School at Such, Thoughts on Leadership

School feels very slow on my side, but in the number of weeks of passed school terms, 4 terms had already passed with week 5 starting next. Been very caught up juggling with some webjobs, projects and datelines of my own, on top of fast breezing schoolwork, to the extent I have not actually got into the real study mood yet.

Tests are on on the Week 6 and Week 8, namely Engineering design and Engineering maths tests, so I guess I did better start putting work into that, not that I do not want to. Furthermore ironically, I am the project leader for all my modules, from Product design, Business planning for new ventures, to even my GEMS. So thats alot of management and overlooking on my site with 5-6 people per group. But not really much of a feat having led many teams before on my previous semesters.

Interestingly for the personal record, the minimum grades in my team are always a B+/A, with one exception of a dual DIST, very rewarding when they will come next semester thanking you for the job well done. I guess even without knowing until when you come to think about it, I always have the team’s interests at heart and strive for the best over the rest. Maybe that is why everyone wants to be in my team now…

I always recall one motivation message I remember in the SP library, you can see it in the reference section stair-well level 2 (a poster with a puppy overlooking a horde of identical puppies) which reads:

As the same saying goes respect is earned, not demanded, either from seniority or rank. Ultimately it’s your job as a team leader to know, recognize and employ all of your teammate’s advantages points to the best of possible.

Come to think about leadership so as to say, heck even if you are older than me – even none the wiser, let be morals. I learnt alot in the army and a typical example I can relate to is particularly meeting officers who simply “cannot make it” and just make their way to OCS/command school just because of attractions of high pay, the percieved “name & labelling” (which I amazingly expected alot of my friends in poly are blinded by and true enough…) without know their consequences and responsiblity involved. And of course they just make themselves so incompetent in service. And the most shockingly there are not one but many such cases I encountered while in service.

In a war it’s lives we are talking about and definitely I wouldn’t be putting my troopers on the line from such officers. You can tell I am very against the SAF way of officer selection – either by wayanging or being the platoon pet during BMT and poof you get to go to command school. Unlike what our commandos Spec-Officer selection do or that in the US Army, now those I salute – from the dirt to the top, through the proper channels of leadership. That is where you really earn the trust & respect from the peers, rising from your own peers from your own achievements and actions, through thick and thin. Not from Private – 2nd LT.

Army is all about wayang, if you been through it you know it, from the Open Houses to the Public shows, to the Ads on TV and Buses, I seen that, put those up seen the workings behind it, it’s all an portrayed image thing and red tape evident in all big organisations. One of the big reasons why I didn’t consider signing-up, there are better things to do outside. Just some random thought.

I guess I did better get off the project highway and start preparing for mid semester tests and presentations, thank goodness for Tuesday being a public holiday, hope can clear all by then.

Dinner will be at Golden Mile Steamboat later…