Moving into the ranks of a mid-level Federal leader from an entry level position is not an easy task. Examples of individuals who have made this journey often provide compelling lessons in leadership, perseverance, and dedication. The following leadership story outlines how one such leader accomplished this feat and the lessons she learned along the way.
I’m sure everyone have our idol or person that have inspired us in our life and in my case, Dr. Thayalan have inspired me to go extra mile in Civil Service. Before elaborating further about him, let me explain how does Dr. Thayalan inspired me in Civil Service. Dr. Thayalan are a person which have good leadership qualities that inspires me because he guides, lead, and inspire people to participate in the process of moving toward the vision. Besides that he says, as an individual it is important to be aware of our abilities and the impact that we have on others. True leaders are masters at accepting responsibility for all that comes their way and taking ownership and responsibility for getting things back on track. Blaming, justifying and excuse making just isn't in their responsibility. He told that upon all, trust is the basis for almost all the relationships in our life. Without trust, it's impossible to create healthy and productive environments, either with work or personal situations. Coming back from a business oriented family, I personally attracted by his personality and how to impose our influence to give an excellence service to our customer’s/stakeholder’s especially in Civil Service.
Dr.Thayalan started his career with the Federal Government in 1976, at age 19, as a Technician, J17, working for the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) facility in Jalan Sultan Salahuddin, Kuala Lumpur. He now works for DID at that same facility--at the J54 level and as the Director of DID’s Flood Management Division. He is responsible for getting DID’s response teams moving to respond to flood emergencies Nationwide.
Back in 1980, he was one of five technicians hired into an administrative pool and then detailed to various offices. In a little over a year, he moved into a Chief Technician, J22 position. During that time his biggest obstacle as a Chief Technician was to survive the computer programming courses that his Supervisor insisted him take to enhance his skills. He found out very quickly that he was a great computer operator but programming was not his strongest skill.
By this time the facility changed ownership to DID. He recalls that he was “no longer working under the threat of more computer programming classes,” and the new job proved to be very interesting. This is the point he feels where he began his career path in earnest. His new position was in what was called the “Watch Center”. They worked 24-hours per day processing emergency flood prevention actions monitoring the telemetric system.
The Watch Center utilized a number of different communications systems, and he became very interested in how they worked and asked to be trained on them. He was persistent in his enthusiasm to learn and took every chance he could to ask questions about how the systems worked and to be shown how to work them. Within five years he moved into Communications Control Technician at a J36 level in Hydrological Division. He soon discovered that emergency operations was the career for him and continued to work in the Watch Center.
In 1994, he took time off from work to further his tertiary studies at University of Malaya. During his education leave, he took the extra mile to learn as much as he can to excel in his studies . Upon completion of his studies, he gained a greater appreciation of his contributions and the Department offered him a position as an Assistant Director, with a career ladder from J36 to J41. He decided to accept this great opportunity for advancement and go back to work. “I knew after being at home, that I truly loved working and missed my job and contacts with my co-workers.”
His career moved smoothly from 1994 to 1998 to the J44 level. By the time he reached the J44 level, he decided it was time to set a new goal. He was always volunteering for projects and constantly learning anything new that came into the center. In the year 2000, he was asked to take on additional responsibility and was promoted to Chief Assistant Director, J48.
His biggest challenges came during 2000-2005 when he was assigned to a National Emergency Team and deployed on two different occasions to a Flood Disaster Office (DFO) for a two and a half week period. A third deployment was for about a week and a half. This was hard on him personally because he and his son are very close and his son didn’t like Daddy traveling…especially when he was missing soccer games! Up until this time, he had made his way by working strictly at the same location, with an occasional commute to DID Headquarters in Jalan Sultan Salahuddin, Kuala Lumpur. But it was during this time, that the agency and the Branch he worked in had started to change tremendously. DID was really “taking on” the challenge of disaster response and recovery.
The Regional Operations Centers (ROCs) located in each of DID’s fourteen regions, were in need of cosmetic and operational upgrades and he was selected as just the person for the job. He became Team Leader of a “Readiness Team” within his Branch. This required extensive travel to perform the assessments at each region. He would travel during the week, return home for the weekend and then go out again. He did this for ten consecutive weeks until he completed assessments in all ten regions. Needless to say, this was very tough on his family.
