Describe your leadership style.
I would say my leadership style is democratic. I value proactiveness, open communication and transparency. To ensure we work towards one common goal, I share and communicate clearly all company decisions and goals to my team. This is instrumental to increasing productivity quickly, while achieving the company’s goals. I empower my employees by entrusting them as leaders of their own job areas.
Not only do I trust that they have the highest professionalism in everything they do, I also believe they will perform their responsibilities dutifully, handle all tasks to the best of their abilities, and be accountable for their actions. This way, they learn and develop better within a shorter time. But, I know we all make mistakes. This most important thing is to learn from them and not repeat the same mistakes but instead, make new ones. I remind my team that they must not be afraid to take risks and make mistakes. I would rather see mistakes than no action taken. Being performance-oriented, I communicate to my team the purpose and results that we wish to achieve, and reward those who perform well to encourage even better performance. Staff retention is especially important, as the cost of rehiring is costly.
What are some of your personal goals for yourself when it comes to your career?
It would be to learn to empathize more, which is important when I’m encouraging and helping individuals to develop themselves and grow with the company. I’m still learning how to put myself totally in their shoes and empathize more with them. That is why despite my busy schedule, I make a point to allocate time to communicate with them regularly. The regular communication aids in the process of understanding the concerns that they face, which puts me in a better position to help them. I realised that at the end of the day, we learn a lot from each other.
Where would you like to be in your career five years from now?
I aspire to be a guru in my areas of expertise. I also have plans to grow a few start-ups relating to toys, gadgets, etc. Mostly, I would like to be a mentor to those around me— I wish to inspire, motivate and educate highly driven and self-motivated individuals to develop their own career. When I see people around me grow to be successful, I get an enormous sense of satisfaction and fulfillment. This is also my way of giving back to society.
What is the biggest business challenge you see in your industry now?
As the mobility industry moves very quickly, getting diligent and fast learners to take up the challenge is not easy. Some may not have the capacity to keep up; those who learn fast may not stay on the job. Hence, the biggest challenge is putting the right person in the right job. It is already difficult to find the right person with the required values, attitude and experiences. It is even more difficult to assess him within a short period of time and conclude if he is the right fit for the job.
What is your definition of a life-long learner?
It’s a process—the result is not all-important as long as you have the attitude to appreciate new knowledge and experience.