Spinning all the plates well

Mother four children, train for triathlons, study French, take up pottery, complete an EMBA from the Helsinki School of Economics plus be the senior VP of applications for Oracle Asia Pac? How does she do it? Like seriously??? To that, Tan Yen Yen puts it down to three things: discipline, good strategic planning and a very supportive network. Most importantly, she constantly pushes herself and is always “looking for new challenges, and racing against myself.”

On work
If you prove yourself, you will have opportunities for bigger roles.

To survive in the corporate jungle, know your stuff and be genuine and sincere. You have to be sincere and take a real interest in people before you gain trust and respect.

You have to constantly learn, upgrade and reinvent yourself to stay motivated and passionate.

On family
Both my husband and I come from tight-knit families and we love children. When you have a big brood, your children learn to develop their EQ, learn how to share, how to fight and of course how to make up.

The trick to juggling family life and her passionate pursuits is to involve them. All my four kids do triathlons… We train together, and it’s really good for bonding.

My family is very important. Whatever I do, whether it’s work or play, it has to centre on the family.

When asked whether she feels guilty about not always being there with her children due to her work, she said, “I believe that when I’m at work, I should focus on work. And when I’m at home, I’m there and present with my family. If you feel guilty, you will not enjoy either part.”

Want to find out more about her and her philosophy towards life? Check out the following links!

Her profile on Oracle’s website
HSE interview with her
ZDNet interview with her after winning the IT Leader of the Year Award 2011 from SCS (btw, she’s the first female being conferred this award in 15 years!)

Mrs George Yeo

Foreign Minister George Yeo is currently in the hot seat now, contesting a fiercely battled Aljunied GRC. I believe he is well-liked by many due to his constant dialogues with young people and his active participation in social media. But it is anybody’s guess how the campaign at Aljunied will pan out… Vote wisely everyone!

Well, today’s blog post is not really about him but his wife, Jennifer Yeo. She is a lawyer by training and she opened her own law firm Yeo-Leong & Peh LLC. Most notably, she set up Viva Foundation, a charity that aims to increase the cure rate for children suffering from childhood cancer, especially leukemia by teaming up with St Jude Children's Research Hospital. This was no doubt a result of her own son’s struggle with leukemia of which he has recovered from and he is now a healthy 17-year old. I’m sure she is now also giving her full support to her husband. She apparently wrote on her Facebook wall “Who dares to kill my tiger will have to deal with me.” in response to Mr Low Thia Khiang’s use of a Chinese proverb about a tiger in the mountain!

On motherhood
I have four children and I used to tell myself I love each one 25 per cent. But when my son was ill, I realised I love him 100 per cent. I also realised that it doesn’t matter if you have 10 children; you love each one as if he or she is the only one.

On juggling her law firm and four children
It would have been super impossible without my mother and the maids. At one point, we had three maids. There were times when I felt guilty but I comforted myself that my mother was there and she was enjoying herself so much.

On her husband
(When she had to bring her son to US for a bone marrow transplant) We left poor George alone because he had just been made Minister for Foreign Affairs.
But because of who my husband is, I have to be very discreet so that nobody will misunderstand and think that I am using my position as a minister’s wife to further my interests. I try to keep a very low profile, and that’s fine by me.

I watched an interview with George Yeo on Clicknetwork.tv and he did speak a few words on his experiences when his son was suffering from leukemia. Then I knew this was a man who knew suffering and could empathize with others. What was admirable was his wife, together with his support, decided to do something to help others going through the same suffering.

News on Viva Hub

Passion for Science

When I first started doing summaries of the Brand’s Women at the Top series, it was purely out of a desire to note down the lessons of female achievers who juggled work and family well. Unwittingly, the first lady in the series was Foo Mee Har, who gained much prominence in the news lately as one of PAP’s candidates for the upcoming election. Overnight, my web traffic skyrocketed and even now, many are clicking through to find out more about her. I had several reader comments too which I did not publish since I felt my blog is not a political one and neither do I have aspirations to turn it into one. And obviously the comments weren’t very positive too! I guess it is always easy to judge others … and how can you be sure you know the whole truth about a person?

