Becoming a leader

It was in year 2008 when I applied for the post of Administrative and Diplomatic Officer (PTD). During that time, I was working as a programmer at a private company and I’ve been with the company for almost three years. At first, I never had an interest to be a government officer. One of the reasons is Malaysian citizens have a bad impression towards the government’s service. But until one day, a friend of mine who was also a PTD told me about her responsibility in serving the citizens and the feel of belongings for being part of Malaysian’s future.  From that moment, I said to myself that I want to be a dedicated citizen, who is not only serving the stakeholders but also leading an organization.  Alhamdulillah, during May 2009, I received an offer letter for the post of PTD and without hesitation, I forwarded my 24 hour resign letter to the human resource department of the IT Company. 

The first six months was a very challenging moment for me as I need to learn to adapt to a very different working environment. I was responsible to lead a newly born unit in Human Resource Department, Ministry of Information, Communication and Culture. 

Leading a team is not an easy task as it has to make sure that all members have the same mission, vision and objectives. Some people said that leaders are not born but made, and some people said that leaders are born.

But, how do we know that we are leading a team or just managing a team? I read a lot of books on leadership and books on management. Both of them look pretty much the same but there are differences between both. According to Wikipedia, “management is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively which comprises planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal”. Usually, managers will manage according to methods and approaches taught by different experts or gurus and concerned primarily with processes for management of people and money. While leadership, according to Gil Pizano, “is a person who guides others toward a common goal, showing the way by example, and creating an environment in which other team members feel actively involved in the entire process. A leader is not the boss of the team but, instead, the person that is committed to carrying out the mission of the Venture.”  In other word, Leadership only concerned with setting direction of the organization and mobilizing people towards it.

When we looked at the definition of leadership, and we reflect it back to our life, we will realize that we all have leadership role in life whether it related to work, school, or outside.  

Different from management, leadership has no methods, tools or approach, but leadership has style.  It depends on one’s personal qualities like courage, patients and the ability to build relationships and to motivate people. There is no ‘right’ way in leadership and leadership is best learned from observations, coaching, or stories of people who bring changes, who influenced others, who lead. Leadership stories can be a source of information for young leaders like us to gain knowledge, to gain experiences as we learn from examples. 

There are peoples that have inspired me to be a leader.  Tun Mahathir Mohamad, our 4^th Prime Minister who had serving the nation for 22 years; Tan Sri Dr. Zeti Akhtar Aziz, 7^th governor of Bank Negara but the 1^st woman to hold the position; Haji Burhanuddin Md. Radzi, Managing Director of Les Copaque Production Sdn Bhd, who achieve success in animation industry without any experience in related field. Their stories amazed me and inspired me to have my own followers as leader without followers cannot be called as leader.  And remember that, followers will always observed and checked their leaders as they want leaders who are credible, and do what they say they will do. Therefore, never ever make casual promises as their faith on us will fade away. 

I’ve been in a post of leader for more than two years now and I know that I still lack the competency to lead. So what should I do to be a good leader?  As I went through the journey, there are peoples that gave tremendous support to me like parents, KPSUs, SUB, colleagues and friends. My SUB is an example of a good leader as he successfully led the organization to achieve mission, vision and objectives of the organization. He was like a mentor to me as he always gave his advice continuously, and will always entertain me and motivate me when I feel despair. 

There are number of great leaders in civil service, who have good credibility in work, but they still make mistakes. It is alright to make mistake, because as a human we all do mistakes. But sometimes, the mistakes that we made will jeopardize our career as well as our credibility as a leader. Such mistakes are like sexual harassment and bribery. This kind of leaders will lose followers as followers expect their leader to be open, honest and ethical. 

As for me, I am still in the learning process of becoming a good leader to my subordinates in the organization. According to James D. Bruce, he frame what he knows about leadership as ‘who I am (be), what I know and can do (do), and what I need to know to continue to be effective (learn). To be an effective leader, we must act like a leader and always remember who we are. As a leader, we are the one, who make decisions on what to be done, how it is going to be done and ensuring that it is done. Leading is not about asking staffs to do certain things but deeply involved in achieving organization’s vision whether by monitoring results and showing them the right way of achieving it. Real leader will never run away from responsibility for mistakes. Therefore,  being a competent leader requires that we have the skills and knowledge to reach our goals. And of course, as a new leader, we must always be active learners about the technology, the organizations, the people, as the world is changing rapidly and our knowledge and skill today may become obsolete tomorrow.

Transformational Leadership is a style of leadership which the leader has integrity, sets clear goals, clearly communicates a vision, sets a good example, expects the best from the team, encourages, supports, recognizes good work and people, provides stimulating work, helps people sees beyond their self-interests and focus more on team interests and needs and of course, inspires others. This style of leadership seems perfect to me but of course, it requires efforts, patient, passions and never ever give up.  

After we have done all those things needed to be a good leader, how do we know that we have been a good leader? Here are questions that may be used in order to figure out whether the ‘right thing’ is being done.

• "are we showing the right way, the right direction, the right vision?"
• "are we doing the right thing in relation to furthering our mission, out purpose, our reason for existence, the service we provide?"
• "are we doing the right thing in relation to the values, the guides for appropriate and inappropriate behavior?"

As I was looking for other sources to help us being a good leader, I came across this Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership by Kent M. Keith(1968) which for me, it sounded cynical but true. 

People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.

Love them anyway

If you do good, people will accuse you selfish ulterior motives

Do good anyway

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Succeed anyway

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow

Do good anyway

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable

Be honest and frank anyway

The biggest men and women with the biggest idea can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds

Think big anyway
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs
Fight for a few underdogs anyway
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight
Build anyway
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them
Help people anyway
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth
Give the world the best you have anyway
The world is full of violence, injustice, starvation, disease and environmental destruction
Have faith anyway

The journey to be a successful leader will never come in shape. We will find a lot of obstacles, problems or maybe people who pray for our failure. So, we need to be strong, keep on learning and improves our weaknesses. Never forget peoples who helped us throughout the journey. Always pray for Allah’s blessing and be grateful as nothing will happen without Allah’s will.