Leadership in Islam

Leadership in Islam

• A leader should be appointed when there are three or more people in a group (Abu Dawud)
• Each person is a guardian and will be asked about their subjects (Bukhari)

Impact of Good Leadership

• High levels of productivity
• Positive, can-do attitudes
• Commitment to establishing organizational goals
• Effective, efficient use of resources
• High levels of quality
• Mutually supportive teamwork approach to getting work done

Definition of Leadership

• The ability to positively influence people and systems to have a meaningful impact and achieve results (Evans and Lindsay)
• The ability to inspire people to make a total, willing, and voluntary commitment to accomplishing or exceeding organizational goals (G&D, 287)

Characteristics of Leadership

• Balanced commitment
• Positive role model
• Good communications skills
• Positive influence
• Persuasiveness (G&S, 289)

Drucker's Leadership Criteria

• Leaders define and clearly articulate the organization's mission
• Leaders set goals, priorities, and standards
• Leaders see leadership as a responsibility rather than a privilege of rank (G & D, 5th, 258)
• Leaders surround themselves with knowledgeable, strong people who can contribute
• Leaders earn trust, respect, and integrity (G & D, 5th, 258)

Myths about Leadership

• Leadership is a rare skill
• Leaders are born, not made
• Leaders are charismatic
• Leadership exists only at the top
• Leaders control, direct, prod and manipulate
• Leaders do not need to be learners (G & D, 5th, 259)

Leadership for Quality

• Strong customer focus
• Obsession with quality
• Recognising the structure of Work – analyze work process to determine optimal structure
• Freedom through control – human control of work methods and process (G & D, 5th, 260)
• Unity of purpose
• Looking for faults in systems
• 85% of failures due to management-controlled systems
• Employees can control only 15% of what causes failures
• From assessing blame for failures to assessing systems to correct systemic problems
• Teamwork
• Continuing education and training

Leadership and Quality Management

• Leadership and management commitment is critical to successful implementation
• Responsibility of management to improve work systems in order to improve quality (Deming)
• Top management support is key to success, lack of management support is primary cause of failure (Reeves and Bednar)

Leadership Style

• Autocratic Leadership: make decisions without consulting employees
• Consultative or democratic leadership: make decisions after receiving opinions and recommendations of subordinates
• Participative Leadership: Help team to reach consensus, leaders provide information and facilitate decision process
• Goal-oriented leadership: Usually task-oriented as opposed to people-oriented
• Situational leadership: Depends on situation, style depends upon business organization, culture, financial situation, and relationship of manager and team members

Leadership Style in Total Quality Setting

• Participative leadership taken to a higher level
• Involves soliciting input from empowered employees
• Collecting input is not new, but working with employees towards continuous improvements – beyond traditional participative leadership (G & D, 5th, 267)

Trust Building and Leadership

• Take the blame but share credit
• Pitch in and help - get your hands dirty
• Be consistent
• Be equitable