Senior Lecturer

Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS)

Kuala Lumpur

Remember!! Entrepreneurship is a journey.  Change your mindset. I will work with you to create a personalized plan that aligns with your specific goals and business idea. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. We’ll identify where you are, where you want to go, and the most efficient path to get there, focusing on your unique strengths and addressing your specific challenges. 

The person stands up, walks to a window, and looks out. The lighting shifts to a brighter, more hopeful tone. They take a deep breath, a moment of clarity on their face.

 The person is seen actively planning, writing down ideas, and sketching a business plan. They are working on their passion project with a sense of purpose and joy. The focus is on their hands creating something tangible, like building a prototype, coding, or designing.

When you stop waiting for permission and start building your vision, you’re not just creating a business. You’re creating freedom. You’re building a life where you’re in the driver’s seat.

We will work on real-world tasks directly related to your business. We will use frameworks and models not just to understand them, but to apply them to your unique context. I will serve as your accountability partner, ensuring you stay on track with the milestones we set together. This structured accountability is key to maintaining momentum and achieving your goals.

sathiswaran@utm.my

QUESTION 1: SELF-LEADERSHIP IN HIGHER EDUCATION

In the academic environment, I define self-leadership as an action or response that I have taken to encourage and inspire university stakeholders. For me, self-leadership is crucial because it allows me to retain my composure, control my emotions and behavior, and inspire others to support my goals. I have to constantly manage my schedule because I teach at a business school as a junior lecturer. I have to make my own schedule and work alone without assistance because my classes at my business school are on the weekends. Therefore, I think self-leadership is a crucial skill that enables you to manage your thoughts, discipline yourself, and keep you motivated to achieve your goals. 

I balance greater administrative responsibilities, teaching, research, and many other things as an academician. I currently work at the UTM, Azman Hashim International Business School (AHIBS) , a coordinator for the DBA program and APEL Q. Self-leadership, in my opinion, appears to be a crucial talent that gives me a clear objective, helps me prioritize important and less important chores, and teaches me how to better maintain them. Instead of placing the blame on other people, it helps me accept accountability for my choices and actions. I am capable of having a strong locus of control inside myself. Since I first acquired self-leadership, I have accepted accountability for my actions, stopped placing blame on others, and above all it has become a crucial component of my personal development.

One of the great examples is, previously I applied for so many grants and many of them were rejected. Over time, I feel that this academic journey is filled with challenges and it’s not for me. However, after attending this program with Prof Astuty Amirin, I comfort myself saying that we need to have a strong self-leadership to support our motivation, allowing me to be more resilient and challenge myself to secure a grant. Now, I feel more confident to keep moving in my life as a researcher to apply more grants and paper publications to greater research output and overall success. Honestly, I started to build a strong foundation in research, understand key research goals, start to create peer groups and network with senior researchers who are willing to help me to support my research. 

In terms of teaching and learning, I had some challenges to deliver the lecture in an effective way. Now, I believe with a strong self-leadership, I will continuously improve my teaching methods and course contents to make it more attractive in terms of content and communication and align it with adult learning. Also, I started to have strong relationships with students to support their dream and make our teaching environment more effective. One important thing I learned from this leadership slot is to reflect on experiences and open for a new change or perspective. 

One of the important stages to understand self-leadership is knowing who you are and what you believe in. This was taught by Prof Astuty Amrin, who is an expert in leadership. To develop your vision, you must need to know what are you good at. For me, the ability to analyse data, good communication skills and getting information for my students from valid sources is fundamental. I have to look at the problem from general view or broader perspective to a specific seems very important. 

In academic work, communication is a key essential to support your professional relationships. As an academician and junior lecturer, I have to present research at the conference, teaching MBA and DBA classes or collaborating with research teams. For me, having clear and persuasive communication is very important. The ability to attract different audiences highly depends on good communication. I believe having a respectable environment with good communication helps the organisation to be more productive. More new ideas will be coming in which are essential for producing impactful research. 

As an academician, I believe adaptability is another strength that supports my personal growth. The willingness to adapt to the new environment, learning new skills, new business school direction etc always make me relevant and effective in my working environment. 

In the next 10 years, I will expand my knowledge through my scholarship and leadership to solve pressing societal challenges and not just solely focus on theoretical research but also make it more practical. My journey, I want to develop it to look at it beyond my personal achievements. I want to contribute to more community projects, engagements and expand my global influence. Using my analytical skills, I would like to involve more into Small and medium level industries, to support micro entrepreneurs, and plan to provide actionable strategies for them. I believe this industry is very much struggle with current country conditions and I would like to make myself a bridge to gap between academia and small businesses and making the knowledge more accessible for outside world and communities. 

To achieve this vision, I will rely on self-leadership principles especially on goal settings, self-regulations and self-motivations. I have developed several small short-term goals to support my vision. For example, I will engaging with my community projects and will use the data to publish high-impact papers. This is one way for me to do some impactful projects. I will also secure some local and international grants that can help the community to support their wellbeing. One of the project that currently I’m working on is Afganistan refugees project. Getting a grant to support this project will be greatly beneficial for many participants to support their personal wellbeing. 

I believe that I might facing some challenges during my process to achieve my vision, therefore, high level of self- motivation will allow me to keep striving and allow me to persevere. My passion for my work and my belief that this will give a huge impact will provide me with strong mindset to continue my process. I will continue reminding myself that behind every effort there is a better world for people. 

