Situational Background

Tan Hooi Ling, Grab’s co-founder and long-time builder, exemplifies thoughtful systems thinking, humility, and care for people. She connects purpose to process, writes to clarify, and designs guardrails that scale. Tan models inclusive debate with timely decisions and credits others first. Distinctive for calm, principled execution, she shows how empathy, clarity, and discipline can strengthen any growing organisation.

Practical Leadership Principles

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1) Write to think.

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Clear writing, clear decisions.

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Behaviours to model:

• Use one-page memos (problem, options, choice).
• Share decision logs openly.
• Revisit assumptions quarterly.

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2) Empathy with boundaries.

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Kind and firm.

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Behaviours to model:

• Summarise others’ views before yours.
• State “I will / I won’t” commitments.
• Apply rules consistently.

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3) Systems over heroics.

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Build mechanisms that outlast individuals.

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Behaviours to model:

• Design checklists for recurring work.
• Automate hand-offs; reduce single points of failure.
• Celebrate process improvements.

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Call to action

Draft a one-page decision memo for an active issue, clarify one boundary you’ll uphold, and implement a small mechanism that removes recurring friction this week.

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