Transitioning Leadership with Amana: A Conversation with Nausheena & Malika
The Sisterhood recently said goodbye to our Founder and Executive Director Emerita Nausheena Hussain. Since she organized our first gathering at the Pollen office in 2015, Nausheena led RISE with intentionality and transparency. In the spirit of her leadership, we hosted a Q&A with Nausheena and her successor, our new Executive Director Malika Dahir. Nausheena and Malika shared their experiences and insights around transitioning leadership with community trust, support, and love.
Part of the purpose of having this conversation is acknowledging that a leadership transition is an emotional process for everyone involved. What are some of the emotions that have come up over the course of this transition?
Nausheena:
“What emotion haven’t I experienced? From the very beginning, when I decided to leave, it’s been very emotional. It’s been exciting—I was like, I know what's happening for my life, I see all these opportunities with where I want to go with my career, with my degree, and with what I want to do in philanthropy.
“But then when I would talk to other people, it was a stark difference in emotions. Grief was an emotion that I wasn't expecting. I realized that this is a loss that we are all feeling. Especially when I would hear community members saying things about how they’re going to miss me. And of course I’m not really going anywhere—you’re still going to see me in the community. But that does bring up a big fear about being forgotten and being erased. With all the effort that I’ve put into uplifting my community, once I’m no longer associated with the title, I don’t want to be forgotten.
“With Malika taking over, I’ve been feeling more comfortable and confident. She’s going to do a great job moving this organization in a new direction, and I can’t wait to sit back and watch how you all grow.”
Malika:
“So for me, initially, it was a lot of anxiety surrounding this new role and coming into an organization that's already established. Would I be accepted and brought into the fold? Would I be supported? Would I mesh well with my new team? How is that going to disrupt already-established relationships? And I'm not going to lie, I felt a little bit of doubt about whether I would be capable. MashAllah, RISE is such an established organization that far exceeds my expectations for nonprofits, and it's accomplished so much in such a short time. I suffered from imposter syndrome a little bit.
“But now that I've met the team and have spent some time cultivating and building these relationships, I’m feeling really hopeful. I’ve been finding a space to connect while being mindful of the gamut of emotions that everybody's experiencing. And I’ve been trying to instill that sense of hope, safety, security, and nurturing so that people feel like this isn't going to be a disruption—it’s going to be a continuation of what Nausheena started. I’m a people person, so forming these new connections and bonds within the team as well as outside the organization has been really important to me. It’s an emotional process for sure, but it’s also exciting. I’m just very excited to step into something that is very established, with good bones and good infrastructure.”
Nausheena, one question that our team has received again and again since announcing your departure is: why leave the organization that you founded?
Nausheena:
“There’s some irony in that question, because the people who ask me why I’m leaving are the same people who will complain about another director who's been at their organization for 25 years. When I started the organization, I had a vision of five years because I knew that healthy organizations need new perspectives, new ideas, and new people to help move things forward. I can only take the organization to a certain level, and beyond that I could become the roadblock. There have actually been moments in the past couple years where I felt like I was holding us back, where everyone had great ideas and I was resisting. So I knew that once we had healthy financial stability, a really good staff, a strategic plan, and everything figured out, it would be the best time for me to go. Why would I want to wait for something to fall apart and then leave?
“It was also the right time for myself—I finished my master’s and decided that I want to go for a doctorate. I now have a bigger vision of what I want to change in the community. And I didn’t want to be the only one in this space. We need other people leading, just like we encourage in our leadership development program. And I think this is something that should be a best practice—you should always be planning for your succession, getting ready for someone else to take the baton.”
You talked earlier about the fear of being erased. Could you share how you’ve dealt with that fear and how you’ve been able to detach from the organization in a healthy way?
Nausheena:
“One thing I did was to make sure that the origin story and the history of the organization is shared, that the historical knowledge is transferred to the rest of the staff. We’ve been documenting it, adding it to grant applications and working on a new page for our website with the founder’s story.
“I also asked myself, who is it that I want to remember me? Who is it that I should expect to be remembered by? I don’t think I want to be remembered as a celebrity or a historical figure—it’s more that I want some kind of gratitude. So I also asked myself, why do I need other people to validate what I’ve done? How can I be appreciative of myself knowing what I have accomplished? I think where I’m moving toward is not needing the outside validation but feeling good and whole inside myself.”
