Graduate Studies Blog
By Narendra and Min Li
Nanyang MBA Class of 2017
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It was an early start for most of us who stay on Campus. The time was 7am, and we were off on a “magical” bus ride to one of the oldest hotels in Singapore, Raffles Hotel, for the first CEO breakfast series organised by Nanyang Business School (NBS) for FY 2016/2017. Titled “Enabling Women in Leadership”, the series was brought to us by 5 women leaders who spoke about their leadership journey and the challenge faced. Though the event was marketed more for the females, it was well-attended by a mix of male and female participants.
The panellists were very experienced, yet humble and grounded. Aside from the panel discussion they also spend time chatting with participants and answering their questions. The panel discussion was insightful as panellists shared their personal and professional journey in getting to where they are today, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them. In fact, these sharings were not just meant for the females in the room, but more of advices for the audience, whom the panellist saw as their juniors. In addition, they spoke about how to give and receive feedback, the importance of laying out expectations in doing so, and the miscommunication that sometimes occurs between male and female counterparts.
Two key lessons that was unanimously stressed upon:
To strike a balance between personal and professional life.
Though it is tough for women to juggle personal and professional lives – especially when they become mothers – it is not impossible. If you are passionate about the work you do and you want to make things work on the home front, there will always be a way. In such cases, it is important to have the right life partner as a lot depends on his support. This was a learning for the men in the room to know how much their support can make a difference to women in their lives.
It is alright to be angry or emotional in tough situations.
In fact, some panellists shared experiences on occasions when they cried at work and how they dealt with it thereafter. However, the key takeaway was how they picked themselves up after dealing with the emotional moments, and a proposed approach to dealing with similar situations in future, is to take a step back, compose and then get back to the work at hand. The panellists reminding participants that it is okay to get emotional but it is important to not let it overwhelm you.
MBA Participants at the CEO Breakfast Series by Nanyang Business School September 28, 2016
The session concluded with the saying that “We are the product of our journey.” As the participants hear about these reflections of experiences from the panellists, we equipped ourselves with better knowledge on situational management approaches which would be useful reminders when they arise in our own professional journey. All in all, we learnt that we should keep an open mind and be ready to embrace the opportunities and challenges ahead as we prepare ourselves in our leadership journey.
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