Plotting The Right Leadership Journey Early

By Hazlinda Hamzah OXFORD (United Kingdom), Sept 9 (Bernama) -- For the 18 lucky Malaysian students who were selected to attend the Student Global Leadership Programme at the prestigious Oxford University, here recently, it was a truly unforgettable experience as they picked up valuable tips from among the university's best facilitators. "Tough times never last but tough leaders do", so goes the title of a 1983 book by Dr Robert H. Schuller, and this message was drummed into the heads of the young participants throughout the seven-day programme, which included a study trip to London. The programme was part of the Malaysian Student Parliament: Oxford and London Leadership Programme 2015. It was also an extension of the Undergraduate Parliament programme, initiated a few months ago by the Malaysian Council of Former Elected Representatives (Mubarak), with the collaboration of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) and supported by the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia. Asked what his take was on the leadership journey he was privileged to be part of recently, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (a Malaysian public university) management student Muhammad Asri Ibrahim, 29, said he learnt that a leader was always under the watchful eyes of the community and how important it was for the leader to deal with ethical issues first before taking care of other matters. His university mate Mohd Faizal Abdul Wahab, 24, who also attended the programme, said he learnt how important it was for a leader to strategise and "think and do whatever is necessary without expecting others to do it for them". SKILLS During a session facilitated by leadership coach Sarah McCloughry, who also designs and delivers programmes on "Engaging Presentations and Networking at Conferences" for Oxford University's Institute of Biomedical Engineering, she said good presentation skills were an important attribute of effective leadership as leaders have to convince the stakeholders involved to embrace the ideas they put forward. "(In my line of work) I coach individual leaders and I've seen many leaders who are superb intellectually, but unfortunately their presentation and networking skills are boring. "So in order to be a good leader, one will have to be very clear and straight to the point when speaking to their audience. I also tell them to go ahead and make mistakes. That will put their brain on fire! "Leaders should be willing to learn from mistakes, dare to be different and always persevere without giving up. And these qualities should be developed early," she said. McCloughry also pointed out that good leaders manage to get their followers to agree with them. For this to happen, she said, leaders must first work on building trust by displaying their values and abiding by them, besides showing compassion and empowering others. TYPES OF LEADERSHIP She also said that leaders have different styles of leadership, with each having his or her own individual strength. "Some are good at executing, some at relationship building or at influencing while others are strategic leaders. A leader cannot have all these four strengths at once. So find the type and style of leadership you strongly represent, the one that suits you most," she advised. Mohammad Fauzi Mohd Zubir, 21, a third-year student in food science and management at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (National University of Malaysia), said he enjoyed McCloughry's session as she was very humorous. "I was able to pick up some valuable tips in effective networking and how to influence others. "She also reminded us never to forget the importance of the word 'trust', another very essential and strategic factor which enables a network to work effectively," he said. THE JOURNEY The Student Global Leadership Programme comprised three days of lectures which were conducted in a classroom at Oxford University's St. Hugh's College. The second leg of the programme saw the participants in London, interacting with each other in numerous tasks, which required them to exhibit their ability to apply the leadership techniques they had picked up from their facilitators. And, after dinner each day the Malaysian students had to present what they had learnt to the Malaysian delegation who accompanied them. The delegation comprised IIUM Rector Prof Dr Zaleha Kamaruddin, Deputy Rector Prof Dr Mizan Hitam and Deputy Director of the Deputy Rector's Office (Student Affairs) Azura Hamzah. They were accompanied by Mubarak Chairman Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman and its Information Chief Abdul Rahman Sulaiman, who is also the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) Chairman. Zaleha reminded the students to keep a record of their short "journey" in Oxford and London so that they could make references to what they had learnt as and when the need arose. "Write what you do and do what you write. A leader should be meticulous and observant of all details," she said, adding, "this experience in Oxford should last you a lifetime. It sure was an eye-opener for some of you and I must add that you have many more miles to go." --BERNAMA