Lead and Inspire

Yesterday (27th Feb), we had the first training session for 2010 which is the Senior Official's Module for the new seniors. As with most trainings, it started at 0900hrs, but most were there by 0830hrs enjoying the breakfast. Previously, we would start training, and have a break at about 1000hrs, but we know that most people will miss breakfast and come for the training, thus we now get the caterer to setup for breakfast instead. One good example of how we make small improvements.

Winson brought the "Loh Hei" and we had our good luck toss for Chinese New Year before the lesson started.

So what is required of a senior race official? What are the characteristics needed to be a good senior race official? These are some of the topics that we discussed and presented on the white boards.

Interestingly, one team used was SRO which is short for Senior Race Official. It seems Singaporeans really cannot escape from using acronyms like PIE, CTE, SLE, COE, ERP, MRT ....The thing is, SRO is too close to PRO (Public Relations Officers, the singing type) so I don't really like the term.

One thing I noticed is that the answers given were quite "tame". Maybe this is the first time we are gathered together so there's still a fair bit of reservations. We have answers like "Lead by example", "Be impartial" (I see you yawning already), and others which are forgettable. In a way, I hoped for some creativity and humour blended into the answers and  it would have been great.

Instead of writing down "Be impartial", maybe "Don't take bribes" would be more interesting. "Be like a Mother" vs "Be caring".

It's not to say that the answers were wrong or anything, but it was more like an "A" rather an "A+".

Maybe I am being too picky.

Next week, 29 senior officials will be going to Clipsal for their training. The group consists of new senior officials and returning senior officials who have not been on overseas training previously. There will be a pre-trip briefing this Friday and I'm supposed to give a presentation for the pre-trip briefing. I don't know what I'll talk about yet.