MICPA CEO talks about agile leadership

CEO Talk Series: Agile Leadership during Times of Testing

In collaboration with the Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) and The Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA), the Centre for Corporate and Community Development (CCCD) organised the CEO Talk Series: Agile Leadership during Times of Testing on 13 April 2022 via Zoom. The webinar received over 40 participants.

The invited speaker was CEO of MICPA Novie Tajuddin. The webinar was moderated by FAM lecturer Yap Wai Onn.

Novie during the webinar

Novie started his talk by giving the definition of leadership. According to Novie, leadership refers to the activity of leading a group of people, or an organisation, or the ability to do this. He said, “Leadership involves establishing a clear vision, sharing that vision with others so that they will follow willingly, and providing the information, knowledge and methods to realise that vision.” He added, “It is an art of motivating a group of people and inspiring others while driving people to act towards achieving a common goal.”

Novie pointed out that Agile Leadership means instilling trust in people; creating transparency; being open to constructive criticism so that great work can be achieved and lastly focusing on the vision and customers. He added, “Strike a balance to achieve a state in which different things occur in equal or proper amounts. Besides that, striking a balance could have an equal or proper amount of importance, for instance, work and your family matters.”

He admitted, “Agile Leadership skills and attributes include plan and strategy, which is scenario planning and so on.” The abilities to manage changes and risks, training skills of the team, impact analysis for different scenarios and communication skills play important roles in agile leadership. He also advised, “We should be sensitive to the movement.”

Novie sharing the “new normal” with relevant examples

Pre and Post COVID-19 have impacted the nature of working, engagements and events.  He pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the business model from offline to online and the educational field was changed from offline to online as well to adapt to the new normal of the post-COVID-19 era.

The webinar ended with a Q&A session.