Quran Teaching, the divine book of guidance, gives us management lessons for every way of life. Find out what the Quran tells us about managing in the best manner.
In Quran, the story of Moses (Musa) consists of fifteen important events. Here are those events and the management lessons in the Quran you can learn from them.
1. There is a promised land. Moses has to gather the people of God from Egypt and settle them in this blessed region.
Lesson: Create an opportunity before you create a company. Before making your big announcement, come up with a unique product or a service. I have often met people planning to inaugurate a school, a hospital, or a restaurant without having a clear idea of how it would be better from the one right at the corner.
2. Moses makes humble requests to Pharaoh (the ruler of Egypt) to let his people go.
Lesson: Remain modest, no matter how great of an idea you think you may have. Your idea might be a game-changer, but that shouldn’t stop you from listening to other people. Hundreds of great ideas don’t see the light of day every year because they were not communicated effectively.
3. As proof of his prophethood, he shows many signs.
Lesson: If you are worth it, then show it. Don’t expect anyone to look into your beautiful brain and be amazed by your wonderful ideas. If you have the full house, then put it on the table.
4. The Pharaoh resists, but Moses persists. Moses is fighting his battle on two fronts. He is trying to convince the king to let his people leave while telling his people to remain calm and hopeful.
Lesson: Weapons win the battles; persistence wins the wars. You must learn to be steadfast with friends and foes alike.
5. Moses leads his people across the path created in the river.
Lesson: Great ideas can’t go too far if they don’t accompany a solid action plan. Develop a plan on how you would like to take your vision from point A to point B. Even when you have the plan, remember to lead from the front. So loosen that tie knot, come out of the office and get ready to sweat.
6. Before entering the Promised Land, Moses is told to train and groom his people. Moses settles his people temporarily in a desert.
Lesson: Good people are not necessarily the right people. You may have a sincere team, but probably they don’t have the skill set needed for the job on hand (or vice versa). Don’t expand until your sincere people become your well-trained people.
7. He’s told to go to the mountain to get the commandments.
Lesson: It’s your dream; it’s your team, so the training plan should be yours as well. Set your training goals. The best trainer in your team will always be you. So train yourself first. Remember, you have to travel to get a good train. Never expect it to come to you.
8. He hands over the management of the community to another prophet, Aaron (his brother), and leaves for the mountain.
Make sure you have a succession plan from day one. If you have not identified the people who would take your place while you are away, then you are destined to fail (or burn out).
9. There, he is told that his people have abandoned the right path, so he returns.
Lesson: First things first. The existing structure of the organization must be intact and strong before you introduce your next initiative. If you notice that your staff does not have the capacity to take the next jump, then step back and consolidate.
Here are the remaining five events from the same story. I will be talking about the lessons learned from these events at the ELLTA conference to be held from 17th to 19th November 20l4 in Penang Malaysia, InshaAllah.
10. He identifies the trouble maker, listens to his argument and then isolates him.
11. Moses heads back to the mountain, but this time he takes 70 elders of the community with him.
12. Moses instructs his people to enter the Promised Land while saying a certain statement prescribed by Allah.
13. His people refuse as they are afraid to fight. Moses is commanded to leave his people in the desert and wait for the next generation to rise, who would be free of all the fears.
14. Moses remains with his people in the desert for many years and dies.
15. His successor conquers the Promised Land long after Moses’s death.