People from all lifestyles are observing and hoping Najib will lead his cabinet and UMNO in particular, as a leader in bridging parochial private concerns with the bigger public interest. When I mention Najib as a leader, I expect of a brand of leadership that not only sees and mends the parts, but works for the transformation and good of the whole. I refer to a transformational kind of leadership, not a transactional leader.
Theoretically, transformational leadership is a kind of leader who transforms and motivates followers by raising awareness of the vision and mission of the team or organization, and the importance of task outcomes. He induces them to transcend their self-interest for the sake of the organization or the greater whole and activates their higher-order needs. He appeals to the moral values of followers in an attempt to raise their consciousness about ethical issues and to mobilize their energy and resources to reform institutions.
He sees the potential and consequences of change. Transformational leadership drives motivation and brings followers to higher levels of potential and performance, many times more than what they thought possible. Transformational leaders are able to harness the ideals in all and appeal to what is best in them. In essence, they inspire, develop and empower followers.
It is plain to the eye why Najib needs to be transformational leader who transcend self-interests for the good of the nation, organization or the community. He is a public property; he cannot serve narrow, private self-interests alone. Instead, he must have a view of the whole, an awareness of the present policies, system and its place in society. A commitment to its mission to serves fairness for all and advocate positively influence to promote this mission.
With the vast gap between the haves and the have-nots in our country, he should have courage to put in place reforms that offer justice to all fellow citizens. Not just to the moneyed and influential few, but to all. He should also design simple and fast procedures for the handling of social affairs and all aspects of life and society.
Much of the suffering we inherit is a product of inequality in the distribution of wealth, resources and opportunity; social, economic and cultural discrimination; poor governance; corruption unabated by an environment of impunity; and an attitude of indifference and apathy.
As I see it, these ills of our society are manifestations of self-interest, self-centeredness and self-absorption. They are manifestation to the existing culture of bluntness in upholding what is right and fighting what is wrong. They are embodiments of the disintegrating moral fabric of our society.
To eliminate our country from the evils that grip it, we need to transcend self-interest to promote public interest, transform self-centeredness to other positive orientates, and translate self-absorption to acts of service and responsibility to others. We need a moral force to thrust us out of complacency, to sharpen our basic sense of right and wrong, and to move us to mend the wear and tear, moral fabric of our society.
Transformational leaders, whose moral compass points towards goals higher than themselves and whose vision encompasses the greater whole and not only the narrow interests of oneself and a few, ought to govern our people. With courage, leaders should place moral principles at the center of setting goals, making decisions, choosing strategies, and carrying out plans of action. Moral courage in leadership means doing what is right and accepting its consequences. “Leadership is a way of life, and a courageous life is the life worth living.”
A transformational kind of leadership raises the standard of leadership. It unleashes the potential of followers, develops them, and allows them to see from a higher level, which in turn, allows them to raise their expectations of their leaders. The task of the leader is to build people to be taller than themselves, for them to stand on another’s shoulders, not to outdo or outrank the other, but to see further beyond into uncharted seas and discover out-of-the-box solutions to age-old problems such as grinding poverty, corruptions, crimes etc.
The standard of leadership depends not only on the qualities and on beliefs of our leaders, but also on the expectations we have of them.
I hope that Najib and his team can inspire, motivate and energize Malaysian to trust, support and work with their government. Recognizes and brings out the best in our people as partners in development.
“We do not hold outcomes in our hands, but we certainly hold in ourselves what we can do. We will not achieve the ideal, but that is not an excuse not to commit to it. We can commit to strive to do things better than we did yesterday and hope for a better tomorrow”.
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