Herdarudewi Prabandari
On 30th January 2016, Saturday, our school facilitated us to attend a seminar in Leiden about leadership, especially for those who are in the 11th and 12th Grades. As I am in the 12th Grade, I was selected. This event was organised by PPI or The Indonesian Students Association in Leiden and supported by The Indonesian Embassy. The main speaker of the seminar was Mr. Handry Satriago, who is the CEO of General Electric of Indonesia and was the youngest CEO in Indonesia.
Before the seminar began, at first, honestly I thought the event would be uninteresting with just a regular talk that we might get sleepy in the middle of it. Then, when I got in and he started talking, it changed my mind. The seminar was really interesting and very inspiring for everyone in the room or maybe at least for me. He didn’t teach us step by step on how to be a good leader; instead he just told his story how he got chosen as CEO and some humour in addition. The story was inspiring and it let the audience think what the points they can get from that are. What I got and remember was these three points on how to be a good leader: by having self-awareness and a self-confidence, by being able to say “no”, and by being brave to deal with tough things and go out of our comfort zone. These three points really stayed in my mind.
Having a self-awareness might not be hard, but having a self-confidence might not be easy or the opposite, what if having both? It must be hard to balance them I guess. Well, at least for Indonesians like me, which being a down-to-earth person had been inherited in our blood. Not just myself who is saying this, but Mr. Satriago also said that we are actually these kinds of people who also thought they are small and nobody. He also said that he had that kind of feeling. When he said that, I couldn’t believe it because he is now a huge man and he had those feelings. I actually felt that I am not alone. He was after all the same like us or maybe other great leaders too.
The moment when he built up his confidence was when he got offered to be the CEO in Indonesia. He thought it was not real at first and was troubled. After he thought about it, he realised that only him that could understand Indonesian market, only him that could make the job done and all in sudden, he felt confident. From this part of the story, he realised all he had done was having self-awareness and forgot the confidence. So, having only self-awareness too much will not bring us to success. Maybe if he still had his self-awareness too much that time, he would not accept the leading assignment. It was a good choice for him to gain his confidence that time.
Besides having self-awareness and self-confidence, an ability to have our own original idea is required as well. This is when Mr. Satriago told his story when he already become a CEO he asked his boss why Indonesians usually were not got picked to have a greater job while Indonesian employees are well skilled. Then the boss answered, “They are skilled and work well, they’ll do anything when we ask them to do a task,” he paused, “But that’s the problem. They only accept order by saying yes and unable to say ‘no’.” By this, I made a conclusion myself that those people who couldn’t say ‘no’ are people who do not have any idea. That’s why they only follow without giving their thoughts. The boss hadn’t enough and said, “They are not leaders.” People who speak up their mind are potentially able to be a leader.
When you realise your position, you are confident, and you speak up your mind, now you need to challenge them by challenging yourself. Even when you were wrong and made mistake that is oppositely an advantage for us. During his experience, he made a mistake then he told that to his superior. What his boss replied was, “That’s your first mistake after becoming a CEO. It’s okay because if you don’t, you won’t improve anything.” These words are the words that people might need to listen. Some of us may be afraid of challenging ourselves and face some tough things, but maybe we should change our mind-set about it and think that they are not actually bad for us, instead they make us develop. Therefore, leaders face tough issues because they learn how to improve from their mistakes.
Like I have expressed earlier, Indonesians are too down-to-earth, that sometimes they forget that they actually can do more than what we actually think. That would include me as well. This event was unexpectedly a helpful and inspiring event at the end of the day for me. Maybe it was not only for me, but for everyone who was present in the room that day.
The talk had made me rethink and introspect about myself. I would like to be affected by the event to make myself better in the future. Not forgetting other Indonesian people who are still not confident enough, I would like them to be affected by his inspirational talk so that more Indonesian leaders could be born. We are actually able by having self-awareness and self-confidence, having tons of idea, and break through our box of comfort zone.
Picture © PPI Belanda
