Assalam-u-alaikum

Honesty and integrity

Honesty and Integrity go hand-in-hand, but in today's world, it seems that people have grown so lax that both of these traits have flown out of the window. In fact, if you ask the majority of today's youth to give you the truest definition of honesty and integrity, they may be able to tell you that being honest means telling the truth, but they probably won't be able to tell you anymore than that.

Although most people understand what honesty is - telling the truth - do you understand what telling the truth entails? For example, yes it is wrong to lie, but isn't it also wrong not to tell the whole truth, or the whole story so to speak? Many people believe that withholding portions of the truth is the same as lying, and if you are doing this, you are not practicing honesty.

Now here is the big question. Are we honest in our businesses, in our jobs, and if we are in a high position, do we use it for personal gains?

These questions have to be dealt with objectively.
In order to live a life based on honesty and integrity, you must know who you are and what you stand for, and you must also police yourself on a daily basis, ensuring that you aren't doing anything that conflict's with your own values or moral code.

Hazrat Umar (R.A), who created effective and efficient governmental machinery, set very high ethical standards for public servants. Civil and military officers found guilty were always subjected to severe reprimand and were very often given exemplary punishments.

Hazrat Omer (R.A) in a letter addressed to Hazrat Amar bin Aas, Governor of Egypt, made serious inquiries about the ways and means by which he had accumulated wealth and property which he did not possess before his appointment as Governor. Similarly, in an official circular addressed to all the Governors, The Caliph of Islam forbade them to accept even gifts.

The examples given above are from our history. What about today’s modern, corporate world. Is it hard to find, ethical, honest and business leaders with integrity. Not so.

Jon M. Huntsman, a self-made billionaire and Ambassador of USA to China, is one exception among the mayhem of cheating and business corruption. One does not have to mention, Enron, WorldCom, Goldman Sacs, and others who have gone down because of greed, and failure of not having ethical leadership.

Huntsman refuses to pay kickbacks, commissions, and bribes, even if it is one dollar loss and or millions of dollar loss. We take a page from his bestselling book, Winners Never Cheat in which he narrates an episode which we quote here for our readers:

“In 1999, I was in fierce negotiations with Charles Miller Smith, then president and CEO of Imperial Industries of Great Britain, one of that nation’s largest companies. We wanted to acquire some of ICI’s chemical divisions. It would be the largest deal of my life, a merger that would double the size of Huntsman Corp. it was a complicated transaction with intense pressure on each side. Charles needed to get a good price to reduce some ICI debt; I had a limited amount of capital for the acquisition.
During the extended negotiation, Charles’ wife was suffering from terminal cancer. Toward the end of our negotiations, he became emotionally distracted. When his wife passed away, he was distraught, as one can imagine. We still had not completed our negotiations.

I decided the fine points of the last 20 percent of the deal would stand as they were proposed. I probably would have clawed another $200 million out of the deal, but it would have come at the expense of Charles’ emotional state. The agreement as it stood was good enough. Each side came out a winner and I made a lifelong friend. ’’

Can someone imagine foregoing $200 million today?

We have given our readers a lot of finer points to chew on.

Pakistan Paindabad

 In compliance with its constitution, Pakistan Association Dubai (PAD) held its Annual General Body Meeting last Thursday(27th May

In compliance with its constitution, Pakistan Association Dubai (PAD) held its Annual General Body Meeting last Thursday. The function was organized at the lawns of Pakistan Sports and Recreation Club. The Executive Committee of PAD has set a good example by publicizing their progress report and presenting themselves before the members for accountability.

President and General Secratery at AGM Q& A Session

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General Secretary, Muhammad Khaleeq, using a multimedia presentation, elaborated on all activities that took place during the year 2009-10. For the first time in the 47-year history of PAD a fully audited report of the Welfare Account was presented. Before presentation of a very detailed, fact-based and comprehensive report, the session was started with recitation from the Holy Qur’aan and a beautiful tribute (Na’at) to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).

The event was a good example of organization and discipline: Identity of participating members was verified at the club entrance with the help of a computerized database, another first-ever.

Every header of the Financial Report was clearly displayed and explained. The audience listened to the details with keen interest. A comprehensive progress report (including financials) was presented about the construction of the Multipurpose Hall project. The members present at the function not only appreciated the efforts of PAD team on this project but many of them said, “with such a transparent report, all misunderstandings about this project have vanished.”

