The Secretary-General of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI), Sudirman Said, argued that a leader’s sincerity, integrity, and mobilization ability in dealing with crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, are necessary. These characteristics are covered in intrinsic leadership.
“In a crisis, sincerity is crucial. Leaders must move to the community because they are sincere, not for power. Otherwise, the community will not believe them,” said Sudirman Said after presenting at “The 6th International Conference on Management in Emerging Markets (ICMEM) 2021. ” held by the School of Business and Management Bandung Institute of Technology (SBM-ITB), Saturday (13/8/2021).
Integrity is also required to establish public trust. The community will tend to accept the measure taken by leaders with integrity during a pandemic.
Another intrinsic leadership trait is the ability to mobilize people. During a pandemic, it is essential to encourage people to help each other during the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been many movements to help each other overcome the COVID-19 pandemic in some areas, including Magelang, Klaten, and Yogyakarta.
“This situation (pandemic) emerges our culture, gotong-royong (working together to achieve a common goal) and helping each other,” said the former Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources.
Sudirman, a Doctoral student in Science in Management at SBM ITB, is currently researching intrinsic leadership in three sectors: government, private and social organization sectors. He examines specific values of a leader that applies to all leadership sectors. So far, the results incline towards intrinsic leadership.
Furthermore, Sudirman said, he obtained new knowledge and insight from “The 6th International Conference on Management in Emerging Markets (ICMEM) 2021”. He believed that the event refreshed his mind and motivation.*