Nidal Tebawi, Head of IT Internal Audit, National Bank of Kuwait
Q1. What is the difference between a leader and a manager?
A1. This is a very good question because many people don’t know the difference between managers and leaders. A manager makes sure the firm’s daily operations are carried out smoothly while a leader’s responsibility is to keep an eye on competition and develop competitive strategies. A leader also monitors other external factors such as state of economy and political environment.
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Q2. What are your most important responsibilities?
A2. I guess I have already answered this question to some extent above. One of my major responsibilities is to make sure National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has IT capabilities that help it improve operating efficiency. I work closely with the leadership to identify areas where IT resources could be deployed. I also watch the competition and their IT capabilities to make sure NBK is ahead of them.
Q3. What steps you take to encourage innovation and creativity?
A3. It is extremely important to encourage everyone to express his ideas. When people don’t fear being judged or embarrassed, they are more likely to think outside-the-box.
Q4. How do you enforce organizational cultural values?
A4. The best way a leader can enforce organizational cultural values is through personal examples. I follow organizational values in everything I do which tells my followers that organizational values are there for a reason and not merely lip service.
Q5. What is the most important quality a leader should have?
A5. The most important thing a leader should have is an open mind. This is even more important because we live in quickly changing times. A leader cannot possibly know everything and he is not always right even if he may be right most of the times. Thus, he should pay attention to what others around him say and carefully evaluate their opinions.
Q6. What are the greatest challenges faced by leaders today?
A6. The greatest challenge facing leaders today is change management because change is not easy and not always welcomed. Change is not only important but almost a requirement for survival today.
Q7. Are leaders born or can they be developed?
A7. While some people are natural leaders, others become leaders over time. thus, I believe some are born leaders but others can develop leadership traits. One quality almost every leader share is likeability and the ability to inspire others, thus, anyone inspiring to be a leader will need support from others sooner or later.
Q8. What is the worst mistake leaders make?
A8. The worst mistake leaders make is to step outside their expert zone. Even leaders are not perfect and they have certain strengths and weaknesses. A leader should know what he is capable of and stay within his expertise limit. Otherwise disaster is always waiting to happen.
Q9.How can leaders prepare their organizations for ever-changing competitive environment?
A9. One of the most important things is communication. A leader should explain to employees why change is not only important but inevitable and without the company, there will be no job security. Leaders should not only preach change but also provide resources to employees so that their actions match their words. Examples of such resources may be training and education.
Q10. What is your advice for those who want to become leaders in the future?
A10. There are some skills without which it is difficult to become a leader and two such skills are communication and social skills. Fortunately, both skills can be developed through practice and dedication. A leader gets things done through other people and if he cannot communicate or inspire, he will get few things done no matter how capable he may be as an individual.
Peter Roberts, CIO, Gulf Bank Kuwait
Q1. What is the difference between a leader and a manager?
A1. A manager, just as the name implies, manages people and makes sure they do what they are supposed to do. A leader on the other hand, “leads”. He is the one responsible for telling everyone where they should go in the long term. A leader provides strategy and vision to everyone and sets the direction of the entire organization. This is why the success of the organization is often attributed to effective leaders.
Q2. What are your most important responsibilities?
A2. My main responsibility is managing information technology assets and capabilities of the organization. I am the one responsible for making sure IT investments yield maximum returns and the right technology is employed in the right place at the right time.
Q3. What steps you take to encourage innovation and creativity?
A3. One of the most important things to encourage innovation and creativity is to give more responsibility and room to followers. A leader should also convince them that failure is acceptable so that followers are not afraid to try unconventional solutions.
Q4. How do you enforce organizational cultural values?
A4. Every new employee is introduced to cultural values during the orientation and training process so that they try to adjust to the organizational culture right from the beginning. Leaders like me also live by organizational values which gives credibility to the organizational culture. For example, even a senior executive will be fired if found guilty of breaking the law no matter how big is the gain to the organization. This sends strong message to the followers that organizational culture has zero tolerance of illegal conduct irrespective of the rewards.
Q5. What is the most important quality a leader should have?
A5. The most important thing a leader should have is to be aware of his personal strengths and weaknesses. Many leaders become overconfident which increases the risk of personal failures. A leader should know himself because he tries to lead the entire organization.
Q6. What are the greatest challenges faced by leaders today?
A6. In my opinion, the greatest challenge facing leaders today is to attract the best talent and keep them motivated. Job security has declined and competition for quality employees has risen. People are almost always the most precious asset of any organization.
Q7. Are leaders born or can they be developed?
A7. I firmly believe leaders can be developed. Effective leaders possess skills that can be acquired by anyone with the right attitude and hard work such as people skills, continuous learning, open communication, and personal integrity.
Q8. What is the worst mistake leaders make?
A8. The worst mistake leaders make is to try to accommodate expectations of different groups. A leader should not be concerned with short term results or keeping everyone happy because results speaker louder than worlds. Many leaders care too much about their personal ego and do not want to be seen as failures. As a result, they try to do more than they can handle and inevitably fail.
Q9.How can leaders prepare their organizations for ever-changing competitive environment?
A9. The first thing is to keep a close eye on the external environment and respond to emerging trends in a timely fashion. But it is very important that a leader understands what change is needed and why it is necessary. Change for the sake of change is waste of resources and may end up doing more harm than good. A leader should know how the change will benefit the organization and what is the appropriate scope of change.
Q10. What is your advice for those who want to become leaders in the future?
A10. In order to become leader, one should know his personal strengths and weaknesses. If you don’t know what you can and can’t do, you can’t lead other people who look towards you for guidance. Another thing is continuous education and it even applies to leaders. An example of GE’s former CEO Jack Welch comes to mind who required all of his executives including himself to learn internet when it was still new.
