Great leaders have different ways of directing a team, a division, or a company. Some are subdued and analytical, others are charismatic and go with their gut. What makes a great leader is when one goes beyond his core job responsibilities to deliver.
The writer reached three aspiring personalities from the country's corporate picture who shared how versatility and versatile thinking can make one a leader.
The changemaker: AKM Tanvir Hossain is the business development manager of Water & Air Wellness at Unilever Bangladesh Limited. He believes that a great leader is one who brings the best out of his team.
Tanvir directs his team by empowering and inspiring them to evolve within. He played different roles in his 11 years of career which accredits him the title of a changemaker.
He shared a glimpse of his work style during the peak of the Covid-19 crisis when he overcame the greatest challenge, business continuity. He went beyond the core job description and turned around the business by successfully delivering double-digit growth even amid a global crisis. As he knows his brand requires ensuring a continuous supply of safe drinking water to consumers, he personally acts fast by developing and partnering with new channels for product distribution. Managing a business during a pandemic is once in a lifetime experience to Tanvir because many successful leaders may have not even experienced its plight.
The business development manager signifies how race within oneself fosters the development of better leaders. His consumer centricity makes him the copper-bottomed decision-maker. He takes efforts to stay well-informed through constant interaction with his consumer groups, different stakeholders and team members which gain him better insights to command the right business decisions.
Tanvir is an ideation master who makes a difference in innovative ways by battling against challenges confronting him and his business. With his vision to have an innovative and entrepreneurial approach towards all the business processes, he styles his way through the obstacles.
The purpose leader: Abdullah Al Mamun, a senior territory manager of Water & Air Wellness is in the same institution. Like Tanvir, Mr Mamun aspires to break social stereotypes and enhance well-being in society. He takes the challenge of ensuring people's access to safe water drinking solutions by leading a purposeful brand and breaking stereotypes that boiling water is a safer option than a water purifier. His work not only enables him to drive sales growth but also contributes to a noble cause of safeguarding families against waterborne diseases.
Mr Mamun does not stay within the boundaries of his existing skill-set and seeks to go far and beyond. Besides ruling his territory, he is a data enthusiast who has an emerging passion for digitalisation in the workplace.
He launched Microsoft Power BI Dashboard to monitor the progress of his projects of the company at granular levels. His innovation greatly eliminates manual intervention improving the job processes. He highlights how strong IT skills give an upper-hand advantage to enhance a career.
As a customer development manager, Mamun leads a sales team that works in the field. On a regular day, he will go out there into the field and get the job done with his team. But leading a team during the Covid-19 crisis comes with a mixture of health hazards, mental stress, and depression. With the virus taking away lives and ensuing lockdowns, he knows hard work and creative approaches to problems are his key tools. When it comes to giving it a 100 per cent, Mamun suggests leading by example. To drive the performance of his field employees, even amid the pandemic, he attended work physically maintaining strict safety measures.
Mamun specifies, "Ownership and proactiveness, as attributes, play a pivotal role while kickstarting a career." One is likely to lag behind if one fails to take ownership of their work as he pinpoints, "Do not just sit and wait for your supervisor's repetitive instructions. Complete the task proactively before the deadline."
Eight years of sales career in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods), tobacco, and durable industries of Bangladesh brings him the title of a sales expert. He looks forward to heightening his flexibility with various blends of data science in the upcoming days. His belief is that the future depends upon data and anybody can win a war without the right set of data.
The creative strategist: Coming from a family where most of the members took medicine as their profession, Delara Farooq, currently working as the head of category - Dark Store at Pandamart, decided to take on a challenge and pursue a different route.
Like every other Bangalee woman, she tied the knot soon after graduation. But in the era of burgeoning women empowerment, Delara did not let her education go in vain and jumped into the corporate world. The diligent lady, till now, has added experiences of working under IT, telecommunications, consumer goods and retailing industries into her cart before joining her current position.
Delara successfully helped the company launch 25 new locations to bridge consumers' access to daily essentials. She leaves no stone unturned in ensuring safety, speed, convenience and effortless delivery to enhance choices to customers, any time of the day, even amid the global crisis. Delara earned the title of being the creative strategist who contributed to shaping the business survival during the Covid-19 crisis with her ideal marketing strategies that helped the company stand out from the rest of its competitors.
Delara took over her power of gratitude as one of the key leadership traits that not only helped her to become a better leader but also a better version of herself. She welcomed changes with great optimism since it provides her with the opportunity to think outside the box. She strives to maintain a good work-life balance and follows how sometimes putting away the paperwork and laptop to concentrate on other areas of interest can bring back more positive energy and motivation in the job. She suggests appreciating any comments as feedback which would help the newday leaders flourish.
The above personalities put light on the factor that one's versatility can be the greatest strength to ace in a vying career path to look for innovative rather than static approaches to problem-solving, finding purpose in work, and investing in oneself. If your goal is to become a real leader, these words can serve as a guidepost in your efforts to develop.
The writer studies International Business at the University of Dhaka.
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