When the trips were completed and the report submitted and approved, approximately RM7 million was devoted to the ROC project and DID had a viable ROC capability in each Region. This project had high visibility and that extended to him personally. He still feels proud of his contributions to the continuing improvement process for the ROCs.
There were countless projects that he worked on during the 2000-2005 period and many were projects that he willingly took on when no one else wanted them or couldn’t seem to get them done. He has always loved a challenge, and taking on the worst projects and turning them into a success was rewarding. “While other people resist change, I embrace it. You know you can always improve upon something.”
In 2006, he accepted the challenge of Deputy Director, J52. The work that his Branch performed was very important to the Department and the projects just never seemed to stop coming. Again, he had the opportunity to further his studies and received his PhD from University Of Kyoto, Japan. Upon returning back from Japan, he took more challenges and he share the workload together with other superior’s and received excellent staff award. He felt like he helped move mountains in that three years. He also accepted a Group Chief position on DID’s Domestic Emergency Support Team. This assignment required quite a bit of travel for both meetings and Exercises. In addition, he was on-call 24 hours a day every day during the year with a four-hour deployment window to monitor the SMART Tunnel.
He believes his greatest challenge in leadership is maintaining peak efficiency in the work place. “Keeping it up and making sure you never fall back.” He places a high value on being current on training to stay on top of the job. It is constant work and every year their training needs to be reviewed and adjusted to keep pace with current events and technologies. He believes training and hands-on practice are critical to keep his staff ready for all types of emergencies. Keeping staff levels up and hiring employees with the right skills is just as important. The FOC staff must rotate on shifts to be available 24 hours a day every day and having the right people suited to this job is critical. “I have a really great staff; that makes this work.”
In 2009, his position description was reviewed and subsequently re-rated at the J54 level, which is where he is today as Director of the DID’s Flood Management Division . When asked if the challenges and demands of the job continue into 2009, the answer is a solid "yes."
Dr. Thayalan reflects on his successful rise from a J17 to a J54 as a large amount of hard work and sometimes a little luck in being in right place at the right time to take advantage of an opportunity. To get noticed for advancement, one has to be willing to take on additional job duties and projects no one else may want. He emphasized that none of the advancement came without personal sacrifice. There was a sacrifice that had to be made each time he advanced. At first, it was just late hours that cut into his social life but later, the job requirements cut into his family time. “It’s not easy to balance a career and a family. “
Moving into the ranks of a mid-level Federal leader from an entry level position is not an easy task. Examples of individuals who have made this journey often provide compelling lessons in leadership, perseverance, and dedication. The following leadership story outlines how one such leader accomplished this feat and the lessons she learned along the way.
I’m sure everyone have our idol or person that have inspired us in our life and in my case, Dr. Thayalan have inspired me to go extra mile in Civil Service. Before elaborating further about him, let me explain how does Dr. Thayalan inspired me in Civil Service. Dr. Thayalan are a person which have good leadership qualities that inspires me because he guides, lead, and inspire people to participate in the process of moving toward the vision. Besides that he says, as an individual it is important to be aware of our abilities and the impact that we have on others. True leaders are masters at accepting responsibility for all that comes their way and taking ownership and responsibility for getting things back on track. Blaming, justifying and excuse making just isn't in their responsibility. He told that upon all, trust is the basis for almost all the relationships in our life. Without trust, it's impossible to create healthy and productive environments, either with work or personal situations. Coming back from a business oriented family, I personally attracted by his personality and how to impose our influence to give an excellence service to our customer’s/stakeholder’s especially in Civil Service.
Dr.Thayalan started his career with the Federal Government in 1976, at age 19, as a Technician, J17, working for the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) facility in Jalan Sultan Salahuddin, Kuala Lumpur. He now works for DID at that same facility--at the J54 level and as the Director of DID’s Flood Management Division. He is responsible for getting DID’s response teams moving to respond to flood emergencies Nationwide.
Back in 1980, he was one of five technicians hired into an administrative pool and then detailed to various offices. In a little over a year, he moved into a Chief Technician, J22 position. During that time his biggest obstacle as a Chief Technician was to survive the computer programming courses that his Supervisor insisted him take to enhance his skills. He found out very quickly that he was a great computer operator but programming was not his strongest skill.
