I realised something about myself recently. I have little interest in becoming a teacher leader; I think a part of me has never really let go of my dream to teach around the world. But I keep picking up these leadership books. I used to think that my motivation stemmed from wanting to train my class committee guys to become better leaders, but now I think I am personally invested in this topic.

Which makes me wonder why because I’d rather be an individual contributor and not have to coordinate my efforts with others. I suspect being a father reduced my free time so drastically that I learnt to crave for control in whatever pockets of space that I could label mine. This is why I enjoyed planning for my Japanese immersion lesson so much. I saw myself as a visiting consultant on Japanese culture.

Nonetheless, this book reinvigorated me. Max Landsberg succinctly conceptualised leadership within the tagline of Vision, Inspiration and Momentum. Which is self-explanatory. But then, he mentioned things like how a leader should sometimes take a step back so that his subordinates can supply the vision. I have always seen it as a leader’s job to provide direction by articulating a vision. Seems like getting others to come up with their own vision boosts their motivation.

He also wrote that a leader should delegate to high skill, high will personnel so that he can focus his energies on what he is uniquely qualified to contribute. As the I/C of the Spelling Bee, I often took on the sai kang (repetitive jobs) like printing of participants’ certificates because I was too pai say (embarrassed) to dump them on my colleagues. But maybe I should have been more forthcoming in delegating so that I could engross myself in influencing my school culture. Something to take note in 2025.

The fictional characters in Max’s book are very proud of their MBTI profiles. As an effervescent ENFP, I’ve had occasions in which I felt that others’ indifferent responses wrt MBTI didn’t match my (overwhelming) enthusiasm for it. But I think that if I were to lead a project in the future, I would sit my colleagues and discuss our working styles via MBTI. Max kinda ‘legitimatises’ MBTI for me.

I also enjoyed reading about how different circumstances require different kinds of leaders, including entrepreneurs, evangelists, politicians, strategists, change agents, field-marshall personnel, and surgeons. I liked the ‘honeycomb’ of responsibilities metaphor - very clear and compelling imagery.

Suffice it to say that I enjoyed reading this book tremendously and endorse it wholeheartedly.