I got into the academia by chance, and I did not think that being in this field by chance shaped a different version of who I am and who will I be as an educator nor, will it impede my ability to succeed. I never realized that understanding ourselves and defining our soul in this line is important. While attending to Prof Astuty’s session during BC4DCP in early of September, I think hard about who I am as a person and what is my goal in this field. I mean, how can you shape young minds when you don’t even know yourself, yes? It struck me that defining our personal leadership as an academia is truly important.
I have always said that I am passionate about change and still am. I believe that my soul is to be an agent of change where I can create a positive impact on the life of others. Being an educator means I will have more opportunity to create change. I always love giving lectures as I know this is my moment to shape the future generation with an open mind culture where they speak of what they believe. I am excited when my students question my lecture, full of curiosity. I actively engaged with the industry to get the latest update on my course. By doing this, my students will get the opportunity to be familiar with the industry before graduating and they have a chance to improve themselves to better suit the industry demands. To this, I am very grateful knowing that my soul fits best with the university agenda. I think that creating a change means the ability to be open, to inspire and to work with both academia and industry to ensure that what we do will have positive spill over to the community.
I plan to soar high in academia by grounding my soul with integrity. Just like having my wedding vows hanged on the wall of my bedroom, I will print and frame the proclamation of my goals in my office so that I will always be reminded of my commitment to the future. I always fall for the concept of sincerity, blessings and rizq. As the alignment of my soul to the university agenda is sorted, I now must focus on getting the job done. To do this, no man is an island and I do not wish to work alone. Moving forward, I have two bucket lists in mind:
a) Collaborate with the industry: My niche area is on the construction contract and procurement. Teaching this subject is quite a struggle due to the complex nature of legal language, diverse contract types and the need for students to grasp both theoretical and practical applications. I believe most of my students are having a hard time in translating the contract clauses into real-world construction scenario. Hence, I plan to incorporate more case studies and inviting guest lectures from the industry professionals to demonstrate how contracts are applied in various project contexts. Hopefully by doing this, I can bridge the gap between theory and practice.
b) Innovative collaboration and creates a spin off with industry players: In the spirit of creating a change with positive benefit spill over, I plan to collaborate with organizations and scale up my research output with commercial value. As partners, I will have a chance to develop an innovative solution that truly have positive value to customers in the construction industry without having to compromise on ethics. This way, I can also employ my students, specifically those in financial need or those with special interest on the implementation of cloud computing system in contract. Then, I will also have the option to channel CSR of this company towards social NGO activities that I am currently engaged with.
I believe that these bucket lists will help me to improve myself in both teaching and research while founding a platform in changing the conventional construction industry.
Balancing Strengths and Challenges in my Leadership Journey as an Academician
A year serving in this line, I can say that I am excel in fostering a supportive and engaging learning environment, where students feel encouraged to ask questions and explore complex concepts in my lecture. My ability to break down challenging topics, such as construction contracts, into manageable and relatable parts has consistently helped students grasp difficult subject matter. I am good in building strong relationships with students, understanding their individual needs, and guiding them toward academic and personal success.
However, I must also be aware of my weakness and turn those weaknesses into strength. I recently am amazed by a documentary about Chris Jenner on Netflix where he is able to be the best version of himself as an Olympian by turning his weakness into strength. There are two areas for improvement in my leadership that I aim to change are enhancing my time management and balancing research commitments with teaching responsibilities as well to stop being too perfectionists. I am aware that I need to allocate time more effectively for teaching development and personal academic growth. To overcome my weakness, I aim to adopt better prioritization strategies and seek collaboration opportunities to lighten the workload. By doing this, it allows me to focus more on high-impact activities that benefit both my students and my own career development. I hope to change myself from being too much of a perfectionist by channelling it into the ability to critically view issues from various aspects.
By achieving the above, I believe that my work will speak for its worth and to soar upwards in the light of achieving designation or fame is never necessary. I believe that if I remain true to my soul, contribute sincerely and to always do my best, I can always count to God for rizq and blessings.