How are you building up confidence in your successor and making sure that she feels ready to come in and lead the charge?
Nausheena:
“My confession for this question is that I don't ever want Malika to see me vulnerable. I’m afraid about her hearing my own fear of erasure right now. But we’ve had so many in-depth conversations, and with the confidentiality that goes with that, I feel like we have a trust that we built very quickly. I feel like we're on the same page, we're aligned, we're understanding and seeing things in a very similar pattern. Especially with the conference, it was so nice to have this partner, somebody who had my back and who was like, how can I help? There was like no hand-holding in that.
“I hope she understands how much I appreciate and love her. I hope I am telling her enough that she's doing a fantastic job. I always say she's the answer to my prayers. I really, truly believe that she's God's choice, so how could I possibly question it? I hope that her confidence comes from the fact that she’s chosen for this organization. And I hope that the more that she interacts with our community and our allies, and the more that she works with her coach, the more confident she’ll feel. Plus, our whole team is made of really strong women who will elevate her to an elite level.”
We center relationships in everything that we do at RISE. How have you made relationship-building a priority in this transition?
Malika:
“For me, relationship-building is paramount. I'm a connector, I'm a people person, and it has brought me a tremendous sense of comfort that I know Nausheena already and consider her a friend. Through this process, I’ve moved from respect and admiration for her to a sisterhood and a love that we’ve cultivated. I hold her in such high regard, and it feels good to be able to know that I can call or text—not only in a professional manner but on a personal level too.
“I’m mindful of the amana, the trust that has been left with me. With all of these relationships that Nausheena has built, it’s important for me to continue cultivating space for vulnerability and for validation, both individually and collectively. I want us to have that sense of trust, respect, and, love. And I want the role that I play to be the nurturer, the connector, the empath. I want to bring my whole self, vulnerabilities and all, so that the community can see a whole person taking over for another whole person.”
Nausheena:
“We always talk about being in deep relation with one another, being entrenched in each other’s well-being. I want to make sure that those relationships are transferred over to her and built even deeper with her. The love you shared with me, the respect you had for me, I want you to have that also for her, because she deserves it. She is who I believe in. And I expect you to have that same recognition.
“I will tell you, I was nervous about how individual team members would react and whether they would embrace her. And so far, I haven’t really felt that. I tried to be careful about not stepping on her toes, not taking autonomy from her, letting her lead and make decisions. I’m also nervous about staying in touch with everyone. But I also know that after working together and sharing things together for so long, we’ve crossed that border and really become family. We’ll see each other outside of RISE—at the masjid, on hiking trips. And even if we do lose touch, we’ll just pick right up from where we left off.”
Malika, how have you been building on your predecessor’s achievements while charting your own path forward?
Malika:
“RISE has a good foundation, and it’s easy to build on what’s already established. I walked into a very solid organization with a complete team, where I was immediately embraced and supported and welcomed. When I voice an opinion and try to chart my own path, the team has me backed up, running with my ideas and making them happen. I’m so grateful for that sense of support and community.”
Another question that our team has received is: why have a longer period of time where you two overlapped and worked together? How have you transitioned decision-making during that time?
Nausheena:
“I have seen situations where new EDs come in and are surprised by things that weren’t shared with them, things that they weren’t trained on. And I wanted to set Malika up for success from the very beginning. But she really hit the ground running, and one of the best things that I did was to go on vacation during that transition time, because it forced her and the staff to get to know each other. And I really have no idea how other organizations transition everything within the span of a few weeks or a month. I’m really glad I had this time to help my friend take the lead in a more successful way.”
Malika:
“It was important for me to have a gradual transition. We had a period where we were together in the office, then another period where she was in the background and I was in the office myself. And beyond the transition itself, I’m going to have access to her as somebody to lean on, to support me and be a sounding board. It wasn’t like she handed over the manual and left—there was a lot more than technical work to transfer. I hope to do the same for my eventual successor, give them that sense of support as well as autonomy, and I look forward to seeing how this transition may influence other organizations, inshAllah. I feel like it’s really trailblazing in our community.”
