Leadership & Renewal

– Continuing reflections on prophetic resilience and modern leadership through hardship

..CONTINUED

In Part 1 we looked at the first three of the seven lessons extracted from Chapter 12 on adversity from the book Prophet Muhammad ﷺ – The Hallmark of Leadership by Dr. Azman Hussin, Dr. Rozhan Othman and Dr. Tareq Al-Suwaidan.

These were just the seven lessons I saw from the chapter. For more lessons from the rest of the book, I recommend you read the whole book to get an even wider perspective.

For now, we finish with remaining lessons ⓸ to ⓻.

Read More “Leadership in Adversity: Lessons That Endure (Part 2)”

– How silence and reflection restore focus in noisy leadership

THE MORNING QUIETNESS

In this edition, I begin with a sunrise, the serenity of morning quietness at a beach in Besut, Terengganu in 2022, recorded just after Fajr/Subuh (Break of dawn).

(If you can’t view the video above, click here.)

That early stillness carries a spiritual rhythm. It is the pause before my day’s activities, the space before my mind fills with noise. Remembering the beach sunrise, it is a moment when heart meets horizon.

Modern life rarely allows that silence. Actually as leaders, we need it a lot. The ability to pause, listen inwardly and find clarity amid noise is a difficult leadership discipline.

Read More “Between Noise and Stillness: Faith-Conscious Clarity in a Distracted World”

– Learning from the Prophet ﷺ and from our own journeys through challenge

THE PROPHET ﷺ AS THE HALLMARK OF LEADERSHIP

I chose Leadership in Adversity as this week’s article because this year had me face four months of adversity, i.e. my sickness, before I got out of it. View video excerpt below from The Bypass Files:

(If you can’t view the video above, click here.)

Then I wanted to check how our Prophet ﷺ dealt with adversity.

Read More “Leadership in Adversity: Lessons That Endure (Part 1)”

– From Setbacks to Sustainability Through Inner Mastery

LEARNING FROM SUFFERING

Leaders need to drive results, but how do they sustain? Without renewal, even the most talented leaders run out of clarity, resilience and purpose.

I experienced this truth first-hand through my (urgh…, major!) bypass surgery earlier this year. What seemed like a setback became a framework for rethinking leadership. Out of that personal journey, I shaped the HEART Framework, a way to build resilience, patience and clarity through inner mastery, which I offer as also applicable in the organisational setting.

Read More “Rewire, Refire, Renew: The HEART of Leadership”

YES, I START (THIS NEWSLETTER)

I struggled to publish this edition #1 (yay!) of The Faith-Conscious Leader newsletter, intended to be launched on the 1st Tuesday of this month. Today is already Saturday. Better late than never, so here goes. 😌

After partially drafting edition #1 on Tuesday, my next 3 days were sad days of two deaths of loved ones: my brother-in-law, Zainuddin Zaini (Abang Din) and my cousin Faizal Sohaimi‘s wife, Emily Cheong.

The common epitaph I heard from most people at the two funerals was a simple phrase. “Abang Din was a good person.” “Emily was a good person.” Masha Allah, that to me is a pinnacle of having lived: to be remembered as a “good person”! Within that phrase lies layers upon layers of virtues, achievements and impact to others and impact to the world, unique to who says it.

I can’t go back to finishing the original draft of the newsletter edition (will keep it for a later edition). I feel compelled to write anew, on living this life in this world, dying, and then living again the second time in the hereafter.

Read More “Realize Mortality: You Only Live Twice”