Natural Born Leaders

June 21st, 2010 The author

Some people are just made to lead. I say this with reference to the culminination of my favourite T.V show, Lost where Jack Shepherd (played by Matthew Fox) assumes leadership of a group of stranded passangers who mysteriously crash into an island. Now I have been watching Lost since it’s first season and I have been following Jack quite closely along with the other castaways.  I have to say this : he is leadership material.

The question is, what is leadership material? Why is it that some people can just naturally assume a leadership position while others don’t, even though they are exhorted and encouraged to do so by their peers. In my own career and personal life, I have seen this happen one to many times.  I have often assumed a natural leadership role in most situations where I have been involved. I don’t mean to blow my trumpet here, it’s just a mere observation I have been analyzing and pondering over the last couple of weeks during my training session.

Coming back to the question : What is leadership material? To answer that, and thanks to my religious following of Lost, I started looking back at my own life and poignantly observing the moments I have taken leadership in a natural manner (by which I mean not elected).

I guess the first thing people look out for is confidence. Am I comfortable and confident enough to let this person lead my group and be my leader? People naturally will feel comfortable with those who exude a sense of confidence, someone who you know is in control and is able to provide you that assurance.

Secondly, I would believe is attitude. Leaders are those who are able to conjure up enough energy and inspire their group to achieve something.  He or she has a vision and the individual is able to not only cast that vision, but to also share and articulate that vision to his or her peers.  I myself am often inspired by leaders who can openly share their plans with me and articulate it in a way that exudes confidence and assurance. 

Third I would believe would be that Leaders have a heart. Jack Shepherd was one who cared for his people, though not in an intimate motherly way, but in a way in which you knew you were in good hands and that you felt his protection over you. Good leaders are those who know how to protect their members because they have hold on to that responsibility that it’s their duty to protect and care. Even as a leader myself, I often find myself looking out for my members more than myself, always ensuring they’re involved (although sometimes I often get caught up with the planning I leave this task to my assistant to help me out with this area).

I believe some leaders are made and that leadership can be taught. But I also believe that leadership traits also are inherited and some people are naturally born with it.  These are the Natural Born Leaders. And is with such people, you would often find comfort and assurance in, doesn’t matter whether you consciously agree to it, your subconscious mind for sure does. It’s a human instinct in all of us.

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The beauty of this country…

February 14th, 2010 The author

Having the opportunity to study abroad really does have its benefits. One of them is that it  allows you to evaluate and then decide on the things that you can come to appreciate about  your native country.  I have to admit, I’m not the most patriotic person when it comes to my  home country.  The only thing that I DO care about in this country is it’s social and economic    issues, especially on employment, education, healthcare and society.

Today, being the auspicious festive season for the chinese, it has made me realize how beautiful this country is. If you’ve gone to other countries, festivals are usually concentrated to a specific ethnic group.  It’s not a cause for a national holiday or major celebration.  However, I am impressed and somewhat taken up by how my country celebrates these holidays. Be it whether it’s the chinese who are celebrating the Lunar new year, or the Malays with their Hari Raya or even the Hindus and the Christians with their Diwalis and Christmases, there is always a sense of unity when the holidays come around. Everyone is in a cheerful mood, even though they are not celebrating the holidays… and I think this is what makes Malaysia truly a beautiful and wonderful country.

Now if we can only do something about the heat… :P

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Post September 27th 2009 – Part I

January 17th, 2010 The author

September 27th 2009. That was my last entry

That’s a long time ago, roughly 100 days or more ago. Yes I am still very much alive and I’ve been tied up with work and..well other things.  In my absence, lots of things have happened,  and so, in order to do justice to my readers, and most importantly to myself, I thought I would highlight the events that have happened over the last 3-4 months

We begin in October 2009….

- My church group had organized a trip to KK, Sabah! Yeahhhh I finally had the chance to go to Sabah for the first time in my life! KK is a nice place, albeit the heat that one has to endure. Reminded me of my boyhood days in Penang, where the sun would just beat down on any pedestrian.

- Work resumed following my short vacation. I had 2 more training sessions to conduct. Thank God the training session for one of them was rescheduled to another date. At least the trainer had some breathing room! Both training sessions went well…. oh wait I think there were 3 training sessions that happened in October. 3 sessions is alot but I guess I managed to pull it off! For one of the training sessions I had to travel up to Kedah ; it was a good experience as I got to eat kampung food by the padi fields.

- October was also the time when I got the news that I would be heading the Sound in the Word Minsitry, a Ministry that is focused in providing content for my church youth group, Lifeline.  It was a welcoming change and something, though I didnt expect to get, was nevertheless a pleasent surprise. I could finally have a stronger say on the curriculum and content development of my youth group.

November 2009

- Work started pilling up. There was yet another training session for November 2009 and this would be the last one for YEAR.  So far all of my training sessions had gone smoothly except for one or two that I had done in Kerteh, oh well can’t blame me,  cuz it was the participants that didn’t show up for the session.  Thank god my project team had decided to revert all training sessions in KL hence forth. Yes, it did mean less travelling allowance for me, but it would also mean that I would not be held responsible should the trainees fail to show up… it was up to them after all!

- I also got involved in my first Company event, thanks to a friend in chruch who decided to rope me in. Though I groaned and at times got fed up with the work (I was in charge of communications so all the emails had to come from me), it was nevertheless an experience.  Luckily my supervisor had given me enough exposure in preparing communications materials for the project. Having that experience definitely allowed me to cope much better for this community day project activity.   It was also fun to coordinate and see backstage what are the components required to do a proper community day.  At the end of it, it was a job well done I should say :)

More in Part II on what happened in December and January

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