Every time before a meal, a rhythm and series of claps come into mind: “Up clap clap, down clap clap, left clap clap, right clap clap…etc.” This was a pre-meal ritual that I learned in the Singapore elite training camp back when I was in high school. This ritual is so memorable because of my leader, Dominic, was such an influential and inspirational person that he transformed a group of young teens into leaders that kids can look up to today.
In the five days of training, we were being introduced to the personality types, leadership styles, speaking styles, problem-solving skills, the spirit of teamwork, etc. We were grouped into teams to overcome different challenges such as building a boat with limited resources, treasure hunting with our eyes covered, creating the best protection for the egg with newspapers, tapes, and strings, etc.
Thinking back to how he accompanied us through all the challenges and gave us endless support, I feel the “four I’s” of the transformational leadership matches his leadership style. Although training camp only lasted five days, and frankly, we did not expect much from the camp at first, his first impression did change our minds and filled us with high expectations and excitement. Starting from the first “I”, idealized influence, he gave us a clear vision on how we were going to change and what we were going to achieve. His nicely trimmed hairstyle, and the powerful tone that he used to bring out the message immediately caught our attention and gained our respect and trust. For the second “I” which is inspirational motivation, he emphasized the big changes that he expected to see from each of us and he never delivered boring messages that made us lose interest in the game. He uses hand gestures to indicate “keep quiet and listen up” instead of raising his voice like a boss. Going into the third “I”, intellectual stimulation, he demonstrated some ways to tackle the challenges and suggested that we use different perspectives to look at the problem. His action not only broadened the team’s horizons but also gave us insights towards the steps of problem-solving. Entering the fourth “I”, individualized consideration, he truthfully cared about each one of us and spent the time to council each team. When he sees a problem in a team that wasn’t being addressed, he would immediately offer some help and talk to the person or team in a respectful way.
Being able to think about my training camp experience with the different leadership styles in mind is very fascinating because now I realize how much more impactful a good leader is. I used to think that a leader was someone who has charisma and could solve complicated tasks, but now I realize that there are so many more elements and traits that an effective leader should possess in order to inspire his followers.
- Langton, Robbins, Judge, Organizational Behaviour, 7th edition, p. 392