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While ineffectual leaders sit around and react to events, successful Muslim leaders seek Allah’s help and challenge the status quo. In challenging the process, leaders have to be innovative.
Planning without implemen-tation is useless. In some Islamic organisations, there is no defined concept of long- term planning. Others, who do so, are normally faced with the problem of “analysis-paralysis”, spending too much time on fine tuning their business plans. The result is simple; there appears to be too much ado about nothing. Only few Islamic organisations are implementing their strategy effectively.
Leadership can be defined as “a dynamic relationship based on mutual influence and common purpose between leaders and collaborators in which both are moved to higher levels of motivation and moral development as they affect real, intended change.” (Rost, 1991). At the same time, Burns defines leadership as “leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations - the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations of both leaders and followers.” (Burns, 1978).
Both definitions stress the transformational dimension of leadership whereby you, as the leader, and your followers enrich each other. The transformational dimension is very much a part of the Islamic paradigm of leadership, which stresses the reciprocal enrichment of the leaders and the followers. In fact, Islam demands that you, as a leader, pay attention to your followers’ needs. In a hadith (no. 2942) reported in Sunan Abu Dawud by Abu Maryam al-Azdi, the Prophet said: If Allah puts anyone in the position of authority over the Muslims’ affairs and he secludes himself (from them), not fulfilling their needs, wants, and poverty, Allah will keep Himself away from him, not fulfilling his need, want, and poverty.
Concurrently, your followers must provide you with sincere and impartial feedback, support you, and help you orient yourself toward the good. Hazrath Umar (RA) said: “May God have mercy upon anyone who points out my faults to me.”
In contrast to those high-profile leaders who thrive on personality cults, Collins indicates that level 5 leaders are a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will (e.g., Umar and the personal humility he displayed while travelling to Jerusalem to receive its keys). The degree of humility and access suggested by level 5 leadership are critical to the effective implementation of an Islamic organisation’s strategy.
One of the best integrative models of effective leader-ship is inextricably connected with transformational leader-ship, level 5 leadership, and innovation. This model consists of five basic practices that a leader can adopt.
1. Challenging the Process
Leadership is an active and dynamic process. The founders of the Muslim Students’ Association of the USA and Canada were true pioneers at a time when Islam was just beginning to spread in America. Malcolm X, after discovering true Islam during his pilgrimage to Makkah, did not hesitate to do a complete turnaround. He started rethinking his previous beliefs based on black superiority and then began to proclaim the universal message of Islam. He paid dearly with his life, in fact, for speaking and living the truth. While ineffectual leaders sit around and react to events, successful Muslim leaders seek Allah’s help and challenge the status quo. In challenging the process, leaders have to be innovative. While challenging the process, search for opportunities both inside and outside the organisation or business. Look for ways to change or improve the status quo. These new opportunities may include an innovative new service or activity, reorganisation, or a realignment of the organisation’s mission. To make this search fruitful, follow Allah’s shura mandate, and consult with all manner of people, regardless of whether or not they belong to your organisation. Even if you do not always agree with them, make it a point to listen to your most demanding critics. The most effective Islamic leaders that I work with use shura as part of their daily decision-making
Experiment and take risks while challenging the process with the understanding that you may not always succeed. Each failure, however, can be viewed as a learning opportunity. For example, let us assume that you are learning how to play soccer. If you stand behind the ball, but do not try to kick it, what have you learned? How can you improve your soccer skills? Similarly, if you have never opened your community’s mosque up to members of other faith-based communities, how can you learn to work with them? While challenging the status quo, you, as a leader will often encounter many challenges. For example, you may be assailed by your fellow Muslims more viciously than by members of other faith-based communities. At times, your family may be harassed.. You may pay dearly for seeking to make a positive difference, and may wonder why you are making such sacrifices when no one appreciates them. Before giving up and accepting the status quo, remember the hadith of the Prophet narrated by Abdullah ibn Umar and reported by Al-Tirmidhj (hadith no. 5087) and lbn Majah: “He who mixes with people and endures the harm they do is better than he who does not mix with them or endure the harm they do”.
