Instilling Leadership Skills In The Young
Acting as trainers, the children and teenagers aged between nine and 17 years old shared how leadership skills could be fostered among their peers through teamwork, productivity, integrity, confidence, creativity, critical thinking and communication skills that would enable them to make good decisions in life.
Held at the Kampung Baru Hicom mosque, the programme was part of Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd (F&NHB)’s M.A.D. project for the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers, organised in partnership with Leaderonomics, a social enterprise dedicated to transforming communities through leadership development.
The M.A.D. project empowered the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers with knowledge, tools and skills needed for them to devise effective solutions to real-world problems and develop their confidence and sense of independence through mentorship and nurturing practical skills.
During the leadership development programme, the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers played the role of trainers and led the KAFA Integrasi Hidayatul Islamiah Kampung Baru Hicom children, aged between nine and 12 years old to participate in various challenging activities with hidden objectives that indirectly taught the participants important leadership values for self-reflection to help them become better leaders.
The Rumah Ilham children and teenagers were the masterminds behind the programme, from ideas and concepts to the key learnings incorporated into each of the five activities that were held on that day. They acquired these knowledge and skills at a recent two-day, one-night leadership camp organised by F&NHB. The Rumah Ilham children and teenagers applied their insights and lessons from the camp to the leadership development programme under the guidance of the Leaderonomics facilitators.
Cariessa Goh, F&NHB Corporate Affairs Manager said that M.A.D. project offered the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers the opportunity to not only learn and gain essential leadership traits to enhance their personal and educational development but also build confidence to expand their comfort zones while sharing their experiences and rewards with others.
“F&NHB has been part of the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers’ learning journey for close to 10 years now and we are proud to see their progress, be it academic or character growth. We take pride in their development throughout the years and will continue to support them in providing the fundamental tools to succeed.
“The leadership development programme with the KAFA Integrasi Hidayatul Islamiah Kampung Baru Hicom children was a success as we received good feedback from the participants and the mosque’s committee members. The programme’s positive outcome reflected the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers’ passion, commitment and sense of responsibility in taking ownership of the whole event to ensure that everything went smoothly and successfully,” said Goh.
The leadership development programme began with an ice breaking session and later the 45 participants were divided into eight groups of five to six children. Each group took turns to carry out various tasks at five different stations.
Twelve-year-old Nor Adriana Syuhaida was glad to have joined the programme as she learned how cooperation contributed to a team’s success. “Besides teamwork, I realised that helping each other out and putting in the effort into something were crucial to achieve success. All the activities required us to work collaboratively with each team member. This was not easy as everyone had different opinions and own pace of doing things. Overall, it was a truly fun and memorable event,” she exclaimed.
Muhd Danish Haikal, one of the Rumah Ilham teenagers who was chosen as one of the leading trainers said that the leadership development programme enabled him and his friends to apply their learnings to real-life scenarios. Their efforts helped them to identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they could learn to improve for the future.
“Some of the key elements that were emphasised on at this programme were the importance of two-way communication, self-confidence during interaction with others and keeping good eye contact with others when engaging with them. Leadership helps the participants raise their self-esteem and solve problems creatively. My friends and I are happy to have been able to impart our knowledge to the participants and hopefully, we managed to make a difference in their lives,” said 16-year-old Muhd Danish who aspires to become an aircraft engineer.
“We are confident that the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers have done their best in living up to their full potential to manage the programme and challenging themselves to become role models for the young participants. We hope that the event will inspire the Rumah Ilham children and teenagers as well as the participants to become lifelong changemakers in their communities,” Goh added.
F&NHB’s relationship with Rumah Ilham began in 2009 when they built the ‘Sudut Iqra’ library for the children and teenagers, and have continued to support the home and the residents ever since. F&NHB has invested more than RM135,000 in development programmes for the children and teenagers since 2015 and looks forward to providing continuous guidance to them.