Dear Mr. Harper

Dear Mr. Harper:

I was raised by liberal Muslim parents. I realized long time ago that Islam is a religion rooted in barbaric past and is associated with profanity, hatred and oppression. My realization compelled me to renounce Islam when I was 23. In last 35 years my opinion did not change, rather it was consolidated. I chose to become a citizen of so that my daughter may grow up in a free and egalitarian society. I hate the concept behind Niqab and Hijab. When I see a woman wearing these pieces of clothing, it makes me very sad.

Having said all these, I strongly believe in personal freedom and freedom of choice. I will never try to persuade a woman to relinquish her right to whatever way she wants to dress.

ISIS is forcing women to wear Niqab, if I could, I would definitely be confronting ISIS in a battlefield. I am longing to see the day when these insane murders and rapists are totally eliminated from the face of the earth, not only ISIS but other bigots like Talibans and Boca Haram etc.

As a Canadian Citizen ( and a Canadian Citizen not under your definition of a tier II citizen , as inferred in the new two tier citizenship law), I want to ask you how you differentiate yourself from ISIS when you say you will compel the female civil servants ( who chose niqab as a part of their dress codes) to give up their choice of how to dress. In my opinion that is oppression and you will be violating the universal charter of human rights. If I give you the benefit of doubt that you actually don’t believe in what you are saying and only saying it to win the election, that makes you a worse person in my eyes.

Mentors as Leaders

The word mentor originates from Greek, actually more interestingly from Greek Mythology. The word literally means “wise advisor” and it was the name of the advisor of Telemachus, son of Odysseus. Odysseus placed Mentor in charge of his son when he left for the Trojan War. Mentor guided Telemachus through his adversities, showing him the ways to rule and defend a besieged Kingdom while Odysseus was fighting a ruthless war and later when he was wandering around the seas setting about his many adventures.

When Athena called on Telemachus she assumed the identity of Mentor to hide herself from the suitors of Telemachus’s mother Penelope. As Mentor, the goddess inspired Telemachus to meet the suitors fairly and fully. She also encouraged him to embark on a voyage and go abroad to find out what happened to his father.
So if I am an entrepreneur or a business owner and need help from somebody like Mentor, what quality or attributes should I look for in that person ? Wisdom and commitment are the two words that flash through my brain immediately. But wisdom is hard to define and even harder to find, commitment will only be gaged at a later stage of the relationship.

I have an alternative approach. I will open a dialogue with the potential mentor, rather than interviewing the person. That’s a great way to assess the communication skill of the person, another essential quality of a mentor. I will start an engaging but discreet discussion about leadership qualities. Two types of leadership qualities are essential for a good mentor, thought leadership and change leadership.

Thought leadership is about ideas. Not just any ideas but more of informed opinions about innovative concepts in a particular area of expertise that can be replicated in to bricks and mortar projects. It takes years to form this kind of qualities. The thought leaders are capable of turning ideas into realities and inspire the followers to work towards their dreams. The thought leaders usually have a wide network that they can tap for specialized solutions or expert advice ( nobody has the answers to all the questions you may have and a Thought Leader will always admit what he or she does not know or have an answer for), a large following and connections they can use to resolve a specific issue. All these are opportunities for the mentee.

Just recently, Daniel Rasmus provided this definition of Thought Leadership as:

"Thought leadership should be an entry point to a relationship. Thought leadership should intrigue, challenge, and inspire even people already familiar with a company. It should help start a relationship where none exists, and it should enhance existing relationships."

Daniel Rasmus spent years in the corporate world and was involved in the development process of Thought Leaders for large corporations. He developed 10 golden rules 'that can elevate thought leadership". The readers are encouraged to find him on the web.

Thought Leaders as your mentor will seldom come up with ground breaking ideas, but the ideas you should expect from your Leader should be unique, useful and almost always reflective of the past experience of the leader. The Thought Leader should be able to extrapolate from his or her own experience to shape a unique solution for the follower.

When goddess Athena visited Telemachus in the disguise of the mentor, she gave him two advices, to stand up against the suitors of his mother and then to go abroad to find his father. None of these ideas seems to be brilliant or dazzling. Rather they are down to earth, pragmatic and probably the only solutions to end his woes. At the same time both the solutions required a great deal of courage and resolve on the part of Telemachus. In the same way your mentor should be able to encourage and support you to make difficult decisions and guide you through the path to reach a solution.

Now a little bit about Change Leadership. As humans most of us consciously resist change. It's true for individuals and groups of individuals in an organizational set up. We like the status quo for the reason that we are familiar with the situations and circumstances in a status quo. Any kind of change takes us in to unchartered territory. Unless you have an explorer in you, it is painful. We try to forget that the world around us is changing continuously. In the last 20 years the developments in technology have made the rate of change in our environment exponential. It is a tricky situation for most of the people, there is no way out for a person particularly a business owner or entrepreneur to embrace the change. On the other hand the process may either be a disaster or a reward. The change leaders guide people through the process so that the process is as painless as possible and at the same time the follower is rewarded through the process rather than suffering a disastrous loss.

