Personal change as a management tool
Columnist Javed Iqbal Shah analyses the importance of self-improvement in leadership.
“ The one who controls himself, controls others.”
[Anonymous]
In the contemporary world, the word ‘change’ has become
buzz-word. It is now-a-days fashionable to talk, sometimes even brag
about sweeping changes occurring around us. During the last few years,
markets have been hit by a number of best-sellers on this topic. Books
like Future Shock, The Third Wave, Preparing for the 21st Century and
Seven Habits of the Highly Effective People are some of the famous books
which tend to focus on the concept of change either on global and regional
level or on individual level. Even those of us, who have not read such
books, have been witness of a number of changes taking place in our villages,
towns, cities and countries, in ways of governance, in ways of judiciary’s
providing justice to common man, in ways of doing business, even in religious
thinking and practices. But, despite seeing and reading a lot about changes,
when someone advises us to change some of our habits, we look toward
him in disbelief and think, what is wrong with us?
This resistance to change indicates how reluctant we are to change ourselves.
However, when internal and/or external pressures for change keep on mounting,
most of us take refuge in either of the following ways:-
(a) That, there is no need for me to change myself since there aren’t
any changes taking place. The world is being run in the same old-fashioned
way as before.
(b) That, the contemporary changes are only cosmetic, they are not real,
and in any case, they are not going to affect life.
(c) That, these changes are only short-term. You will see that this entire
hullabaloo about “sweeping changes occurring around us” will
vanish like a bubble after a while.
Nonetheless, there are still a number of people who earnestly believe
that the world on the whole and we, on individual levels, are being affected
by a number of changes, good as well as bad, desirable as well as undesirable
and fast as well as slower ones. Now, the question arises: how should
we respond to changes? Depending on our perception of the nature of change,
its intensity, its potential to affect us, and on our ability or otherwise
to choose the best response, we could do any of the following alternatives:-
(a) We can choose to do nothing at all and adopt wait-n-see strategy.
(b) We can try to resist changes that we deem undesirable.
(c) We can accept the change as and when it comes, if we are convinced
that we cannot stop the tide of change.
(d) We can try to get ourselves prepared to face the ensuing changes
and think about our responses to them in a cool, calculated and responsible
manner.
How could we
affect the change?
There are several viewpoints with regard to our ability to influence
the change. Many of us believe that we can change this world by talking
about the change. More optimists of us think that the desirable changes
could be brought about by preaching and trying to change other people.
They earnestly believe that they can change others by convincing them
with their logical arguments. On the other hand, the pessimists just
hope that others would change automatically. A very small percentage
of people think that it is much better to change one before embarking
on to change the world. Still smaller percentage of them actually change
themselves. In the presence of so many techniques of bringing about the
changes in our environment, one wonders which technique or model should
one follow. Here, we can get guidance from the Holy Qur’an which
says:-
“ ...No doubt, Allah does not change the conditions of
a nation until [the people of that nation] first change that which is
in their hearts.”
[11, Ar-Ra’d, Surah XIII]1
If we study the above-quoted verse over and over again, the message
becomes quite clear, in that Allah, the Creator of man and the universe
guides that even He would not change the conditions of a nation until
the people change the things which are in their hearts. And, what is
usually in our hearts, is composed of emotions, thoughts, beliefs, etc.
Many scholars agree that nearly all of us tend to do what we believe.
For instance, many of us do not follow traffic rules because we believe
that others also do not or that other people won’t give us way.
Similarly, a large number of businessmen do not pay due taxes because
they believe that their tax money will either be misused by the government
or will reduce their wealth. Many of us do not pay zakat because we believe
that paying zakat will reduce our hard-earned incomes. A large number
of businessmen do not follow ethical practices while doing business because
they believe that it will not be beneficial and profitable for their
businesses. Similarly, we do not try to change ourselves because we believe
that it will be useless to change ourselves when rest of the world is
determined not to.
