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February is the month of love and in an initiative to fuse love and professional development, Sharmini and Malar invited Celine Chan, Managing Director of APAC Webhelp, to a segment of Leadership in Flow - Love@Work. In this episode, ‘The One With Cancer & Two Strokes’, Celine shares how she incorporates EQ leadership styles as well as some of her challenges in achieving love in the workplace. Celine Chan has the ability to make an incredible impression on anyone simply from her impressive profile. Apart from being a meticulous person, she is skilled in financial management, risk management, and internal controls. Even with all her accomplishments, Celine remains a grounded and humble leader. She built her organisation from the ground up, which has grown to be twice as large as it was when she first began. Celine has developed to become an impactful leader but she has also faced her fair share of challenges along the way. As a breast cancer survivor who recently recovered from two strokes, Celine’s journey has truly been an inspiring one. Celine was first asked: “When you first started chatting with the board of Webhelp, they at some point found out you had cancer and decided to hold off hiring you. Basically, they waited for you until you got your cancer managed. Why did they do that? This idea itself boggles the mind.” Celine agreed that it boggled her mind as well. She then shared the year-long hiring process she experienced at Webhelp. After meeting the board online, they then visited her in Malaysia and offered her a position but Celine’s health took a nosedive when she was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer. After getting her diagnosis, Celine broke the news to the Webhelp board and asked to turn down the job offer due to her health. However, Celine was shocked to hear the words ‘Oh, that's okay. We've decided on you. And we are willing to wait for you if you are willing to join us.’ Celine then knew that there are leaders with a heart who genuinely care about your well-being and are willing to wait and grow with you. Their reassurance and kindness also gave Celine the motivation to heal and recover. Celine also added a takeaway from her cancer diagnosis, “What I learned and I would like to share with everyone is not all cancers kill. If you detect early, act early, react aggressively and be brave about it - you can be okay.” When asked about what she thinks made them wait for her, Celine replied, “My sceptical side says because they could not find anyone. However, I think it was the chemistry that we had.” At the time, Celine was very clear about what she wanted and made sure to communicate it to her employers. She said, “If you want me, you must be able to accept who I am.” Celine made sure she put all her cards on the table and was transparent about who she was, what she expected from the role and the requirements from her employers. She wanted to stick with this job for the long haul while also improving her learning and development as a leader and that required her to be completely honest to herself and the board. Her truthfulness landed her a long term relationship with the company and a strong friendship with her boss as well. According to Celine, the psychological safety of the workplace was clear as she ensured to begin her relationship with her colleagues and bosses on the foundation of honesty. The next question asked to Celine was- “Why was ‘people first’ culture important to you? And how do you identify an organisation that prioritises its people? In an interview there’s so much both employer and employee say. How did you know that Webhelp was serious about people?” Celine explained that as they were the ones who approached her instead of the other way round, it gave her more courage to voice out what was important to her instead of changing herself to fit the values of the company. Moreover, when they were willing to wait for her recovery and were receptive to her mission of creating a collaborative people’s culture in the workplace, she knew the company was exactly what she was looking for. However, she added that you can never truly know until you have done the job. When she first started working with Webhelp, they also gave her the freedom and authority to set the culture. Celine pushed for a people-centric culture that treated their team members with respect. However, it was not always a walk in the park for Celine. She first had to learn about the existing culture of the workplace and make comfortable changes before implementing a family-centric relationship that encouraged collaborating in teams. Celine goes against the standard practices of large companies and understands that no one is perfect, everyone has got strengths and weaknesses and what remains important is building trust and maintaining the synergy within the team. Throughout the interview, Celine's focus on creating high performing teams was grounded on being accepted for who we are. Celine was asked about the practices in her organisation and she emphasised being open to making mistakes because after all, we are only human. She maintains a work culture that doesn’t criticise mistakes but instead, encourages supporting each other and giving recognition where it is due to achieve optimal performance. When asked if it was a systemic issue or on the leader to build the psychological safety of the workplace, Celine explained that the first step is to look for the right people. When building her team, she needed the help of other heads that countered her weaknesses to help set up a productive culture. However, Celine warned that it does not stop once you’ve built your team. She reminded us that we will always need strong heads as the foundation to set the right culture. Celine was asked about the viability of a ‘people first’ work culture: “It's great to think of people-first but at the end of the day, a business exists because of the numbers right? It has to be a viable business. It needs to be giving back to the shareholders or the investors in the company. A people-first culture and everything is great. However, are the numbers what they're supposed to be?” Celine explained that the numbers didn’t start off as they should have. They were faced with challenges as they had a lot they wanted to change. She admitted that it was a risk but she was focused on the customer experience and believed that a collaborative team will attract good numbers. Eventually, the numbers doubled after two to three years. Celine added that if you wish to make a change, you have to bite the bullet and accept that there will be ups and downs on the journey but staying true to yourself and purpose makes it easier. While the people are important, it is a fact that numbers define progress in a corporation. Celine was asked how she maintains a people-first strategy when attrition is a measure of its success. Celine agreed that numbers are important and every time there is a dip in numbers, they have to explain it. However, she says that dipping is inevitable at times and if you want to do the right thing, you’ll have to stick with your true self. She advises that it’s best to persevere and be resilient during these downtimes because the good times will always be around the corner. She added, “people don’t just look at numbers, they also see the action behind the numbers. It is about balance.” Celine explained that she does measure attrition as that is an indicator of whether her strategies are working. She also constantly tried to develop leadership skills by looking at employee and client surveys. However, she said that there will always be people who are unhappy even when you’re trying your best so you should not beat yourself up over it and just accept it for what it is. The interview ended with a discussion on balance and how too much of a good thing is also a bad thing. Celine explained how her strokes were a cause of imbalance in her work life. Celine confessed that sometimes, a people-first mindset can be stressful as she was constantly trying to motivate her team for optimal performance. The pressure got to her when she continuously pushed herself to develop from the feedback she got. Celine admitted she was so caught up with her professional development that the stress and pressure eventually led to her stroke. Even though Celine championed being human and giving her team downtime, she lost track along the way and wasn’t as kind to herself. However, the experience helped her bounce back from her illness and make the needed changes in her work life to create a healthy balance for herself as well. “People don’t just look at numbers, they also see the action behind the numbers. It is about balance.” ~ Celine Chan Despite the hurdles she had to face, Celine’s story is a testimony to the power of creating a people’s culture in the workplace. A great takeaway from this discussion is the importance of achieving balance. Whether it’s balancing the culture and the numbers or knowing when to hit the brakes when your well-being is compromised, Celine’s focus on putting the people first is a great inspiration for all leaders. It was a pleasure learning from Celine’s experiences and her journey of creating love in the workplace.