Why do you think our community is sometimes reluctant to talk about these transitions? Do you think we should open up more spaces to talk about what a leadership transition means for those involved?
Nausheena:
“I remember when I told someone that I was leaving, they were almost negotiating with me to stay on, and it made me realize that our community doesn’t have good examples of what a healthy transition looks like. Especially as women-led nonprofits, I want us to have better examples of passing the baton and sharing leadership. So many people talk about what has gone wrong in leadership transitions—walking into an organization with no money, with debt, with staff falling apart. I want us to be able to talk about the good stuff, to talk about how it’s possible to move on. I hope that our story inspires other Muslim women to think about their own succession planning and think about the other Muslim sister they want to build up.”
Malika:
“We’re trying to transition leadership in a mindful, sensitive, supportive way. This transition isn’t happening because of a catastrophe—it’s very intentional. Nausheena has been modeling what it looks like to be really in touch with the community and know when to step away. We all know what it looks like to have an ED stay on for 20 years, without new ideas, new direction, new vision. I feel very hopeful about changing the narrative around leadership transitions.”
Nausheena:
“I just want to add: I saw recently that the founder and executive director of a local nonprofit passed away, and the organization had to close down. This person put their heart and soul into their work, but they didn’t transfer institutional knowledge or establish a succession plan, and now there’s no organization. When I heard that story it affirmed why we’re managing our transition this way.”
As a faith-based organization made up of Muslim women, how are we following our faith principles in this process and emulating the prophetic model?
Nausheena:
“We’re always trying to follow in the footsteps of the Prophet (peace be upon him). When he passed away, the community was devastated, but they had to select the next person to lead. I feel like they selected Abu Bakr because there was so much similarity in the way the two behaved, interacted with people, and lived out their faith. Now, when I see Malika, I feel like she is the one chosen by the community. There were so many people who wanted her and pushed her to apply.
“Another similarity I see is called shamail, which is the personality, mannerisms, and practices of the Prophet (peace be upon him). He practiced empathy, compassion, and grace, which are principles that I want to make sure we incorporate into our sisterhood. And I see that shamail in Malika, like with her love language of giving and sharing. Even the way that she shows up in the community shows that her heart is so big, which is a role model for all of us.”
Malika:
“Yes, I think we sometimes forget about the character of the Prophet (peace be upon him) and how he led. And even before he received prophethood, it was his qualities that made him trustworthy to the people, which reminds me of how I came into RISE. I was attracted to the mission but also to the way that its people carried themselves. It always felt honest, dignified, and welcoming. I knew that I needed to be in this space, to have my daughter in this space. Moreover, our tradition, the sahabiat, has so many strong, entrepreneurial, trailblazing women, just like RISE’s women. What’s more prophetic than that?”
Is there anything else that you want to share with the community as you finish this transition?
Malika:
“I just want to say: I feel like the seed of the next transition has already been planted through this conversation. I want this organization to continue to grow and be an asset to the community, no matter who’s in the driver’s seat. Now I’m thinking about what Nausheena has left for me and how I can leave RISE for the person who comes after me. Inshallah, I can leave it in an even better state than I found it.”
Malika Dahir is a community leader with a passion for sharing empowering stories that represent Muslim women. Malika previously managed a childcare center that received local and national accreditation under her five-year tenure. She also served as the Executive Director of Pearls of Hope, an organization dedicated to mentoring Muslim children and youth in the Twin Cities. As Executive Director of Reviving Sisterhood, she is leading our mission to amplify the voice and power of Muslim women. Malika holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and Environmental Studies from York University in Toronto, Canada. She is a wife and mother to three beautiful children. She is a self-proclaimed coffee connoisseur and cookie monster.
As the founder of Reviving the Islamic Sisterhood for Empowerment, Nausheena Hussain is a social justice activist here to amplify the voice and power of her Muslim sisters. Nausheena is dedicated in building a movement to address leadership development, increase community engagement, and create a philanthropic legacy for change. Nausheena is a 2016 Bush Foundation Leadership Fellow and a fellow graduate from the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute and Studio/E entrepreneurial program. She was named the 2012 Catalytic Leader by the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and a 2016 Changemaker by the Minnesota Women’s Press. Married, with two children, she lives in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.