Leadership Essentials by Mirza Yawar Baig

1. For those who want to lead

2. Mirza Yawar Baig
Opening the world, one mind at a time©
Work Experience:
International Advisor, Trainer, Author, Coach, Leadership
Consultant with 16 years in Corporate General Management, 35
years in Training & Organizational Development
Education:
 IIM-A , P-CMM®, MBTI©, WSA©, ISABS
Books Include:
 Leadership Lessons from the Life of Rasoolullah‫ﷺ‬
 Islam for Beginners
 Understanding Islam
 O! You who Believe
 Rizq, Ordained or Obtained
 Presenting Islam Today
 Akhlaaq of the Ummati
 Reflect on the Qur’an
 Khutbatul Wada
 Fieldbook for the Khateeb
 Sahaba the Gold Standard
 Questions: But what will we answer?
Member Consultant Panel:
USA
 GE Corporate University, Crotonville
 AMA International, New York
 Andersen Corporate University, MN
India
 SVP National Police Academy, Hyderabad, TS
 SSB Academy, Bhopal, MP
 LBS Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, UP
Islamic
 Jamiat ul Ulama, South Africa
 Association of Muslim Schools, South Africa & UK
Invited to speak at:
 Jamiat ul Ulama, South Africa & Association of Muslim Schools, since 2005
 International Haj Conference, Makkah, 2010
 Diwan, Royal Court of Oman, Muscat 2014
 Ministry of Awqaf, Kuwait, since 2012
 Islamic Education Conference, London & Oxford, 2014/15
 International Islamic University, Malaysia, 2015/16
yawarbaig@gmail.com
www.yawarbaig.com

3. Agenda – Leadership
1. Tools of Learning
2. Drive for Excellence: Master or Victim
3. Life Goal: Leaving a legacy
4. 4 – Drivers of Failure & how to avoid them
5. Managing Time: Managing Life
6. Goal Setting
3

4. Our Rules
1. in the silent mode
2. You decide when to start and stop
3. You decide when you want breaks
4. The only foolish question is the one that was not asked
5. No photographs
6. Take notes
7. We all accept responsibility for time boundaries
4

5. Power of Intention
5
•Sent(enced) to comePrisoner
•Have a good timeVacationer
•What can I gain?Learner

6. Because gain is
directly
proportional to
intention
6

7. Learning Goals
1. Why are you here?
2. What do you need to learn?
3. What do you intend to do for that to happen?
7
Please reflect in silence and make notes
20 minutes

8. SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
Opportunities Threats
ME
12

9. Master? Or Victim?

10. The Essential Truth
 Living life is about making choices:
 Choosing to be a “Victim”
 Or choosing to be a “Master”
 Both stances are subject to the givens of society,
environment, organization
 Both stances have implications in terms of your
development and happiness
14
Choose consciously, choose wisely

11. Distinguishing features
Victims
1. Complain
2. Think of excuses
3. Blame others
4. Lose hope & give up
5. Perish
Masters
1. Say, “What can I do about it?”
2. Think of solutions
3. Own responsibility
4. Have courage to try new ways
5. Win, even if they fail
15
Possible only when we are willing to own responsibility

12. The Price of Success
1. Success, like everything else, has a price.
2. We often don’t succeed simply because we are not
willing to pay that price.
3. It is essential that we are clear about what the price of
success in our lives is and if we are willing to pay it.
16
It’s in the nature of the extraordinary goal
To inspire extraordinary effort

13. ME
Ideas
Beliefs Dreams
Values
VALUE
Power
Friends Reward
Fame
ACTION
Actions
Speech Stances
Writing

14. Am – Do – Get
1. Relationships are based on words.
2. Words are indicators of mental models and attitudes.
3. When words are changed the attitudes behind them
change as well.
4. And new ways of relating reveal themselves
18
Who I Am influences what I Do,
which determines what I Get

15. Tool
1. Imagine that you are listening to your own farewell
speech being delivered by someone who has worked
with you, for many years and knows you very well.
2. What would you like to hear?
19
That is your Life Goal

16. Exercise
1. Please write your life goal
20
What do you want to be remembered for?
20 minutes

17. Reflection
1. What do you need to change?
2. What is the implication of not changing?
3. What will you gain if you are successful in
changing?
What do you want to change from now on?
20 minutes

18. What is the price of your success?
Start Stop Continue
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
1.
2.
3.
22

19. Solve the conflict, strengthen the relationship

20. Who gained the most?

21. The Situation
1. Abdullah bought a cow for $ 400
2. He sold it to Bakr for $ 450
3. Bakr sold the cow back to Abdullah for $500
4. Abdullah sold the cow again to Bakr for $550
5. Abdullah finally bought the cow back for $ 600

22. The Question
1. Who gained the most in this transaction?

23. Please Reflect
1. What did you do that helped resolve the conflict?
2. What could you have done differently ?
3. Present your findings to the class

