HOW TO ENHANCE LEADERSHIP SKILLS IN SCHOOL

What is the leadership? According to John C. Maxwell, leadership can be defined

as the ability of someone to influence others to get the followers. Somehow, Oxfords
Dictionary defines leadership as the action of leading a group of people or an
organization or the ability to do this: different styles of leadership. From the Islamic
point of view, everybody is a leader. It was stated by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in his
narration, each of you is a leader and each of you will be questioned about what led.
A leader is a leader for his people, and he will be held accountable to the governed. It
is clearly shown that every people has their own responsibility in leadership.
The contemporary issue on leadership skills in school, has been raised from
many sides. There are many problems regarding to leadership in school which are
related to students especially school prefect. As we know, the school prefect is a person
who gets involved in helping teachers to monitor disciplines of the pupils. Several major
crisis and problems has been detected as obstacles in this situation, such as lack of
confidence, afraid of being bullied by other pupils, lack of communications skills and
integrity. From many related articles, there are many suggestions and recommendations
to overcome the problems. There are several aspects that can be made as factors to
contribute to the development of leadership skills and teamwork whether through sport
activities, gameplay and teambuilding courses.
As mentioned above, there are many problems and factors which led to this
situation. The students who are appointed as a prefect by school are lack of integrity in
themselves. In Oxford Dictionary, integrity means the quality of being honest and having
strong moral principles. It is strongly related to honesty, probity, rectitude, good

character, ethics, moral, righteousness, virtue, decency and so on. Because of this lack
of attitude which is integrity, the other students would not respect them and decline to
obey the school rules. Additionally, teachers workload would be increased. It could
affect the learning process in school and quality of education. Other than that, they also
have no skills of communication. They are not practicing good communication skills. To
be approached by students, teachers, parents or visitors, the prefect can participate in
presentation in front of the class which also can help build confident in themselves.
They have no knowledge of interpersonal skills and only get weak guidance from school
and teachers. Therefore, they do not know how to communicate well with other pupils
and treat them wisely. Basically, the communication problems consist of several
elements such as failure to listen, different cultures, attitude and ego, inadequate
knowledge and gender bias. Because of that, it could affect schools and students too.
The matters that relating to the integrity are deeply affect the school and students.
Students discipline will be decreased due to the ineffectiveness of the enforcement
from school in dealing with this problem. Also, learning sessions in class will be
interrupted due this circumstance. It will direct to negative impact on academic
performance and quality in school. The schools that are experiencing this problem will
be

referred

to

and

monitored

by

the

Ministry

of

Education.

It will disrupt the harmony of the school and its occupants.

Nowadays, there are many discipline problems among schools students. Most of
the problems can be solved through learning of leadership skills. In fact, leadership
skills and teamwork are integrated elements. It is obvious that generating leadership
skills at school would become more efficient. The teachers always ruling their tasks as

guiders and leaders to their students. Then, the students directly learn leadership skills
from their teachers. Besides, by generating the leadership skills, it is automatically will
improve quality of disciplines in school. At the same time, discipline problems among
students could be reduced smoothly. In order to avoid students break the schools rules
and regulation, the school management has to ensure that all students must learn the
leadership skills and teamwork. More than that, leadership skills are not just only thing
to reduce discipline problems among students. Even, it could be a mechanism to
encourage students to have high level of confidence when facing communities and
others. We can see how students perform in front of thousands of audiences and give
talk with confidence. Without confidence, they also cannot give guidance to another
students and form a teamwork. They might have low self-esteem. They are many ways
to build confidence such as attending motivations courses. Parents and teachers also
could help students to increase their level of confidence. In other way,
during teamwork, some students could learn about leadership skills and how to lead a
team and work as a team.
To overcome this problem, we have to come out with several
solutions. The first solution is to make student participate in sports activities. Sport is
an outdoor activity that involves physical activity classes. This sport activity is intimately
linked to the formation of student leadership. With student participation in sport, it can
built self-confident, responsible in doing some tasks and capable of making decisions.
In addition, they are also having the ability and skill to solve problems. Participation in
sports also can built integrity and self-awareness among students. School students
have the opportunity to participate in sports activities. Practice make perfect. In order to