After the report, a Q&A session was held in which the President and General Secretary answered several questions of the members. Mr. Muhammad Akram Raja, a veteran long-term member, suggested that demographic data of Pakistani professionals in UAE (doctors, engineers, bankers etc.) should be collected and all these groups should be assembled under the umbrella of PAD for the wider benefit of the community. PAD president supported this view and explained, “our Embassy and Consulate should play their role in collecting this information.” He explained further that some success has already been achieved by forming new wings like Medical Wing and Mariners’ Wing, besides the already existing, more general, Professionals’ Wing.

Our Lady Members during Annual General Body Meeting

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One of the members raised his concern about the fee being paid to the consulting firm for the hall construction. In his view the fee was high. Riaz Farooq Sahi, president of PAD, explained that all the decisions related to the contract award and consultant fee were taken by the Head of Construction Committee, Mr. Haji Rafiq Giga in consultation with other available members of the committee. It is to be noted that the Chief Patron of this Committee is H.E. The Consul General of Pakistan in Dubai and both the consultant and contractor are Pakistani companies. “PAD team is bound to abide by the decisions of the Construction Committee,” explained Mr. Sahi.

Responding to another question seeking explanation for abnormally high election expenses, Riaz Farooq Sahi said, “the election was supervised by the Ad hoc Committee headed by Mr. Ashraaf Dawood who is answerable for this expense. He alluded further that his new team inherited a substantial negative balance in the Welfare Account from the Ad hoc Committee.

President of Pakistan Sharjah Social Center, Chaudhry Zafar, who is also a member of Pakistan Association Dubai, expressed his desire that PAD team should have included a few individuals in its Executive Committee from the group that lost the previous election. In response, Muhammad Khaleeq explained that representation from all provinces of Pakistan in the Executive Committee has been ensured. “We did invite Mr. Noor-ul-Hasan Tanvir of Muslim League (N) and Mr. Iskander Sultan Khawaja, previous Chairman of Pakistan Business Council, to join PAD Executive Committee who turned down the invitations in writing.” It is to be noted that both the gentlemen were in the opponent camp in the last election.

Riaz Farooq Sahi, thanked Allah (swt) and thanked his team for all the achievements. He welcomed all members of the association to come forward, provide their constructive feedback and support to take the performance of PAD to the next level. “We are answerable, firstly to Allah, and then to each and every member of the community; it is your right to question our actions and decisions,” said Sahi.

At this occasion the president announced that the financial aid promised by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mr. Yusuf Raza Gilani and the Federal Minister for Labor and Manpower, Mr. Syed Khursheed Shah will pour in and the construction of multipurpose hall will soon be completed. He announced further that PAD, with the help of its Medical Wing, will launch a Free Medical Dispensary on no-loss, no-profit basis and a Day-Care Hospital. The audience applauded these initiatives.
In the end, the President invited his entire Executive Committee on to the stage to present itself to the members. The function was concluded with a buffet dinner.
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Mohammad Riaz Farooq Sahi (President of PAD) and Muhammad Khaleeq (General Secretary PAD) visited the office of the Community Development Authority Dubai. The delegation met with Dr. Omar Al Muthanna, Chief Executive Officer, Regulatory & Licensing Agency, Community Development Authority Government of Dubai.

Various matters of mutual interest, including problems of the community and organization, were discussed. The delegation praised the mission of the Community Development Authority to create cohesion among the different communities of Dubai. The delegation assured Dr. Muthanna that Pakistan Association Dubai will extend full cooperation wherever needed to achieve the common goals of the community. Dr. Al Muthanna assured the delegation that Community Development Authority will also address the problems of all the associations and communities.

At the end of the meeting Dr. Al Muthana presented the renewed License of the Association to Mr. Sahi

Once I was traveling by train in Pakistan, by the way the person sitting next to me was a long bearded young man with gothic structure but cat eyes. He was bear headed and looked as a smart fellow. For the first time in my life I had seen a long bearded man so presentable and attractive more than a white skinned clean shaved person.

I was so impressed by his mysterious outlook that I invited him for a cup of tea at Peshawar junction. We exchanged some views with each other. Up to my great surprise he was a competent, well English spoken Pathan fellow. We spent more than an hour on that cup of tea but the more he talked the more he allured me.

