Yesterday, while driving towards our aunt’s home in one of the sois in Lad Phrao, we saw a shirtless man, probably in his late 70s, wearing shorts and gumboots, clearing belongings from his home that had turned to trash because of the flood water.
What kept our attention on him was his upright posture and the resolve on his face. He seemed to have made a decision to not look back and just keep going. It was inspiring.
Here are 5 other moments from last month that inspire us to keep going.
APAC Logistics Leadership Conference
27 APAC leaders came together for a week-long conference in Bangkok.
Before we kicked off, we asked the Director one question: what would tell him the conference was successful?
He gave us 3 indicators:
- Starting next week, team members feel comfortable sending direct messages to each other, instead of formal emails with multiple people CC’d.
- The quiet ones start speaking up and sharing their mind
- Leaders start making decisions like business owners.
Here’s the email we received after the program.
One of the most gratifying feedback came from one of the key stakeholders:
“We’ve never seen ******* & ******* so vocal and lively”
The best thing a leader can do for their team is create the environment that brings out the best in their people.
Women Leadership Day
When the client asked us to run a ‘Women Leadership Day’ program for all the female leaders at their Thai plant, we wanted to understand:
Why is a manufacturing company so willing to invest in female leadership? 🧐
The client’s own numbers, tracked over the past 5 years, hints that as female representation in their management team has grown, so has their revenue.
There could be other variables at play, of course. But the client is absolutely confident about the connection. And a McKinsey report backs it up.
A McKinsey report published in 2023 found that companies with the most gender-diverse executive teams are 39% more likely to financially outperform those with the least diverse ones.
A moment: For the first time, we saw a participant break into tears. Apparently, something Jirina said had touched a fear she’d never shared with anyone.
It was a deeply gratifying moment to see someone get in touch with their own voice and make a decision to move forward .
90-Day Program Impact report – Communication for Team Building & Collaboration Program
Three months ago, a completely remote team came to us with a clear objective – they wanted the team to collaborate closely and communicate more openly.
In other words, involve team members when making important decisions and share information with each other before it leads to project delays, errors and client complaints.
The most effective way we have learnt to improve team communication is to build a sense of belonging and connection among the team members.
Here’s how we ran the program:
- A pre-survey to surface what the team actually needed,
- A 4-hour in-person workshop to build new norms together,
- A 30-day check-in to see what was working and what needs to adjust, and
- A final survey at 90 days against the same baseline
When members get to know each other beyond their job role and scope, like each other’s talents and skills, past experiences and background, and fears and motivations, it increases psychological safety and a sense of connection among them.
Here are the comments from the post-program survey.
Sales Managers start their 6-month Leadership Journey with Insights Discovery® workshop
Every leadership journey with us begins with looking withIN. You can think of a leadership pain point and it can be tracked back to a gap in the leader’s lack of self-awareness. Here are some common pain points that are connected to low leadership self-awareness:
- Leader lacks empathy and doesn’t realise the impact of their leadership style on their team members
- Leader lacks confidence to make decisions, to delegate or hold members accountable especially when under pressure
- Leader is unable to build a high-performing team culture and the team waits for direction from the leader
We can go on.
These group of District Sales Managers can now easily articulate their leadership style, their communication patterns, decision making preferences, their fears, needs and possible blind spots.
We can’t think a better way to start a development journey. Would love to know if you’ve any better suggestions.
A Business Unit Joins a Bigger Group and Pushes Back
We’re currently supporting the leadership team of a business unit that’s just been folded into a much bigger group. Our job is to help them assimilate smoothly.
The challenge is to get the leaders to integrate a new strategy into something they’ve already built over years, and that’s working really well.
Resistance is natural when you’re asked to connect to a story you don’t see yourself in.
So the question now is what would make this leadership team feel part of the bigger group, without losing their core identity?
We’ve landed on four things people need, in this order.
- First, they need to know why. What’s actually in it for them.
- Then, they need to see the bigger picture – a vision worth joining
- Somewhere along the way, they need space to say what scares them, and someone who actually listens.
- Only then are they ready to talk about a plan.
We’ve started by listening. A short session with the leader closest to this team, before designing anything.
We’ll share what we learn as this unfolds. If you’ve navigated something similar, we’d love to hear how you approached it.
The flood in Bangkok is getting better today, the 2nd of October, but there’s still a warning of heavy rainfall in the week ahead.
We’re in an era of constant change, adapting to geopolitical and business challenges. But the one thing that stays certain: people will cherish the connection between each other. And you’ll only have a high-performing team when you build that meaningful connection with your team.
