Following the email last time, here’s more about leadership. Two authors of the consulting firm, McKinsey & Company, Carolyn Dewar and Scott Keller, identified six main elements that CEOs should have, being “setting the strategy, aligning the organization, leading the top team, working with the board, serving as the face of the company to external stakeholders, and managing one’s own time and energy” (see The mindsets and practices of excellent CEOs).
You may say, “Prof. Lai, don’t you always emphasize that we HCers should develop ourselves to be useful people to contribute to the world rather than aiming at being CEOs as our goals?” Yes, you are right! But if you think more deeply about the six elements above, you should see that each of them is what an ELITE (being Empathetic, Leading, International, Trustworthy, Ethical) HCer should do. Let me elaborate a little here:
- Setting the strategy: This is what you should do for every task and goal, i.e. “why”, “how”, “when”, and “what” for your task. “Focus on beating the odds”.
- Aligning the organization: For example, working with your group, everyone should be responsible for a role that his/her talent and/or personality is most suitable for, and combine speed with stability. This is not only for your HONR2004 group project, but also in your everyday life in your studies and your work environment in the future. “Manage performance and health”.
- Leading the top team: Following the point above, you should try to ensure coherence and defend against biases among team members. “Put dynamics ahead of mechanics”.
- Working with the board: If you are not a CEO, you do not need to work with a board. But you always have someone to report to. Even if you are the entrepreneur, you have customers and your creditors to report to. “Help them to help your task”, i.e. guide them towards how to help you finish your task well.
- Serving as the face of the company: Be responsible of what you do, and show your confidence in representing yourself and your team.
- Managing one’s own time and energy: Last but not least, be authentic to yourself! You are not superman or superwoman. Manage your energy and time well! “Do what only you can do”! Please be careful, I did not say “Do only what you can do”! Of course, this is important too, as you need to realize your own limitation and capabilities. But I emphasized doing what “only you can do”! In other words, everyone has a fair 24 hours. If there are a lot to do, you pick what you can do better than others, and share the other work with others. Only when you have time left, after your life balance (such as enough sleep and exercise, etc.), then pick up more work and not dump everything to others.
So far for leadership! I will talk about technology and AI in the coming weeks.
No more book sharing this week. Instead, I will show you two graphs, which are directly and indirectly related to leadership.
The first one is about how you should set your goals right (credit to “The Rich Mindset”, a website). Having too high expectation will only exhaust you and not bringing you far. This is also important for effective leadership.
The second one shows the straits required for leadership. The proportion might not be very accurate, but close enough. Of particular importance is Integrity + Empathy + Listen first and speak last occupies two-thirds of the chart (with empathy being 1/3)!
See if you agree with these graphs!
A very warm welcome to the Year 1 HCers, new to UM and therefore HC. Because you join us only very recently, FYI, I write to you every Friday of the lecture weeks to share many different topics which I find interesting and wish you would know, think, or learn. Since you have already missed the first few emails this semester, I would suggest to you to our HC website (https://hc.um.edu.mo/current-students/friday-emails/academic-year-2025-2026/) to have a look. You will even be able to see all previous emails. Hope you enjoy this different way of mine of “chatting” with you.
This week is about another book called “The Little Book of Lykke” by Meik Wiking. I have actually covered some of the points from this book before. If you are interested, you can go to our HC website to dig them out.
Danish are often considered as the happiest people on earth. Why? How about we ask this question differently? When you are unhappy, why? Let me quote some lines directly from this book.
(pp. 93) “… we are spending money we don’t have to buy stuff we don’t need to impress people we don’t like. … if we spend our money on stuff we don’t need to impress people, we are not getting closer to happiness, we are just getting involved in an arms race.”
(pp. 98-99) “… Over the past two generations, South Korea has gone from being one of the poorest to one of the richest countries in the world… However, the country is struggling to convert its new-found wealth into well-being… While the US has achieved economic progress … this has not resulted in an increase of happiness for the people. … If a country doubles in wealth but 90 per cent of that wealth goes to the richest 10 per cent, that is not growth. That is greed.”
This is another reason with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI, what I mentioned a couple weeks ago) is increasing important to the world.
Reference:
Wiking, Meik (2017). The Little Book of Lykke: The Danish Search For the World’s Happiest People, Penguin Random House, United Kingdom.
Following the past two emails on empathy, I would like to share more thoughts from some books I read. I do not mean to bring you sadness or negative energy. Rather, we need to understand how we can face sadness in order to know how to embrace happiness, to turn negative energy into positive one.
I have a habit of reading different types of books, even those that I think are not necessarily correct, because I want to read them to see how people can view the same issue in a different way, perhaps wrong, or to find them actually right and I am wrong. Another way to learn! The topic today is from a book about “23 Exercises to Say Goodbye” by a Japanese author. I of course read the translated version. I am sorry that I cannot cite the book here because I have difficulty typing some of the Chinese words. Please approach me for the information of the book if you are interested.
