Give me Lee anytime

After the rains come a little sunshine, and I’m not referring to the torrential downpours that have been hitting Singapore. After two years of depressing news, people here have at last some blessings to count, and perhaps feel a little proud of being Singaporeans.

They came as the economy improved enough to allow the government to rule out another recession, and the global tribute paid to Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew’s achievements in the past 50 years.

Lee’s acclaim by the United States and the 10 Asean countries has raised the Republic’s morale and standing at a time when both are badly needed in the wake of its worst recession.The foreign recognition comes at a time when the Minister Mentor is losing popularity among young

Singaporeans who have a different set of values and little recollection of what he did in the past.However, Singapore’s founding father has shown he still retains the world’s admiration for his role in the contemporary history of Singapore and the region.

In Washington last week, he was accorded the first lifetime achievement award by the US-Asean Business Council – with tributes from the current US and two former presidents at the ceremony. President Barack Obama, who met him at the Oval Office and who will be in Singapore, said Lee was “one of the legendary figures of Asia in the 20th and 21st centuries... somebody who helped to trigger the Asian economic miracle.”

Among a list of high-powered figures who were present were Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who said: “All of us who have worked with him have benefited from his wisdom, his insight and his dedication.”

Henry Kissinger said: “I’ve known him for 40 years. I would say I’ve not learned as much from anybody as I have from Lee Kuan Yew.”

The accolade shows an appreciation of the man’s tremendous accomplishments, but he remains to the world as controversial as he is admired.Amidst the praises, his Law Minister K. Shanmugan was in another US city repeatedly defending against charges that the Singapore system that Lee had put up is undemocratic and lacks human rights and press freedom.

His “lifetime award” has also raised questions about whether this was his last hurrah, and if the 86-year-old leader intends to seek another five more years in office.“It is always risky to predict an imminent Lee retirement. He has a habit of proving it wrong,” said a local reporter. “However at 86, he is visibly slower. How long can he go on?”

The international buzz is adding to the national debate about what possible impacts his eventual exit will have on Singapore. Although he has distanced himself from the day-to-day running of the country, Lee is widely believed to hold significant influence over the Republic.The general feeling is that the country will continue to move ahead without Lee, but replacing his vast experience and his global stature is virtually impossible.

For years he shaped a foreign policy on China and the United States that enabled Singapore to avoid being crushed by their conflicting interests, but also served as a bridge between them. At times, it hit a sensitive nerve as it did last week when he urged the US to deepen its “indispensable” role in Asia as a counterweight to China’s emerging power.“

The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance,” Lee said.

Within hours, it drew strong reactions from thousands of Chinese bloggers, some accusing Lee of being used by the US to undermine China. One described Lee as “a political animal... (who) relies on China to develop his country’s economy, but is ushering wolves to deal with China.”

Another was reported to have said, “Just because he has achieved some success in Singapore, he dares to play the guiding light that shows US the way.”

Ironically, American liberals have accused Lee of more or less the same thing – setting Singapore up as an example for China on how it can have a predominant one-party democracy.

Lee’s successes abroad and the “feel good” factor for Singaporeans, especially the older people, were reflected by a blogger who said:“Without Lee Kuan Yew, we Singaporeans would not be respected especially when travelling overseas.

People associate Singapore with him, that’s for sure.”After a long 50 years, the People’s Action Party (PAP) is feeling the heat from a new generation of demanding, tech-savvy voters who frequently disagree with its policies.Aggravating the strains is the hardship brought about by the global crisis.

Much of the blame is levelled, fairly or unfairly, at Lee’s influence. Some foreigners have found the level of vehemence hard to understand given Singapore’s advanced state of progress.

During a dinner among regional journalists, one editor from a developing country asked me to explain why so many Singaporeans were so angry with the architect of their prosperity.“We’d be happy to swap our leader for Lee anytime,” he said.

It reflects how much society is changing.Lee recently said the evolving mindsets of the young and their response to the world’s changes will alter Singapore’s political landscape in future “and not because I won’t be around.”

Its Communication, Brother

One only has to look at the performances of Bill Clinton, Jack Welch, Ronald Regan and Barack Obama to see the key role that effective leadership communication has played in their successes.

Bill Clinton is widely regarded as the most effective communicator to ever enter the White House. His communication skills and in particular his charisma were regarded as central to his ability to consistently turn opponents into friends and to build strong alliances with world leaders.

President Barack Obama, described as the 'Communicator in Chief', connected with and inspired millions of Americans during his Presidential campaign. His performance as an orator and use of leadership body language is virtually unprecedented for a politician. Critically, Obama possesses a conversational and relaxed communication style that is critical when seeking to connect with people.

By way of contrast the recent lack of success by Caroline Kennedy and John McCain demonstrate the consequences of poor communication skills.

The Key Components of Effective Leadership Communication

• Develop the mindset of a leader - Given that our nonverbal communication reveals to the world what we feel inside, emotional mastery is critical to congruent, credible communication.

