Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
The concept of leadership and governance encompasses strategic directions, plans and politics, effective oversight, regulation, motivation and partnerships that integrate all health systems building blocks to achieve results. Without effective leadership and good governance at all levels in private, public and civil organizations, it is arguably virtually impossible to achieve and to sustain effective administration, to achieve goals, to sustain quality and deliver first-rate services. The increasing complexities and requirements arising from the constant change in society, coupled with the constant push for higher levels of productivity, require effective and ethical leadership. Good governance and effective-ethical leadership are the essential requirements for an organization to be considered successful in the eyes of all stakeholders.
Vision of a leader is one of those several characteristics, which a leader can have to initiate and implement successful organizational change. Vision is an ability of a leader to perceive future and future trends in accurate way. Vision of a leader can also prove helpful to motivate the teams and employees within an organization. The other important characteristic which a leader can have, regarding to the matter of organizational change, is an innovative approach of a leader. The innovative approach of leaders may lead a company towards a sustainable success and can better formulate the organizational strategy for desirable future for organization. By acknowledging the importance of vision and innovative approach as competencies of leadership it is also true that there are other important characteristics of leadership which has an effect on the effectiveness of leaders while managing organizations and organizational change.
Every state depended on leaders of advanced state thought for leadership. All these patriotic leaders have emerged from among the people. The leadership of these independent states was not created from outside any country or nation. Leaders are made from their own people. All states had one or more competent leaders during this phase of independence. There has been a succession of leaderships in most of the independent states since then. However, all the states received the kind of talented, competent and self-sacrificing leadership during independence, revolution and war. In the subsequent period, the continuity of that quality and qualified leadership did not remain intact in all states at all times. There are several historical and political reasons for this. The crisis and lack of competent leadership in accelerating the development of independent statehood has occurred in almost all countries. If you look at it, it will be seen that the success of George Washington’s leadership in gaining the independence of the United States of America has been glorious, while some have played a memorable role in leading the independent phase of the last two and a half years, many have questioned the political glory of the United States. Simón Bolívar led the independence of several Latin countries, and was the inspiration for the independence of other countries. Still, Bolivar’s later life was somewhat neglected. But Bolivar is the leader after whom the country of Bolivia is named. In the history of the world, such fortune has not happened in the life of any leader.
The political history of the developed world testifies that, in the absence of a top leader who has led for a long time, it is difficult to prepare another top leader. For example, the events after the ouster of Zimbabwe’s top leader Robert Mugabe or the events in Malaysia after the voluntary retirement from politics by a famous leader named Mahathir Mohamad or the events after the death of the famous statesman Marshall Tito of the former Yugoslavia (Yugoslavia was divided into several independent states) or neighboring India. What happened after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed or what happened after the arrest of Iraqi President Saddam Hussain or what happened in the Philippines after the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the mid-eighties or what happened after the ouster of Indonesian dictator Suharto. Going back a few hundred years, the condition of the Mughal Empire after King Alamgir is also memorable. We want the current ruling circle of Bangladesh not to become the cause of destabilizing the political arena of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is slowly and gradually turning itself into the mainstream of the globalized world but is facing hiccups due to political instability, corruption and weak governance. Leadership and management skills, although better available in the private sector, are lacking in the public sector. Political leadership, however, does not fall within this ambit, since that is naturally homegrown; a kind of informal sector, coming from the grass root levels of Bangladesh. Political leadership, however, is intricately involved with the public bureaucracy in running the governance of the country. Political leadership is definitely more pronounced since they give the policy decisions and direction for running the state affairs. But the real challenge remains in the realm of implementing those on the ground, where there are almost insurmountable challenges and handicaps in different stages of implementation process. In both the tiers of leadership, there is a dire need of vision, charisma, creativity, changing and challenging the status quo, transforming the subordinates or the followers to get into the vision of the leaders or be able to look into their emotions and energy.
It is possible to develop leadership through all social and educational programs. With this end in view, it is necessary to make it mandatory to organize debate competitions regularly at all levels of educational institutions by including the leadership development chapters in the curriculum. In addition, there will be continuity and progress of development under discipline and proper leadership. We know, the crisis of competent leadership hinders all development. Proper leadership and development management are interdependent. Therefore, we need to institutionalize development management by overcoming all the challenges of leadership in building future happy and prosperous Bangladesh.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP).
