How Too Much of a Good Thing can be Bad

Now if Lee Kuan Yew mastered the above leadership qualities, why then would there be drawbacks or when someone were to emulate him?  Well, for 3 reasons:

1. Over self-confidence;

2. Over-reaction; and

3. Over-dominant

Sometimes, the same success factors can also lead to mistakes or mis-steps.  As mentioned above, Mr. Lee tend to make right decisions and have strong resolve and conviction towards his goals and ideas.  While he does listen to feedback from his team members, there are times he simply decide to stick to his own ideas.

For instance, Mr. Lee proposed for better pay and salaries for cabinet ministers, because Cabinet Ministsers are also people who need to provide for their families, and will have material needs.  He proposed that only good pay, these Ministers will then NOT be tempted by corruption.  And only with competitive pay could the government lure key talents from the private sector to join the public one.

This premise is right in the sense that Cabinet Ministers need to be adequately compensated for their contributions.  However, when the pay scale starts to be benchmarked against top corporate managers, Singapore suddenly found itself with the highest paid Cabinet many times over, which alienate part of the populace.  This is despite the latest research studies that showed that salary will be important, BUT only until a certain point.  There will be key talents who will remain in the private sector no matter how high you pay them, and there will be key talents who will join the public sector even if the pay is not comparatively as attractive.  Still, Mr. Lee stuck to his own judgement.

In his drive to achieve results quickly and effectively, there are ties when Mr. Lee will over-react.  In the early 1990's when there were instances that some chewing gum was the cause of subway train doors not shutting fully, resulting in disruption.  Hence, the decision to ban chewing gum nationwide, and thus probably making Singapore the only country in the world to do so.

While this decision certainly was helpful in ensuring a sharp reduction in subway train disruption in the 1990's, it was in way an over-reaction.  Yes, it was irritating to step on or sit on chewing gum, and the disruption to train services needed to be addressed.  However, is there a need to enforce a nationwide ban?

Mr. Lee is known to be direct, straight-to-the-point and will dominate in conversations, unless you are well-prepared to give well-thought-out responses.  While some people will take personal risk and accountability to give their opinions to Mr. Lee, others may simply choose to comply and keep their opinions to themselves.  In a world that increasingly rely on brainpower much more than manual labour, we need to tap into the minds and ideas of our people as much as possible.  It would prevent leaders from being blindsided by blind-spots.

In Mr. Lee's case, he compensated this trait by selecting only highly capable people on his team that will rise to the challenge if they think they had a better solution (some of them, at least).  However, if the same leadership quality were to be implemented in a factory in China or other parts of Asia, it may result in team members deferring to the leader, and there could be insufficient feedback, suggestions and creative ideas.  In fact, some of your best performers might be disengaged if they don't feel their ideas are part of your success. 

Again, the above examples were sited NOT to comment on the policies, but rather to show that an over-exaggeration of the same leadership qualities could have drawbacks.  This is also in no way finding fault with Mr. Lee.  Just as with any leader, there is always room for improvement.

Getting the Balance Right
 

Even a great leader such as Lee Kuan Yew is not immune to making leadership mistakes.  After all, leaders are human, and it is human to err.

The question is then, if we seek to emulate Mr. Lee so that we can be can be better leaders ourselves, how could we then achieve a right balance and not be carried away?  Here are some tips:

• Find out what worked for Mr. Lee, AND then find out if it's also going to work for you

• Find out if you have the abilities or skill-sets to emulate a certain quality, and if not, get your team to compensate for the weakness.

• Get someone who to be your coach, who will be honest enough to tell you if you have applied these leadership qualities in the right balance    

The last point being the most important, for even with the clearest of insights and the strongest of expertise, ALL leaders need to have feedback.  In Mr. Lee's eulogy by his main challenger, Opposition Leader Low Thia Khiang mentioned, "From my dealings with Mr Lee in Parliament, I don’t think he was an autocrat who didn’t listen.  If you have strong reasons and tight arguments, and can win him over in a thought through policy debate, I think he will consider your views."

If a great leader such as Lee Kuan Yew, for all his achievements and mis-steps, strive hard to get quality feedback, perhaps that itself will be the most important and foundational leadership quality for us to emulate.