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Leaders stand out in the crowd with their countless accomplishments. In your view, what are some other key characteristics that make leaders different?
- Self-awareness is one thing – leaders need to pursue and value both personal and professional development. And you need a balance on both. Another thing is system awareness: leaders need to see the big picture – what impact that actions have outside of daily work life.
Some people fail miserably in leadership roles, even though they fare extremely well as individual contributors. What advice would you give these people?
- I believe that an individual contributor-turned-leader is a role switch. The difference is the mindset. As an individual contributor, you tend to be more reactive. You do things managers such as your CEO may frame for you. In a leader role, nobody tells what you should or shouldn't do. So you need to think more on the creative side rather than the reactive. Another thing is an ability to believe in yourself, which involves awareness of your own strong points and weakness. Leaders, like anyone else, have their weaknesses. Personally, I believe in focusing on enhancing the strengths – it will help to overcome the weaknesses.
What are some specific beliefs or values that you work by? How do you ensure that your values and vision permeate the organization?
- I believe in authenticity and integrity. It's looking inward to ourselves. I mean, people will not take it seriously if the leaders do not present themselves or donate their time to what they start and commit to do.
How do you allocate your time among key areas – say, clients, staff, company strategy, marketing, finance and operations?
- All are important. But it's hard to project things each day. You need to balance all areas. But one area I really try to pay attention to and make time for is HR development, as we aim to develop into a more mature company and we are expanding heavily.
How do you inspire your team to learn, stay motivated and continue to make a difference?
- We work with our corporate culture. We encourage staff to have open communication. Staff can tell their boss if they have ideas. We challenge them with opportunities to get promoted. We provide training to develop them. That is one side. The other side is the financial reward. Our staff know early how bonuses are determined as we have the company KPI and bonus reward set at the beginning of the year and I monitor and communicate clearly to staff every quarter. So they know where we are with the expectation on their bonus.
What do you do to relax yourself and keep yourself physically, mentally and emotionally healthy?
- I enjoy spending time with my family and taking good care of my children as it's important to have a balance between work and family life. I play football a couple of times a week and I am a coach. My team has ended in the top three of our amateur league among expatriates in the past eight years. I find both very pleasurable as I enjoy team sports. It's a twofold goal for me to get physically fit and at the same time to get a chance to meet more with different people and to get to know different sides of life.
Leadership involves risks. What kind of risks are you generally willing to take? Why?
- I believe that good leaders should also be willing to take risks, or have the goodwill to do things differently. Also I encourage my staff to show initiative as everyone has their own ideas. I appreciate not just the success to come, but their initiative and willingness to take those risks. Even though the result might not turn out well, seeing that we will not win every time, I reward success and make it a point not to punish people for failure. It's a process of individual learning and growing as well as the growth of the company at the same time.
As a leader of the organization, what initiatives have you taken that you thought made a positive difference to the organization and the community?
- At Rayong, where our major plants are located, we bring lecturers to tutor high school students, to get them ready before they take an entrance exam for university. We also offer scholarships to good students. It's our aim to develop and maintain sustainable livelihoods and to continuously develop self-reliance so people will depend less on donations or assistance from the government.
How do you deal with life disappointments?