Introduction
Leadership is a serious task that usually people in the business industries risk to take. How is this true? First, to become a business owner, one has to become a leader in his own way. This characteristic of courage and determination in helping others succeed through the existence of a helping organization is only a part of the big scope of leadership. Certainly, a closer look on the situation would help readers understand the main idea that the author of this paper would like to portray.
Most likely, the essence of leadership gets successful along with the capability of an individual to govern. Being a leader consequently means being able to govern a certain group of people in doing something worthwhile and practically applicable for the situation of the society. Hence, it could be noted that leaders are never born. Instead, they are made. The skills and the attitudes towards work that the present leaders of the current human society have is what make this people prominent enough to be known by other through their leadership capabilities.
Naturally, a leader then is expected to address to the outmost important needs of the people that he governs upon. Political as it may seem, as a leader is someone people would look up to, he has to have the capability of understanding and providing what other people need. Yes, through the picture of leadership outlined herein, it could be concluded that becoming a real leader requires effort and enough determination not only to succeed as an individual but also to succeed as a part of a growing and developing society.
A Focus on Yunus’ Views on Leadership
A) Quadrant 1: Learning
Mohammed Yunus is an Economics instructor who worked within the territories of Bangladesh during the mid 70’a. The need for reformation on the part of the economic situation of the said country during those times was indeed dreadful. Yunus’ observation of the situation even made him conclude that the teaching of economic progress to such a society would not mean anything at all since the situation of the said society is undeniably unrelated to any economic progress yet. Many, among those that he taught were merely sent by some illiterate parents to school. Getting even at least the basic education is a hard aim for many parents out there; however, they try their best to at least get any education available with hopes of actually progressing better in the future. On the contrary, simply educating the young ones could not do all the needed changes. It is according to Yunus, deeper efforts of changing the society are needed. A closer look on the economic system of the country would indeed help and a careful plan of the monetary distribution among the poor should then be created. Yunus have made the said move of making a change in the poor society of Bangladesh. He took the lead in making it possible for people in the said country to at least have a taste of what progress really is.
As a primary step toward progress, Yunus saw the possibility of using credit and loans given to the poor from the Grameen bank a stepping-stone for the planned economic change in Bangladesh. It is through the credit system that the poor ones would be able to create their own micro-entrepreneurial organizations that could help them progress in their lives as well. Although most of the poor sectors of the Bangladesh society are illiterate, they have skills that would help them get through their daily activities in taking care of small businesses. Hence, though some people doubted the success of this plan, at the end, most of those who took advantage of the situation and the offered help form the bank were soon rewarded from their hard works and patience. The next step was to produce literate generation that follows the old generation of the said country. Doing so would be much like investing on the future generation of the country. The offering of scholarship loans to students, especially to those who have promising talents and skills in the field of industry became one of the main victories of the said plan. Producing more literate generation for the future of Bangladesh would indeed ensure the country of continuous progress in terms of economy and social systems as well.
Last but not he least in importance was the helping of the beggars. There were to many beggars in Bangladesh as Yunus reported in his claims. To be able to reduce the number of beggars in the streets, the introduction of retailing and ‘buy and sell’ systems have been proposed and applied later on. The system evolved in a way that beggars are supported by the group of Yunus to ask several grocery stores to lend them a two thousand worth of products, which they would sell to others. Upon being able to sell the products, the beggars would pay the debt back to the grocery owners. If in case the beggars would not be able to come up with the amount that is needed to pay the products, the group of Yunus would then shoulder the debt. This was obviously attractive to grocery owners.
B) Quadrant 2: Mastery
From the plans and the applications of the programmed processes of progress in Bangladesh, the economy of the said country improved gradually. Today, Bangladesh is among the countries having large companies on mobile industry. Yes, through the present situation of the country, it could be observed that indeed, the hardships of Yunus and his group in helping the country grow in an economic stability paid off in the end. This experience of Yunus reminds people to realize that nothing would ever be accomplished unless someone tries to take the lead in making the change. Normally, the changes that a true leader should want to apply in the society would be those that would benefit the majority of the people within the target society. Yes, it is according to Yunus that the aim of doing what is good for others and the act of creating possibilities of progress in the lives of the majority of the society’s population is the main idea that makes up a real leader. This indeed is a challenge for everyone wanting to become successful business and social leaders of the present generation. Certainly, since the businesses today are mostly focused on the monetary gains, creating non-profit organizations that would rather cater to the needs of the society than that of the needs and wants of the greedy individuals who does business for the sake of monetary gains is a great challenge that needs to be faced.
C) Quadrant 3: Practice
As the present human society advances to being economically global, the need for governance especially on commercial business organizations is heightened. Hence, there are necessary points of consideration when good governance is being talked about.
As mentioned in Yunus’ article on helping the poor cope with economic progress, governance is a way by which a person would be able to apply his idealisms about the poor and thus do something about their situation. A person’s ability to change things for the better is the true evidence of good governance.
As for Yunus’ experience, right motivation have made it possible for him to become a fine leader that lead to him to making possible changes to the poor society of Bangladesh. At first, leadership has been opened to him through the doors of politics. However, he further progressed on his own field, which is banking. As a leader, Yunus made it a point that he is able to provide for those who are in dire need of his help through the programs that he created along with the bank that he has established for the sake of the poor ones. At this point, Grameen bank has carried a reputation of being the Bank for the Poor. The opportunities of business that the bank offers to the poor sector of the Bangladesh society is indeed a great break for those people who have high hopes in creating their own entrepreneurial organization yet having less the financial support needed for establishing one. As it could be observed through the history of the economical standing of Bangladesh, the Grameen bank has so much to do with whatever progress the Bangladesh community has made with regards their economy so far.
D) Quadrant 4: Sustainability
Ethics, according to the New Mindsets, is a way by which one puts himself upon the shoe of others as the role of stakeholders and thus see the situation through the eyes of those who are directly affected by the occurrences in the society 3. this is the main aspect that has moved Yunus in creating a way by which the situation of the poor would be dealt with carefully through his own capability of doing so.
Conclusion
Leadership is something that is greatly needed by the human society today. With all the critical situations that the humans are confronted with, especially poverty, the need for a strong willed leader is essential for the progress of the entire society. Behind all the progress that commerce and technology has been incurring during the past centuries in the human history could not cover up the fact that as the society becomes more industrialized, the larger population of the society remains within the verge of poverty. Yes, as seen from this experiential analysis of the leadership achievement of the banker-economist Mohammed Yunus, it could be noted that progress away from poverty is not impossible to attain. With the application of effort and cooperation from the main stakeholders of the progress plan then the success of such social movement for the poor would be much expected.
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