ON DEVELOPING A HOLISTIC LEADERSHIP EDUCATION: A SAUDI ARABIAN EDIFICATION OF THE THIRD KIND

Abstract

The word 'crisis' personifies the world we live in. The recent global financial crisis is merely a symptom of this negative phenomenon. In this paper we explore the ways in which a recent holistic leadership and entrepreneurship experience at the Madinah Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (MILE) provides an exemplar of how to address challenges of education raised by a crisis-prone world. The MILE programme which was convened against a serene canvas of one of the holiest places of the Muslim Diaspora is underpinned by an emphasis on raising a scholar's spiritual and physical self-awareness. The holistic programme also emphasizes core elements frequently overlooked in leadership and entrepreneurship education, namely, reflective practices that develop awareness in every respect; the will to humbly and ethically lead and manage, systems thinking; integration; and perhaps most importantly, understanding how to work selflessly and effectively in a troubled globalized business world. We are of the firm conviction that the MILE model of leadership and entrepreneurship education can contribute significantly not only in contending with global political and economic exigencies, but also towards the eradication and or amelioration of impediments, in the fervent hope that this may lead to an elucidation and solution of the many-faceted problems that confront us. Finally, we believe that this new Afro-Arabic-Asian experience of leadership and entrepreneurship is an alternative to the occidental and euro-centric business models which have miserably failed to comprehend and rectify the toxicity of a world that has fundamentally gone awry.