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Introduction on Weekly Reflection Report
This report accommodates compilation of the author reflection from the online (synchronous) class in the subject of ‘Dynamics of Leadership’ (UHPS 6013). This class was conducted by a wonderful and lovely lecturer name Associate Professor Dr. Jamilah Binti Ahmad, from the School of Education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UTM.
Reflection Report Week 1
First class was
started on Tuesday, 19 of March 2024 with a brief ice-breaking
activity where students introduced themselves. This helped build rapport and
mutual understanding among the students. Everyone has to put the information in
the chat box while Prof Jamilah, as a lecturer provided an explanation of the
assessment methods for this course. Not to forget, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jamilah
also introduces herself and share their experience before joining UTM.
The main
lecture then began, starting with 3 pictures of renowned leaders: Winston
Churchill, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and Adolf Hitler. For first leader
named, Winston Churchill, he was a British statesman who served as Prime
Minister during World War II. He is renowned for his inspirational leadership
and ability to rally the British people during the darkest hours of the war. He
has leadership qualities such as exceptional communications skills,
decisiveness and risk-taking in the face of adversity and ability to inspire
and motivate people during difficult times. For second leader named
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, he was an Indian political and spiritual leader who
played a pivotal role in India’s independence movement. He is renowned for
his philosophy of non-violent civil disobedience, which he used to challenge
the British colonial rule in India. He has leadership qualities such as ability
to inspire and mobilize the masses through non-violent resistance. He also has
an ethical and moral leadership, setting an example for his follower. For
the third leader is Adolf Hitler, a leader of the Nazi Party and the dictator
of Germany during World War II. He is known for his authoritarian rule, extreme
nationalist ideology, and atrocities committed under his leadership, including
the Holocaust.
Next slide was ‘Who is the leader?’. A leader is a person who influence a group of people towards the achievement of a goal. Prof Jamilah sharing one video regarding a young boy was wearing a school uniform in a rainy day and suddenly he saw one big tree trunk blocked the main road and it affects many of transportation around the scene stuck. The young boy volunteered himself to push the tree trunk aside and his action influenced and inspired to other people around to follow the young boy to push together to achieve the objective, which was to put aside the tree trunk. Below are some of the scenes that being captured in the video. From the video, I can summarize that the leader is a person even just a young boy, he can influence a people towards achieving the objective.
Prof Jamilah further explain who the leader is and explain leadership is not only lead the big organization or lead a country or somebody who lead a corporate empire, but a leader is also in our family institution. Look at our family, who lead our family, who manage or did a decision to our family. A father is the example of our small organization in our family. The followers are his wife and the children. The goal of a family is to be a happy family. That is the objective to have a family. Another example from Prof Jamilah is the ‘Mamak Restaurant’, where the owner or the boss is the leader, and the other staff such as the chef, the waiter and waitress are the follower. The goal and objective are to give the best service to the customers, and they gain profit and sustain the business. The other example from Prof Jamilah is in school institution, where teacher teaches 40 students in the classroom and the teacher have to influence the student to make sure they follow a quality of teaching and learning process.
Even you are an engineer, not only you are fulfilling you job task, but when you’re dealing with the people around you, or you junior engineers, then you lead, and they are your followers, and you are showing a leadership to them. I also have done some research on why leadership exist. From journal (Caulfield, 2013) cited that leadership exist to profoundly connect us to each other in achieving those true narratives that promote the common good by building morally healthy and sustainable local and global communities for the benefit of humanity.
In the next discussion about a leader, Prof Jamilah stated an example of African great leader, named ‘Nelson Mandela’, a freedom fighter who served 27 years in prison, yet through sheer persistence, he has become one of history’s most renowned figures. One of the journal that I read about Nelson Mandela was a selfless humanist anti-apartheid revolutionist who stood for equity, justice, peace, and freedom (Garba & Akuva, 2020). His determination, spirit of forgiveness, and willingness for reconciliation, were discovered to be responsible for Mandela’s exceptional leadership style in Africa.
Photo of Nelson Mandela – a freedom fighter
For the next session
lectured by Prof Jamilah is a role play between two of her student’s name,
Mohammed Mustafa and Khair Hassan, where Mustafa persuades Khair to have a
dinner in the midst of preparing his urgent assignment. By imagine the
deliciousness of the burger to Khair, and Khair is influenced by Mustafa word.
Eventually, Khair agreed to accompany Mustafa to eat a burger that just near to
their location. From this role play, Prof Jamilah give a suggestion in Mustafa
situation, if Mustafa ask Khair to accompany him for a dinner, maybe Mustaffa
may use word like this, “Khair, if you accompany me, I will pay for the dinner
and I will help you to finish your assignment.” It shows more motivated to
Khair to agree Mustafa request. Prof Jamilah said that great leader, when they
influence, they communicate what his/her intentions and try to gain the
acceptance and at the same time they motivate their follower. Unfortunately, in
this world, many leaders use money to motivate their follower. In example
during the vote, or to win the tender, they use unhealthy motivation such as
bribery. It is not good to have unethical leader like this using bribery to
influence their follower. It reflects to me too, in my daily job as
Administration Executive, I have staff and if I need them to do an urgent job
for example, I need to persuade them with good manner and with the right
communication skill so that they will agree and do the job with well. But, I
think I need more knowledge in this class to know what leadership skills and
leadership styles that suits me to use if this situation happened.
In the end of
class, Prof Jamilah stated that leadership skill can be developed and quotes
‘You can be anything, be kind, in life always remember, what you give, you get
back’. I think this quote is inspiring me to be a better me, to give what the
best for me and giving the thing with sincerely from the heart. Thanks, Prof
Jamilah, for the reminder.
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