By SARINA CHAN

A DANE by birth, John Madsen, or JM as he prefers to be called,
is more Asian than Danish by virtue of him spending more than 35
years in Asia working in top executive positions at a number of
leading multinationals. He brings with him unique leadership
philosophies and approaches he has personally practised and
"tested" over the past few decades across different industries.

A corporate leader with a string of accolades acknowledging his
successful performance, JM shares with us some personal insights
on leadership.

Team leadership

According to JM, leadership is a process by which a person
influences others to accomplish an objective and directs the
organisation in a way that makes it more cohesive and coherent.

With multiple teams co-existing within an organisation, it is
therefore vital to nurture successful team leaders who are able
to achieve the following: Creating an environment conducive to
high productivity and cost efficiency through high performing
teams; recognising that only through excellent teamwork can they
win and succeed; and recognising the contributions of others,
while striving for mutual success and rewards.

LEADERSHIP POWER POINT 1:

Excellent leaders believe in the multiplying effects of
excellent teamwork as being the most powerful force within the
organisation.

"In the early years, I always had one concern on my mind: What
should we do if we fall behind budgets and plans?

"The answer to the question was relatively simple, that is to
develop a number of 'Approaches and Attitudes' that would assist
to meet the budgets and plans. I call these approaches and
attitudes the 'Power Points', which we would encounter daily in
our working lives," he says.

Power of three

So what kind of power points should a leader be guided by? JM
succinctly identifies three leadership power points.

The first focuses on synergistic teamwork. This, JM believes, is
tied to honesty.

LEADERSHIP POWER POINT 2:

Excellent leaders must be able to continuously monitor the
performance of colleagues under their responsibility and train,
coach or reward whenever possible.

"As an excellent team leader, the old time-tested principle of
'Honesty is the best policy' should be inculcated and practised
by the team leader himself since the leader and team members are
interdependent on one another.

"As such, the team leader must be able to lead by best examples
and best practices, which form the very basis for an honest and
excellent team as well as many honest and excellent sub-teams in
an organisation.

"To be successful, you must be able to understand that you
cannot work alone and must work with others, as the organisation
is like a human being made up of hundred cells doing different
parts of the job," JM clarifies.

The second power point concerns performance and motivation,
which JM considers to be linked to the entity's organisational
strategy.

"Excellent leaders stress on organisational strategy, being the
pillar on which the successful implementation of all other
strategies are dependent, and hence must adhere to the following
criteria:

"Firstly, leadership must be in direct contact with the
operational units for continuous assessment; and secondly,
whenever possible, there should be combination and rotation of
jobs, which on the one hand will make the job more interesting
and educational, and on the other hand, free employees to
develop new businesses that will further enhance the experience
of these employees themselves, which in turn will benefit the
organisation in the long run," advises JM.

The third power point highlights the importance of customers,
which include internal customers - employees - as well.

"You do not manage your people but you lead by obtaining their
trust, sowed on the vision you have created. Hence, you must be
able to convince your employees of the organisation's vision as
that vision constitutes 'evidence' of why all of us work for and
with people - customers and employees alike," he stresses.

Coping with the future

To cope with the challenging demands of the future, JM
identifies technology, continuous learning, productivity,
attitude and corporate social responsibility as pertinent issues
to be considered in order to remain competitive.

"I foresee that the future will witness an increasingly
competitive world. Information technology will become the trend
where information and delegation can be disseminated effectively
and directly.

"At the fundamental level, we will need to operate with less
organisational layers as there is limited time to push the same
information through five or six layers of people before the
point of delegation.

"Most people are capable of taking on greater roles and
responsibilities than we think possible. It takes continuous
learning, training and upgrading of the 'toolbox' of these
people as well as their team leader who should be prepared to
walk the roads and come in close contact with the people who
constitute the team," JM opines.

LEADERSHIP POWER POINT 3:

Leaders must recognise that customers are the main reason for
the organisation's existence, and must therefore constantly
strive to fulfil customers' needs and desires, and exceed their
expectations.

Productivity

"We must then put more focus upon activity-based costing to get
established. In a highly competitive world, we must ensure the
highest possible productivity by every individual through
focusing on the individual and continuously motivating the
individual to do more with the same.

"By cutting the level of bureaucracy, which is the no. 1
obstacle in any business, the level of competency of the people
and profitability of the business can be increased, which can
result in higher productivity," JM stresses.

Attitude

"In addition I wish to mention that for any organisation, there
must be a strong pillar to build on - most importantly, the
highest degree of honesty and integrity without which, it will
be impossible to operate in a fiercely competitive growth
environment.

"To be ahead of others, you must be able to distinguish yourself
from others and that little difference is called 'attitude'. The
big difference is whether the attitude is positive or negative;
effective leaders must have positive attitude."

Corporate social responsibility

"Finally, I wish to comment that as leaders, we should never
look for friendship but for respect - for the way we act, for
what we do and for the justified manner that we treat the people
we work with. We must also not neglect corporate social
responsibility, which most companies look upon as the cost of
business. It should be looked at as an investment to the
society, country, organisation and the people who make up the
organisation, always with an objective to make the world a
better place to live," he concludes.
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