Week 1 (DOL Class)
17 October 2021
Assalamualaikum and Bismillah. I’d like to start my weekly reflection with a quote;
‘To begin a journey is never easy, but we have to start somewhere to reach the destination’ by Debasish Mridha. The quote is picked because it has been a great start to my semester as I had been struggling to figure out the prerequisites courses that I have to take this semester. Alongside all other courses, this course makes me so much more excited to get started! Reading from the welcome notes by Dr Jamilah from the e-learning platform, by the end of this semester, I will be exposed to the theory of leadership and the dynamic relationship of leadership.
This course, Dynamic of Leadership UHPS6013 has given me a good impression. People say ‘First Impressions are Lasting Impressions'. So kudos to my lecturer Dr Roslizam for making it impactful. Dr Roslizam basically introduced us to the course outline, assessments that consist of weekly reflections, presentations, a short talk, and an e-portfolio. We were given topics for weekly presentations and each topic shall be presented by at least two students. I sanctioned the idea of having to co-present the topics with our course mate. As we are hitting the first semester, it is not really a good idea to shoulder each presentation topic alone. A big thank you to Dr Roslizam for allowing us to co-presenting to enhance the quality of our weekly presentation.
Apart from that, there is an e-portfolio assessment that I would like to address. The e-portfolio is the online platform where students are required to post their profile, weekly reflections, report on talk from the expert (Week 11), and a column on Transformational Leadership. Having to post the e-portfolio perhaps via blog or website will encourage the students to be more engaged. As blogs or websites can be accessible by everyone as it facilitates students to be more creative and believe me it’s responsive too! Besides briefing us on the course outline, Dr Roslizam also talked about the overview of what is this course all about.
What made this first-week session a fruitful session was how I completely fathomed the gist of the overall idea addressed by Dr Roslizam. He boosted the students’ conceptual thinking by reflecting on the difference between leadership and being a leader. As far as I’m aware of both meanings, a leader embodies leadership mentalities and actions. It’s who you are as a person that makes you a leader. But holding a leadership position in an organization does not make you a leader. Leadership skills must and should be taught. The fact that leadership skills reflect the leader’s ability to lead.
Something I would like to reflect on about this week’s session is human on the reflection of ‘Khalifa’ as a leader from an Islamic perspective. The basic concept of leadership from the Islamic perspective consists of religion, morals and humanity. A brilliant leader comes with the quality of being humane. And being human means having and using your heart to lead. At its simplest and rightful notion, being a leader is being you. Your team members will easily connect and respond to you if you are being sincere and natural. They connect with you and they trust you when you are being the best version of yourself. That is what inspires them. Last but not least let us be the best version of ourselves so we would be real and be vulnerable. Insha Allah. Assalamualaikum and goodnight.
