Letting Go

By On · 5 Comments · In Masjids, Organizational Development, Personal Development

We all acknowledge that the key to growth is brining in new talent. Masjids need to be turned over to the next generation (even though it seems like the older generation has held on so long we might have to skip one before the turnover occurs). MSA leadership will change every couple of years (if not every year). The successful dawah initiatives are those where there is a steady influx of new help.

If this is how to have a successful future, why do we have such a difficult time letting go? People that have made great sacrifices and put in lots of personal time and effort are the most vested in their projects. I myself have felt this in situations where I had seniority, but still found it difficult to let others take the reigns simply due to the emotional element of not wanting to let go.

A big part of this is identity. When a person is substantially vested in a project, they begin to identify themselves with the project. My name is so-and-so and I’m the founder/president/ceo/manager/shura member of said organization. Once you move on, it becomes harder. It’s like you lose a part of yourself. How will people know I built this masjid if I’m not even on the board? How will people know I started this organization if I’m not doing anything for it anymore? I should at least have a seat on the board, right?

The other part of this is meaning. The vast majority of people who work for Islamic organizations do so in their free time. It is a balance between work, family, leisure, and other activities. For many, their involvement in an organization is a way of fulfilling their personal need to have a religious extra-curricular activity. Some people just have volunteering in their blood, and moving on means creating a spiritual void that will need to be filled.

It is easy for someone to say that these things should not concern us. We do our work for the sake of Allah, and therefore whatever is best for the organization should be how we act. That is only true if you remove the human element from the equation.

To transition our organizational leadership to new talent, we have to understand the proper way of letting go. This is comprised of 3 parts.

1) Mentorship

One of the biggest fears a leader has is that his or her successor will fall short. Good leaders never function by constantly looking to lengthen their own terms. Instead, they constantly look for and plan how to make themselves replaceable so the organization can outlive them. Transition to the next generation by training them. Be there to help them. That’s the most important part. Too often we instead find an adversarial relationship between one group of leaders and the next. Instead of being the enemy, become the person the new people will come to for advice and direction.

2) Pass on the Vision

One of the positives of moving on is that you can remove yourself from the day to day trench work. It gives you the freedom to step back, breathe, and look at the big picture. Refocus on the initial purpose of the project or organization. This is your chance to make sure the next generation of leaders does not lose sight of it.

3) Celebrate Legacy

The ultimate goal with any Islamic work is to create a legacy that outlasts us. Let whatever work we do be recorded as a sadaqah jariyah. Just as we need to take advantage of refocusing the organization around its purpose, we need to reorient ourselves individually in regards to our own big picture. If I want this work to generate good deeds for me even after I pass away, then I have to make sure that I have put in a system that will allow things to keep running even better once I step back. This focus is something we have to remind ourselves about constantly, but it is the only way to be comfortable with passing the baton forward.

Remember, the dawah is greater than the individual. The MSA is greater than any of the volunteers who established it. The masjid is greater than the ones who built it, funded it, and ran it. We were just given an opportunity to dip our hands into something good – let’s not mess it up for everyone else because we’re too attached to it to let it move forward.

 

 

About Omar Usman

Omar Usman is a founding member of MuslimMatters, Qalam Institute, Muslim Strategic Initiative, and Debt Free Muslims. He is a regular khateeb and has served in different administrative capacities in various national and local Islamic organizations. You can follow him on Google+ or on Twitter @ibnabeeomar.

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  2. Joining a Dawah Organization Level 4 – People Development
  3. Joining a Dawah Organization: Level 1 – Position/Rights
  4. Example Objectives for Muslim Organizations – Education and Youth
  5. Why The Masjid Strategy of “Delegating” To The Youth Inevitably Fails
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  • http://www.muslimyouthmusings.com/ Arif Kabir

    Very well-written heartfelt article. Why I particularly loved it was because it wasn’t written attacking anybody, but rather empathizing with them and then gently letting them know why they should let others take charge as well.

    • Anonymous

      jazakallahu khayr!

