Market Volatility & Leadership: Building Investor Trust Under Pressure

Pressure doesn’t create leadership - it exposes it.

When markets swing, certainty evaporates, and emotion runs hot, trust is either strengthened or destroyed.

In this episode of The Power Within, Keith Power sits down with Geoff Howie, Market Strategist for Equities and Fixed Income at the Singapore Exchange (SGX), to explore what real leadership looks like when volatility is the norm, not the exception.

Geoff takes us inside the mechanics of calm decision-making in financial markets and high-stakes environments. From treating volatility as a feature rather than a surprise, to using systematic investment processes like dollar-cost averaging to remove emotion, he explains how discipline and clarity protect credibility when information is incomplete.

We unpack:

• Leadership under pressure in uncertain markets
• Communicating risk without creating panic
• Why tone is a strategic leadership lever
• Framing mistakes and leading course corrections
• Building investor trust through transparency
• Dividend discipline and long-term value creation
• How curiosity fuels modern leadership in a digital, API-driven economy

Geoff shares powerful insights from the COVID era, balance sheet agility, and how mid-cap companies emulate blue-chip frameworks to create sustainable value. He also reveals the daily craft behind credibility at scale, from scanning high-quality information sources to translating complex macro drivers into language investors and executives actually understand.

One of the biggest lessons?

People remember how you made them feel far longer than any chart or data point. Empathy, restraint, and clarity are not “soft skills”  they are performance skills.

If you care about leadership in volatile markets, executive communication, investor confidence, and building trust when the stakes are high, this episode delivers practical tools you can apply immediately.

Tune in for an inspiring conversation that will leave you equipped with the tools to lead with confidence, overcome obstacles and unlock The Power Within

email us at: info@motivuscoaching.com

Subscribe, share and leave a review to help others discover the show

Transcript

Setting The Stakes Of Leadership

Keith 0:00

Welcome to the Power Within, the podcast that uncovers the real stories and strategies behind leadership and personal growth. I'm Keith power, and in each episode I sit down with inspiring individuals who face challenges, built resilience, and discovered what it takes to lead with impact. Through their journeys, we'll explore the mindsets and tools that drive meaningful success. If you're ready to grow, lead and unlock your true potential, you're in the right place. For more than 25 years, Geoff Howie worked at the front edge of international finance, interpreting economic shift, investor behavior, and market risk. Not just behind closed doors, but in full public view. When pressure rises, leadership stops being a concept and starts becoming visible. Decisions matter more, words carry weight. Credibility is tested in real time. My guest today knows exactly what that feels like. As market strategist for equities and fixed income at the Singapore Exchange, Jeff Howie helps leaders and organizations make sense of the forces shaping Asia's financial landscape, often when uncertainty is at its highest. With over 50,000 followers on LinkedIn, a widely read newsletter on the bell, and a regular presence on TV and radio, Jeff has become a trusted voice for investors and executives alike, valued for his clarity, balance, and calm when it's needed most. Today we're going to explore what leadership really looks like in a volatile environment, how to communicate under pressure, how trust is built and lost, and what it takes to lead with credibility when the stakes are high. So, Jeff Howie, welcome to The Power Within. Jeff, you've spent 25 years watching markets react to uncertainty in real time. When volatility hits, what do leaders usually get wrong first?

Speaker 1 2:23

I think we get it right many times, but we also get it wrong. And I would say the distinguishing difference is that leaders plan for it. Volatility is expected. It's normal path of the course. And rather than emotionally react, many leading investors will actually have banked on this volatility and react accordingly. So a case in point is if you look at 2025, the most volatile period was that first two weeks of April. Now, during those first two weeks of April, retail investors in Singapore net bought 1.5 billion Sing dollars in the three banks alone. 815 million of that, I think, might have been in DBS. At that time, the share price of DBS volume weighted over those two weeks was around $40. You can see where the share price is now. Obviously, it's a it's a lot different. That was showing us that investors were focused on being consistent, being systematic, and taking out the emotional reaction of the of the markets that they might have had. So it also, I guess, revealed trust and confidence in the market. One of the leading trends in our investing market is dollar cost averaging on the index. Right now, if you wanted to put $1,000 to work in the Straits Times Index ETF, that's our benchmark. And for an exchange traded fund, you would buy about 200 units because unit price is around $5. Now the dollar cost averaging is just assuming you don't go lump sum, but you put $1,000 to work in this ETF at the end of every single month. Then if you go back to October 2020, amid all that heightened volatility, that's when that ETF unit price had fallen down to gee, around $2.50 a unit. So you actually would have bought 400 units back in October 2020, twice as much as you would be buying now. It kind of underlies how the importance of being systematic, embracing discipline, and having a trust in what you're doing and being committed to it, it actually works.