It is always advantageous for a business to be proactive rather than reactive to changes. The ideal situation for a business owners when he or she becomes the driver of the change model.
There are three types of changes businesses usually go through:

1. Developmental Change
2. Transitional Change
3. Transformational Change

The developmental change is the simplest and desirable, where the transformational change is the most complex and difficult to handle. The Transformational Change can be compared to the legend of Phoenix rising from the ashes. If a business integrate Developmental Change as a part of it's business processes, probably it will never have to go through the painful process of Transformational Change where a possible scenario is the demise of the business. The mentor should be able to work with the business owners to determine when and what changes are necessary at the current stage of business, whether it is the people, processes, new products and services or finding a new ways to do business.
Change Management is always a stressful process and the business owners need a lot of hand holding during the process. The business owner will expect compassion, advice and guidance from the mentor during these stages. There are technical aspects of the change the mentor may not be competent to help with, but in a specialized niche the mentor will have contacts to deal with the change requirements.

A Leader at the Crossroad

 

 

 

A Leader at the Crossroad

 

 

 

A leader arrives at crossroads more often than other people. In today's world of complexities, political uncertainties and volatile economic conditions making a decision for a country, an organization or a group of followers has become extremely difficult. All leaders are human and at a crossroad the first reaction of humans is ambivalence. The leaders go through that phase at the time of taking a direction or choosing between two strategies. However, for a leader, this phase of ambivalence is short. A leader will quickly get out of this phase and start reflecting. For a true leader "End never justifies the means". It is always a moral dilemma for a leader to choose between success and the well being of the followers. Despite all these difficult situations, when a leader arrive at a crossroad, he or she must act decisively and quickly. So the leaders decision will be strategic, based on solid moral grounds and ultimately work towards the best interest of his or her followers. Sometimes a leader will have to choose the "road never taken" hoping that will "make all the difference."

 

Bayezid Farooque
bayezid.farooque@gmail.com

647-528-1586



Nonviolent Revolution

 

 

 

 

 

Nonviolent Revolution

 

I came across an interesting point of view today. Somebody told me (in the radio) that Revolutions are always (inherently) non violent. I would like to believe that is true. What do you think?

bayezid.farooque@gmail.com

 

Conflict withThe Boss

So your Boss does not like you and you are probably going through the most miserable phase of your life. Is there anything you can do about it or is it preferable to maintain -the status quo?

You will do nothing about the situation if and only if you have made up your mind to leave the organization. That is the last resort. So before making the ultimate decision consider the following:

• Are you a good performer ?
• Do you have adequate knowledge to perform the tasks you are assigned to ?
• Is there at least one person in the organization at a level higher than your boss you know ?
• Does he or she like you ?
• Do you like the culture at your current workplace ?
• Do you like your job ?
• Until, the relationship deteriorated, were you satisfied with your growth ?

If the answer to all the above questions is " yes," it is definitely not the time to consider resignation.
Now since you want to give it another try, what are the next steps ?You will have do a root cause analysis. Why he or she does not like you. How did it start? Does he or she have a favourite?
Go through a brain storming session. If you have very close friends amongst your peers, brainstorm with them. Otherwise take a piece of paper and a pencil and write down the possible reasons.

If the relationship with your boss went south following a certain event or a series of events, write them down and then think if there were alternative ways to handle those situations. If you had become confrontational during those situations and you hurt his or her pride/ego, it may be a good idea to request an one on one meeting with your boss and discuss the issues as well as the remedies. If there are some of your personality traits that your boss does not like, explain your behaviour and if you think you will be able to change some or a part of your personality tell him or her that you will change. If an apology is in order, go ahead and apologize.

If the above situation does not apply to you, directly but politely ask your boss why she or he is not happy. Ask him or her what you can do that will improve the situation. Try to work out a plan with your boss, set specific targets and timeline. If two of you agree to a plan, you will have to work hard to achieve the targets.

If your boss is playing favourite, you need to analyze your colleague, what he or she is doing to please your boss. If that person is just apple polishing and you don't have the taste to do the same, don't do that. Simply try to outperform your colleague in every possible way, it will take a little time but your problem will go away. However if that other person is doing certain things better compared to your performance in those areas, it's time to roll up your sleeves and catch up with your competitor or even outperform him or her.

Finally your boss may just be jerk, none of the above will work in that situation. In large organization there are ways to elevate the issues and find a solution. You may take it to your boss's supervisor, the HR manager, or if your organization has an Ombudsperson you may want to approach him or her. From my experience in the corporate world, I can tell you that probability of success in using these formal channels is around 50%. It will largely depend on organizational politics, how strong your boss is in the organization and how powerful his or her connections are.

However, if you can provide with concrete evidence that the way your boss is dealing with you is unethical and wrong, driven by vested interest or simply a result of nepotism your chances of success will be much higher. So try to gather those evidences, look at the email exchanges with your boss and see if you can find a disconnect and use them as evidence. During the time of confrontations, documentation of your and the adversaries actions are very important. So whenever you are complying with any of your boss's instructions confirm it through an email. If possible copy your boss's supervisor and other stakeholders. If you don't agree with your boss on certain issues, send her or him emails and explain your stand on the issues and suggest your solutions and again copy as many stakeholders as possible. Never become confrontational in your correspondences, you should project yourself as a solution provider not a crusader.

Finally do not forget that your life is not confined within the four walls of your company, there is a wide open world outside the organization. You will never run out of options because you have the ability to create options for yourself.

Bayezid Farooque
bayezid.farooque@gmail.com

 

647-528-1586