• Be able to connect with people on an emotional level - People form opinions and make decisions based on their emotions. First we listen to our emotional guidance system, then we justify with reasons, then we rationalize.

• Develop leadership charisma - Leader must always maintain authority whilst communicating charisma. Some individuals may have innate elements of charisma but much of charisma is made up of a set of behaviors that can be learned.

• Learn to move like a leader - Body language (postures, gestures and facial expression) communicates your emotional state to the world. We make our decisions primarily on what we see rather than what we hear.

7 Tips on Leadership

Exceptional leadership skills are needed in order to succeed in all business. The right leadership style is essential in order to reach your goals and a “well-honed leadership skills” are the most important component of being a success in the business world.

Adaptability - means reacting in an effective manner to shifting circumstances in your business environment. Everybody experiences adaptive challenges, but leaders are keen to resolve these issues with a carefully thought-out plan of action. If there is one trait that every business leader needs most in today’s business environment, it is adaptability.

People Skills - is about genuinely connecting with those you work with and who work for you. When you connect well with others, you develop a trusting, productive relationship that benefits everyone.

1: The ability to observe people in your business giving you the insight needed to take the appropriate action required for the right result.

2: The ability to communicate effectively to everyone – not just some people – in order to be productive.

3: The ability to motivate gives you the leadership edge to get the best out of those who work for you or with you.

4: And adaptability.

Self Awareness - Leaders who are aware of how they’re perceived by others or how they impact the behavior of others are more likely to succeed than those who aren’t self aware. Others can only judge us based on our behaviors, which can often lead to misunderstandings and miscommunication. If you are self-aware, people will see that you are making the effort to overcome your faults – a very important trait of a great leader.

Decisiveness - is an exercise in good judgment, affording well-informed, fast and sound decisions when needed from a leader, but it is not to be confused with inflexibility. Decisiveness is an important rule in leadership - the decisions you are willing to make will have a direct impact on how you’re accepted as a leader.

Purposefulness - Business needs a vision to set its direction and every successful leader can tune into that vision to achieve success. Leader must have the ability to own a strong sense of purpose and the ability to convey this purposefulness to your employees and coworkers. Purposefulness can be more powerful than a vision because it shares the ambition of growing your business with others. Understanding what the real purpose behind the vision is will inspire others.

Collaborative Skills - Technology has opened up new avenues for communicating and working in today’s work force. Today’s business environment benefits greatly from a culture of collaboration within your business and across all departments, both internally and externally (example of using the Internet makes this extremely easy to do at a very low cost).

Innovate And Execute - Another advantage of inculcating a culture of collaboration is the constant exchange of innovative ideas within your organization. To be a great leader, become the person that everyone approaches when they have a new idea or innovative approach to a problem. Leadership means understanding that you don’t have to come up with ideas yourself – you can also nurture growth and innovation in others that will benefit everyone.

Benevolent Dictators

Whether its recession time or boom time, small business owners should look at the way they operate in order to maximize their revenues. Many small businesses are run a little loosely; because many owners believe they lack the overhead and the staff to require a lot of strict policies and procedures.

That’s a mistake, according to Jim Muehlhausen, CPA and author of The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How To Avoid Them.

“Every business owner is enrolled in the world’s most expensive business school: The School of Hard Knocks. Instead of acquiring business knowledge the slow and expensive way, business owners need to capitalize on the hard-fought lessons of others. That’s why benevolent dictators are the best small business leaders, because ruling by committee against that landscape rarely works.”

Small Business face more challenges than the large corporations with huge cash reserves to help them through financial crises. They are more susceptible to market fluctuations, have fewer clients to support them and generally have more transient staff. On the flip side, they also make up 70 percent of the businesses in the U.S., so as goes small business, so goes the economy.

In order to swim with the big fish without getting eaten, small business owners get a little tougher and smarter to survive the nasty water.

There are several practices that are considered standard operating procedure that actually work against small business owners. First, many insist on learning hard lessons themselves rather than learn from the mistakes of their competitors.

To compound the problem, they also tend to hire employees away from their competitors without realizing that chances are that the employee may be leaving because they had been fired, or they are about to be fired. In essence, they wind up with their competitors’ rejects, who they wind up firing soon after.”

CEOs need to be benevolent dictators to be more effective. “Managing employees is a lot like parenting. Employees may not like what you do, but you’ll have to do it, anyway. Many CEOs are afraid to be authoritarian, but they should do it, anyway”.

They should remember two things – first, being authoritarian does not mean you can’t be nice, and second, it’s the CEO’s name on the big door. No one else will be blamed for the failure of staff. An autocrat is not automatically a jerk, and businesses aren’t a democracy. Hire good people, listen to input, but after you’ve listened, call the play and make sure you have a team on board who’s going to execute it.”

Top Business Leader from Kampar, Perak

Olivia Lum, head of the fast-growing water-treatment company Hyflux, never knew her biological parents. She was adopted at birth by an elderly woman she called Grandma, and home was Kampar, a poor Malaysian mining town where an exodus of jobs had left most residents with no income.

