¶ … Letter for MBA Back in 2014, I met a young man named Saad. At that time, I was working in SAMA as a talent management specialist. He was a new co-worker and was the new senior talent management specialist in the team. He joined the workforce and after four months, he was promoted to be the head of SAMA's talent management section. For the two years and seven months that I have known him, I have come to appreciate leadership skills.

Working with Saad for all that long has led me to see his positive and optimistic nature. He is an optimistic individual who sees a positive thing in all his work engagements and does not allow anybody to pull him down. Secondly, he is a confident young man who knows that he can create change in his work environment. In the Talent Management section, he managed to outdo the team and took the lead, which came naturally for him and one would say he was born a leader.

For example, working in a government agency means that things work in slow motion. The system in such offices is full of bureaucracy and at the time, we were working on a project that entailed designing a leadership development plan. Before Saad came on board, we had submitted a proposal, which was at the Vice governor's office for purposes of it being reviewed and approved. In any institution, such a process would take a few days, but for a government institution, it is a norm for delays to be present. Therefore, the proposal was in the Vice governor's office for around two months and no feedback had been relayed. We as a team were left with no options than to wait because of the established authority matrix. This meant that we as specialists could only talk to the direct manager, as he was the only one to relay the information to the person in the next level and so on. However, by having Saad as the team leader, he initiated talks with our line manager and he managed to convince him of the importance of this project. Therefore, we as a team needed to go and present the project and should work hard in getting it approved, which would result in us moving to the next level. For sure, his positive mindset saw us accomplish all this yet it was deemed impossible due to the bureaucracy present in government offices.

While working with Saad, I also noticed that he was a very determined individual; this led to his promotion barely four months after joining the team. Saad is one person who has colossal determination especially when it comes to making things done in...

The promotion led to Saad showing new strengths as my new line manager and his leadership style is one such strength. The visitors coming to the team were often confused on who the team manager was because Saad gave everyone space to explore ideas and lead the team.
For the team, the open space created by Saad through his democratic leadership style and team coaching saw us have meetings that entailed open discussions. Through such forums, team members were allowed to brainstorm their thoughts and eliminate any form of discomfort. Such are the moves that led team's growth. I saw this when we were having our organization-wide performance management session. Therefore, it was an open session where members had the opportunity to comment on Saad's performance. When it came to ratings, Saad used the feedback obtained from the team members to influence his performance appraisal.

The final key strength of Saad is that he has an eye for researching. This makes him dedicate most of his time to reading. He was keen to gain knowledge on every topic under talent management team and he was looking out for responsibilities such as talent identification and succession planning. The reading culture translated to the team as they adopted his habits. Research in the talent management team is vital and for Saad, this was very evident in all his projects and decisions.

Nonetheless, the weaknesses attributed to Saad's leadership is that he tends to express his opinions and ideas on what he believes, regardless of the role played by other members of the organization. Hence, Saad needs to improve on this aspect because it undermines the efforts made by other members. Saad has always been a team player like when he was a co-worker and even when he became a line manager. I believe that the challenge he faced was in saying no when team members asked for support.

Despite Saad's weaknesses, his performance, potential, and personal qualities are different from that of other individuals who play similar roles in the organization. Irrespective of the amount of pressure exerted on the team and the complications present in performing given projects, Saad would always make it done. He would complete the project and handle it with immense joy, which makes him a special individual.

In the next ten years, I see Saad playing a consultancy role related to leadership development as seen from his great passion. Moreover, he is a keen observer of his environment…