One Sneak Peek Into The Power of Belief: A Blueprint for Success

What if I told you that your biggest limitations are self-imposed?

Most people would think you need to  be very smart to study at Harvard, and they would then tell themselves that they could never reach such heights.

Not Yoke Leng, however.

After chancing upon the “What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School” book in her junior college library, she told herself that, “it would be interesting for me to go to Harvard and see what they don’t teach for myself.”

She eventually went to Harvard Kennedy School on a partial scholarship by her employer, a Singapore government-owned agency as a Lee Kuan Yew Fellow.

Despite juggling work as a department head in healthcare manpower and studying the full-time Master in Public Management (MPM) programme on a part-time basis, which no one else has previously done. She also did the impossible according to one of her professors, a former permanent secretary, when she won the LKYSPP Case Writing (Merit) Award as the sole author.  It’s a fitting gift for her MPM class of 20, which included 8 Singaporeans, as theirs was the final MPM cohort.  Yoke Leng’s unsure if she’s the first and only MPM to have won the Case Writing from the school but she’s definitely the first and remains the only MPM from her class to be interviewed by the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

She also let me in on a secret - that she was rejected by National University of Singapore for her first degree. Despite having “A”s in GP and Chinese for her A Levels, she didn’t do well in Economics due to her late aunt and cousin staying in her parents’ flat for months — her aunt was going through a messy divorce and her cousin was too young and naughty.

She ended up in Ngee Ann Polytechnic after submitting the application form on the last day on her mum’s insistence. Her uncle sent in the form for her via Local Urgent Mail. She was one of the worst students in class for her first year but scraped past without any supplementary paper. Amongst her classmates, 4 of them were not so lucky and had to do supplementary papers for 3 modules.

Grateful for the lucky escape from supplementary exams, she focused on her lessons and rose to become one of the best students in the class in her  second and final year — it was a special 2-year programme for those with ‘A’ levels.

In Yoke Leng’s decades of career, more than 2 decades were in the public service. She deliberately chose to work in public service in the later part of her career, including working at the Central Provident Fund Board twice (she was invited to rejoin 10 years after she left the first time), NUS twice (again, she was invited to rejoin), JTC Corporation (she’s now the VP of the JTC Council) and MOH Holdings.

Currently, she is a mentor to secondary school and junior college students, a consultant for risk management, strategic planning, sustainability and healthcare. She’s also a leadership coach and trainer and writes frequently, having been featured on LinkedIn more than a dozen times.

Yoke Leng’s CV reads like a dream.  She is a Professional member of Asia Professional Speakers Society as a sought after speaker and panelist on diverse topics such as HR, Performance Management, Homelessness, Retirement adequacy, the Vice-President of Lions Club of Singapore Raffles City and the Chair of the Family Mental Health Committee under it. 

She recently organized the Young Lionhearts event launch, where she rallied her friends and network to participate as mentors, mentees, speakers, panelists and judges, and she took on the roles of emcee, presenter and moderator.  A woman of many hats, I must say!

Read on to find out more about what I learnt from our conversation!

1. Starting her career in the public service

“To be very honest, I didn’t want to choose this path at first.

I was not a scholar and many of my secondary school and junior college classmates said that working in an office job was boring and chided me for being unambitious especially when I told them that I wanted to be a teacher.

But my father was in the public service and hoped that I would join the public sector. So, I went for the interview at CPF Board, got the job, but considered quitting soon after because I didn’t like my immediate boss. She’s too hard on me. My dad had enough of me and told me to stop complaining to my mum when she’s cooking the family dinner. Silenced, I took to reading self-help and motivational books on how to manage my boss effectively, before anyone thought of rolling out such courses, and stayed on for almost four years.

