CENTRE FOR SELF-HELP DEVELOPMENT

Institute of micro-finance and cooperative development.

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Happy Leaders Can Change the World

A webinar talk program on “Happy Leaders Can Change the World” was organized by the Centre for Self-help Development (CSD) on May 31, 2021 with the aim to to discuss on the concept of leadership and its implications on an organization and also in bringing positive vibes and sustainable achievements to the concerned organization. Mr. Shankar Man Shrestha, Chairman of CSD, was on the chair and Mr. Bikal Prasad Sherchan, Life Coach and Co-founder of the National Institute for Leadership Development Pvt Ltd (NILD) was the key speaker of the event.

In his opening remark, Mr. Shankar Man Shrestha said,” The major constraint to change in any organization is lack of dedication and ownership in part of leadership. We may attend various training as well as motivational talk programs and learn good lessons but the commitment and devotion to change wanes immediately after we leave the program. Today, we have the most office staff attending as over target audience.  MFIs in Nepal are in a growth stage in terms of market size and outreach. Various data shows that there are over 160 MFIs and cooperatives together providing microfinance service to over 5 million households but due to overlapping in clients, a borrower takes loan from more than one organization. So the number seems inflated and actual number of households currently served by MFIs might be slightly above 1 million only. The concern today is that almost all MFIs are profit oriented and are drifting from their original mission of serving the hardcore poor, the marginalized and those socially excluded from the mainstream development. “

During his deliberation, Mr. Bikal Prasad Shrechan, said, “If leaders are happy and positive, the whole organization will be happy and bring positive vibes to the organization which in turn will bring well-being and prosperity to the whole organization and the people it serves.” He added, “Every staff has capacity to change an organization both individually or through a team effort but the CEOs should have additional vision as well as traits and skills to transform the organization to the next level.” He also said that schools, as part of his practical experience, where teachers instill positive mindset and shower happiness among students, apart from mundane task of involving in preparing daily schedules and regular assignments, will bring impressive results and growth in students.

He talked of conscious mindset and asked the audience to first ask yourself, who am I and what am I for. He shared the examples of enlightened and famous personalities. He said, “Buddha in his life-time preached for developing and transforming into conscious human being. Dalai Lama said that person laboring for life will get paid but the payment is used for his/her treatment later in his life.”  He added, “Although most of us work and put in extra effort to reap benefits from our labor and one of the reasons could be to earn money, but it is very important to share what we have with others. It is more relevant in microfinance whose foremost and overarching objective is poverty alleviation.”

He also discussed on the difference between objective and target with particular reference to microfinance sector, where he said, “Overall objective of an organization should not be just to earn profit. Target and milestones can be used to gauge performance as well as amount of revenue generated and profit made by an organization. The people who envisioned the concept of microfinance had set poverty alleviation as its core objective.  Although microfinance needs to generate revenue, it should focus on the need and aspiration of its clients in areas like capacity development activities as well as support when there is natural calamities, pandemics as we are witnessing now and when there is family problems resulting in the need of urgent financial support. Similarly, MFIs should also provide service to economically and socially excluded groups, people of far flung geographical remote areas as well as other excluded groups untouched and unnoticed by the mainstream of development.

He also shared light on the concept of mindful leader where he said, “Such leaders should be conscious about the need and aspiration of clients and devise action-plan to immediately support them.” Similarly, on the concept of servant leadership he said,” The practice is to constantly delve on the concern as well as demand of clients and make them satisfied and happy.”

One of the participants, Mr. Mani Kumar Arjyal, said, “Currently MFIs have become more and more profit oriented and the leadership is also focusing on profit. In the earlier days MFIs were more focused on the concern and needs of their clients.” Mr. Arjyal queried how MFIs could focus on profit by keeping the social orientation essence of MFIs intact. In response to this, Mr Shrechan said,” CEOs should convince the board and devise activities that are client centric in nature, like capacity development  through skills and technology transfers, mentoring support and motivation and backstopping assistance through periodic field visits to gauge the progress and latest developments of the target clients. The CEO should initiate activities so that a good portion of revenue earned should also be used for the welfare and benefits of the clients. Ultimately, this is going to have spillover effect on the organization itself. ”

Another participant, Mr. Sundhar Shrestha, commented,” Although the concept of mindful leadership is new in Nepal, if this technique is promoted it can be a remedy to some of the endemic and overarching issues in microfinance sector.”

In his closing remarks Mr. Shankar Man Shrestha shared an example of dairy industry established in Bangladesh in partnership with Danone, a leading global food & beverage company of France with dairy as one of its major products. The Bangladeshi dairy believes in social business and its products such as curd is affordable even to low income families. Profit should not be the sole objective of any business. It should move with social mission as well.

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