How my Leader made me a better Leader

Recently I just joined a keynote delivered by Sean Ferguson, my supervisor back at HKUST, and also a leader that I truly respect and admire. While I was working for him, I learnt a lot about empowering people and building a positive team culture. In this keynote he shared a lot of great insights about his leadership philosophy, and here is my interpretation of some of the key points: 

People comes first: Business results should be an outcome, not a goal. As people managers, our focus is on supporting and developing our people, where the motivation generated will translate into results. Taking good care of people is the best way to make sure they take good care of their work. 

Earn your trust: To build a trusting working environment, it is the leader’s responsibility to earn trust of the team, not the other way round. Once we have trust, we have the ability to empower people to grow and become a better version of themselves. 

Pay it forward: As a leader, we are here to give, not to take. Always think about what we can give to our team, and their development and transformation should be our ultimate scorecard. Great talent would only want to work for great leaders who can grow them.  

Have a vision: Where will our team be in 3 or 5 years? We need to have a clear vision of what success looks like, and that will be our guide to greatness. We follow leaders who have a vision that inspires and empowers, as that’s how we are able to feel our purpose at work.

Walk the talk: Subordinates cares more about what we do than what we say. This is one of the most basic, yet important principal in leadership. Doing what we say comes from a genuine intention of serving people, and the team output is always a reflection of our mentality and behaviours. 

And most important of all, everything that he said in the keynote is exactly what I experienced while I worked for him. That’s when you truly earn respect from people who works for you, and that’s when you are able to create more leaders. Sean, thank you for inspiring me to become a better leader.