Grooming A Leader

Can a person be groomed to be a leader ? Can we train people to be leaders ? Or are leaders born and not groomed ? These are the questions that my overseas clients used to ask me. What is your opinion ?

Leadership development requires considerable self-discipline in mobilizing one’s efforts and energy to stay focused on attaining an important goal. Self discipline is necessary because the pressures of everyday activities often drive a person’s attention from personal development. A person needs self awareness so that he/she knows his personal strength and weaknesses.

Willingness to learn, unlearn and relearn. Formal education and self-study provide one with information for innovative problem solving. Being intellectually alert contributes to exerting influence through logical persuasion.

Leader Need to have a Vision

The goal of leadership development is to provide meaningful development opportunities, not to push managers to the point where they are most likely to fail. I can remember when I was working for Michael Weinig GmbH in the late eighties, they put me in different positions to groom me to take up positions of more responsibilities. Back in late August, 1993, I was asked to go for a hot air balloon flight with the company’s executive chairman in North Carolina. That was my first hot balloon flight experience. When the hot air balloon took off from the ground, I was very worried because I kept looking on the ground rather than looking at the sky horizon to enjoy the beauty of nature. The chairman saw me, I was fearful, worried and timid. He said, “ John, please look at the sky horizon, then you will be alright. “

I took the chairman’s advice to look at the skyline. My fear was gone and my face was full of smile. He asked me: “ John, what have you learned in this hot air balloon flight ? “ I shared with him that to be a leader, we need to have a mission, far-sighted, and visionary . It was like in the hot air balloon flight when I look down on the ground, I was worried, but when I looked at the sky horizon, I was relieved and began to enjoy the beautiful creation of God. Though we were at the hot air balloon flight for 90 minutes, it was like 9 minutes only.

Mentoring.

One can be assigned a mentor to help him/her to achieve the goals. Mentoring is an informal relationship based on compatibility or spark between two personalities. In reality it is a widespread practice for employers to formally to formally assign a mentor to a new employee to help him or her adjust well to the organization and to succeed.

Mentors enhance the career of protégés in many ways, such as recommending them for promotion and helping them establish valuable contacts. It can be an effective method of helping minorities advance.



Mentoring – A Personal Experience

When I joined Toastmasters International back in 1990, I was an ordinary member. For 7 years, I participated to do my manual speeches. It was October 1996, the Club President, Mr. Mok Chok San of Bukit Batok Toastmasters Club in Singapore invited me to serve as the Vice President Education of the club. I took the challenge. He guided me to have directional thinking to achieve the vision of the club and established a direction. The Club went on to become one of the Top club in the category of 40 members.

Mr. Mok told me that a life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will, is likely to be short. Life requires choices, choices require risks. He told me that leadership is about carving out new frontiers. And as with any new frontier, the pathways for getting there are often filled with risk. Though most of the time, I travelled to Europe and America to work, he still encouraged me to take up Area Governor position the following team.

Mok has groomed me, shaped me and led me to find my voice to serve the world. Since serving as Area Governor, I continued to serve as Division Governor, Lieutenant Governor and District Governor.

I remembered very well when I was serving as Division Governor, the then District Governor, Maimunah Natasha from Jakarta, Indonesia guided, coached and mentored me every day. She groomed me to take up leadership role at the District level. It was Maimunah who inspired me to continue to serve Toastmasters International as Lieutenant Governor and District Governor. She asked me to read the Toastmasters International Policy, by-laws and constitution. I did as she had told me to without asking her a question.

Maimunah inspired me further, encouraged and motivated me to run for Toastmasters International Director in August 2005. After serving as Toastmasters International Director; she again inspired me to move on to run for Toastmasters International Third Vice President. Now I have been nominated by the International Leadership Committee to be a candidate for Third Vice President, the election will be held in Calgary on August 15th, 2008.

In the Toastmasters leadership journey, there are many members who have helped me to succeed. I would like to thank each and everyone of them, in particular Maimunah and Mok Chok San. Maimunah is now an international preacher based in Jaklarta while Mok is a lecturer at a leading polytechnic in Singapore.