In fact, I was at the CPF Board twice. After I tendered my resignation, my then boss — the one I complained about to mum, asked if I would like her husband, a regional director of an MNC, to review my CV and get me a job in the private sector, where I was headed. I turned down her help. I didn’t need help to secure a job and it would be unfair to other candidates if I were to ride on someone’s coattails to get in. I would like to tell youths to humbly accept any offers of help from higher-ups, you know, the C-suite.  You must be someone special for senior folks to want to lift you up to greater heights.  Stand on the shoulders of giants.  Don’t worry about gossip.  Those who are inclined to talk behind your back will do so, no matter what you do or don’t. Now, folks have it easier with official networking events where you get to meet who’s who if you are lucky. But go beyond networking, build relationships and connect genuinely.

I was invited to rejoin CPF Board after reconnecting with another indirect boss at my late dad’s wake.  There was gossip from junior staff who didn’t understand why I was “parachuted” to management after 10 years away. Two and a half years later, I left a second time as I was headhunted to join JTC as the inaugural head of Enterprise Risk Management. I’m now the VP of the JTC Council.

2. Yoke Leng’s career advice

“If you are really good at your job, you would have headhunters approaching you, and you should probably leave a job after two or three years. This is true most of the time except probably for your last job before retirement, where you will typically stay for 10 years or more. When you are in a job, you have to be truly committed but don’t be blindly loyal. There’s a difference between commitment and loyalty, as my university lecturer once taught.

If another organisation offers a better package, you could consider a move, especially if you have done what you set out to do in the organisation, and are waiting indefinitely for a bigger role. In an elevated role in a new environment, you may be able to implement what you have been unable to, so go ahead and do it. Of course, the new offer would typically come with a bigger pay packet along with the bigger role and title.  Accept it.  You are fully worthy of it. But the most important thing that seals the deal is the fact that you have the power to influence policies in the organisation,  change them, make new ones and really make a difference.

On a related note, I think one shouldn’t be shy about celebrating wins, big or small. I remember sharing my wins with friends and family in the distant past but some thought that I was bragging, and so, I stopped celebrating. I got puzzled by folks celebrating all manners of small wins on LinkedIn and social media, and frowned on their humble brags. I wondered to myself on my lack of wins.  There’s nothing to cheer about. Then, I realised that I had many wins, some too big,  but I was embarrassed lest I be thought of as a show-off.  I decided to revert to my old  self. If I accomplished great things, I’m not bragging.  It’s a fact. Time for celebration.

3. Advice to youths

“I was a mentor to secondary school, junior college and ITE students, including some ASEAN scholars amongst them.

I’m concerned that youths don’t really know what career they would like to pursue.  Sometimes, based on what they see on TV or Netflix, they think it’s cool to be a doctor or a lawyer.  I hope that they do more research — get some job shadowing done, talk to seniors, or temp as an admin assistant in the relevant agencies, before choosing to study a professional degree. It would be a wastage of time and resources if they were to quit midway during the course of study or the profession soon after graduating or qualifying for practice. More than wastage, I care more about their feelings and mental well-being when they are compared with peers who stay the course. Are they able to handle the gossip?

4. Ideal workplace culture

“I think a toxic culture is one where you are constantly being gaslighted. There are certain organisations that attract this kind of people because they condone or worse, reward such behaviour, thinking that it’s survival of the fittest.  Please, let’s all be civil and polite to one another. And if you can be warm and caring to your teammates, that would be ideal. Do not allow toxicity to spread by having toxic folks bring in their friends. Surely, you are not that desperate for staff.

Less capable persons would continually doubt the ability of others, thinking that they are on a par with those in exalted positions and not having the good fortune to be as recognised.  When they see someone receiving an award, they would ask if the award is real or if the  institution or organisation giving the award is credible. Granted that there are degree mills and organisations that charge a fee for awards. But if it’s legit (you definitely can’t buy a degree or award from NUS nor Harvard) why should folks still say nasty lies and get away with it?

Connect with Yoke Leng here: http://linkedin.com/in/yoke-leng-leong-b39155190

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And that is all for today’s One Sneak Peek Into.

Stay tuned for more insights from our interview series as we continue to explore the stories of trailblazers breaking barriers and redefining success.