Keith 4:37

Would you say is fair then that in volatile times, people in this part of the world are less inclined to overreact? Is that would you say that's a fair comment if you compare it to say New York or London?

Retail Behaviour And Value Mindset

Speaker 1 4:52

Yeah, I would say when I look at the all the retail for this part of the world where you can actually say, okay, these flows are from local retail investors, whereas you look at institutional flows that could be from international banks as well as local banks. If you look at the retail flows, yeah, they would be, they're generally more conducive to net inflows that occur when the market has sold off, when you've got more volatility. They don't so much follow the comet on the upside or chase the market, but rather wait for share prices to fall somewhat. So in many respects, they are akin to value traders. So you look over the last six years from the end of 2019 right through to the end of 2025, you've had about 17 billion sing dollars of net retail buying in our local stock market. And the instances where we've had significant or comparatively more net inflows are like April of last year, as I mentioned, when we had the least net buying was back in 2022. And lo and behold, that was when our index actually outpaced the rest of the world, the S P 500, so to speak. So I think generally when you're looking at revealed preferences or the the type of market that we've got in Singapore, retail are quite sophisticated, understand the risks, understand the volatility, and look to harness it through a systematic type of process that, as I said before, they can embrace dividends, they can not embrace dividends, I can embrace dividends as well, but they can also embrace discipline in that trading approach.

Keith 6:24

So if you look from a slightly different lens, you always look in from the investors' lens, but the leadership of these local companies like the banks, do you think that how they respond in volatile times influences then the retail market in terms of their purchase or sale? Do they look to those leaders to be solid, steady? Is that something that matters a lot?

Company Responses And Balance Sheets

Speaker 1 6:51

Well, which they are. And I guess it wouldn't just be the retail investors, it would be the small to mid-capped as well. This is a part of the market we're very much focused on at the moment. Those non-blue chip index stocks that might look to emulate some of the frameworks that these leading companies have actually shown in recent years, such as the agility they showed during COVID. When in COVID hit, as you remember, those COVID containments really decimated a lot of businesses in terms of their revenue and ability to generate a profit. So we saw a lot of our leading companies actually, okay, turn the page and let's start looking at the balance sheet. Let's start looking at monetizing assets that we can and look at providing more value to the investors that way to supplement what the revenue was providing the shareholders as well. And I think that is a theme we want to carry through and extend right throughout our entire market. That is looking at increasing value at the same time as producing revenue.

Keith 7:51

It wasn't a bad discipline to be sweating the assets at that time for all companies, right? And perhaps some of them had got a little fat, and COVID was an opportunity to clear the decks a little bit. That's the thing, there's there's always an opportunity in all the challenges. And everything. Yeah, that's uh the glass is always half full, right? Yeah. So in markets, though, confidence can disappear in minutes. What separates the leaders? I'm talking about the business leaders now rather than the investors, who stabilize situations from those who unintentionally amplify fear.

Tone, Information Flow, And Trust

Speaker 1 8:31

I think it comes down to managing the information flow, but more importantly, getting the tone right. Yes. So the tone can be everything. Uh you don't want to be too calm because it can suggest you're being complacent. You don't want to be too urgent because it might set off alarms. So that's the tough part, I think, to get the tone right. But when you get the information flow right and you get the tone right, it's amazing what you can communicate. You know, you can have um companies that might have actually sidestepped and and gone into a joint venture that maybe they shouldn't have. Those management representatives of the company, if they can communicate it to the investors in a way that demonstrates they knew about the mistake, how they're fixing it, take the investor on the journey with them, how they're writing it and turning the ship around, that can actually help provide confidence as well. Calm and informed, basically.

