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I attended NYGH's leadership forum in the morning and it was rather interesting. There were talks by big pro people like Mr Martin Tan and UK Shyam! And the schools' sharing sessions were great, save for RIPB's, where we screwed up horribly haha I think. And there's UK Shyam!
I only started preparing early in the morning when I left home for NYGH. And when we were presenting, luckily there was a rostrum for us, if not people would have seen us, hands shaking like mad and fiddling with the laptop like mad. But we pulled through I guess! Things are okay now haha.
Well I took away some thoughts from the forum and they've reminded me about how things should be done in school. Well firstly, to make change is hard, and that's why sometimes it's so easy to leave a legacy, simply by making change. But no it shouldn't always be the case. Not all great legacies come about by change.
We need to question our purposes. Do we do things in order to leave a legacy, or do we do things in order to better the lives of everyone? Must we leave a legacy in order to be a good batch of leaders? Is that always the case?
Maybe it's because of the fact that society only expects one kind of leader. As Mr Martin Tan put it, a head prefect and a gangster can exert the same kind of influence of people. Both are leaders because they can influence people. In fact everyone is a leader because they exert an influence on others in every single way.
Consider the question of whether people respect one's position, or whether people respect one's character and identity. To be respected for who you are, and the qualities you represent is the best form of leadership, compared to one who is only respected for the title he is given. I believe many of us really aren't the latter sort!
During the schools' sharing sessions, I noticed one thing about the presentations. Most of the presentations are about the workings of the different boards/councils and their many events and initiatives. Though it brings to us a fresh insight into how we can do things better for our own communities, but it is, in essence not really signs of leadership.
Schools have now sadly lumped leadership and management together, mixed it and made it a very distorted and confusing thing - does planning for events and pure efficiency in event management, hence churning out event after event successfully tied together with wonderful memories to live with at the end, guarantee that we are true leaders leading people?
Rather, the signs of leadership in event management are the processes which we go through, and the respect people have for oneself. Event management is only but a facet of how we demonstrate these signs. Leadership can be displayed in all other areas too, not just these boards/councils alone.
Then what justifies our boards/councils to be the best and most exemplary in terms of leadership demonstration? It just doesn't quite cut it. Maybe it's been a tradition that we've all stuck to for too long, until students have to dabble in event management to actually be certified as leaders, even if they don't like it. Leadership lies in so many aspects too, and it doesn't just take the work of a board/council to develop it. We're always learning, I guess!
My flu's getting better. Training tomorrow!
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