Name: Lina Nabilah Binti Anuar
Position: Assistant Librarian, Cataloguing & Indexing Unit
Book: Kembara Kepimpinan
Author: Roshan Thiran
Comments:
I have always believed that to become a leader, you need to be born with leadership skills, that it is something that we can’t learn. It all changed however after I read this book. In the book, the author reflected on his past life experiences that helped him understand the true meaning and attributes of great leaders. He helped me understand that you don’t necessarily need to be in a top management position to be a leader; you can be the leader of your family, friends, community, etc.
In this book, the author used the word “gorila” as a phrase to describe threats that you need to focus on the most as it can affect your organisation, institution, or business. If you a leader and you ignore that “gorila”, you’ll lose in your own battlefield. As an example, Nokia used to dominate the mobile phone industry back in the day, until Samsung and Apple dethroned the Finnish company. While the industry is moving forward with Google’s Android, and Apple’s iOS, Nokia (then owned by Microsoft) moved forward with Windows, which proved to be a costly mistake as Windows was the least popular OS (by far) out of the three. A great leader will always take the time to observe the changes that are taking place in the world.
This book is an interesting and helpful read for those who want to develop effective leadership skills.
Excerpt:
“Adalah lebih baik untuk menyahut cabaran untuk melakukan sesuatu yang maha besar, untuk memenangi kejayaan yang gilang-gemilang walaupun mengalami kegagalan yang bertalu-talu, daripada dibanding sama seperti mereka yang lemah semangat yang tidak mahu merasai keseronokan atau tidak mahu menderita, kerana mereka itu berada di dalam kekelaman yang tidak mengetahui erti kejayaan atau kekalahan.”
