When I first arrived in Waikato, my hopes are to have fun, meet new people and completing my

course to the best of my abilities. By the end of the semester, I really enjoyed myself and at the
same time made many friends. However, I am also glad that from the past 15 weeks of MCOM 583
classes, in all the class activities, I learned about leadership and the characteristics of a leader. So
many opinions about leadership are being discussed in class. One important aspect about
leadership that I took home from this class is leadership is not a skill but a collection of skills. I
would say leader is like the Jack of all skills, not a master but a servant. In other words, a leader
needs to have a repertoire of skills such as social, communication, listening, motivation, forward
looking and a lot more in a long list. With these skills, most importantly the job of a leader is to
serve others and not vice versa. Coming from a society that glorifies leadership position, leads me
to think that a leadership is somewhat prestige for its status. This is a misconception that I had
about leadership, I always thought that it required a position but now I understand that you can
lead from any position. My perpective about leadership has changed and I feel it is something
voluntary but noble to do. It is something you do when you are ready and not being force to.
Leadership is based on mutual consent relationship between those who aspire to lead and those
who choose to follow (Spears and Lawrence, 2002). So leadership is about providing service to
others and growing more leaders not followers. The biggest flaw in my society is they failed to
understand that leadership is a position of service not power. I wish that all the political leaders in
my country could understand this concept and it would be a better place.

Before MCOM583 class, there are two main points that stood out to me that I had not really
considered in my everyday life until now. The points I will be discussing here are the visible
differences between managers and leaders. I was always frustrated and confused about
leadership versus management in my previous workplace. Are my previous bosses that I worked
with a leader or manager? In Olivia and Leonie's presentation exercise that involved arranging the
leadership versus manager traits conceptual model was interesting with everyones differing
opinions on what is a manager and leader. One of the most important concepts that I learned from
the activity is the comparison in which managers do things right whereas leaders do the right
thing. In other words, managers tend produce consistences and predictable outcomes while
leaders produce dramatic outcomes. I find that anyone may assume leadership role even he or she
is not a manager. Personally I find that the exercise was very tricky and difficult to arrange just
from my opinion. This is because not only that we are unable to talk to each other while there is
also a need to take into account what everyone elses ideas or inputs. It was much easier dealing
with each other thru verbal communication as opposed to attempting to do so mentally.

Leadership is about communications. In the Goleman et. al. (2002) example, where a BBC division
is being shut down. The ability to emphatise contrasted the two executives communication method
about the news and indeed it delivered different results in the end. Leaders with skillful
communication engagement are more likely to influence others. I also think that the emotional
intelligence component in communication is equally important because the most effective leaders
are the one that is able to send positive messages that shift the underlying emotional tone of the
communication. Based on Goleman et. al. (2002) readings, I understand that emotions of a leader
are an indirect form of non-verbal communication that can create a climate in which build trust and
information sharing. Hence, I truly agree with Hackman and Johnson (2009) that leadership is
special form of communication. I believe that communication and empathy are the foundation of all
social or relationship skills. It strickes me now to notice that one of my previous managers has this
very own style. That is, whenever he had time to speak to me or any employee of the company in
person, even if it was a conversation for a short walk till up to his car, he would instantly put his
arm around the my shoulder and proceed to discuss the issues at hand as we walked. I reliased
his actions put me at ease instantaneously, makes me feel equal and important enough to be close
to him. I believed with this simple gesture, is the reason he managed to build good rapports with
everyone and achieved many things in the organisation. It is thru communications, be it verbal and
non-verbal, that attitudes and behaviors of others can be modified to meet the team common
goals. In Lisa and Grettas Willingness to Communicate (WTC) activity, my result shows that Im
not a talkative person. I feel that growing up in my cultural environment has greatly disabled me in
communicating with those of different backgrounds from myself. My spontenuos communication
skill is weak and only flourishes with a certain group of audience, i.e. my friends. I realized that I


would have to work on improving it with other groups such as stranger and acquaintance, since it is
an important skill as part of an effective leadership. In order to practice, I have enrolled to
participate in volunteering activity during my time here in New Zealand. I proud to be part of the
team, which made the recent Gallagher Great Race successful. I also participated in two speed
dating networking events organized by Waikato Management School Students Association.
These experiences give me some opportunity to practice my communication skill as well as
meeting new friends. I will continue to do so in simillar avenues when I am back home to develop
this skill.

Going back to the leader vs. manager conceptual model activity, as my group is trying to complete
the model, I found that it is very difficult to disagree with much that was thought by others team
member about the differences between a manager and leader. I realized that each of us have a
different opinion about leadership and manager. At the end of the activity, based on the
comparisons and my previous experience concerning how leaders and managers handle particular
situations. I gained an insight that a leader analyzes each situation, try to understand it and
brainstorm for solutions while manager tend to be concern about solutions without understanding
the situation. As well as the fact, that leadership is not necessarily an inherited trait but it can be
learned and honed. However, I used to think that this skill could be learned and developed by just
reading leadership books. But I was wrong all this time, I recognise that leadership skill is just like
swimming skill. It must be practiced throughout the year and is definetly more than just reading
books or articles. This leadership skill is also very important. In a world where water cover more
than 70% of its surface area, the threat of drowning does not make us avoid water in our daily life.
If I do not know how to swim and one day if I were to fall into a river, I will be drown. Same goes to
leadership, it should not be considered just a course or subject in education but a life skill vital for
one survival in todays society. Leadership is about learning, applying, and implementing. It is a
continual process that I will have to develop by learning from others and also from myself.

