LEAD, LEADER, LEADERSHIP

The three beautiful words, Lead, Leader, Leadership, are the main concepts which we live in our day to day lives . But the perception in seeing its approach might be different but this does not mean that the definition of Leadership would change as it is an art in itself. My recent visit to organization like Delta Airline, ILA and many others and sharing about leadership is of paramount distance of what we have in Mauritius. So where are we heading too? Are we on the right track?

My glimpse through the Mauritian press was shocking to see that certain so called professionals still today do not know the difference between being as a part time chairman and the being chief executive? Is it what we call corporate governance? I was given to understand even if you are potato seller, but well acquainted and being a henpecked of politicians, one can sit on any board and even take decision of the highest levels?

Is it how we are running the country or an organization? What are the prerequisite to be a board member? Are we missing professionals in Mauritius? So where are these youths who been burning the midnight oil and striving in life and still being a top in their fields of competences? They are being buried by politicians.

Recently in the world conference of leadership, we could see that a change of precepts and concepts are yet to be put in place for a better future. Does our so called leaders know about that? At times certain head of organization self-proclaiming themselves to be the boss of the organization and glaring at themselves in the mirror and finding their smiles and they feel happy. In fact they are not realizing that it’s the mirror which is laughing at them. So called leaders need to self-diagnose themselves of their true nature.

Leading is no more about command and conquer. It’s about understanding and feeling the needs of the populations, the staffs, and working on common objectives in order to attain the rightfulness common interest, it’s where the human capital takes place.

Diversity exists today in just about every part of the world and every industry sector. As the world becomes “flat” and organizations continue to globalize, a diverse workforce is commonplace. Best practices for inclusive leadership development show that it is an ongoing effort incorporating learning, action and feedback as each organization discovers new ways to support the development of board, staff and program participants to become Inclusive Leaders actively participating in an Inclusive Organization.

Inclusive leadership is the practice of leadership that carefully includes the contributions of all stakeholders in the community or organization. Inclusion means being at the table at all levels of the organization, being a valued contributor and being fully responsible for your contribution to the ultimate result. Inclusive leadership creates an organizational culture that consistently produces results that benefit all of those stakeholders.

The global context within which our leaders operate is increasingly complex. As an emerging construct, global leadership has evolved tremendously as we all need to keep with the flow in order to match up with the New World Order trend if we need to survive. To understand the practical aspects of global leadership, a consideration of the characteristics of complex adaptive systems can shed light.

Leaders will need to understand what complex systems theory has to teach them. The leader are profoundly interdependent. Within a globalized systems, societies, cultures and economies have become integrated. Global leadership will continue to expand and to become more holistic and nonlinear in nature.

Leaders will need to be able to function in a more dynamic, unpredictable and in the moment manner in dance with the context and environment. Leaders will need to influence action and support the ability of people to innovate and develop solutions. The functions of leadership increasingly will become a process of discovering and promoting experimentation, innovation and invention. The leader would need to be prepared to maintain stability under unpredictable and chaotic situations instead of running away and blaming others and stating I don’t know anything about it.

Leaders would need to create supportive learning environments and foster sense making built on connection, coherence, mutually created meaning dynamic relationships and integrated systems perspective.

Emerging professionals and youngsters the time is now. The fight for your say should begin already. You should not be influenced by others of where to need to cross your votes to.

If you want to survive in this complex fragmented world or economy, get your voice noticed. You have the right to express your vision, your views and you all been tax payers of the country , the country runs through you, you need to be valued , we don’t need the freedom of expression rights to voice, it has been God-gifted to you to express since birth as “Dieu nous a créé à son image”

It’s time that you take your pilgrimage stick and start working towards a better lead for a better leader of tomorrow and with a greater Leadership vision.

By Dr Jayshan Keejoo- Global Change Agent Lead and International Arbitrator