Pathway:
IP Level 2.1
Leading in Your Own Way
by Dewi Erita
A few days ago, I went to my
hometown. I rode on bus at terminal. The bus was moving forward when something
happened. Bus driver realized that he could not find his mobile phone. He
stopped the bus and look for his gadget.
“Let’s move to another bus,
then.” One of passenger, old man, spoke up that passenger may use another bus
instead of waiting.
Driver did not agree and asked
his co-driver for searching his mobile phone while he was continuing to drive
the bus. The bus moved again. After 10-15 minutes, co-driver gave up to find
it. Driver stopped the bus again and searched by himself. One of passenger helped
for searching the phone and started mobilizing passengers to do so. Although we
intended for helping, the driver’s face did not seem in good mood and did not
aware of other.
“Let’s move to another bus.”
The old man instructed passengers to get off.
Old man asked co-driver to
go back to terminal and bring them another bus.
“Mr., you can get into the
bus,” said driver after several minutes.
“No, no, you can continue to
search your mobile phone,” refused old man.
“He must be on drunk,” said
woman.
“It’s danger to let him
drive in bad mood condition,” uttered another passenger. Another bus arrived. We
were all safe after around 15 minutes waiting on the edge of the road.
What can
we learn from this case? Yes, leadership.
That old man influenced all passenger to get off and moved to another
bus.
Leadership
is influence. As we know, leading deals with people, both individuals or
groups. Every person is a leader and each leader has their own style(s) to
approach people namely leadership style. Today, I would like to share my leadership
styles.
Firstly,
authoritative style. I have ever had study group discussion for one
semester. My team member was consist of
busy people. Some of them were employee and some of them were in their last
semester. I shared job description in every assignment. Sometimes they did,
sometimes half people did, and sometimes none of them did. In that condition, I
would did it by myself as long as I understand the task, I do not mind. One
day, we had assignment and for me, it was very difficult. Unfortunately, none
of them did the task. I was angry at that time and one of them realize it.
Then, he did that assignment by himself in a very short time to make me calm. I
used authoritative style because we had limited time.
Secondly,
altruistic style. I led one team to collect data by interviewing. Each person of
us had a target, a number of people, to be interviewed. Almost all member
reached the target. Unfortunately, I was the slowest one. So my team was
waiting until I reached my target. Alltrustic style is when leader motivates
member, serves member better, and gives empathy. In my case, my team did altruistic
thing to me, as a team leader. Of course, it is not altruistic leadership style,
but I just want to share the value of altruistic style.
Finally,
democrative style. I did research in small team. My member team was busy person.
He was also expertise in his field. He often persisted to ask me to do
everything based on standard without any excuse. It was hard, really.
Fortunately, I did it in time. In that condition, I used democratic style
because my member team is expertise so I allowed him to take the lead and make
decision.
To sum
up, my dominant style is democratic leadership (based on the Leadership Style
Scoring Guide). I like collaborate and communicate with others to receive precious
input and learn together. Nevertheless, I also apply authoritative style for
another condition.
Depok, November 9th
2017
(This draft speech has been presented in UI Toastmasters Club Regular Meeting
on November 9th 2017 at VIP Lounge Central Library UI)
