Canberra, 22 August 2011
The Australian Government Department for Education, Employment and Work Relations (DEEWR) invited me to speak at the dinner for the international student roundtable at the Old Parliament House on 22 August 2011. The roundtable brought together 30 international students from around Australia to discuss issues around their experience of studying and living in Australia – and to identify solutions. Students had been nominated by state and territory government as well as some of the key student bodies. They represent about 20 countries and are studying in a range of sectors. The dinner was also attended by representatives of the key international education peak bodies. The Vice Chancellor of ANU, Professor Ian Young was also present.
Distinguished guests, friends,
Good evening.
It is a real honor for me to have the opportunity to deliver this speech, and to share my journey with such a distinguished audience.
Leadership. This is the topic that I will share this evening. I will connect six leadership qualities with my leadership experience. These leadership qualities are: confidence, integrity, connection, resilience, aspiration and faith. Leadership is a never-ending learning journey. The more complex the environment, the higher level of leadership qualities is needed.
I will start by saying that leaders lead. And the most difficult part is leading our own selves. Because once we have leadership qualities within ourselves, then those qualities will sparkle to people around us. We can motivate others only if people respect us as a leader with qualities.
Let’s start with confidence, our self-worth and self-efficacy to play leadership roles in solving the problems and leading change. Our confidence is usually related to our personal and professional qualifications and experiences.
The second quality is integrity, our stand in what we believe in. This quality is very important especially because leaders usually have authority for managing resources, such as people and money. Our integrity will lead our way for not sacrificing long-term objectives while solving short-term issues. It will help us to resist the temptation to use organization resources for our own personal gains.
The third one is connection, our ability to connect our values and aspirations with others, which make it possible for others to wholeheartedly want to exchange and combine their resources in achieving our common objectives. This quality is key when building our social capital.
The fourth quality is resilience, our ability to withstand emotional and physiological stress, setbacks and conflicts. We are leaders because we have strong shoulders and big hearts. In our leadership journey, we have to secure resources, take risks, handle uncertainty, and deal with loses. Our resilience will enable us to bounce back.
The fifth quality is aspiration, our genuine interests and passions in changing something. If we don’t have good reasons to change something, we can’t or should not lead.
And the sixth quality is faith. Everything happens for reasons. We do our best, and God will do the rest. Having this quality makes us think and evaluate the reasons for good and bad results, and always learn from our experience.
How do those qualities relate to my life journey? If I look back 20 years ago, I would never imagine that I could stand here, at the Old Parliament House, sharing my experience with you, such a distinguished audience.
I was born in 1966 in Pontianak, West Borneo; being the first of four children. When I grew up, the challenge was to help my parents to finance my own education. My father was a mid-rank civil servant, but my family had to work very hard to earn extra money so that my siblings and I could go to good schools. Before school, I had to get up at 4am in the morning to go to the market, and then helped my mother to prepare food to cater for the neighborhood.
So, instead of going straight to a university (where I was admitted unconditionally to one of Indonesia’s best universities) I went to a secretarial academy and started my work as a temporary secretary. Upon graduation from the academy, I continued my study to evening classes of the Faculty of Economics, University of Indonesia. For more than seven years, from 1984 to 1992, my daily activities run from 4am to 10pm: worked in the morning, attended classes in the evening. By the time I was 25, I finally managed to have some savings after two of my siblings were also able to support their own education.
In 1992, I obtained my first professional position as a commercial specialist of the American Embassy in Jakarta. I presented my first salary as a gift to my parents, where I realized that my first salary as a professional local staff of the Embassy was three times as much compared to my father’s salary as a mid-rank civil servant with 26 years of experience! I came to understand why my family had to work so hard just to cover our education. My father’s salary as a professional civil servant was too low! At that point, I started to think about being a change agent to improve the conditions of Indonesian civil servants, as well as the provision of good quality public services such as health and education to be more affordable to the people. To do so, I need to improve my leadership qualities.
In 1998 I received the “Indonesia-Australia Merdeka Fellowship” during my tenure as the Executive Director of the Indonesian Telecommunications Society (MASTEL). This mid-career award was presented by the Australian government to enhance the links between Indonesia and Australia by enabling “Indonesian future leaders” to undertake study and research in Australia. In the spirit of Indonesian telecommunications deregulation, I won the award.
During one year of my fellowship, I earned my MBA degree from the Australian National University. More importantly, I also built mutual interactions with more than 100 key people in Australian telecommunications: federal government, communications authorities, competition commissions, associations, research centers, and companies.
These interactions allowed me gain significant knowledge about the Australian telecommunications deregulation and privatization processes. With the knowledge, I contributed greatly to the review of Indonesian Telecommunications Law as I facilitated the views of Indonesian telecommunications society to the new telecommunications law. Later in my career, I also facilitated the Australian development assistance to the process of Indonesian telecommunications reform.
