Leadership the breeds disobedience

I was doing one of my official duties as company clerk when suddenly an upperclass barges inside the room and demands the use of the computer I was using. I said "sir, importante tong ginagawa ko" then he gives me this BAYOT-ic look and says, "Bilisan mo ha may itatype ako." Incidents like these often happen especially in a a very hierarchial society such as that of the Philippine Military Academy. In a society where obedience is more often demanded than earned, it is not a surprise that some of us have forgotten what leadership really entails. I can just complain about these things in this blog for the primary reason that I can not do anything about it, I am a mere underclass and I just have to wait for my turn. That is basically the reason why these close-minded upperclassmen has continued to ignore their responsibilities to their underclassmen. The fact that those below them are just completely helpless and can just complain in the silence of their imagination kind of blind them to the reality of obedience. They have somewhat forgotten their own similar experiences with upperclassmen and have become the monsters that they too hated. I hate it when all I can do is wait for my turn and write about it in this blog for all to see declaring to the vastness of anyone who happens to pass through my blog that even inside the Philippine Military Academy, said to be the best leadership school in the country there is the leadership that breeds disobedience.

In my experience as a follower I have learned two things. One: a leader must always allow his or her follow the opportunity to do what he is supposed to do by providing the necessary support to get the job done and developing in him the confidence to do what is necessary to accomplish the task. Two: the follower is a reflection of the leader in whatever situation for a leader can never be a leader without a follower and vice versa. In effect, they are inseperable. These two lessons I have said just points to one thing, both have responsibilities and both should abide by this responsibility for that leader follower relationship to continue and be productive. I know there are still others that I have to learn and still to understand but at the moment, these two are the things that I have perfectly understood. Take the example I just said, I realized that the reason why I hated the approach of my upperclass so much is that he simply did not care with what I was doing, he just wanted to have his way, he ignored me and I can just be helpless. I realized that if he does that to his men in the field and it so happens that what the follower was doing was something that was of great significance to him, he might just get his gun at shoot his leader, believe me that happens often.

A leadership that ignores the follower is a leadership that breeds disobedience. It cultivates distrust and hatred to the leader which creates friction in the leader-follower relationship. Well, that is just how it is and by learning from these experiences, I just might live a day longer when I face my enemies once I go out and lead men into battle.