Zeti Akhtar Aziz: Developing effective leaders in Asia
Speech by Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of the Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara
Malaysia), at the Launch of the Iclif's Asian Leadership Index, Kuala Lumpur, 1 April 2014.
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It is my pleasure to welcome you here this morning for the launch of Iclif's Asian Leadership
Index. The Asian Leadership Index, is part of an important stream of global research on the
expectations on leaders in today's world. The world is rapidly changing, and is becoming
more challenging. Effective leaders must act in full recognition of the fact that their best
followers will demand more of them. This is because in many cases their expectations of
leaders have shifted in an age where information flows have intensified and where travel has
removed all our known boundaries.
The Asian Leadership Index is a substantive, broad-based research on Asia. The focus on
Asia is because the region is becoming increasingly more significant in the global landscape.
And yet, there exists little, if any, systematic study of leaders doing business in Asia. The
Asian Leadership Index therefore aims to contribute towards a greater understanding of
"what do business leaders in Asia need to do to get more energy and commitment from their
most important followers?" As part of the study, selected senior leaders and emerging
leaders in companies operating in Asia were asked to describe what their leaders need to do
for them as professionals if they were to participate wholeheartedly with that leader, and be
fully invested in their organizations over the longer term. They also indicate what they see as
missing from the leaders to whom they report.
As leadership is about being able to deliver results even in the most challenging of
environment, it is therefore also about generating the drive and energy in the organisation,
and thus creating an environment in which the best talent will gravitate to, and contribute with
the same energy and drive. In an international environment in which high quality talent is
scarce, this aspect of the expectations of leadership becomes important. In essence, leaders
need to be supported by high powered and committed teams. The expectations of talent is
however not only rapidly evolving but may differ when contextualised to different parts of the
world. This study undertaken by ICLIF provides insights on such expectations of leaders in
Asia and on the areas that need to be addressed if sustainable impact and influence is to be
achieved.
What then are the findings of the study? I will leave this for the presentation by Kate
Sweetman, the main author of this study. Broadly, the Asian Leadership Index demystifies
that attributes leaders in Asia must develop if they are to engage the people they lead. The
Asian Leadership Index does not propose a new leadership model. Rather, it identifies a
number of areas for behavioural change that are needed based on the attributes that
respondents indicated are currently missing in their leaders, reinforced with suggestions on
how leaders might move forward with greater influence and impact.
In conducting this research, it is hoped that it generates thinking on these leadership issues
and contribute towards the development of the new generation of effective leaders in Asia.