Introduction
Who is a leader? What is a leader? The Webster’s Dictionary in Steven
(2003) defines leader as a person who by force of example, talents or qualities
of leadership plays a directing role, wields commanding influence, or has a
following in any sphere of activity or thought.
On
the other note, Alder (1995, pp. 6-7) listed the differences between managers
and leaders as shown on the table 1.0.
Table 1.0. The Differences of Roles
between Managers and Leaders
|
Roles
|
|
|
Managers
|
Leaders
|
|
|
|
|
Administrates
|
Innovates
|
|
Imitates
|
Originates
|
|
Accept status quo
|
Challenges it
|
From
the table 1.0, we can see that the leaders play important roles in an
organization. The leader will set the direction for the organization that
he/she represented.
In
the interim, leadership could be defined as ingredient of personality that
causes men (and/or women) to follow or in a simple word, influence people to
follow his/her instruction. Leadership must have the following characteristics
as mentioned by Steven (2003) i.e. enthusiasm, dedication and charisma. Leaders
are seen as good and evil and have many personalities and roles, from managers
or coaches to world leaders. Thus, leadership begins with vision, concern and
mentorship.
Everybody has the capability to become a
leader. Some of us already lead a family, team and even an organization. Believe
it or not, we are born to be a leader. God created man to be khalifa (caliph)
to rule this world in accordance with the guidance from Him (Maqsood
Jafri 2012).
The
Quran says in Surah Al-Baqarah (2:30):
“And
remember when your Lord said to the angels, I am going to place a successor
(Khalifa) on Earth”.
And
Quran further says in Surah Al-Baqarah (2:124):
“And
remember when the Lord of Abraham tried him with certain commands which he
fulfilled. Allah said to him, verily, I am going to make you a leader
(Imam) of mankind. Abraham said, ‘And my offspring? Allah said, ‘my
providence includes not the wrong-doers (oppressors) (Maqsood
Jafri 2012).”
From
the Quranic verses above, we were created to administer the world and in this connection,
it is our duty as Muslim to obey god’s commands.
My Idol
The writer tends to choose YABhg. Tun Dr Mahathir, the then Prime
Minister of Malaysia as his idol. Dr. Mahathir has proven his capability in managing country for over a decade and brought Malaysia into new era of
modernization.
As
we all known, during his tenure as Prime Minister, Malaysia’s economy has transformed
from agro-based country into industrial country. He is visionary leader. The
most popular policy introduced by him was Vision 2020. This vision not only for
Malaysian, but for all Muslims the world over. This statement can be proved by
looking at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) efforts on Science and
Technology known as Vision 1441 Hijriah (Vision 1441H) in which it was emerged from
the Vision 2020 that was introduced by the then Prime Minister.
The
Vision 1441H was adopted at the 10th OIC Summit held in Kuala Lumpur
in 2003. The
objective of Vision 1441H is to strengthen science & technology in the OIC
Member States so as to ensure the development of their socio-economic
activities. By means of science & technology, Member States can face the
challenges of the new global economy through the strategic thrust of Vision
1441H comprising the efforts to establish commitment, increasing capacities and
capabilities, strengthening collaboration, nurturing the right culture, develop
the innovation capacity of the Muslim community and create compassion of
pursuing the knowledge of science & technology.
Pursuant
to the above explanation, Vision 2020 has become globally accepted and
indirectly, the international community recognizes the effort taken by Dr.
Mahathir in ensuring Malaysia is fully developed country by the year 2020.
Other
point to ponder is Dr. Mahathir was the captain among the developing states.
His efforts in assisting developing states could be seen through Malaysia’s
technical assistance known as Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme (MTCP)
(MTCP 2012).
The MTCP
was first initiated at the First Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting
(CHOGM) in Sydney in February 1978. It
was officially launched on 7 September 1980 at the Commonwealth Heads of State
Meeting in New Delhi, India, to signify Malaysia’s commitment to South-South Cooperation,
in particular Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC). Malaysia
through MTCP shares its development experiences and expertise with other
developing countries (MTCP 2012).
Among others, the objectives of MTCP are to share
development experience with other countries, to strengthen bilateral relations
between Malaysia and other developing countries, to promote South-South
Cooperation and to promote technical cooperation among developing countries
(MTCP 2012).
Through MTCP, Malaysia provides assistances to the
developing country namely short-term specialised courses, long-term courses
(scholarship), study visits, services of experts, socio-economic development
projects and supply of equipment and materials (MTCP 2012).
These efforts show that Malaysia is keen to help other
countries and participate at the international activities. This situation will
make Malaysia popular in the eyes of the world. The idea of having MTCP which
was mooted by Dr. Mahathir is in line with the statement by Meyer (2010, p. 76)
i.e. “Leadership is not a one-time job. It commences with mission, to
performance, competition and change.” Meyer (2010 p. 76) further stated that
evaluating strategic options are clear attainable goals, exploiting emerging
markets, efficient use of resources and timely deployment of strategies.
In this context, Dr. Mahathir has a clear attainable
goal that is Malaysia to become developed country by the year 2020. With regard
to exploiting the emerging market, he believed that the developing countries
are the potential trading partners for Malaysia. In addition, his idea in
promoting MTCP to the developing countries was the right strategy in which he
believed that this programme will benefit Malaysia in the future in terms of
transferring technology and expertise.