Keith 9:30

Absolutely. And your role requires translating all this complexity for a wide audience. Yeah. Investors, executives, media. What's the hardest leadership skill to maintain when everyone wants certainty, but none exists?

Credibility In Public View

Speaker 1 9:48

I would say it's resisting the temptation to give false certainty. For me, as the market strategist at SGX, I have to be sure the data is correct, but I also have to think about how is the message going to be interpreted and take responsibility for it. There's a there's a lot of platforms out there on the internet, obviously social platforms and media, mass media and so forth. And you can be amplified what you say. So you really have to make sure you're accurate and you have to be credible as well. And I think that is something that you know has been with me from day one. Obviously, growing the voice has taken many, many years. In fact, ever since online trading came about, and my role as a broker, it was about being able to scale and reach out to potential investors and traders and clients through all the digital platforms that weren't so many back then, but have grown to be a lot more now. So I apply the same framework, obviously, that takes integrity into the data uh collation and then find a way to communicate that in a way that is also empathetic in those tough times as well, but in a way that tries to connect with the investors and address the real issues they've got. If we don't have certainty, what do we do? We explain how we're going to get certainty, take them through the process, talk it through. What do we need to do? What do we need to see to be able to make that decision? Who are the peak key people? What is the data? What is the insights? What are the beach heads? And once you can talk that through and show transparency, I think that helps relay the confidence from the listener or the or the investor.

Keith 11:33

You've built that confidence over consistency over a very long period of time.

Speaker 1 11:39

Yeah.

Keith 11:39

That could be dashed so easily if you get it wrong, right? Oh, totally.

Speaker 1 11:43

That that adage of you build in layers and you know you it takes only a second to erode it all. It it is so true. But as I said, tone is really important too, and also being able to be calm and composed and also think quickly and also have the right experience in in your subject area is really important as well. What would be really important is having a team that always has your back as well, and when things maybe do go wrong, you have a team that can help and support and get you through the process really quickly.

Keith 12:15

You're highly visible on TV, radio, LinkedIn, and through your popular newsletter on the bell. How does public scrutiny change the way you as a leader then think about credibility and responsibility?

Listening, Media, And Daily Rhythm

Speaker 1 12:32

I would say credibility becomes cumulative, as we were saying. So if you lose credibility, you can lose it pretty quickly. Uh and it takes a while to build it up. In addition, you're highly visible. So everything is amplified because we do try and achieve scale. If we if we want uh a million investors to come and start looking at Singapore stocks this week, we have to be across all those platforms. To be relevant, yeah, you have to be right, obviously, and take the time to ensure your message is relevant and be a good listener. Things change in the market very quickly. Uh we have so many upside factors and downside factors at the moment that to some people it might be complex, but for many, these are all familiar risks, upside and downside, and navigating those risks isn't too difficult if you want to take the time. We've got to make sure that investors across the world always know our door is open. I can't do that by shouting facts and figures every time, yeah, but also showing a genuine interest in our investors' well-being and our investors' um ability to navigate and circumnavigate our market. So, what time do you get up in the morning? Pretty early.

Keith 13:55

Early first in the house. To have a look at what's happening in America, because that kind of flavours the day often for Asia, right?

Speaker 1 14:03

Yeah, it does. And also uh read the Business Times CNA at 7 o'clock is is on. Um I I think there's a lot of really good materials in Singapore as a whole that are really important to also set the tone for the day. Probably a little bit less on American markets and more about what the research analysts are saying and what the media are saying, because in many ways they act as prisms for the broader investors to the going-ons in our market. So you know, listening is really important to see what everyone is saying, where everyone is going, because we need to kind of be able to take you know the general narratives and the general messages and make sure that we're scaling that out to all our investors so they are fully aware of all these exciting things that happen on a day-to-day basis.