Feedback-intensive programs

It help leaders develop by seeing more clearly their patterns of behaviours, reasons for such behaviours, and the impact of these behaviours and attitudes on their effectiveness.

Skill-based programs

It involves acquiring abilities and techniques that can be converted into action. We can use lecture, case study, role-play, behavioural role-modeling, simulations.

Conceptual knowledge

It equips people with a conceptual understanding of leadership

Conceptual knowledge refers to a person’s representation of the major concepts in a system. Examples include being able to answer questions such as, "What is the difference between the units-column and the tens-column in two-column addition problems such as 39+45=___?”

Communication

People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications. Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intra-group, organizational, or external levels.

The use of gestures, movements, material things, time, and space can clarify or confuse the meaning of verbal communication. Tthe tone of the boss will probably have a greater impact on how a message is interpreted than the actual words.

A "majority" of the meaning we attribute to words comes not from the words themselves, but from nonverbal factors such as gestures, facial expressions, tone, body language, etc. Nonverbal cues can play five roles:

Repetition: they can repeat the message the person is making verbally
Contradiction: they can contradict a message the individual is trying to convey
Substitution: they can substitute for a verbal message. For example, a person's eyes can often convey a far more vivid message than words and often do
Complementing: they may add to or complement a verbal message. A boss who pats a person on the back in addition to giving praise can increase the impact of the message
Accenting: non-verbal communication may accept or underline a verbal message. Pounding the table, for example, can underline a message.
Skillful communicators understand the importance of nonverbal communication and use it to increase their effectiveness, as well as use it to understand more clearly what someone else is really saying.

Conclusion

One need to put the ears on the ground to listen to the members’ voices. Staying connected with people is the key to bring our organization to the next stage of development. Give everyone the ownership to enable them to express their views freely.

Leadership is taking action – moving forward to learn, unlearn and relearn. First, we need to learn about ourselves – where is our strength and weakness to understand our inner geography. If possible take a personal personality profile assessment. Only when we understand ourselves fully, we can be groomed to be an effective leader.




Grooming A Leader

Can a person be groomed to be a leader ? Can we train people to be leaders ? Or are leaders born and not groomed ? These are the questions that my overseas clients used to ask me. What is your opinion ?

Leadership development requires considerable self-discipline in mobilizing one’s efforts and energy to stay focused on attaining an important goal. Self discipline is necessary because the pressures of everyday activities often drive a person’s attention from personal development. A person needs self awareness so that he/she knows his personal strength and weaknesses.

Willingness to learn, unlearn and relearn. Formal education and self-study provide one with information for innovative problem solving. Being intellectually alert contributes to exerting influence through logical persuasion.

Leader Need to have a Vision

The goal of leadership development is to provide meaningful development opportunities, not to push managers to the point where they are most likely to fail. I can remember when I was working for Michael Weinig GmbH in the late eighties, they put me in different positions to groom me to take up positions of more responsibilities. Back in late August, 1993, I was asked to go for a hot air balloon flight with the company’s executive chairman in North Carolina. That was my first hot balloon flight experience. When the hot air balloon took off from the ground, I was very worried because I kept looking on the ground rather than looking at the sky horizon to enjoy the beauty of nature. The chairman saw me, I was fearful, worried and timid. He said, “ John, please look at the sky horizon, then you will be alright. “

I took the chairman’s advice to look at the skyline. My fear was gone and my face was full of smile. He asked me: “ John, what have you learned in this hot air balloon flight ? “ I shared with him that to be a leader, we need to have a mission, far-sighted, and visionary . It was like in the hot air balloon flight when I look down on the ground, I was worried, but when I looked at the sky horizon, I was relieved and began to enjoy the beautiful creation of God. Though we were at the hot air balloon flight for 90 minutes, it was like 9 minutes only.

Mentoring.

One can be assigned a mentor to help him/her to achieve the goals. Mentoring is an informal relationship based on compatibility or spark between two personalities. In reality it is a widespread practice for employers to formally to formally assign a mentor to a new employee to help him or her adjust well to the organization and to succeed.

