LEADERSHIP V PARTNERSHIP

It has been a long time since the last time I'm a leader of any group or organizations. During my schooldays, i was holding a lot of posts-mainly, the leader. I was the deputy head prefect, the commander for KRS, chairman for PSSGM (silat), the chairman for the club of photography, the chairman for crime prevention club, the chairman for blue house and even the chairman of the mosque! This does not include of me being a leader for small groups of students and being the leader of facilitator in courses. When I was in UITM, I told myself that I should stop of being a leader for a while...So, it went that way. I never wanted to be a leader until now when I'm in UKM. I was chosen to be the leader for the PBL group.

I'm not being cocky about who I was. In fact, I know that some of my friends may have a more bombastic-mumbo-jumbo responsibilities in the past. Which makes they better than I am. What I want to share here is what I have developed through the years of being a leader for organizations. What actually a leader do? before that, what is a leader? Well, according to the Oxford Dictionary & Thesaurus of Current English, a leader is the one who leads. For example director, chief etc. So, leaders are suppose to be followed right? Because if we rebel against our own leader, the organization or the group that we formed is at the brick of banishment by our own disobedience. It is like building a sand castle near a shore where a tidal wave is approaching. So, to ensure the group or whatever we have formed lasts long, the leader are suppose to be effective right? Effective in what sense? Maybe the leader needs to make the right decision in every situation? does the leader needs to make the right decision all the time? the leader can never go wrong? should the leader make his own decision without considering what others may think?

This is the time where 'partnership' come into the picture. Through my years of being a leader, I have learnt that we are humans. We do make mistakes. Sometimes, our so called normal-without-a-post group member may got some ideas that even I as the the leader may not think of. What damage would it cause if I put their ideas into consideration? plus, we can work hand by hand and I believe, by this way of treating my colleagues, they will respect me even more. I'm saying this because i can see these values are lacking in my surroundings. I do know and I truly understands how it feels like being a leader. There are some leaders out there that cannot cope with the stress, they starting to give up and blaming each others. In my opinion, a group or organization is not composed of the leader only. Actually, the group itself is the leader. Each and every member of the group carries the responsibility to lead themselves. Not by just relying to one person.

I do understand about how hard being a leader. Because of that, I'm applying what I refer as partnership in my leadership for the PBL group. By this method, we can work together as a group and respect each other.

In conclusion, a leader needs to know how to tackle various situations that may happen in a group so that they can find the exact solution for every problem that they are facing. Last but not least, maybe the title of this post can be changed from Leadership v Partnership to leadership needs partnership.