Keith 14:56

So markets are driven as much by psychology as by data. What does that teach us about human behavior and leadership under pressure? Because you've emphasized this consistency throughout and the build-in, but there is psychology at play when it comes to retail investors, particularly. So, what does that tell you about human behavior and leadership under pressure?

Speaker 1 15:23

Absolutely. In those cases, sometimes logic goes out the window, right? And emotions, emotions like fear and greed, they can drive prices in our stock market a lot quicker than a decent data print or data point. You know, that that lesson on people, whenever you have an engagement with somebody, whether it's with a leader, you know, a firm and the investors, the investor or the you know, the staff will always remember how you made them feel rather than the actual data point. So I think in in those instances, it's very important to be very connected with your clients and your stakeholders and your people. You have to be really connected and be speaking the same language, and you have to show you know that that level of calm calmness that investors expect in those instances.

Keith 16:11

That quote you just made, that was Mary Angelou, I think, who said, you know, they may not remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel. Absolutely. I'd never thought of that in context of your role, but you're still dealing with people, right?

Speaker 1 16:25

Yeah. And and my role is really about explaining how a stock moved from A to B or how a segment sector or an index moved from A to B. There's advisors and brokers out there that will tell you whether it's going to go to C or D or E. But for me, it's just focused on explaining and articulating in the most, I guess, simplest way possible exactly what's happening in our markets. Dispassionate way? Yeah, I would say dispassionate, which is tough as a passionate Queenslander in in many instances. However, that's that's that's the job.

Curiosity, Humility, And Teamwork

Keith 16:58

You have to follow that kind of way, what's expected from you to be calm all the time. I couldn't do your job for sure. I think many could actually. Uh no, but you talk about you say complexity is quite simple. The reality is you have to be across so much data, so many companies, so many moving parts. You have to be very agile, you have to be very learned, and you have to keep reading all of the time on the market and interpreting. It's you take it for granted, but it's quite a tough ask.

Speaker 1 17:37

Yeah, but the good news is there's a lot of hands out there that are doing good interpretations and making that available to many investors, whether it's through the Edge magazine, as I said, Business Times, Straits Times, Channel News Asia, and Media Corp. There's a lot of public uh available assets uh that investors can use to help them understand the ups and downs.

Keith 18:02

I wouldn't expect you to name any of them, but are there analysts within Singapore who you trust their judgment more than others?

Speaker 1 18:10

Uh I mean, I would say the market actually shows us that. Right. Sometimes when a research analyst does have a lot of form on a stock and they upgrade or downgrade, yeah, that can have a big impact. For sure. Uh so it really is. But they've earned the right to earn the right first, right? Absolutely.

Keith 18:28

And and that's what happens. Yeah, yeah. You have a personal family connection with one of the most talented and best known figures in motorsport, which was also how you and I connected. Tell us about that.

Communication Failures Versus Decisions

Speaker 1 18:44

Yeah, we connected through uh my second aunt, once removed, who's Jan McLaren, the sister of Bruce McLaren. Right. She's also the granddaughter of Robert Benjamin Howie, who changed his name from Howie to McLaren when he moved from McLarenvale to New Zealand to conceal a love affair. As Jan says, it was gonna make one day we'll make a great romance novel. Uh so that's the one we're looking forward to to reading. For many years, I think 25 years in total from 97 to 2022. Jan also ran the Bruce McLaren Trust, www.truce McL Bruce McLaren Trust. She stopped doing that in 2022. She did a remarkable job. And she's a remarkable leader.

Keith 19:32

She is a remarkable leader. Unbelievable how high energy she is.

Speaker 1 19:37

And and and level-headed.

Keith 19:39

Yeah. I first met her in 2011, because it was during uh the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, and I was visiting one of our distributors, and we had an event uh around the McLaren paint because we had become a supplier to McLaren. That's how I first got to know Jan and understood as well the difference between the heritage of Bruce McLaren and the modern-day motorsport of McLaren. Uh, but the I love the story of the change of name. Yeah, yeah. Oh, it's a great little side story. Absolutely. I'm gonna say typical Aussie as well. So Bruce McLaren was known not just for speed, but for humility, curiosity, and team building. And one other thing, which it seems as genetically passed to you, this unflappability. Which of those qualities, though, do you think modern leaders most underestimate from humility, curiosity, and team building?