make a good quality of leadership, continuous practicing and effort from school and
teachers are essential. When other people need a new leadership, former student
leaders have been driving forward the pace of its own. They can use their experiences
in leadership at school and be successful in their respective fields. With sport activity, it
can help student learn how to treat other competitors and teamwork and also could help
student to make best decision to win the match by thinking of many strategies.
According to (Gribben, 1972), a good and efficient leadership will have a positive impact
on a particular organization. Apart from that he also believes that the positive effect will
be achieved for a goal. Leaders are individuals who are competent, skilled, resilient
and charismatic. Forming process and produce the best leaders take a long time. Great
leaders today were not born as a natural leader, but are formed through the process of
forming continuous leadership since his school days (Azizah, 1991). Therefore, school
is the best institution for students to learn about skills of leadership and how to develop
it. Sports can build skills in communication and teamwork. Students who are actively
involved in sports activities will be able to hone the skills of effective communication
among them and foster teamwork well compared to students who are not involved in
sports. They tend to be passive. Playing football, basketball and badminton also could
provide students with the skills of leadership. By playing sport, students could develop
leaderships skills and teambuilding. Education is one of the sectors that contribute to
provide better future generations. Therefore the quality of life in a country can be
measured by the level of education of its people. The school system in Malaysia is
influenced by the Education Act 1961. The school education is divided into two main
parts, namely the curriculum and co-curriculum (Razak Report, 1956). National

Education Philosophy has emphasized about balancing students intellectually,

spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Through the National Philosophy of Education,
the school curriculum designed to meet the needs of mental, physical and social
students with emphasis on teaching and learning formal involving curriculum and
subject content, sports activities as an extension of the above, such as students'
participation in sports and games and uniformed associations. All the activities are
available in the education system to encourage the development of physical, emotional,
spiritual and intellectual development among students and promote the formation of
leadership and character of leadership that can build the excellent personality of
students.
Another solution that may have come out to our mind is gameplay. Gameplay
has become a staple in life of most teenagers, and even adults. Play online game could
increase intelligent and brainpower. Playing shooting or driving video games, even for a
short time, could sharpen visual skills and improves the ability to search for a hidden
target. In helping children to regulate their emotions and cope with anger problem have
come up with a game. In other words, according to (Nuangjumnong, T., 2014),
leadership style is the manner and approach of providing team direction, implementing
plans and motivating people. It teaches students how to be a good leader in their team
and promote teamwork. The leader could realize that integrity in leadership is the most
important thing in this world. Furthermore, they could know how to treat another
member in team and give direction and support to win the game. To work as a team,
cooperative work is an important thing and most essential. The best way to encourage
the spirit of teamwork, a leader should play his role as well as possible. Another benefit

in gameplay is to build up and increase thinking level how to win the competition and
provide team direction plan and decision making. To inculcate good habits, in relation to
health a mobile game that encourages eating more fruits and vegetables with the goal
of curbing childhood obesity. In the game, children must find apples or other fruits for
their animal characters. In terms of enhancing learning that provide knowledge and
improve their language proficiency. Student could gain information about new
vocabulary and be a fast learner. But remember that student tend to be passive and
neglect their studies when they are always playing game such as isolated, could not
share the same interest, experiences and techniques and the possibility of being
obesity. Anyway, it is hardly emphasize that leadership skills also can be built by
teamwork.
Finally, it is strongly suggested that teambuilding could be the one of the best
solution. Nowadays, teambuilding has become one of the activities which is always held
in schools and educational institutions .The main purpose of the course is to assess the
ability and endurance of students. Through this course, students have the competitive
spirit and high motivation in themselves. From the point of leadership, it embodies the
spirit of leadership qualities which are usually in the teambuilding course , someone will
be appointed to head the group . The task undertaken indirectly boost morale, integrity
and unity. They will learn how to be responsible and strong leader in their team. Many
students attend this teambuilding courses are to build up and light up their own integrity
in themselves. They meet a new friend and from there, exchange the ideas, opinions
and share same interest. They have high confidence level and take an opportunity to
communicate and practice with friends. Students can learn leadership skills and

teamwork by attending courses which are organized by school. Outdoor activities which
provides self-endurance and how to strategize in teamwork. Besides that, it is one way
to release stress with enjoy educational trips to various places. Creative students
always practicing their leadership skills and learning to be a better student . The
program teaches students to be responsible, gain experience in working with people at
different levels and to keep developing and diversifying their leadership skills.
In conclusion, it is important thing to generate leaderships skills and produce
teamwork in school. Students could know about decision making, through sport
activities. They also know how to treat other players and competitors with respect and
honor. Gameplay also

provide

students

with

teamwork

skills

and

effective

communication skills. Without the skills, teamwork might miss their target and leader
could not know how to handle the situation. In addition to, students could gain more
self-endurance and be more discipline. There are many recommendations and
suggestions to solve this issue. Somehow, there must be cooperative work between
school administrator, teachers and students. School administrators could organize
campaigns and courses related to leadership skills and teamwork.