BH Tan

BH Tan BH Tan is one of Asia’s leading executive coaches, leadership consultants and educators specializing in leadership development in a culturally–diverse environment.  He is the president of Lead Associates based in Singapore.  In the last 12 years, BH has coached CEOs, presidents, VPs and middle managers in Asia, the United States and Europe, and top executive teams, to enhance their growth and effectiveness and bring greater value to their organizations. 
 
Prior to becoming an executive coach, BH was a  senior business executive with 25 years of international leadership experience, working extensively in many parts of Asia as well as the US and Western Europe. He served at VP level in a number of well-known MNCs.
Leaders who have worked with BH Tan value his unique ability to provoke insightful perspectives arising from his practical and real world experience. His expertise runs deep in several key areas of leadership: developing high-potential leaders, helping organizations develop bench strength at first-level, middle-level, and top-level management, building top management teams, and creating a high performance culture by putting people first.

BH Tan has written widely for the Singapore press and other business publications on leadership matters. His book “The First-Time Manager in Asia” will be published by Marshall Cavendish in Aug ’10.

URL: www.leadassociates.com.sg

The First-Time Manager in Asia: Making the transition successfully through coaching

In Asia, thousands of young people are promoted to managerial responsibilities for the first time every year. It is an exciting milestone for new managers and at the same time fraught with unknown challenges. In most companies, people who assume managerial responsibilities do not receive formal guidance. Although many more forward-looking organizations are engaging coaches to help newly appointed managers successfully transition into their new roles, most companies adopt a passive approach: letting them "sink or swim" on their own. There are serious consequences arising from this.

When first-time managers are left to fend for themselves, many of them invariably make major missteps that create problems for their organizations. Some may derail, demoralizing themselves and their co-workers. In contrast, with proper guidance, new managers will make the transition successfully and contribute to the greater success and higher productivity in their organizations.

The speaker will approach this topic from the perspective of the managers in an Asian environment, i.e. Asian managers and their Western counterparts who will work side by side each other in Asia. With China and India fast becoming economic powerhouses, more and more investments are heading towards Asia. Increasingly there will be more Asian managers reaching the upper rungs of management. At the same time, Western managers, especially the younger ones, will want to be stationed in Asia, not just for short-term assignments, but for the long haul.

These self-confident rising Asian managers and the curious young Western managers know that it is no longer tenable to apply Western management practices without adaptation. There is visible pride in things Chinese and Indian.

The speaker will share ideas on how to facilitate successful transition by blending the best of Western thinking and Eastern wisdom. He will draw upon his experience working with hundreds of such first-time managers over the last ten years.