Agility, Digitalisation, Collaboration

Speaker 1 20:41

I would say recent years has put a lot of focus on humility. So that's probably not it. And for team building, there's yeah, the you know, leaders are all over team building. So it's probably curiosity. Yeah. And curiosity, you could call it the engine of progress, right? You don't necessarily have all the answers, but you keep asking the questions. You keep changing your assumptions, you don't make assumptions, you you you you you try and find way ways of exploring, be innovative, and find new ways of of uh addressing issues or finding results. So I think keeping uh asking questions for curiosity is really important. It's interesting that he Bruce's book From the Cockpit in his forward section, he talks about how much he had achieved uh in those years. Uh and it's it's almost like a very reflective start that's embedded in humility because he's you know, and this is a lesson for all of us. Um, sometimes when the time is tough, take a step back and just see how far you've come and what your achievements have been. And that being reflective, a little bit more self aware, I think is a really important uh trait that investors and you know my colleagues. You know, and industry should do more often, but we hardly get the time, obviously. The quality of having your team, you know, team teamwork. Bruce also had that. There's that famous quote by his mechanic and racer, what's his name? Haldr Haldran Ganley. Yeah. Yeah. He had that famous quote that look if Bruce had come in one day and said, Okay, everybody, drop your tools. We're gonna go march across the Sahara Desert. He said everyone would have done it. Everyone would go.

Keith 22:29

He was a natural leader, wasn't he? He was a great driver, um, a great engineer, mechanic, but best of all, he was uh a leader for sure.

Speaker 1 22:39

Not just a very fast racer, very curious. Let's get a better car, how do we do that? Let's let's get a better strategy, let's keep collaborating, uh, let's keep doing things differently, let's keep asking the questions to get where we need to go.

Keith 22:51

At that time, McLaren was such an outrider compared to the Ferraris, etc. They were nowhere, but he developed that through his curiosity and his creativity in his engineering approach, right?

Speaker 1 23:05

Yeah, it is amazing. That and that's what excites me most. I mean, the legacy of of what they did in the 1960s. And I think there's a lot of you know people that are in our age group now that really uh cherish the nostalgia of those 1960s when you had those minds, those brilliant engineering minds that were able to achieve so much. And breathe beyond words. And breathe beyond words. Jan finished running the trust uh in 2022, then Bruce's only surviving daughter, Amanda McLaren, and her husband, Stephen Donald, have come in and taken over the help. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and really uh preserving and sharing that legacy of Bruce with a lot of young kids in in New Zealand, whether it's through University of Auckland and the Formula SAE team, or whether it's through um the the scholarships they're building, a driver and an engineering scholarship. That's pretty exciting because as I was there in New Zealand last year, it's it's not just for F1 fans and and there's a lot of glitz and uh and so forth now, but there's also a lot to be proud of for all New Zealanders. For sure. And kudos to to the McLaren family for for um sharing all those great memories.

Keith 24:13

The motorsports nuts in New Zealand is a surprise, even though it's a small nation, it hasn't brought up another Bruce McLaren, frankly, because even the distributor who I mentioned that uh I met Jan through, he races minis. They'll race literally anything. Now, the downside of that, if you're staying in a hotel in central Auckland, the Hoons going round doing donuts in the middle of the night, probably taking motorsports a bit too far for my liking too. Yeah, I think so. But they're in a different league completely.

Speaker 24:47

Yeah, absolutely. But I think a lot a lot of New Zealanders are behind Liam Lawson now, so that's great. That's incorrect.

Career Advice: Learn Through Ownership

Keith 24:54

In your experience, Jeff, when leaders lose trust, is it usually because of poor decisions, or as you alluded to earlier, poor communication around those decisions?

