Leadership in Islam by Nezar Faris & Mohamad Abdalla

Author:Nezar Faris & Mohamad Abdalla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

Connecting with People

One of the main factors for manifesting positive leadership is to connect with followers at the grassroots level. At one of the attended events, many attendees, including followers, did not know their leaders. This unfamiliarity with leaders makes it difficult for followers to accept messages from their ‘leaders’ and complicates the process of getting work done. One young Muslim leader said, “To make change , leaders have to be part of the people, encourage them, talk to people and be humble about it, approach others, and get down to their level.” For him, this is the recipe for success in getting leaders’ messages across and to effect change in their organizations. This feeling was widely reflected in the data.

Leaders who interact with people can make a difference because they connect with the followers (who may feel disadvantaged). By interacting with people, leaders get more people involved and work toward a common purpose. Relationships and connections with followers point to effective leadership and can result in collective organizational success. Without close attachment to people, leadership has neither influence over people nor over the processes of organizing (George 2003; Kouzes and Posner 2010; McKee et al. 2008; Quinn 2011; Thomas 2008).

This grassroots approach can help leadership gather useful feedback from followers, which can assist in the implementation of suitable and effective policies . Engagement through meaningful activities was a common theme from our participants , and should be considered seriously by any Islamic leadership models.

Interviewees talked about the state of isolation of leaders from the Islamic community, followers and subordinates at different levels. Connecting is the opposite of isolation . One local organization leader said, “We need the leaders to come down from the palace up there to the grassroots of our society.” Connecting with people at the grassroots level, leaders and their organizations can bring ‘new blood’ to positions of leadership, a younger generation who can be trained and be able to take over when the current leaders leave. One respondent stated, “…it is not an easy task for the old generation who have spent many years in formal leadership positions to go” but close attachment will allow them to make this self-renewal a part of their vision for the long term.

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