Not everyone is destined to become a leader. However, to be a leader, it is not enough to rely solely on one’s talent; one must also draw on one’s experience. Those were stated by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Ignasius Jonan, during a general lecture on the Executive Series Transformational Leadership, entitled “The Secret to Building a High-Performance Organization,” which was held on Friday (23/2) at the Auditorium Sukadji Ranuwihardo, Master in Management Study Program at the Faculty of Economics nd BUsiness UGM.
Jonan admitted he had not expected to obtain an opportunity to be a leader. While studying overseas, Jonan only fulfilled his father’s wish. “My father wanted me to study, but after finishing my studies, my father passed away,” said Jonan, who studied at Columbia and Kennedy School in the United States of America.
For Jonan, becoming a leader cannot be achieved through formal schooling; it comes from life experiences. “A person can become a decent leader; half of it comes from talent, and the rest comes from life experiences. If you do not have talent, then you have to seek experiences,” he added.
If leadership relies solely on popularity rather than talent and experience, it will lead to poor performance. “Being a leader by relying on popularity will always produce bad results,” said Jonan.
A decent leader has to be able to become a role model as well as deliver the vision. However, the vision must be simple and easy to understand for others. “The vision has to be easy to understand by your followers,” he added.
Jonan presented his experiences as he became the Director of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (Indonesia Railways Company) in 2009. At that time, Jonan almost refused to take the job because most of the 26,000 people had graduated from elementary and junior high school. “From those numbers, only 86 people obtained a Bachelor’s degree. Therefore, I had to deliver my vision to the workers who were, say, 47 years old, and only graduated from elementary school,” he added.
According to Jonan, when leading an organization, he often sets short-term targets that are easy to achieve. “Making easy targets with three months deadline will increase the work spirit of the workers. For example, improving and maintaining toilet sanitation as the target for cleaning service and other workers,” said Jonan.
After achieving the sanitation target, according to Jonan, he implemented a smoking ban policy specifically for machinists while working. After setting those targets, Jonan said that graduates of elementary school could enhance the company’s service.
At PT Kereta Api Indonesia, Jonan was used to monitoring each station, and he also adopted this habit in the Ministry office. For Jonan, a leader has to have humanity; we should not hold grudges against anyone. “A leader should not hold a grudge because it can destroy our leadership,” he added.
Aside from giving a general lecture, Jonan also had the opportunity to ride an electric rickshaw developed by the UGM research team led by Dr. Jayan Sentanuhady. Jonan also watched the prototype of the electric car developed by UGM.
Source: Gusti/UGM
