CAN I BE A LEADER?
CCLM 2021: LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
SECTION 8, SESSION: 2008/2009
If I had been asked the question; “Can you be a leader?”, then my spontaneous answer will be; “No, I can’t be a leader”. For this time being, I have no intention to be a leader of any society or even just a group of people. But, in the future, if someone asks me this question again, I really hope that my answer will be different. Leadership, it’s all about responsibility. There is one famous quote which goes, “Leadership is not a position or place in an organization, but a sense of responsibility”. Responsibility, it’s like a common word, I mean, we use the word ‘responsibility’ most of the time, in most of our daily life conversations. But being responsible, it’s not as easy as its pronunciation. Role as a leader means there are huge responsibilities. One day, if not in this world, in the hereafter, at the Day of Judgment, we will be ask either we have fulfill our responsibilities or not.
As had been mentioned earlier, I’m not ready to be a leader, my reason is not because I’m not confident, and it is not because I don’t have any soft skills like communication skill, public speaking skill, time management skill, leadership skill and etcetera. It’s not because all that, because all those things can be learned, can be improved as time goes by. Skill like public speaking, I have experienced participating public speaking competition, district level in 2005 during high school. I gain my confident through this competition. I learned to speak spontaneously through this competition. I also learned the importance of knowledge during this competition. Meaning to say, I have some of the soft skills needed by a leader. But still, I can’t be a leader.
My one and only reason is that, I’m too afraid, too afraid of taking the responsibilities, too afraid of not be able to be a good leader to my people. This kind of feeling, it makes me always in the state of worry. But still, deep inside my heart, I want to be a leader. Maybe one day, when the time eventually comes, after I have gain more knowledge, when I have the braveness, and when I’m ready, then, I will definitely take any opportunity of being a leader
At that time, my goal is to be the best leader and to show the most outstanding example to people under my society or organization. What are the reasons of my action? When I am more than ready to face the real challenge, why I want to be a leader? When I just can work under other people and just follow whatever their command, then why I still wants to be a leader? The question that I kept asking myself and took me a long time to find the answer.
Finally, after some thought and analysis, I found the answer. There are several reasons of my decision of being a future leader of an organization, or future leader of my country, or perhaps, future leader of the world. My main reason is that, I want to contribute my knowledge and my capabilities to as many people as I could possibly reach. Knowledge is not something to keep. But, it must be use, must be apply in a real life situation, and most importantly, it must be spread to every human kind regardless of whatever religion, race, gender, and position.
One day, when I have enough confident to take the responsibilities of a leader, then I will definitely give my utmost effort to be the best among the best. I can be a leader. It’s all about mind setting. It’s about having confident. Confident doesn’t comes naturally without doing any effort. For me, to be confident, we have to believe in ourselves. Once we believe, then, we are able to do anything it takes, anything it costs to fulfill our mission. Then another question will rise, how can we belief in ourselves? As had been mentioned earlier, it’s about mind setting. My analogy is that, if my parents believed me, that am why I am here, because they believe, so they let me go. They let me be in this university alone, without family and relative, and with thousand worries in their head, but still they let me go. They believe that I will study really smart and hard, gaining as much knowledge as possible. They also believe that I can be independent and I will not wasting my time with unnecessary thing. So, if my parents can believe me, why don’t I believe in myself and give a chance to at least try.
I’m strongly believe that I can be a good leader because I have the desire and confident. I am very passionate to face any challenges, obstacles that will lies in front. I have clear vision and sense of purpose. I know that being a leader; I must win followers’ trust and respect. I must have ‘first class mind setting’. And I must also practice Islamic teaching in my leadership. So I can produce the best quality of my friend, brothers and sisters in Islam. I have big dream, strong belief, and confident. But, as had been mentioned from the very beginning of this essay, I’m too afraid of taking responsibilities. This feeling that I felt, is actually the real challenge to me. How can I achieve my dream which is to lead my followers-to-be based on Islamic brotherhood if I can’t take any responsibility?
I know that one day, I have to stand straight and be brave to take the responsibilities. If the responsibilities are way too heavy, did I just walk away and leave the task? Or did I sit back and calm down, then think the best way or methodology to actually fulfill the task? People around me always said that I’m a very optimist person. I’m not sure if they really think like that. But if they do, then I just act an opposite behaviour if I choose to walk away. Until I found my strength, then I will keep working and will never give up until I am more than ready to face the challenge. Definitely. Insha’Allah.
At the end, everything will be based on our intention. If my niyyat is to lead the ummah to be the best nation ever, to share the knowledge and to strengthen the ukhwah, also to practice Islamic value in my leadership, then, Insha’Allah Allah will help me to perform my duty as a leader as best as I can. And when the day eventually comes, I hope that Allah will guide me to lead my people with fairness, moderate, love and respect. Insha’Allah.
No matter what people might say, no matter what people might think, the most important is to stay steadfast and motivated. I believe that our existence in this world is not for nothing, but there is a beautiful meaning for each and every single creation of Allah. Imam Shafi’, one of the Muslim Scholar once said, “Every human are dead, except those who have knowledge. And those who have knowledge are asleep, except those who do good deeds. And those who do good deeds are deceived, except those who are sincere. And those who are sincere are always in the state of worry”. Insha’Allah with determination and self belief, one day, I will be able to become a great leader in the society, practicing Islamic leadership which is based on fairness, moderation, love for what are good, lesson from history, avoid trivializing sins, respect for objective criticism and love for Allah. Insha’Allah.
p.s_2: Lecturer sangatla baik bagi markah, walaupun tak full mark, tapi alhamdulillah~
p.s_3: Banyaknya perkataan responsibility dalam ni, a word to ponder about perhaps~
Till then, ROGER and OUT~
Wassalam (^_^)