I will foster an atmosphere of cooperation, mentoring, and empowerment in my role as academic leader. I will serve as a mentor to students from various backgrounds, assisting them in becoming not only subject-matter experts but also morally upright and accountable leaders. Internationally, I will work towards global research consortiums, conferences to get various perspectives and provide contributions to academic community to inspire them. This ten- year roadmap is more than just a career plan, its commitment to a life of purpose. 

QUESTION 2: ADAB DAN ETIKA SEBAGAI PENDIDIK 

A lecturer’s primary responsibility is to do more than just impart knowledge. It is a “act” or duty that requires excellent communication along with professionalism, ethics, integrity, and good manners. These are the key resources for academic success.

Being polite in both written and spoken communication is, in my opinion, crucial to building productive relationships in the academic community. For example, in order to establish a trusting and productive learning environment, it is essential to use clear and precise language with all parties involved, especially students. Encouragement to ask more questions is crucial because I work with mature students, particularly those who are employed by large corporations. They will be better able to comprehend the theories and concepts and how they can be used in practical situations thanks to this. Also, I also believe that having good communication with colleagues, management during meetings and discussions helps to develop a sense of belonging and working together and positive culture.  This helps to show the level of professionalism and strengthens the working atmosphere. 

Similarly, as a lecturer, I believe that providing constructive feedback and email helps to build professionalism and consideration for others. Students need feedback which supports them to keep their motivation high and as a mentor/lecturer to them it is my role to provide them with sufficient knowledge. In academic writing, ethical practice and integrity as stated in Matlamat Pendidikan UTM is very important. As a researcher, we need to uphold a high level of integrity and dignity of a professional. For example, use the proper citation in the paper and acknowledging the contributions other contributors is a must when writing a paper. 

Teaching in business schools such as in Azman Hashim International business school needs a suitable and dignified personal appearance. It is a cornerstone of professionalism which gives a powerful strategy to cultivate respect between students and lecturers and also Universiti Technology Malaysia (UTM). For me, a tidy and authoritative dress gives the lecturer a strong approach for their responsibilities working with UTM.  As a lecturer, this character will project an image of professionalism, competence and credibility which create more confidence. It is very important to keep our quality and credibility  as an academician and one way to do it is through professional appearance.

It also exhibits important character traits that students can emulate, like honesty, self-control, and a sense of accountability. Essentially, a lecturer’s authority and credibility are strengthened by maintaining a dignified appearance, which establishes them as a respected and reliable member of the academic community. 

As a highly ethical academician, I believe in integrity, professionalism and trustworthiness. These components are important for an individual to develop his or her professional growth in any organization. In my context, as a lecturer in business school it is important to begin with the teaching segment. I have to make sure that my teaching section is delivered in a highly ethical manner by providing sufficient knowledge, fair in evaluating students and not biased to anyone, to avoid conflict of interest among students. If I am able to do this, it will help me to build a trust among students and I can ensure a high quality education for them. 

The second segment is research and publication in which I conduct my research with a high level of academic integrity. I will make sure that the data I’m collecting and using for my research is accurate and authentic and acknowledge other contributors in my research. I believe it is one way to build trust among researchers and produce more impactful research that supports society and community. Also, I will minimize plagiarism in my research because integrity is essential in UTM and as a researcher in UTM I have to comply with the standard code of ethics at UTM. I believe to maintain credibility as a researcher, it is important to have a publication ethics. 

In terms of supervision, I upload a high level of quality to guide students with full trustworthiness. I have been so transparent with them, not taking advantage of their work and maintaining a good relationship with them. This supervisor-student relationship, based on trust, will encourage innovation and creativity. Lastly, lecturers in administration need to make decisions in a fair, accountable, and transparent manner. Performing administrative tasks with honesty guarantees efficient operations and a safe workplace. The quality of the higher education institution is raised by these interrelated factors, which together create the impression of an authoritative and morally upright lecturer.

I am facing some challenges in creating a high level of ethical, good manners, values, integrity and professionalism in academics. One of the primary obstacles can be pressure to get published because of the need to achieve KPI. This makes me find an alternative way to get my paper to publish which sometimes I need to compromise on research integrity by exaggerating findings to make it publish. Since I have administrative duties, research sometimes can be really burnout and very hard to maintain professionalism. Also, the competitive nature of academics also creates an environment where collaboration is less work which reduces the free exchange of ideas and mentorships. 

Another issue I’m facing in this academic world is balancing between supervision and teaching. Upholding my role as a trustworthy mentor, guiding my students without compromising on academic standards needs a lot of time which seems very challenging for me. 

Therefore, I believe that to become a respected and impactful lecturer, I will take various strategies to increase my academic values. I will start or begin from having a good teaching standard for my students, actively seeking out workshops and seminars on research ethics and most importantly I will look for senior mentorship who have experienced my situation and how they handled it. Engaging with these resources will help me to advance my knowledge and practice teaching and learning in a more ethical manner.  A strong mentor-mentee relationship will serve as a constant reminder of the high standards of professionalism and integrity I must upload.  By consistently embodying these values, I aim to build a reputation as an authoritative and principled figure who contributes positively to the university community and society at large.