The 3rd lady in the series is Dr Rosemary Tan who is a passionate scientist entrepreneur. She set up her 1st company, Genecet Biotechnologies to make life sciences kits for schools. I think that is a really cool way to spread her love for science to the younger generation! Then in 2004, overcome by an itch to “do something new”, she set up Veredus Laboratories that specialises in diagnostic tools, and not just any ordinary test kits! The various test kits can detect infectious diseases like malaria and dengue and even different flu strains in hours rather than days or weeks! In 2009, its VereFlu chip became the first in the world that could detect the H1N1 Flu virus!

On doing well in her career
Whether you’re a man or a woman, you need similar criteria to be a good scientist: discipline, focus and passion.

On motherhood and juggling it with being an entrepreneur
I guess it’s a choice. It’s my choice to do this, to provide for my family in a way that is different from others. I am very lucky because I have a very supportive family and husband. But I make sure I spend quality time with them…

I encourage creativity and free expression; I tell them they don’t have to conform to what society wants them to be. I tell them they are privileged and have a good life but I want them to step out of their comfort zone and learn different things.

I’m a great believer in learning, and in teaching my children to understand and love what they are doing. When you understand, you will naturally do well.

An interview she did back in 2003
An Asiaone interview on entrepreneurship

An alignment of the stars

Do you have domestic help? Do you think having a helper to assist you in your household duties is important? Recently, we engaged a part-time helper to clean the house once a week and we’re loving it! It really allows us to rest a lot more during the weekends (the only time we do any housework) and it feels so nice coming home to a clean house!

Last Sunday, I read an article (2nd in the Brand’s Women at the Top series written by Wong Kim Hoh, I wrote about the 1st here) on a high flying legal eagle who does not have any domestic help at all so all housework is split between her husband and her. Seriously admirable! Did I mention that she has 3 kids?

Hope you all don’t mind me including snippets of the articles in this series (8 in total) as I find them very inspirational! Bite-size summaries for all of you who don’t have time to read the full article! Furthermore, I have always been interested in how one should balance work and family and what better way to know than to learn from those who have gone before me?

On balancing work and family
… to be rational and work around limitations…
Choose within your limitations; ask yourself what areas offer you the best chance of taking a good shot…
You just have to be very focused and disciplined.

And with strong family support to help take care of her children plus a family-friendly firm which advocates flexi-hours and telecommuting work arrangements, she is able to have her cake and eat it too! Definitely “an alignment of the stars” as Rachel Eng puts it.

Her profile on her law firm’s website

An 2008 article on flexible work arrangements which interviewed her

Inspiring Lady: Foo Mee Har

While I was flipping through The Sunday Times today (whilst struck at home nursing a swollen and infected left eye )=), I read an article about an inspiring lady, Foo Mee Har. She’s StanChart’s global head of premium banking AND also a mother of two teenage sons. What she has achieved resonates with me because she has been able to get to the top of her game career-wise and family-wise, whilst being petite and youthful looking!

I have reproduced some of her quotes here for your reading pleasure!

On leadership and success
..One of the core things about being a leader is getting things done.
I figured out that it’s not that difficult to do well. If you put in the effort, you will get the reward.
I had no career objective, I just wanted to do well.
Good leaders help people achieve what they want, great leaders bring people to achieve what they thought was not possible.

On juggling work and family
[It takes] discipline and planning…
When asked “Don’t you feel guilty when you’re not there with your kids?”
I tell them we shouldn’t think of our role as just that of traditional caregiver. We should also think about being modern women and inspiring our kids by pursuing our dreams and aspirations. They will respect you for being who you are and what you have achieved. You will be surprised at how much love and respect I get from my sons for being who I am and doing what I do.

You can read more about her in two previous Straits Times articles in 2009 and 2008. Do watch out for her during the coming elections too as she has been elected into the PAP’s executive committee. Talk about being a high achiever!