tax associate Sarah Seow, 26: ‘I believe the greater problem isn’t the brain drain, but the political apathy of my generation.

‘I know that among my peers still staying on in Singapore, many of us are talented and intelligent enough to become the Government’s next tier of leaders – the only problem is that we may have become so caught up in our own careers and desires that we don’t see a reason to get involved in politics.’

I HAVE always associated Singapore Airlines (SIA) with exceptional customer service, but was disappointed before even boarding my flight.

I am a student going overseas on a six-month study attachment and am facing great difficulty in squeezing all my necessary baggage into SIA’s 20kg Economy Class Checked Baggage Allowance. Hence, I wanted to see if there was any solution other than paying high overweight baggage charges. This was the start of my frustration.

First, I called the Baggage Office number on their website. The baggage officer informed me that I could request for a Baggage Allowance Waiver with valid reasons by calling SIA’s Reservation Hotline. Several attempts to call the hotline were met with a dead tone. When I finally managed to get an officer on the line, I was informed that they had no authority to grant such waivers. He then said that I should call their ‘baggage department’ and directed me to SIA Cargo.

The officer at SIA Cargo directed me back to the Reservation Hotline. The second reservations officer then told me that if I required additional baggage allowance I should have booked my ticket via a travel agent, as there was some extra baggage benefit. Having booked my ticket several months back, this was not a viable alternative. Upon further enquiry, I was told that I should e-mail SQ Reservations with my request. The short reply to my e-mail was that they could not grant my request due to ‘high operational costs’.

My issue is not with being denied the waiver but with the constant redirection of my request to yet another inappropriate department and the shoddy way in which it was handled. With its reputation as a world-class airline, I expected better of SIA. I can only hope that such substandard service is the exception rather than the rule.

Angela Ang Jie Ling (Miss)

When I joined the service, my first permanent secretary was Hon Sui Sen. When he died in harness, in the mid-1980s, he was the Minister for Finance, and I was one of the permanent secretaries in that ministry. He was my boss for most of the intervening 25 years. He was, without doubt, the best reporting officer I had, a perception that most of my contemporaries who served under him shared. I have tried to apply his template of leadership and management in the many areas where I have worked, albeit with nowhere near as much success.

Nonetheless, I was fortunate to observe that template at close hand and to try to replicate it. I suppose that is how traditions in an institution are built, and a culture of good governance is fostered. Like most good things in life, the concept is deceptively simple, the application a matter of discipline. It is a distillation of principles and practices that have stood the test of time. But for success, the environment has to be wholesome.

The example must come from the top. If that vital element is missing, good deeds below decks may ameliorate the situation, but cannot make up for that critical deficiency. So, what was it in Hon Sui Sen’s leadership style that many of my contemporaries and I admired?

Without doubt, integrity—not just moral, but intellectual. Some will say, “What is so unusual about integrity?” Surely, leaders must have integrity to get to their lofty position. Integrity is more than keeping the hands off the till, although scary examples in recent times suggest that some leaders cannot even refrain from doing that. Consider Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat.

Then, there are shades of grey—ethical issues that do not transgress any law except one’s sense of honour and straight dealing. But intellectual integrity goes further than that. It is a matter of quietly defending your position no matter how unpopular it may be to the institution.

A second outstanding quality of Mr Hon was his ability to delegate a large measure of authority to his subordinates, to leave them to run their show, and to avoid breathing down their necks. Of course, they were held accountable for their actions, and Mr Hon was no namby-pamby when it came to disciplining people. Yet, he would always support subordinates who made an honest error, and did not shield himself by assigning blame to others. He took the rap for anything that went wrong in his bailiwick.

You may well imagine that such behaviour comes from enormous self-confidence, without arrogance. It is the measure of a person’s generosity of spirit, modesty, the even tenor of his ways, and a forgiving nature. At the same time, while Mr Hon was prepared to defend his officers and ministry, he was respectful of authority, following the age-old principle of rendering unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.

A third, key attribute was his skill in drawing out ideas from his officers through a heuristic approach, gently challenging assumptions, and urging thinking out of the box. He got the best out of his people.

That, in a nutshell, is what characterises an outstanding leader and manager. Textbooks, management consultants, workshops, seminars, and executive courses, all play a role in the effort to learn about management and leadership; or, if you like, in the context of present-day Singapore, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. But above all, keep the eyes and ears open. There are always many examples of outstanding leadership around.

The attributes of good leadership are eternal and universal. They stem from traditional norms embellished by sound management-practices that have evolved and been refined with experience.

The starting point is clarification of the mission, based on a realistic assessment of the environment, and courage in pushing the envelope. Strengthen the organisation, paying particular attention to how people are managed and endowed with authority. Encourage openness, do not fear dissent within limits, and allow those now-cherished attributes of creativity and innovation to flourish. Finally, define and know your customer, and respond to his legitimate needs.

When I look back on the institutions in which I have worked, I do not see any fundamental difference in the package of leadership and management skills that contributes to success. Of course, each institution is unique, with its own mission and culture. An adaptable leader can, within reason, certainly function in many environments. The civil service, or at least the administrative service, testifies to that dictum. The key to successful leadership lies in the individual, the experiences he has been exposed to, the environment. Management gurus, seminars, consultants, and so forth, may be useful tools. They cannot substitute for the real thing.

~ JY Pillay, Reflections of a Recycled Bureaucrat, April 2004