Leadership Autobio
It is always interesting to trace what has happened in our lives. Life brings all kinds of experiences: happiness, pain, stress, success, failure, ups and downs. These things make our lives colorful and meaningful. This reflective practice paper is aimed at briefly introducing my leadership autobiography.
I was born to a middle class family, whose breadwinner, my father, was one of the US-backed Cambodian military commanders-in-chief, who disappeared in a hot battlefield of Cambodian civil war when I was one year old . My mother became a widow after less than two years of marriage. Then, my mother left the capital city to live with my grandparents in the countryside to work as a farmer.
I was a child who was always afraid of strangers and bigger, aggressive boys. Because I was brought up by my widowed mother whose siblings are all females, I tended to like playing with girls rather than boys on the playgrounds. I like joking around, telling stories, and sharing information I have with friends, but when it comes to a serious issue, I am a quiet person. Based on self-observation, I tend to be a listener and observer rather than a speaker at first. Sometimes, I feel that I am a slow thinker and usually make a conclusion based on all information available. Sometimes, I do not know why my playmates usually listened to me and wanted me to lead playgroups. On almost all playgrounds, I played as a king, a knight, a judge, or a referee, etc. Although I led the group, I always listened to group members for their opinions, based on which I set rules and strategies for the group. Because I was used to leading groups in playgrounds, I felt more comfortable working in group rather than individually.
Not only on the playgrounds, but also in my academic life, I was often elected to be a class monitor. I remember I felt very nervous when I was first elected to be a class monitor in my second grade of elementary school. My teacher appointed the top 5 vote getters to be a class monitor. I won the majority and was given such responsibilities as making sure that the classroom was clean by grouping classmates to take turn cleaning the classroom every week day, storing chalk, cleaning blackboards, and leading the students in a line in the school center to salute the national flag. I, however, asked my friends to help and delegate some responsibilities to my classmates. They were happy to help.
I left my mother when I was twelve to continue my study at a middle school in a rural town, where I was staying with one of my aunts. I had not been very close to my aunt, especially to her husband. I felt very insecure living without my mother. At the middle school, I was elected to be a class monitor for another three years. I started playing volleyball, and I was then selected to be the team captain. At the age of fifteen, I moved further away to a provincial town to continue my study at high school. I was staying with distant relatives, whom I had never known before. I was still elected to be a class monitor while I was in high school, where I was grouped in Class “A” Students. After high school, I had to move to a capital city to continue my education where I stayed at a Buddhist temple. While I was doing my bachelor of education (B.Ed.), I was again elected to be a class monitor and student representative. I was actively involved in many student activities at the university. I started working as a part-time employee with a nonprofit organization, where my responsibility was to train the organizational employees on documentation and librarianship. After completing B.Ed. in 1999, I was recruited to be an instructor in my department. I think these leadership experiences made me a trustworthy individual among university leadership. Consequently, two years later, I was assigned by the president of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) to work on an establishment of the Department of Media and Communication (DMC). The department was officially opened in 2001 when I was appointed to be a head of the department with an endorsement of Minister of Education. Because I have been involved in many kinds of activities throughout my life, I felt that I should be involved in student activities at Ohio University. I have been elected to be a vice president of the International Student Union (ISU) and was an elected graduate student senator representing the College of Communication for academic year 2005-6.
Tracing back what happened to me in the past, I feel that my playmates and classmates liked me because first, I have a sense of humor and serious behavior when dealing with serious issues. Second, I listen to them before making decisions. Generally, when you listen to people, they are likely to listen to you; it is important that everyone in the group counts. Their voices are important for final decision, which is an effective incentive and encouragement for the group members. I try to listen because first of all, I am sensitive and rational. Therefore, I am very cautious about my decisions because I feel that my decision might badly affect the feelings of the group’s members. Second, I often feel insecure about my decision if I am not sure if I have enough information for the decision and whether or not the conclusion is appropriate. Third, I want all the group members to share responsibility, meaning the decision was made by the entire group, not by myself.
