161007P - LEADERSHIP ESSENCE and NATURE

Presented at the MSA workshop HongKong on October 7-8, 2016 by Professor Omar Hasan Kasule Sr. MB ChB (MUK), MPH (Harvard), DrPH (Harvard)

Learning objectives:

• Definition of leadership
• Importance of leadership

Importance of leadership: 

• Leadership is a pre-condition for civilized existence. The absence of recognized leadership means chaos to the detriment of all. Any group of 3 or more must have a leader. 
• Leadership is the single most important determinant of organizational success. Good leadership leads to success; bad leadership leads to frustration and failure. 
• All members, supporters, and sympathizers of the organization are stakeholders who are concerned about the success and failure of leadership.  
• One of the harbingers of doom is to place leadership authority in the wrong hands.

Understanding leadership I: 

• Leadership is the process of influencing people and making them do certain things. 
• Leadership is both an art and a science. It may be formal and legalistic or informal. It has rational, emotional, intuitive, and instinctive dimensions. 
• Leadership involves moving followers in a certain direction mostly by non-coercive methods. Successful leaders get voluntary cooperation from followers. 
• Good leaders persuade and do not command. Fear and authority are not leadership. 
• Leaders who depend only on authority and coercion do not go very far. Poor leaders by contrast manipulate their followers. Manipulation is getting a person to do what they are not aware of or do not want to do.
• A few leadership skills are innate but most are acquired by experience and education.  

Understanding leadership II: 

• There is a dynamic interaction between the leader, the followers, and the situation. 
• A leader of one group of followers may not be able to lead a different group. A leader in one situation may fail in another one. 
• The roles of leaders and followers can be interchanged. A leader may be a follower of a more powerful leader. A good leader must therefore also be a good follower. 
• True leadership is more service than domination. The leader is the servant (sayyid al qawm khadimuhum). 

Understanding leadership III: 

• Good and effective leadership is a source of greatness (‘abqariyyah). 
• Great movements and changes in history are always associated with great leaders. 
• Intended here is real, genuine, moral, and competent leadership based on character and integrity and not the phony leadership that thrives on propaganda, deceit, and manipulation. 
• Bad leaders are motivated by power alone. They just like the exercise of power. 
• Good leaders have higher motivation. They want to use leadership power to improve and make a change.

Everybody undertakes leadership functions: 

• Leadership is a function exercised by almost everybody each in his or her own sphere; you are at least leaders of yourself or leader of your family. 
• Leadership can be in the community, the workplace, and in public organizations. 
• Since everybody has some leadership roles, each one can become a more effective leader by formal training or gaining experience on the job. 
• Not everyone wants to be a public leader. There are many people who are just not prepared to invest the energy necessary to shoulder the responsibilities of public leadership. 
• Leadership involves the following specific functions: setting and communicating visions, goals, and objectives; representing followers; directing, coordinating, and integrating; influencing, mobilizing, motivating, creating enthusiasm and optimism; providing services and making a difference.

Leaders and followers: 

• There is no leadership without followership. The quality of the followers determines the quality of the leaders. A good leader may fail with bad followers. An average leader may succeed if he has good followers. 
• In the long run, it is follower quality that determines the nature of a particular leadership situation. "The way you are in the way of your leaders". Followers get the leaders they deserve. Incongruence between followers and leaders is usually temporary and hardly exceeds a generation. 
• Successful leadership requires that followers obey the leader. There are, however, limitations and conditions for that obedience as will be discussed later. 

Empowering followers

• Good leaders teach leadership, they pull and do not push. Good leadership involves empowering followers by coaching them and then sharing leadership power with them through delegation. 
• Followers must be given real authority, information, and resources but must be held accountable for what they do. 
• Empowered followers have heightened self-efficacy and self-confidence. They will have higher performance, exhibit more cooperation, achieve higher personal growth, and in the end all ensure the survival of the organization.

Leaders vs Managers: 

• Leaders are concerned with effectiveness; they are intuitive and visionary; they like change, innovation, challenging the status quo, and development; they are original; they focus on vision and its importance; they have a long-term view and inspire others to achieve and excel. 
• Managers are rational problem-solvers whose concern is efficiency, process, and mechanics of achieving objectives. They administer for the maintenance of stability, harmony, and the status quo. They follow and do not innovate. Their view is generally short-term.

Selection, change, or renewal of leaders: 

• Good selection of public leaders requires the participation of the followers. Leaders can not be imposed. The imposition of leaders can work for only a short time or is associated with unsuccessful leader-follower situations. 
• There is no correct answer to the question of how long should one individual stay in leadership? It is better to leave this matter open and decide according to circumstances. Staying too long discourages the emergence of younger leaders and infusing new blood and new ideas into the organization. It may also result in inefficiency as the leader loses effectiveness with time.
• Frequent changes of leaders may on the other hand result in a lack of continuity and instability. There are situations in which one long-serving leader is the only one with the skills and charisma to hold the organization together. In such a case you should not insist on change for the sake of change.