A young girl who has very serious illness had been hospitalized with all sorts of vital machines in bed for several months. She was conscious throughout, although weak. She always wore a lovely smile with the little energy she had when greeting nurses and whoever visited her. One day, the doctor told her that she could get off the bed, and leave the room briefly for a little break. She was so excited for this excursion, even if that just meant going on wheelchair to the little gift shop at other end of the hospital. She went on the following day and stayed there for 15 minutes, appreciating the warm colors of all the items, one by one. On the way back, she passed by the cafeteria, very excitedly embracing the smell of coffee and soup, and the color of the cakes, imagining their really lovely tastes. She went back to her room filled with joy! She was so happy that she was still alive.
What reflection does this story give you? Never take what you can, own, or have for granted! Love your family and friends. Be good to people!
Following my email last week, it looks like we should always show empathy. Or should we? (I have sort of covered this topic a couple years ago. You can verify by checking our HC website for the Friday email collection.)
Very often, we are told to help those physically or mentally challenged people. So, when you see a person on a wheelchair, you will want to help. When? How? You might help by opening the door for him/her if he/she finds it difficult because he/she has to also control the wheelchair. But if he/she can maneuver it very well, he/she might actually want you to treat him/her in the same way as your other friends who are absolutely mobile.
If you have a chance to watch CBeebies, a kid’s channel of BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), you might sometimes see a science program hosted by a smart girl. There is nothing special, except she does not have an arm. Or, in another program, the host doing experiments talks in not very clear sentences because she has hearing problems. A purpose of having these hosts is to educate kids, starting when they are small, that having (or not having) something and different from others does not mean one is inferior, or incapable of learning and doing what others can. If you try to help them even before thinking whether they need help is actually discriminating them, thinking they are incapable. A recently popular topic, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI) is exactly to include everyone from diverse origin (including race), and treat everyone equally. This is especially important in this now very diverse world, particularly politically.
So, next time when you want to help people, please first consider if you are actually discriminating them or helping them. You are all smart. So, use your judgement call.
Hope the typhoon has not affected you much! Do you still remember when you were much younger, 8 years ago, Typhoon Hato caused a lot of damages in Macao, and, more sadly, 10 people’s lives? We always emphasize that we should have empathy. When people are sad, we should feel for them, try to care for them and soothe them. But how? Here’s a recent sharing (in Chinese) from James Law, our HC alumnus, on his Facebook. Let me try to summarize it in here.
A person, let me name him/her Abi, has a good friend. Let me name him/her Karen. One day, Karen told Abi, “Every time when I vent, you always say “this is life” (or “C’est la vie” in French). As a result, I do not want to carry on our conversation anymore, because you simply are not empathetic!” Abi was very surprised because she thought she was trying to comfort Karen. But to Karen, Abi was simply telling her that she was not special (and everyone has his/her hard time). Abi did not expect that she has actually created a distance between them.
Next time when you want to show your empathy, perhaps you can try the followings:
- “It does feel painful from what you told me. Are you alright?” – to make someone know that he/she is not alone (i.e. you are there to help)
- “I will also break down if it were me. Would you like to share more?” – to let the person vent out all the stress
- “Would you like me to help you find a solution?” – to show respect and choice
Remember, your “This is life” will only make people think you want to show superiority and therefore lack of respect. Also remember, when people vent, they might not want a solution from you; they simply want a listener.
See if you have opportunities to practice the lines above, and be empathetic!
Did you find the movies last Friday? Hope you enjoyed! If you don’t, see if this one attracts you more.
The game: “Translate” the meaning of the following everyday phrases (again, ask a friend or two to join you):
- It’s on me
- Beats me
- Catch up (Hey, not Ketchup!)
- Break a leg (Why not a hand or arm?)
- Go Dutch (Why not other nationalities? What is special about Dutch?)
- Dead tired
- Okay by me
- Not in my books
- Once in a blue moon
- Not my cup of tea (Why not coffee?)
- Give me a break
- Take it easy
- Make up your mind
- Hit me up
By the way, the words in the parentheses above are my words for fun, not to be “translated”.
Please feel free to share your “translations” with me by replying to this mail.
Please also let me know if you like these games, or prefer more informative topics? You can also tell me what kind of topics you like to read.
Hope you have had a good learning week! Did you manage to change your not so good sleeping habits, if any, and have nice sleeps over the week?
Guess you have not got many assignments yet! So, let’s play a game. If you have a lot of assignments, I would strongly encourage you to take a short break and relax with this game.
Do you see movies in cinemas? How about Ne Zha? Or any Marvel movies?
Recently, Statista, the provider of all sorts of statistics, including some strange ones, reported that, there is a box office crisis in the United States, i.e. movies don’t sell anymore, even though a lot has been paid for the actors and actresses. As a result, movies were made based on books, video games, or box office hits in the past.
