HERITAGE

By: Renclyn Yapan

Today ladies and gentlemen, I was tasked to stimulate your intellect and imagination about the concept of leadership of this year 2007, and how to confront the challenges attendant to it. I know that all of us are future leaders in our respective fields of endeavor (napakabasic na dapat alam nating lahat, di ba?). We know too that leadership is not because of our genes, but rather an acquired culture-synthesized from our experiences and associations with people and groups who influenced our formative years of becoming a leader. We were followers then and we inch our way to our respective position – as – leaders or captains of the industry.

As leaders, we have our own style of management and troubleshooting. We too, are guided by a common sense of mission, vision and values. The difference probably lies on literary construction as well as the environmental set-up. Leadership is basically, service in action…… ika nga!!! The challenged to effect meaningful change is bestowed upon us by people we are bound to serve. This is indeed an awesome responsibility and as leaders we can not afford to disappoint them or dash their hopes. We are duty bound to produce results, deliver expectations and motivate others to increase their productivity and involve to them the concept of loyalty, honesty and integrity.

As a student of Kalinga-Apayao State College (maraming hamon sa aking buhay) that demands responses. At this point let me show to you my ability for giving you some insight about leadership.

The organizational set-up and the sense of mission, vision and values (halos magkakapareho lamang) are similar because they are both geared towards the advancement of the welfare and interest of its people. Did we ever ask if our respective institutions are still relevant and responsive to the demands of the new breed of leadership challenges? (Ngayon pa lang, tanungin na natin sa ating mga sarili!) What is therefore the kind of leadership that we need?

Leadership often appears to be base on intuition and common sense and possibly experience rather than detailed analysis, but truly leaders with common sense, possess strategic awareness and insight and do not require extensive analyses to understand key success factors or to see how the people (especially ang mga kabataan ngayon) can use its abilities and competencies to satisfy needs and expectations. There is a “gut feel” for which strategies will be appropriate and feasible and for the potential of the opportunity. When a leader pursues new opportunities and introduces changes, the detailed plans for implementing the new strategies are learning, flexibility and adaptation. For the approach to succeed, the leader must be able to inspire others and persuade them of the logic and merits of the new strategies. This is true for all important strategic changes, of course, but when new proposals have emerged from a formal strategic planning system there will be substantive detail and analysis to justify the case instead of a strong reliance on vision and intuition.