I was one of the 13 participants of Father Marcel ‘s Leadership training last April 30, 2022 at Gouda.
He immediately mentioned that a Leader’s actions or role does not necessarily comes from official authority unlike that of a manager, the latter’s role comes from the official authority given to him/her by the organization’s big bosses.
A leader is not necessarily a salary based role while a manager is. A leader is an influencer, motivator, mentor , inspires , empowers the team, guides and directs everyone to a common goal. A manager follows the set of responsibilities given to him/her and will want the team to accomplished a task within the set of guidelines and deadlines established by the organization.
Further, a good leader is giving the time and effort because he/she is committed to the team. Someone who is passionate and charismatic in dealing with people.
With that said, I had a flashback when I was in high school and college days. I remember I was always chosen to be the leader perhaps because no one wanted to take the responsibility or maybe they saw that I can lead. But now I realized, I was not a good leader because when we were tasked for example, in our science subject, to bring materials for an activity, I would assigned my team what he or she will bring but I will bring every materials needed without my team’s knowledge. I was just afraid , they will not bring any material and we will get low grades!!! I took all the responsibility. There was no ‘WE’ but only ‘I’. It was indeed a good realization .
Father Marcel also made us open our minds and hearts that Leadership in Church is not easy. Take an example of Jesus, He emphasized the importance of being discerning with regard to others without seeking to control them. He was not only a servant-leader ( John 13:1-7) but also a good shepherd ( John 10:14) . He was also a steward as mentioned in Luke 22:27.
Another example of a good leader was Nelson Mandela , a former President of South-Africa, who showed heroism through his selfless and dedicated acts, by fighting to bring liberty and justice for all his people and risking his life for the equality of all.
Besides the fruitful discussions we had , we participated also on a self -reflection activities based on the questionnaires about Behaviour as a leader, Exercise on Personal Effectiveness for Leaders and Analysis of behaviour in the Leadership Team and Group Dynamics.
Father Marcel ended the training with a quote by Simon Sinek , “ The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas but to create an environment in which great ideas can happen.”
Participants were Norie Dalisay, Marissa van der Graaf, Nova Villaver, Elpi Gutierrez, Teunis Blanken, Hans Oostenwijk, Jenny Luna, Tessa van As, Ronald Kaesteun , Joylyn Subtenente, Rosavilla Hoogendoorn, Gene Boon , Luz van de Starre, Maria Lovella vd Weiden and the speaker Father Marcel Uzoigwe, CSSp.
We zijn erg dankbaar voor deze educatieve en informatieve training. De boodschap was duidelijk, een goede leider kan leren tijdens het proces. Dank u pater Marcel voor de wijsheid, ervaring en presentatie. We hebben veel geleerd en hopen dat we het kunnen toepassen tijdens ons vrijwilligerswerk in de kerk voor de verbetering van het team, de organisatie & de gemeenschap. We hopen ook op een vervolgsessie van de training voor dit jaar. God zegen ons!
