“The office is neither a prison nor a club” said
Prof.Hassan Abbasher El Tayeb during his presentation to a packed audience at
Hotel Salam Rotana on 28 October on the topic ‘The Human Side of the
Organization’. The event was under the banner of British Council Management
Forum, a platform for people to discuss the most challenging current issues in business
and management with top international experts every month.
Professor
Hassan Abbasher EL Tayeb has 25 years of experience in the areas of Management
Development and Public Administration where he worked as Secretary General at
the Arab Council for Childhood and Development in Cairo, and was the Advisor-
Development Administration and Manpower Planning Ministry of Civil Service in
Oman, State Minister for Development and Administration in Sudan, and currently
is the President of Eltayeb for Management, Economic Consulting and Training.
Professor Hassan has published 12 books and over 60 papers in the fields of
Administrative Reform, Human Resources Development and Executive Leadership.
Prof. Hassan emphasized on Systems in any organization
for effective and efficient management.”Systems” he said “have Interdependence,
interrelatedness, integration and high value and degree of coordination and
cooperation to achieve the total goals”. He added that Systems learn and Systems
have memory. Systems are run by the Human Side of the Organizations.
The Human Side of the Organizations is dependent on
Effective Leadership which should be a model to influence the people. The
characteristics that are found in effective leadership are Vision and
Imagination; Tolerance; Positive Values; Commitment; Simplicity and Sense of
Humor. An effective leader performs three functions: Homeostatic function- keeping
things moving; Adaptive function- changing and bringing about change; Proactive
function- thinking of the future. He stated that the Malaysian state head was
asked about the three things he did which brought phenomenal growth of the
nation. The state head replied that he did only one thing and that was to make
people think of the future. Prof.Hassan sadly remarked that the people in Sudan
have been thinking only of the past.
Talking further on leadership, Prof.Hassan drove home the
point that an effective leader needed to practice all four styles of leadership
namely Autocratic, Parental, Democratic and Lasses faire depending on the
situation. He gave examples of office situations when there is a fire in the
office, the leader needs to be autocratic in giving instructions to his people.
When an earlier performer lags behind in performance the leader needs to be
parental to understand the reasons. When a budget has to be prepared one needs
to be democratic and call concerned people to work together. When systems go
wrong one need to practice Lasses faire and detach oneself from the
organization and review the situation for solutions.
Above all, Prof.Hassan emphasized on the HUMAN TOUCH in effective management with his mnemonic – Hear (listen),Understand,
Motivate, Acknowledge, News-
congratulate one who make news, Train,
Open his eyes by telling him when he
is wrong, Uniqueness – make use of people’s
uniqueness, Contact- stay in touch with people, Honor- and treat them with honor.
Prof.Hassan had both substance and style in his
presentation. His style was kinesthetic, moving, interacting and making the
audience participate with activities. But his uniqueness was his sense of
humor. His local Sudanese jokes from his experiences in life were much
appreciated and received great applause.
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