TRANSCIPT

Leadership Coach Reacts: The Rally That United A Nation!

JASON-

What's up guys!

This is your leadership coach, Jason.

Today we're going to be breaking down one of the first National Day rallies in Singapore, in 1966, by then Prime Minister, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.

These National Day rallies help to bring people together and align the country.

So as leaders, there's a lot of leadership lessons we can learn.

So let's go straight into it.

MR LEE KUAN YEW -

In my experience of Singapore, and her young, active, energetic, if somewhat, exuberant people, is that given honest and effective leadership, and honest administration, within which to bring forth themselves, they will make the grade.

JASON -

So when we think about honest leadership, what is honest leadership?

Is it just about non-corruption?

Or is it something deeper?

And I want to say that there is.

It is about the "why are you leading" and there are two main reasons why.

Number one is about self-interest.

That means I want to lead because of how I look, or what my pay or my promotion is going to do to me.

And the other one is about other's interests.

Where you think about the other people, the people that will be better off because you are a leader.

They say that great leaders out there are leaders because they have no choice.

They see the situation and they know that if I don't lead, if I don't step up, it's going to be disaster or it's going to be worse off if I don't do something.

So they don't see themselves as a champion where it's all about ego, they see themselves as a catalyst for change and a catalyst for bringing the people up into a different kind of progress.

MR LEE KUAN YEW -

I'm not saying that this will be so for all time with no effort on our part, but I say we will progress so long as we reward initiative and resourcefulness.

And as long as whenever we face peril, courage and resolve is never found wanting.

JASON -

Alright guys, so there are two main traits that actually a lot of leaders that I coach, they always are looking for and they want to have in their team.

Initiative and resourcefulness.

So what does that mean?

Initiative basically means that I will always suggest a better way forward.

And what is resourcefulness?

It is no matter what, I will always be able to find a way.

So instead of playing that victim card that people without this resourcefulness always does - "Oh I'm a victim of circumstance, I'm a victim of my environment", they want to have people that are resourceful.

And when it comes to initiative, we want the people to be able to suggest better ways of doing things.

And we know people out there in our team maybe that they don't suggest anything.

They feel that actually I don't want to do anything, I don't want to suggest anything, if I suggest something it is more work for me.

And as a leader, that's one of the most painful things to see in your team.

We want people that's able to step up and see new ways of doing the old thing, have greater insights, and suggest to us that: "Hey, there's a better way of doing this, I think that we're able to do it this way."

So know that these two traits are so important - initiative and resourcefulness.

How do you actually "reward" them?

How do you actually bring it up in your team?

I like to say to the people that I coach - "What gets celebrated, gets perpetuated."

That's one of the fundamental rules in terms of the traits and behaviors you want to see.

Do people know that that is the best way forward, that's the way that you should behave and act in my team.

MR LEE KUAN YEW -

More than just making material progress, like other groups of human beings wherever they are found in the world, we seek permanent salvation, security, to time immemorial to eternity.

JASON -

So he was talking about one of the main things human beings want.

He called it salvation.

It's actually security.

So what does security mean to you as a leader?

It means safety.

Do the people feel safenthat they are in your team?

So I was coaching one of the teams recently and they were making comments on the Zoom chat and all that, and it was anonymous.

So when the leader came in and asked: "Hey, that was an interesting comment," and it

was a negative comment, and he asked this question: "Who said that?"

Nobody responded, and it was a team of around 20 people.

No one wanted to share that it was that person or they didn't even feel safe and to own up.

So what does that mean?

In a very small example, I know that that team doesn't have security.

They don't have safety to be able to share certain things with the leader.

And one thing as a leader that you need to do is find ways and means that people are able to share openly and feel safe while sharing that.

MR LEE KUAN YEW -

But that salvation lies in an integrated society.

I use the word advisedly - integrated as against assimilated.

I would not imagine for one moment, a Singapore government trying to assimilate everybody.

You know, 75 percent Chinese, trying to convert 10 percent Tamils and Hindus, and Tamil muslims, and Northern Indian muslims, into good old Chinamen.

Or not even good old Chinamen, good old overseas Chinese Singapore brand, Singapore type.

I wouldn't try it, it's not worth the effort!

Nor would I try it with the other groups.

JASON -

So one thing he talked about was this idea of integration rather than assimilation.

And he talked about the different races there are in Singapore.

So if you think about it, in your team they're different people and they behave very differently.

They have different ways of thinking, different ways of speaking.

In different scenarios, they behave differently.

So these are the uniqueness of each individual.

It's no point trying to conform everybody to the same mold.

What you rather want to do, knowing that it's almost impossible, what you rather want to do is that you want to draw it out that uniqueness is actually a strength.

So when you bring it out as a strength, you're able to actually utilize and leverage that strength to serve the team.

MR LEE KUAN YEW -

But to integrate us with common values, common attitudes, a common outlook, certainly a common language, and eventually a common culture.

And this is most important, we should understand what is it we are after in the long run?

JASON -

So this thing about common values, and when you have common values you have common behaviors, and when you have common behaviors after a while, you have a common culture.

And a lot of the leaders that I coach, when I coach them, they can be regional directors, I ask them what's the values that they have, so that the people can all align to those values.

They don't really have it.

They don't have it penned down.

They have a vague understanding of what the corporate values are, everybody is the same.

It doesn't work that way.

What you need to do is to understand what values you hold dear and if you know those values, you know the behaviors that you want and you don't want, and when you know those things and you articulate them and share them enough, you still are able to have that common culture because you are aligning based on how people work, what do we believe in this team compared to the next team?

[LEARNING POINT]
One thing you can think about as a leader, is to come up with your own values.

What is your common values that you have, that you want everybody to understand and live out.

And that way you will see the behavior slowly turn towards those values, and after a while you will see a culture.

And what is a culture?

A culture means that when you are away, other people will be able to uphold the way of life or the values that you uphold.

Alright guys, so in summary, there's a few points.

Number one: Honest leadership.

It's about "why are you leading".

Are you leading because of yourself?

Are you leading because of others?

Second point is two traits: Initiative and Resourcefulness.

Find ways that you can celebrate these or reward these.

How you can do it?

By public praise of these behaviors that you see, so that the whole team knows that that is the way that you want things to be.

The third thing is: Security or Safety.

So check yourself as a leader.

When somebody asks a question, do they walk away knowing that it was safe to ask those questions?

Or do they walk away thinking that's unsafe or dangerous to ever even ask that question again.

And fourth thing, the last one, is really about this idea of even though there's very unique people in your team, you can't change those things.

But what you can change or you can align them to is a common value.

So when you have common values there then you will get common behaviors, and after a while you will get that common culture.

That's a wrap guys!

Thanks for watching.

To Singapore and to all Singaporeans, Happy National Day.

And till next time, be the leader that everyone wants to follow.

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