When Mr. Amir Sambodo was asked by Laksamana Sukardi, then the Minister of State-owned Companies (BUMN), to hold the position of Commissioner at PT. Krakatau Steel TBK (2003), the company was in instability. Krakatau Steel suffered losses amounting to 230 billion Rupiahs. With time, in order to respond to the unfavorable situation, Mr. Amir Sambodo conducted a breakthrough, efficiency. His leading leadership traits, comprised of developing the vision, perseverance, risk-taking bravery and willingness to participate indirectly were noticeable. At the end or 2007 Krakatau Steel reached a net profit of Rp. 360 billion. This is an exemplary figure representing the real model of a person required to always improve his leadership skills. One’s leadership skills can play a vital role in improving one’s career and his or her organization’s success. Technical skills are certainly required but behind them a skill of a soft nature is also needed. Soft skills can be used a medium by a leader to build his or her career and improve it to become a better and more professional career. Not many people are natural leaders. Most of them require practices to become good leaders. According to Yulk (2010), the leadership competence can be improved in a number of methods, through (1) formal training or education, (2) variety of leadership development activities and (3) activities dedicated to one’s own self-development skills. There are several packets of leadership development skills to be possessed by a leader to be successful in this fast-changing era, including, inter alia:

1. Change One’s way of thinking

A leader should be creative and able to solve problems optimally. A leader must be effective and open to every possible shock of change. The change must start with the leader himself or herself, and be passed on to the followers (Siswanti, 2015).

2. Create alternatives

Do not wait to take over the greater responsibility. Keep moving and proceed with the current position you are now holding. If deemed necessary, try to improve skills by opening an extra project outside your main duty. The more work you do, the better your understanding of your roles as a leader becomes.

3. Think critically

To do a higher level of work to be done, you are required to be a critical thinker.A good leader is able to foresee any potential problems before the problems actually arise. The ability to think critically makes a good leader at all times cautious of all the obstacles and challenges that he or she will face and make use of the existing situation for the benefit his or her organization and all its members.

4. Listen effectively

One of the very vital skills of a leader is to listen. Without good listening skills, a leader will not be able to provide feedbacks for all the inputs and problems of the members. Feedback is the key. In order to be able to listen well, you need to have a good and focused eye contact, avoid misunderstanding and respond immediately. Communication does not only require verbal utterances it also needs one’s skill to express oneself in a non-verbal language, indicated by one’s gestures. Through the gestures a leader may be able to deliver his or her ideas clearly and honesty.

5. Never stop motivating others

A fair leader will emit positive auras to all under his or her leadership. When members are losing his ambition or passion, a good leader will serve as the energy and motivate them. You may tell your own past success experiences in dealing with various challenges.

6. Be disciplined

Discipline is a very important component in achieving one’s success. Nobody achieves a success without discipline. Perform every duty and planned program seriously and consciously. Encourage every person under your leadership to have high discipline in managing time, performing work and other work-performing (employment) relations.

7. Keep on learning

Leadership and learning are like the two facets of one coin, neither of them can be excluded. When things change fast, it is important that we keep learning or studying to cope with the situation and challenges passionately.

8. Understand how to delegate

According to Theodore Roosevelt, a good executive is one who possesses good sensitivity to do what he wants to do and is ready to cope with challenges when they actually come. A successful leader is not only required to manage in the micro context. Delegate your authority to your subordinates and let them feel “empowered”. If you really do this, they will feel better engaged and think that they have better opportunities to develop their skills. Delegating authority will enable you to concentrate on the main objective of your company, without having to be busily occupied by less significant and trivial duties.

9. Manage Conflicts

A leader shall be able to manage conflicts that arise among his or her subordinates or members. If any of your subordinates or members are unable to work in according to their professional skills or having a negative working attitude, you must personally speak to them. A leader is required to be honest and willing to take the risks if the settlement of a conflict creates new problems. At such time, the listening skill of a leader is required to listen to a member before making any conclusion or decision so that no party may feel being discriminated against.

Improving one’s leadership skills should be done by adjusting to the other Human Resources activities. This improvement may be started with the activities affecting a person’s leadership competence and how that competence is related to and match the actual needs of the organization. In this fast changing era, it is difficult to predict what types of competence are physically relevant and needed in the future. Therefore, when improving their leadership skillstop executives should be guided by a strategic purpose because it is really difficult to design a development system in this turbulent era. If not now, then when? Time never stops or waits. Either we stop or go on, we have to face everything.

YUNI SISWANTI

MANAGEMENT Department pf he Faculty of economy and Business, UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta

yuni_sis2@yahoo.co.id

The author is a permanent lecturer it the Faculty of Economy and Business at UPN “Veteran” Yogyakarta, actively acting as a lecturer, researcher, consultant, HR trainer and is completing as Doctorate (S3) Study Program at one of the universities in Yogyakarta.  (Yogyakarta, March 2017).