CHAPTER 7: LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN

FOODSERVICE INDUSTRY

Admired Leader’s Name: Nur Aisyah Binti Ahmad Razali

Position: Batch 40 Team Leader of Reserve Officer Training Unit (ROTU) Dungun

Nur Aisyah Binti Ahmad Razali or also known as Junior Under Officer (JUO) Aisyah
in the Reserve Officer Training Unit (ROTU) of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM)
organization, is the current ROTU Dungun team leader. During Junior level cadet officer, she
was appointed as the vice leader and so became acting team leader on the absent of the previous
team leader due his unavoidable issues. In the late December of 2019, the coach and officers
recommended that Aisyah be nominated to succeed as the new team leader. An election was
held and Aisyah won more than 80 percent of the vote and was given the Lance Corporal. She
was selected by majority squad members due to her confidence and passion in leading our
squad through the years to excellence. Although she was voted and acknowledge as the suitable
new leader, no one expected that Aisyah would be able to hold position for long. She was
considered a rather weak because she is a woman. During Intermediate level cadet officer
(second level), she was promoted to Corporal, due to her excellence in leadership, military law,
staff duties and social etiquettes. She then promoted to Junior Under Officer position during
Senior level. Her influence on the squad members, fellow juniors and general staff at the unit
is immeasurable, and the respect people had for her is unmatched by anybody. She is the most
successful team leader in Batch 40, and she won’t be matched by anyone any time soon. This
was proven when she was recognised for her wisdom and courage in bringing the organization
together to work in hand in hand together for a better organization management.

JUO Aisyah’s fearlessness is evident in her leadership and ability in the organization.
JUO Aisyah was still a junior cadet when she gave the first opinion in disagreement of the
biased treatment of a fellow squad member received in the military duties as a junior. Her
bravery in speaking in front of the officers and coaches at such an early program training level
displayed her commitment as a leader who analyze the situation and assess risks. JUO Aisyah’s
second good traits is she treats everyone with dignity and respect while expecting the others
will do the same. She urges us to acknowledge the dignity and worth of all people, to treat them
with respect and compassion, and to put others' needs before of our own during her presentation
on the Army Ethic class. Although her rank is higher than most cadets and lower than officers,

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she never been arrogant and forget of her position. The third good traits is she is communicating
horizontally and vertically and openly. In ROTU Army organization, ‘Sistem Penyampaian
Maklumat’(SPM) is important in communication. As a team leader, fellow squad members
often seeking advice to their problems to JUO Aisyah, then she will proceed informing starts
with the coaches, to the officers, then the higher up officers without skipping the hierarchy of
the organization.

JUO Aisyah’s flaws are such as being unwilling to collaborate out of squad member
circle such as junior cadets. Although she respects other level cadets, she may be a bad
delegator, and she has a hard time entrusting a task to someone else but rather do the task alone.
Her another flaw is sometimes she can be over reactive. This can be seen during ROTU Sport
Carnival, she lead the volleyball game flow but every time when opposite team member wins,
she could not control her facial expression to remain calm but rather cry. Next is, sometimes
she blames other people. When there were problems occurred within the squad members, she
would shift the blame to junior cadet to avoid getting mad by the coaches.

When it comes to managing the batch organization, JUO Aisyah is the facilitative style
leader. When solving a problems before seeking guide to the coaches, the decisions are decided
in a group setting. She helps squad members to see and understand the big picture of an idea
or problems and assists them in coordinating their military duties. By participatory decision-
making able to boosts squads enthusiasm and commitment. During the ‘Latihan Kem Tahunan’
and ‘Latihan Berterusan’, there were also squad members from UiTM Shah Alam and Arau.
Her facilitative leadership style is very effective in dealing with complexity of the mass number
of squad member, 180 cadets. Her facilitated meetings can help create innovation and new
ideas especially during ROTU Appreciation Night, where overflowing ideas were given by
each squad members. Thus, to deal with the complexity of group decision-making, she needs
group facilitation abilities. People will be considerably more devoted to an idea or a choice if
it is decided as a group. With a higher level of dedication comes a stronger sense of unity inside
the group. Individual tasks and activities that each member will perform in response to the
choice or goal that has been set are referred to as alignment. But when the decisions were
involved other level cadets, her leadership style change to hierarchical style, which emphasis
in top-down approach with formal authority and little scope for participatory analysis. She may
be very straightforward with major emphasis on efficiency, control and routines, unlike when
within our squad members.

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 When it come to a leadership, my own personal leadership style more to
transformational style. As a leader, I encourage, inspire, and drive my team members,
particularly those in squad ROTU, to innovate and make changes that will help the organisation
grow and influence its future success. This is accomplished by executives leading by example
through a strong sense of corporate culture, member ownership, and organisational
independence among us. I was able to acquire more trust in my squad members as a result of
this technique, and I now trust trained group members to make judgments in their given jobs.
This could be shown during training camp, where I was the Platoon Commander assigned
three section commander to make sure our fortress was monitored and all duties such as the
medic, GPMG in-charges, Mortar in-charges were in place and done their duties without fail.
I gave the instruction and rough ideas to the section commanders, then they will elaborate and
assigned their section members in details. As a result, my squad members who are on the
leadership track will be better equipped to become transformational leaders as a result of
mentorship and training provided during our camping trip. Therefore, I was able to encourages
group members to shift from a self-interested mentality to one where they are executing their
tasks for the greater good. I also provide coaching and mentoring, but I let them make their
own decisions and accept responsibility for their jobs and responsibilities. I believe my
transformational style able to create enthusiasm among the members as enthusiasm is
contagious. Because of their own excitement, transformational leaders are able to instil
enthusiasm in their followers. This results in increased production, improved team morale, and
lower levels of follower turnover. I also has become excellent in communication. When team
members are not properly informed about their work responsibilities, expectations, or task
requirements, I believe they are unable to be totally productive. As a result, as a leader, I must
provide constant feedback to my members in order to keep them focused on the vision or
objective that is being pursued.