Real leadership – what Team Malaysia needs now

 

Don’t you just want proper leadership, instead of being led by a bunch of clownish bunglers?

What we need personally, for our businesses, and most of all for our country is clear leadership to navigate through the labyrinth of complex issues we face right now.

Volumes of books, articles, and op-eds written by leadership experts advocating various theories on the subject are readily available. Even university degrees and postgraduate diplomas are offered in this field. There is simply no dearth of information or access for learning to become a skilled leader.

But why is it that the people who are supposedly schooled in the art of leadership, just don’t exhibit it?

Instead, every day, we see their missteps. Social media platforms are awash with hawkish reports and reposts of our leaders’ numerous faux-pas. The only laughable aspect are the numerous comical memes that circulate about them.

Lately, when a deputy minister came back from an extended overseas jaunt under the cover of visiting his family, he was allowed the comfortable option of home quarantine.

Conversely, a returning Malaysian pilot was treated so very differently.

The pilot, who had received his vaccination and had to come back urgently to care for his ailing mother, as she had undergone chemo and radiation therapy, was categorically denied the humanitarian option of home quarantine!

The unfairness of how he was treated caught the attention of the Malaysian people. Serious ramifications for the authorities ensued because people were just fed-up.

You and I are asked to make sacrifices and work together for the well-being of the nation, yet our leaders are going on jollies, and then being given preferential treatment upon returning home.

Despite various leaders scrambling to make arguments and excuses for the obvious inequity, the entire episode left a foul taste in the mouths of many.

The term “double-standards” or the Malay version, “antara dua darjat” which was first made popular in the 1960s by a P Ramlee movie, has come back with a vengeance.

Currently, during my training programmes or leadership coaching sessions, the main topic of emotional conversation is the dilemma of the injustice of things as they stand in our country.

I know they all just covet true leaders.

When you have your back against the wall; your family is struggling to make ends meet; your business is teetering on the brink of collapse; and your job is on the line, you need beacons of hope.

Great leaders are like lighthouses who help us circumnavigate through treacherous waters.

What kind of leaders do people want? Opportunistic self-servers or those who selflessly work with integrity for the betterment of everyone?

Of course, this is a redundant question. Nobody will choose the former, but it seems like this is the type of leaders we have presently. And the irony is that they are not even trying to camouflage their opportunism.

In my twenty-five-year career, I realise that there are many aspects to being an effective leader. But despite this, all these leadership characteristics can be classified into two simple categories.

These categories are: skills and behaviour.

For skills, you see it from a person’s capacity to communicate with clarity and influence others. At the workplace, these leaders know how to manage their time, delegate efficiently, run effective meetings, and manage profit and loss deftly.

Their behavioural characteristics on the other hand can be discerned by looking at qualities such as confidence, charisma, self-drive, a positive attitude, resilience, and most of all integrity.

When I conduct leadership coaching sessions for top executives from some of the best corporations around our region, I start by asking them to cite some of the leaders they admire. And after they name a few, I continue by asking them to describe what they admire in these leaders.

Consistently, over the years, their responses will describe traits like integrity, trustworthiness, fairness, honesty, resilience, positivity, having a winning attitude, and coping with adversity.

Right off the bat, it is always about integrity, trustworthiness and fairness. What is truly fascinating is that all their responses fall into the “behaviour” category.

This simple dipstick analysis offers a magnificent lesson for everyone, regardless of whether you are a leader or not.

If you want to inspire and influence at any level, be it professionally or in your private life, people only respond to the way you behave and conduct yourself, and not how clever you are.

John C Maxwell the American pastor, speaker and author, who has written many books on leadership, once said “…leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition.”

Your actions as a leader speak louder that the words you spew out.

Leadership is a combination of strategy and strength of character. And you know which one is more important. You cannot demand reverence or allegiance. They are earned through a proven track record.

Prodigious leaders have integrity, and put their people front and centre.

This is what Team Malaysia needs now! - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.