Quotes and Thoughts from the 8th Global Leadership Forum

Ms. May Rihani, Senior Vice President at the Academy for Educational
Development,

Ms. Rihani chaired a session on: "The Political, Business, and Spiritual Dimensions of Leadership". The session explored these different aspects of leadership and how beneficial they could be in a variety of contexts.  Ms. Rihani also contributed during the open space sessions to the discussions around what makes leadership successful by highlighting certain qualities that are necessary for leadership to be
recognized as successful.  These qualities include that leadership needs to have human development as its objective, and needs to be based on the principles of: interactiveness, good listening, responsiveness, and positive/constructive visions.

Professor Tim Mau (D.Phil., Oxford) is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science at the University of Guelph, Canada.

Dr. Mau presented a paper entitled, "Fostering Leadership in the Public Sector:
Canadian Initiatives in Comparative Context,"  in which he examined how administrative leadership – that is to say, the leadership exhibited by civil servants – although largely ignored by public management scholars, is of vital importance to our understanding of governance. The paper demonstrates that the Canadian government, like several of its counterparts in the developed West, has recognized that leadership in the public sector is not an affront to the democratic process, as was often believed, and is actively encouraging the recruitment and retention as well as the identification and development of those civil servants who will comprise the public service leadership cadre of the future. Despite the fact that such developments must be generally regarded as positive, he argued that more thought needs to be given as to what exactly constitutes effective leadership in the public sector.

Rupert Douglas Bate, Civil Society leader

“The Global Leadership Forum is an organisation of great charm and diversity that enables ideas to improve leadership to seed and grow and eventually blossom. It is a wonderful arena to think the unthinkable, especially in terms of how life can be improved on this planet, for the 4 billion humans that live on less than a dollar a day, and for the total of us, the 6.25 billion global population, that is going to have to deal with the global warming and all it's associated future disasters. It is a place where anyone of good will can safely re-generate their own enthusiasm and mutually support others, and that is a profound blessing - one that I wish to support.”

Parvez Ahmed Pirzado,
The Aga Khan University
Institute for Educational development
Karachi, Pakistan

“This was a wonderful experience to participate in 8th Global Leadership Forum 2006 and to meet global leaders around the world. This is a unique platform where variety of participants including those who are future leaders and those who have rich background are gathered and exchange ideas, discuss challenges of leadership and suggest way forward. Personally this was an exciting experience for me. My presentation was well received and I made some good friends. This was a great opportunity to share our experiences and to learn from others’ experiences. I wish to be a part of next GLF.

Dr.Hayal Köksal,
The founder and president of QOMER/Turkish Center for Schools of Quality

“Leadership is one of the main strategies of personal quality. In an era of quality, the main focus of educators seems to be training of the qualified leaders of the future. Leadership qualities are universal values which are mainly listed as being; principled, honest and ethical, organized, empathetic and supportive, accessible, fair, forward-thinking and global. For the acquisition of those qualifications from the early stages of life, it is strongly recommended to emphasize the importance of quality- and technology-based project management. “International ICT Seagulls Projects”, which has been designed and managed by the Turkish Center for Schools of Quality / QOMER since 2001 with the support of Microsoft Turkey, might be considered as one of the best examples of leadership project mainly for K-12 students. With this project, students improve their knowledge and ability related to environmental sensitivity and literacy, cultural and intercultural empathy and tolerance, team-work spirit by means of using the computer and the Internet accurately to attain the necessary data. While doing these things, they also internalize the importance of Creativity, Originality, Time and Portfolio Management, Obeying the ethical rules. Since 2001, nearly 70 teams participated in this project. This year a school from California is also in it. In this paper, the outcomes of those projects and also the reflections of the leading students and teachers will be shared by the participants.”

Marsha Hughes-Rease,

Marsha Hughes-Rease, who is an organization development consultant, was a participant in the 8th GLF. She is a partner with Dannemiller Tyson Associates. Not only did she make a concerted effort to meet as many of the other participants as well as presenters, Marsha actively facilitated small group discussions during the Open Space.

Dr. Ozgur Cengel, Istanbul Commerce University School of Vocational Studies Faculty Member

Dr. Cengel received his BSBA (emphasis on marketing management) and MBA (emphasis on marketing management) from the University of Central Florida where he also served as an instructor at the College of Business. After returning to Turkey, he has received his Ph D in Marketing from Marmara University.  He joined Istanbul Commerce University in 2002.

At the Global Leadership Forum, he has been the team leader of the organization committee and dealt with each guest in serving their specific needs regarding the forum.  Dr. Cengel worked in cooperation with Dr. Safty and handled organization issues of the forum.

Prof. Nicholas Pang, Chinese University in Hong Kong

Kuldip Reyatt , Founder / Director Strategic Visioning Partners Letchworth Garden City, United Kingdom

Kuldip presented a session on ‘Navigating the Global Challenges of Authentic Strategic Leadership’. He highlighted that the principal strategic responsibilities of leadership are “…to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” through creating new realities, human capability development and capacity building for people to attain better futures. Presenting some of the key findings of his research into the strategic visioning of prominent UK CEOs, he offered practical advice on how to navigate the inherent challenges by considering the effectiveness and ethical aspects of strategic leadership. Finally, he proposed that by touching the lives and livelihoods of so many people, authentic strategic leadership and true strategic visioning are essentially global leadership challenges and constitute part of the fundamental responsibilities of strategic leaders around the world.

“At the 8th GLF, I found like-minded colleagues and developed relationships with leaders, leadership practitioners and scholars from many countries; I am sure that these people will contribute to implementing authentic strategic leadership, which is indispensable for building a better world. I believe that Professor Safty and the friends of the Global Leadership Forum have established an important community under the theme of ‘Leadership for Human Development’ that will influence the spread of good, authentic and true leadership around the world.”

Dr. Andrea Campelle , Founder / Director Strategic Visioning Partners Letchworth Garden City, United Kingdom