Have A Meaningful Aidilfitri - Thursday in The STAR

Make Malaysia GREAT:

Lead by Removing Uncertainties*

To Make Malaysia Great, we need effective leaders at all levels. Leaders who can remove uncertainties. Those who are able to present vision and goals of the future that Malaysians can desire while at the same time are able to solve problems we face today.  Leaders who can generate a willingness within the rakyat to follow along a socially responsible, ethical and mutually beneficial course of action.

1.    What makes a leader?

What is the fundamental difference between a leader and a follower? Basically, leaders have followers. To know what makes a leader, we must ask why people follow people. The answer is in followership. Why do we choose to follow a leader while others do not? How does followership work?

2.    Why people follow people? What triggers and maintains followership?

Is it Charisma? Good Role Modeling? Intelligence? Religiosity? Money? Power? Branding? Seniority? Lineage, etc? No. These are simply tools of leadership. Tools that one can use to remove uncertainties in the minds of the followers. Trapped in a fire, we will even follow a 10-year-old who can show a passage to safety because he can show us a certain way out. People want to be sure and seek what is certain. Leaders can either clarify the uncertainty and confusion experienced by their followers and come out on top, or they can submit to the uncertainty, and end up being abandoned.

3.    How to Remove Uncertainties?

Be authentic - build legitimacy through honest relationships with followers by telling the truth, being ethical, doing what is right, keeping your promises and practising mercy. Be focus and show that you are willing to stay the course in keeping with the values even when the time is tough and you are pushed to a corner. Be consistent, don’t flip flop.  Don’t you realise that you do not move to action when you have a superior who is uncertain and changes his mind ever too often?

At zubedy, our programs and activities draw strength from our shared values and traditions. We believe that at heart, all Malaysians want good things for themselves and for their brother and sister Malaysians, simply because our nation cannot prosper as a whole if some of us are left behind.

You and I, must Remove Uncertainties and Make Malaysia GREAT.

Let us add value,

Have a meaningful Aidilfitri.

*The idea presented in this message is part of our Making A Difference through P3 program’s core concepts.