The Inspiration Story

Dr Rozana Huq is the founder and director of RHM LEADERSHIP in Scotland, UK.

During her doctoral research on Leadership and Employee Empowerment based on the framework of The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), she discovered there was a significant competency gap in interpersonal and soft skills among leaders, senior management, junior management, and the quality team.

Her case studies revealed most organisational problems and issues stemmed from a lack of:

• Communication

• Empathy and

• Appreciation of team members.

Employees were also disgruntled because they felt managers and leaders did not value them, leading to low self-esteem, low self-efficacy amongst many people.

The interesting fact was that some junior management also remarked that they were being ignored, and undervalued.

The organisations in the case studies, were attempting to introduce employee empowerment in their organisations. The conclusions of Dr Huq’s study made a notable observation, that there was a substantial gap between leader perception and employee experience of empowerment.

Recognising these problems, together with her enthusiasm and passion to do something about it, Dr Huq was inspired to start her own people-focused leadership learning, coaching, educational, and consultancy company RHM LEADERSHIP, previously RHM TRAINING to address these issues, and offer help to senior executives and leaders.

Her extended study on EFQM documents also affirmed that more help and support was needed with regards to a focused plan of action and workshops for senior leaders, executives, and quality professionals on people skills, communication, self-awareness and self-empowerment.

Authentic leadership must come from within; hence it is important for leaders to develop their leadership skills, and understand self-awareness, which gives them a foundation to build empathy, connection, and trust with team members.