From Geek to Star #21 - Here is my SHINE and what I do about it

If you missed the previous episodes, you can access them online here.

🗓️ This Week – Episode 21: a concrete example on using SHINE

In the last episode, I shared with you the SHINE framework that I think can be a good compass to help tech engineers to thrive in their career: Soft skills, Hard skills (augmented with AI), Industry knowledge, Nurturing skills (for network and curiosity), Experience-based skills. Everyone has a different SHINE based on one's history, context, experience. And a different focus on which skills to develop his/her SHINE based on everyone's career aspiration. 

In this edition, I will share with you how I evaluate myself in this SHINE framework and how it helps me to focus on where to progress in my next “iteration” of self-improvement. That will help you to visualize a concrete example of how to use the SHINE framework in your own case. 

As of September 2025, this is how I judge myself regarding my SHINE. Note that my assessment is linked to the profile I have: a senior tech executive in Travel and Hospitality. 

1- Soft skills (communication, negotiation, empathy, leadership skills) level: Advanced. Over my career, I've had the opportunity to develop my soft skills. Communication and empathy skills developed quite a lot during my 6 first years as a tech consultant: as a consultant, you don't know anything when you join a new client's mission so you need to develop good social skills to be accepted by the people who have been there for long, listen and understand rapidly and be helpful with others so that others can help you. Regarding leadership skills, I developed them over the last 18 years or so, as I took tech management roles, first in a high growth company (where I experienced the different stages of management needed) and then in both digital natives companies and traditional companies, thus developing different approaches to leadership.

2- Hard skills: To brush up. I was pretty good earlier in my career with technical skills as I had operational / hands on assignments, or management assignments but in tech-driven structures where I still needed to be close to the latest tech to make decisions. In the last company I've worked at, a multinational big traditional company not driven by tech, my hard skills were strong at a high, strategic level but not so much with reality in the trenches (e.g how to scale agentic AI with enough security?): theoretical understanding only, because being at a leadership level in a big traditional organisation meant I spent a lot of time more on organisational / high level topics. Good for soft skills development but less for hard skills. 

3- Industry knowledge: Good. I've worked for 27 years now with 17 years in travel and hospitality, the rest across various other industries. Travel and Hospitality is where I have most knowledge, gained through active discussions with my business colleagues in the companies I worked for to go beyond the tech. There are still areas in this industry I can know more about. Reason why I am still actively involved in Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Hospitality Association.

4- Nurturing my network and curiosity: Advanced and good. Ever since I moved to Singapore in 2016, I realised (coming from France) how fluid the job market could be and how much many people were networking. I learnt the same and it became a pleasant habit, nurturing my network with people I appreciate and can share ideas with, that I can help, and then helping me also when needed. Nurturing my curiosity is at a good level as I am curious by nature and like to connect the dots when I see connections. However I feel sometimes I don't go deep enough in my topics of curiosity.

5- Experience: Advanced. I've seen many situations across the years in different sizes of companies, between Europe and Asia. 

✨Using my SHINE for my self-development and career path

To recap, here is how I judge my SHINE today: S (Advanced), H (To brush up), I (Good), N (Advanced + Good), E (Advanced). On purpose I did not share with you any scale for now. It is a subjective and relative exercise just to help identify where to put the focus: compared to a traditional CIO, my Hard skills are probably much more developed, and compared to someone who wants to thrive in Latin America, my Network and Experience skills are low on the contrary. 

The assessment is about me, seeing myself continuing being a Tech senior executive in Travel and Hospitality strongly relevant across Europe and Asia Pacific being able to be both strategic and sufficiently in the trenches. 

My SHINE assessment is telling me that I think that my Hard Skills should be stronger to thrive more in the role I want to have: in this age of AI where tech is accelerating, I sense indeed that if I am not a bit more hands on on what is happening, then I risk to be strongly disconnected and less relevant maybe in 5 years time even in a senior role. 

My SHINE assessment helped me to decide what to do when my corporation position ended this summer with the big traditional company I had been working for the past 5 years: would I look for another full time senior executive role in a Corporate? That would be a safer path but I also had in mind that in such roles, especially when joining a new environment as such, all my time and brain capacity would be taken for organisation, leadership, etc… topics, not giving room to brush up my hard skills. That could be a short term safe choice but a middle and long term dead end. So I decided to take 6 months to launch my own solo venture “The Way Forward” (this newsletter is part of it!), which would give me space to be more hands on and refresh my hard skills, playing out more with genAI, agentic AI… for my own operational needs. This choice brings a whole set of other challenges of course and SHINE was not the only reason for this choice, but I know that whatever happens after the 6 months (whether I continue the solo venture or not), my Hard skills level will have improved. And depending on my next choice, I will see where I should then put the focus for my next SHINE evolution.

🙏 I’d Love to Hear From You

I hope that sharing transparently with you my SHINE and the way I evaluated it will encourage you to do the same, to help you identify what you want to focus on. It is a good exercise also to take a step back: against SHINE, what did I do in my career which contributed to growth in one aspect or the other? Where do I stand today and what am I looking for next, and which aspect(s) of SHINE should I work on to help me go down this way? If you feel like sharing your thoughts with me, please do so!

Reply to this email, I read every note.

And don’t forget: follow me on LinkedIn for more reflections and “behind-the-scenes” thinking between newsletters. Don't hesitate to engage discussions there in the comments to also start showing and sharing your thoughts publicly. 

P.S. Referral Pilot 🚀

Forward this email to one engineer friend you appreciate and who may benefit from this as part of the “sharing is caring” mindset! Put a nice forward word, a good opportunity to connect or re-connect. 

✨ May SHINE be with you!

From Geek to Star, by Khang | “The Way Forward”