UNAIR NEWS – The Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI) held another the Southeast Asia Lecture Hall on Wednesday (5/4/2023) online through a Zoom meeting. SEA Lecture Hall is a collaboration between FPCI and several universities in Southeast Asia, including Universitas Airlangga. The speaker for this lecture was Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Former Indonesian Ambassador to the USA and founder of FPCI. Dr. Dino gave lectures related to leadership character development.

He began his lecture by arguing that leadership is an expensive skill. However, leadership can be trained, learned, and developed over time. “Everyone can have the position of being a minister, director, manager, and so on. However, people who occupy these positions do not necessarily have the soul of a leader,” said Dr. Dino

How to develop the soul of leadership 

The former Indonesian Ambassador to America also argued that leaders must have a vision. Dr. Dino gave an example of Ray Kroc, who bought McDonald’s and turned the fast food restaurant into a restaurant with the most branches worldwide.

The first tip given by Dr. Dino is that every leader must choose team members with the same vision and goals. The quality of the team is formed by the quality of the members who work in it.

“Second, every leader must have credibility. It can be seen in President Zelensky, who was initially belittled because of his former career in acting. However, President Zelensky can prove his credibility by continuing to lead Ukraine amid a war with Russia,” said Dr Dino.

Dr Dino added that credibility is expensive. Once someone loses credibility, it’s hard to get it back.

Live discussion session

Dr. Dino advised everyone who wants to become a leader must have a strategy and inherent characteristics. “We can see Jokowi, who has a ‘blusukan’ strategy to attract people’s votes or Ridwan Kamil, who is active on social media to reach millennials,” added Dr Dino.

Besides explaining how to be a leader, Dr Dino also gave advice that being a leader is addictive. Therefore, Dr. Dino also warned that everyone who becomes a leader should not forget who they are.

The presentation was then continued with a discussion session between Dr. Dino and the participants. It was lively because many participants were enthusiastic, and many asked questions. Most of the questions come from the participants’ personal experiences.

In the closing statement, Dr Dino emphasized the importance of accepting criticism. “We do not think of criticism as a way to bring us down, but we accept criticism so that we can make better policies in the future when we become leaders,” concluded Dr Dino ending the discussion session.

Author: Adil Salvino Muslim

Editor: Nuri Hermawan

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