Complete The report
Leadership Interview
With Mr. Haitham Arafat , General Manager, Abdul Hameed Almuttawa Sons Group Company
1) A typical day at work is always full of challenges in terms of giving new tasks and assignments to my team and solving daily issues and planning for the future of the company.
2) In all my years of leadership, I can hardly recall a time when I was not dealing with an issue relating to poor attitude, low productivity , low motivation, the habit of negative talk, unprofessional behavior, slowness to move, and the unwillingness to change. However, I consider leadership as a learned behavior that becomes unconscious and automatic over time. For example, leaders can make several important decisions about an issue in the time it takes others to understand the question.
I once had to handle a conflict between two managers that reported to me and were always in constant poor attitude and negative talk toward each other, and my challenge was to get them to work together in one project that was so strategic and important to the future growth of the company. After several negative encounters I was finally able to get them to work as a team and make them understand each other differences and eventually rely on each other's strength to accomplish all the critical tasks of the project.
3) I tried to make them share their perspectives and points of view, and continuously communicating my expectations from each one of them . I also understood their mindsets, capabilities and areas for improvement and I used this knowledge to challenge them to think and stretch to reach for more and better results. Eventually, they came to the conclusion that they have to think as a team and support each other to reach our company common goal.
4)The most challenging part of being a leader is to be able to able to make a decision about any specific issue, to be able to handle a conflict between employees and to be able to balance authority with friendship and avoid favoritism.
5) My subordinates describe my leadership style as coaching. They always call me as coach.
6) My decisions are most of the times based on factual findings and full numerical analysis. However, there are times when I have to rely on my “gut-feel” , specially ,when making difficult decisions at a moment’s notice
7) Power at work will depend on the leader style of management . I tend to gain power at work with the high degree of technical knowledge and experience that I posses.
8) To be an effective leader , you must first learn how to be a good listener. You must listen to the voice of your employees, and customers and translate their concerns to an effective action plan with deadlines.
