Lock Wai Han
Immigration & Checkpoints Authority

From overseeing a unit of 30 police officers to managing a 3,400-big organisation. From developing and directing plans for the Singapore Police Force to strategising ways to protect the nation against terrorists and a deadly disease. Commissioner Lock Wai Han took a big leap when he accepted the challenge to head the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA). Find out what makes him a leader people want to follow.

Commissioner Lock was Director of Planning and Organisation at the Singapore Police Force before being appointed head of ICA.

He received news of his appointment in early December 2002, just a week before the Government announced that Singapore Immigration & Registration (SIR) and the Customs & Excise Department (CED) would merge to form ICA on 1 April 2003.

With less than four months to prepare for a smooth transition, coupled with the onset of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), Commissioner Lock shared that his early days at ICA were particularly demanding.

He said: "Certainly in the beginning I felt overwhelmed. The merger was very new to me. Then SARS struck so suddenly.

"But the country was at stake, and I had to get myself into the job and get the whole organisation going. So after very quickly getting past the initial 'shock', I focused on how to bring everyone on board to tackle the situation, whether it was the merger, terrorism or SARS."

Three challenges, one approach

Although the three challenges - merger, terrorism and SARS - that ICA faced were different, Commissioner Lock found that tackling them called for a similar strategy.

"It's about how to win the respect of officers from the top to the front-line, how to make front-line officers understand what you're trying to do and share the organisation's mission and vision," he said.

To this end, Commissioner Lock actively sought the views and concerns of ICA officers.

For example, the management team came together to develop a vision document for ICA, which was rather detailed. But they wanted to know what the rest of the staff thought about it. So they sent it to everyone via email.

Comments and feedback poured in and the vision statement was refined. The end result was a catchy tagline: Inspiring Confidence in All.

Proud of ICA's shared vision, Commissioner Lock said: "It's a reflection of the officers' vision of what ICA should be in the future, so we accepted it. If that's what the officers want and that's what resonates in them, then that's the shared vision for ICA."

The top management also consulted the staff on the core values and held an inhouse logo design competition where the winning entry was selected as ICA's official logo.

A Commissioner who cares

A people's leader, Commissioner Lock wanted to know how his officers felt about the merger and SARS.

On his first day at work at ICA, he went to the checkpoints to talk to the front-liners. At that point, the threat of SARS was just emerging.

He recalled that an immigration officer at the airport asked if she could be issued masks and gloves. Commissioner Lock assured her that Singapore was still safe from SARS, the airline crew were taking the necessary precautions and so there was no need to wear masks and gloves.

However, the immigration officer told him that she had seen passengers arriving from Hong Kong biting their passports as their hands were full with their hand luggage. When they reached her counter, they slammed down their passports which had teeth marks and saliva on them.

After hearing her out, Commissioner Lock immediately gave the directive to issue gloves to those who wanted to wear them. He explained: "If our officers are not confident of doing their jobs, we will lose our first line of defence."

A leader who takes action

Under the leadership of Commissioner Lock, ICA took many other precautionary measures to combat SARS. For example, thermal imaging systems were deployed at the checkpoints to detect people with fever entering Singapore. Quarantine or isolation rooms were set up for various work units. ICA published a SARS manual on the intranet to inform staff of the standard operating work procedures.

Many initiatives were also introduced to gel the staff of SIR and CED. For example, events were organised to orientate all the officers and cross-training was conducted to build mutual trust and respect among the staff of the two organisations.

Knowing that the staff had a very strong sense of pride about the heritage of their organisations, Commissioner Lock actively supported the idea of preserving and showcasing the rich heritage of SIR, CED and the National Registration Department. As a result, the Heritage Gallery opened its doors on ICA's first anniversary.

As for countering terrorism, Commissioner Lock set the direction for top management. He said: "To maintain a high level of performance, we need to be very open and trans-parent with our officers, tell them exactly what we know and don't know. We appeal to their heads and hearts by telling them why we need to do something and why it's important for our country, rather than just giving instructions to do the job."

Outstanding performance

At the end of the day, how well an organisation performs is a clear reflection of its leadership.

According to the Employee Engagement Survey 2004 by Mercer HR Consulting and CS College Consulting, ICA fared better than Fortune 500 companies in areas such as teamwork, leadership, communication, cooperation, supervisory practices and learning and development.

Optimistic about the future of ICA, Commissioner Lock said: "As long as you have people who share the same values, people who are willing to be part of the team and work together, we're confident that this organisation will continue to grow and improve."

— Contributed by Om Nath Panday, ICA