Charity leaders will find it “very difficult to survive in the sector” if they do not give up some of their power, according to the chief executive of Muslim Aid.
Kashif Shabir told an online event today that global development charities in particular had changed in recent years, and charity bosses needed to adapt in order to succeed.
He was speaking on a panel at the Power in Development conference, hosted by the aid umbrella body Bond.
Answering a question about leadership skills, Shabir recommended the importance of “being very, very clear in your own head” that “expertise, power and money no longer rest with you”.
He said: “We are working in partnerships globally, we are working with actors that are cleverer than you, that are richer than you, and they do not sit in the West anymore.
“Having the mental capacity to accept that I think requires a lot of humbleness still in our sector.”
He said: “If you cannot accept, as a leader, that these things need to be devolved from you, it is going to be very difficult to survive in the sector that we now operate in.”
Shabir said he and other charity chief executives increasingly had to adapt “to things outside of your own comfort zone”, especially when operating in other countries.
He also told the event that recruiting staff who matched the values of a body could “make or break the organisation and [its] culture”, and said: “It does not take much for your culture to go wayward.”
Speaking at the same event, Lewis Temple, chief executive of the global anti-poverty charity Brac UK, echoed the call for more humble leadership, saying: “Many people in our sector are used to calling the shots, leaders in particular, and defining what happens and making things happen.
“Now [there is] quite a change to a more modest, humble approach, where we are really supporting people as part of their own development.”
Reflecting on a survey conducted during the session, which showed that empathy was more highly valued as a leadership skill than delivering results, Temple said: “We are long past the days of the strong, powerful leader who determines everything and defines the future, and everyone just follows along.”