A Heart-to-Heart Talk with a Female Leader, Lily Fu from Motorola Solutions China

By CHIHYIN

Tech.huanqiu.com

As a female leader, Lily Fu from Motorola Solutions China, is full of passion and loves to take up challenges.

Leading a “Hero” business

The reason critical communications is described as a “Hero” business by some is partly because it aims to help people be at their best during moments that matter. During potentially life-endangering missions, a professional communications network can help to save lives, while a well-established communications infrastructure can ensure fluid communications, enabling extraordinary results.

This is why Lily Fu was attracted to this business and took up the (heavy) responsibility of leading Motorola Solutions in China. The most recent challenge is to launch a new broadband LTE handheld device amidst the coexistence of LMR and LTE technologies.

A leader cannot be well-liked by everyone

Lily Fu places emphasis on execution capabilities, competitiveness, strict discipline as well as great importance on the ability to fulfil promises.

Female leaders have the advantage of being all-encompassing, simple, transparent and persevering. She made good use of all these qualities while at the helm of Motorola Solutions China, not to mention a good dose of flexibility and adaptability to manage difficulties.

She downplayed her leadership role, promoted equality and projected transparency during meetings. “The teams have all served Motorola Solutions for a long time. It is important for me to cherish their expertise and their commitment to the company, she says.

“My challenge is to become a catalyst for them to reach their full potential. I hope to help our teams in China to improve gradually. I would like their recognition to go past my level and reach that of the regional level in APAC and even beyond. I hope for the global teams to see and recognise the efforts and achievements of the teams in China,” continues Lily.

These challenges are hardly comfortable, but Lily Fu welcomes and embraces them. The reason for her perseverance? “I would like to see how far I can venture on this path,” she admits in all honesty.

“Despite the initial hesitation myself, it is important to have unwavering faith and carry on. At the end of it all, the joy of having pressed on is difficult to express in words. The ecstasy comes from having become stronger, having gained inner strength,” she divulges.

“As a leader, I cannot expect everyone to adore me. I cannot avoid conflicts. A leader has to learn to have an open mind and listen to different opinions. A leader has to represent the team. When the moment comes to make a decision, one has to stand up, take a step forward and bear the responsibility. For me, the important thing is how to earn the respect of others, by virtue of my leadership abilities and not because of my leadership position,” she elaborates.

“I hope to create a fair and equal working environment for my team. Admittedly, no one is perfect, no one is God and anyone can make a mistake. To establish a sense of ownership, the best way is to unleash the inner potential of the team members and to involve them in a group effort, to have everyone on board with me to move forward for a target that we all deem to be the right thing to do, to be worth the effort,” Lily continues.

How do I become a lamp to shine the light on my team’s efforts?

“As a leader, one is the captain of a ship, to steer the vessel in the right direction. During the process, the captain has to give hope to the crew and to convince everyone that we are moving in the right direction,” Lily Fu begins.

“In the past 20 plus years of my career, I have seen capable individual contributors who fail once they become leaders. As an employee, the important thing is to be competitive and to move up the corporate ladder. Yet he would then become too used to being in the limelight. As a leader, one has to get used to leaving the realm of glory and to become a lamp to shine the light in turn on the achievements of others in the team. This includes giving team members a pat on the back and providing encouragement when a job is well done. More importantly, a leader has to step up and bear the consequences in times of failure,” says Lily.

“I hope to be able to help my team grow. It is true that my responsibility is to fulfil my mission and complete the tasks at hand. But my greatest wish is to help my younger team members discover their inner (undiscovered) potential,” she reveals.

The three steps in one’s career development: self-confidence, self-awareness, self consciousness.

Whilst summing up her own career until now, Lily Fu shares that everyone will go through three stages: self- confidence, self-awareness and self-consciousness.

Self-confidence comes from recognition from others. Self-confidence is very important. In the past, I have often received credibility from colleagues and bosses. Today, I am constantly reminding myself not to be stingy with praise.

After self-confidence comes self-awareness. Success doesn’t mean one is invincible or perfect. In the past, one relied on the credibility from others to build self confidence. After this initial stage, it is now important to enter the second stage to self-reflect, see one’s own shortcomings and seek support from others.

The third stage is self-consciousness, to seek the real inner motivation. Is one really convinced by the company’s mission and vision? “Personally, I am convinced by Motorola Solutions’ mission statement to help people be at their best during moments that matter. I want to be part of the “heroic” mission which I find to be meaningful and positive. This is why I will give it my best,” Lily Fu explains. One becomes self-conscious when one has made the decision of whether or not a task has value and is worth the effort. Only when the mission is aligned to one’s values will one give his/her best.

A dream is a slip of paper that is slipped into one’s hands

I once had a dream to become a scientist. In junior high, I wanted to be a war zone reporter, after which I became passionate about sports and wanted to become a sports reporter. But in the end, she became a leader in the corporate world.

“I will often ask myself the question of who I am and what is my purpose in life,” says Lily Fu.

“I used to be very perplexed by this question. But today, I am increasingly grateful for the opportunities that life has presented me with. With my meagre capabilities, I hope to be able to help young people fulfil their dreams in the future,” she repeats with emphasis.

“Everyone has a dream”, says Lily Fu. She is filled with a thirst and strong sense of exploration about her inner realm and life in general. She would like to see where else she can go in life and what else life has in store for her. She is constantly self-reflecting, refusing to set limits, preferring the excitement of the unknown. It doesn’t matter if a path is not smooth, What is important is whether or not the path is worth trotting on.

As Lily Fu says, females are relatively simple, transparent and persevering. She is a survivor, shining with brilliance.

As the interview comes to an end, I do indeed see the (illuminating) light in her eyes.