Empowering talent is his forte

-Koh Eng Beng

GOOD leaders encourage others to achieve a shared vision. Prof Hang Chang Chieh is one such leader who leads by building strong teams to spawn research institutes in Singapore. “I believe in identifying talented staff, giving them challenging tasks, empowering them to take responsibility while cheering them on,” said Prof Hang, winner of the NUS Outstanding Service Award 2006; the National Science and Technology Medal 2000; and the Public Administration Medal (Gold) 1998.

GUIDANCE: The Chinese calligraphy in his office reads Tolerating for a moment will make you calm; Taking a step back will allow you to see a clearer picture. The couplet has helped Prof Hang maintain harmony in the workplace.

Prof Hang has served in key leadership roles as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) and Head of Electrical Engineering Department, NUS; Chairman, Institute of Microelectronics (IME); and Executive Deputy Chairman, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, to name a few. Since April 2006, Prof Hang has been appointed Chairman of Interactive and Digital Media Steering Committee of NUS. His efforts have helped elevate NUS into a research-intensive university.

His leadership style is not about telling people what to do, but inspiring them to see what they are capable of – and helping them get there. “I don’t impose my style on others because micro-managing them will only create unhappiness. Instead, I back them up all the way,” he said. He gave the example of Dr Bill Chen, a renowned US-based scientist who transformed the IME into a world-class research institute in just under a decade.

Prof Hang had then identified Dr Chen as the right man to run the IME, but Singapore was not as attractive compared to the US. Knowing that a fresh challenge always adds excitement and spawns creativity, Prof Hang challenged him to build a research institute as “a halfway house” between the University and the industry, something which Dr Chen had never done before. Perhaps what really convinced Dr Chen was Prof Hang’s conviction in “fighting” for research funding to support him.

Prof Hang’s astute leadership and management skills have helped to complete the “major pieces” of physical science and engineering research in Singapore. He hopes that the younger generation would do a better job to bring Singapore’s science and technology to greater heights. “We were poor, we struggled, we made do with what we could. But we beat the odds and arrived at a good foothold. I hope they will make good use of this vantage point and achieve more,” he said.

Going the extra mile for quality service

THREE NUS departments took bold steps to have their management systems and processes appraised by external assessors in the area of service excellence. Their efforts to benchmark themselves against best practices were recognised at the NUS Quality Service Day 2007/08 (24 Jan) with the new NUS Service Class awards. The NUS Libraries (NUSL) received the NUS Service Class Recognition for Service Excellence, while the Office of Student Affairs and the Department of Community, Occupational and Family Medicine received the NUS Service Class Commitment to Service Excellence.

SERVICE EXCELLENCE: Assoc Prof Lim Tit Meng, Department of Biological Sciences, receiving the NUS Quality Service Award from Mr Joseph Mullinix, Deputy President (Administration).

The NUSL often receives compliments for providing customer-centric services such as the 24- hour Reading Area, mobile phone answering booths and the Perk Point -- an informal area for refreshments and discussion.  These initiatives were the result of the NUSL service excellence framework of strong leadership, people-centricity and customer-focus management. The NUSL benchmarks itself against a set of best practices of 13 major libraries in the world, and places a strong emphasis on training and development of its staff to better meet customers’ needs. For instance, it receives visiting librarians from overseas to foster exchange of ideas.

CLASS AWARD: The new NUS Service Class Award recognises departments which have established systems capable of providing continuous service excellence.

Said Ms Sylvia Yap, Director of NUSL: “Staff members are trained in their core competencies so as to continuously improve internal processes as well as to provide value-added service. And senior library professionals also conduct sharing sessions to empower staff with knowledge to provide more customer-focused service.”

Also honoured at the occasion were 13 individuals who received the NUS Quality Service Award. Assoc Prof Lim Tit Meng stood out among the winners as an academic who went the extra mile to make a difference to students outside the University. The former Vice-Dean at Faculty of Science (now seconded to the Singapore Science Centre as Assistant Chief Executive) has helped to promote learning of life science as a consultant in various secondary schools and junior colleges, and voluntarily led the International Biology Olympiad to success for several years.  Not forgetting his students in NUS, he has also helped to raise funds to enable needy students to go on exchange programmes.

Assoc Prof Lim would be the last to receive the award as the NUS Quality Service Award for academic staff will be phased out in 2008.

Individuals and departments also received awards for their outstanding contributions to the Valued On-line Ideas Contributed By Employees (VOICE) and the Innovation & Quality Team (IQ) schemes. The 891 VOICE ideas and 55 IQ projects implemented has helped the University to save $3.6 million from Oct 06 to Sep 07.