In today’s special post, I had the privilege to interview my last semester facilitator, Mrs. Amelia Naim Indrajaya, whom has taken her MBA students of IPMI Business School into a life evolving journey through her inspirational classes of Managerial Communications. One semester of pure inner & outer development that none of us wanted to end. As always, in today’s interview, she opens our perspective into the importance of Managerial Communications in today’s world, especially the importance of Managerial Communications for my third world country of Indonesia.

Enjoy the interview.

Herdian:

Hi Bu Amelia (we call her Bu, which means Ibu as in the Indonesian language which means mother as it is also used as a sign of respect and greeting equivalent to Ms. or Mrs in the English language), thank you very much for your time.Before we begin, can you please share to us your background?

Mrs. Amelia:

I came from a family who moves a lot. I was born in New York, spent my grammar school in Singapore and had been to school in Sumatera, Sulawesi, Java. My father is a Sociologist who’s also a writer. My mom is a lawyer. We have been raised up in a highly democratic culture. We were given freedom to choose our field of study. My Mom had even offer me to go seriously for music. But we all ended up in Bandung Institute of Technology (all 4 and I am the eldest). I had chosen Industrial Management as my major in ITB. I became interested to deal more on the people side so I chose to pursue MBA degree in University of Colorado at Boulder. I still have a dream of pursuing a PhD on spiritual management. Especially that we have seen the collapse of companies with the only target, gaining the most with the least input. We have seen also “exploitation de l’homme par l’homme”, where we see the the trickle up effect (Exploitation of people for a few “creme de la creme” of the society). I believe the answer is to delve deeper on the spiritual management aspect.

Herdian:

Why did you decide to teach managerial communications in IPMI? And what is your objective?

Mrs. Amelia:

Since my undergraduate study years, I have been involved in training projects with my lecturer in the subject of management. Some also dealt with interpersonal skill i.e communication. Later in Boulder, Colorado while pursuing my Master degree, I was also involved in conducting training also on the soft skill areas. With all this exposures and life experience, It seems like even though the system and procedure of a company is perfect, business could not thrive without good communication. That is both written and verbal. Communication could also influence the ambiance. It could spread out negative spirit or if the communication is handled positively, it could create an enormous positive energy. Especially when the communication is conducted with a good spiritual foundation, it has power beyond imagination. This is why I am keen to go deeper on this subject.

Herdian :

Why is managerial communications important for the success of our personal and professional life?

Mrs Amelia:

Why is it important for personal and professional life? Ups… imagine living with people you care… but they never got the idea that you care… or leading a bunch of people who hates you, because the lack of communication skill gave them the wrong impression. Well I don’t want to sound lecturing but put it in an easy way… then you could imagine how hard it is surviving in the world of humanity without a descent communication skill.

Herdian:

Also being a published author, writer and professional trainer, please share to us about your books, training and consultancy and how and where we can purchase them?

Mrs. Amelia:

Books, training and consultancy? Hm I really enjoy sharing. My books are just about that. Sharing the gifts of life, wisdom and spiritual journey. I have started to love training, way back since college. I belief that training is not just learning, but it is about feeling, going through an experiential learning feeling through a spiritual journey. I do not belief in segregation of knowledge. That is, science is a separate knowledge, and spiritual is a different subject altogether. I belief that everything to be learned in this world should be learned spiritually since we are a spiritual person, we were built that way. The segregation of knowledge have made our leaders became self centered, hard to live with, and life became a grudging gruesome feelings. That’s why my training programs be it on communication, leadership, supervisory management has a strong spiritual ambiance. And it is the universal spiritual values. Due to the books, writing columns for magazines, radio show, I’ve been invited for consultancies, speeches and sharing experiences. As long as I have the opportunity, I’ll be looking forward to help and share and counsel. I can be reached at amelianaim@yahoo.com. I can also be reached through the cell phone: 0818 924 263. I will answer the sms, but during class the cell will be turned off.

Herdian:

In reference to Indonesia, do you think many Indonesians lack “Empathy” when they communicate? Why or why not?

Mrs. Amelia:

Empathy? In Indonesia? We are so used to aristocracy, we have been ruled by kings for hundreds of years. If we are the leaders… we are so used to being served, people lined up to read your cues… etc. You don’t need to empathized. You are THE Leader. If you say the sky is yellow. Then everyone will say YESS MY king, ” it’s yellow”. That is the problem of Indonesian culture. When you are in the leading position, people would hesitate to say the truth. Yet now is the reformation era, people criticize each other openly even humiliate other people. That’s another extreme that we don’t agree either. So we should be just right, be Assertive, not passive as before, but NOT agressive like it is now.

Herdian:

In one of your lectures, you explained that being assertive is the ideal way of communicating as many Indonesians are either passive or aggressive when they communicate. How can Indonesians communicate more assertively and why is it important?

Mrs. Amelia:

Assertive… Now that’s a wonderful approach lead by our spiritual leader Mohammed. You got his name too right? I sure hope you could modeled his assertiveness spirit. Firm yet kind, determined yet gentle and achieving yet understanding.

Well we have talked in the class room that being assertive is a choice. Everyone has the potential to be assertive. Yet they usually start by being passive, and when they couldn’t bear it any longer they explode and becomes aggressive. How beautiful life could be if we can control ourselves and became assertive. Respecting difference. Believing that every problems has solutions. And opening up for new ways of thinking and accepting differences.

Herdian:

If you had to give one last piece of advice to share to all of us about anything, what would that advice be?

Mrs. Amelia:

For my last thoughts…. Uhm…

We can all be the agent of change. Don’t wait until things get easier, or people became more empathetical or the bosses to get back to his sanity. We can just start now with all the little things. We look upon ourselves as the leaders with His spirit to take care of the world as His trustees. We strive to be meaningful to everyone around, to the universe. Today is better than yesterday. And tomorrow is better than today. And get the positive spirit flow to all the people around you. Just do it one step at a time. And you will see the power of the positive spirit spread out through positive communication. Wish you all the best!