Despite all such negative beliefs, whenever, we discuss our problems,
of our country, problems of our cities and villages, we regret that positive
changes are not taking place in our part of the world. We tend to criticize
and blame everyone, starting from Prime Minister and President of Pakistan
to sweepers, for poor performance and lack of commitment to their jobs
but we do not bother to share our responsibility of failing to become
part of the solution of at least some of the problems. We wish to change
the world without taking pains to take the first step toward that end,
i.e., by starting changing ourselves. It is usually said that one who
cannot change oneself tries to change others.
A model of change
While searching for a model of change, let’s see how great people
changed the history of mankind. Were they born to lead and bring colossal
changes in their spheres of life or did they assume their respective
roles after years of hard work and self-discipline? In the following
paragraphs, we shall briefly revisit the lives of two great people to
know how they managed to achieve their laurels.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah
Born in a middle class family of traders, Jinnah disliked studies during
his earlier school days. This was one of the reasons that he sought the
permission of his father to leave the school and join his father’s
business instead. However, soon after coming into business, Jinnah felt
restlessness and decided again to begin his studies. After achieving
Bar-at-Law from England, he came back to India and started his legal
practice from Bombay. During his career as lawyer, Jinnah started gaining
prominence due to his truthfulness, uprightness and unique quality of
incorruptibility. His influence started spreading from local bodies to
national level and ultimately, he emerged as statesman of international
repute. At no point in Jinnah’s life do we see the phenomenon of
overnight prominence from a novice in Bombay to the founding father of
an independent Muslim state. The lesson from Jinnah’s life is very
clear: “You cannot change the world outside without first changing
the world inside you.”
Abdus Sattar Edhi
Abdus Sattar Edhi was born in a middle class business family in the
Indian state of Gujarat. He recalls his first exposure to charity and
service
to mankind by his mother in his autobiography. After independence,
his family migrated to Pakistan and settled in Mithadar, Karachi. Referring
to his study of lives of different great people like, the Holy Prophet,
Muhammad (SAW), Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Abuzar Ghaffari, Mohandas Gandhi
and many others, he says that he was usually inspired by the example
of the smallest action. Edhi himself started small. First, he worked
as a volunteer in a local dispensary. When he was forced to abandon
it,
he started his own 24-hour a day dispensary in a shop measuring eight
square feet. In initial days, he recalls telling himself like this:-
Personal Change
A MODEL OF CHANGE
Global change
National change
Social change
Organizational change
Familial change
“
Begin from the drains and gutters of Mithadar. Do not abandon the foundations,
even if digging them takes a lifetime, and filling them is not possible.
Pursue truth and excellence, give back solid work. No surface scraping,
no whitewash and most of all, no haste.” 2
Throughout his life, Edhi never displayed haste in achieving the stated
objectives of public welfare. At every juncture, he presented his own
example instead of preaching and coaxing others to follow. He cleaned
gutters with his own hands, went into the sewage lines to recover stinking
corpses, gave them a decent bath and funeral. The model of the Edhi’s
life highlights the struggle of a man who embarks on changing the existing
conditions by initiating the process from him. His work, which started
from a humble 8 sq. ft dispensary now boasts of a number of hospitals,
orphanages, helicopter ambulances, etc.
Apart from other common qualities of the great people, another phenomenon
common to their ‘journey to prominence and immense influence’ is
that all of them, first of all, worked on their own self. They changed
their own selves before embarking upon changing the people nearest to
them. After achieving tremendous self-control and self-discipline, they
influenced their family members, relatives and friends. Gradually, they
started expanding their circle of influence and were ultimately able
to shape the lives of millions of people. Even the lives of holy prophets
are no exception to this rule. They started their work from their own
self. They prepared themselves for the ensuing changes through divine
revelations. Then, they started influencing the people nearest to them.