After Grandma sold her house to pay some gambling debts, Lum was brought up in a wooden shack without running water—unless you counted the rainwater that would regularly seep in and flood the floors. To keep Grandma's spirits up, Lum used to say that when she made it big, she would buy her a new house. "Of course it never happened," Lum says. "She died before I became successful."

Lum found her success in the water business. She worked her way through college and earned a chemistry degree, but she always saw the business world as the way to climb out of poverty. Fifteen years ago, drawing on her meager savings, she founded Hyflux, a company that pursued a wide range of water-related ventures in Asia, from cleaning wastewater in China to investing in desalination plants in Singapore.

Today, Hyflux is one of the hottest firms in the Asian water market, and under Lum's leadership it has scored a number of R.-and-D. breakthroughs. In the 1990s, the company developed an ultrafine membrane filter that is used in all the company's major products.

More recently, Hyflux, in association with a U.S. group, began manufacturing a condensing device called the Dragonfly, which produces potable water by extracting moisture from air—and could change the way water-scarce countries meet their daily water needs. There are some drawbacks: the surrounding air must have at least 40% humidity, and each device costs about $1,000. Lum, however, insists that the unit price will fall as her team refines the design, and says Dragonflys may soon be found in refrigerators and even cars.

Hyflux is now a $270 million company, and Lum's biggest challenge will be to sustain its rapid growth. "There are further good years ahead," says Kerryn Tay, an analyst at GK Goh Research in Singapore, pointing to growing demand for Hyflux's products in China and government support at home.

For her part, the hardworking Lum wants Hyflux to be worth $3 billion within five years. Grandma would approve.

Ahhh - A Leader we Love to Hate

Ugandan dictator Idi Amin rose through the ranks of the British colonial regiment to become Commander of the Ugandan Army. He took control of the small central African nation in a military coup and declared himself president. He introduced martial law, replacing civilian law courts with military tribunals.

Amin’s regime was responsible for the murder of thousands of civilians. Often massacres were justified as attempts to quash rebellion but it was not uncommon for entire villages to be wiped out for no reason.

These atrocities extended to executing religious leaders, journalists and entire ethnic groups. He also expelled all Asians from the country and appropriated their property and businesses.

Amin is perhaps best known for his short temper and bizarre personality quirks. He hated the England and all things English but reportedly wrote several love letters to Queen Elizabeth. He is also rumoured to have consulted on issues with the severed heads of executed cabinet ministers.

This strangeness of personality is reflected by the long and grandiose title he gave himself in 1977: ‘His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa’.

Leader Consumed By Greed

The former AIG chairman, Hank Greenberg, is suing the crisis-stricken insurance company, claiming he lost $2bn (£1.4bn) of his personal fortune because the firm failed to inform shareholders of vast losses run up by its controversial London finance office.

Greenberg, who was the architect of AIG's growth between 1968 and his forced retirement in 2005, said AIG kept investors in the dark about its perilous financial condition well after it became aware of liabilities at its Mayfair-based financial products division, which insured banks against default on debts and derivatives.

The 83-year-old accuses AIG of "material misrepresentations and omissions" which prompted him to buy shares in AIG as part of a retirement plan, at an "artificially inflated price" in early 2008.

He told CNBC television yesterday that the company's near collapse had cost him $2bn."It was such a strong company," said Greenberg. "It was the biggest insurance company in the world. I never dreamed that even incompetence could destroy the company.

"Greenberg cited an investor conference in December 2007 at which, he said, the company assured investors it would not lose money on its dealings in ill-fated credit default swaps. "They went to great lengths to explain it, to try to calm the markets," he said.

Ben Bernanke, chairman of the US Federal Reserve, yesterday accused AIG of operating like a hedge fund. In testimony to Congress, he said AIG "made huge numbers of irresponsible bets".

AIG this week recorded the worst corporate loss in US history with a deficit of $62bn for the final quarter of 2008. The US government, fearful that a collapse of AIG would cause a domino effect throughout the financial system, has made four attempts to prop up the business at a cost of more than $150bn in emergency aid.

Defendants named in the legal action include Greenberg's successor as chief executive, Martin Sullivan, and the head of the company's financial products division, Joseph Cassano.

An AIG spokeswoman dismissed the action, saying: "We believe the suit is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously."Greenberg's legacy at AIG is the subject of vigorous debate.

He said a "freewheeling" culture developed only after he left, and said that the company's management failed to keep proper checks and balances on its complex financial maneuvering.

However, AIG's present chief executive, Ed Liddy, who was appointed at the behest of the US treasury, suggested Greenberg was partly responsible for AIG's demise, pointing out: "The formation of the [financial products] unit, which has literally brought us to our knees - that happened on his watch.

"Greenberg was ousted four years ago in an accounting scandal concerning allegations about off-balance sheet transactions.

Christopher Whalen, co-founder of Institutional Risk Analytics, said: "The bottom line is that Hank Greenberg wandered out of the very safe, well-capitalized world of insurance into the surreal world of credit default swaps."