Speaker 1 25:07

Yeah, it's poor communication. You can make a uh decision that doesn't bode well for the for the books. But and if you can explain it, uh the rationale for it, uh the course correction, and how you're gonna make up for lost time, then I think that can really resonate really well with investors. They want to see that management's on the ball. We're all no one's perfect, we all make mistakes. So communication is 100% important. Don't hold back, don't recite lines, don't try and hide information and so forth. Just be transparent and communicate that and that authenticity, I think, yeah, is what a lot of investors are looking for as well.

Keith 25:51

I'd say there's a difference with I worked for an American company for my last five years, with American organizations versus those here, where showing some humility here and putting your hands up as you'd say, being honest and transparent works very well here. Uh in America, it can be seen as more of a weakness, and you see leaders do that, show some humility, and you know they're not long for this job, basically. So there's a big difference between the different regions of the world and how they see their leaders and how they expect them to behave.

What To Read In Annual Reports

Speaker 1 26:34

In financial services, you you won't last long because f financial services is okay, finance is one thing and understanding you know the mechanics of that, but the word services is just as important as financial. And you've got to remember you're there to serve, not be served. Right. And services, if you really want to take your services properly, you've got to really enjoy working with your clients. You basically got to love your clients and and work for their betterment, and that's your that's that's that's as much as your job every day as it is understanding finance. It sounds like an amazing job, by the way.

Keith 27:08

Right, with constant, and it is constant now, macro uncertainty, geopolitics, inflation, technology, AI. What mindset do leaders need now that wasn't as critical 10, 15 years ago? You missed a few there too.

Speaker 1 27:27

Debt, climate, yeah, medium-term growth outlook. Yeah, there's this there's there's a few. A lot of these uh downside risks and challenges, they are familiar risks. So I think the most important trait that the leaders need is agility. They have to be cognizant of the risks and keep moving. You can't can't stop in your tracks because many of these risks carry on year after year after year. And a lot of companies will just get on with the job, uh, find a way to circumnavigate or mitigate and and keep going forward. Uh, I think in terms of communication, digitalization's become really important, a really important means. Digitalization's opening up so many more opportunities for these companies, and collaboration's really important too. So, so digital uh digitalization and communication businesses have been a really important structural driver for the region for much of the world for the last 10-15 years. And the ability for companies to collaborate, which you have to do now with with the way uh everything is API driven, has become key. So leaders have to have that collaborative mindset.

Quick Fire: Principles And Outlook

Keith 28:42

Looking back on your own career now, everything you've done so far in what you've talked about is about other people, how you communicate, how you connect, uh trust relationships. You, you personally, what has pressure taught you about restraint, knowing when to speak, when to wait, and when to say less?

Speaker 1 29:09

Restraint is a real skill. You need to leave you need to know it if you want to be a learned skill and a tough one for many. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. For me, as I said before, a passionate Queenslander and also someone whose job it is to come up with facts and figures on the spot and interpret them really quickly. For me, then to go into a room where I'm not facing customers, but I'm actually talking with my colleagues. Learning to keep my mouth shut, uh, learning when to when less really is more has been a process. It's important because when we don't have the answers, you you know don't necessarily throw out conjecture, just stick with the facts, let the others interpret, and that will inspire trust and confidence in what you've got to what you've got to say next time.

Keith 30:02

Now you've got the experience now, but when you first came into this role, you didn't have that experience. Were you taught restraint? Did you learn it? Did you stumble? How how did you learn to suppress a part of you which is natural then? How did you do that?

Closing Reflections On Credibility

Speaker 1 30:20

I would say it's a long process pointed out to me by managers along the way, okay, but also in a way, my current organization that I work with, expect it and don't discount it. Uh basically, you know, will tell me or give me that nod and so forth. So having, like you said, if you've got something there, you'll your closest people to you have to understand, be supportive, and give you the nod, yeah, so that you know that okay, that's that's when I I gotta bring in that skill set to help be restrained. You have to be open to that feedback as well, right? Open to that feedback as well, and you have to be able to trust your colleagues to to and and they have to trust you. And um and that's something that yeah, I've learned to do.

Keith 31:09

So if you were to give one single piece of advice to someone aspiring to reach senior leadership in today's world, what would it be?