The meanwhile a small poor boy came selling news papers at the public gatherings over there. I just passed some remarks about child abuse and then asked the long bearded young man like a teacher to describe the situation in his own words and he said like this

A SMALL POOR BOY

Taher Shah

I am small, my parents are poor,
I go to work, to give them peace
I hate my clothes, I hate my shoes
I hate to sell papers more
I see little boys going to school,
I see little children playing in evening
I watch and play with them in fancy
I stop dreaming when someone calls
Children are happy and have ice-cream
“They are rich”, says mother, but we aren’t
I will weep and weep to God
To make me rich and so my parents
I will cry to awake the world
I will shout to make it think

Really I was so much impressed by his pathetic and fluent poetic style that I couldn’t help myself to ask about his name, never the less, he responded by a surprising look and smilingly uttered, “”Not yet”. Some how, still I hope that I might have a social encounter with him some time in future and that will be, of course, a nice co-incidence.

“HELPING PEOPLE, WIN AT WORK” by Ken Blanchard

Exploring a True Win/Win for Leaders

Most performance review systems and classroom grading models are based on a normal distribution or bell curve. When plotted on graph paper, this curve resembles the shape of a bell with a bulging middle that’s tapered on both ends or “tails.” This shape represents the majority of individual performers who cluster around the middle of the “bell” with select higher and lower performers scattered in its respective tails.

Grading on the curve forces evaluators to assign rankings in a highest-to-lowest order measured against the entire data set, which may seem fair at first. But is it really? This is the question raised in Ken Blanchard’s latest book Helping People Win at Work. Blanchard postulates that the generally-accepted performance review process is flawed.

Hiring Winners –– Evaluating ‘Losers’

Early on, Blanchard effectively undermines the performance review model of force ranking employees when he asks managers during his live seminars, “How many of you go out and hire losers so that you can fill the low [evaluation] slots?” The absurdity of the question generates laughs because his managerial audiences strive to hire the best performers with solid track records or potential winners who can thrive with appropriate coaching.

Blanchard goes even further when he discusses his years as a college professor. During his tenure he would give students a copy of the final exam during the first week of class. He would then spend the entire course helping them develop answers for those questions ––virtually ensuring every student earned an “A” grade.

This unorthodox approach evoked criticism and disbelief from fellow faculty, but Blanchard believed it helped his students learn in a positive, constructive manner.

Most of the remainder of the book, co-authored by Garry Ridge, CEO of the WD-40 Company, which makes a line of consumer packaged goods, is comprised of Ridge’s musings and the application of Blanchard’s leadership principles within the WD-40 Company.

In fact, Ridge discusses a key learning moment shortly after he took over as CEO that shaped his leadership outlook.

He was at a London hotel relaxing in shorts and a t-shirt after nearly 48 straight hours of meetings and travel. At which point, the hotel fire alarms started going off. As a frequent traveler, Ridge relied on past experience, assuming that after a few minutes the alarms would stop and be followed by an apologetic announcement for the disruption over the hotel loud speakers. That didn’t happen. This time the threat was real and hotel security evacuated all guests — including the underdressed Ridge — out into the cold air.

Ridge writes that he was unprepared for this outcome because he chose to ignore the alarm and rely on past assumptions, which then leads him to ask the reader, “Which alarms in your own life are you choosing to ignore?”

This refreshing style characterizes Ridge’s discussion of how he implemented a performance review system at his company called “Don’t Grade My Paper, Help Me Get an ‘A’,” which was based on Blanchard’s teaching philosophy. Ridge states how his organization’s employee evaluation program strives to promote a sense of belonging, caring candor, continual learning and dogged persistence, as well as willingness to attempt risk in the face of failure.

Ridge attributes the successful adoption of these principles to his company’s impressive sales growth from $100 million to $339 million since the program’s inception.

For Whom the Bell-Curve Tolls

Blanchard returns in the final section of the book to outline “12 Simple Truths” gleaned from his own previous writings and Ridge’s experience leading the WD-40 Company. These truths comprise varying conceptual combinations of performance planning, proactive coaching, respectful dialogue, positive reinforcement and situational leadership.

This is the first book in Blanchard’s Leading at a Higher Level series. Each installment will explore a complex leadership issue within a single organization.

It’s evident the insights in his premier effort seem to sound the death knell for traditional, bell-curve-based performance reviews.

I am of the firm view that those companies who implement Bull Curve, the Bell Tolls early for them. Wake-up things have changed in this world.