1801'13

It's so easy to do the right things, but so incredibly difficult to make others do the same. 

It is a lovely breezy Friday evening of a lovely week - it was a week that turned out much better than I had expected - and I am in the mood to type out some thoughts I have been having ever since the Leadership Workshop the leadboard teachers conducted for Year 4 Student Leaders last Saturday. This blogpost might possibly bore everyone reading it (yes you!), but I'd just like to keep track of some things in my life here.

The workshop was based on the Kouzes and Posner Leadership Model (KP Model) which covers the five tenets of effective leadership - Model the Way, Inspire a Shared Vision, Challenge the Process, Enable Others to Act and Encourage the Heart. To be honest, I have never taken Leadership Workshops very seriously because they usually talk about leadership theories and in actual fact, these theories are difficult to practice in real life. However, I thought that the workshop held on Saturday has been incredibly useful for myself to take stock of how I have been doing as a leader, and more importantly, a person, so far.

Before the workshop, we took a leadership test which involved our own self-reflection as well as the input of friends who have worked with us before and we received the results of the test during the workshop. I found out that I was particularly weak in a certain branch of leadership and that was "Enabling Others To Act". It came as no surprise to me as for my own self-reflection, I had also ranked myself the lowest for that particular tenet. For that, I conclude that I am quite lacking as a leader and I need to improve on this aspect as soon as possible, as best as I can.

And somehow, I know where I'm going wrong but I just can't seem to let go - I fail to empower others and enable them to act because I am a work-hogger. I enjoy doing all the work by myself because it is much faster and it ensures that everything meets up to my own expectations. Yes, I know, this is an absolutely selfish and terrible behaviour to have because I am not allowing others to have a chance to learn and develop their own leadership potential, something I shouldn't be doing as a mentor to my juniors/ charges. I want to be able to leave my leadership positions at the end of the year knowing that my juniors are able to take up the role well because I have mentored them well - it's going to take a longer time and it's going to be less efficient but ultimately, it'll benefit them more. Come on Li Yin, take some risks! Learn to make an impact in someone else's leadership journey.

On a sidenote, during the leadership workshop (which coincidentally falls on Melissa Tang's birthday), Channel 5 sprang a surprise on her by bringing out a cake during lunch time! 

I love chocolate (': And birthdays - it makes people feel so so so special. 

After the workshop, 3/5 of us went out for a little celebration at Somerset which included a lot of heart to heart talks and laughing. We truly hope that you've enjoyed spending your birthday with us, Mel! I lub you very much, thanks for everything (': 

This photo is ridiculous because it so happened that the two straws lined exactly at the edges of my mouth from the camera angle. 

Yay!

Yup that's about all for last Saturday - it was a pretty eventful day which allowed me to think and reflect so much more than I would have without it. 

This week was such a good week as well, will be blogging about it soon (':