A living heart is one that yearns, one that hopes for the most
beautiful things, one that gets hurt with deceit and lies, one that defies the
world’s demands to meet its own, and one that endlessly searches for its
deepest desires.
All my life, I have been trained to become what a leader should
have and should be. A leader should have a clear and consistent vision. A
leader should have a well-defined plan. A leader should have excellent
communication skills to influence teams. A leader should be open-minded. A
leader should be patient in dealing with different personalities. A leader
should be persuasive to inspire people to move toward a goal.
Leadership as a journey of the heart
My leadership journey molded me to see leadership more than the
obvious surface – to
look beyond everyday tasks, deadlines to beat, and projects to
perfect. Leadership is more than being competent in what I do. It is more than
having the skills that make me a good problem-solver or an excellent
communicator. Leadership is even more than the ability to do anything
perfectly with the right attitude in handling a team.
I learned that leadership,
above all, is a journey of the heart. It is about fulfilling
what the core of my humanity desires and about aiding my longing for truth and
justice in the world. My leadership journey is a sum of the evolution of my
heart and the choices it made amidst the most difficult crossroads it
encountered. It is clearer to me now that the reason why I serve society in any
way that I can is simply because I see myself as a servant and my heart is a
heart that serves. My heart gravitates towards people whose hearts are wounded,
scarred, and defeated. My heart wishes for the poor and the oppressed to live
better lives. My heart also searches for the hearts of young people who want to
make a difference in simple yet extraordinary efforts.
Mission to love
My mission to lead is the mission to love, and everything else
just follows perfectly. God granted me the grace of leadership to be more
loving in the world, especially to His people who need most of my love. It is,
at least to me, never prestige wrapped with positions of organizations that
made my leadership pure. I felt the truest essence of leadership when I
am not in the office of the student organization nor in the beautiful scenery
of the countries I visited around the world during international leadership
conferences. I felt it in the seemingly mundane walks around Divisoria that
became the home of streetchildren living in poverty and hunger. I felt it in
Saturday afternoon visits in a community of native weavers in Barangay Puerto
who get less than what they deserve from capitalists. I felt it in the simple
conversations with little girls in the mountains who walk under the scorching
heat of the sun for two hours or so every single day just to reach the nearest
school. I felt it in my immersion at a home of a fisherman feeding a family of
seven kids with a daily income of 100 pesos.
I felt the purest essence of leadership in my ordinary journeys
in life that taught me more than everything I learned in class. These were the
moments that moved me and disturbed my heart. I am a person who leads simply
because these experiences made my heart’s journey more meaningful. It is from
this journey of the heart where I learned that in the most basic essence, a
leader should be loving. A voice within calls me to love. The greatest mission in
leadership, after all, is not about loving to lead. It is about leading
to love.
Journey goes on
As I aspire for different roles to serve society, the journey of
my heart goes on. Every new day is an opportunity for me to be more loving to
God’s creations. The capacity to love is so overwhelming because it is in
moments that I serve others when I see God’s miracles working in my life. I
feel God’s presence inside me so I am not afraid to discover His Divine Will
for me. In service, I am able to fully trust God to be with me in my vocation
and I allow myself to be His instrument to bring love in this world.
To student leaders of organizations, your leadership role may
end at some point as it is defined by tenure, but your leadership journey goes
on. Leadership will lead you to pursuits you never thought of venturing. It
will bring you far, even beyond your basic responsibilities in the
organization. The
great challenge for you is to fulfill your roles in your
organization in a way that a difference is made not just in your life but more
importantly, in the life of others. But the greater challenge for you is
to keep journeying until love
transcends your ability to lead. Keep journeying until you are no longer
afraid to discover what is inside your “sacred space”. Keep
journeying until your heart becomes a heart of a servant.
And when it does, don’t
be afraid to love. Lead with love and just let your heart lead the rest of
the way.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!