  • http://www.facebook.com/yasir.dhia Yasser Zia

    salaam Omar.  interesting thoughts and a decent effort.  I had a couple of tangent thoughts as I read and I’d like to hear your ideas…

    a) Your first paragraph puts forward some assertions, but are these true?  Can you cite some examples of masaajid which have implemented this kind of new talent/ succession model?  

    b) A great deal of patience is required for the individual who wants to ‘break into the clique’ of a masjid.  Quite a many youth are zealous about their ideas, but many of the ideas are actually naive, short-sighted and not well thought out.  And then lack of enthusiasm or support from ‘the masjid uncles’ results in the youth being disenfranchised.  The younger folks need to show some patience here and remember their sincerity and not get turned away by rejection.   If I could write a letter to myself when I was 25, this is the advice I would give. 

    c) What do you suggest for the people who leave behind their positions and projects?  What happens when they “retire” from the masjid board after 10 or 15 years?  Whose responsibility is it to make sure these folks are “taken care of” and still given some sense of contribution, significance and growth.   

    My answer to (c):  In the article Omar you tapped on the emotional attachment.  This is key IMO and there a LOT more to it than to just say ‘you have to get past that,’ or ‘you have to let others take charge’.  That is not practical advice and impractical advice is the worst advice IMO.  The person who says these types of hollow advices is offering no guidance, assistance, empathy or coaching.  

    By not participating in the disengagement or creating a process around it, we are essentially saying ‘it is your problem that you dont want to let go and YOU  have to deal with it.’  

    To me this does not embody the character of a Muslim.  We should be empathetic and emotionally savvy people by default. 

    First is empathizing that for a person to ‘let go’ takes some emotional maturity.

    Second is to recognize that its not of their fault that the vast majority of people are never taught about emotional maturity.  Its just not part of our education curriculum, and perhaps in some cultures ‘emotional intelligence’ its part of ‘common sense’ , I believe it is lacking these days.  

    Seeing it through they eye of empathy, we can recognize that the individual certainly derives a sense of contribution and significance from their Islamic work.  These are both essential human needs (google Maslow).  There is nothing wrong with that, and in fact its 100% right. Alhumdulilah for them that they find ‘peace’ in their Islamic work!  Who are we to take that away from them? 

    So if we want to assist these people to phase out,  its upon the new talent to figure out ways for the elders to still derive a sense of contribution and significance… and not just expect them to ‘move out the way.’  It can be in the form of passive participation, or something else… Allahu alam, that question needs to be answered.  

    The more challenging alternative is for the new talent to innovate and find their OWN ways to find significance and contribution, instead of just replicating the methods of our elders… :-)

    • Anonymous

      i love  your comment. ideally, the elder generation can start developing some other folks to take the reins. i truly believe that doing so also keeps them involved, because once they cement themselves as a mentor, they will never be fully removed from the project. you’ll always go to them for advice. whats happened instead is what you outline in your ‘b’ subpoint. thats also why i kind of think that skipping a generation (in particular our generation) is going to happen by default. 

      we need to make an environment where elders look forward to moving into more advisory/mentor capacities – perhaps with some type of emeritus status. as things slowly start shifting to new people, i hope that they’ll take these things into account and develop a structure accordingly. 

    • Hassen Morad

      I would add on to Omar’s reply by suggesting that every masjid board undergo some serious leadership training of some kind. Many of the points Omar mentioned (I think) are based on tried/tested leadership principles- like the fact that the health and success of any organization depends on developing the next leaders to take the reigns in the near future.

      Our elders who have been in these positions for 10-20 or more years have a hard time letting go not only because they would lose a part of themselves or don’t have another volunteer position to fill the void- I think they just don’t realize that they MUST take certain steps for the health of their organization. So it’s an issue of lacking knowledge of the best steps to take for the immediate and long-term success of the respective organization.

      I agree with Yasser that the answer isn’t just to infuse youth just because they’re youth. Many of the youth are not prepared for these roles (though some are). But we DEFINITELY need to focus on developing a group of young leaders with the intention of transitioning leadership to them in the near future.

      And when we think about it, this is the example of our prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam). He developed the sahabah in such an amazing way (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam) and he appointed both young and old in various leadership positions based on their ability (Examples of Younger Sahabah: Usamah b. Zayd- appointed leader of an army at 17, Mus’ab b. Umayr- sent as envoy to the Prophet to Yemen at 21 or so).

      So to summarize:
      1- we need proper leadership training (to gain knowledge of current leadership theory and base our decisions on successful leadership principles)
      2- we need to commit to developing our replacements (i.e. Youth)