Daily Lessons from Life 20-27 November 2009

I was in China and I could not access my blog while there. This is a very discouraging matter and I do not seems to have any workaround on it!

Anyway, I will write my short summary of my trip to Shanghai (SH), PRC, as my reflections over the last 9 days.

1. 20 Nov Friday
Arrived at SH all geared up for the delivery of 1st 'The 7e Way of Leaders' Workshop to a paying client in China! This is exciting and is a result of my promotion trip in late August 2009 in collaboration with PSB Consulting SH!

Lessons for me are: keep promoting and sharing with anyone who care to listen and be positive and passionate about it and good things will happen! ;-) ;

2. 21-22 Nov 2009 Saturday and Sunday
The world is very small as the Asia MD of the client and I have a common friend in an ex-Motorolan!! The workshop went well as the Asia MD is open, humble and open to learning from different people despite the fact that he's a MIT graduate and an ex-Booze Allan consultant to boot! He led by example and the rest of the participants are also fairly open in viewing the opinions and sharing different perspectives in the workshop. I believed we all benefited from the program from the tools and methods I shared as well as from the anecdotes shared by each others!

Lessons for me are: effective training & development can only happened when the people are open to learning and decide what works for them and practice them till they become a work practice and habit!;

3. 23-25 Nov 2009
Visited a few potential clients to share with them about 'The 7e Way of Leaders' Workshop. 2 of them expressed appreciation of the program and one will decide if they will go ahead with a pilot in late December while another asked to observe a real session before committing.

Lessons for me are: as long as I am given a chance to share the program with potential clients, it is up to me to bring home how the program can create value for the clients' people and their organizations with the target audience in mind, which is: anyone who want to be an effective 7e leader!!;

p/s: I met up with many old friends in SH like those from JA China, SST and ex-SST, and ex-Motorolan/MU, ex-HMR, and especially Peck Hem, my classmate and dear friend from Otago University days!! It is always wonderful to catch up with old friends and still be able to have a good conversation despite not keeping in touch frequently! Missed Jenny Wang and Robert Xiao though as they were out of town. A pity but I am sure I will see them again soon!

4. 26 Nov 2009
Presented to about 10 members of the British Chamber of Commerce on 'The 7e Way of Leaders' in the morning before heading home in the afternoon. This is a new experience as I presented the session in English since there were a few foreigners in the audience. A British, A French, and a Swede or German (I think). The other participants are Chinese who speak fairly good English! The session went well though I have to adjust some of my slides late 26 Nov night as some did not have any English words on them!

Lessons for me are: again, as long as I am presenting the program, I will deliver value to the audience. This I think I have achieved judging from their feedback though they like to have more materials as it is a 2-day workshop crammed into a 3-hr presentation!;

5. 27 Nov 2009
Today is Hari Raya Haji. The Haj in the Muslim religion. The Haj that takes place in Saudi Arabia where millions of Muslims converged to pay their pilgrimage to Allah, their God. In Singapore, we have a public holiday for it. Haw Ngee and I went to visit my father-in-law who is not feeling well. We have some good conversations in Teochew even though mine is not that fluent!

Lessons for me are: our parents are aging fast and we do need to take the time to be with them, no matter how short each meeting may be.

Happy Thanks Giving Day to the American friends and happy Black Friday shopping to boost the economy of the USA!!