How Leaders Influence without Authority - Mr. Naeemuddin Syed (Group Director Projects, Geo News)

      Our Leadership class of MBA has to be the most interactive and informative one. In almost every class, our great teacher Sir Shiraz Ahmed invites a guest speaker who is a leader in his or her field of work so that we students can learn from his experiences. On February 15th, 2020 the guest speaker was Mr. Naeem who is a well-known media personality. He holds an experience of good 25 years in the field of media. He is currently working with Geo News and his prior experiences have been with credible media channels including BOL, Express-News, and Dawn. Having such an honorable personality among us was only a great achievement and blessing. 

   

 Mr.Naeem talked about leadership and what it means to him. He gave us the example of the Perfect Man to ever walk on this beautiful planet, none other than Prophet Mohammad PBUH which is no surprise to any of us as many times the same example has been given to us by our amazing teacher Sir Shiraz himself. If we get to talk about leadership then I believe we learn all the valuable traits from the personality of our Prophet who lead by great example, to the point where his enemies would praise his leadership skills and characteristics. Mr.Naeem focused on two basic traits that a leader has which were: honesty and selflessness - a good leader is a person with credibility and he walks the talk, his words reflect in his actions and that makes him a man with profound character. He deals with work ethically and when it comes to his followers, a leader is selfless. He thinks about others first but with empathy and kindness. He is not short-tempered and abusive, in fact, he deals with every situation very patiently. Our beloved Prophet PBUH had all these qualities in himself and therefore, in the world of leadership, his name tops the list as the most influential man in the history of mankind.

      Moreover, Mr. Naeem shed some light on his struggles in finding the right leadership. For many years he tried to understand his former colleague's attitude and leadership style who did not believe in employee engagement and inclusiveness. He would never value the opinions and perspectives of his employee which became a reason for his downfall. The company replaced him with another CEO who adopted exactly opposite methods of leading and under his leadership, he brought his company on 4th rank all the way from 12th. Leaders who are inadequate do not last for a longer period of time. Another thing which was discussed in the class was how leaders should be always high on emotional intelligence and should not lack empathy by any means. A good leader is also a good listener, he or she always listens to what his teammates and coworkers have to say and what their issues are. All in all, the entire session revolved around leadership skills and how learning is a two-way street. The speaker was very enthusiastic, energetic and motivated. Overall, it was a great session and we learned a lot from him. Thanks to Sir Shiraz for constantly moving us by making us meet real leaders.