24. Conflicts Exercise
1. In your groups please share two stories
1. When you were in a conflict and lost
2. When you were in a conflict and won
2. Jointly please develop a list of 3 things that work and 3
things that don’t work in conflicts
3. Present your learnings to the plenary
28
Present what works and what does not work
20 minutes

25. Problem Solving
Me
You
Problem
29
Me You

26. Helps Hinders
1. Integrity
2. Authenticity
3. Sincerity
4. Willingness to help
5. Active Listening
6. Empathy
7. Clear communication
8. Knowing your limits
1. Exceeding authority
2. Aggressiveness
3. Sarcasm
4. Lack of respect
5. Lack of knowledge
6. Time pressure
7. Fear of failure
8. Missing signals
30
Trying to fool others only results in harm to yourself

27. What is your default style?
1. Is it helpful or harmful?
2. What is you plan to enhance your conflict resolution
skills?
32
Potential is only as good as realization

28. Manners of Differing

29. Check your own ikhlaas
1. What’s important for you?
1. Find the right answer or prove the other wrong?
2. To help find a solution or to criticize?
3. Guidance for people or fame for yourself?
34
Remember, Allah knows and only He will judge

30. Remember
1. Neither you nor the other are receiving Wahi
2. In reality it is your interpretation against his
3. Both may be right or wrong
4. You will be rewarded for your Ijtihad if you make it with Ikhlaas even
if you are wrong
5. You will be punished for the way in which you differed if you violated
the rights of the other
6. It is the right of the Muslim that his life, property and honor are safe
in the hands of his brother
Only Allah knows the state of anyone’s heart or niyyah

31. How to disagree
1. Acknowledge & honor the position of the other as being a fellow
seeker for truth & your helper
2. Reiterate the issue at stake and focus on the fact that both of you
are interested in the solution
3. Listen carefully to his argument, proofs & perspective with the
intention to seek the solution NOT to refute him or his effort or his
Dalaa’il
4. Ask questions about the areas where you believe his argument is
weak
5. Speak one-to-one in private
36

32. What NOT to do
1. Disagreeing in public except for issues where the issue
is of a very serious nature
2. Criticizing publicly or criticizing any individual personally
3. Calling names or defaming in any way directly or
indirectly by insinuating, implying or signaling
4. Accusing of insincerity, duplicity or lack of faith or
questioning the intention
37

33. Benefit of healthy disagreement
1. Greater in-depth understanding of issues
2. Both parties come closer together
3. Both learn to respect each other more
4. Each will appreciate the potential of the other and seek
the help of each other in future
38
Ask: Is this happening between us today?

34. And their solutions

35. 1. Complacency
1. “Good enough, never is”
2. The only use of history is to learn from it. Gloating
or lamenting about past glory is the surest way of
ensuring that it remains in the past.
40
People who don’t learn from history are
condemned to repeat it

36. 2. Not working together
1. Look in the mirror for mistakes
2. Look out of the window to give credit
3. Your virtue is not enhanced by someone else’s
weakness
4. Disagree without being disagreeable
5. You’re there to solve the problem, not to win a battle
41
Disagreement is not opposition

37. 3. Excuses and blaming
1. Stop blaming others for your situation
2. Analyze what went wrong and create a plan to avoid it
in the future.
3. Being objective, even hard, on yourself is the best way
to avoid repeating mistakes.
42
“Just because we have a good excuse,
it does not change failure into success.”

38. 4. Need for personal glory
1. Ask: Do I want my ideas to be accepted or myself to be
glorified?
2. Niyyah: Do you work for the pleasure of Allah‫ﷻ‬ or for
fame and appreciation of others?
3. Remember the Hadith about the one who asks for a
position or authority.
43
Remember the Hadith about Niyyah

40. Stock Taking
1. What are your ‘Take-aways’ from yesterday?
2. Please list the top three
45

41. Nations that don’t learn
from their history are
condemned to repeat it
46

42. What to do?
1. Brutal honesty
2. Learning lessons
3. Changing ourselves
47

43. Key Leadership Skills
1. Questioning
2. Analytical Thinking
3. Visioning
4. Strategic Planning
5. Systematic Implementation
6. Resilience
48
Brutal honesty & Systematic Learning

44. Questions
1. Where's your Shadow
Cabinet?
2. What's your policy on finance?
3. What's your policy on
taxation?
4. What’s your policy on social
welfare & security?
5. What’s your policy on
community relations?
6. What's your policy on
international relations?
7. What's your policy on
education and health care?
8. Who does scenario planning
and strategic thinking for you?
9. What's your policy and
strategy on media?
49

