Aswin T. Utomo: Becoming a Great Leader Begins with Leading Yourself
Before we expect anyone to follow us, we need to first learn how to lead ourselves.
Spending the junior years in Australia, attending a junior college in Los Angeles, and enrolling in Computer Science in San Diego might make it seem like Aswin was living in the lap of luxury. Little did people know that life was not made easy for him. He has to fight to achieve what he wants; his parents taught him that hard work and dedication are the prices of success.
His life experiences and social encounters have had a major impact on how he is seeing the world and others. Aswin didn’t realize he was building fundamental traits and skills that made him a leader that he is today; a leader who is highly focused on giving the best to his team.
Getting Comfortable in Discomfort
Breaking out of the comfort zone is probably the best words to describe how Aswin was growing up. Since childhood, Aswin has been traveling from place to place following his family — and that involved moving from one country to another with different cultural backgrounds.
When he was 12, Aswin moved to Australia and enrolled in a boarding school in Perth. According to him, living abroad was not only an experience on its own but one of the most life-changing times of his life. At a relatively young age, Aswin had to adapt to the changes and learned to make friends with the challenges of navigating life independently. Furthermore, he learned to be more considerate of others in a totally new environment.
In late 2000, Aswin moved to the United States with his sister and enrolled in junior college in Los Angeles. In 2003, he went to the University of California San Diego majoring in Computer Science — another adventurous and challenging step he dared to take.
Aswin believed that only when things are uncomfortable will we grow and learn; discomfort goes a long way in terms of opening your horizons and developing your personal growth.
Knowing and Sticking to What Matters
Aswin always revels in challenges; he sees it as a playground to play his best game. His reason to pursue his dream in Engineering even lied on the ground of the so-called challenge. Aside from the prominent future of the Tech industry, he was intrigued by how Engineering sounds like a difficult discipline, which actually encouraged him to believe that he could do it, and he did.
Back in his senior year, Aswin had quite a lot on his plate as he was aiming to finish college on time. He had to juggle between taking full course loads and working 20 hours a week as a Software Engineering intern at San Diego Supercomputer Center.
There was even a time where the Teaching Assistant (TA) in one of his classes actually came to him and said, “I don’t think you’re gonna finish your project on time, you should drop this course.” Aswin took that as a word of encouragement and a drive for him to prove his Teaching Assistant otherwise. In the end, he finished all the courses on time and even became one of the students with the highest score in his class.
“For me, my drive comes from the challenges I face. The tougher the going, the stronger I become. A smooth sailing journey does not excite me.”
Learning How To Nurture People from Teaching
Aswin’s experience in teaching had quite an influence on his leadership style.
When he was in the US, Aswin had taken some part-time work to earn some extra cash. He decided to teach Math and Computer Science in Los Angeles and San Diego respectively. From these experiences, Aswin got the exposure to one of the most essential skills all leaders should have: empathy.
According to Aswin, leaders should be able to understand the needs of their team and be aware of other people’s feelings and emotions. In a company like Tokopedia, this is really important as we are in a constant mode of always nurturing the next generation of leaders.
Building a Team and Helping Them Grow
In 2007, Aswin returned to Indonesia. He believed that there are a lot of things technology can do for the country, and he wanted to be a part of that excitement.
Having worked for a year in a management consulting firm, he decided to build his own startup called AdaDiskon.com — an online discounts and deals discovery platform in 2009 and WhatWeLike.co — a fashion discovery platform in 2014 that received funding from East Ventures one year after its establishment.
“I care about my team. Some of them have been with me since 2009, and I wanted to give them the best place to work. I saw that Tokopedia is a great place for them to grow even bigger.”
In 2017, Aswin received a few acquisition offers, including from Tokopedia. Despite having a good friendship with the CEO & Co-founder of Tokopedia, William Tanuwijaya, Aswin fell in love with Tokopedia’s mission to democratize commerce through technology. Aswin and William have the same dream of putting technology as the force of building better Indonesia. On top of that, as a leader, he felt the need to provide a better place for his team to grow. Hence, he took the offer and got onboard with Tokopedia.
Leadership is Never About Your Title
“Just because you’re a VP, doesn’t mean that people will listen to you. I think using your title as a way to get people to listen to you is the weakest form of leadership.”
The human interactions and life events that Aswin has encountered have impacted his perspective and behavior. Just like that, a leader was made — a leader who knows how to effectively lead himself before navigating others.
Aswin believes that people are moved by their understanding of their roles and what they can bring to the table.
