Leadership – A personal view
Leadership was a big word that I learned during my childhood years. Remembering
those old days when I was still schooling, I will always smile because I really
enjoyed the learning process in becoming a leader. Furthermore, being the
eldest brother in the family of six siblings, I was always being reminded by my
father that I should be taking care of all my siblings at all times, “Whenever
I’m not around, you become the leader and you must be responsible towards all
your siblings” my father always said to me. Even until today his words are
still playing in my mind and furthermore knowing that my father was an army
officer, he was very strict when it comes to matters involving discipline and
leadership. Well that’s how my entire siblings were brought up through
discipline and leadership in the family.
As I grew up and went to school I learnt more about leadership. Ever since
kindergarden until primary school, I had always been appointed as the class
leader and that’s where I begin to learn how to become a leader. When I entered
secondary school my leadership skill continued to grow as I was actively involved
in many school activities, holding various positions from committee members to
presidents for clubs and societies and also becoming school prefect. Those were
the good old days for me and my friends which I treasure until today.
Years passed and I finally entered the university to further my education
and there again I continued to learn about leadership in a much bigger scale,
in this context is the leadership in campus. During my university years I polish
more of my leadership skill when holding key positions for few clubs and
societies beginning from becoming exco members until the presidents. One of my
biggest achievements was holding the position as the President of Students Representative
Council in my university. I considered myself has been growing in many ways
through years of leadership training but that however does not satisfies me
because I quickly realized that there’s more to learn ahead of me.
I remembered my initial ambition was becoming an army officer, following
my father’s footsteps as I have seen the leadership qualities that he portrayed
since I was a small boy. Looking back at my family history, my grandfather and
great grandfather also served as army officers both during the World War II and
during the communist era. Therefore the leadership spirit has been in me all this
while and it shall be my pride to become an army officer because that will be a
continuation of the family legacy, besides honouring their contribution towards
serving the nation.
Apart from that I also had the ambition to become a police officer or a
lawyer. Then on one fine day I received a letter calling me for an interview as
Police Inspector at Pusat Latihan Polis Sarawak (PULASAR). I thought that I
finally had the great opportunity to prove my credibility as a leader and building
my career serving in the uniform body. However due to some unfortunate events,
I was not qualified for the position. Frankly, at that time I had to admit that
it was a very disappointing moment in my life, however at the same time I
praised Allah for giving me the chance to experience the interview process.
Years have passed and as I moved on, I experienced more and more
challenges in life especially during those days working in the private sector.
However, finally I have decided to join the civil service and after going
through a series of selection, I was accepted to join the Administrative and
Diplomatic Officer (PTD) scheme in which had become my career until
present.
In reflecting my journey towards building up my career, I had always admired
one highly talented leader who had inspired me all these years by how he served
the country towards his most excellence. The leader whom I admired is Tun Hussein bin Dato' Onn, Malaysia’s 3rd
Prime Minister. He was born on February 12, 1922 in Johor Bahru, Johor
and was the son of Dato’ Onn Jaafar and Datin Halimah Hussein. During his era of
ruling the country from 1976 to 1981, he was popularly granted the soubriquet Bapa Perpaduan (Father of Unity).
A brief history about Tun Hussein, he was the founder of UMNO party and
a Malayan freedom fighter. He was the brother in law of Tun Abdul Razak, his
predecessor as Prime Minister. Tun Hussein received his early education in Telok Kurau Primary School, Singapore
and at the English College, Johor.
After leaving school, he joined the Johor Military Forces as a
cadet in 1940 and was sent a year later to the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun,
India.
Upon completion of his training, he was absorbed into the Indian Army and
served in the Middle East when the Second World
War broke.[3]
After the war, his vast experience prompted the British
to employ him as an instructor at the Malayan Police Recruiting
and Training Centre in Rawalpindi.
Tun Hussein came back to Malaysia in 1945 and was appointed Commandant
of the Johor Bahru Police Depot.
The following year he joined the Malaya Civil Service as an
assistant administrative officer in Segamat,
Johor.
He was later posted to the state of Selangor,
becoming Klang
and Kuala
Selangor’s district officer.
Tun Hussein, who came from a family with deep nationalistic spirit and
political roots, resigned from the civil service to go into politics. In 1949,
he became the first youth chief of UMNO (United Malays National Organization),
a party his father helped established. In 1950, he was elected the UMNO
secretary general. Tun Hussein however left UMNO in 1951 to join his father in
forming the Independence of Malaya Party (IMP). With
IMP losing momentum, Tun Hussein went to London to study
law at Lincoln's Inn, qualifying as a Barrister-at-Law.
