The poster of the e-Leadership Camp
With the aim to provide a platform for students to understand themselves better and learn to unleash their leadership potentials, UTARambassadors and UTAR Division of Programme Promotion (DPP) organised “e-Leadership Camp 2021” on 12 June 2021 via Zoom. The UTAR Leadership Camp (ULC) is an annual on-campus event held since 2017. It was purposely organised for high school students. However, due to the pandemic the organising team resolve to conduct the camp virtually.
The objectives of the e-Leadership Camp were to provide an understanding of leadership, time management, communication and entrepreneurship skills. The event also aimed to promote the importance of teamwork when working in a team.
After the explanation of house rules by the UTARambassadors, the event kick-started with an opening speech given by DPP Programme Promotion Director Lee Choy Fong. Lee said, “The e-Leadership Camp is an activity co-organised by our team of passionate UTARambassadors and UTAR Division of Programme Promotion. For your information, the term ‘UTARambassadors’ stands for two words, ‘UTAR’ and also ‘student ambassadors’. The UTARambassadors were selected to represent the voice and face of UTAR. These selected UTARambassadors are from different countries and different backgrounds. Throughout this event, you will get to meet some of them.”
Lee delivering his opening speech
The opening speech was followed by another speech given by e-Leadership Camp 2021 Chairperson Kan Purple. She thanked the committee members and all the participants and said, “I am honoured to represent the UTARambassadors to deliver a speech today. It is great to see everyone here. By participating in this camp, you will be able to identify and improve your leadership style, develop your communication and other skills. I would like to extend my gratitude to my team members, who connected and supported each other although we were unable to meet in person.”
Kan expressing her gratitude to team members who made the camp a success
The committees have invited several speakers to share their expertise and experience. The invited speakers were UTAR Faculty of Arts and Social Science (FAS) Department of Psychology and Counselling Assoc Prof Dr Tan Chee Seng who shared topics titled “What is Authentic Leadership?” and “Self-assessment: How Authentic Are You?” and UTAR alumni-cum-Radio Televisyen Malaysia 2 (RTM2) Mandarin News Anchor and Radio Televisyen Malaysia (RTM) Malay Reporter Rasyidah binti Abu Johan who shared the topic titled “How Do Leaders Communicate?”.
There were also two interview sessions with Founder and Owner of Inside Scoop Edmund Tan, and Founder and Owner of Oxwhite Apparel CK Chang on their respective topics titled “Realise My Dream in Innovative Way” and “How to Lead and Inspire a Team by Action?”.
Dr Tan begin his talk by explaining the concept “leader and authentic leader”. He said, “The concept “leader” has changed as people these days expect a leader to be someone who would not simply make decisions and willing to work together with them, as well as to guide them to achieve the vision and goal. So, as an authentic leader, you have to be self-aware and genuine as well as mission-driven; lead with your heart and focus on the long-term goals.”
Dr Tan explaining the concept of leadership
During the second-sharing session, the participants were asked to fill in an online questionnaire to learn if they are authentic leaders. They were required to answer 16 questions via QR code and then get a result with four scores. Four components of authentic leadership were listed which included self-awareness, the internalised moral, relational transparency and balanced processing.
Dr Tan explained the four components, “Self-awareness means being able to list down your three greatest weaknesses and overcome them. The internalised moral perspective refers to the internalised and integrated form of self-regulation. Then the self-regulation results in expressed decision making and behaviour that are consistent with the internalised values. Relational transparency is presenting one’s authentic self to others so he or she would be able to openly share their feelings with others. Balanced processing, on the other hand, is the ability to objectively analyse all relevant data before coming to a decision.”
Dr Tan presenting the concepts of Authentic Leadership
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While sharing her working flow as a reporter, Rasyidah said, “Communication is the key in completing my daily job because I have to communicate with many departments or team members to finish a task.” She also mentioned that sometimes she has to check with some organisations and higher-level authority to make sure the news has no conflict with any organisation’s stand.
Rasyidah while explaining her daily tasks
She also shared how a leader can communicate more effectively, “A leader must have the abilities to communicate relentlessly, simplify and be direct in passing a message, listen and encourage input from others, illustrate through stories and affirm with own actions.”
Rasyidah during her sharing session titled “How Do Leaders Communicate?”
During his interview session, Edmund Tan told the participants that he was once a banker before he started his company—“Inside Scoop”. Sharing the experience of how he ventured into a new business, Edmund Tan said, “When we first started Inside Scoop, we found a gap in the market through our research. The premium or the better ice-creams in Malaysia are usually served by foreign companies such as Haagen-Dazs, Baskin-Robbins, Wallsand and Ben & Jerry. When we realised that Malaysia had a lot of great ingredients for making ice-cream, we wanted to create a good quality ice-cream brand in Malaysia. For your information, Malaysia produces high-quality milk such as Farm Fresh Malaysia.”
He spoke about his definition of success. “To me, success means having good people around me. I always train my staff by allowing them to do things that they do not have the chance to do in another place. For example, I give them the opportunity to train, make mistakes and also learn from those mistakes.”
Edmund Tan during his interview session titled “Realise My Dream in Innovative Way”
During his interview session, Chang told participants that he grew up in a small village and spent most of his time playing in his Kampung before he went to pursue his education in Canada. He told the high school students that it was normal to have “no direction” during high school because he believes that all the “directions” should be set by gaining experience.
He added, “You need to have the opportunity to travel and see how the outside world looks like. I remember when I was in high school, Youtube and Google were non-existent. So, I encourage you to have curiosity and willingness to learn so you will know what is your interests and where you want to go in the future. You just need to see more and have the curiosity to learn.”
CK Chang during his interview session titled “How to Lead and Inspire a Team by Action?”
The interview sessions were followed by a “Pop Quiz Time” with a total of 20 questions; only the top five winners were chosen. The e-Leadership Camp ended with a group photography session and several performances presented by the UTARambassadors. Interesting videos such as “Full Body Workout with Martial Arts”, electric guitar performance, and singing and cups pitch were played during the performance session.
The online event saw a total of 561 participants who hailed from Selangor, Perak, Kuala Lumpur, Sarawak, Kedah, Johor, Penang, Malacca, Kuantan, Sabah, Perlis, Pahang and Indonesia.
Full Body Workout with Martial Arts
The music performance with electric guitar
Singing and cups pitch performance by UTARambassadors
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