STEP TO THE MOUNTAIN
Leadership…
What makes a powerful and empowering leader? Were leaders born? Were they groomed and made? What defines a leader?
A successful entrepreneur is a leader by nature. However, is an employee working for an employer, a leader?
I am an employee and despite being an employee, my position entrusts me to manage a 24-hour operated General Hospital with almost 3000 staff, serving one of the most highly populated state in the country. So how can I manage my tasks effectively? How do I add value to the organization and continuously improve? How do I empower people around me to live the shared values that we are entrusted by our government, our country? I myself need to be a leader.
For me, Prophet Muhammad is an example of a true born leader. One of his leadership traits is the fact that he lived and practiced all positive and compulsory behaviors of a true leader. Values of transformational leader such as liberty, justice, equality, and collective well being can be possessed but extraordinary values such as forgivingness, gentleness, kindness, politeness, and honesty may not exist in all leaders. Prophet Muhammad possessed both primary as well as the extraordinary values that made him a unique leader in the history of humanity.
Prophet Muhammad was born in Arabia in year 570 C.E. Born as a man with no renowned family background or status; he was selected as the last and most vital prophet of Islam and mankind at the age of 40. He departed from this world at the age of 63. During the short period of 23 years of prophet hood, he completely changed the Arabian Peninsula from paganism and idolatry to the worship of one god, from centuries of tribal quarrels and wars to national solidity and piety, from lawlessness and anarchy to disciplined living, from utter bankruptcy to the highest standards of moral excellence, from inhumane treatment of women and killing female new-born to fair and family-oriented society.
The prophet Muhammad is one true leader who combined political skills with moral skills and embodied these qualities in his speeches, actions and being. He was a life changer agent for human race as he blended religion and spirituality with politics and society. Michael H. Hart, a professor and famous astrophysicist who is also the author of The 100: A Ranking of Most Influential People in History listed Prophet Muhammad as the most influential individual in the history of humankind, overriding even Jesus and Moses. The book was translated into 15 languages and sold over 500,000 copies worldwide. Prophet Muhammad gained such title as he was the only man in history who has supremely succeeded to entwine both religion and secular aspect of life namely:
- preached Islam as a religion;
- fonded a united Muslim society;
- built the first Muslim nation;
- established moral code and values;
- unite different race/ethnicity to live together under one system;
- reformed the Political system by establishing a democratic structure ;
- revolutionized the world of human thoughts and behavior;
- led his community to success in almost every battle field;
- prohibited usury such as economy exploitation and monopoly;
- created an equitable community void of suppression and oppression;
- promoted and practice fairness to all humanity, regardless ethnicity, race and religion; and
- emphasized the importance of education.
One of Prophet Muhammad’s major goals was to develop a sense of supreme character among his people and educate them not to be narrow-minded and focus on differences, such as skin color, race, ethnicity and nationality. By harnessing these values, the people could rise above these limitations and reap trust and spirit of brotherhood by helping each other in order to bring common goodness to the humankind.
Prophet Muhammad was the first Chief and political leader of the State in Arabia with Medina as its capital. Historically, Prophet Muhammad differs from other political leaders in the sense that he established a state from nothing. The state He build is based on three main pillars is which is people, land and political authority which manages the affair of people. In his political leadership, the prophet’s demonstration of extreme composure and self-control made his followers to respect and love him even more and his enemies to either give up and ultimately join his religion or fear him and stay away from any possible issues. Throughout detailed researches, it has been proven and documented Prophet Muhammad was never unfair to his foes. In a way, he was educating them about governance and leading through example.
Among Prophet Muhammad’s supreme characters are:
· Gentleness & Composure
Gentleness and composure are gifts of nature. Conflicts and issues will bring out a person’s character and his true nature. Prophet Muhammad is known for his gentleness, composure and truly kind nature. It created confidence and trust to any person interacting with him.
· Humility
The prophet showed civility, humility and modesty to all, rich or poor, old or young. He preached humbleness to his companion and demonstrated it by his actions.
· Love and kindness
The prophet Muhammad always displayed love, kindness and compassion to all. Welfare of his people and compassion for people in trouble was in his being, even before he became the Chief and political leader of the State in Arabia. His kindness is an attribute of God, which had no limits.
· Moderation
The prophet always avoided extremities in life and practiced moderation, both in deeds and words, family relationship, social status, public, national or even international affairs.
