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Creative leadership is need of the hour, says Dr Khouri

Director-general of Emirates Identity Authority attends the Government HR Summit held in Abu Dhabi

Showing up at work on time and attending a training workshop are no longer considered good management requirements. Speaking at the opening of the Government HR Summit held in Abu Dhabi from September 23 to 25, Prof Dr Ali Al Khouri, director-general of Emirates Identity Authority, said creative leadership, adapted to our times, is key to an organisation’s success.

“Today’s management practices won’t work. For an organisation to succeed, we need, innovative, creative leadership,” he stressed.

Human capital is considered one of the top challenges for development and government organisations in the Middle East and Dr. Khouri believes HR needs to come out of shells and change its practices.

“Have you heard of organisation learning?” he asked the 300 senior government officials, corporate executives, academicians and HR professionals.

“It is a concept that attracted significant attention in the past few years, focusing on the individual’s or employee’s capacity of learning,” explained Dr. Khouri.

How much and how fast a person can learn, effect not only his personal career, but also the performance of the organisation he works for.

Thus, seven learning disabilities have also been identified, which include passing the blame, inability to see the “big picture,” reactivity mistaken for proactivity and skill incompetence.

“So what action can we take against these disabilities? The answer is leadership! Leadership is about influencing employees. Organisations are the products of their leaders,” stressed Dr. Khouri.At least half a dozen types of leaders or managers have been identified, the least successful being the “fire fighter” type, with muscles over brain approach, the most desirable — and most rare — being the “game changer” ones.

“About 90 per cent of today’s leaders are of the fire fighter nature; we need to evolve and reach the game changer level,” he said.

While leaders may fire employees unable to perform, they rely on their human resource team to find the best fit for the organisation, therefore human capital professionals across the region bear increasing responsibility for helping organisations achieve corporate excellence.

The summit addressed responsibilities and the role of HR. The event also included a one day masterclass held by HR expert, author and advisor, Stewart Liff on his latest co-authored book, “A Team of Leaders: Empowering Every Member to Take Ownership, Demonstrate Initiative and Deliver Results”.

silvia@khaleejtimes.com