Mentors enhance the career of protégés in many ways, such as recommending them for promotion and helping them establish valuable contacts. It can be an effective method of helping minorities advance.



Mentoring – A Personal Experience

When I joined Toastmasters International back in 1990, I was an ordinary member. For 7 years, I participated to do my manual speeches. It was October 1996, the Club President, Mr. Mok Chok San of Bukit Batok Toastmasters Club in Singapore invited me to serve as the Vice President Education of the club. I took the challenge. He guided me to have directional thinking to achieve the vision of the club and established a direction. The Club went on to become one of the Top club in the category of 40 members.

Mr. Mok told me that a life without adventure is likely to be unsatisfying, but a life in which adventure is allowed to take whatever form it will, is likely to be short. Life requires choices, choices require risks. He told me that leadership is about carving out new frontiers. And as with any new frontier, the pathways for getting there are often filled with risk. Though most of the time, I travelled to Europe and America to work, he still encouraged me to take up Area Governor position the following team.

Mok has groomed me, shaped me and led me to find my voice to serve the world. Since serving as Area Governor, I continued to serve as Division Governor, Lieutenant Governor and District Governor.

I remembered very well when I was serving as Division Governor, the then District Governor, Maimunah Natasha from Jakarta, Indonesia guided, coached and mentored me every day. She groomed me to take up leadership role at the District level. It was Maimunah who inspired me to continue to serve Toastmasters International as Lieutenant Governor and District Governor. She asked me to read the Toastmasters International Policy, by-laws and constitution. I did as she had told me to without asking her a question.

Maimunah inspired me further, encouraged and motivated me to run for Toastmasters International Director in August 2005. After serving as Toastmasters International Director; she again inspired me to move on to run for Toastmasters International Third Vice President. Now I have been nominated by the International Leadership Committee to be a candidate for Third Vice President, the election will be held in Calgary on August 15th, 2008.

In the Toastmasters leadership journey, there are many members who have helped me to succeed. I would like to thank each and everyone of them, in particular Maimunah and Mok Chok San. Maimunah is now an international preacher based in Jaklarta while Mok is a lecturer at a leading polytechnic in Singapore.

Feedback-intensive programs

It help leaders develop by seeing more clearly their patterns of behaviours, reasons for such behaviours, and the impact of these behaviours and attitudes on their effectiveness.

Skill-based programs

It involves acquiring abilities and techniques that can be converted into action. We can use lecture, case study, role-play, behavioural role-modeling, simulations.

Conceptual knowledge

It equips people with a conceptual understanding of leadership

Conceptual knowledge refers to a person’s representation of the major concepts in a system. Examples include being able to answer questions such as, "What is the difference between the units-column and the tens-column in two-column addition problems such as 39+45=___?”

Communication

People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications. Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intra-group, organizational, or external levels.

The use of gestures, movements, material things, time, and space can clarify or confuse the meaning of verbal communication. Tthe tone of the boss will probably have a greater impact on how a message is interpreted than the actual words.

A "majority" of the meaning we attribute to words comes not from the words themselves, but from nonverbal factors such as gestures, facial expressions, tone, body language, etc. Nonverbal cues can play five roles:

Repetition: they can repeat the message the person is making verbally
Contradiction: they can contradict a message the individual is trying to convey
Substitution: they can substitute for a verbal message. For example, a person's eyes can often convey a far more vivid message than words and often do
Complementing: they may add to or complement a verbal message. A boss who pats a person on the back in addition to giving praise can increase the impact of the message
Accenting: non-verbal communication may accept or underline a verbal message. Pounding the table, for example, can underline a message.
Skillful communicators understand the importance of nonverbal communication and use it to increase their effectiveness, as well as use it to understand more clearly what someone else is really saying.

Conclusion

One need to put the ears on the ground to listen to the members’ voices. Staying connected with people is the key to bring our organization to the next stage of development. Give everyone the ownership to enable them to express their views freely.

Leadership is taking action – moving forward to learn, unlearn and relearn. First, we need to learn about ourselves – where is our strength and weakness to understand our inner geography. If possible take a personal personality profile assessment. Only when we understand ourselves fully, we can be groomed to be an effective leader.