Leaders must be knowledge & technology-driven in this century

Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed

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 in the 21st century.

Although the concept of leadership is as old as human history, interest in leadership increased during the early part of the twentieth century. Various theories of leadership have emerged and contributed much of the development of leadership concept.

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. The innovative approach of a leader can be defined as an ability of a leader to think, decide and act in a new or unique way. This approach of a leader can also promote and cultivate the innovative culture within organizations by motivating other to bring new ideas and provide proper infrastructure to convert these ideas into reality. 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.

Bangladesh is slowly and gradually turning itself into the mainstream of 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.

As to developing countries young people are often key actors in powerful social movements that transform the course of human history. Certainly, youth have been deeply important to every progressive social movement like: successive waves of feminism, environmentalism and environmental justice, the labor, antiwar, and immigrant rights movements, and more. In each of these cases, young people took part in many ways, through the appropriation of the “new media” tools of their time, which they used to create, circulate, and amplify movement voices and stories. Youth participation in social change can provide us with important insights. Young people can be powerful agents of social change. Many young people have the desire and capacity to transform the world, and are looking for opportunities to do so. In fact, youth have been key actors in nearly every major social movement in modern history. Youth are the building blocks of a nation. It is a fact that the stronger the youth, the more developed the nation is.

After a long struggle, Bangladesh came into being. Behind its birth, there lies an immense leadership quality of the father of the nation. The harbinger of nationalistic movement is none but Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. AS a blind love, all the Bangalees took part in liberation war and by sacrificing their lives they liberated Bangladesh. After independence, Sheikh Mujib and his party Awami League got the peoples mandate in election and formed the government. His govt. exercises power for three and half years before the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman through a military coup. After the death of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Awami League had not been in power for long 21 years. From this, we can understand the importance of leader and leadership in politics. In India also the fall of congress and the power formation like BJP has become possible only because of the absence of leader like Jowhorlal Neheru. Many developing countries suffer for crisis of good leadership.

In most of the countries, the leaders and parties who are leading the state politics are not even realizing the problem of 21st century. Exceptions prevail in between large states. With the exception of a few, most do not have the political ideology to emerge from the leadership crisis.

In fact, at this time, the socio-economic, political, cultural development of the world's seven and a half billion people need to move forward in an integrated way. In the history of the twentieth century, all countries have found many leaders who are still remembered. But two decades of the twenty-first century are over with the problem like global warming and various ideological crises. We do not know who will emerge as the leader in the days to come. However, the leadership of political ideology, education, culture and science is essential for the visionary-missionary leader to face the challenges of the 21st century from within all nations. That atmosphere can give birth to the heroes of history.

There is a direct link between good governance, effective leadership, time management and economic prosperity. Managing changes in times must be emphasized and prioritized. Effective leadership and good governance are two sides of the same coin. The two have many elements in common. Without an effective leadership we may not envisage good governance in its totality, in fact good governance may not be achieved in its totality because of cultural, psychological, social and sociological impacts and differences. From this analysis we come to the conclusion that a country develops by its leaders. Where there is correct leadership development will be ensured. Though Bangladesh time and again faced strong difficulties in development only due to the crisis of leadership. Today this scenario has been changed. So, leaders need to be knowledge based & technology-driven of the 21st century intelligence globalized world. The able leadership of present prime minister Sheikh Hasina is directing and leading the country towards a sustainable development goal and digital Bangladesh.

Finally we can say that, it is possible to develop leadership through all social and educational programs. To this end, 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.

(Former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP, the author is writer, columnist and researcher)