After working a number of years within their small circles of influence,
they started expanding their circle of influence and consequently were
successful in changing the tide of the time. It appears that one cannot
find an individual who had succeeded in changing others without starting
the process of change from his or her own self. Therefore, a time proven
model of change, as depicted in the diagram on the next page, essentially
starts from personal change.3
In order to initiate change in one’s personal life, change in beliefs
is essential. Beliefs are formed by thoughts, therefore, any journey
toward change will start from one’s thought process. Regarding
primary role of thoughts in one’s life, Frank Otlaw says:-
Watch your thoughts, they become words
Watch your words, they become actions
Watch your actions, they become habits
Watch your habits, they become character
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny
[Frank Otlaw]4
Our view of self
Whether we would try to change ourselves or not, usually depends on our view
of self and our place in this universe. How do we see and judge ourselves and
the world around us, also depends on our social mirror and on opinions, perceptions
and paradigms of people around us. For instance, many of us tend to believe
that our personalities have been determined by a number of events or conditions.
Some of us think that our personalities have been pre-determined by our grandparents,
by our unique set of DNA and by heredity effect. Others perceive that our personalities
and way of thinking has been outcome of psychological/behavioural treatment
meted out to us by our parents, siblings, relatives and colleagues and by our
childhood experiences. A fairly large number of us attribute the make-up of
our personalities and behaviour to certain environmental factors like behaviour
of the boss, spouse, children, economic or social conditions, etc. No matter,
to which theory do we ascribe as solely responsible for our personality make-up,
one point emerges common: that, we, as human being, are largely determined
by other people [i.e., by grandparents, parents, siblings, spouse, relatives,
colleagues, bosses, children, etc] or by conditions beyond our control.
In other words, we tend to believe that in most of cases, we are helpless creatures.
In our lives, there has always been some stimulus to which we have been responding.
And, that is how we have become what we are today. Stephen Covey describes
such thinking as reactive model in his famous book, “The Seven Habits
of Highly Effective People”.5
Stimulus k Response
(Reactive Model)
Stimulus Freedom to Choose Response
Self Awareness Independent Wil
Imagination Conscience
If we fully subscribe to the above-stated model, then several questions
arise. Where is, then, the power of an individual to choose and select
his or her response? Does it also then imply that we, the so-called
supreme living specie of this universe are so helpless, moron and dependent?
If answers to the above-stated questions are in affirmative, then,
why is there a system of accountability in this world and hereafter?
The answer lies in the concept of proactivity as described by Covey.
Proactivity
Proactivity means that we are responsible for our lives. What we do,
is determined by our decisions, not by our conditions. We have the initiative
and responsibility to make things happen.6 The diagram on the next page
illustrates the process of proactivity in a more elaborate manner.
How much will we be able to determine our course of action, depends on
our own actions, our persistence and the type of problems. There are
some problems over which we have more control, for e.g., problems involving
our own behaviour. In such type of problems, we should be able to exert
maximum influence and have freedom in selecting our response. In case,
the problems involve behaviours of other people, our level of control
will decrease though we still will be able to exert some influence. There
are, however, some problems over which we have no control.
These problems have their roots in the past or in situational realities.
Each type of these problems need different sets of methods to solve them.
For instance, first type of problems may be solved by working positively
on our own selves, on our thoughts, on our actions, and on our habits.
In other words, we’ll have to give greater attention to our core
circle of influence where we have maximum control. We would have to devote
our maximum energies on changing our own selves, on changing our beliefs
and thoughts, on cultivating positive thoughts in our minds and then
on striving to convert those noble thoughts into meaningful actions.
Second type of problems, which involve behaviours of other people, could
be solved by changing our methods of influencing others. The scholars
of behavioural sciences agree that most of us cannot change others merely
by preaching and convincing others or by engaging in lengthy logical
discussions. However, one way of influencing others is acting on whatever
we like others to do. In Holy Qur’an, Allah guards us against adopting
dual character in the following ways:-
“
O’ you who believe, why say you that which you do not? It is the
most hateful in the sight of Allah that you say that which you do not.”
