THE LEADERSHIP AUTOBIOGRAPHY
PUAF692
Professor: Dr. Marc A. Farmer
Luke Dinh
UID: 111982936
August 1, 2011LEADERSHIP AUTOBIOGRAPHY
When I was young, I used to believe that good leaders are born
with leadership potentials, such as my venerable Uncle Ho -
Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, Napoleon Bonaparte and Theodore
Roosevelt. Leaders have their certain intrinsic personalities,
characters, and styles that others have not. Therefore, I strongly
believed that one person deserves to be a leader rather than
another one. Now, I recognize that they are not made or born. To
become good leaders, we have to steel ourselves through a
never-ending process of self-study, education, training, and
experience.
My name is Luke Dinh. I was born in February 1982 to a poor with
four siblings in Gia Lai province. My dad is a manager of an
important department in a famous local bank and my mom shares the
economic burden of our family by selling fruit in a market.
Although my family is poor, my house is always overwhelmed with the
smile. My family gets by as best as we can.
1. Lessons from My ChildhoodDuring my life, my parents are those
who influence me most, especially by giving me some ideas on
leadership. They give me assurance, guidance, and inspiration.
My dad is a manager; therefore, he has a lot experience in
leadership and management. I learned from him that a leader should
be a pioneer a lightning rod and have a sense of responsibility.
Since I was a child, my dad always worked hard to support my
family. Everyone often says that he is a very particular person and
likes to work in details until perfection. Following example of my
dad, I try to be a responsible person at home and in my office as
well. In fact, since I was 6 years old, my parents encouraged me to
do everything by myself and took up various tasks at home such as
helping my mom prepare meals, taking care of my younger sister,
washing my clothes, etc.
Another significant lesson that I learned from my dad was to be
calm and maintain self-respect. For this, he has taught me through
his actions and spoken words. One of the most significant
experiences was the following story.
One day, in an early morning, while all members of my family
were sleeping, we heard a banging on the door. We all woke up, and
my dad ran to open the door and found Mrs. Ca - our neighbor. She
asked to search our house because her stuff was stolen. We all lost
our temper, except my parents. His constant effort in bring her to
her senses was failed. He said, You have all right to search our
house and waved everybody aside. Immediately, she rummaged every
corner of our house. About nearly 15 minutes later, she went out of
our house without words. Although this event happened over 15 years
ago, memories of that morning are still engraved in my mind. Until
now, when I have more life experiences, I have recognized that a
good leader should be calm and self-respect in any situation.
My mom also influences how I think, act, and deal with life. She
inspires me to overcome obstacles. Although she is an illiterate,
she always teaches me how to be a good person, how to communicate
with other people, and how to confront difficult issues. I learned
from her patience, carefulness and fondness for learning. When I
was in the third grade, for example, I attempted to do a math test
perfectly, but I got a bad mark. I was very disappointed with
myself. My mom came and inspired me to try again. She said, Failure
is the mother of success. You should be patient, and figure out
what mistakes you had made. I realized my problem - inadequate
basic knowledge. From that time, with the encouragement of my mom
and special help from my teacher, not only I got back the basic
knowledge but also became good at math. One year later, I won a
third prize in Math Contest for Gifted Students in Gia Lai
Province. After that, I won some prizes in National Math Contest.
Now, as an assistant at High Command of Mobile Police, I recognize
how useful they are. With my experience, I strongly believe that
patience, carefulness and fondness for learning are three
characters that leaders should have.
Thanks to my parents lessons, I grow more mature. I realized
failure is unavoidable on the way to success. Sir. Winston
Churchill used to say, Success is the ability to go from failure to
failure without losing your enthusiasm. An effective leader should
know how, when he makes decisions to get better results. If he
faced a failure, he should accept that as fact, experience failure
and make things right. 2. Lessons from Student Life
Because of my endeavor and learning spirit, my teachers and my
friends loved and thought highly of me. Consequently, I was voted
as a monitor from fourth grade through seventh grade and under my
management, everything was in order. However, in eighth grade,
everything changed and became out of my hands. Some classmates not
only opposed my assignments but also induced others to oppose.
Every time, I needed classmates opinions to solve a problem, they
did not say anything. I suggested the ways to solve. They sat still
and kept quiet. I persuaded to find the consensus of all
classmates; however, it did not work. I threatened that I would
suggest my teacher to discipline them. They were not afraid of it.
I was very embarrassed. Why did they change rapidly? What were my
mistakes?
As a monitor, I had used many methods to solve the problem, but
they were without result. Therefore, I asked my dad for his
leadership expertise. Based on his advice, I realized that I had
not understood their feelings, thoughts and desires. They were
adults with high self-respect and independent thoughts. During a
week, I have found a suitable opportunity to talk directly with
them. At last, we gathered at a football ground to confide
everything together. We started to figure out about our thoughts
and feelings. Luckily, everything came back to normal order. With
this experience, I strongly believe that good leaders should
understand their followers feelings, thoughts and desires.
