’Keep exploring, identify your passion, and become the best version of yourself’
-Isuru Premathilake; Impossible to I’m possible-
Season 02 of the podcast series upon the theme of Through the Eyes of an AIESEC trendsetter which AIESEC Sri Lanka proudly presents has successfully ended its second episode; Impossible to I’m possible on 5th of February, 2021. The session was moderated by our very own Mr. Arfan Nazar, the current National Director for Incoming Global Talent in AIESEC Sri Lanka. It was facilitated by the non-other that Mr. Isuru Premathilake. He who, with a huge way of experience, is the current AIESEC International Regional Director for Asia Pacific Region, the Reginal Manager Entity Development for Asia Pacific Region for the term 19.20, the president for AIESEC Sri Lanka for the term 18.19, the National Director for Customer Experience for AIESEC in Vietnam for the term 17.18 and the National Director for Incoming Global Volunteer of AIESEC Sri Lanka for the term 16.17.
Inspiration is what leads to a long-lasting successful journey
Impossible to I’m possible
Introducing the guest of the day who he himself has ultimately become an example to the other young people out there who possess the capacity to be future leaders, Mr. Arfan directed his first question expecting to hear the major inspirations that his guest got to have such a successful journey throughout.
With much enthusiasm, Mr. Isuru started to explain. The turning point of his life stating that he personally feels proud and grateful about the interesting journey he had throughout. Then he, reminiscing, said that the major inspiration was the people. Mainly, their influence, and the learnings he got through working in a global organization like AIESEC.
Further, he explained how he got the opportunity to build a mesmerizing journey for himself. By seeing different people work, seeing people from different nationalities, working with them, learning the journeys they have gone through, and the way they got to keep a mark of themselves with so many learnings to initiators. Finally, he mentioned that he was feeling grateful for being able to get such an opportunity. Because people in his kind of age rarely get where to work in different countries, with different people in a global organization.
Ups and downs make a journey strong
After that truly amazing experience sharing, Mr. Arfan directed his next question. His purpose was to abstract the challenges that he faced. Especially, during his both local and international experiences mingling with different people in different cultures. Also how he overcomes them.
Mr. Isuru explained his experiences starting with the seemingly minute yet should need consideration facts. Such as getting used to a strange environment from the very beginning by staying out of his comfort zone. As a person who have experiences of working out of the local environment, how things challenged him when he was trying to learn things. Then he stated how he faced challenges when working with the different teams and in different positions in AIESEC Sri Lanka. Such as sudden flopping of plans etc. Yet how he continues working.
Impossible to I’m possible
Further, he mentioned the cultural integration he happened to experience in the global context was very challenging. He shared some of his experiences of working in teams comprising six nationalities and twenty nationalities in the regional office. That explained how challenging and not-normal to work in such a context. Then he briefly explained the learnings that he got through those challenges. Such as:
- Accepting the people as who they are
- The importance of practicing empathy
- Making generous assumptions on the intentions of other people,
in order to be in a challenging yet peaceful team or an environment.
Keeping up with the values is a vital factor to a leader
Stating the importance of learning through experiencing diversity in the organization, Mr. Arfan directed his next question regarding the values which have become an integral part of the organization. Mainly six values and four leadership qualities as to define a leader. “What would be the leadership quality or the value that you would like to live up to?”
Impossible to I’m possible
Answering this interesting question Mr. Isuru claimed that he personally respect the leadership quality of Self-awareness among the leadership qualities and the values in the organization. Then he stated the reasons for picking that particular quality by enhancing the fundamentality of it. Explaining further he states that it is about
- How an individual understands himself
- How important it is to help others to create a better version of themselves.
Because, when one gets to lead a set of people and drive them and if that person is not much aware of his strengths, weaknesses, capacity, and all, his attempt to drive others to explore their potential would not succeed.
Then he moved forward with the value that he admired the most from the AIESEC values, Demonstrating Integrity by stating the reason for which as it means him about being transparent about one’s actions. Also, he stated that as it combines with accountability; how accountable, trustworthy, and intentional you are about your actions, that avoids judgments and complications in the environment while creating a peaceful environment. As the final note, he emphasized how he is trying every day to keep up with these things to strive to make a better version of himself.