· Modesty
Modesty and honor are part of Islam crucial social elements. The prophet always put forth the importance of keeping and safeguarding one’s modesty and honor, in relation to maintaining confidence and good spirit.
· Politeness
The Prophet Muhammad always treated people courteously, irrespective of their social status or religious beliefs. His house was always opened to everyone. He would entertain anyone who came to his house and all whom he met in the street with same refined manners. He never discriminated his people.
· Truthfulness and honesty
He lived by the truth, adhered to the truth and preached truth all his life. He never uttered a single lie in his life, both before and after his prophet hood. A truthful and righteous person is one who is honest in words, intentions, motives and actions. The prophet Muhammad was an embodiment of truth, honesty and righteousness. He did not speak anything but the truth and did not practice anything but the truth.
Having said all the traits and behaviors of my inspirational leader, the prophet Muhammad, I try my best to inculcate his behaviors and traits in me. Part of my initiatives to continuously improve to become a true leader myself, I invest in inspirational books. One of the books that inspire me was The Leadership Code written by Dave Ulrich, Norm Smallwood and Kate Sweetman. Some of the quotes that I could relate leadership to myself were:
`If you want to build leadership in your company, you need to model what you want others to know and do. When you can clearly declare what makes an effective leader and then model the needful behaviors, your employees will have clearer expectations of what they should know and do’
For me, the above inspires me and guides me to be clearer in my daily job contexts and being; I try to avoid wrong door policy and as much as possible, try to implement the “Jangan Kecewakan Rakyat” motto in my organization. Part of the implementation plans that I can and try to do are:
· Rule 1: Shape the Future: Where is my company heading? What is my career direction? Leaders are strategists. They answer the questions ‘where are we going?’ As practical futurists, they figure out what the organization needs to do to succeed and map the direction they must go based on current and planned resources. They work effectively with others to figure out how to get from the present to the desired future. I need to answer this and decide how do I shape my future, my organization’s future, as an effective leader would do.
· Rule 2: Make Things Happen: How will I make sure my organization gets to where it’s going? If I am an effective leader, I would make things happen. I would be an executor. Executors translate strategies into actions. Executors put systems in place, help others do the same and produce results. Executors focus on getting things done.
· Rule 4: Build the Next Generation: Who stays and sustains the next generation? Leaders with this focus are human capital developers. They ensure long-term leadership development and focus on assuring the growth and progress of their organization. They can spot future talent and understand how to develop those who possess it. To be an effective leader, I need to establish a succession planning on who the next leaders will be. It would be my responsibility to groom, nurture and develop them, to become my next apprentice.
· Rule 5: Invest in myself: This rule is the center of The Leadership Code and promotes personal proficiency. Leaders are learners: they learn from successes and from failures. They read books, take classes and learn from life itself. “Effective leaders inspire loyalty and goodwill in others because they themselves act with integrity and trust.” They are decisive, passionate and bold. They take risks. They create impact to people’s lives.
After graduation, I joined the private sector before joining the public sector. My three years stint at the private sectors gave me numerous experiences. As a newly-hired staff, I was given chance to attend numerous trainings, most of them were soft skill trainings like time management, effective communication, customer service and relations, leadership, coaching, planning and strategic implementation. My clients were mainly the public and I only report to my employers.
Now, being in my current position in the government sector, I am given the responsibility to lead an organization. I need to deal wisely with a lot of people and from various ‘classes’. My ‘clients’, other than the staff that I have to manage, are the public, contractors, suppliers, politicians, and most of all, my government and hence, my country.
It is a pure challenge for me. And honestly, I would rate myself as still too far from emulating being like my true inspirational leader, our Prophet Muhammad. But nonetheless, I pledge myself to commit to the rules that I am learning from The Leadership Code. I pledge myself to continuously improve, to inculcate as much as I can from Prophet Muhammad’s superior behavioral qualities. I pledge myself to make a difference, to leave positive marks to my organization, race and country. This is the journey that I am undertaking. This is the choice that I made. This is the journey that I plan to enjoy, and succeed. This is my pledge to become a leader.
References:
"Thematic Analysis of Values in the Public Communication of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) - Dr. Ali Zohery
The Leadership Code - Dave Ulrich, Norm SmallWood, Kate Sweetman
Wikipedia - Michael H. Hart
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