Sean Teh has built a career that bridges continents, industries, and ideas. A strategy consultant by trade and co-founder of AsiaX Circle, Sean’s work connects Australia and Asia’s emerging leaders through collaboration, curiosity, and community. With a background spanning international tax, leadership development, and startup strategy, he’s as comfortable discussing global business models as he is choreographing a K-pop routine or whisking the perfect matcha.
In our conversation, Sean opens up about building balance across time zones, staying grounded through movement and mindfulness, and why true leadership starts with cultural intelligence. He shares how dance, community, and focus help him find flow in both business and life.
You’ve built a career that spans Australia and Asia, working across tax, strategy, and leadership development. How do you structure your days when you work and life stretches across so many time zones and cultures?
During my time across multiple timezones and locations, I admit I find the remote working option REALLY helpful! To be able to take calls no matter where I am helps with utilising my time as much as possible while still having high efficiency and outputs.
Generally, my days are scheduled with a few priorities: self-care in the morning (usually a workout and no-email/phone), working ‘office hours’ and then some personal time. I generally put in my parameters and boundaries in times with some flexibility in timing for calls, especially with timezone differences. People are willing to compromise and find an even ground for meetings to be had, which I really appreciate, and sometimes that means I have to do a few odd hours here and there. I also pop in ‘focus times’ during the day where I block out my calendar to focus on ‘doing the work’ moments. I am usually flexible if meetings cannot be shifted but generally use that as a last resort. Again, people are quite appreciative with the timings!
In terms of working across cultures, I believe this is quite important in this day and age, especially when global mobility is so much higher and we are more interconnected than we ever were. One area I think is important in Australia is ‘Asian Intelligence’ (another form of ‘AI’) since Asia is Australia’s closest region with so many transactions and trades occuring. I find it’s important to be flexible and learn how some cultures work – usually through reading about it first (desktop research) but, if possible, even travelling there or even better, make friends with people around you who are from those cultures.
An example can be when I first worked with Indonesia. I realised their standard response times in emails are longer than those unspoken expectations in the Western world. I went to explore and learn about how I could manoeuvre around this without overpressing my side and cultural expectations on the other party.
Friends around me from Indonesia helped me learn and understand how to form my emails – being shorter, sharper and friendly, but also giving a timeline of when I would follow up on. I also had to learn to buffer as much time as possible and/or give a heads up when I say I will be in touch so they can plan ahead. This cultural understanding, I found, is important on my end being the outsider, but I also found that the other party is willing to meet in the middle!
You talk about the importance of being fully present — whether that’s in a meeting or with friends. How do you protect that focus in a world that constantly demands your attention?
Quality time is my top love language. I respect that time is the only ‘currency’ we all have that is the same – 24 hours a day. In both meetings and with friends, I come in with the mindset of “I have scheduled in x minutes / hours with this person or for this agenda, therefore I should give my focus to it so I don’t have to repeat the work myself again later and spend more time.” This was the mindset I had in university when I would attend lectures and instead of distracting myself (which is hard not to!) I tell myself to focus there and then.
In my time in meetings and with friends or family, I don’t answer messages as frequently. I usually put my phone away or facing down to give my undivided attention. I also tell people that if they need to contact me urgently, to call me instead of texting (a hard phenomenon in this era at times) but the ones who lose out are generally the other side if they don’t call me.
This also goes together with scheduling – I tell that person that if we are together for x minutes, I have scheduled that time only and give them a heads up that I have something straight afterwards or if I have flexibility to stay longer. It’s about being transparent!
Between K-pop dance, reformer pilates, and matcha rituals, you seem to have a well-rounded approach to wellness. What does that routine look like in a typical week, and how does it help you recharge?
I aim to have at least one dance practice or class, and one reformer pilates class each week! I enjoy dancing – it is a form of relaxation for me but also to get some exercise in! I find it helps me step away from the laptop and use a different part of my brain in terms of learning choreo and trying something new. Reformer Pilates to me is also a workout but a big focus on the smaller muscle groups and flexibility which helps my other strength training workouts – it’s all holistics!
A benefit about working from home is I can have my ‘tea breaks’ by taking 10 minutes to prepare matcha for drinking. It’s a little bit of a relaxing moment with the fresh smell of brewed matcha, the tinge of sweetness in the air and to bring something together when whisking it with a method with so much cultural richness. These 10 minutes away is like when people say they’re taking a ‘coffee break’ or ‘coffee run’; for me it is to take my mind off on the work itself and focus on a process I find super therapeutic.
I used to find it cliche that people say taking time out to exercise helps you be more productive when you come back to work…but it really is true for me now that I have scheduled those times out for these hobbies.
Travel seems to play a big role in your life. How do you maintain connection — to work, family, and yourself — when you’re constantly moving between cities and countries?
Again, I must say it really helps that we are in a connected world and I can work and play altogether.
When I’m in a new city or country, one thing I find important is to build connections – new friends and experiences. Sometimes, these people become some of the closest people in my life! When I was in Singapore for work, I used online friend apps (because I was there during Covid), did the video coffee calls and finally had the chance to meet in person. I overlapped these catch ups beyond just a coffee but to do an activity together (e.g., hiking, exploring a new area of the city, etc.)
In Australia, I help run AsiaX Circle – a community for Asian emerging leaders – who hold in-person events from time to time. Although I am an introvert (yes, I have done the test multiple times over many years), I really love events to meet like-minded people (which differs from person to person) and to build connections. These events are usually ‘networking’ but to me, they are to build friends first and get to know the other person and what drives them. To me, that is more important than ‘getting a new business opportunity’.
Through AsiaX Circle, you’re helping emerging leaders bridge Australia and Asia. What have you learned about building community and leadership across different cultures?
Community building is a huge job in itself – I initially underestimated it and didn’t realise many organisations (even for-profit companies) have community managers!
For AsiaX Circle, we are working across a broad range of nuanced cultures as we encompass all Asian cultures together with Australian culture. I found two areas most prominent with community and leadership for AsiaX Circle:
1. Leaders want to help. We are working with emerging leaders – people who are aspiring to lead in their organisations and in their lives to help grow Asian representation in leadership roles. Leadership is about walking the walk and we are able to see people not only wanting to receive from the AXC community but also more than willing to share their time and energy. I really respect that and appreciate people doing so!
2. Community building is beyond the events. AsiaX Circle started with holding events to events but we didn’t have a way to bring people together between the events. This is currently something we are working on in AXC ourselves, and I am EXCITED to see the community blossom as we see more and more people contribute and help one another.
Community and leadership is an area I find that many emerging leaders and professionals want. It’s also not easy to meet every single need of the individual, but the hope is that there will be someone in the community who can help support the ask from someone else – no matter how bespoke the ask is!
You’ve worked with everyone from startups to multinationals. What have these experiences taught you about balance — both in business strategy and in the way you live your own life?
Starting my career in large corporations and helping multinational organisations taught me structure. The nuances of working in a big corporate setting, the decision makers, stakeholder management and the details required to move the needle.
By contrast, the startup world is my current fascination. I love seeing the fast pace, agile movements and ability to disrupt the status quo. Startups are different – they don’t need the pretty slide decks but they are concerned with the big decisions and movements more so than the nitty gritty details until it may become a concern (e.g., tax details!)
I’m usually a detailed person, so doing strategy consulting work means I have to take a bigger picture view but also be able to deep dive back into the details. It is necessary to balance the two depending on your stakeholders and how I balance decisions in life myself! From deciding if I need to get down and read the T&Cs for something I am buying vs to taking the risk with the details because the bigger picture makes sense.
