LEADERS ARE CREATED, NOT BORN

The above is a tagline of a training course on leadership (and other corporate aspects) in which I am participating. It is really a slendid course sponsored by my employer and contain participants from local & multinational organizations. I was amazed to see that the local concerns are spending much on automation and training to bring professionalism into their affairs. The trainer is a competent Bangladeshi professional who has extensive practical knowledge in many of the industries. We are learning to look at every problem positively and ways to develop leadership qualities.

Leaders are driven by visions rather than dreams (like some of our politicians). A vision is a dream with required actions to make it a reality. We have learnt about team building and managing team members. A leader conquers the mind of his/her team members and guide them towards the objective. He replaces the word I with we and mean it.

Although aimed for the corporate sector , I find that this training is also applicable to our politicians who lacks these qualities. You can assess the requirement from the following. The growth and development of Bangladesh so far is contributed by the local entrepreneurs, ngos and some multinationals. It is the local entrepreneurs of garments factories who worked hard towards quality and speed to clinch the international market. It is the local manufacturers who produced world class batteries, lights and medicine to export them to other countries after catering domestic needs. The ngos have done extensive work on changing the socities and bettering the lives of the have-nots. The government is only backing up afterwards but did not intiate any of this. These private organisations had understood the potentials of human resources and provided them training to thrive towards there visions. If the political leaders had the qualities, they could lead Bangladesh to another level.

I was also pleased to learn that now a days there are many private universities coming up to create leaders for tomorrow. BRAC University has a vision to be the best University in the region in five years. They have a two month long offsite program for the students, which trains them in communications and basic etiquettes. Surely these will make good use of the abundance of our human resources and build our future leaders to steer our country towards prosperity.

The training schedules have made my life very hectic as I had to squeez my regular official and family commitments. Still I could manage time for this & this. I did not break down under pressure. From the training I have learnt to be positive. Leaders are created, not born.