Qualities of a Leader

By Erwin Parengkuan

It is very sad and disappointing to see what is happening to the quality of leaders in our country today.How did they respond and communicate when the flood disaster hit people in Aceh, West Sumatra and North Sumatra with a death toll of more than 1,000 people, not to mention those who were declared missing.Snippet after snippet of their speeches or interviews on television or on social media has hurt our feelings and it is really embarrassing to see how shallow a leader's way of thinking is in responding to this major disaster.Just now there was a clip of a Minister who came to the disaster location carrying rice. In his interview he said that he had been greeted by people while exercising on a car free day, "Sir, why aren't you carrying rice anymore? Where's the rice?"He proudly told about this experience without feeling that there was anything wrong with the residents' questions.

There are too many words and actions of leaders that make us shake our heads, including their way of thinking which is far from reason.Either they are not critical/sensitive or they are NPD (narcissistic personality disorder).Starting from a Regent and his family who continued to worship the holy land when a disaster struck which devastated the village of its residents, not to mention a Head of the National Disaster Management Agency who openly said that the disaster that occurred was not as scary as it appeared on social media, also when a Governor said that his area in East Kalimantan which had clearly lost 3.1 million hectares due to deforestation still had extensive forest reserves, or a people's representative who came to the disaster location with a vest with his name and name on it.party, and there are many other examples that make us take a deep breath and don't know what else to say.

In fact, a leader absolutely has empathy, emotional intelligence, intelligence in critical thinking, good communication skills and keeps his feet on the ground so that he is easily accessible to the public.A leader must be a light and be able to provide inspiration and motivation to the community.As in the world of Indonesian education, which was formulated by the figure of our independence movement, Ki Hadjar Dewantara, who is also the Father of National Education, with the values ​​contained in his guidelines including 3 mottos:
Ing Ngarso Sung Tulodo: A teacher/leader must be a good example
Ing Madyo Mangun Karso: A leader must be able to generate intention and motivation
Tut Wuri Handayani: An educator must follow behind and provide a good influence so that students become independent

These 3 guidelines are now very far from the faces of our leaders, both in government and politicians and it is not surprising that currently our country is increasingly backward, while the western world which is known to be very advanced has coined the term about the qualities of a leader, namely "leading from behind" or as stated by Ki Handjar Dewantara.Unfortunately, not all leaders carry out these 3 important foundations in carrying out their roles.We also see so many contradictory behaviors occurring in everyday interactions.Even though everyone can grow and choose to grow.Imagine if everyone in the world competed together positively, it would certainly create a comfortable world to live in.So we don't need to keep hoping for the current government to change, then we will be even more angry and disappointed.So focus within yourself to be independent and empowered, which in my opinion is the wisest and most appropriate action.Let's both learn not to hope and manage our expectations so we won't be easily disappointed.The independence that we need to cultivate within ourselves will create calm rather than expecting things from outside that we cannot control.

Everyone is a leader for themselves, regardless of what is happening in our country, if we remain positive and relevant, there will undoubtedly be many people with the same frequency who will be present in our lives who will produce great synergy towards change from the smallest to the largest.For all of us now, start practicing the 3 guidelines above that have been passed down.In fact, competing with ourselves is a fun thing because we ourselves will get the benefits and there will be an increase in our capacity, as stated by the father of American psychology, Abraham Maslow, regarding his theory, The Hierarchy of Needs.