Advice play a major role
Adding on to the question of learning and growing as an individual in AIESEC, Mr. Arfan asked what the best advice that someone has given to him and how did he resonate with that, as his next question of the episode, Impossible to I’m possible.
Impossible to I’m possible
“It is a little bit difficult to answer. It can come from different people I guess. If we get the concept of inspiring leaders and triggering leaders in the organization. I met both for sure. I did have the leaders who inspired me to become the best and the leaders who triggered me to do a good job. But at the end of the day, the advice can come from either of them. So, the best advice that I have received so far is ’You are part of something bigger than yourself. That triggers a lot. It doesn’t mean that you are insignificant or you are not contributing, but it only means that whatever the things that are around you or happen to you, at the end of the day it is that you are contributing to something much bigger or better.”, answered Mr. Isuru.
Further, he said “I don’t want to put this forward with the notion that you should be always compromising yourself in order to achieve organizational goals, but the platform that you work on right now, you have the responsibility towards making sure that people can come there and be as you or better than you in the future. So whatever thing that you do right now you should keep in your mind that there are people out there who are looking forward to taking this opportunity. So if you harm today and if AIESEC is no more tomorrow, the youth who need to get this opportunity and do something greater might lose it. Thus, this advice always strives me to do things.”
Something you do always contribute to the other things of your life one way or another
Touching on the development and sustainability in AIESEC, Mr. Arfan directed him the next question asking about how his experiences enriched his personal and professional lives and how it empowered him to understand things much better.
Me. Isuru stated that at one point he doubted about the worth of doing this and what he would get through this. Then he was doubting things. Someone has told ’The thing that you are looking for is inside the cave that you are going to enter’. After that, he got to explore things and distinguish them. Further, he stated that the best thing that he sees in AIESEC is the platform that it provides for the passion of an individual. So, if one is in a dilemma that person needs to focus on what he/she is doing at the moment, think about the next thing when you are doing it later. People need to realize what they are doing and what effect it makes and that is what he gained through AIESEC.
He quoted, ”AIESEC cannot not give you everything, but you can take anything from AIESEC” . It implies that organization gives you everything when you need more. Thus, he concluded that AIESEC gave him skills and competence that aid for his future achievements.
Empowering leader and developing them is a continuous process
Seconding what Mr. Isuru was saying, Mr. Arfan moved forward to a sort of dynamic part of the conversation which is about Covid-19. He directed his next question. ”How do you think that AIESEC, especially in the current moment, can empower leaders to survive this crisis and to develop the leadership in the process?”
Mr. Isuru said that the external exchanges are the first thing that affects the most. According to him, the three things that one can learn through pandemic regarding the leadership is that;
- You don’t need to be in a leadership position to be a leader
- Empathy is crucial for a leader
- How fast you can adapt in such a situation
This is all about making right decisions, working with other people and keeping up with the vision and the values of the organization. This pandemic period allowed everyone to see how becoming a better version of themselves is important even within a time like this. It allowed people to reflect on what you are doing and to strengthen the execution and member engagement.
Thus, he started that agility and innovation were more pushed out with the pandemic within the organization.
A crisis can teach lot more
Moving onto the next question Mr. Arfan asked the guest what key learning that he got from the process during this pandemic.
Mr. Isuru responded by saying that he learned how important it is to pay attention to mental wellbeing. According to him when you feel that your energy is lacking or the way how you maintain relationships with others and work in a team changes it is important to take care of yourself.
As another bigger learning, he mentioned the fact that when we pushed to the edge how many things that we can do relating to the new things that came up with this pandemic situation. He stated that this pandemic ultimately allowed people to identify their potential to do something bigger.
Impossible to I’m possible
Conclusion
So with this series of interesting questions and with a rapid-fire question round towards the end, the insightful conversation with one of the other trendsetters ended with giving a lot of learnings to us. That marks the end of episode 02; Impossible to I’m possible of Season 02 of the podcast series.
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