The path to self-finding..........

One of my favorite childhood stories, which I still love to read and also enjoy watching every moment of Walt Disney animated cartoon is “Mulan”. When we heard about Mulan, many of us could recall the moments on how she has failed to impress the matchmaker to honor her family name but later became the heroin whom has saved China.

This story is a fantastic example of teaching children on how to become a leader and showing them that one can achieve anything if they truly wanted to. Another important message, which the story also conveyed is that if your not good at something, it doesn't mean it's your weakness. Taking the time to revealing who you are and improving on it as well as building trust among the people you work with is a simple but valuable message that it gave to the viewers.

Please take some time to enjoy this animated cartoon with your loved ones to teach them the importance of becoming a true hero and how to overcome your weakness.

Ready for the Shift?

This is the reason why Professor urges us to use the Social Media as a tool for reaching out to the world.

Is narcissism a strength or weakness in leadership?

While pondering about this question, I came across a very interesting article “Narcissistic Leaders: The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons” which was published in the Harvard Business Review in January 2004. According to the author Michael Maccoby "narcissists have always emerged to inspire people and to shape the future." 

The shift in leadership has changed dramatically from having muscle to building good relationship with peoples. With today's changing global society, the ability to attract followers and imposing great vision along the way is not just enough for narcissism to achieve it's utmost level. 

According to Maccoby, they need to overcome their weakness such as “Sensitive to Criticism, Poor Listener, Lack in Empathy, Distaste for Mentoring and An Intense desire to Compete”.

As much as I enjoyed reading the article, it's irresistible not to share it. 
The following link contains a file which requested you to either open or save the file in order to read the article.

Maccoby's Article on Narcissistic Leaders 
showsupport.typepad.com/odyssey/files/ccc-081208-macoby.pdf

Focusing your STRENGTH not your weakness………

While I was reading the first part of the Strength Finder 2.0 explaining about how people should focus more in their strength than their weakness, it took me on a journey to a remarkable moment in my past childhood years. After arriving back to Myanmar with my grandparents in 1990, the culture differences and the teaching styles have made my back to school experiences the hardest moment in my life. I was having trouble memorizing the lessons rather than understanding the importance of these subjects in our learning experience. So when the first monthly test began, apart from English, Math and Science, all my other readings subjects (Myanmar, Geography and History) failed with extremely low marks.

My tuition teacher knows that this was going to happen but when I received my report card and showed it to her, she as well as my parents started scolding me and telling me that they will start restricting my studying hours to focus more to get the grades up. At that heated moment, I remembered that my grandmother came in the room and asked me to step out for a while. After that day, my mother as well as my tuition teacher changed the way they approached in my studies. They appraise a lot about how my English, Math and Science are doing and helped me improved in getting the perfect marks in those subjects. As my grading for English, Math and Science improved exams after exams, the other 3 reading subjects climbed up on the ladder. This has made me very interested in what my grandmother had told them that day. On a fine day during the summer holiday, I asked her the approach she has used to tell my mother and my tuition teacher that day.

I still remembered that she gave a wonderful smile and told me that “Simple my Dear, I told them that we have expected that this is going to happen. So, rather than scolding her she has got bad grades in other 3 subjects, appraise her that she was doing well with the other 3 subjects and help her improve in them so that it will motivate her to improve her studies.”

If this simple approach can help change and improve the life of a 5^th grade student, why hasn’t people use this approaches to help others improve in their strength rather than asking them to improve on their weakness.

Here are some useful information on the key points that can help you identify your strengths and weaknesses.

1. Strength and Weakness
2. 3 Myths About Strengths and Weaknesses
3. How to Identify Your Strengths and Weaknesses

What does “Leadership” mean…..?

The word “Leadership” is not an unfamiliar word to everyone.

Recalling the memories of when I first heard about the word “Leadership” is during my childhood years when my grandmother told me bedtime stories. Every story ended with her own moral version on “why there is a need for a leader and how you can become one”. The most remembered stories were about the Three Little Pigs. My grandma used to tell me that if the Third little piggy was a strong leader and could manage to get the two other piggy to work with him to finish the house early, they would have more time to play with each other and would not have let them experience the frightening experience from being eaten by the wolf.  She then would conclude that “Leadership is the ability to get people with different strength and weakness to work together to get the work done effectively and efficiently”.

As I grew older, the fiction bedtime stories changed into non-fiction stories that include examples of real live experiences and scenario. The most remembered example throughout my middle age school period was about “The Value of the Tree”. She would always point out and compare "the Tree" to "my grandfather" and would state that "if you become a True leader in your society, you have succeeded in getting others to work together to achieve the same goals which allow you to provide protection and shade not only for yourself but also for other".  While thinking about that logic and relating back to our first day lecture with Professor Jonathan Marshall asking about the proportional percentage of a person born as a leader, I have no doubt in agree with him that leaders are not born but are made. However, when he showed us the proportionate percentage which is 30% born and 70% environment, I would say I wasn’t totally agreeing to it at sight.

However, looking back to the example of the Three Little Pigs story, people are born with the ability to survive on their own but "those who makes the difference are the one who take time to analyze the purpose for pursuing what they have to do with passion and courage". However, going back to “the Value of the Tree” example, Trees relies on the environment to grow. If the environment where the tree grows has a lot of nourishment in soil and the weather is in perfect condition, it will grow with momentum and speed.

The theory on "how leaders are made not born" was logically proven when Mr. Nathan came and shared about his experience on how a person who has once lived in a street became the President of the Developing country in Southeast Asia, Singapore. This was a fascinating and most remembered experience to encounter and make you realize that people can become anything if they wanted to as long as they have the courage to pursue what they wanted in life.

Looking back to history and today’s event, leaders have been created and nurtured by their environment depending on their desire and willingness to fulfill their goals and destiny.  Thus, everyone can become a leader if they have the willingness to improve their leadership skills, follow their hearts, embrace some pain and always pursue to reach the finish line to prove “Why you are here” for.

While browsing the website to find information on the benefits for leadership, I found this web link which I would like to share with everyone http://www.leadershipexpert.co.uk/benefits-leadership.html

For those who want to re-enjoy the bedtime stories again or with their loved ones, here is a link for your convenience http://ivyjoy.com/fables/ .

Paving our Path along the Journey……….

When I first saw the requirements for the Art of Leadership module, I was a bit surprise to see that we are required to set up a Blog of our own.  I do socialize but I am a person who hardly wrote anything on my Facebook status or even commented on my friends’ status apart from Felicitations, Congratulatory or Condolence messages.  

Those who knew me well have been encouraging me to write something which we have talked or discussed about.  However, the time and situation never permit me to do so. I know that I would never have done so to create a blog of my own if it wasn’t for the graded assignment by Professor Jonathan Marshall for the “Art of Leadership” core module for the Master Degree Programme at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy School. With this in mind, allow me to extend my appreciation to the Professor in encouraging us to extend our horizons and finding our inner strengths and capabilities as well as enabling us to experience and use the power of social media in today’s fast growing community.

I hope that the time I spent on creating and posting on this blog will allow me to receive fruitful and healthy debates far beyond my school period and make friends along the way.