On Leadership
- peterkfcheung3
- Apr 10, 2022
- 3 min read
FADE IN
Act 1
INT. SITTING ROOM - 15:00
The TV is on. We hear news.
PETER (V.O.): Many Quorans ask me questions on management, administration and politics.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): But all take people in positions of command, authority or power as "leaders".
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I've been at pains to point out that subordinates or subjects who obey or follow orders or commands of their superiors or protectors don't mean that they're being led.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Many in managerial or administrative or chief executive positions can't lead at all.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Anyone can exercise leadership to manage, administer or manipulate those so-called "leaders".
Act 2
FLASHBACK
INT. LECTURE THEATRE, HKUST - DAY (May 2000)
Peter is among around 40 mature STUDENTS.
PETER (V.O.): We're so privileged to have a week-long residential course on leadership with visiting professors from Harvard.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The Government's Civil Service Training Centre has paid a lot of money to make them come so that we can learn leadership.
PROF GARY ORREN appears.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): He's Prof of Politics and Leadership at Harvard. See what he'll talk about on Effective Persuasion.
PROF ORREN: To lead is simply to influence others to do things otherwise they wouldn't do.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Oh, so concise and precise.
END FLASHBACK
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): When the Civil Service Training Centre asked me to write an article on the Leadership Program 2000, I gladly accepted it.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The next year, I attended the day-long leadership refresher course in Hong Kong, again taught by the visiting Harvard professors.
FLASHBACK
INT. CIVIL SERVICE TRAINING CENTRE - DAY (2001)
Conference room. PROF. HERMAN "DUTCH" LEONARD of Public Management at Harvard is on stage. Peter is among the PARTICIPANTS.
PROF. LEONARD: Good to see you all again...Do you all know there's a distinction between exercise of authority and exercise of leadership?
PETER (V.O.): Oh yes! But that isn't obvious.
END FLASHBACK
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): These little-big things I learned in Hong Kong motivated me to seize opportunities to study at Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In 2003, when I attended a month-long Senior Executive Fellows program (Fall), I reunited with Prof Gary Orren and Prof, Herman "Dutch" Leonard.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): In 2005, in response to Prof Marty Linsky's invitation, I attended another week-long Executive Program at Harvard again.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): Prof Marty Linsky came to Hong Kong in 2000 too and I love his unconventional practical approach in analysing Leadership.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I love his work: "Leadership on the Line: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Leading".
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): While leadership might be perceived as all inspiration, decision action and rich reward, leadership requires taking risks that can jeopardize one's well-being. putting oneself on the line.
Recalling.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): I recall his remarks that many political leaders got killed.
Peter surfs the web.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): The Harvard professors are still alive. I know they know well how to thrive in adversities.
Act 3
INT. SITTING ROOM - CONTINUOUS
More TV news,
PETER (V.O.): I did apply what I had learned on leadership while I was still with Government, creating more public value.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): After retirement. I've been playing my voluntary role to offer advice on HKUST governance.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): And since 2019, I've been doing knowledge transfer socially via Quora.
Pausing.
PETER (V.O.) (Cont'd): On leadership, I've derived my own version as: To influence others to think and do things otherwise they wouldn't think and do, uplifting their potential and transforming them.
No more TV news.
FADE OUT
THE END
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