Speaker 1 31:19

It's something that I do often. Especially to the university students that come through SGX. I encourage them to buy a stock in the industry that they're going to base their career in. Buy an industry leader. Or even if don't have to buy it, but just start following it. If you do buy it, you're probably more disciplined. Like a fantasy league of uh shares, basically. This is the thing, th those annual reports that we put out, that's just not all a bunch of data thrown out. There's so much in those in those annual reports. There's visions, there's the way management execute, there's the language the board speaks, the manage speak, there's the whole industry trends, the drivers, challenges. These are all areas that the young Singaporeans can start reading now so that they can speak the language of this company. So come 20, 30 years, when they do want to take the high management or the ball position in these companies, they're gonna have so much of the uh understanding of the business and they will look really, I think they'll look really good. Being uh able to kind of learn the ropes of how the high-level board and management interact and how they speak and and communicate and move in the market, I think is is a skill. It's it's it's simple, but it's really powerful. I think it's really powerful. If you really want to do your homework and run uh run one of these companies or be on the board of one of these companies, you can start doing your homework now and start moving with this company that might be leading in your industry. It might not be listed in Singapore, might be might be listed elsewhere in the world. But these are fantastic opportunities for investors, you know, basically working in publicly listed markets where all that information is public and being able to kind of understand and emulate what they do and uh work your way up to having a heap of credibility or from just doing homework from reading annual reports.

Keith 33:23

That's very good advice. My wife is a huge retail investor and invests on behalf of clients, spends hours and hours reading reports, and she's a great follower of yours, I should say. Uh not to what Bonnie, my wife. But the one thing I look in a report always, maybe I'm simplistic or I don't have the time or the effort required to read two, three hundred pages. I look for the vision and the strategy, and then I look for the remuneration and how they marry together. Because senior executives, whatever you think about that, are driven by the remuneration packages. And if they're misaligned, it wouldn't be a company I'd invest in. Really simple for me, simplistic. But this is what they want to do, this is the direction they go in, but the executive is being remunerated, targeted differently, that goes against that. And for me, it's done. Yeah, I won't read anything else in the report after that.

Speaker 1 34:24

I think the CEO of the company is your best salesman. I've seen that year after year at SGX that a a CEO can come and speak to 200 people in our auditorium and have amazing dialogue with with investors, whether it's institutional and retail, uh, and it works really well. It's just that they're so busy getting their time is an issue. So yeah, I I can understand where you're coming from there.

Keith 34:51

I'm always looking for busy CEOs who try to take time to be coached by me, but they're too busy mostly. Now, we're gonna have some fun now, if that's all right. Some quick fire questions for you. So don't look so serious, relax, no tricks, just the first thing comes to your mind. Best leadership advice you've ever received.

Speaker 1 35:11

It's a biblical quote. Matthew 20, 26. Whoever wants to be great among you must be your servant.

Keith 35:18

Wow. Powerful. One mistake leaders repeatedly make under pressure. Reacting wrongly, overreacting or underreacting. Not taking the time to step back then.

Speaker 1 35:29

Yep. Okay. Pause, be calm, collective, uh, and as we said, take the emotion out.

Keith 35:34

One quality every credible leader must protect. Integrity. Number one. Yep. That was easy. Yeah. And one word that defines leadership today. It's trust. This is the sneaky one. How will the investment landscape look in 2026? Investable. You could say that at January every year.

Speaker 1 35:57

Absolutely. And there were and those risks are still there, but but thankfully there's a large squadron of brokers and bankers here in Singapore ready to help investors understand those risks and the opportunities.

Keith 36:09

And as my wife always tells me, the the most volatile environment is when she gets the most excited because that's where the most opportunity is. That's great advice. I can't follow it. I panic too much. Jeff, thank you for a powerful and grounded conversation. Your insights remind us that real leadership shows up when pressure is high. Answers are sometimes incomplete, and credibility is on the line. In moments like that, clarity, calm, and integrity really matter more than certainty. That's the essence of leadership and a reminder of the power within the world.