By this time the facility changed ownership to DID. He recalls that he was “no longer working under the threat of more computer programming classes,” and the new job proved to be very interesting. This is the point he feels where he began his career path in earnest. His new position was in what was called the “Watch Center”. They worked 24-hours per day processing emergency flood prevention actions monitoring the telemetric system.
The Watch Center utilized a number of different communications systems, and he became very interested in how they worked and asked to be trained on them. He was persistent in his enthusiasm to learn and took every chance he could to ask questions about how the systems worked and to be shown how to work them. Within five years he moved into Communications Control Technician at a J36 level in Hydrological Division. He soon discovered that emergency operations was the career for him and continued to work in the Watch Center.
In 1994, he took time off from work to further his tertiary studies at University of Malaya. During his education leave, he took the extra mile to learn as much as he can to excel in his studies . Upon completion of his studies, he gained a greater appreciation of his contributions and the Department offered him a position as an Assistant Director, with a career ladder from J36 to J41. He decided to accept this great opportunity for advancement and go back to work. “I knew after being at home, that I truly loved working and missed my job and contacts with my co-workers.”
His career moved smoothly from 1994 to 1998 to the J44 level. By the time he reached the J44 level, he decided it was time to set a new goal. He was always volunteering for projects and constantly learning anything new that came into the center. In the year 2000, he was asked to take on additional responsibility and was promoted to Chief Assistant Director, J48.
His biggest challenges came during 2000-2005 when he was assigned to a National Emergency Team and deployed on two different occasions to a Flood Disaster Office (DFO) for a two and a half week period. A third deployment was for about a week and a half. This was hard on him personally because he and his son are very close and his son didn’t like Daddy traveling…especially when he was missing soccer games! Up until this time, he had made his way by working strictly at the same location, with an occasional commute to DID Headquarters in Jalan Sultan Salahuddin, Kuala Lumpur. But it was during this time, that the agency and the Branch he worked in had started to change tremendously. DID was really “taking on” the challenge of disaster response and recovery.
The Regional Operations Centers (ROCs) located in each of DID’s fourteen regions, were in need of cosmetic and operational upgrades and he was selected as just the person for the job. He became Team Leader of a “Readiness Team” within his Branch. This required extensive travel to perform the assessments at each region. He would travel during the week, return home for the weekend and then go out again. He did this for ten consecutive weeks until he completed assessments in all ten regions. Needless to say, this was very tough on his family.
When the trips were completed and the report submitted and approved, approximately RM7 million was devoted to the ROC project and DID had a viable ROC capability in each Region. This project had high visibility and that extended to him personally. He still feels proud of his contributions to the continuing improvement process for the ROCs.
There were countless projects that he worked on during the 2000-2005 period and many were projects that he willingly took on when no one else wanted them or couldn’t seem to get them done. He has always loved a challenge, and taking on the worst projects and turning them into a success was rewarding. “While other people resist change, I embrace it. You know you can always improve upon something.”
In 2006, he accepted the challenge of Deputy Director, J52. The work that his Branch performed was very important to the Department and the projects just never seemed to stop coming. Again, he had the opportunity to further his studies and received his PhD from University Of Kyoto, Japan. Upon returning back from Japan, he took more challenges and he share the workload together with other superior’s and received excellent staff award. He felt like he helped move mountains in that three years. He also accepted a Group Chief position on DID’s Domestic Emergency Support Team. This assignment required quite a bit of travel for both meetings and Exercises. In addition, he was on-call 24 hours a day every day during the year with a four-hour deployment window to monitor the SMART Tunnel.
He believes his greatest challenge in leadership is maintaining peak efficiency in the work place. “Keeping it up and making sure you never fall back.” He places a high value on being current on training to stay on top of the job. It is constant work and every year their training needs to be reviewed and adjusted to keep pace with current events and technologies. He believes training and hands-on practice are critical to keep his staff ready for all types of emergencies. Keeping staff levels up and hiring employees with the right skills is just as important. The FOC staff must rotate on shifts to be available 24 hours a day every day and having the right people suited to this job is critical. “I have a really great staff; that makes this work.”
