Ethical Leadership: Guest talk by Dr. Irfan Hyder (Dean CBM)

IOBM’s experiential learning agenda set for 2015 MBA program is definitely progressing by leaps and bounds. Adding further to the cause, another invaluable guest speaking session was held which was conducted by Prof. Dr. Irfan Hyder, Dean CBM and CES at IOBM, for the class “Transformational and Ethical Leadership”, facilitated by Mr. Shiraz Ahmed. The topic of the lecture was “Ethical Leadership”.

While students were being called for attendance, Dr. Irfan Hyder was planning on what and how to speak on “Ethical Leadership”. It took him only seven minutes. The lecture, hence started, as a small talk.

“Ek ha Ghalib, Aur ek ha Iqbal” and the lecture started with these words. For me these words were the initials (topic) of the lecture. As a keen listener and observer, I knew it instantly that this lecture is going to be insightful and fun. It seems that academic leaders like Prof. Dr. Irfan Hyder himself just can’t get enough of Iqbal and Ghalib. I have rarely attended any leadership lectures in which the speakers would not mention Iqbal or Ghalib in their speeches. It is almost ritualistic among the fraternity of academic leaders to praise Iqbal right after they have adequately praised Almighty Allah and His Prophet, Mohammad (P.B.U.H).

By the way, “Iqbal versus Ghalib” is what he meant by what he said. A brief comparison of their poetry - Ghalib is all about the present while Iqbal, the dreamer, is all about the future. Ghalib is all about inner feelings of human while Iqbal is about the outer feelings. Ghalib is about individual conscience while Iqbal is about collective conscience. Ghalib is about emotional intelligence while Iqbal is about Intellectual intelligence. Ghalib is about emotional expression while Iqbal is about intellectual expression and Ghalib is all about ethics while Iqbal is all about leadership, gradually and eventually Dr. Hyder approached the topic “Ethical Leadership” and started off with the definition of leadership through an extract from Iqbal’s poetry.

“Nigah Buland, Sukhan Dil Nawaz, Jaan Pursouz
Ye hi Hai Rakht-e-Safar Mir-e-Karwan Ke Liye”

This extract from Iqbal’s poetry identifies the characteristics of a leader which are:

1.  High Ambition (Nigah Buland) - far sightedness, the dream and the vision.
2. Winsome Speech (Sukhan Dil Nawaz) – access to the hearts of the people through speech.
3. Passionate Soul (Jaan Pursouz) – the fire in the heart, the integrity and ability to feel pain of the others.

And this is all the luggage that the leader of a Caravan carries.

Another beautiful stanza from Iqbal’s poetry was shared by Dr. Irfan Hyder which was:

“Sabaq Phir Parh Sadaqat Ka, Adalat Ka, Shujaat Ka
Liya Jaye Ga Tujh Se Kaam Dunya Ki Imamat Ka"

This piece of literature exclusively identifies the discipline which one must train for which are:

1. Truth (Sadaqat)
2. Justice (Adalat)
3. Valor (Shujaat)

And such person would be asked to take responsibility for the world’s functioning.

Another beautiful poetry worth mentioning is of Bahadur Shah Zafar which is as follows:

“Zafar admi us ko na janiye ga ho wo kaisa he sahib-e-fehm-o-zaka,
jisae aish mai yad-e-Khuda na rahi, jisae taish mai khauf-e-Khuda na raha”

This extract refers to another quality of a leader which says that never to acknowledge anyone no matter how wise, gentle or intelligent he may seem to be. If he forget his lord when he is in lust and when is unafraid of his lord when he is in anger, he is neither wise nor intelligent. And the highest degree of courage is to control your anger.

The Iqbal centric lecture was on its midway when Dr. Irfan hyder decided to make it further interesting by sharing his personal experience with students and his journey so far. This discussion was full of humor, sarcasm, inspirational quotes, cheerful anecdotes, jokes, laughter, funny instances and the lessons learned during the course. In other words the discussion was lively and cheerful.

Dr. Irfan hyder life journey is not straight forward. It has edgy turns, ups and downs, good and bad times but it is full of invaluable experiences as Dr Irfan said, “… and Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you wanted”. To summarize, Dr Irfan wanted to tell us that whatever we plan for our future is of little importance. Life is uncertain. No matter how intricate or detailed our planning may be, we are always vulnerable to surprises and changes. Good times do not last for long and bad times will inevitably and eventually vanish. However one quality of emergency is that it comes in group. Hence once must maintain enough stock for bad times.

Life is not straight not because it’s the way you want it to be but because life is inherently probabilistic. Dr Irfan hyder described this phenomena putting his life as an example where initially he opted Electronic engineering as his discipline of choice, went straight for an MBA from IBA, than MS from USA in the field of computer sciences and then he did his phd. From a young engineer to a software house owner, from a tutor to university professor and a school’s principle. None of it was on his to-do-list when he started his journey but as he mentioned, “The journey of thousand miles starts with a single step”. He took every opportunity that life offered and rest is history.

To sum up, there were many lessons for the listeners. A brief summary is as follows.

• Always fulfil your commitment. It seems petty but miss commitment is a grave sin and a highly disregarded act.
• Know thy self – Be self-aware, be self-conscious and be self-assessing.
• Be true to yourself. 
• Walk the talk.
• Practice what you preach.
• Reflect! Connect the dots and try to make sense out of your life.             

All in all the lecture was genuinely a treat in ramzan. Leadership from the lens Iqbal was very insightful. The importance of ethical leadership is enormous as Mr. Shiraz puts it, “if you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything”.