Leader

The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.  – Ronald Reagan

One word that could describe the leadership quotes above is inspire. Ronald Reagan reminds me of the impeccable leadership lesson from Muhammad SAW. Throughout the history, Muhammad SAW has inspired millions of souls. This amazing man is the leader that have a great clarity of vision and strategy. He successfully creates a system that can take his legacy onwards. Even though, he is not the one who traveled across the seven seas to calls people in the name of Islam. However, through his vision and strategy in leadership, from only 67 people in AD 624 who embrace Islam, in 2019 approximately 1.8 billion had embrace Islam from the whole world’s population. Needles to say, Muhammad SAW is the extraordinary leader whom inspire people to explore beyond their potential. He successfully nurtures an oppressed slave to be highest caliber of leader. It is a crystal clear that Muhammad SAW is the exemplar of an extraordinary leader.  A leader that creates leader.

Leader by the definition is from the front. Hence, leading is a matter of courage. Leader must have the courage to go where nobody dared to venture before in the world of the minds and spirits of men. People need leader that they can look up to, not down. An extraordinary leader should make a good transformation, not only to the system and organization, most importantly to the development of human being. Human being is designed with three important learning domains which are psychomotor, cognitive and affective. The leader shall lead in such a way, the brain, heart and physical of the followers are effectively functional. Leader should motivate the followers to be independent and adapt with any circumstances. The leader should be well versed on their followers, so they are able to provide constructive feedbacks for the followers to grow. The instruction should be made according to the strength of their followers. These are among the quality encompass by my sifu (leader) in academia.

Among the advices from my sifu is – Rome wasn’t built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. Whenever I felt down or demotivated, she always reminds me to look in the different perspective. She always listens attentively to my doubts and concern. She loved to provide Chinese idiom for me to reflects. I can now relate with my life and start to strategize action based on the analogies provided by my sifu. Beyond my own capabilities, she groom me to be a greater version of myself according to my forte.  Pragmatically, she will provide a very brief – valuable advice for me to move forward and manoeuvre my own realm. (Indeed, she is pragmatist). I always look forward to her as my leader, mentor and coach in academics and life.

At the end of the day, as a human, we learn through our heart, brain and physicals. The characteristic of leader that I look forward is the one who have empathy, and cares for the people. The leader is the one who lead us to the no matter how tough the road will be, the leader will guide and provide tremendous support (mentally or physically). I believe that the followers are the reflection of the leader. I have seen different kind of followers which are obedient, passive, proactive, wise and treacherous. The followers will follow the footsteps of their leader. So as the followers, wisely choose ate your leader. Ultimately, a follower will be a leader. Whether we will be an extraordinary leader that provide a great ecosystem for their followers, 100% committed, walk the talk and stay together through the hurdles or the corrupt leader that only drained and take advantage on the followers.

Alhamdulillah, I am grateful to be in the UTM ecosystem. What I love about UTM is, they provide platform for new staff to grow and learn from the extraordinary leaders. Numbers of workshops and programmes were designed to provide support system for us to bloom. Faculty, Centre, UTM Lead, TTC, TNCPI, RMC and so many PTJ always provide endless support in holistic way. They provide freedom for us to spread our wing in exploring our potential. I am looking forward to learn from all of the amazing leaders of UTM and hopefully practice all the knowledge and inputs for me to grow.