Last week my new boss scheduled for a face to face team meeting in SIngapore and both me and another collegue flew in on Thursday. Initially I was very excited about this meeting, mainly because this is the first time I get to put faces to all my new team member.
To my surprise, the day before my trip, my boss call for a session and told us we need to prepare some slides to present to our new VP. The meeting was meant for the core function lead and my new role require me to be one. I was freaking out badly. Asking me to present over the phone is no big deal for me, but face to face with the VP!!! *sweating....*
So the day when I flew in on Thurs, I spent the whole afternoon preparing the slides, rehersing for the flow of the presentation over and over again. I can't seems to fix on the content of my slides and I end up wasting a lot of time re-doing my slides.
Lesson learnt: ALWAYS have an objective and STAY FOCUS. Else you will chasing chicken around the farm
I had a quick dinner somewhere near the hotel and I thought of having a 30 mins hot bath will help to relax me. I read a book that I brought along., The title is "The Introverted Leader" by Jennifer B. Kahnweiler. I would strongly recommend this book to any introvert people like me to read this book. It is a total mind shift strategy which made me realise a lot of aspect which i never knew. The 4 P concept : Prepare - Presence - Push - Practise really made me think otherwise.
To make the story short, after a few cup of coffee and scratching my head to prepare the slides and reherase, I finally slept around 1 am.
When I woke up the next morning, I feel wasted but I told myself - This is it! This is the only chance I have to make an impression on my VP if I need him to support me to push for any future road blocks I have. It;s now or never!
So I got up, prpare myself and drag myself to office. In office, I saw my colleague was busy preparing and rehearsing as well coz this is going to be the first time we get to see our VP for the first time. As for me, it would be my direct reporting manager + VP.
The clock start ticking and finally I saw them. My boss walked in first then followed by a white guy. I was kinda surprise to see that my boss look pretty young. He's a chinese who married a Jap wife and he has that US accent and the charisma of a confident man. To ne honest, at that moment, he was the only eye candy for me.... ^_^
Next, my VP walked in, a tall, serious looking German guy walked in. He look good for someone his age, no tummy, well groomed and smart looking. But his face remains serious with no friendly smile. Sweet and Sour taste hit me at the same spot that time, making me....ughhh.... what I am suppose to do. He seems like someone who gets irritated easily (referring to my VP) and my boss, altho an eye candy, rumors says that he is someone that is selective in listening and commenting. So, here I am, alone in a room full of land mines, waiting to killed on the spot!
One after another, my collecgue "selling" themselve to the VP. Nice, beautiful & impressive slides keep flashing around the projector and one advantage they have is, they have been in that field for more than a year. So they just go glide thru swiftly and gracefully and both my boss and VP seems kinda please. My session was suppose to be after lunch....man, what a disaster. That is when they have recharge their energy and ready to shoot.
Lunch was Subway in a box. We all had our lunch together and my boss and VP seems more loosen now. I can see smile and jokes and at that moment, I feel sooooo relief that, he look so human now instead of the freaky diciplinary teacher. We had small talk and he does have his way of humor.
THe time has come for me to present. I stood up to present. Something I learnt from the book. One slide after another I share my views and opinion. My session was the most Q & A sesson. Both of them comment and asked question. I was really surprise with the level of details they are going into (question which I did not anticipate during my rehearsal). At the end of the presentation, I was surprise that I got compliment from them, saying that it was good, knowing the fact that I am new in this role. A lot of areas to improve and I need to buckle up a bit. That moment, I always fainted coz I thought I might be wipe out from the team for the lack of confident and knowledge I have in the area I'm suppose to be leading the region. PHEW....PHEW....PHEW.....
After the meeting ended, I got to know that my new boss will be leaving us and we will be working closely with our VP till his replacement comes in. I was surprise and sad at the same time, knowing that my eye candy will no longer be there. But again, guess everyone have their own priorities in life ad decisions to make. Before we call it a day, we all wrapped up and somehow my impression towards my new VP has changed tremendeously. I think he can be cheeky and playful but when it comes to work, he is serious and firm. Guess I have to get use to his working style and the best of all, I know for a fact that he is the type who give chance to his staff. For that, I salute and respect him to be our leader.
After a few session of teasing and joking, we all call it a day and I went back straight to the hotel and for the first time in this week, I slept around 8.30 pm and my mind was truly at peace.........
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