About
Daniel Kwan Leong, Lee
Company/ Organisation:
Everest Innovation Sdn Bhd (Company that owns and market its people development services via the “FirstJoy” trademark)
What is your background?
(Daniel) Lee Kwan Leong trains, coaches and consults in people development matters as well as being frequently invited to speak in conferences on these subjects. He is based in Malaysia and occasionally delivers his training and consultancy services in countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.
As a consultant, Kwan Leong’s approach to organizational people development is firmly linked to (1) business goals, (2) measurable improvements, and (3) last but not least, universally accepted values and best practices. Kwan Leong is greatly influenced by Diederick Stoel (Training Effectiveness Expert and served as the Chairman of the Donald Kirkpatrick Foundation) and has been trained by him in (1) measuring effectiveness, and (2) assessment of return of investments from training programs. Since then, Kwan Leong has helped some his clients in measuring effectiveness, savings and/or profits derived from trainings/coaching successfully. He is also a certified Lominger Leadership Architect 101 Consultant that uses a global competency frame that helps leaders to be developed effectively.
For 4 years Kwan Leong has played a major role in Astro’s (Malaysian direct broadcast satellite pay television services) Management Development Program for its managers as a consultant, trainer and coach where he implemented various training and effectiveness measurement. Since then, similar programs have been delivered for companies like SEEK Asia, Yamato Transport, Coca-Cola, Dell Global Business Center, Bluescope Steel and Eurocopter Malaysia.
He also co-authored a book titled “Success, Money & Passion; Finding the Perfect Balance at work” (based on an earlier title “The JOY of Work”) where he had encapsulated his working and consultancy experiences to help his readers to (1) enjoy their work, (2) discover their talents, (3) align their talents with the organization’s objectives, (4) learn how to excel at their position, (5) determine their own career path, and (6) explore how they can be significant with their life skills. This book has been endorsed by Allison Mooney CSP, International Professional Speaker and Best Selling Author of “Pressing the Right Buttons” where she said, “…. it expounds in a balanced way for both employers and employees to find success through performance and fulfilment”. It was published by the renowned publisher, Advantage Quest Publications and now available at major bookstores in Malaysia. On 5th June 2013, an overview of the book was aired via a radio interview with BFM 89.9 in their “Raise your Game” segment. Further, it was also being recommended in the SME Magazine, June 2013 Malaysia Edition.
In July 2015, following the successful collaboration with Advantage Quest Publications, Kwan Leong’s second book, “8 Success Qualities of Outstanding People” was published and made available in major bookstores in Malaysia. This book was written with the help of a specially designed survey conducted on 54 successful Malaysians where it provides practical applications in the form of 4-Step Success Model that consists of 8 success qualities, namely, Self-awareness, Influence, Relationship, Business Acumen, Focus, Foresight, Service and Creativity. In view of its unique content, the radio station BFM 89.9 has on 14th August 2015, conducted a book overview interview with Kwan Leong and his co-author, Angeline Yong.
Seeing the next trend in people development and organizational capacity to evolve to succeed, Kwan Leong has embarked on capitalizing happiness of people as one of the core drivers for profitability and success. For this, he became a Happiness at Work Survey practitioner in order to help organizations to thrive by leveraging on happy employees (happy people produce better results). The Happiness at Work Survey is a tool designed by a company called Happiness Works to help create better workplaces. It is headed by its Director, Nic Marks who is also (1) the founder of the award-winning Centre for Well-being, a think tank called nef (the New Economics Foundation) in United Kingdom, and (2) creator of the award winning Happy Planet Index, the first global measure of sustainable wellbeing.
Kwan Leong is also certified as (1) a trainer with PSMB and Habitudes (Leadership Course where they use images to convey and teach leadership attitudes and habits), and (2) a SEI 1-1 EQ Assessor (from Six Seconds).
One of the major milestones in Kwan Leong’s life was his opportunity to meet Tony Buzan (Legendary inventor of the Mind Map) and Chris Griffiths in 2013, where he was being certified as a ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor as well as Advanced iMind Map instructor. Later, it was evolved into OpenGenius Licensed Instructor in Mind Mapping. For this he is the only one of that has been certified as such in Malaysia currently. All these have already been translated to better thinking and strategies for Kwan Leong’s clients in the corporate sectors.
In his personal capacity he is also an advisor for Alpha at the workplace. Alpha is an organization originated in United Kingdom and currently runs the Alpha Course in more than 166 countries with over 16 million people so far have attended it.
Prior to the above, Kwan Leong was very much involved in sales and marketing. It was in 1998 that he took on an opportunity to involve himself in a marketing organization from Australia. His ability to lead, coach, train and motivate his team members and leaders translated into handsome financial rewards and benefits.
Kwan Leong was and still is a qualified Advocate and Solicitor (lawyer) after having practised law for seven years in various law firms such as Messrs. Shook Lin & Bok, Messrs. William Leong and Messrs. Allen & Gledhill (now known as Lee Hishamuddin Allen & Gledhill). Throughout his legal career, he specialized in litigation matters especially in Intellectual Property, Licensing, Franchise, Company law, Contract law and Commercial law. Apart from attending courts then, he was the head of the Litigation Department while he was with Messrs. William Leong. As a head, he oversaw the business side of the department by ensuring quarterly performance results were met and retaining existing clients.
His years in legal practice have helped tremendously in his training/consulting career especially in the area of speaking to groups of people in an articulate manner as well as thinking on his feet to adapt to his audience.
Academically, Kwan Leong graduated from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, United Kingdom with an LLB (Hons) degree in 1993. He subsequently obtained a Second Class lower honors in his legal practice professional exams called the Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP). His CLP qualification was among the top 20% of those who passed their CLP at that time.
With his rich experience and result-oriented approach, Kwan Leong believes that he can help organizations to reach their goals and people to enjoy their work.
How did you feel the course benefitted you?
Mind Mapping is like the glue that binds all creativity and ideas together. Furthermore, it encourages them as well. I have been facilitating ideas generation and finding solutions for a number of years and I discovered that mind maps really provide clarity (plus extensions) to my clients’ business activities like planning, brainstorming, ideas sorting, incubation, strategising, management, presentation and many more (limitless).
What do you plan to do with your accreditation?
This accreditation will fit like a glove where I can include the knowledge and tools in the offerings of the People Development Company that I co-founded, FirstJoy. We offer services like training, coaching and consultancy depending on the needs and circumstances of our clients.
