April 3, 2022

Leadership Lessons from Ramadan

Ramadan, also known as Ramazan, begins on April 2nd this year. This festival marks the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. During this time, which lasts a little over four weeks, Muslims around the world take up the difficult task of keeping a fast or roza every day between sunrise and sunset which was mandated in 624 AD by the Prophet. They also offer additional prayers and charity. Further, during this time, observers abstain from anything that is considered sinful.

Interestingly this festival covers four of the five pillars of Islam.

1. Faith (shahada). The belief that "There is no god but God, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God" is central to Islam.
2. Prayer (salat)
3. Charity, Alms (zakat)
4. Fasting (sawm)
5. Pilgrimage (hajj)

Leadership Lessons from Ramadan 

Ramadan is a festival of great grit, patience, devotion and engaging with community. Leaders all across the world can learn abundantly from the path to the festival. 

Self-Control:

The most significant lesson to take away from Ramadan is self-control. The focus is entirely on the bigger goal of enlightenment through fasting hence, not much attention is paid to the obstacles in the way such as hunger or thirst. Fasting is one of the five mandatory duties of all Muslims to reinforce the need to be thankful. It is interlocked with performing Charity (zakat) in this month which is again a mandatory duty as per Islam. Such laser focus requires extreme self-control so that you can be thankful for your blessings (health, food, water, sleep, love, family, friends, work, pay, lifestyle and savings) and be supportive to your community with charity. Leaders too can benefit from self-control. This can be for regulating emotions, especially when they might adversely affect someone such as an employee. Self-control can be used to manage negative feelings in a work environment such as anger, arrogance, egoism, etc. The need to be thankful, exercise self-control and to support our community needs to be part of every organization’s mandatory responsibility for leaders to demonstrate.

For example, as a leader, if you are not having a great day, you might be triggered to misdirect your emotions on a team member. This not only paints you in a negative light but can also affect the employee’s state of mind. Practising self-control in such a situation helps you to look beyond the trivial. Being thankful and engaging your team in community development projects strengthens team bonding and higher purpose.

Management of Priorities:

This one is obvious. Ramadan does not mean that those observing the fast put their lives on hold. They carry on with their daily schedule as usual as if it were any other day despite what they might be experiencing due to fasting. Yet, they manage to fit in waking up early, multiple prayers, etc. within their day. Often, we will realise that our excuse for not doing something is simply to procrastinate. But a festival like this teaches us to prioritize and manage everything that we want to achieve with properly organising our time. 

Leaders and managers should make it a priority to manage their business priorities and time in the best way possible. This might require a closer evaluation of what they are doing in their day. How much time is spent on extraneous activities in social media, WhatsApp messages, or meaningless conversations? The best way to become more efficient is to take a stock of these activities and reduce the time spent on them. Rather, the focus should be on making time for things that are advantageous personally and professionally such as meditation, waking up early, exercising, understanding motivational content, investing in your growth activities time etc… This is about self-integrity when no one is watching.

A Sense of Community: 

A festival like Ramadan brings together an entire community of people regardless of their geography or personal variables. Further, the prayers and meals during this time also occur as part of a group.

Irrespective of backgrounds, being rich or poor they stand together for prayers and fast with the same goal.

This can be used to understand the power of a team, a community, of uniting for a common cause. A leader might be assigned to lead a team but a greater role is to be the unifying force for the team. A manager must understand the importance of team spirit and should be the one to set an example for others. This can be done in various ways such as through short team breakout sessions whether a lunch or a coffee break. It can also be done by doing a fun activity together like playing a sport or a board game or listening to music. A calm team environment boosts the moods of all those involved and ultimately improves productivity. A team is more powerful than an individual.

Conclusion: Ramadan is symbolic of many virtues such as patience, focus and discipline. Regardless of which faith you choose to follow, leaders can learn and apply a great deal from this festival into their professional lives. With increased self-control, smoother time management, and devotion to a team, leaders can truly set an example for all others who surround and idolise them. 

Sending wishes on this holy month that may Allah always bless you and your family with joys, togetherness and happiness. Happy Ramadan.