Leadership of One and For All

by Zaldy C. De Leon Jr.

Leadership transcends time, place, and culture. As it develops through time, it strengthens the skills necessary to lead others.

Likewise, leadership is a training ground for success – in church, in work, in school, and in other faculties of the society. And when, in rough times, a group has to consider their goal – and there seems no effective solution as to how to make the aims possible – a leader stands and directs the group to plan and take some action. One or two may emerge with a better-equipped plan or another may contradict an idea. At the end, there is a majority agreement and the solution is realized. This is the power of leadership. It would be impossible for a leader to achieve the preferred outcome solitarily. A leader will need the consensus and action of the members to scale down the problem and thereby reduce the efforts of one person to many. The primary question is, what leadership skills are necessary?

On the other hand, Management Study Guide (2017) relates that leadership is a process by which an executive can direct, guide and influence the behavior and work of others towards accomplishment of specific goals in a given situation. In that sense, therefore, leadership is the ability of an individual to induce the members to take action together. Leadership is the potential to influence behavior of others. Leaders are required to develop future visions, and to motivate the organizational members to want to achieve the visions. In this essence, therefore, an individual needs to discover leadership. There are processes, systems, and mechanisms in which leadership can be learned and determined. These leadership potentials can be developed and unleashed in leading people.

Reyes (2013) says that the challenge in leading others is the sense of togetherness – how to consider various indifferences and conflicting values to attain the goal. The team and task are two important factors to consider in leadership. These are determinants that fills the position of leaders worthy and reasonable. But how do we know if leaders are ‘leaders’ enough? While various theories are exemplified by various speakers as ideal, schools are not aware which leadership style a certain speaker demonstrates. Is it transaction or transformational or something else? Is the training religious, secular, or a combination of both? Is the training constructivist, discovery approach, or interactive? There are questions like these that do not anymore concerned the administration. And the effect or implication of which is not clear, that the participants are not able to know how to use their potentials. We begin again from scratch.

Leadership training programs are very common in the business-related industries where employers are willing to provide such beneficial seminars and workshops to boost and motivate their employees’ morale, authority, and sales. If, in the business world, motivational strategies to improve the quality of work and sales are done, these too can be applied in the academic institutions where an individual is holistically developed before his or her flight to the outside yet professional life. School is an institution of learning and it is a place where leadership training seminars, in their many and of various perspectives, may be conducted. Thus, as a training ground for individual activities, an educational institution should provide competencies and various skills necessary to attain goals. One of these competencies is leadership. But what kind of leadership? And is this leadership would make them successful? What leadership skills are inculcated to the students?

De Guzman (2011) postulates that schools should capitalize on human assets and potentials by giving individuals and work groups more flexibility through leadership training and seminars. That is, from the very beginning, students were dressed with cognitive abilities, trained in affective aspect to modify attitude for a better personality, and his growth and development is strengthened by psychomotor activities that compliments global competence. Aaronson (2016) posits that leadership competencies are needed to make effective decisions with the support of others and nurture a positive performance around you.

Consequently, Dumalag (2015) noted that trainings “will not only enhance teachers’ prowess but it can also make them feel confident, valued, appreciated and challenged. Attending in regular and relevant trainings help teacher performed well.” Competencies can also be perceived among students when trainings are promoted to them in the form of co-curricular activities. Thus, Bernaldo et al (2014) relates that co-curricular activities are essential in providing quality education to better prepare students, for their transition into the working environment. In these, both teachers and students in an academic institution should have quality and valued trainings in leadership. One such leadership competencies delivered in 2015 – 2016 is the Ultimate Leadership Foundation Leadership Training Seminar-Workshop.

The result of the seminar is not yet assessed and comprehensively studied. However, sets of leaders learn to handle the task and the team together under its principles. Hence, names like Jay Paul Selosa who became the President of University Student Council; Samantha Batalla and two others were nominated for the Central Luzon Outstanding Students; Evangerline Tamayo who is turns out to be a calibrated journalist trainer; as well as we become the Presidents and Officers of several organizations at Bataan Peninsula State University Dinalupihan Campus.

It is of rare occasion when a leader comprehends the method or a system that unifies all these characters and other factors. And if there is any method or process, what is it? According to Santos (2004), a motivated person is in a state of tension. To relieve this tension, he or she exerts effort. The higher the tension, the higher the effort level. The Ultimate Leadership Foundation through Mr. Ericson Mercado really trained these students and discovered, developed, and unleashed for them the leadership skills necessary to stand out.

Abrugar (2011) recounted that leaders make change to improve the lives of many people. They lead people and their organization towards the accomplishment of a common goal. They initiate the search for the solutions to our long-reigning problems. Leadership is found everywhere. Leadership is essential to the success of a business organization, to the progress of any society, and even to the development of oneself.

We believe that leadership is a complex phenomenon wherein a variety of forces interact with each other and the transformation that happens to an individual has a vital role in his way of leading others given that both hands learn to balance between team and the task. These things can be discovered, developed, and unleashed in a qualified and competent leadership training seminar. There are many definitions of leadership – in various aspects and perspectives. We tend to focus this study on the Ultimate Leadership Foundation Modules 1 – 4. We believe in the ideas implied and in its vision. It is in this essence that leadership grows and likewise we found worthy to learn about.

The transformative power and influence of the seminar is able to mold and model leaders, lead, encourage, empower, and sacrifice – concepts of leadership skills. However, still, we ask if these leadership skills are really discovered, developed and unleashed by the participants of the seminar? And if so, what are these leadership skills? Does it makes sense? This is what we would have to find out.