Dr. Halim Shafie Part VII: How to be a Boundary Spanner

Historically, most leaders are skilled at working within the vertical boundaries and horizontal boundaries. But there are challenges that cannot be solved by leading within your team, function, region alone.

Today, leaders need to cross boundaries all day, everyday. Such leaders need to move across invisible, social and geographical boundaries to connect in powerful and creative new ways. They need to break down silos, collaborate across diverse viewpoints, and build commitment at all levels.

Leaders who span vertical boundaries are able to lead across levels, rank, seniority, authority and power. Leaders who span horizontal boundaries are able to lead across functions, units, peers and expertise.

“We need to create boundary spanners,” said Dato’ Sri Dr Halim Shafie, the chairman of Telekom Malaysia, who did his PhD work on “human information processing” – which studies behaviour traits of people searching for information. (This field of study requires the integration of computer science, organisational behaviour and information resources.) “In the government, we have to open up in terms of communication. The goal is to create a rich flow of communication.

We should be able to operate in different environments. It is something we do consciously.”

The challenge today is finding new ways to break boundaries in order to bring fresh insights into the organisation. How do we become boundary spanners?

1. Travel. As chair of the national library, Dr Halim visited the libraries in Seoul and Copenhagen to learn from their library systems. 

2. Read. During our interview, Dr Halim pulled out his Blackberry and showed me his reading list, which included Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life and Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson. Then he added to his reading list a book that I suggested – Quiet by Susan Cain.

3. Listen. “Listening is an art. I repeatedly tell myself to stop talking, and let the other person talk,” said Dr Halim.

4. Tell stories. The best way to integrate and communicate what you’ve learned from the outside-in is to tell stories about your discoveries, says Dr Halim. 

5. Not least, if you are a top leader in the organisation, then you need to grow people who can go out, bring in information from the outside, and then develop structures and run meetings that will diffuse the information into the rest of the organisation. 



Related Posts
Part I: Wired to the World
Part II: Power Tips for Civil Servants
Part III: A Solid Base
Part IV: Video
Part V: How to Chair Effective Meetings
Part VI: To Do or Not To Do
Part VII: How to be a Boundary Spanner

Read more...

Dr. Halim Shafie Part VI: To Do or Not To Do

There is a famous phrase in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet which goes “To be, or not to be, that is the question.” In leadership, an equally important question is to ask ourselves to do or not to do. What not to do can often be equally or even more important than what you do. Here’s what I learned from Dato’ Sri Dr Halim, the chairman of Telekom Malaysia, on what not to do. 

1. Do not complain. When faced with daunting challenges as a civil servant, he chose not to moan or gripe, even though he had many reasons to do so. The decision not to complain saved him from learned helplessness. If you have issues that make you unhappy, raise it up face to face.

2. Do not disparage people. During our broad-ranging conversation that spanned topics from family to personal history to work challenges, not once did he speak ill of anybody. Instead do the opposite. Halim repeatedly highlighted individuals who have impacted his life and described them as “great guy!” “He’s fantastic,” “what a terrific person” and “I’m nothing compared to him.”

3. Do not feed on pomp and circumstance. At his level, it is common to be given a red carpet treatment. He accepted the royal treatment. But he was equally happy being an ordinary, anonymous person. On our way back from Jengka, Dr Halim parked at Genting Sempah and stopped to pray, where we sipped teh tarik in a metal bench. Here, we were just two people chatting away at the foot of the mountains.

4. Do not ask for entitlements. Despite being the chairman of a major telecommunications company, he walked into a TM Point retail outlet to purchase a Streamyx package for his daughter. When the service went down, he called up the help line. In both situations, he did not let the staff knew he was TM chairman or Dato’ Sri. No name dropping. This decision helped him to live outside his leadership bubble.

5. Do not do anything else when you make a decision to be present to someone. In our ten hours together, Dr Halim did not answer his phone or fiddle with any gadget. He was totally focused on our time together. Later, I learned he had switched his Blackberry into silent mode. It is rare to find leaders with such intensity of focus.



Related Posts
Part I: Wired to the World
Part II: Power Tips for Civil Servants
Part III: A Solid Base
Part IV: Video
Part V: How to Chair Effective Meetings
Part VI: To Do or Not To Do
Part VII: How to be a Boundary Spanner

Read more...

Dr. Halim Shafie Part V: How to Chair Effective Meetings

Dato’ Sri Dr Halim has served on many boards for more than a decade, including the board of Telekom Malaysia, Multimedia University, Menara KL and the National Library. While there are great resources on how to lead meetings one Google click away, some of the fine nuances of chairing meetings – especially in an Asian setting – cannot usually be picked up by how-to manuals. “So what makes a good chairman?” I asked Dr Halim.

“I have no idea if I'm a good chairman,” he immediately responded. I found that response telling.  Never fall into the trap of presumption – assuming you’re really that good just because you’ve chalked up accolades. Here are more tips on how to run meetings:

1. Always stick to time. Walk through the agenda and declare the time you plan to finish. Then stick to it.

2. Always assume that people have done their homework. Do it yourself. Walk into the meeting with a rough measure of the complexity of the issues at hand – so that you can start posing and discussing strategic questions.

3. Proportion at least 30% of your meeting time on strategic issues rather than operational efficiencies.

4. Create ownership of ideas by active listening. The lesser you talk, the better. Wait for people to share their points. Where there’s agreement, affirm it. That’s how you create ownership for ideas.

5. Recognise and affirm the value of your board members. “They are all better than me,” Dr Halim said immediately when I asked him about the quality of conversations and engagement by the board members. Be especially grateful for team members who have the ability to summarize and clarify the issues at hand to help you make clear decisions. 



Related Posts
Part I: Wired to the World
Part II: Power Tips for Civil Servants
Part III: A Solid Base
Part IV: Video
Part V: How to Chair Effective Meetings
Part VI: To Do or Not To Do
Part VII: How to be a Boundary Spanner

Read more...