It is said that leadership can be learned, and I strongly agree with this statement. I have learned leadership mostly through my observation and experience. For instance, when I was working with a nonprofit organization, I was very impressed with the leadership achievements of the organization’s executive director. Disciplines, guidelines, rules, and assignments were clearly in place and put into effect. Task delegation went smoothly. He used an achievement-oriented leadership style, where all of the staff members are given responsibilities and deadlines for task completion. He commonly said that he was able to do all the tasks he assigned to his employees. This makes him successful in accomplishing the organizational goal because it is a pushing force to make employees work harder and become confident in his abilities. However, it was irritating to me because I felt that it intimidated the employees’ feelings, and being a human being, he could not know everything. The decision making style in this organization was clearly top-down. All assignments and decisions were made by him without consultation or listening to employees. Although I was impressed with his results, I felt there were many areas in which he could improve.
While I was working as a head of DMC, I was impressed with the leadership style of the RUPP president. He is clearly a human relations and visionary leader. He listened to all opinions on a certain issue and usually put his ideas on the table for those involved to debate before making a final decision. He tended to accept new ideas and trusted all program/project implementers in completing their task. Because he has very good personal relationships with faculty members, most of them liked him. However, I felt that his administration was a little too lenient, which leads to disorder in some areas and leaves some issues unsolved.
Through my experiences, I think situational leadership work best. I do not have any preferred single leadership style because a certain leadership style can be applicable in a certain situation and might not be applicable in others. I feel that the most important virtues of a leader are to be a good listener and make decisions based on all the information available. Although we might know we will have the final decision on a matter, it does not waste anything to listen to others’ opinions before making the decision as they may have important input pertaining to the decision. Communication skills and personal behaviors are also important for leaders. Furthermore, it is good that leaders have the quality of trustworthiness and are role models. Therefore, among leadership styles demonstrated in the Management Human Behavior in Public & Nonprofit Organizations, I think situational leadership works best in most common situations.
I was born to a middle class family, whose breadwinner, my father, was one of the US-backed Cambodian military commanders-in-chief, who disappeared in a hot battlefield of Cambodian civil war when I was one year old . My mother became a widow after less than two years of marriage. Then, my mother left the capital city to live with my grandparents in the countryside to work as a farmer.
I was a child who was always afraid of strangers and bigger, aggressive boys. Because I was brought up by my widowed mother whose siblings are all females, I tended to like playing with girls rather than boys on the playgrounds. I like joking around, telling stories, and sharing information I have with friends, but when it comes to a serious issue, I am a quiet person. Based on self-observation, I tend to be a listener and observer rather than a speaker at first. Sometimes, I feel that I am a slow thinker and usually make a conclusion based on all information available. Sometimes, I do not know why my playmates usually listened to me and wanted me to lead playgroups. On almost all playgrounds, I played as a king, a knight, a judge, or a referee, etc. Although I led the group, I always listened to group members for their opinions, based on which I set rules and strategies for the group. Because I was used to leading groups in playgrounds, I felt more comfortable working in group rather than individually.
Not only on the playgrounds, but also in my academic life, I was often elected to be a class monitor. I remember I felt very nervous when I was first elected to be a class monitor in my second grade of elementary school. My teacher appointed the top 5 vote getters to be a class monitor. I won the majority and was given such responsibilities as making sure that the classroom was clean by grouping classmates to take turn cleaning the classroom every week day, storing chalk, cleaning blackboards, and leading the students in a line in the school center to salute the national flag. I, however, asked my friends to help and delegate some responsibilities to my classmates. They were happy to help.