Leadership is about sacrifice and paradigm shifts. Prophet Muhammad (Pbuh) encountered many obstacles. Jesus, Noah, Moses, Abraham (peace be upon all of them) were loved by Allah, but this did not make them immune to suffering. In a hadith narrated by Abu Sa’id Al Khudri and Abu Hurayrah and reported in Sahih al-Bukhari (hadith no. 7.545), the Prophet said: “No fatigue or disease, no sorrow or sadness, no hurt or distress befalls a Muslim, even if it were the prick he receives from a thorn, but that Allah expiates some of his sins for that”.
2. Inspiring a Shared Vision
When challenging the status quo, you need to have a vision of what you want your organisation to accomplish. This is your main task. This vision is the source of your organisation’s mission statement and long-term strategy. In addition, you must involve your followers and increase their commitment to the vision. Engaging in shura can help fine-tune the vision. You can also pray salat of Istikhara to ask Allah to validate the content and direction of the organisation’s future direction. Once the vision is developed, effective leaders work to commit themselves to it and then to communicate it to others so that they can share it and align themselves with it. The general idea is to share your vision with your organisation’s members in order to increase their commitment to its implementation.
3. Enabling Others to Act
Followers do not succeed or fail by themselves. They need servant-leaders, namely, leaders who are not so preoccupied with their self-serving ambitions that they cannot place other people’s interests above their own. If a person is using an Islamic organisation for self-promotion rather than to enable others to lead, he/she can cause serious damage. In a hadith reported in Al-Tirmidhi (hadith no. 1345), Prophet Muhammad said: “Two hungry wolves let loose among sheep are not more destructive to them than a man’s greed for property and self-aggrandizement are to his faith.” Note that the follower can also be a “hungry wolf’ in sheep’s clothing. Servant-leaders are transformational leaders who actively foster collaboration by serving. Your hard work, and the help provided by your followers, makes things happen. To build collaboration among your followers, promote frequent interaction.
Besides fostering collab-oration, you have to strengthen others through empowerment and delegation. Muhammad (Pbuh) was a leader who joined others in doing what he asked them to do. For example, he helped to build his mosque in Madinah, helped out around the house, and participated in the digging of the ditch prior to the battle of Ahzab. While strengthening your followers, work at raising their level of commitment to the cause.
Just as at Aqaba, where the Muslims pledged their loyalty to the Prophet in public, have the Muslim brother or sister commit to performing a task in front of the group or committee. The more visible the choice, the more committed people will be to that course of action. Once you have delegated a task, the follower may not be able to carry it out. You should make sure to provide him/her with feedback designed to improve his/her performance in the future. Fight your desire to reprimand your follower immediately, for according to Kouzes and Posner, the best leaders allow their followers the space and time to learn from their mistakes, whenever feasible. Islam concurs with this approach, as indicated by the Qur’anic verse revealed after the near defeat of Uhud: It is part of the Mercy of Allah that you do deal gently with them. Were you severe or harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from about you; so pass over (their faults) and ask for (Allah’s) forgiveness for them; and consult them in affairs (of moment). Then when you have taken a decision put your trust in Allah. For Allah loves those who put their trust (in Him). (Qur’an, 3:159).
4. Modelling the Way
Your task is not done after developing a shared vision and empowering others, for now you must lead by modeling the way. First, be clear about your beliefs. By practising what you preach, clarify to your followers what core values and behaviour should be emulated. The Prophet did this, and all current Muslim leaders and followers should follow his example.
5. Encouraging the Heart
Succeeding in Allah’s Path is difficult, and Muslims will be continuously tested. Sometimes, brothers and sisters may become discouraged because a strategic plan may look too hard or is taking too long to implement. An appropriate verse or hadith from you during tough times will help them refocus and strengthen their resolve. You, in your capacity as the leader, can never lose hope in Allah, because doing so is tantamount to disbelief. The following admonition from Prophet Ya’qub illustrates this aspect of Islamic leadership: “0 my sons! Go and inquire about Joseph and his brother, and never give up hope of Allah’s Soothing Mercy. Truly, no one despairs of Allah’s Soothing Mercy except those who have no faith”. (Qur’an, 12:87). Another inspiring verse is: “So lose not heart or fall into despair, for you must gain mastery if you are true in faith”. (Qur’an, 3:139).
(Source: “The Islamic Workplace” blog at http://makkah.wordpress.com).
The writer is professor of management and strategy at the University of Nevada and author of Islamic Business Ethics and can be reached at beekun@smtp. scsr.nevada.edu)
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