[2-3, As-Saff, Surah LXI]7
“
How is it that you enjoin others to follow the Right Way, but forget
it yourselves, even though you read the Scripture? Have you no sense
at all? Seek help with Sala’t and fortitude: no doubt, Sala’t
is a hard task but not for those obedient servants, who realize that
at last they shall meet their Lord and shall return to Him”
[44-46, Al-Baqarah, Surah II]8
Some of the methods, recommended by Stephen Covey,
to increase one’s
influence over indirect-control problems are as follows:- 9
(a) Empathizing rather than
confronting.
(b) Providing self-example rather than persuading or reasoning.
(c) Telling about the problem rather than arguing.
(d) Trying to see things from other people’s viewpoints also.
Despite having so much control in case of many problems, there’ll
be some problems over which we might have no control. Such types of problems
may be accepted peacefully. We’ll have to learn to live with these
problems even when we don’t like them. In this way, we do not empower
these problems to control us or consume our energies. Following prayer
might be of immense use while thinking about various types of problems
in our lives:-
“ Lord, give me the courage to change
the things which can and ought to be changed, the serenity to accept
the things which cannot be changed,
and the wisdom to know the difference.”
[The Alcoholics Anonymous Prayer]10
In nutshell, our role and endeavour in our lives ought to reflect our resolve to change and do whatever is in our capacity and capability. No doubt, there shall be failures and heart-burns, but if we are honest and persistent in our efforts, we are certainly going to achieve some success in our lives. Allah assures the rewards for good deeds in the following verse:-
“That man can have nothing but what he
strives for.”
[39, An-Najm, Surah LIII]11
Practical Guidelines
for Personal Change
There are many good or bad things which we usually do just because of
our habits. Therefore, we need to give more time toward making good habits
and shedding off the bad ones. In respect of bringing about the positive
changes in ourselves and make our lives more happy and meaningful, following
guidelines are suggested:-
In a nutshell, our role and endeavour in our lives ought to reflect our
resolve to change and to do whatever is in our capacity and capability.
No doubt, there will be failures and heartburns, but if we are honest
and persistent in our efforts, we are certainly going to achieve success
sooner or later. Allah Subhana-wa Ta’ala assures the reward for
good deeds in the following verse of Holy Qur’an:-
“ That man can have nothing but what he strives for.”
[39, An-Najm, Surah LIII]
References
1Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of
the Holy Qur’an [New
Delhi: Surya Print Process, 1993], p. 183
2Tehmina Durrani (Compiler), Edhi, A Mirror to the Blind [Islamabad:
National Bureau of Publications, 1996], pp 88-89.
3Faiez H. Seyal, “Managing Change in the 21st Century: A Proven
Approach” presented in the Business Leadership Seminar-97 held
on 15-16 December, 1997.
4Ibid.
5Stephen R. Covey, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People [Lahore:
Combine Printers (Pvt) Ltd., 1996], p. 68.
6Ibid., p. 71.
7Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall, p. 397.
8Abul A’la’ Maududi, The Meaning of the Qur’an (Vol-I)
[Lahore: Islamic Publications Ltd., 1978], p. 73.
9Stephen R. Covey (1996), p.
10Ibid., p. 86.
11Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur’an, Text, Translation and Commentary
[Lahore: Ashraf Printing Press. 1980], p. 1449.
Good Habits Bad Habits
1. Listen to others with full attention/ Listen to others only half-heartedly.
concentration.
2. Appreciate others’ good deeds. Adopt fault-finding attitude.
3. Speak with humbleness. Speak sternly and pass curt remarks.
4. Control one’s anger. Frequently, display anger or sarcasm.
5. Recite “Inna Lilla hey wa inna...” Consider one’s
loss as bad fate.
on damage or loss of anything.
6. Seek forgiveness on committing Try to justify one’s mistakes
by
any mistake. putting blames on others.
7. Share opinions instead of advice/ Bombard others with one’s
advices
sermon. and sermons.
8. Concentrate on correcting own Concentrate on correcting others.
behaviour.
9. Try to learn as much as possible. Feel proud of being uneducated.
10. Try to be patient in the wake of Display impatience and shout due
to
unacceptable behaviour of others. unacceptable behaviour of others.
