Azman was a bright, young process engineer at Serimas Palm Oil Mill. Fresh from university, he came armed with technical knowledge and endless energy. At first, Azman believed that success in engineering meant optimizing extraction rates, reducing downtime, and hitting KPIs. People skills? That felt like HR’s job.
But as the weeks passed, Azman started facing an unexpected problem—his team didn’t trust him.
Despite his clear instructions and detailed SOPs, the operators often hesitated, made small mistakes, or avoided communicating with him unless necessary. Productivity lagged, and the atmosphere in the mill grew tense.
One day, a minor incident caused the kernel separator to halt during peak processing. Azman, already frustrated, reprimanded a senior operator, Pak Salleh, in front of others. The room fell silent. Pak Salleh said nothing, but the disappointment in his eyes stayed with Azman.
That night, unable to sleep, Azman remembered a talk he had attended during a Toastmasters club meeting. The topic was empathy in leadership. One line stood out: "Understanding others begins with understanding yourself."
Azman decided to change.
The next morning, instead of heading straight to the control room, Azman sat down with Pak Salleh during the morning break.
“Pak Salleh, can I ask you something?” Azman began. “When the separator stopped yesterday, I reacted without listening. I’m sorry for how I spoke. Can you help me understand what happened from your side?”
Pak Salleh, surprised, nodded slowly. “Azman, the sensor had been giving faulty readings since last week. I reported it, but maybe the message didn’t get to you.”
Azman listened—really listened. He noticed how Salleh rubbed his hands when talking about pressure from overlapping shifts. He saw the tiredness in his body language. That conversation opened a floodgate. Over the next weeks, Azman made it a point to speak to every team member, from technicians to operators, not just about work—but about their challenges, their ideas, and their stressors.
He started to identify subtle signs: when Rosli the boilerman kept tapping his pen during meetings, it meant he was anxious. When Faizah from the lab stopped chatting at lunch, it meant she was overwhelmed.
Azman began using empathy in his daily decisions. Instead of sending out blanket memos, he invited feedback in toolbox meetings. He acknowledged team concerns and even shared some of his own struggles, building mutual respect.
When one operator, Adi, lost his father and returned to work visibly drained, Azman didn’t assign him the toughest shift. Instead, he quietly offered lighter duties and checked in regularly.
The changes were subtle but powerful. Team morale improved. Errors decreased. Productivity rose not because the machines ran better—but because the people running them felt seen, valued, and supported.
Two years later, Azman became a mentor to new engineers.
“Technical skills will get you through problems,” he told his mentees, “but empathy will build the team that solves them with you.”
He would then smile and add, “You don’t need to agree with everyone—but you must try to understand them. That’s how real leadership begins.”
Azman’s journey—from a sharp but rigid engineer to an empathetic leader—became an example often shared across the mill. Because in the heart of the palm oil refinery, where machines hum and oil flows, it was empathy that kept everything running smoothly.
No comments:
Post a Comment