Regarding leadership and managing conflict, Sabam Hutajulu is the right person to ask. Before his career as a CEO, Sabam graduated from Universitas Indonesia with a CGPA of 2.19 and worked as an auditor. Years later, Sabam had climbed up and be trusted as the CEO of multiple companies due to his leadership and conflict resolution skills. Hence, SBM ITB invited him as a guest lecturer to share his astounding experiences for the Psychology and Organizational Behavior course on Tuesday (12/7/2022).
According to Sabam, conflict resolution is tightly related to our daily lives. The conflict itself is needed to enrich us. By having conflicts, we can drill our problem-solving and decision-making skills.
Sabam presented his materials in the form of cases. One of which he quoted a Turkish saying, “fish rots from the head.” The saying implies that leadership is an essential factor in the success or demise of a company or organization. He said that if there is a singular bandit within a company, it will be easy to just fire them. However, it will be different if there are multiple bandits. Even worse, if the bandit is the leader, just like the previous saying, the company will be on the verge of elimination.
“The leader’s first task is that they need to be done with themselves,” said Sabam.
He continued, as a leader, it is not about you; it is about everyone else. Especially in the context of conflict, leaders need to meet the needs of others. If the process of serving internal and clients is done, 60% of the issues will be solved.
Even though the lecture was done hybrid, it still went on very lively as the students kept asking questions and enthusiastically presenting their past team conflicts.
An interesting question popped up by Vasya. She asked if a conflict arose in a company, what can she do if she were only to be a mere new employee. As a new employee, she has no power, especially when her superiors are tightly related to the conflict. Sabam answered that our mindset of being powerless should be dismissed. If she knows there is a conflict, she needs to seek information and identify the problem, even if others might see her as arrogant.
To end the lecture, Sabam made a closing statement that we need to maintain positive conflict. He also conveyed how we need to be problem-solver leaders so that the next generation can continue to strive and achieve the impossible. By solving the problems, we simultaneously solve the conflicts.
Written by Student Reporter (Puteri Tricahya Utami, Management 2024)