Stephen Leung, Country Manager, Pfizer Hong Kong
“Who here likes fishing?” Stephen Leung, Country Manager, Pfizer Hong Kong asked. After a show of hands, he fired another question at us. “And what do you like eating? Chips, chocolate?” Murmurs of agreement and consent spread through the room.
“So do you attract your fish with chocolate?” he rhetorically asked the audience. This was one of many analogies that Leung used to colourfully demonstrate the importance of communication and knowing what people want in building an engaged team and getting staff to work together.
He asked members of the audience what engages them. Answers included team success, individual development, and focusing on the outcome. Leung himself identified three things, summarised in home-made acronym ‘SOP’, as crucial elements in building an engaged team.
“First is ‘S’, the best dress you can wear—your smile. When you smile, people will smile back and feel better. In a team, you also have to be open-minded towards other people and ideas, which brings us to ‘O’.” The third and final letter in the SOP of success, according to Leung, is P for participation.
He noted, “It’s so easy, to feel part of a team. You need to get people to participate—talk. And don’t just do the talking, you need to listen.”
Leung explained that Pfizer has an open communication café, where meetings can be held and management can truly listen to employees, in order to facilitate communication, among a number of other initiatives.
He added, “If you want to engage people, you have to know what they want. And they need to tell you what they want.”
“We need to allow, empower and encourage people to exercise what they’re good at. You have to understand someone’s strengths and use them. Sometimes, as a leader, the best thing to do is to shut up and step back.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
