Leadership in Practice (9)

What will you do as a leader to encourage proactive participation if most of the members are apathy? Some might say forget about them and we start with the minority first or some might say it is better for me to go since many of them do not want to come forward and i do not command support. Many excuses and of course many options too can be explored to rectify the problem.

Mr Mannar Mannan, Chairman for the Rukun Tetangga Section 8, PJ come out with a different tactic. Without knowing much about the PJ Best Neighbourhood Contest and knowing that the RT is not a winning prospect as a new community organisation with hardly many activities, he submitted participation form for the 2006/07 Contest. When asked about his intention for participation by the judges during yesterday's visit, he mentioned that "I put in the form so that my committee members have a chance to learn about sustainable development and Local Agenda 21 during the meeting and interaction with the learned judges. Furthermore, the presence of the judges and MBPJ is a form of recognition which should motivate the committee members and residents to change their apathy mind set and to spur them to organise more community activities."

Recognition and acknowledgement is an important elements for an effective implementation of Local Agenda 21 and community development. Community members need to be recognised for their involvement and contribution. Recognitions do not mean cash reward. It can be anything in the form of kind or love. Presence of VVIP there together with them, presentation of small token and certificate, provision of logistic support, warm greeting during functions etc are amongst the small gesture that asked for by the community members.

The strategy applied by Mr Mannar is equivalent to a stone killing two birds. It is an opportunity for both the community and MBPJ. While community is being recognised, MBPJ is given the chance to be with the people. A chance that we have to go out and seek for it rather than waiting in the office. It is truly management by walking about.