I left my mother when I was twelve to continue my study at a middle school in a rural town, where I was staying with one of my aunts. I had not been very close to my aunt, especially to her husband. I felt very insecure living without my mother. At the middle school, I was elected to be a class monitor for another three years. I started playing volleyball, and I was then selected to be the team captain. At the age of fifteen, I moved further away to a provincial town to continue my study at high school. I was staying with distant relatives, whom I had never known before. I was still elected to be a class monitor while I was in high school, where I was grouped in Class “A” Students. After high school, I had to move to a capital city to continue my education where I stayed at a Buddhist temple. While I was doing my bachelor of education (B.Ed.), I was again elected to be a class monitor and student representative. I was actively involved in many student activities at the university. I started working as a part-time employee with a nonprofit organization, where my responsibility was to train the organizational employees on documentation and librarianship. After completing B.Ed. in 1999, I was recruited to be an instructor in my department. I think these leadership experiences made me a trustworthy individual among university leadership. Consequently, two years later, I was assigned by the president of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) to work on an establishment of the Department of Media and Communication (DMC). The department was officially opened in 2001 when I was appointed to be a head of the department with an endorsement of Minister of Education. Because I have been involved in many kinds of activities throughout my life, I felt that I should be involved in student activities at Ohio University. I have been elected to be a vice president of the International Student Union (ISU) and was an elected graduate student senator representing the College of Communication for academic year 2005-6.
Tracing back what happened to me in the past, I feel that my playmates and classmates liked me because first, I have a sense of humor and serious behavior when dealing with serious issues. Second, I listen to them before making decisions. Generally, when you listen to people, they are likely to listen to you; it is important that everyone in the group counts. Their voices are important for final decision, which is an effective incentive and encouragement for the group members. I try to listen because first of all, I am sensitive and rational. Therefore, I am very cautious about my decisions because I feel that my decision might badly affect the feelings of the group’s members. Second, I often feel insecure about my decision if I am not sure if I have enough information for the decision and whether or not the conclusion is appropriate. Third, I want all the group members to share responsibility, meaning the decision was made by the entire group, not by myself.
It is said that leadership can be learned, and I strongly agree with this statement. I have learned leadership mostly through my observation and experience. For instance, when I was working with a nonprofit organization, I was very impressed with the leadership achievements of the organization’s executive director. Disciplines, guidelines, rules, and assignments were clearly in place and put into effect. Task delegation went smoothly. He used an achievement-oriented leadership style, where all of the staff members are given responsibilities and deadlines for task completion. He commonly said that he was able to do all the tasks he assigned to his employees. This makes him successful in accomplishing the organizational goal because it is a pushing force to make employees work harder and become confident in his abilities. However, it was irritating to me because I felt that it intimidated the employees’ feelings, and being a human being, he could not know everything. The decision making style in this organization was clearly top-down. All assignments and decisions were made by him without consultation or listening to employees. Although I was impressed with his results, I felt there were many areas in which he could improve.
While I was working as a head of DMC, I was impressed with the leadership style of the RUPP president. He is clearly a human relations and visionary leader. He listened to all opinions on a certain issue and usually put his ideas on the table for those involved to debate before making a final decision. He tended to accept new ideas and trusted all program/project implementers in completing their task. Because he has very good personal relationships with faculty members, most of them liked him. However, I felt that his administration was a little too lenient, which leads to disorder in some areas and leaves some issues unsolved.
Through my experiences, I think situational leadership work best. I do not have any preferred single leadership style because a certain leadership style can be applicable in a certain situation and might not be applicable in others. I feel that the most important virtues of a leader are to be a good listener and make decisions based on all the information available. Although we might know we will have the final decision on a matter, it does not waste anything to listen to others’ opinions before making the decision as they may have important input pertaining to the decision. Communication skills and personal behaviors are also important for leaders. Furthermore, it is good that leaders have the quality of trustworthiness and are role models. Therefore, among leadership styles demonstrated in the Management Human Behavior in Public & Nonprofit Organizations, I think situational leadership works best in most common situations.
posted by imthegreat | 1:37 AM
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