Quek Hong Choon, SPD

Director, SPD

If you like to read non-fiction books, Mr Quek Hong Choon, Director, Organisational Development, SPD, is of the view that Man’s Search For Meaning, by Viktor Frankl, is a good read.

Mr Quek’s interest and passion has always been in people, in interpersonal interaction. Before he joined the social service sector, he was a prison officer for 14 years. He felt the need to explore other areas, and social service turned out to be a natural choice for him for a career switch. His first stop was Dyslexia Association of Singapore (DAS). Then he heard about the Sun Ray initiative, offered by NCSS. The scheme provides successful applicants rotation among the various social service agencies so that they can gain a more diversified work portfolio.

So he is now currently serving his secondment in SPD. Interaction with people is by no means an easy feat, since each and every one is unique and different in character and values. That is why continuous learning is a must, and Mr Quek recently completed the Leadership Milestone Programme – Lead Managers, a programme for those at the director level, and who are leading teams and have the potential to lead organisations. “The impact of the course is through the exchange of ideas of fellow course learners, and that is a very useful component whereby we explore ideas for collaborations, exchange views, and we bring it back to our organisation for implementation, and to try out ideas that other organisations are embarking on.”

"The impact of the course is through the exchange of ideas of fellow course learners, and that is a very useful component whereby we explore ideas for collaborations, exchange views, and we bring it back to our organisation for implementation, and to try out ideas that other organisations are embarking on."

Since attending the course, Mr Quek now finds that he is more self-reflective, and mindful and aware of particular areas where he may need to pay more attention to, such as the ways in which he deals with certain people and issues. In the past, he was more task-oriented and eager to get things done. The course, and his ongoing work, has now taught him to be more patient. In the face of numerous tasks and projects, Mr Quek is now able to time and pace himself. In addition, he is also able to moderate his previous expectations of pushing things through to quickly reap the outcome and results.

At the same time, Mr Quek is playing another crucial role in his personal life – as a father to his two boys. After his typical day of administrative and strategic planning work, he relaxes by listening to music or playing the ukulele. When asked about something that no one knows about, Mr Quek shyly replies that there is one person who knows everything – his wife! However, his peers would be interested to know that he is actually a trained crisis negotiator, by virtue of his work as a prison officer. You can be sure that he would still be tapping on those skills to lead his organisation forward with utmost clarity.