We're only human

Sometime last week I had this conversation with Aiman about human being. Everyone of us are leaders at different point in time. Why? Because we need to make a decision sometimes.

I recently read an article explaining about the leadership of our Prophet Muhammad SAW and how we could learn a lot from him leadership and decision-making skills. Two main points mentioned were 

1. how he kept his words and was trusted by all.
2. how he used his time with focus and self-discipline. He was a leader without a title, in today's world that speaks volume. 

Leader in today's context may carry a few meaning i.e. the head of a team, owner of a business, teachers, CEOs, someone you report to, a manager etc. As long as you are in a position of making decision, you need to practice both good decision making skill and leadership skill. That includes (and not limited to):

• how you communicate: with people older than you, lower rank than you, your peers, colleagues, clients
• having a transformational instead of transactional leadership style. In today's workforce, you may see leaders being paid a premium but you may not see the agreed business plan materialise
• a listener and is able to accept dissent. We humans cannot hear the words "You are wrong" when in fact, different/fresh ideas are what makes a plan more interesting and sometimes work 
• exemplary EQ which was something very apparent in our Prophet. In accomplishing his mission, he never gave up, instead persisted and never lost hope. Patience higher than the sky!

I felt the need to pen this down today because I don't think speaking to another human would help. In fact, being human, the person I speak to may even interject and not listen but instead think I'm preaching for no legit reasons. Sometimes I feel a little frustrated reading the news about unnecessary problems in this country that should not even have happened in the first place, and then you look closer to small ecosystem like in an organisation or even a business, believe me a lot of petty unnecessary issues.

We have one too many (wannabe) leaders shouting different things. No one willingly backs down and that is the reason why a problem does not get solved. Because we are human, and it is like a second nature for us to not back down. Instead you will want to shout louder to make sure your point is heard. We also have the 'I'm the head so you listen to me' leader.

I keep reminding myself not to fall into this trap of fighting back because there's really no point, especially with humans who want to hear what they want to hear - that it's always better to be the bigger person, because even though what you say mat be right, sometimes one may just refuse to listen. 

Instead, pray that Allah SWT will open the hearts of His creations including me to look at things positively and may he give his creations patience :) On a lighter note, my colleague just made me Ice Shaken Lychee Tea!! Gosh, I really have it going for me huh, a lot to be thankful for!