Establishing and maintaining relationships with the followers is
one of the most leadership skills.There was another profound
experience where I learned a great deal about making right decision
when I was at a high school. During that time, I had to live far
away from my family. Trung, my classmate and I rent a room at an
inn. In a strange atmosphere, without the protection of families,
it is difficult to avoid the temptation. One year after beginning
of high school, Trung became a drug addict. He used to ask me to
try, but I refused. Although he tried to convince me by telling me
that he was fine, I saw he writhed in bed with pain. He started
facing financial problems and everything he had was sold. I was
tormented by seeing his situation. I tried to seek a good way to
drag him out of this situation. How could I do when I was 17 years
old? I had to decide immediately. I decided to talk about him with
his mom, even if he was angry with me. I felt relief after talking
to his mom and our friends about his situation. We encouraged him
to undergo detoxification to start a new life. I thought I had made
a righteous decision. After two years under detoxification, he
became better and continued his unfinished studies. I learned a lot
from this experience not to be attracted by temptation and be
steady and decisive. I also think that leadership is about making
right decision in right time.
When I was in twelfth grade, I thought of going for the
information technology field for my college. However, I was not
able to pursue this path. I chose to become a police officer;
therefore, I decided to learn the major in crime investigation at
Peoples Police University of Vietnam.From the beginning of the
course, I was assigned to manage a squad. It was easier to manage a
class with 40 members than manage a quad with 12 members. Being a
squad leader was a much more challenging task because no members
knew each other prior to the course. Everyone had a difference in
thinking and characteristics. I had many difficulties at the
beginning. However, with previous experience as a monitor, I solved
difficult issues gradually. We bound up with together by sharing
our experiences, feelings, and thoughts.
Since then, my philosophy of leadership has changed
dramatically. I recognized many things about leadership. I figured
out an appropriate answer for what are the differences between
management and leadership. This question has appeared in my mind,
since I was a teenager. I used to think although my dad has certain
leadership qualities, why he is only a manager, not a leader. When
I asked my dad about them, he said, Leaders are born and not made.
Famous leaders have certain intrinsic traits or qualities that
others have not. That why a person becomes the leader in an
organization rather than another. One can be a leader, but another
only can be a manager.
Furthermore, the difference between management and leadership is
simple. Management is a career. Leadership is a mobilization. One
of the most significant leadership quotes is the statement
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right
things. of Peter F. Drucker - a writer, management consultant, and
self-described as a social ecologist.
3. Experiences from Working
After graduating from the Peoples Police University in 2006, I
have been working at the High Command of Mobile Police. Because of
my outstanding work performance, I was voted for a secretary of
Communist Youth Union of my department. As a secretary, I always
was mainly responsible for organizing extracurricular activities,
volunteer campaigns. This position gave me the opportunity to
communicate with many people from across the nation, thereby
enhancing my knowledge, leadership perspective, and management
skills.
The most significant leadership experiences that I had were
during June 2008 at a poor Phong Phu commune. Because it was the
first time, I leaded about 40 members to do many important tasks.
At the beginning, I gathered all my cabinet members and decided to
do something new at this commune. After analyzing the collected
information, I decided to establish a literacy class. However,
there were many opposing opinions and An - Deputy Secretary was one
of them. When I asked him about his ideas, I was very surprised at
his response aggressively. It was the worst time. I asked him to
have a private conversation. I said, An, you are the good person
who I always respect; however, I was very sad with your speech. I
continued, It is difficult to accept your action. I hope you change
your behavior. All members like you and do not lose your good image
in their eyes." In this event, I believed that I acted
appropriately towards a team member by controlling my own emotions
and helping him keep his image.
Another problem occurred during this mission on how to divide
members in different teams, such as a team for building road, a
team for information management, a team for teaching, etc. We had
only three weeks to accomplish all things. To overcome these
challenges, I first assessed the specific skills of each volunteer
in order to assign them to appropriate teams. Then I gathered all
members in meeting-hall to deploy our plan and classify each
members skills. After conducting this research, I found the
consensus of all members to form the teams. I learned from here how
important it is to get good participation from others to move
forward in a mission.
Fortunately, everything occurred smoothly and all our teams
worked effectively, especially the team of teachers. When the
course began, every member of the teaching team worked so well. The
first day of course attracted over 20 children, and second day
attracted more than 30 children. We persuaded parents to let their
children to go to our course. I realized that all children and
their parents were very pleased with our four classes.
