Thank You Very Much

WELCOME TO EDITION 818 of GRAPEVINE

About 1 in 3 new cases  of Covid infection in the world now takes place in India

For your amazing response to last week’s “Stop Blaming Us • Start Owning Up” GrapeVine.

An overwhelming 96% who wrote to us agreed with the views expressed.

There was a singular detractor.

Adam Lim wrote:

It’s so easy to sit in the passenger sit and criticise how bad the driver is and very often, it’s the empty barrel that makes the most noise!

Mr Lim is the sort of person when – unable to offer an argument – throws up a bogeyman, distraction, diversion, red herring.

If he is saying I need to be a driver to criticise bad driving, that would be tantamount to him suggesting I should be a Cabinet Minister in the Singapore Government in order to criticise what I had considered to be the four ministers’ shortcomings in countering the Indian variant threat.

By the same illogic, you need to be a actor to criticise bad acting; a char kway teow hawker to pass opinion on char kway teow; a professional footballer to cast aspersions on a lacklustre player; and a President’s scholar, former Chief of Army and Minister of Trade to point out that CHAN Chun Sing was way off to say cotton comes from sheep.

Get real.

“LEADERSHIP INTERNS”

The 4-G leaders were assigned a task.

These “leadership interns” – CHAN Chun Sing, Lawrence Wong, ONG Ye Kung, and Desmond Lee– were given a test in crisis management.

To find out whether they had foresight and judgement enough to prevent a crisis; or mitigate it; god forbid – succumb to it; or, hell no please – cause a crisis.

The danger they were facing wasn’t even imminent.

It was a well-known fact around the world.

The Indian variant was a clear, present, deathly danger that had killed more people in a shorter time than the original Covid in China.

So as to not to be unduly unfair to the “leadership interns”, the CEO of the country even gave them an asset so they would have an advantageous start.

This asset was 16 months of gains and profitability.

As it turned out, all those gains were squandered away.

Singapore went back into lockdown.

REPORT CARD

So, if you were an adjudicator, how would you rate the “leadership interns”?

A • B • C • D • F

I give F-Minus because apart from appalling misjudgement, I throw in a minus as they did not own up to their mistake.

Leadership is not just about being able to deliver success.

Leadership includes – when we fail – to own up.

And, if needed, make way for other people better able to do the job.

Leadership, you see, includes sacrifice.

Ironically, one of the 4-G “leadership interns” will be promoted to CEO in the future.

Wishing you A Good Weekend.

You may also want to read … Stop Blaming Us • Start Owning Up

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