MY LEADERSHIP STORY : HE'S MY IDOL

6 years ago, I graduated from one of our local universities. Honestly, I was not really sure what steps should I take when I finish my studies. To get a job was tough at that time, because I have to compete with thousands of other candidates that might be a lot better than me. Being rejected was nothing new to me, but that did not stop me from keep going - to find a better job. Good news came after when the government start taking Diplomatic Officers. They held a three-stage assessment starting at examination level where I failed twice. With the determination, passionate and moral support I received from my family, I finally made it. I knew that to be successful, I need to have the qualities as a leader to myself first.

Today, here I am, attending one of the most important course in the Diplomatic Officer's world - the  DPA. My hope is still endless - to get a diploma is one thing; but ultimately, I wanted to gain as much knowledge as I can, to create great qualities to myself so that I will be able to serve the country at a greater stage and eventually to improve myself as whole.

When I was given the task to write about my very own leader ship story, the first person that appeared in my mind was my former general director, Dato' Ir. Dr. Radin Umar bin Radin Sohadi. He has directly and indirectly inspired me.

A brief introduction about Dato' Ir. Dr. Radin Umar Radin Sohadi. He graduated in Bachelor of Civil and Structure Engineering and obtained his Master in Transport and Traffic Engineering from Sheffield University, United Kingdom in year 1985. He then obtained his PhD from Birmingham University, UK in Traffic Safety Engineering in year 1996. He has over 27 years’ experience in national traffic safety and was responsible in numerous safety interventions in Malaysia. Early in 1990, Prof. Ir. Dr. Radin was responsible in setting up the national road accident database in Police Head Quarters, in Bukit Aman Kuala Lumpur. In that task, he came up with the idea of national accident recording system POL27 (pin 1/91) and established the National Black spot System for Ministry of Transportation (MOT).

The most significant contribution he has made to the society was when the government decided to adopt his model (Radin's Model) of National Safety Target in 1996. Among other interventions that has been carried out in Malaysia including national motorcycle safety programmes, national pedestrian safety programmes, national motorcycle lane warrants and policies and national black spots programmes just to name a few. In addition to his achievements, he has established the national fatality index based on fatalities per billion vehicle kilometre travel (VKT) in 2004 and the Road Safety Education System for Schools in Malaysia, the following year.

Ir. Dr. Radin has published more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles in various high-esteemed journals. Prior to his appointment as the Vice Chancellor in Universiti Putra Malaysia, he was the former Director General of Department of Higher Education in Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), and that was the opportunity where I got the chance to serve under him.

I was inspired by Ir. Dr. Radin by many ways. He has brought many changes to the department and ministrty. He entered the Department of Higher Education as Director General in 2008. He has many great ideas to improve the work process in the department. He will meet up all the officers and staffs to explain the ministry missions and actions to be taken to achieve ministry KPI. To be a great leader, one needs to be knowledgeable. Ir. Dr. Radin ensures his officers are up to date to the current issues nationwide by encourage all officers to read and do research before make any decisions for the ministry. Every time when I attend meetings chaired by Ir. Dr. Radin, I was inspired by his knowledge and great ideas. He always thinking of something new to solve any problems arises. Through my observations, he has an analytical mind and quick in making decisions. He likes to motivate others to work hard for ourselves and the ministry and at the same time he tells us not to forget our family. Although some people may feel pressure working under him because of his hardworking nature but personally I feel motivate and love working under him. Ir. Dr. Radin is a famous and intelligence man but he never look down other people. He is friendly and a humble man.

His leadership and contributions to the country gives me an inspiration to become successful in my career. I have learned through his leadership that we must have confidence and optimism in whatever we do even people is underestimate us. We also should be a brave risk taker if we believe what has we done is on the right path. If we do not succeed in whatever we do, do not give up and stop trying. We need to try until success is in our grasp.

Everyone is a leader to their selves. I strongly believe that knowledge can take you everywhere; therefore one should never stop learning. These days, knowledge is reachable through our fingertips. The internet world is unlimited, hence should be used carefully. Even the first surah revealed by Allah SWT to Prophet Muhammad was Iqra' which means read, therefore we should take this order seriously by reading articles, books and others in order to gain as much knowledge as we can. At the same time, a leader should not easily get boasted by his knowledge. The more knowledgeable he is, the more down-to-earth he should be.

In my humble point of view, an organization needs a group of good people to be successful. Therefore, mutual understanding, trust and honesty need to be build. We could see many falls when these qualities are poorly enforced. Taking an example is our own Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) during Uhud war, where his forces refused to obey his instructions, refused to give their fullest trust to him. In the end, they were defeated by the mushrikin.

However, at times we can see that leaders also made mistakes in their decision making neither in the big issue nor in the small issue. In my opinion, I think there are few mistakes that leaders often do. One of it is due to lack of knowledge or information regarding certain issue. Sometimes leaders need to decide in advance on certain issue like crisis management but because of lack of knowledge or information, the decision that has been made turn to be a bad decision and give less benefit to the organization. Besides that, at times leaders do not stick to his or her decision that has been made by them. This situation maybe happened because leaders themselves do not confident with their own decision. Other than that, leaders sometimes made the decisions which not represent the importance of all people or staff. Communication is very important to lead others. Transparent communication is the mark of good business these days. Let others know what is going on.  It is best to have a vehicle for dialogue and to have a mechanism for participation. Great leaders must also do job by their own. Because they can do it, current leaders tend to do it themselves. It is better to help others to learn how to do things and then to let them take over doing it.  This is a critical step to building both engagement and growing leaders. Easy tasks need to be handed to others, so that the others can feel like they are participating.  Leaders should be learning and starting new initiatives, then handing these items to others on the team.

Malaysia has born many great leaders in the world such as Tunku Abdul Rahman Al Haj, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim and many other great leaders. To be a leader like them we must develop leadership skills from now on. To develop leadership skills, first we must know ourselves by determine what value and skills that we have. Later on we need to develop ourselves. There is various ways to develop ourselves. One is find a good mentor who has the competencies you wish to develop and have wide experience and knowledge. He or she will give you guidance and help you to build your confidence in your skills and abilities. Besides that, we must be very knowledgeable in whatever we do. Therefore we must read a lot of leadership books and attend leadership courses to build up leadership skills in ourselves. Other than that, we also can read the biography of great leaders to boost up our spirit to become a great leader.

As a conclusion, I would like to take this opportunity to advise the youngsters out there, especially to my generation to start becoming a leader to them first in order to lead a bigger organization. A saying once said, a leader leads by examples, whether he intends or not.

Written by,
NMM

Sidang A DPA Bil. 1/2012

Reference

Mistakes Leaders Make By Dave Kraft, Foreword by Mark Driscoll, 2010

Leaders Who Last By Dave Kraft, 2010

A-Z Steps to Leadership from the Quran and Words of Prophet Muhammad By Abdul Ghani Ahamed Barrie, 1997

Great Leader By John Adair, 1989

The Nature of Leadership by John Antonakis, 2011

www.eng.upm.edu.my/html/files/kaw/prof_radin.new.pdf

http://www.upmbeta2.upm.edu.my/about_us/profile?LANG=en

http://thinkingskillsinc.com/9-common-mistakes-leaders-make/

http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/

http://leadershipquests.blogspot.com