When I was child, I dreamed of becoming an Ambassador. My Australian experience taught me that we could become Ambassadors in any roles we play.
Up to 2005, my education choices had been able to solve my short-term problems and support my long-term career journey. My secretarial skills had put me into my first job as a secretary. My Bachelors in Economics had provided me with a professional qualification to perform as a commercial specialist at the American Embassy. My MBA degree had given me further competence to manage a more complex environment in improving the performance of organizations like the Indonesian Telecommunications Society (MASTEL), the Synthetic Fiber Makers Association (APSyFI), Ericsson Indonesia (I was the first woman in their Executive Management Team), the Partnership for Governance Reform of the United Nations for Development Program (UNDP), and Unilever Indonesia.
At that point, my husband and I agreed that I should prepare myself to pursue my real aspiration: to improve Indonesian public governance and sustainable development. As a family, we needed to consolidate. We decided to take a career break to study in the US with our 10 year-old son. We personally financed my husband’s MBA degree while I went to the George Washington University with the Merriman Fellowship. I resigned from Unilever to take another masters degree in International Policy, and to be with my family for two years in the US. I am glad I did it. Spending two years in the US has enhanced my husband’s knowledge and confidence in performing his duties as a senior officer of a state-owned company. As for my son, he has obtained a good perspective about living in a developed country as a kid of global village.
Returning to Indonesia in 2007, I was 41, and I started my work on community development. I chose to be the Chairperson of Danamon Peduli Foundation (although I got other job offers from International organizations). In 2009, my community development program, Danamon Go Green, won the second place in the BBC World Challenge, selected from 900 programs worldwide. In this program, Danamon Foundation works together and shares resources with 21 local governments all over Indonesia to convert organic market waste into high quality compost and improve agriculture production. We also implemented management techniques such as balanced score-card and on-line reporting for monitoring and evaluation of local governments’ performance.
Danamon Go Green achievements have boosted my confidence that Indonesia can do better if we are serious and persevere in achieving our goals. The country is really in need of good quality leaders in the government, private sector and in the community.
Now I am preparing myself for an extra-ordinary career change, to become a change agent within Indonesian government system. People say that it will take few generations to improve Indonesian public governance, and I want to be part of that process. I intend to contest for the member of the parliament in 2014.
My Australian Leadership Award and the Allison Sudradjat Award are very timely and will help me to achieve my aspiration. A PhD from the Australian National University combined with a research at the Australian Parliament House, and the opportunity to understand about the role of the Parliament in passing the state budget in Australia, will prepare me to contest as one of the most qualified candidates for the National Parliament in 2014.
Australia has been very serious in providing the supports I need. The key is, I have to know what I want so I can connect my aspirations with Australian and Indonesian development objectives.
To end, I would like to say that achieving leadership qualities is a never-ending journey. It takes me 26 years of working experience in 8 different organizations, 17 years of married life, 2 masters’ degrees and 1 potential PhD degree to be where I am now. And the journey still continues.
For my international student friends, we are very fortunate to have the opportunity to study in Australia. This lovely country has world-class education system which will enhance our capacity as emerging leaders. Back home, our countries are in need of our service. We only have one life to live, and making a real difference to our communities will make this one life meaningful.
May God give us the strength and ability to contribute to a more sustainable world in the future. Thank you.
I am proud to be your friend. I still remember your early life journey you’ve told me about 13 years ago, but know I realize that your last 13 years experiences and achievement were so rich and incredible, so inspiring. Hopefully your next journey will also be successful.
Dear Anggra, thank you so much for your kind comments and best wishes. It is a very nice coincidence that we share our Masters and PhD journey at ANU. Yes, I will do my best always, and I always need a friend a long the way… Thank you, dear… Best, Risa
Mantap mbak, already inspired me!
congrats!
Mas Adi, thank you for your kind comments… I am fortunate to be in Canberra with you and do our PhD together… All the best for us, Risa
great speech, reflection and projection too…. !
proud of you and your determination… !
wish you all the best in your endeavor.. !
Thanks Yuyun… May Allah always give us strengths and abilities to contribute to Indonesia’s better governance and more sustainable future…! Best, Risa
Excellent, Risa. Keep fighting and take care.
Hang Uni Adelaide
Dear Hang, thanks for your comments… As ALA scholars, we indeed can make big differences to our society. Cheers from Canberra, Risa
hi ris,
each of us equally have 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, but you really make an absolutely good use of it … love reading above, i wish you luck in your journey!
Thank you Melani… I will always need friends along the way… Let’s do this together for a better Indonesia! Cheers, Risa