Leaders practice what they preach and understand their values clearly. This is one of the most
important concepts of leadership for me. While watching Pham and Sams presenting about
values, Pham tells her experiences with values, in which makes me think that values correlate
positively with leadership effectiveness. What I am referring to is that one should not compromise
on at any point the values that he or she holds true. In other words, it means that values may be
one of the most important determinants of how a leaders power is exercised or constrained. Since,
a persons values really define who they are and I believe it cannot be faked because ones initial
reaction to ethical dilemmas tells you what someone really believes in. Where does values come
from? I think that the development of my values comes from people and lessons of significant
influences in my live as well as my own experiences with these values. As I was working in the
class activity about my personal values, I found that I treasure these words: work life balance, trust,
consistency, equality and integrity. I also found that these values help me to make difficult choices
in my life, one of it is in the decision to continue my studies in this postgraduate level. In my
previous job environment, I think that it has not provided equallity in opportunity and a balance
between work and personal life. Thus, I find this very contradicting with the values that I believed.
In addition, I realized that I am not motivated much by monetary reward as others may. Hence, I
proud to walk away from it and it do make me happier with the decision. I feel that realizing and
finding the path in leadership can only be done based on ones personal values that he or she has
set for their own life.

The most interesting part of Pham and Sams presentation is where the group activity where we
write some notes or comments about others and pass it around. I am surprised with what others
wrote about me. Indeed, it shows me that I have some positive values in which I dont realize about
myself. For example, one wrote, I believe you born a leader, I really like the practical advice and
comments you bring to the class. I realized that it is difficult to write such reflection about myself
but what others think about me really give a positive energy. I think that this activity is great
platform to create positive impact in others. In addition, from the discussions in the class, another
leadership concept ticks out to me. That is leaders can only be authentic when they lead according
to the principles that matter most to them. I also learned from Kouzes-Posner (2007) that no
leader is faker. What he means is that if leaders are not speaking on thier own words, their deeds


will not be consistence and will lose the integrity to lead. It is this consistency behavior that holds
the key in building trust from others. In reflection of my experience, I have always told my partner
not to procrastinate, however, I at times I do find myself doing it. Sadly, this is very contradicting to
what a leader should do. Hence, I will always try to remind myself to apply consistency in every
action from now onwards.

Leadership is about helping others to see their potential clearly that will empower them. One of my
weaknesses is the ability to notice how others can contribute and succeed by recognizing their
growth and potential. I think the fundamental here is to be able to understand and identify the
individual characteristics and needs of the others at and only then can one be in a position to
realize the worth and potential of that individual. In the past, I incline to evaluate others by their first
glimpse of appearance or outlook. This leads to having a bias perception about the individual, thus
blurring my ability to see their capabilities and potential. To be a leader, I feel that I must be able to
identify specific traits of an individual and address them appropriately based on the specific
situation being faced at that time. Leaders help others not only with the intentions in fulfilling the
team goals but also contribute towards growth of the individual. The reading from Zander and
Zander (2000), help me to understand that the job as a leader is to harness the strength of each
member of a team by chipping away the barriers for him or her to excel by freely giving an A.
Since, this process of giving an A is not an expectation for people to live up to, but a possibility to
live into. I noted from Olivia and Leonies presentation that giving an A is an empowering concept.
It replaces the judgmental behavior and it puts a leader in a better position to recognize the
characters of each individual. Its help leaders to address the existing situation to ensure the people
they lead are able to deliver high performance.

In summary, leadership can only take place when a person acquires all the skills listed in the
leadership grid to some extent, if not in full. I also can now visualise that there can never be a
prescribed way to deal with situations and people, as an effective leader, one must be able to shift
between different styles in order to bring out the best in his team. Just using a simple rating of
myself for all the skills in leadership, I found that I am still lacking of many skills to be a good
leader. However, I believe the foundation for me to grow as to be a leader has been laid. The focus
for me now is to develop this repertoire of skills and continue to enhance my leadership knowledge
and experience, in order to lead people to where I want to go. In order to be an effective leader I
have to first develop self-awareness. That is to continue learning to understand myself better and
this is my first priority now. I find that the learning style questionaire is very useful, it gives me an
insight on on my learning habits, and it helps me to indentify my weakness and strengths. As a
theorist and reflector learner, I realised my strengths are methodical thinking, objective oriented,
rational and rare jump to conclusion. However, my weakness is that I have a tendency to hold back
from direct participation and usually unassertive. Leadership is taken not given. My future intention
is to be proactive in taking any opportunity that may arise in develping leadership. I also aim is
identify someone in my future work place that has leader rather than manager attributes and I try to
learn from him or her.





























































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