Problems faced by leaders: 

• Leaders take responsibility for failures. 
• Followers may be disloyal to the leaders or the organization. Subordinates may have poor values that the leaders cannot stand. There may be dissent. 
• The leaders may be ahead of the followers in vision and thinking. 
• External threats are always looming on the horizon. A leader is a public figure and has to accept more invasion of his privacy than an ordinary person. It is important that people know enough about leaders' private life to be assured that they are not involved in any activity that is incompatible with their leadership position. 
• The leader must be accessible at all times and can not claim privacy as a reason for not carrying out leadership functions. The followers must however have some consideration for the leader and his family. They must give him some privacy so that he can lead an ordinary life.

Leadership after trial: 

۞ وَإِذِ ٱبْتَلَىٰٓ إِبْرَٰهِـۧمَ رَبُّهُۥ بِكَلِمَـٰتٍۢ فَأَتَمَّهُنَّ ۖ قَالَ إِنِّى جَاعِلُكَ لِلنَّاسِ إِمَامًۭا ۖ قَالَ وَمِن ذُرِّيَّتِى ۖ قَالَ لَا يَنَالُ عَهْدِى ٱلظَّـٰلِمِينَ

‘And remember that Abraham was tried by his Lord with certain Commands, which he fulfilled: He said: "I will make you An Imam to the Nations. He pleaded: "And also (Imams) from my offspring!" He answered: "But My Promise is not within the reach of evildoers. Qur'an 2:124

Good leader wants good followers: 

وَٱلَّذِينَ يَقُولُونَ رَبَّنَا هَبْ لَنَا مِنْ أَزْوَٰجِنَا وَذُرِّيَّـٰتِنَا قُرَّةَ أَعْيُنٍۢ وَٱجْعَلْنَا لِلْمُتَّقِينَ إِمَامًا

‘And those who pray, Our Lord! Grant unto us wives and offspring who will be the comfort of our eyes, and give us (the grace) To lead the righteous’. Qur'an 25:74

 

Necessity/obligation of having leaders:  

“Abu Said al Khudri reported the Apostle of Allah may peace be upon him) as saying: When three are on a journey, they should appoint one of them as their commander." Abu Daud 2:721, Chapter 933, hadith # 2602.  

Personal ambition for leadership discouraged: 

"Abd al Rahman b Samurah said: The Apostle of Allah (may peace be upon him) said to me: Abd al-Rahman b. Samurah, do not ask for the position of commander, for if you are given it after asking you will be left to discharge it yourself, but if you are given it without asking you will be helped to discharge it." Abu Daud 2:827, Chapter 1090, hadith # 2923

Everybody exercises leadership responsibility

It has been narrated on the authority of Ibn Umar that the Holy Prophet (may peace be upon him) said: Beware, every one of you is a shepherd and everyone is answerable with regard to his flock. The Caliph is a shepherd over the people and shall be questioned about his subjects (as to how he conducted their affairs). A man is a guardian over the members of his family and shall be questioned about them (as to how he looked after their physical and moral well-being).  A woman is a guardian over the household of her husband and his children and shall be questioned about them (as to how she managed the household and brought up the children). A servant is a guardian over the property of his master and shall be questioned about it (as to how he safeguarded his trust ). Beware, every one of you is a guardian and every one of you shall be questioned with regard to his trust." Muslim 3: 1017, Chapter 758, Hadith # 4496

Leadership authority in an incompetent hands is a sign of doom: 

"Narrated Abu Huraira: While the Prophet was saying something in a gathering, a Bedouin came and asked him "When would the Hour (Doomsday) take place?" Allah's Apostle continued his talk, so some people said that Allah's Apostle had heard the question, but did not like what that Bedouin has asked. Some of them said that Allah's Apostle had not heard it. When the Prophet finished his speech, he said, "Where is the questioner, who enquired about the Hour (Doomsday)?" The Bedouin said, "I am here, O Allah's Apostle" Then the Prophet said, "When honesty is lost, then wait for the Hour (Doomsday). The Bedouin said, "How will that be lost?" The Prophet said, "When the power or authority comes in the hands of unfit persons, then wait for the Hour (doomsday)". Bukhari 1:50-51, hadith # 56

Incompetent leaders condemned: 

"It is narrated on the authority of Abu Malik that Ubaidullah b. Ziyad visited Maqil b. Yasar in his illness. Maqil said to him: I am narrating to you hadith which I would have never narrated to you had I not been in death-bed. I heard Allah's Apostle (may peace be upon him) say: A ruler who has been entrusted with the affairs of the Muslims, but he makes no endeavors (for the material and moral uplift) and does not sincerely mean (their welfare) would not enter Paradise along with them." Muslim 1: 82, Chapter 44, Hadith # 264

Omar was a great leader: 

The Prophet said, “In a dream, I saw myself drawing water from a well with a bucket.  Abu Bakr came and drew a bucket or two weakly.  May Allah forgive him.  Then Umar bin Al Khattab came and the bucket turned into a very large one in his hands. I had never seen such a mighty person as he is doing such hard work till all the people drank to their satisfaction and watered their camels that knelt down there. Bukhari 5:23 Hadith #31, Bukhari 5:24 end of Hadith.