While a lucky few are naturals at influencing, most people must work at it to become dramatically better. Shaw Voon Hau is the story of that work — how the conscious decision to change one’s environment and behaviors changes oneself.
“I had always felt that I was not good with words and was even told to improve my fluency in speaking. I saw it as a defining weakness, compared to other high-potential leaders who have charisma. Through LIFE2 and mentorship from Huijin and others, I found the courage to not see it as my weakness and to not stop me from sharing my views and showing my leadership.”
Shaw Voon was an MBA student of Tsun-yan and Huijin at NUS Business School. She learned about the importance of self-leadership and building trustworthy relationships, and diligently practiced speaking up more and being more influential. Her initial hard work paid off. She was picked to be part of a high-potential leaders’ program in her company, an industrial multinational company.
Soon, though, she felt another bottleneck in her career. Her career advancement was slowing down. Shaw Voon found it hard to position herself for a bigger regional role due to her shyness, under-developed verbal leadership, and challenges balancing work and family as a mother of a young child. As much as she was “showing up more,” she knew it was inconsistent in quantity and quality.
Shaw Voon wanted more. She felt deep in herself that there were better things she could do and more she could achieve personally and professionally. But the possibilities and steps to move forward were far from clear. She needed more help to accelerate herself. That was when Shaw Voon lunged at the opportunity to attend LinHart’s LIFE2 program.
Shaw Voon first worked on her personal vision. Before LIFE2, like most people, she was busy with all her day-today responsibilities, and lacked a longer-term vision with which she could steer her life in the direction she most wanted. Though the vision wasn’t crystal clear during the LIFE2 program, the implications were: although her work in sales was meaningful, she wanted a bigger regional role; furthermore, she wanted to help families with special needs. The latter she acted on immediately, volunteering to lead a CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiative.
Her identity started to evolve, and her confidence increased, resulting in bigger changes. At the time, Shaw Voon was very attached to her comfort zone. She struggled to see how she could move as she lacked the confidence to tackle a new, foreign environment. After getting feedback and input on the many other plausible paths that she could take and mapping out her strengths and gaps, Shaw Voon realized that moving to another industry and/or company was not such an insurmountable challenge. “I needed a place of quietness to step away from my busy routine. To bring clarity to things that I wasn’t able see before.”
With an inner vision that anchored her and courage to try other paths, Shaw Voon was ready for the open seas. After LIFE2, she moved to an adjacent industry with a new organization. This step involved great risk and uncertainty, but she aced it, quickly filling in her learning gaps and building new relationships and networks. The +influence skills and habits she had learned from Tsun-yan, Huijin and faculty like Robert Tan, Nalin Advani and Mathia Nalappan paid off handsomely
“I had to gain traction fast and count on new relationships for support. I did this by communicating that I was new and willing to learn. I had to take a chance with everyone. For people to trust me and show me the ropes, I had to first open up and reach out. When I went for my first on-boarding training session, I showed my passion to drive ideas differently and left a great impression on seniors. It does not matter if you’re 100% spot on, or new. It is most important to show the essential qualities of being a fast learner and driving results.”
All of Shaw Voon’s hard work paid off in 2019, four years after her LIFE2 program, when she was promoted to the executive ranks as business VP, leading a business in Thailand. She moved out of her comfort zone again and, shortly after, braved the pandemic — a double challenge that pushed her to her limits — but she stayed resilient because she had an inner vision and a set of +influence habits and skills that equipped her to navigate in rough seas.
Note: This story is from chapter 5, page 67, of Positive Influence: First and Last Mile of Leadership by Tsun-yan Hsieh and Huijin Kong.
If you know of an +influence personal story that would inspire and interest others, including your own, please indicate here.