Miller
(1995, pp. 65-70) defined that there are nine axioms successful leaders, i.e.
spirit, purpose, creativity, challenge and response, planned urgency, unity and
diversity, specialized competence, efficient administration and on-the-spot
decision. In this connection, the writer believes that Dr. Mahathir has some of
the axioms of leadership as mentioned by Miller. The elaboration of the axioms
is as follows:
i.
Spirit
Dr. Mahathir unified and
maintained both spiritual and material assets in his administration.
ii.
Purpose
Dr. Mahathir has instilled
and reinforced social purpose in his decision.
iii.
Creativity
Dr. Mahathir is creative and innovative
in his decision. It can be seen by looking to his policy on Vision 2020 and
National Science and Technology Policy.
iv.
Challenges
and Response
Dr. Mahathir has recognized
the current challenge and responded creatively and avoid a condition ease. This
situation happened during the economic crisis that hit Malaysia in 1997-1998 in
which Malaysia has successfully solved the problem. Malaysia imposed its
exchange control measure by lowering the interest rate and injected liquidity
into the monetary system.
v.
Planned
Urgency
Dr. Mahathir has the ability
to decide and act promptly.
vi.
Efficient
Administration
Dr. Mahathir is well known
as perfectionist in his work. Therefore during his administration, he stressed
on the efficiency of delivering information and services to the people.
vii.
On-The-Spot
Decision
World has witnessed Dr. Mahathir’s
capability in making on-the-spot decision particularly on matter of economic
and politic.
From
the statements above, the writer is of the view that Dr. Mahathir has fulfilled
the criteria of a good leader. Being a good leader, Dr. Mahathir has also taken
into his consideration the approaches in decision-making process as listed by
Harvard Business Essential (2006, p. 16) namely consensus, majority and
directive leadership. From his action, we can see that he always conducted
meeting to gain consensus from the member of the meeting on certain issues. In
the meantime, he used to make a decision based on the majority and always
inform the group of the decision and the reasons that support it.
Mistakes made by leader
Leader
has also no exception from committing mistake in making decision. The most
common mistake that leaders tend to commit are blaming others on the mistake
that he/she had done, pointing finger to other people when he/she found guilty
and irresponsible from action he/she had done.
Other
mistake that obviously done by leaders is the tendency of making quick decision
without having discussion with other people and later, the decision he/she made
went wrong.
Recommendation
for those who want to be a better leader
In this context, the writer would
like to recommend for those who interested to become a good leader to learn the
leadership skill.
As mentioned by Mintzberg (1973, pp.
190-193), the leadership skill comprises of conflict-resolution skills,
information-processing skills, skills in decision-making under ambiguity,
resource-allocation skills and skills of introspection. He also mentioned that
“The leadership skills, perhaps more than any others, require participative
training. Leadership, like swimming, cannot be learned by reading about it.
Leadership skills are so closely related to innate personality, however, that
it may be difficult to effect really significant behavioral change in the
classroom.”
Mintzberg (1973, pp. 190-193)
described that the conflict-resolution skills included the interpersonal skill
of mediating between conflicting individuals and the decisional skill of
handling disturbances. The information-processing skills are to build information
networks, find sources of information and extract what is really need, validate
information, assimilate the information and build effective mental models. The
skills in decision-making under ambiguity are the leader must first decide when
a decision must be made and diagnose the situation and plan an approach to it
and search for the solution. The resource-allocation skills requires leader to
choose among competing resource demand and make a decision. Finally, skills of introspection requires
leader to thoroughly understand his job.
Conclusion
As a
conclusion remarks, leadership skills should be developed at the early age. It
is simply because, leadership skill could not be obtained through observation
and reading. It must be developed and polished by experience, knowledge,
training and time.
Dr.
Mahathir Mohamad is the best example of a good leader and he was trained on the
leadership skills since he was at the secondary school. Therefore, the writer
is of the view that, the trait of leadership influenced by surrounding
community, level of education and experiences as well as family
background.
Reference
Alder,
H. 1995, ‘What’s so special about a leader?’, in Think Like a Leader, Judy
Piatkus
(Publisher) Ltd., London, pp. 6-7.
Harvard Business Essential, 2006, ‘The
context for success’, in Decision Making,
5
Steps to Better Results, Harvard
Business School Publishing Corporation, Boston, p. 16.
Meyer, H. R. 2010,
‘Leadership in the midst of change’, in Smart
Management Experience
Alone Is Not Enough,
Golden Books Centre Sdn. Bhd. , Selangor,
p. 76.
Miller, L. M. 1995,’ Axiom for effective
leadership’, in From Management to
Leadership,
Productivity Press, Oregon,
pp. 65-70.
Mintzberg, H, 1973, ‘The future of managerial
work’, in The Nature of Managerial Work,
Prentice-Hall, London, pp.
190-193.
Electronic
Sources
Malaysian Technical Cooperation Programme
(MTCP), 2012, [Online], Available:
http://www.mtcp.kln.gov.my
[2012, Oct. 7].
Maqsood Jafri, 2012, Political Thought of Islam [Online],
Available:
OIC Ministerial Standing
Committee on Scientific and Technological Cooperation
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), 2012, [Online],
Available:
http://www.oic-oci.org [2012,
Oct. 7].
Osama, A. 2011, Islam Analysis: Science Vision 1441 needs a champion [Online],
Available:
http://www.scidev.net/en/opinions/islam-analysis-science-vision-1441-needs-a-champion-1.html
[2012, Oct. 7].
Steven,
D. 2003, Finish Line Leadership-
Qualities for Successful Leadership [Online],
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