So, here’s the game: Name at least one movie that belong to each of the following categories (ask your friends for help if needed, making the game more fun):
- Original screenplay
- Based on fiction book/short story
- Based on comic/graphic novel
- Based on real life events
- Others
- Based on nonfiction book/article
- Based on TV
- Spin-off
- Based on folk tale/legend/fairytale
- Based on (video) game
The above list is in the descending order of the market share of movies in the U.S. from 1995 to 2005. You can find the Statista article here: https://www.statista.com/chart/35074/box-office-market-share-of-movies-based-on-different-source-material/.
Hope you enjoy digging out the different movies, and then find time to watch them. Please also feel free to share your choices with me by replying to this mail.
After three weeks of classes, are you not sleeping enough already? If so, … oh no!
I recently saw this on someone’s post, but cannot share the source with you. Anyway, thought it would help to remind you of how you can affect your health and capability, and that the fact that you are young does not mean you can indulge in lack of sleep! Here are the points:
- A night’s poor sleep is as bad as being drunk; your brain performance is significantly reduced
- Only deep sleep can cleanse your brain of toxins
- Lack of sleep can lead to weight gain (please remember this if you worry about your look! But if you are skinny, sorry, this can’t help either!)
- Sleep is linked to memory, learning, and emotional control
- Do not think adults can go with only 6 hours of sleep continuously
- People who continuous lack sleep will always feel anxious and depressed
- Continuous sleep loss increases risk of heart diseases, stroke and other chronic illness
- Power naps of 20-30 minutes can boost focus and mood.
Do NOT think you can make up your lack of sleep during weekdays by sleeping more hours over the weekends. Think of your smartphones. If you keep them consistently at very low battery levels, charging them over the weekends will only make them at most 100% full, not 120%, not 200%. But because they are constantly at minimal energy, their batteries deteriorate faster!
I hope you can sleep and rest well over this weekend. But please also try to change your habit to sleep more, and at the right time, during weekdays!
How was your first couple of weeks back to school?
For newcomers, FYI, I have covered quite a lot about sustainability. Natural disasters have been one of the main topics over this summer: people dead in Europe (Italy in particular) because of extreme heat, Portugal and Spain hit by wildfires, England and Japan experiencing the hottest summer. The list goes on and on. People keep saying there is little they can do to change the big world; and that’s the job of the scientists. But if the 20% of us living in the modern countries can each do something in our life style and habits NOW, the 100% of the world population will suffer less, at least not more, in the future. We have both the power, and the obligation, to contribute!
In a latest report by the United Nations (UN) on its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) (see https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2025/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2025.pdf), only 13 of the 17 goals have little to 1/3 “target met” progress. In almost all of the goals, “stagnation” or even “regression”, are the major “progress”. That means NO PROGRESS! That is so sad!!! “Hunger” is UN’s number 2 target. You have always had enough food, often more than enough! Can you imagine undernourishment is still a big issue around the world? The situation was improved by 2014. Unfortunately, geopolitical conflicts have exacerbated the situation again. Just look at Israel’s daily shelling Gaza, which has been declared to be in famine (a term that is almost forgotten in this new century!)!
Please take a moment everyday to feel the world, not just your own lives, your own surrounding. Be responsible global citizens!
Have a good weekend! Start feeling the world today!
Welcome back to UM! An extra warm WELCOME to the new HCers joining us through the Open Application as well as recommended by your RCs and the Dean of Students. Also welcome to read my first Friday email of this semester.
I recently came across someone’s post (anonymous, and so I do not have a citation for it) about “How we are Taught to measure success” versus “A Better measure of success”. I shall provide my comment at the end of the mail, but here are the points.
“How we are Taught to measure success”
- Job title
- Salary
“A Better measure of success” (with one-eighth of each)
- Good relationships
- Lifelong learning
- Making a difference
- Liking what you do
- Financial health
- Career
- Free time
- Good health & wellbeing
Do you agree? As you can see, at HC, we emphasize on providing an environment for you to develop good personal traits, such as empathy and ethics, rather than merely academic performances, as important attributes for leadership in the future. Likewise, it takes time for a person to develop the above measures. For example, how often can we make a difference? How often can we have free time? While we need to have the opportunities, we should not wait for them to come. We can always create opportunities by building solid foundations. And by the way, do NOT misinterpret! “Financial health” does not mean you have plenty of money. It simply means you have a healthy financial structure, such as enough to spend on necessities, and perhaps being able to spare some for charity, rather than having a lot of money to buy luxurious brand items. Also, being able to have a balanced lifestyle to allow time for exercise, social gathering, sleeping, and still enough time to work and study is not as easy as it looks. I am sure you know very well.
I do not necessarily agree with every point above. Still, I think it might help you have a good start of your semester, and building up healthier lives for your future. Ultimately, what we at HC hope for is for you to become better and more useful persons for the world.
Talk to you next week.