What can Leadership do for us as Migrants?
- Jacob Apostol
- Apr 15, 2015
- 4 min read
What the business school cannot do in four years to transform your life, the LSE training program can do it in just six months! This proved true for many Filipino migrants in Rome, Brussels, Spain, Hong Kong and Dubai who were able to transform their dreams into a reality after completing the LSE program.
However, transforming a dream into a reality is easier said than done. As a matter of fact, these migrants had gone through a lot of difficult challenges in their endeavors before they succeeded. Their success stories reflected a clear sense of leadership that brought them to their goal. In other words, striving for your dreams requires leadership skills and knowledge to attain it.
That’s why the LSE training program strives to help Filipino migrants discover and develop their leadership potentials, and use it as an effective tool to change their lives towards a more positive and social end.
On March 1, 2015, the Ateneo School of Government opened once again this opportunity to the Filipino community in the Netherlands by launching its 2nd LSE training program in Den Haag. Despite the chilly weather, the LSE students, armed only with a passion to learn new ideas and skills, flocked to the ISS building for their first session day to receive their “baptism of fire” from the first resource speaker. As they were listening, you could see in their eyes a glimmer of hope for a better future. No doubt, some of them may become successful business leaders in today’s expanding entrepreneurial world.
Mr. Edgar Valenzuela, a retired executive of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and an MBA graduate from European School of Economics, was the first resource speaker. He gave an inspiring lecture on leadership which is one of the cornerstones of LSE as an empowerment program for Filipino migrants.
Leadership begins with self-discovery
Mr. Valenzuela began his lecture on leadership by first focusing on self-discovery. He observed that most people know themselves based on position they hold, roles they do, economic status they have, and class category they belong in a society. Of course, these are merely superficial. Discovering who we are is not a simple task to do as most of us may think so. It really takes a process of understanding our feelings, our emotions, and character. In short, it is all about our self-knowledge of our nature as human beings.
“Our real self is a person with life (may buhay), a life borrowed from God (hiram ang buhay, sa Diyos pinagmulan), with dignity (may dangal), with feeling (may damdamin), and with love (may pagmamahal)” said Sir Valenzuela.
The importance of knowing our self
Knowing our self would lead us to discover our human limitations in terms of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Being aware of our human limitations make us stronger and more understanding of others. At least, recognizing our limitation can help us make good decision for our life, our relationship with other people and our community at large.
Knowing the purpose of our life
But what makes knowing the purpose of life so important? Indeed, this timeless question finds an answer in the bold statement of Socrates, one of the famous classic Greek philosophers of all time, who once said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”. If we want to make our life worthy of existence, we need to know our purpose in this world. Truly it is only by discovering the real purpose of our existence when we can lead a good life.
However, Sir Valenzuela has his own way of expounding eloquently the answer to this question by emphasizing the notion that “we exist for a purpose and worth that we must continually relate”. Our purpose is to use our God-given talents, skills, and potentials to make a difference in our life, to serve others, and our community. He wants to develop the LSE students to become strong leaders and undertake their social enterprises aimed at improving their situation, their families and communities (which also form part of the LSE Program Objectives).
LSE program trains Filipino migrants to be servant-leaders
We all know that there are thousands of books about leadership and it is difficult to identify which style of leadership is more fitting for Filipino migrants. No worries! The LSE teaches Filipino migrants to embrace the concept of “servant-leadership”, which is a disciplined spiritual journey dedicated to the growth of persons and institutions undertaken in the context of community rooted in relational power exercised for the common good (Greenleaf, R.K. 1996). This style of leadership is characterized by the ability of a leader to inspire a vision, challenge the process, model the way, encourage the heart, and enable others to act.
Positive implication of leadership for LSE students
If many Filipino migrants are given the chance to develop their knowledge and leadership skills, they can make significant changes in the political, economic and social contexts for the poor. This is what Dr. Cristina Liamzon, a development consultant with over 30 years of involvement with civil society, and a holder of Master of Public Administration from Harvard University in Cambridge, explained to the LSE students during her lecture on March 8, 2015. She spoke of maximizing the gains from migration such as remittances for development, brain grain, diaspora philanthropy, and, social, cultural, political, and economic empowerment of migrants.
This is the main reason why the LSE program views migrants as agents of change because of the critical role they play in making a big difference in the life of the nation. In fact, their sheer number could influence government policy for good governance; their remittances, if properly used by their families for investment, may spark development (Remittances for Development, not just remittances that cover expenses for loved ones); their innovative minds, developed by a long process of interactive exchange of ideas and cultures in a host country, may bring new technology to the Philippine industries (Brain Gains instead of Brain Drain). These are only some of the few things that show how powerful the Filipino migrants can effect changes in the country. Your voice, our voice matters!
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