Always think ‘we’ rather than ‘I’, says our Chartered Manager of the Week

With 20 years’ experience in financial recording and accounting, Yong Kok Fei CMgr FCMI is adept at managing facts and figures. But a change to his role at Stanley Black & Decker Malaysia, which meant his team would be working remotely, made him realise he needed to improve his people management skills and adjust his approach.  

It was when he came across CMI that his plans started to gel. 

“Plan number one was to improve my EQ [emotional quotient] and my patience and learn to put myself in their shoes,” he says.

Now, when someone new joins the team, Kok Fei spends more one-to-one time with them to find out about them as an individual. This helps him determine the skills they need to develop to do the job effectively.

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“CMI has given me the skills to have these conversations and make them more productive, so now I’ve built a much better rapport with the team.”

It’s not about being perfect

Ongoing coaching of team members using reflective learning is now an important part of Kok Fei’s toolset. 

“Analysing what they’ve learnt helps them develop the critical thinking skills that will improve their future performance. It also makes them able to perform their roles more independently, allowing me to focus more on value-added tasks,” he says.