By investigating specific skills of each volunteer and found the
consensus among members, I established a literacy class
successfully. During this time, I tried to ensure that members were
closer and closer, and each member had an opportunity to prove his
skills. I believe that this event is the most valuable one in my
leadership experience since so many challenges took place, and all
responsibility was on my shoulders. I believed that the success of
this mission is due to my maturity in handling disagreements,
controlling my own emotions and concentrate on the overall picture
and goal of the mission at all time. I am now looking forward to
leading future missions and challenges.
Moreover, during my career, I found different models, both good
and bad, of leadership at my workplace. I had a boss, who taught me
the value of training staffs well and assigning suitable work to
officers to create opportunities for them to prove their abilities.
I learned that I worked best under a boss who allowed me to make my
own decisions. I used to communicate reluctantly with a superior
who did not take initiative nor like to solve problems on his own.
I also felt sorry for some superiors who do not believe and assign
work to his subordinates and always did everything by himself. I
did not feel comfortable to work under dishonest bosses who
contended with their subordinates for merits.
4. My Awareness of Leadership
With knowledge and experience I had, I agree with the statement,
Leaders aren't made or born. Leadership is a choice - a belief in
oneself and commitment to everything that is good and noble within
you. Everyone can be a leader if he/she wants to. Leadership is not
limited in organization. If you are a parent, you are definitely a
leader of your family. When you are a member of a group in which
other members trust you and place all their expectation on your
shoulder to mobilize them to achieve their goals, at that time, you
are a leader, too. We can be a leader, at least in leading
ourselves. Leadership stays inside each of us. However, at the
starting line of training and practice, some people may be better
than others. I think that whether you are a leader or not is not
important but how effective you are in inspiring and motivating
other people is the most important.
First, I strongly believe that leadership is the process that a
person influences others to achieve its goals. Leaders and their
followers can mutually influence each other. There are two types of
leadership. (1) Leaders with authority are those who use their own
authority to lead a group of people to achieve their goals are
leaders. In this situation, they use power stem from their
authority to force a person to accomplish a certain act. They may
also be authoritarians. Leaders with authority easily raise
conflicts and arguments among members; therefore, it is difficult
to gain the direction, protection and order. (2) Leaders without
authority "push us to clarify our values, face hard realities, and
seize new possibilities, however frightening they may be." Gandhi,
Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Margaret Sanger are
famous examples of that type of leadership. Each of them gained
considerable informal authority, which followers placed in their
shoulder to solve difficult social problems.To be a leader is
difficult but to be an effective one is more difficult. Effective
leaders have to have certain characters, knowledge, and leadership
skills, as well as clear visions to mobilize other people to tackle
complex issues in order to get the goals. Knowledge effective
leaders should have ranges widely from human nature, group behavior
to professional ability. To achieve more knowledge, they should
gather more information, study the knowledge acquired and
experiment and be trained continually. Characters include
decisiveness, self-confidence, and objectivity. Leadership skill
includes but not limited to effective communication, great
listener, and organizational ability.Second, management is the
process of getting activities completed efficiently with and
through other people; or the process of setting and achieving goals
through the execution of five basic management functions: planning,
organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling; that utilize
human, financial, and material resources. Managers and their
subordinates mutually monitor and depend on each other because they
have weaknesses. The dependence is limited to their tasks and
organization. In short, as I stated in the beginning, my philosophy
of leadership changed belong to each period. Until now, I have an
insight of leadership. Leadership is the process to influence and
guide the behavior of individuals or groups towards the goals of
the organization. Leaders are not born or made. To become a leader,
we have to be under a continual process of learning, training and
collecting experiences. A leader should be calm, assiduous, and
honest. Certainly, a leader should have specific leadership skills,
such as the public speaking ability, listening skill, and
collecting and assessing information.
I also realize that my leadership strengths are sense of
responsibility, communication skills, and organizational ability.
My weaknesses are inclination to be impatient, arrogant, and
shortage of resolution. I strongly believe that after earning the
Master Degree in Justice Leadership, I learn how to analyze
problems through a multidimensional perspective. I aim to
accumulate knowledge and wisdom from literature as well as
practical experiences to overcome my weaknesses in the future to
become a better leader.
Jago, A. G. (1982). Leadership: Perspectives in Theory And
Research. Management Science, 28(3), 315-336
Drucker, Peter F., Reflections of a Social Ecologist, Society,
May/June 1992
HYPERLINK "http://www.kossoff.com/" Leslie L. Kossoff, From
Manager to Leader, HYPERLINK
"http://management.about.com/od/leadership/a/FromMgr2Ldr05.htm"
http://management.about.com/od/leadership/a/FromMgr2Ldr05.htm
Ronald A. Heifetz, Leadership without Easy Answers
www.crfonline.org/orc/glossary/m.html
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