He came back as a certified lawyer and practiced in Kuala Lumpur.
Tun Hussein returned to politics in 1968 after being persuaded by the
then Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak to rejoin UMNO. He stood and
won the general elections in 1969 and was appointed as the education minister.
Tun Hussein’s meteoric rise continued when on August 13, 1973 he succeeded the
late Tun Dr Ismail
as the Deputy Prime Minister. On January 15, 1976 he was appointed as Prime
Minister of Malaysia after the death of Tun Razak.
Tun Hussein was renowned for stressing on the issue of unity through
policies aimed at rectifying economic imbalances between the communities. For
instance, April 20, 1981 saw the National Unit Trust Scheme being launched.
He also gave serious consideration to the concept of Rukun Tetangga (a neighbourhood watch scheme) and the fight
against the drug menace.
He underwent a coronary bypass in early 1981. On July 17 the same year,
he retired from active politics and relinquished his prime minister post due to
health concerns. He was
succeeded by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
After his retirement as Prime Minister he continued to contribute to
welfare organizations. He was instrumental in the setting up of the Tun Hussein
Onn Eye Hospital. He was also an advisor to Petronas the country’s oil company
and Chairman of Institute of Strategic and International Studies (ISIS).
During the 1987 UMNO leadership crisis,
Tun Hussein fell out with Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, supporting Team B along with
Tunku Abdul Rahman. Tun Hussein along with the Tunku, henceforth, became a
strident critic of the Mahathir administration and died without having rejoined
UMNO.
He died on the 29 May 1990 in Seaton Medical Center, San Francisco,
at the age of 68. He had two sons and four daughters. He is buried in Makam
Pahlawan (Heroes Mausoleum) near Masjid Negara,
Kuala Lumpur.
Tun Hussein Onn was looked upon as being very sincere in his struggle for
racial unity and had a reputation of being firm against anyone that tried to
create racial unrest in the country and it was due to this, that he was known
as Bapa Perpaduan or 'Father of
Unity'.
At present, I feel proud for having the opportunity to serve as one of
the officer under Tun Hussein’s son, Dato’ Seri Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein,
who is the present Home Minister of Malaysia.
Leadership
can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Great ideas can
generate ideally within an organization when we have great leaders who guides
the organization towards the right path. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of
General Electric Co., said, "Good business leaders create a vision,
articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to
completion." Therefore in generating great ideas, a leader must be able to
communicate his or her vision in terms that cause followers to buy into it. He
or she must communicate clearly and passionately, as passion is contagious. A
good leader must also have the discipline to work toward his or her vision
single-mindedly, as well as to direct his or her actions and those of the team
toward the goal.
A great leader must possess certain characteristics which benchmark him towards achieving the target that has been set earlier. Having said that, a leader must possess one of the major value that is integrity in which is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A leader with great ideas must have the trust of followers and therefore must also display integrity in all his actions and will become more approachable by followers.
Great ideas will become ineffective
if a leader themselves has no dedication towards the responsibilities
given to him. What is demanded by dedication is a leader spending whatever time
or energy is necessary to accomplish the task at hand. Once a leader has set an
excellent example, leaders can show followers that success can only be achieved
through full dedication.
Often great ideas fail when
leaders are not open towards rooms for improvement. Openness
means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not
conform to the usual way of thinking. Good leaders must be able to suspend
judgment while listening to others' ideas, as well as accept new ways of doing
things that someone else thought of. In this manner it will build mutual
respect and trust between leaders and followers, and it also keeps the team
well supplied with new ideas that can further its vision.
Creativity
is the ability to think differently, to think out of the box. Creativity gives
leaders the ability to see things that others have not seen and thus lead
followers in new directions. Apart from all that a leader must practise fairness at all
times, means dealing with others consistently and justly. A leader must check
all the facts and hear everyone out before passing judgment. A leader must
avoid leaping to conclusions based on incomplete evidence. Always remember that
a leader will be rewarded with loyalty and dedication only when people feel
they that are being treated fairly.
Despite
all the criteria mentioned, above all human touch is undeniably important.
Effective leader with good sense of humour will be able to relieve tension and
boredom, as well as to defuse hostility. They will know how to use humour to
energize followers as it is also a form of power that provides some control
over the work environment.
