I am at the end of my education path, finishing my Bachelor degree and would like to move on to career path soon, before deciding on further study again. Throughout my life, I have always been participating in different events that involve leadership in which every year I would be involved in one or more leadership positions. So, at this junction of life, I would like to reflect on it as it had been useful for me in the past and hopefully will continue to be useful for me in the future.
The main reason for my first ever reflection on what leadership is, how it is like to be a leader, why it is important to have leadership skill, etc. was because of some important figures in the tech sector in which I have my passion in as well. After watching their speeches and talks numerous times especially during their recent conference sessions, it made me think more about leadership. I started to wonder about the importance of it and how it plays a role in personal growth.
Having been a class representative and subject representative in class to CCA leader to campus lead which eventually led me to be a leader in organising external events certainly has created experiences of working with different group of people. Through observation, I often notice how the more mature people would have different charisma in leading as compared to me. However, it is often difficult to pinpoint and identify what it exactly is that makes them so. Thus, it often leads me to wanting to read and learn more about leadership.
The above image shows the different between a boss and a leader. I like that image as I agree with it. A leader is someone whom I believe, people have put tremendous amount of trust in to lead and provide ways. As such, the leader would be in the front, bringing the people behind together with him/her and nurturing them at the same time. being in the front line, a leader is also providing some sort of safety net for the members behind him/her. A boss treats the members like slaves which sometimes might not even nurture the team properly, and not participating and growing together but simply reaping the results of the members’ hardwork like how he/she simply sits idly. My description of a leader often matches how I feel when leading a team. You learn together with the team and have to be able to listen and pave the way for the members with the utmost permission (trust) that has been given to you.
Being a leader, very often than never, has to be able to cast aside emotions that can cloud judgement and thought process. It is necessary for a leader to stay neutral to be open-minded and listen to your team. Being emotional can be detrimental to the team. In addition, a leader has to be the mediator during a discussion, analyse, and draw the best conclusion that everybody would agree with by providing clear reasons behind it. However, there are situations where your members might be able to point out the loophole that you miss, and you have to perfect it by tweaking it. As such, being flexible is also important. This also affects how a leader would dare to take up a challenge and face it up-front. When the situation does not seem to got right, you adapt and come out with a flexible method to solve it.
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things” — Peter F. Drucker
The very last thing that I think underlies everything is being humble. I feel that in the world of leadership, there is always people who are better than you, who can come out with better solutions that you might miss out, and people who can point out your mistakes that you might not notice. It is important to always keep learning by listening more. Sometimes, the ideas that have been conveyed can be merged with your idea which can produce something even better.
“If you want to stand out as a leader, a good place to begin is by listening. Any organization’s best assets are its people, and if you are ready to help the team to achieve its goals, you can start gathering information on how to move things along just by paying attention to what employees are saying. Leaders who are great listeners are often terrific at uncovering and putting in place strategies and plans that have a big impact” — Richard Branson
Conclusion
If I summarize my experiences, there are some basic things that I think is important for a leader to have. They are:
- Being open-minded and neutral
- Being flexible
- Being brave
- Being humble
Also, there is one thing that a leader must do. It is to listen, listen, and listen.
“The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; be kind, but not weak; be bold, but not bully; be thoughtful, but not lazy; be humble, but not timid; be proud, but not arrogant; have humor, but without folly.” — Jim Rohn