Leadership Training with Mrs. Rukhsana Pervez

[Credit by Ayu (one of the students)]

Saturday is my favorite day when I don't have any classes, even though rarely it might be a substitute class for paying an absent class which it should be held in its schedule (in weekday) but for some reasons, the class is disbanded. But, most of all, I usually free on Saturday. 

Saturday is also my day when I don't care about my academics stuff. It's enough for the long weekday. I should take a rest, escape from stressful routines, take a breath, and start a new 'life'. 

Monthly on Saturday, I attend the Leadership Traing by Yayasan Goodwill International, I'm their scholarship receiver, and I proud of it. So, this Saturday, I came and I learnt so much. I'm not going to tell you about what Yayasan Goodwill International is, but I would like to share about what I  have got during this training. 

We had three incredible speakers, they were Mrs. Rukhsana Pervez, Mrs. Novia, and Mr. Bagas. But, I'd like only share about what I've got during Mrs. Rukhsana session. Later, when I'm in the mood and have enough time to write, I'll share about what I've got during other sessions. 

Mrs. Rukhsana, she is Pakistani but accustomed to the British culture. Her family is a multicultural. Right now, she works for Chevron, in Indonesia. During the training, she was really awesome. Her english was understandable, she chose words that was easy to be understand. She also didn't spend so much times for lecturing but she asked us to discuss in a group and present the results in front of other students. The respond from the students was positive, by the method, we didn't get bored. 

Her material was about leadership. At first, she asked us to give a burning question before she started the session. A number of students asked different question correlated to leadership, including me, I asked, "At the time, when the leader has a lot of pressure, in a depression condition, and couldn't cope the problem, who is the person that can help him/her?". Easily she answered, it should be his wife or her husband. But I still have a question, "How about if we still haven't married yet", but maybe she didn't hear it, so she didn't answer me. It's okay, I just need to get married so I wouldn't become stress.

She started by asking us to discuss in a group, "Who is the person that you think he/she is a great leader, and what does the person have that make him/her as a great leader?". I thought about SBY, our last president, I respect him so much, he is charismatics, smart, wise, humble, and good communicator. While the other students in my group, they thought about our Prophet Muhammad, Soekarno, and Jokowi. Different with SBY, they thought that what Jokowi has is he downs to earth, to serve the people. Then we came to a conclusion, that great leader should be charismatics, smart, wise, humble, good communicator, and serving the people. 

There was a student who thought Adolf Hitler as one of great leaders. When I heard that, I thought about Holocaust. I thought that Adolf Hitler was inhuman, heartless, and authoritarian. But, the student told us that Adolf Hitler was a great leader because he had a good strategy so his followers  trusted him and followed what he wanted them to do. Mrs. Rukhsana said, yes, it's still controversial, some people said he was not a great leader, but for some people, yes. 

Then, we moved to learn about the different between leader and manager. Most of the group came to a conclusion that the leader is flexible, influencing people, and the people follow him by heart, while manager is rigid, doesn't have to influence people, and the people follow him by the job description. But, Mrs. Rukhsana said, it's not like that, it doesn't mean that all of bad criteria comes for the manager, the manager is also able to be a leader. She straightened us, that either manager and leader is good. They only have different roles. Manager is the person who makes plans, coordinates, and allocates the jobs, while the leader tends to motivate the people to reach the goal.

The leader can have their own natural leadership style. There are 4 traditional leadership style, they are authoritarian, laissez faire, democratic, and bureaucratic. Authoritarian leader is a leader who instructs his followers by his power, the followers must obey him. Laissez faire leader is a leader who works behind the people. He tends to empower the people to bring out their ability in contributing to the organization. He couldn't say "no" because he believes the people. Democratic leader is a leader who creates the vision together with the people, he allows the people to give their opinion, so they can reach the goal effectively. While, the bureaucratic leader is a leader who is limited by the rule. He will manage the people to obey the rule. He controls and reminds the people whether they do their jobs fit to the rule. Every persons must have their own natural leadership style, what is yours?

Leadership style can be situational. For example, when we face a crisis condition, the ship is going to drown, the leader must be authoritarian. The leader doesn't have to be democratic, it will spend so much time discussing. It's about the life, not much time to discuss, the leader must decide how to save the people quickly. 

A short term activities may be a situation when the leader may be a laissez faire. The leader knows the ability of the people. For example, she is good in raising fund, he is good in managing the electricity system, he is good in persuading prospective guests to come, or others. The leader empowers them, motivates them, and the leader believes they can do it by them self.

The situation when the people are going to go travelling, the leader should be democratic. Because the people have their own opinion to decide the destination. Democratic leader comes from a person who doesn't have all of the competences, so the leader needs opinion from other people who have their own competence. In this case, the people may have an argument why they should go to the their selected destination and came to a final decision after having discussion. 

Bureaucratic leadership style may happen when the organization is like a research group which has a lot of rules or procedure in doing something. The members of the group have their own job. For example, a member is responsible for doing extraction, another one is responsible in analyzing, and so on. So, the leader will remind them whether they do the job fit to the procedure or not and control them not to come out from the procedure. 

Yeah, it's all about leadership. We appreciated so much for the great lesson from Mrs. Rukhsana. By her busy routines, she spent one of her time to come and motivate us. We really thanked to her so much. We hope, she always be succeed in her every day life. 

So, that's all. I hope you also got the benefit from what I share here. Thank you for visiting :D

[Credit by Opasari, the picture of Mrs. Rukhsana together with the students.
(I'm sad because I'm not in the picture, ignore it)]