Building confidence, developing leadership qualities
Every nation strives to produce good leaders. Therefore, it is important to develop each person’s leadership qualities from an early age. A person who has the capacity to lead a group is symbolised by the essence of leadership. The presence of this leadership quality has inadvertently helped to shape a decent personality with moral values.
With these in mind, the Institution of Engineering Malaysia (IEM) UNIMAS organised the IEM Leadership Camp 2022 on November 11 and 12. A total of 16 participants from the UNIMAS Faculty of Engineering attended the camp. The camp was held for two days, at UNIMAS campus and Pasir Panjang Beach in Kuching.
IEM UNIMAS prepared a variety of activities for the duration of this leadership camp to make the environment more lively. The “I Know You, You Know Me” is one of the many activites that took place during the camp. In it, participants have to guess the identities of their group members within a certain amount of time. The goal of the activity is to develop leaders who are always aware of their environment and team members.
“Considering that I was in charge of IEM UNIMAS’ Leadership Camp 2022 programme, I would say that there were some difficulties in the execution part of the activities. Despite the difficulties, we succeeded in completing each of the goals outlined in the programme’s working paper, which gave me valuable lessons and enabled me to gain a great experience. It was a two-way traffic, where we try to develop thier leadership abilities and at the same time, we also learned from the participants in enhancing and improving the soft abilities in a leader,” IEM programme coordinator Dorothy Bun Jalong stated.
According to Dorothy, with what the participants have already experienced and achieved, they will be able to utilise all of the knowledge and soft skills they have learned in this programme for their future, no matter where they are.
Since a leader needs to be both physically and psychologically strong, the majority of programmes are focused on these two areas. Activities on the first day were undoubtedly rather difficult, but it was also clear that the participants were really committed to completing the tasks set by IEM UNIMAS.
On the second day, the organised activities were a little more laid back, and all of the participants enjoyed their time together. The programme’s host, 20-year-old Ameirah Natasya Asfaromey, explained that the activities carried out during the programme are highly beneficial and enjoyable at the same time.
The leadership camp proved to be a wonderful and positive experience for the participants, and significantly improved their spirit of togetherness, ability to collaborate effectively as a team and understand how to manage an organisation efficiently.
Participants can also put what they have learned during this leadership camp into practise in their daily lives and develop a noble character. This includes tolerance to one another within an organisation.
All in all, it is clear that the initial lack of confidence in participants was overcome at the end of the program, resulting in increased confidence, especially while acting as a leader or group leader. Since it is easier to mould youngsters, it is recommended that educational institutions implement the leadership curriculum that IEM UNIMAS has created.
“I feel incredibly happy and satisfied with the criteria used to determine who deserved leadership as well as the remaining roles of authority. However, but this is the final programme that the 10th generation and the 9th generation will present, so I have a mixed reaction to it. However, the programme’s objective was achieved, and for that, I am grateful and delighted for that,” Dorothy said.
Attending leadership programmes is crucial if you want to create a successful business and also a leader who is both physically and mentally fit. Every student should take advantage of the opportunity to engage in a leadership programme like this one. The experience and lessons from such programmes will definitely change our views and make us more resilient, wiser, and self-assured.
This article was written by a student from the Strategic Communication Programme at the Faculty of Language and Communication, UNIMAS.