In 2009, his position description was reviewed and subsequently re-rated at the J54 level, which is where he is today as Director of the DID’s Flood Management Division . When asked if the challenges and demands of the job continue into 2009, the answer is a solid "yes."
Dr. Thayalan reflects on his successful rise from a J17 to a J54 as a large amount of hard work and sometimes a little luck in being in right place at the right time to take advantage of an opportunity. To get noticed for advancement, one has to be willing to take on additional job duties and projects no one else may want. He emphasized that none of the advancement came without personal sacrifice. There was a sacrifice that had to be made each time he advanced. At first, it was just late hours that cut into his social life but later, the job requirements cut into his family time. “It’s not easy to balance a career and a family. “
In reaching a position of leadership we should dedicate ourselves to the job we are in, and look ahead for advancement opportunities and be willing to take on extra tasks and make yourself valuable to your organization in return, we will get paid back in recognition. It may not happen as quickly as we like but it will happen. Respect has to be earned. Treat all personnel fairly and equally, and help others to reach their own potential. Take time to spend time with employees. This is how we will find out what kind of job we are doing in supervision and how we can improve your skills; be ready to accept criticism, and—just as importantly--be ready to use the input to improve. Have a true open-door policy for employees and never make them feel we are not approachable.
Communication is absolutely key to success. Communicate our expectations,and praise for a job well done; let people know what is happening. Discipline poor performers and reward the good. When supervisors and managers do not deal with performance problems, it is a “slap in the face” to the other employees. Besides that be a strong advocate for your employees. Truly care about your employees and treat them as you yourself want to be treated.
Dr. Thayalan believes to be a successful leader you must build on your credibility and become someone others will turn to for getting things done. In regard to managing personnel, he advises "Don’t forget where you came from, your own struggles, and how you felt as you were working your way to the top."
Fourthly, Knowing everything - Many of the world's greatest leaders are people of average intelligence that don't know all there is to know in their industry. They understand that they can't possibly know everything and they hire people that do know everything! The success of any business is in the hands of its workers and the leading managers and entrepreneurs of the world all strive to hire the best in their field. Fifth, Procrastination-Putting something off till tomorrow that should be done today! Often procrastination is a result of having no plan or list of priorities. Look into time management and goal setting for more ideas on how to overcome procrastination. Sixth, Lack of focus- Obviously there will be things come up during the day that require immediate action that will distract us from our work, but we have to have a clear set of priorities to follow. Doing a little bit of everything gets nothing finished, causing stress and feelings of being overwhelmed. Finally, Afraid to change
- The ability to change in business is essential. Changes in technology, the way we deal with people, the way we present the business, and in every other aspect of running and operating the company. Holding on to old ways of doing things just because they've always been done that way is a sure way to lose business. If any aspect of the business can be improved then there has to be change, even if this means getting rid of a poor performing worker or product range that is no longer profitable.
As a leader, I would personally recommend few resources for leader’s to implement/follow in their lives. 50-50 rule which states 50% by the famous author, John Adair states that 50% of motivation comes within a person and another 50% from his/her environment. Besides that, as a leader we should have eight key principles of motivating others which explains leader’s must be self motivated, select people who are also self motivated, treat everyone as individual, set challenging yet realistic targets, create motivating environment ,provide fair rewards and give recognition.
To be a good leader, I’d understand the difference between management and leadership. Know what your employer expects from its leaders – don’t operate in the dark. Besides that, Leadership isn’t about power – it’s about giving power away; about being open to influence from your staff and helping them achieve professional growth. Value every member of the team that contributes to the outcome, improve your listening skills. Never undervalue integrity and trust and forget the adage that leaders are born and not made. Lastly, attend leadership courses, public speaking sessions and read a lot of books to always be motivated and have the courage to attempt any work without hesitate.
Komathi d/o Manian820623-14-5964Sidang C
RESOURCES
1) Rosemary O'Leary (2003).Review of the book The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerrilla Government, Kogan Page Ltd ISBN 0-73977-898-3
- The ability to change in business is essential. Changes in technology, the way we deal with people, the way we present the business, and in every other aspect of running and operating the company. Holding on to old ways of doing things just because they've always been done that way is a sure way to lose business. If any aspect of the business can be improved then there has to be change, even if this means getting rid of a poor performing worker or product range that is no longer profitable.
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