Qatar Leadership Centre's programme - Essay Example

?PERSONAL MENT OF XXXXXXXXXXXXX[INSERT APPLYING FOR PLACEMENT AT THE QATAR LEADERSHIP CENTRE PROGRAMME Globally, there is clear evidence that Financial leadership is essential to the growth of businesses as well as nations. In the face of globalisation and internationalisation, there is the need for strong leadership in Finance to enable businesses and nations to grow. Personally, I will like to grow my leadership capability as a finance professional to enable me to meet the necessary requirements everywhere I would find myself. Traditionally, Accounting and Finance professionals are not given structured leadership training, however, the global imperative makes it vital for Finance professionals to build international leadership competencies to enable them to meet their challenges of new trends. The Qatar Leadership Centre's programme will enable me to get a good insight and exposure into leadership from highly experienced and qualified experts of international repute. With the diverse backgrounds and competencies of the trainers and institutions involved in the Qatar Leadership Centre's programme, I am very confident that by participating in the programme, I will get the opportunity to learn and build the competencies of a great financial leader not only for my employers but also for Qatar as an emerging international economic power. After attaining an international Masters' degree and and working as a Senior Auditor for several years now, I have built the basic skills and experience necessary to launch into an international accounting and finance career. I however recognise that I will be more equipped for future challenges if I acquire leadership skills and competencies. These traits and abilities will enable me to get the best results for my organisation and the numerous stakeholders that my organisation will interact with. The Qatar Leadership Centre programme offers the necessary training and activities that will enable me to attain these core competencies that I need to succeed in my international career. I the next five years, I desire to acquire more experience in financial management and lecturing, further my education in finance and accounting and also build a socially responsible career. I hope to do this by working in a world-class university that will enable me to work as an Accountant/Finance expert and also contribute my quota to the society by lecturing and nurturing the next generation of financial leaders. I therefore need some more leadership skills and abilities to influence the young up and coming in the best possible way to become responsible finance leaders in the future. I have also made preparations to complete the Certified Public Accountants (CPA) program in the next five years. This will enable me to gain more technical knowledge about accounting and finance on an international level. This will give me the necessary qualification to learn about comparative international systems and structures and use that to support in the modelling of a good accounting system in Qatar. In practice, I would want to use my power as a financial manager/auditor to promote corporate social responsibility in my organisation and the wider society. I therefore plan to get some competencies in Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance matters to ensure this. I am strongly considering a postgraduate course in Corporate Social Responsibility to attain this end. Basically, I want to influence my work environment with best practices and effective decisions. I also seek to impart the knowledge I have accrued over the years to the next generation of finance leaders in Qatar and around the world. I also want to promote the institutionalisation of social responsibility in the corporate sector in Qatar. In my practice in the university environment, I once experienced a religious sectarian conflict that involved the top-ranked academics of the university and administrators. The issue was related to a policy that could adversely affect a certain social group in the university in terms of inclusion. As a member of the privileged group in this conflict, I faced an ethical dilemma of just joining my people to suppress the other group. However, after thinking it through, I decided to be objective in the matter. I used my influence to organise a series of meetings between the parties of the conflict. I made sure that representatives of both social groups were fairly represented and everyone presented his case on both sides. Eventually, there was a compromise in this matter. Although members of my own social group were a bit disappointed, we now notice that the dialogue yielded the best possible result. The lesson I learnt from this matter is that a leader will have to be sensitive to all concerns of his stakeholders and this can be done by dialogue and negotiation. In my practice as an auditor, I once audited a business with a team of very strict subordinates, most of who were very new and inexperienced accountants. There were a lot of compliance issues on the part of the client's accounting system. After the audit, my subordinates were arguing that we should qualify the audit report and write a very critical letter to management. I had to educate the new auditors on my team about the effects of writing a negative report on the career of the client which they understood perfectly. Secondly, I interviewed the client's accounting team members individually and found out that they were not really qualified. I advised them on books to read and the qualification root to take as well as important aspects of their practice. I also wrote an assertive management letter which encouraged them to get an external consultant to re-design their accounting system. A year later, when we returned to audit the accounts, the system was excellent and most of the accounting department staff members were on track to gaining accounting qualifications. I learnt here that ignorance can lead people to make wrong choices and decisions. Thus people in authority should be encouraged to come up with policies and also educate people on how to apply these policies. Read More