Therefore when discussing about leadership, often leaders make mistakes which jeopardize the opportunity to achieve excellence. Oscar Wilde once said “Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes”. It’s true that mistakes will make opportunity to learn better. However it’s much better not to make mistakes in the first place.
Leaders commonly make the same mistakes all the time, which is lack of feedback. When a leader has detected weaknesses in their workers, he must not delay and take immediate action to improve the weakness. This is because if the weakness continues, the organization will suffer great impact.
Leaders also make a mistake when not making time for their team. It means that when leaders are too busy with their own work, they indirectly neglect their team whereas the team needs the leader to be with them to give support and guidance at all time. When this happens the team can easily be off track and fail to achieve their objectives.
Leaders
already know they had to make time for their team so that a strong bonding can
be accomplished between them. However, being too friendly will result in people
tempted to take advantage of the relationship especially when leaders have to
make tough decisions. Therefore a good leader must be able to differentiate and
balance between being a friend and a leader in the organization.
The
most crucial mistakes done by leaders is fail to define goals. The team will
not be able to be productive when they don’t know what they are working for.
Even worse they can’t prioritize their workload effectively and might result in
tasks being completed in the wrong manner and resulted as disaster to the
organization.
Delegating
the tasks properly is another common mistakes made by leaders and this has
certainly cause huge problems as leaders fail to develop their people to take
the pressure off them.
Often people questioned on how to become a better leader in their workplace. In one leadership study being conducted by a psychologist and leadership expert Ronald E. Riggio said that "Research clearly shows that transformational leaders - leaders who are positive, inspiring, and who empower and develop followers - are better leaders." Therefore what are the characteristics of a better leader? Well some of the characteristics is to learn more about your leadership style. The first step for leaders is to understand their own leadership style. Once the leadership style has been identified, leaders can further identify and improve the weaknesses in their leadership style.
In an organization, a leader must be able to encourage their followers to express their creativity. Effective leaders should offer new challenges with ample support to achieve these goals. One way to foster creativity is to offer challenges to group members, making sure that the goals are within the grasp of their abilities. The purpose for this exercise is to get people to stretch their limits, but to not become discouraged by barriers to success.
Leaders in
organization also serve as a role model to show good behaviours and
characteristics that will encourage their followers. Therefore whenever a
leader shows a good example the group members are expected to follow the same
example. Thus in order to become a better leader, one must know the qualities
they would like to see in their group members and show the right example so
that the group members also will be influenced to follow the same.
Leaders must also be passionate towards
getting the group members to finish a task. It is important for leaders to
express their passion towards their group members and their contributions
because that shows that they are concern about the group’s performance.
Effective leaders must also know how to listen and communicate effectively with their group members. They must know how to express their sincere care and concern for the group members because by doing so they will ensure the group member feel that their contribution is being appreciated by their leaders.
In encouraging the group member to achieve excellence in their tasks, leaders must have a positive attitude. Most of the time members are discourage when the leaders display negative behaviour towards the members effort. Therefore it is important for leaders to stay positive at all times to encourage their group members.
Apart from all the encouragements, leaders must exercise giving rewards and recognition towards their group members because this technique has been proven to be an effective way to motivate followers to feel appreciated and happy. Besides that it can also encourage the group members to perform better in their works. Susan M. Heathfield, the author of “About.com's Guide to Human Resources” stated that leaders can help their group members feel happier by offering help, next by removing the barriers to success and lastly by rewarding strong efforts to the group members.
Finally
a leader must always remember that leadership is not always about a one-way
communication. Instead a leader must always emphasis on receiving feedback and
inspiration from their group members in effort to encourage thinking out of the
box and trying new things. Use the past as a guidance and always look forward
to anticipate better ideas from time to time.
Personally,
leadership has been a very wide and interesting subject matter. In fact I have
always believed that leadership has been a life-long learning process to me, be
it during my education years or working years at present. Thus in developing
myself as a leader I tried to apply few basic guidelines such as being
enthusiastic in the task given to me or my team, continue to motivate and
always look for broader perspectives in accomplishing tasks. Becoming a good
listener for my team so that problems can be solved effectively and so to
achieve better understanding.
Most
importantly is always be fair and not favour towards people, know when to
praise and criticize the group member in order to maximise their potentials.
Having said that, it’s a long road to go and many winding turns and therefore I
believe there shall be much more challenges to face in the future. A small step
that I take today will determine the bigger success for me to become a great
leader in the future, InsyaAllah.
Mohamad Amirrul Rashid bin Zainudin
Sidang B – DPA 1 / 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment