Leadership in blue jeans

I’ve always have a thing for seminars/ talks/ trainings regarding leadership. To me there are so much that I can learn and re-learn during one of those sessions. When most people go for training, they try to remember as much as they can from the trainer/ facilitators. After all, it’s such a waste to spend RM2k on a session and come back with something that is not worth RM2k.

Well, when I was in corporate doing training, I learn a very simple yet profound word from the big boss, my mentor. He kept on reminding me “When you attend training, all you have to remember is 3 points. 3 very important lessons. That’s all you need. No point it trying to remember as much as you can because you will not be able to.”

And he is right..

On Thursday night, I was invited to attend a function under the “Million Leaders Mandate Celebration Dinner” organize by LEAD. It was to a celebration of their 5th year in Malaysia and as well as a book launch. So here I was on a Thursday evening, after I braved the pouring rain and terrible peak hour jam, at the Tropicana Golf and Country Resort.

As many attendees were caught in the rain, the event started late. But guess what, it ended on time. Haha..We rush through dinner to catch back on the time that was delayed. And when I say rush, I really mean that we RUSH!!! Before the food could even settle in my stomach, it was over. And it was an 8 course dinner. I think we took only ½ hour. I did not manage to snap any pictures of the food as I didn’t have time. If I did, I would have ended up with nothing on my plate as the waiter would have taken the dish away.

Anyway, enough of food and back to the topic. I want to share about 3 things I learned from Tom Atema during his talk.

1. Leadership = influence. As long as you can influence someone, you are a leader. I really like the example that he gave about his 4 years old grandson. And to sum up his story, in his family, his 4 year old grandson is the leader, not him, because the grandson has better influence over the family then him.

2. Leaders are not born. Only babies are born.

3. Anyone can be a leader. You do not have to be wearing a 3-piece suit to be a leader. An everyday person can be a leader. Hence, his book title “Leadership in blue jeans”.

Part of the deal for the event was you get a free book. Tom Atema’s latest book. Yay! So I happily took my copy over to him to get it signed. When it was my turned, I pass my book to him and smile and said “hi”. Then he asked me for my name. And I told him. Then he said, “Oh, that’s very easy to spell”. I guess he got tired of writing all the Chinese and Indian names. Anyway, I said thank you, persuaded him to take a picture with me and headed back to my table. On the way back, I flipped the book to where he signed and “ OH NO!” I see the word “Easter” staring back at me. Darn! Didn’t want to risk embarrassing him so I decided not to go back and demand for a new book. Why do I always get my name miscalled or mispelled? *Sigh* Maybe my england not very good so he heard me wrongly :(

So, that was it. I left the event with a more profound understanding of leadership :p Its worth the price. After all, it’s only RM100 pp and it included dinner, a leadership talk, and a free book. Good deal right?

So now i'm back at home and I can't wait to read his book .

Gonna start right after this post..