Allah’s blessings, parents’ prayers, humility, love for people and continuous learning are some of the key ingredients of a leader’s success,” said Dr. Mustafa Al Sayed before an audience of 70+ Bahraini future banking leaders who were invited as participants of various Waqf Fund grooming programs.

Dr. Al Sayed delivered a presentation on modern management systems. He drew from his vast and diverse experience of managing leadership positions in multiple government organizations and quoted examples to emphasize the key lessons. He was speaking at the “Distinguished Leader” session organized by the Waqf Fund.

Khalid Hamad Al Hamad, Chairman of the Waqf Fund welcomed Dr. Al Sayed. He introduced him as a shining example of an accomplished Bahraini who started from scratch and worked hard to climb up from the bottom of the ladder to the very top. He called him a visionary and a successful leader who achieved great things working for several government organizations. He praised Dr. Al Sayed for his love of continuous learning and research.

Dr. Mustafa Al Sayed thanked the Waqf Fund for the invitation and delivered his presentation covering his career, accomplishments and leadership lessons. At the end of his speech he answered a number of questions from the audience.

The key takeaways from the session are as follows:

Modern management is a mixture of art and science. It requires good people management skills and scientific precision in evaluating business opportunities and making strategic decisions

The planning and implementation cycle consists of mission/vision, objectives, strategy, implementation and feedback

Creativity, the right organizational culture and motivated workforce are necessary for success

A society needs base level financial support for all its people; then education and economic development resulting in job and entrepreneurship opportunities complete the virtuous cycle for long term growth and stability

Management is usually task oriented, transactional and relies on authority; leadership is people-oriented, transformational and relies on others to follow the role model of the leader. Managers simply follow the rules; leaders think out of the box and take calculated risks to achieve their objectives

A successful team comprises of people that are creative, emotionally intelligent, cooperative, committed, have high ethical values, and have a development mindset

A team member’s mistakes may be forgiven but a deliberate disregard for laws and regulations must not be tolerated

Spending quality time with family and friends is key to achieving a balance between professional and personal lives

The Waqf Fund has been operating in Bahrain since 2006, serving the Islamic banking industry. Over the years it has launched several ground-breaking initiatives for its member institutions, their employees and the broader Islamic finance industry with the aim to develop the human resources engaged in Islamic finance.

Source: Bahrain News Agency