THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION IN IGABI LOCAL GOVERNMENT, KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
Hypothesis 2: Ineffective Utilization of Resources has no impact on sub-optimality in production in
12. Characteristics of servant leadership
Spears, manager of Greenleaf's servant leadership foundation has stated the following ten characteristics for servant leadership based on writings of Greenleaf: listening, sympathy, healing, awareness, persuasion, conceptualization, foresight, stewardship, commitment to growth and improvement of others, and establishing coherent communities (Spears, 2004:8-12). These characteristics have been compared with Imam Ali’s tradition and statement (peace be upon him) and matched to them in a comparative study by referring to existent resources.
12.1 Listening
Servant leaders are good listeners. They are interested in others’ viewpoints and opinions and accept them (Barbuto, 2007: 2). Leaders have always been evaluated on the basis of their relational skills and decision-making.
Servant leaders must be reinforced with more participation and commitment through listening eagerly to others’ opinions and hearing employees' speeches (Spears, 2004:8). Imam Ali (peace
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He commands to his governor: "Devote a part of your time to those who need you to (listen to their remarks) personally and deal with their affairs and sit with them in a public party" (letter 53).
12.2 Sympathy
Servant leaders are able to place themselves in others’ situation. They understand others' problems and sympathize with them. Leaders who have a sense of sympathy attract others' confidence by perceiving of the situation they have encountered (Barbuto, 2007: 5). Sympathy is the ability to perceive another person (to a large extent) as he perceives himself (Bolton, 2006:
373-378).
We can observe abundant emphasis on sympathy in Imam Ali’s statement (peace be upon him), for example he says to one of his governors in a letter: "shall I consent to this to call me Commander of the faithful and not share with people in bitters of the time? And be not their example in life's problems?" (Nahj al-Balagha: letter 45).
12.3 Healing
Servant leaders are those that others want to refer to when a shocking event happens. Leaders pay increasing attention to psychical and mental health of individuals. They facilitate the healing process and make mental relation with them whenever individuals feel the need, and console them (Spears, 2004:9).
Generally, healing is fulfilled with due attention to psychical and mental health of individuals and satisfying of their mental and psychical needs. In this regard, Imam Ali (peace be upon him) writes to his managers "so, in their affairs (your subordinates) think in away that a kind father thinks about his child, and satisfy the needs of your subordinates" (Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
12.4 Awareness and vigilance
Servant leaders have a shrewd sense about what is happening around them. They are always looking for signs from the environment in order to prepare opinions and decisions. They know what will happen and are rarely deceived by the appearance (Spears, 2004:9). Awareness has a high position in viewpoint of Islam and Imam Ali (peace be upon him) this esteem and position is perceptible in the tradition of imams and especially Imam Ali (peace be upon him). In letter 31 to Imam Hassan,which is one of the complicated letters of Nahj al-Balagha, he says: "If you have a problem about the world and changes of the time, relate it to unawareness" (Nahj al- Balagha, letter 31). About the importance of awareness, Imam Ali (peace be upon him) says elsewhere: "No worship is like thinking" (Gherar al-Hikam and Dorar al-Kilam, volume 2:1162).
12.5 Persuasion and encouragement
Servant leaders try to persuade individuals to perform action rather than work with the order of formal authorities. They are naturally very persuasive and state clear and convincing reasons for their demands. They never force individuals to perform an action (Spears, 2004:10). About the necessity of encouraging employees, Imam Ali (peace be upon him) orders to Malik-ashtar:
"Malik! know that no tool is better than beneficence with people, tax reduction and non- compulsion of them to a job they don't like in order to attract the governor's confidence in people… always extol them and recall the important tasks that they have done, because recalling their valuable actions stimulates brave men (they are persuaded to do tasks) and stimulates cowards to try" (letter 53).
12.6 Foresight
Servant leaders have a strange ability to predict the future events. This does not mean that they are predictors or that they always say what is correct. But they are skillful in benchmarking from
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the environment and seeing what will happen in the future. They usually predict the result of decisions with a high precision (Spears, 2004:10).
Foresight in view of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) is one of the prominent characteristics of a manager and is among the points that he suggests to his managers. "O Malik! Be provident"
(Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
In Imam Ali’ view (peace be upon him) "the most provident individual is one whose motto and action are patience and thought in affairs" (Gherar al-Hikam and Dorar al-Kilam, volume 1:256).
He knows victory as the result of foresight and says: "victory is achieved by foresight and providence" (Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
12.7 Stewardship
Generally, servant leaders consider themselves as supervisors of individuals and resources that are under their control and stewardship. One of the tasks of leaders and managers is stewardship over affairs and actions of the organization (Spears, 2004:10).
Regarding stewardship Imam Ali (peace be upon him) says: "Examine your agents' behavior"
(Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53). ((After selecting a judge, think more about his judgments and control his work)) (Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
12.8 Commitment to growth of people
Commitment to growth of people could be considered the concept of helping humans to enjoy existential talents, abilities and capabilities in various dimensions of human personality (Barbuto, 2007: 4) . Human force has a special position in the viewpoint of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), and existential value of human differentiates him from other organizational resources and factors settling his guidance and training among the major functions and tasks of management and the leader. He orders his mangers to try to help others in any possible way while paying attention to growth of subordinates: "Allocate a part of your time to those who need you and deal personally with their affairs" (Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
"Thus satisfy your employees' wishes (try to satisfy their needs) and always extol them and pay attention to important duties that they have done" (Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
12.9 Conceptualization
Servant leaders spend much time and attempt to create more extensive thoughts conceptually.
They nurture the ability and capability to perceive the world and its surrounding events and provide an environment that encourages great thinking, and values creativity (Spears, 2004:11).
Imam Ali (peace be upon him) suggests to his son: "Reason with what you have seen or heard in the past for what hasn't still come because life's changes and affairs are similar" (Nahj al- Balagha, letter 31). "Every day do the activities of that day, as each day has special work for itself" (Nahj al-Balagha, letter 53).
12.10 Building coherent groups (building community)
Servant leaders have a stable feeling of social spirit and try to train such feelings in the organization. They believe it is necessary for an organization to act like a community (Barbuto, 2007: 6). Idea of building coherent groups tells us that humans can work beside each other, with each other and along a total harmony and consistency without the need to establish a formal organization (Hamell, 2009).
Elsewhere Imam Ali (peace be upon him) states that the task of the leader in lieu of creating a
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