45. Key Focus
1. Finance
2. Media
3. Legal
4. Politics
50

46. 51https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=think_tanks

47. https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=think_tanks 52

48. Practicing Skills

49. Skill Practice
1. In pairs give each other feedback about how you
experienced them in this workshop
2. Giver
1. Support your comments with data
2. Use non-judgmental language
3. Receiver
1. Listen actively: paraphrase
2. Ask questions only to clarify or ask for data
3. Thank the individual for giving you feedback
54
Observer: Please see if Active Listening was happening
15 minutes

50. What is ‘Active Listening?’
1. Listening is first an attitude, then a skill
1. Be clear that you are interested to hear and retain
2. Make arrangements to remember
3. Share what you understood from time to time because this
may be very different from what the speaker wanted to
convey
55
If you understood differently. You are wrong, the
speaker is right

51. What is feedback?
1. Feedback is to tell the person how they affected you,
giving data
2. Feedback is not opinion or assessment
3. Feedback is useful only if it comes from genuine
concern for the individual
56
You can take or reject feedback as you wish
but objectively ask yourself, “Why?”

52. Giving Feedback
1. Have a genuine concern for the individual
2. Helpful if it is solicited rather than imposed
• Create a need in the receiver
3. Descriptive rather than evaluative
4. As soon after the behavior as possible
5. Never give feedback when you are angry
Appreciation in public; criticism in private

53. Receiving Feedback
1. Be open and ready to receive
2. Do not be defensive & Listen actively
3. Ask for descriptive data about your behavior
4. Thank the person giving the feedback
5. Consider the feedback seriously
6. Decide if you want to act on it or not
58
Rejecting too much feedback is injurious to health

54. Giving adverse feedback
1. Check to see if you are genuinely concerned
2. Speak directly and clearly
3. State the data: What happened?
4. State how it affected you?
5. State what impression it gave you about the individual
6. Ask if that is the impression they want to give
59
You can give bad news without hurting

55. Managing Time

56. What is your Life’s Goal?
1. Today is your last working day and you are
retiring. There is a farewell function for you and a
friend of yours is giving a speech about you and
your achievements
2. What would you like to hear in that speech?
How do you want to be remembered?

57. Time Activity
5.30
6.00
6.30
7.00
7.30
8.00
8.30
Record what you do every half hour for the whole day
Time Log

58. Effective Time calculation
Actual Time – Maintenance Time
= Available Time
Available time used in Life Goal
= Effective Time (E T)
Is this enough to achieve your Life Goal?

59. 3 – Keys for Effective Time
1. Prioritize: Effort versus Impact
2. Delegate: Urgent versus Important
3. Learn to say the magic word: “No.”
Productivity is directly proportional to ET

60. IMPACT
INVESTMENT
Waste
Hard
Work
Do if
you
have to
Leverage
20% effort, produces 80% results

61. The 3 x 3 rule
1. Everyday make a list of 3 activities you need to do in
order of priority according to impact.
2. Then start on the 1st and continue until you finish it. If
you are interrupted, go back to it and complete it.
3. Only then go on to the next.
4. Write the list the next day in the same way.

62. Urgent
but not
Important
Urgent
and
Important
Neither
Urgent
nor
Important
Important
but not
Urgent
URGENT
IMPORTANT

63. The magic word – “No!”
1. Develop Assertiveness:
“Self expression through which one stands up
for one’s basic rights without violating the
basic rights of others.”

64. How to say ‘No!’
1. Develop a reputation for being goal focused
2. Never ‘drop-in’ on anyone without notice
3. Never ‘Forward’ chain emails. Delete the ones
you receive, unread. And tell everyone that you
do this.
Make punctuality an obsession

65. In the Final Analysis
1. Remember it is not about Time at all.
2. It is about Life.
Your Life

66. The Key to Ensuring Success

67. “Being” & “Doing” Goals
1. ‘Being’ Goal
1. “I want to be the head of the organization.”
2. ‘Doing’ Goal
1. “I want to create and share a vision that will
take this company to the Fortune 100 list.”
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68. To Be You have to Do
To Do, You don’t have to Be
Unless you Do,
You will never Be
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69. “Only if you do, you can be.
To do you don’t have to be.”
Being Goals
1. Inspirational
2. Intensions
3. Thought oriented
4. Future focused
5. Other dependent
Doing Goals
1. Experiential
2. Actions
3. Action oriented
4. Present focused
5. Self dependent
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70. Gaining Commitment
1. What is the goal?
• Clearly decide on what is to be achieved
2. Why should it be done?
• What’s its significance for the collective?
3. What’s in it for me?
• What’s its significance for Yourself?
75
Because people are motivated by gain

71. S.M.A.R.T. Goals
1. Specific
2. Measurable
3. Action Oriented
4. Realistic
5. Time bound
76
ER = Evaluate & Reward

72. Action Points
Goal Time People Resources
77
1. Write 3 – SMART Goals that you intend to work
towards after this workshop
2. Please create a table for each in this format
We can only guarantee what we can measure

73. Mirza Yawar Baig
Email: yawarbaig@gmail.com
Website: www.yawarbaig.com