It’s a Thumb, not a Forefinger

It’s a Thumb, not a Forefinger
By : Rahmat Arif Febriyanto

“If your action inspires others to dream more,
learn more, do more, and become more,
you are a leader.”
- John Quincy Adams

            We all know that each of our hands completed by five fingers which have different usage. These differences lead each finger to represents its characters. Firstly, thumb represents kindness and praise. Forefinger represents order and command. Middle finger represents vanity and snobbery. Third finger represents loyalty and faithfulness. The rest, little finger represents sorry and promises. All of the finger’s characters are naturally appear and exist in human’s personality as they born and grow. This caused i, you, he, she, we, and they are different. Likewise for a leader. Every leader has their own character and actually they choose by themselves the finger’s characters that they are going to be. Then, as a future leader which character we should have? And which character we should eliminate from ourselves? Well we decide.
                If we look at the five fingers and remember, there are two finger that we mostly used to define something. forefinger and Thumb. These two fingers also represents two types of leader. A real leader and something similiar with leader called boss. As a future leaders we have to know which character is best for us to be a great future leader. First we have to define leader. What a leader really do? Whether a leader  only sit in his/her chair and say “go” or together with his/her team and say “let’s go”. By this way, we will know which finger we should be.  As we know, forefinger represents order and commands, so that a forefingerman, they will use their authority to give instruction. It’s not bad, but if as a leader we mostly use this character, we will break the essence of leading and it’s not good for our organization. If we only confuse our minds with instructions for our people, we will be a Miss/Mr-blame-it-on-the-world as we only know the work is done and hate the mistakes made by our people who did the work. Forefingerman mostly think about themselves and forget that they have to lead their people and not to blame them.
                Otherwise, thumb represents kindness and praise. These two characters have to be owned by a leader. Humble, enthusiasm, spirit and ideas are also included in thumb character. It brings the postive atmosphere to the organization and help the people inside it do the works with pleasure. By this way, success will be in our hand. For the fact, a thumbman, Joko Widodo, Governor of Jakarta successfully applied the thumb character and bring progress, also improvement in Jakarta. One of his success as a leader is his idea that solved the cadger problem in Jakarta by relocate the place of the traffic and help cadger to improve and expand their business with the program, Kaki Lima Night Market. He also supported by his down-to-earth personality to get closer with the society. This shows how a leader involved with the works and used the authority wisely by persuade people for development.
                After all, we can decide which finger we are going to be and place ourselves as a great future leader like a thumb and avoid the self-center character in forefinger. Great leaders are those who used their authority to change problems become power, bring their people to the goal, and at the end say “yes we made it!”. They are also not respected because his position, but because they are needed and trusted by their surroundings. So let’s strengthen the thumb character in us and prepare ourselves to be a great future leader.