A Day of recognition

Well, yesterday, we had a surprise lunch, where the bosses and company treated us to a dine in lunch, saying that there's a surprise and also some important announcement to be made. So we all were anticipating what was going to happen la...then lunch time came, the big boss from downstairs came up.. seriously all of us were thinking what the hell is the announcement all about since it involves the higher superior...and so it goes...

The company came out with a book to celebrate personal leadership, Leaders without Title, inspired by the book You don't need a title to Be a Leader by Mark Sanborn. Hence, out of 300+ consultants world wide, 41 was nominated, and only 25 were chosen to be in this book, and PFM has 5 consultants chosen. So the luncheon was to celebrate the consultants' achievements in leading without a title...And to my surprise, I WAS ONE OF IT!! So here's a write up of me by my superior...

A story about Freddie of PFM...

Freddie is our youngest consultant and has been withus for the last one and a half years. Over the last two quarters, he did well and closed 11 cases. I can see that his career in our organization is beginning to take shape, compared to the first nine months when he was still trying to find his footing.

As Christmas drew near, Freddie too the initiative and informed the leaders that he would like to put up and decorate a Christmas tree with colorful ornaments to brighten up the office. The leaders told him to go ahead with it using whatever we have. But he had other things in mind.

He knew we were all pushing hard for the numbers and everyone is under heavy workload. He wanted to surprise us and on his own, made arrangement for a 7-feet tree instead of using what we had. As it was supposed to be a surprise, he did not seek internal help and managed to influence his friend(who is not working in our organization-Credits to Ashley Wong) to help him with the decor preparations. He even bore the extra cost of buying some new decor items. He and his friend came one Saturday to decorate not just one, but two Christmas tree! (One was a four-feet tree at the main entrance and the other was a seven-feet tree at the work area). He wanted to create a 'wow' effect when all of us walked into the office the following Monday. He sure did! The beautiful decorated trees -they even looked better than some of those that we see at the shopping malls- a bit exaggerating la..but its nice... These were such showpieces that it took our breath away for a few seconds and made us smile each time we looked at it. It was definitely a good way to enlighten us in a positive manner.

Concurrently, we were also preparing for a Relationship-Building-Activity ("RBA") event - a movie night for some of our clients. As we were working on the movie selection, food and beverage, and the invitation list, Freddie again came to the leaders and shared that we could also spruce up the venue. He suggested that the foyer, where the event was to be held, can be livened up with some floral arrangements. He knew that using an external vendor for the floral arrangement will affect the budget; he said he would take care of it and that we need not worry about over-spending. He identified a few colleagues and formed a team to help out. He arranged for venue for venue inspection and shared with the team on his ideas and what needed to be done. On the day of the event, the team arranged for the purchase of flowers from a wholesaler in the early hours of the morning(before our working hours) and did all the floral arrangements over lunch time. During the event, he also gave his input on where the buntings should be placed to give maximum mileage in the promotion of our company's brand name. he did this with passion and made the movie treat a night to remember for our clients who came.

I believe Freddie demonstrated commendable leadership qualities although he did not have a leader's title. He created a positive difference using his influencing abilities.

Am very grateful for the written piece by my superior...sigh...Anyway, that's all...Looking forward for a long CNY break!!