“25TH ANNIVERSARY – The Story of a Book Marker and Molony Disease – “Every hour every minute somewhere on the face of this Earth it is a glorious morning.”

It’s 1st December 1997, my first day at Concern Worldwide Bangladesh as a deputy team leader of a newly formed department – Organizational Development Unit. This department was given a big room where I was the first to set foot on. There was a bookshelf in the room, which was not cleaned for some time, so upon entering, I started clearing out the bookshelf. When doing so I came across a bookmark where a few lines of a poem were printed as you can see in the picture. The last five lines of the poem resonated with me in a way that I could always see a ray of light in any crisis and work towards translating the crisis to an opportunity. To me, the photo by Shahidul Alam at Drik not only captures the rays of sunlight falling on a vast paddy field, but it also reflects on the key leadership quality where a leader looks at the organization from the vantage point and sets vision and mission for the team.

Noel Molony, the Country Director, was one of the persons who welcomed me at Concern on my first day. Concern was the first INGO for me to work with, and it is Noel Molony who from the very first day took every possible step to support me in adopting with the culture of the organization, creating avenues to take up new challenging initiatives, establishing space to participate, encouraging to take up leadership role, etc. I have experienced him as a great mentor and observed his passion towards capacity building of both individuals and institutions. I have witnessed his leadership to strategic and operational decision-making with an aim to serve people more efficiently by staying in their proximity. He has always remained as an enabler of my growth as a development and humanitarian aid professional.

Many of us witnessed Noel Molony as a charismatic leader who nurtured us as second line youth leadership and pushed the organization to move out from its comfort zone. Once he left Bangladesh, we were even afflicted with the “Molony disease” where many staff members feel that all leaders should be like Noel Molony. I had a hard time explaining to my colleagues that it’s very important to realize that no person is the same and it’s not fair to weigh every leader using the same balance. We can only learn from the values inculcated by our role leaders and pave our own way towards leadership.”

– By Dipankar Datta, Ph.D.